Peace deal deja vu. Mr. Trump called off a third straight night of U.S. military attacks on Iran, saying the two sides finally reached an agreement to end the war. Iran said, um, not so fast — it was still reviewing the fine print.

The president said the deal “probably” will be signed in Europe within a few days. While the end of hostilities and the resumption of commercial shipping would be great news, we’ve stopped counting how many imminent deals with Tehran have collapsed.

The latest tentative deal came after the Iranian military shot down a U.S. Army helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz (the two crew members were rescued), prompting a heavy U.S. response in the form of missiles and bombs on consecutive nights. Iran, in turn, launched missile and drone attacks on U.S. military bases in neighboring countries across the Middle East.

The president had vowed to continue “hard” airstrikes against Iran and said he planned to take control of Tehran’s oil and gas markets. It promised to be a page from the playbook Mr. Trump ran in oil-rich Venezuela and significantly ramped up threats against the Islamic republic.

“At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America,” Mr. Trump had said on social media earlier in the week.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was formally nominated by the president for the permanent post as the nation’s top cop, setting up a Senate confirmation battle.

Mr. Blanche, 51, has been serving as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi, the first person to hold the job in Mr. Trump’s second term, was fired in April. He has worked as Mr. Trump’s personal attorney.

While running the Department of Justice for the past two months, Mr. Blanche impressed the White House by securing an indictment against former FBI Director James B. Comey and rolling back gun control measures from the Biden administration.

Mr. Blanche also supported several initiatives that bolstered the administration’s war on fraud.

Vice President J.D. Vance is referring Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison, both Democrats, to the Justice Department for a criminal fraud investigation involving federal dollars sent to social service programs.

“Minnesota state officials are not above the law and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew or harassed and intimidated whistleblowers, they must face Justice,” Mr. Vance said.

Mr. Vance, the administration’s fraud czar, said he was making the referral after reviewing the findings from the House Oversight Committee. The committee’s report alleges that Mr. Walz and Mr. Ellison were “aware of widespread taxpayer fraud in federally funded social programs for years” and did not take steps to stop it.

An estimated $300 million in federal child nutrition funds and potentially $9 billion in Medicaid-related funds were “lost” or placed at “serious risk,” according to the report.

FISA going dark. The House rejected a three-week extension of a foreign surveillance law less than 48 hours before it was due to expire, as Democrats protested William J. Pulte, Mr. Trump’s choice to temporarily lead the U.S. intelligence community.

The failed 198-218 vote all but guaranteed the key spy authority will go dark temporarily.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authorizes the warrantless collection of targeted foreign intelligence information to help combat terrorist plots.

Because Congress did not renew the law, U.S. communications companies are unlikely to hand over foreign targets’ phone calls, emails and text messages without a warrant. 

The president had vowed not to give in to what he calls Democrats’ “extortion” over Mr. Pulte and said he intended to appoint a permanent nominee soon for director of national intelligence. As lawmakers left town after allowing the law to lapse, the president announced the nomination of U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the agency permanently.

Wanted: new umpire. Mr. Trump is urging Senate Majority Leader John Thune to immediately fire Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough.

Ms. MacDonough’s role is essentially to call balls and strikes on whether proposed legislation conforms to Senate rules and procedures. After some of her calls have gone against Mr. Trump’s agenda, the president said she deserves to be tossed out because she “treats Republicans, and everything that they stand for, horribly.”

Mr. Trump linked her alleged bias to her hiring in 2012 by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and to support from former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Last month, Ms. MacDonough ruled against the $1 billion in security funding for Mr. Trump’s White House ballroom, finding it violated the “Byrd Rule” because it fell outside the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told House lawmakers that late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein used the billionaire philanthropist’s marital infidelities “to pressure me to reengage with him.”

The comment was delivered in Mr. Gates’ opening statement to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which interviewed him behind closed doors in its probe into Epstein and his sex trafficking crimes.

Mr. Gates is among a string of high-profile witnesses summoned to the panel to discuss Epstein. Mr. Gates and Epstein, a wealthy financier, were known to associate for years. Mr. Gates appeared in photos from the Epstein files alongside unidentified women.

Mr. Gates told the panel he “never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct.”

“I have never victimized anyone,” Mr. Gates said.

Trump’s visa fees rejected. A federal judge struck down Mr. Trump’s $100,000 fee for H-1B visas to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the U.S.

District Judge Leo Sorokin in Massachusetts concluded the fee was an unlawful tax that Congress did not authorize.

“Here, the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” Judge Sorokin, an Obama appointee, wrote, adding that Congress had not delegated its tax powers to the executive branch.

Attorneys for the Trump administration argued that the judge had no authority to decide the visa fee dispute. They argued that the action was not reviewable because the president has unchecked authority to limit immigration.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said the president “has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did.”

“The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it,” she said. “A federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal.”

The lawsuit was filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general after Mr. Trump announced last September a dramatic increase in the cost of obtaining H-1B visas.

Major League Baseball should stop putting so much focus on Pride Nights, The Washington Times Editorial Board argues.

Donald Palmer praises the proposed U.S. Postal Service guidelines for mail-in ballots.

Stephen Wallis lays out how Mr. Trump can successfully overhaul the nation’s K-12 schools.