Last December, after Make America Healthy Again activists drew up a petition to get him fired, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin pledged to release a formal agenda of MAHA priorities that his agency would pursue, including protections against harmful chemicals and other health concerns. But eight months after its first mention and after repeated promises it was being drafted, the so-called MAHA agenda is nowhere to be found.
Plus, President Donald Trump's election commission moves, Washington bureau chief Anna Johnson's weekly picks and what's on my reading list. |
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., arrives on stage at the inaugural Make America Healthy Again summit, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) |
EPA promised a Make America Healthy Again agenda. It has yet to materialize, frustrating activists — By Matthew Daly and Ali Swenson When asked for a status update this week, an EPA spokesperson said MAHA is an ongoing effort, not a single report.
The apparent reversal on release of a formal environmental health agenda is the latest in a cascade of disappointments for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s MAHA movement, who say they've lost faith that the Trump administration will take any significant action on pesticides, chemicals or other issues they view as key to address America's chronic disease epidemic. It also reflects the EPA's relentless rollback of environmental regulations even in the face of pressure from an important voting bloc that has supported Trump.
Many in the diverse coalition of MAHA activists that Trump credits for helping him win back the White House say they plan to vote on issues over party in November's congressional elections — raising the political stakes of their increasingly public tensions with the Republican administration.
Read more from Daly and Swenson on MAHA's EPA frustrations. |
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Trump fires election commission members ahead of November midterms |
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in flight on Air Force One after landing at U.S. Air Force Base at RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk Eastern England, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) |
Donald Trump ousts election commission members in latest push to reshape US voting process — By Bill Barrow
Trump has ousted members of a bipartisan federal election commission that resisted his efforts to require would-be voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering.
The White House on Friday confirmed the executive action against members of the Election Assistance Commission, which distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration forms. The president removed the commission's two Democratic members. Of Republican members, one resigned, and another left his post voluntarily earlier this year. It's the latest move in the Republican president’s effort to expand White House influence over how U.S. elections are conducted and comes after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave the president new personnel authority to fire members of independent agency boards.
While the White House statement did not offer a specific reason for Trump's action, the commission has previously declined to change the national voter registration form to require documentation of an applicant's U.S. citizenship, as Trump's urged in a sweeping March 2025 executive order on U.S. elections. A federal judge has blocked it, and the administration has indicated it will appeal.
Read more from Barrow on what the move could mean for the midterms. |
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Insurance agent Maria Collado, center right, works with clients at a shopping mall kiosk run by Las Madrinas de los Seguros, Spanish for "The Godmothers of Insurance," at a shopping center in Miami, Dec. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) |
Obamacare rolls shrank dramatically in many states over the past year, new federal data shows — By Ali Swenson
— Ali had another great First on AP story this week. She noticed the information about Obamacare on a government website, realized it had not been previously reported, and hustled out this story.
New attacks raise questions about what comes next in the Iran war — By Will Weissert, Farnoush Amiri and Samy Magdy
— This story by Will, Farnoush and Samy is a good example of how, even when we don't know all the answers, we try to explain confusing and complex issues and developments as best as we can for our readers.
Most American Jews don’t feel supported by either party or President Trump, new AP-NORC poll finds — By Steve Peoples and Linley Sanders
— Our polling team published a groundbreaking new AP-NORC poll focusing on Jewish adults in the U.S. that found many are critical of Israel's military actions — but also feel isolated in American politics, as support for Israel becomes a flash point on both sides of the aisle, and concern about antisemitism rises. |
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Political book club: What's on Meg Kinnard's reading list? |
A statue of Thomas Jefferson, right, stands in New York's City Hall Council Chamber, July 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) |
I enjoy reading the of-the-moment political memoirs of people who are — or who are about to be — seeking higher office. It's helpful for my job as a national politics reporter, but it's also interesting to learn more about the origins and personalities of the people who aspire to lead the United States. But let's be real: I'm also an honest-to-goodness history nerd, from a long line of history nerds. And, like many of you, America's 250th birthday this year has me thinking a lot about the Founding Fathers and what their lives were like, as they charted the path from colonies to United States.
This week, I'm spending some time with "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family," by historian Annette Gordon-Reed. Good history nerd that I am, I have watched what feels like countless documentaries on the Revolutionary War, and Gordon-Reed has popped up a lot as an authoritative source on this period, particularly Thomas Jefferson and his relation to the multigenerational Black family he enslaved. I'm still making my way through this hefty 2008 tome — for which Gordon-Reed won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize — but it's one to which I keep turning when I need a history fix.
Read a recent piece by AP's Hillel Italie on Jefferson's legacy. |
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Scaffolding on the North Portico of the White House is seen through the fence around Lafayette Park, Friday, July 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) |
Washington-based photo journ |
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