Plus: Georgia on Trump’s mind ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Richard Hall | July 16, 2026

Hello there. Today in The Brief we have a story about Elon Musk’s potential violation of Wisconsin election law with payments to voters last year. I’m mourning England’s exit from the World Cup by reading Sean Gregory’s piece on our team’s 60 years of hurt, and previewing an address from President Donald Trump that is expected to revive his election fraud claims.

Five Must-Reads

Elon Musk Could Get Charged With Breaking Election Law
Elon Musk could face charges for violating Wisconsin election law when he gave some voters $1 million checks during the state Supreme Court election last year. The Wisconsin Elections Commission found probable cause that the billionaire violated the state’s election bribery law. —TIME

The Odyssey Is Just Another Reason for Despair
The first reviews of Christopher Nolan’s big-screen extravaganza, The Odyssey, are in, and TIME’s film critic Stephanie Zacharek has some bad news. “Instead of being an answer to our prayers,” she writes, it “ends up being just another reason for despair.” —TIME

England’s Soul Is Crushed, Again
England has been waiting 60 years to end its World Cup final drought. On Wednesday afternoon, it was a mere five minutes away, plus stoppage time, from exorcising its World Cup demons. Then came Lionel Messi, the greatest player of all time, to crush England’s soul once again. —TIME

Giant Statue Mocking Trump’s War in Iran Draws Attention in D.C.
A golden statue titled the “Iran War Participation Trophy” is the latest piece of art to appear on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The giant installation has drawn attention since it was first spotted on Monday, with passersby stopping to read the lengthy inscription on the mock award. —TIME

ICE Reverses Plan to Halt Vehicle Stops After Trump Complains
Trump on Wednesday overturned a policy decision by the Department of Homeland Security that ordered most ICE agents to stop conducting traffic stops in light of deadly shootings in Maine and Texas. The decision came soon after Trump had praised the traffic stops on social media. —TIME

IN FOCUS

Why Trump might still have Georgia on his mind

Back in 2021, in the time between losing the presidential election and leaving office, Donald Trump went down to Georgia to campaign for two crucial runoff races that would decide control of the Senate.

The idea: to help Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler win their races, thus preventing Democrats from controlling both chambers of Congress and perhaps putting the brakes on Joe Biden’s most ambitious plans.

I was in the crowd in Dalton that January evening, and from Trump’s first words, it was clear that he had other things on his mind.

“Hello, Georgia. By the way, there’s no way we lost Georgia, there’s no way. That was a rigged election, but we’re still fighting it,” he said.

For the next 90 minutes, and ever since, the president has been consumed with overturning the results of the close presidential race and the Senate runoffs that followed, which were ultimately—and fairly—won by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally for Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., and David Perdue in Dalton, Ga., on Jan.4 , 2021. EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

We may witness more of that this evening, when Trump delivers a presidential address from the White House. To be sure, we don’t have official confirmation of the topic. But reporting from the Associated Press and Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggests that he will use his platform to revive his claims of election fraud. Some reports indicate he will focus on Georgia specifically. It was enough for Ossoff and Warnock to preemptively respond.

“What we’re going to be talking about Thursday, it doesn’t get bigger,” the president told reporters about the speech. “Because without free and fair elections you don’t have a country.”

Since returning to office, he has filled his Administration with officials who support his claims of election fraud and the FBI has seized election materials and ballots from Fulton County as part of a renewed and widespread investigation into Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.

Behind all these machinations is a sweeping bill, the SAVE America Act, that would radically transform how elections are conducted in the U.S. The bill aims to restrict mail-in voting and to require in-person voter registration and a government-issued ID to register and vote. In a speech at Mount Rushmore on July 3, the president said passing the bill would ensure that Republicans “will not lose an election for 100 years.”

If Trump renews his campaign on Thursday to convince his base and fellow Republicans that the election process can’t be trusted, it could have a marked impact on midterms later this year and the next presidential election two years away.

Trump’s speech in Georgia in 2021 and the campaign that followed certainly did. He would take some of the blame for Perdue and Loeffler’s losses, with critics saying his election fraud claims might have dampened turnout.

Then, two days later, I took an early-morning flight from Atlanta with dozens of his supporters decked out in MAGA hats and T-shirts, all of us on our way to Washington, D.C., and ultimately the U.S. Capitol. The date was January 6, 2021.

ONE NUMBER

6

Only 6 of 36 countries surveyed by Pew Research this year hold a more favorable view of the United States than of China.

It is the first time in the roughly 20 years since Pew has been surveying global opinion that China has been viewed more positively than the U.S.

Pew notes that the gap is “especially large in several Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries,” and that even America’s closest neighbors, Canadians and Mexicans, view China more positively.

SOURCE: PEW RESEARCH CENTER

A VIRAL MOMENT

Railway rescue

Dramatic video footage shows a freight train in Canada almost engulfed by wildfires.

Apparently filmed by railway workers and posted by a member of Kiiwetinoong’s Provincial Parliament, the footage shows the crew calling for help on a radio as they warn: “This could potentially overtake us here. This has gotten a little scary."

Canadian National Rail said later that all the trapped workers were safely evacuated from the area near Armstrong, Ontario.

The Canadian government said 835 active fires were burning across the country on Wednesday, 112 of which were considered out of control.