As President Donald Trump nears the end of the first six months of his second term in the White House, Democrats and media appear to be scrambling for a foothold — a narrative that will stick and give them all something to rally around — but nothing seems to be working.

For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

The walls are not closing in. The Big Beautiful Bill has passed. The border is more secure than it has been in decades. The dire predictions have not materialized. The Trump administration, as James Carville predicted in February, did not implode in the next 30 days. The United States is not at the center of World War III and has not been plunged into an endless recession. And with no clear winning issue to grab onto, Democrats and media spent Sunday morning — one year to the day after a would-be assassin failed to end President Trump’s life — grasping at straws.

On ABC’s “This Week,” capitalizing on reported tensions between Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, anchor Jonathan Karl questioned whether the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case would drive a wedge between Trump and some of his most prominent supporters.

Many seemed unimpressed with the administration’s final assessment — that Epstein had taken his own life, had not been involved in blackmail schemes, and had no “client list” — and pushed back, calling for Bondi’s resignation or firing. Reports quickly began circulating that Bongino had said he could not stay on if Bondi did, creating what Karl described as an “uproar that has pitted the leaders of the DOJ and the FBI and possibly the president himself against some of the most prominent voices in the MAGA movement.”

The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein investigation has created an “uproar that has pitted the leaders of the DOJ and the FBI and possibly the president himself against some of the most prominent voices in the MAGA movement,” @JonKarl reports. https://t.co/Nz5ssrfvW3 pic.twitter.com/t81XpZKrwB

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 13, 2025

CNN’s “State of the Union” also latched on to the tensions within the DOJ and the FBI over the Epstein case. Bernie Sanders adviser Faiz Shakir blamed Trump — who had long promised to get to the bottom of the Epstein case and release whatever information he found — for the tension.

“I would say to Donald Trump, you wound this up. You caused this. And I think I’m on the side of these right-wing influencers who say, hey, if you want to be a paragon of virtue and say you want to take on the powerful, and Epstein… release them unredacted,” he said.

.@fshakir: “I would say to Donald Trump, you wound this up. You caused this. And I think I’m on the side of these right-wing influencers who say, hey, if you want to be a paragon of virtue and say you want to take on the powerful, and Epstein… release them unredacted.”… pic.twitter.com/EbkdhUmof2

— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) July 13, 2025

More and more Democrats have called for any and all Epstein documents to be released, despite the fact that Democrats were the ones who blocked Republican attempts to get some of the documents – in particular, flight logs — released during former President Joe Biden’s term in office.

In case the Epstein-related drama failed to pan out, they tried a few other topics as well.

Karl asked about tariffs — set to take effect in short order for nations that have not yet come to the table and worked out mutually beneficial arrangements.

“These tariffs are real, if the president doesn’t get a deal that he thinks is good enough,” White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said. “Conversations are ongoing and we’ll see where the dust settles.”

White House’s Kevin Hassett on Pres. Trump announcing new tariffs during trade negotiations: “These tariffs are real, if the president doesn’t get a deal that he thinks is good enough.”

“Conversations are ongoing and we’ll see where the dust settles.” https://t.co/TSyrYidwZw pic.twitter.com/cbwk6p5mIr

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 13, 2025

And finally, Karl turned to the Russia-Ukraine War amid reports that Trump had soured on Russian President Vladimir Putin as it became clear that he was not serious about negotiating peace.

“At a minimum, Trump has been personally embarrassed, you could argue, by how Putin has strung him along,” The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser suggested.

“At a minimum, Trump has been personally embarrassed, you could argue, by how Putin has strung him along.”

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser joins @JonKarl to discuss Pres. Trump’s “striking shift in tone” about the Russian leader. https://t.co/S94HKc2RkX pic.twitter.com/maDnsVEEoq

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 13, 2025

Meanwhile, Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) argued on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that Trump was getting ready to move on Russia — and although he would not give away the game, he said, “I don’t want to get ahead of the president, but stay tuned about seized assets. The Europeans want to limit the interest on the assets to go to Ukraine. Secretary Bessent wants to go further. Stay tuned about a plan to go after the seized assets more aggressively. Stay tuned for a plan where America will begin to sell to our European allies a tremendous amount of weapons that can benefit Ukraine.”

Back on CNN, anchor Dana Bash brought in Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) to discuss recent immigration raids — where he claimed that he would likely be profiled and targeted in a raid because of the way he looked.

.@SenAlexPadilla responds to @RealTomHoman on ICE detention tactics: “They’re going based on appearance. His words, not mine… What if I was outside of Home Depot, because I like to do some work around the house not dressed in a suit? Would I be a target of ICE enforcement under… pic.twitter.com/Ug98q2qjcs

— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) July 13, 2025

NBC News’ “Meet the Press” went an entirely different direction, and host Kristen Welker opted to interview Governor — and potential 2028 presidential candidate — Andy Beshear (D-KY).

Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) tells Meet the Press he wants to show that America “can actually move not right, or left, but forward as a country,” as he faces speculation about a potential presidential bid in 2028. https://t.co/HnJsCQj2tT pic.twitter.com/0noebD7bA7

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 13, 2025

A Trump supporter who was targeted by the Biden Justice Department for posting satirical memes mocking Hillary Clinton supporters during the 2016 election was recently vindicated in court.  Now, he plans to fight back by suing the feds.

Douglass Mackey, who was charged by the Biden DOJ for election interference some four years after posting the memes in question, faced a stunning 10 years behind bars. After the Justice Department secured a conviction in New York City, Mackey was sentenced to seven months behind bars in 2023, but the sentence was delayed by an appeals court. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed Mackey’s conviction and directed a lower court to enter a judgment of acquittal.

A meme posted by Mackey the Biden DOJ zeroed-in on

Speaking to The Daily Wire on Thursday, Mackey said he plans to file a civil lawsuit against the Department of Justice for political weaponization and misconduct, and suggested he’ll be seeking damages totaling at least a million dollars.

“As the Circuit Court ruled, this case was brought without sufficient evidence,” Mackey said. “They didn’t have any evidence of an actual conspiracy, and that’s just the first problem with the case — there are multiple that the court didn’t even bother ruling on because they just looked and said there’s no evidence. Based on that, we have to assume that they brought this case for political reasons, because why else would you bring this case?”

“I think it’s egregious,” Mackey continued. “I think that it’s politicized weaponization and I think it’s misconduct.”

“The damages are a lot,” he said. “I mean, if we’re talking about just purely legal fees, we’re talking 1 million to $1.5 million that I had to raise. And a lot of [that] I spent a lot of my own money.”

Though Mackey was ultimately acquitted, the legal saga consumed more than four years of his life, which he said took a toll on him, his family, and friends.

“It was a very lonely battle, because this was kind of a low point for President Trump and his supporters,” he said. “We were being persecuted, chased around, hounded. President Trump was actually indicted for the first time during the trial. And especially the trial being in Brooklyn, there’s not a lot of love for Trump supporters. It was a very lonely fight.”

Courtesy of James Lawrence

As for his family, Mackey told The Daily Wire his wife was pregnant during the trial and actually had an emergency c-section while he was in New York City being sentenced.

“It’s very difficult, especially for my wife,” he said. “We got married during the case and had a child because she said, ‘Look, we can’t wait forever, who knows how long this thing’s gonna go on for?’ That was a blessing, but very, very difficult as you can imagine. … My wife had to do an emergency c-section while I was in New York getting sentenced for this case in 2023.”

“My family and friends, a lot of them stuck around and really were very strong supporters,” he continued. “But as you can imagine, a lot of people when you get arrested and this is all over the news, they’re thinking, well, there must be some great crime here. But once everybody actually looked at the facts of the case — it didn’t matter if they liked Donald Trump or not — they realized that this case was complete nonsense. So it sort of was lonely at first, then everybody rallied around — we had a good fighting spirit.”

Mackey expressed tremendous gratitude for his supporters and noted that they were able to raise over seven figures for legal fees, but added, “we owe a lot of money still, too.”

Mackey also explained that every penny of the fundraised money was spent on legal fees, since he was fortunately self-employed and able to support his family during the legal battle. That reality is not always the case for individuals who’ve been demonized in the media.

The prospects of a good outcome with the lawsuit seem likely. President Donald Trump has cited Mackey’s case as an example of political persecution, and a White House policy adviser referenced the prosecution when discussing Trump’s executive order to end the weaponization of the federal government. Moreover, the appeals court roundly rejected the government’s arguments. 

“I didn’t expect that it would be such a resounding victory,” Mackey said of the court’s ruling. “It’s extremely rare for a case, number one, to be overturned on appeal. Number two, it’s extremely rare for the appeals court to actually overrule the jury and say, ‘No, the verdict was wrong, you have to enter a judgment of acquittal.’ That’s extremely rare, and just goes to show how weak and non-existent the government’s case against me was.”

Mackey ended his interview with The Daily Wire by thanking his supporters, family, and friends. If supporters would like to chip in toward his lawsuit against the government, they can visit MemeDefenseFund.com, he said.

Mackey also called attention to other victims of government weaponization and specifically highlighted the work of Cynthia Hughes at Patriot Freedom Project for helping such victims.