On Friday, a New York Times article made the rounds which profiled the Concerned Community Citizens (“or C-Cubed”) of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, an Islamophobic group obsessing over the local population of Somali refugees and fretting about white replacement. “I think of America, the great assimilator, as a rubber band, but with this — we’re at the breaking point,” Kim Crockett, vice president of a think tank called the Center of the American Experiment, told the Times. “These aren’t people coming from Norway, let’s put it that way. These people are very visible.”

This morning, the Saint Cloud Times, the local newspaper, hit back at the Islamophobia in its community.

We published an article at TPM Cafe this week that takes a look at how “deepfakes” could impact the 2020 election. These altered images and videos could be an equally if not more dangerous relative of 2016’s “fake news.”

As we survey the strange scene this morning of Trump’s Iran policy, a helpful thread from former American diplomat Brett McGurk:

In an obscure move that hasn’t garnered much attention, President Trump has begun the process of withdrawing from the international postal union that establishes protocols for global mail delivery, a move which threatens to jeopardize the ability of Americans overseas to cast absentee ballots.

As recently as last week, the White House convened a meeting of stakeholders who work with overseas voters to discuss the exit, TPM has learned. But voting advocates remain apprehensive that the federal and state governments are unprepared for the ramifications of a U.S. withdrawal from the postal union, which could come as soon as this fall.

Tierney Sneed has our exclusive report.

Happy Friday, June 21. Tensions are escalating alarmingly in Iran, as news breaks that U.S. forces were primed and ready to launch retaliatory strikes Friday morning before being ordered to stand down. Here’s more on that and the other stories we’re following.

I wouldn’t say this is altogether surprising. The President is pretty convincing on this front. But according to Jerry Nadler, in her closed door testimony, Hope Hicks told the House Judiciary Committee that she believed President Trump was serious when he said he would again accept foreign assistance in the 2020 presidential election. “Ms. Hicks made clear that she understood the president to be serious when he said that he would accept foreign interference in our elections.” The transcript of her testimony is expected to be released either today or tomorrow. As I noted last night, I expect it to come through channels like this.

The NRA has tossed (technically “suspended”) its chief lobbyist for conspiring against Wayne LaPierre in the failed coup waged against him by deposed NRA President Ollie North, erstwhile ad firm Ackerman McQueen and other anti-Wayne forces who are now all going either to the rack or the sword.

First, I’m always hesitant to recommend people. Because inevitably they’ll say something dumb and people will blame me for it. But I’m really enjoying Aaron Blake’s campaign commentary and number-crunching — consistently shrewd and considered. His column today focuses me on a basic point: it’s very hard to see how President Trump can win reelection in a high turnout head to head race. He’s just stuck way too far down below 50% public support. This is my general thinking of course because, as I’ve been arguing, Trump is in much worse shape than people seem to imagine, at least until quite recently. But it’s worth zooming in on those qualifiers: high turnout and head to head race.

TPM has always cared about keeping our readers up to speed on what we know, when we know it. For our series #WednesdaysWith, our writers, editors, and production staffers will take turns taking over our Instagram account for a day, giving you a window into what it’s like to walk in their shoes.