President Donald Trump to sit down for exclusive interview with CNBC: Live updates

“This was a deliberate act to damage the Reflecting Pool at the National Mall that members of the National Park Service actually have worked hard to restore, and have witnessed,” Pirro said. “National Park employees observed Hearn actually forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands.”

Hearn, 67, has said, “I didn’t vandalize anything.” He claims he reached down into the pool on June 19 to touch a piece of liner that had become partially detached.

Trump has made the renovation of the Reflecting Pool a top priority, and has claimed that its new “American flag blue” liner was intentionally damaged by vandals.

— Dan Mangan

The White House in late June sent Congress an $87.6 billion supplemental funding request for the Iran war, a proposal that raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill and may be meeting with some opposition — and not just from Democrats.

Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., immediately slammed the request, which would require congressional approval.

“President Trump launched a reckless and costly war with Iran — without authorization from Congress or the support of the American people — that he should never have started, and now, instead of doing anything to help families get by, he is asking taxpayers to pick up the tab and give him billions more to wage wars overseas,” Murray said in a statement at the time.

Politico reported on Wednesday that even some key Republicans are alarmed at the supplemental, claiming the administration hadn’t provided enough information.

—Justin Papp

Iran is intent on charging fees for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital trade route that was choked off during the U.S.-Israeli war and remains at the center of ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran, according to multiple reports.

The U.S. has floated the possibility of relinquishing some frozen Iranian funds in exchange for the Islamic republic abandoning its claims over the waterway, but Iran has so far refused, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The monthslong war in Iran, launched by the U.S. and Israel in late February, led to last month’s signing of a 60-day memorandum of understanding that paved the way for further talks on a permanent deal. But tensions remain high, with the sides exchanging fire at one point and continuing to publicly disagree about key issues.

Axios on Wednesday cited a U.S. official saying discussions in the Persian Gulf currently center on “how the Strait should be managed after [the memorandum expires].”

—Kevin Breuninger

Trump’s interview with CNBC has been teed up by some unwelcome economic news: The Labor Department reported a sudden slowdown in U.S. job growth last month.

Nonfarm payrolls for June increased by a seasonally adjusted 57,000 for the month, less than half of the Dow Jones forecast of 115,000. Job creation in May was also downwardly revised to 129,000, according to the government’s latest monthly report.

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% — but that was largely due to a decline in the labor force participation rate, suggesting fewer people in the U.S. are actively looking for work. The rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 61.5%, its lowest point since March 2021.

—Kevin Breuninger and Jeff Cox