The World Discovers America's Awesome

Here's something the talking heads forgot to mention: the world actually loves America. You just have to stop listening to the press and the politicians long enough to notice. For 39 days the world has come to visit, and the stories and the videos coming out of it are something else. Turns out the rest of the planet thinks this country is pretty remarkable.

Which gives us an idea. Call it an Exchange Program. Anyone who wants to spend their days hating on America gets a one-way ticket out, and in their place we welcome someone who's genuinely thrilled to be here. Fair trade.

But back to reality...

The Iran deal is on, then off, then on again, and the strait is open, then closed, then open. Nobody can tell you the actual status at any given moment, which suits the day traders having the most profitable week of their lives just fine.

Closer to home, Trump and the Italian PM are now bickering over who actually asked to take a photo. Are we really at that point in world leaders?

Meanwhile his $14.2m Reflecting Pool project keeps getting worse as the 'American flag blue' paint peels clean off. He says it was vandalized with chemicals; everyone else says Trump Pools won't be hitting the market anytime soon.

And in the bigger story of the week, soon to be ex-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified hundreds of pages tied to the coverup of the theory that COVID-19 leaked from an American-funded lab in Wuhan, along with the role the country's most powerful public health official, Anthony Fauci, played in burying it. Gabbard said Fauci and his allies in the scientific and intelligence communities pulled straight from the deep state playbook.

Mortgage rates dropped this week to their lowest level in over a month. Freddie Mac said the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed fell to 6.47% from 6.52% the week before. A year ago it sat at 6.81%.

Americans' 401(k) contributions hit record highs in 2025, according to a new Vanguard report. For employees with active accounts in both December 2024 and December 2025, median balances jumped 27%, and 94% of those participants saw their balances rise on the back of higher contributions and strong market returns.

And Lauren Sánchez Bezos reportedly has about four years to give away the remaining $10 billion in Bezos' climate fund before the end of the decade.

Meta has reportedly been lobbying U.S. lawmakers for legal immunity from lawsuits claiming its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, harm children. Worth sitting with for a second.

JetBlue is pulling back some New York-area operations this fall as it shifts more flying to South Florida. The carrier is closing its inflight base at Newark and its technical operations bases at both Newark and LaGuardia, though it says no employees will lose their jobs in the process.

And Trump revealed that Apple has agreed to team up with Intel on designing and producing chips here in the U.S.

Last Week:

87% of you voted that California likely has the most corrupt elections in the world. When you can't get three people to agree on anything these days, that's about as damning a verdict as it gets.

This Week:

A new bill wants to stop members of Congress, their spouses, and their kids from betting on prediction markets tied to policy and elections they might have inside knowledge on. We figured we'd ask the people who actually pay for it all.

Pundits predicted. Polls projected. Most of them missed. Prediction markets didn't.

Kalshi is where people put real money behind their political read — which means the prices you see on who wins the 2028 nomination aren't opinions. They're commitments. Right now, tens of millions of dollars are already trading on who gets the Republican and Democratic nominations.

That's a different signal than any poll you'll read this week.

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Winners:

The USMNT:
Even if you hate soccer, you love America. Another game, another win for Team USA, this time over Australia, and now the red, white and blue are guaranteed through to the knockout rounds. Patriotism is back and we're not ashamed to admit it. USA, USA, USA!!

Election Integrity In LA? Surely Not:
FBI agents descended on Skid Row to investigate claims the left was paying the homeless to vote for Pratt and Raman. They also found that a homeless drop-in shelter handed a $600,000 taxpayer-funded donation from Raman in 2023 had 185 registered voters, despite offering no accommodation whatsoever.

Losers:

The ‘Fake’ Media:
People around the world are starting to wake up and realize the hate, division and crises they're constantly told are tearing everything apart aren't actually that big a deal, and that folks from every country and culture have far more in common than the press wants you to believe.

Most Wanted Fraudster:
A Chicago native who allegedly ran a $1.2 billion healthcare fraud scheme targeting elderly Medicare patients was captured in the Philippines and shipped back to the U.S., becoming the second suspect nabbed on the FBI's new "Most Wanted Fraudsters" list.

Forget the press, forget the politicians. Just watch this compilation of people from all over the world setting foot in America and figuring out, in real time, just how awesome this country really is. Makes you think we should all be a little more grateful on a daily basis, right?

The income needed to afford a median-priced home has nearly doubled since 2020, according to Harvard's annual State of the Nation's Housing report. Existing home prices have climbed 54% since 2020 and now sit at roughly five times the median income, with sales stuck near their lowest level in three decades. Supply is still tight, but the bigger story this year was demand falling off a cliff as buyers simply got priced out.

Translation: The American Dream now requires two incomes, a trust fund, and a time machine back to 2019.

One in three adults under 35 now lives with their parents, with 25.2 million of them under the same roof as mom and dad in 2025, according to Realtor.com. The kicker: about 70% of them have jobs, and plenty hold college degrees. Their economist put it plainly, saying what's holding them back isn't qualifications but a lack of housing they can actually afford. It's a supply story, not an employment one.

Translation: Turns out the participation trophy generation would happily participate in homeownership if a house didn't cost a kidney and a half.

Government regulations now tack roughly $132,000 onto the cost of a typical new home, according to a study from the National Association of Home Builders. Federal, state and local rules make up 26.4% of the final price of a new single-family house, which works out to about $131,734 on the average new home that sold for $499,500 in January. All of this lands while mortgage rates stay high and prices refuse to budge, leaving affordability somewhere out of reach.

Translation: Over a quarter of your home's price tag buys you paperwork, not square footage.

A new bill would ban members of Congress, along with their spouses and kids, from betting on prediction markets tied to policies and elections they might have inside knowledge on. The Stop Lawmakers From Predicting Act, introduced by Rep. Bryan Steil, covers wagers on government actions, political outcomes, and anything else a lawmaker learns through the job. Violators would face fines of $2,000 or 10% of the bet's value, whichever is greater, plus whatever they pocketed. Steil's pitch: lawmakers should be writing policy, not betting on it.

Translation: The fact that this needs to be a law tells you everything about what they've been doing without one.

Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling sent letters to 53 governors Wednesday demanding immediate action on fraud, waste, and abuse in the unemployment insurance program. The department says it'll use every tool available, including withholding administrative funds from states for the first time ever, to force compliance and protect taxpayer dollars. Sonderling's message was blunt: governors are on notice, the American people won't tolerate it any longer, and states that let it slide will face the consequences.

Translation: Threatening to take away a state's money is the one language every governor suddenly understands.

Waymo is recalling nearly 4,000 robotaxis after more than a dozen incidents where the self-driving cars cruised past ramp closure signs straight into active freeway construction zones, according to a NHTSA report. The 3,871 vehicles run Waymo's 5th Generation system, and regulators say a software defect can leave the cars unable to recognize closures, letting them barrel through at posted speeds. Waymo figures every last one is affected.

Translation: We replaced human drivers to stop reckless mistakes, and the robots looked at the construction barrels and hit the gas.

Qantas says it'll launch the world's longest nonstop flight in October 2027, hauling passengers between Sydney and London in a single 22-hour haul. The Aussie carrier is using a specially modified Airbus A350 packing an extra 20,000-liter fuel tank to cover nearly 10,000 miles without stopping, all part of its long-awaited Project Sunrise plan. It'll be the first nonstop run between Australia's east coast and the UK, shaving up to four hours off the usual one-stop trip.

Translation: Saving four hours by spending twenty-two straight in a middle seat sounds like a deal only an airline could love.

Pope Leo, the Chicago-born pontiff, has watched his approval slip among Republican Catholics after butting heads with Trump earlier this year over the Iran War and a few other things, with the President firing off blistering statements his way. A new Pew poll shows Leo's still broadly popular with Americans overall, but the right-leaning faithful didn't take kindly to the squabble.

Translation: Even the Pope learned that picking a fight with Trump comes with its own kind of judgment day.

Kiki's, the A-list Greek favorite on Manhattan's Lower East Side, got its doors slapped shut Tuesday after the state seized it over a $1.2 million tax bill. New York's tax department served the place twelve warrants and plastered an orange seizure sign on the front, with the restaurant owing north of $607k and owner Pavlos Sierros on the hook for another $183k in personal income taxes on top of that. The hotspot that opened in Dimes Square back in 2015 is now officially cold.

Translation: Turns out the one reservation you can't skip in this town is with the tax man.

A semi hauling an estimated 250 million bees flipped on US Highway 191 near Yellowstone on Tuesday, spilling thousands of busted hives clean across the road. The scene turned ugly fast as the very angry swarm took over the area, and one Gallatin County deputy directing traffic walked away with nine stings for his trouble.

Translation: Somewhere out there a deputy filed the strangest workers' comp claim in American history.

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Consumer Confidence Report
Tuesday, June 24
The Conference Board's read on how Americans actually feel about their wallets right now.
Why You Should Care: If your neighbors are nervous, they stop spending, and that's the first crack before things slow down.

New Home Sales Data
Wednesday, June 24
May figures land on top of a housing market already priced out of reach.
Why You Should Care: With homes at five times the median income, this tells you whether anyone's still managing to buy one.

PCE Inflation Report (the Fed's Favorite Number)
Thursday, June 25
May inflation, with energy costs expected to push the rate higher again.
Why You Should Care: This single figure decides where your mortgage, savings rate, and grocery bill head next. Everything downstream runs through it.

Watch those videos of the world showing up on our doorstep and you remember what the rest of the planet already knows. America gave the world the lightbulb, the airplane, the internet, and the moon landing. We built jazz, rock and roll, hip-hop, and Hollywood. We've got the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the Rockies, and coastline on two oceans. We feed half the world, cure its diseases, and still find time to put a man on the moon and a rover on Mars. The cheeseburger, the road trip, the second chance, the idea that where you started doesn't decide where you finish. That's all us.

Are we perfect? Not even close. We spend $14.2 million on a reflecting pool and the paint peels off. We've got 250 million bees loose on a highway and robotaxis that drive straight into construction zones. A starter home now costs five times what the average person makes, and a guy with a salary and a degree is still asking his mom what's for dinner. We've got our problems, and we don't pretend otherwise.

But here's the thing. America is the most successful team in human history, and people treat it the way they treat any winner. The dynasty everyone roots against. The business everyone wants to see stumble. The star whose every flaw gets the headline while the brilliance gets a shrug. Hating on America has become a global pastime and a domestic hobby, but strip away all of it and you're left with a country built on freedom, opportunity, and the radical idea that ordinary people can run their own lives. The rest of the world figured it out in less than 39 days. Maybe it's time we remembered it too.

USA, USA, USA!!

That's our take, now we want yours. Hit reply and tell us where you land: the verdict, the bigger question, all of it. Love America, think we laid it on too thick, got a story we missed? Send it our way. We read every single one.