President Trump formally kicks off his re-election campaign next week. So far, he's shown scattered interest in the effort, insisting "on having final approval over the songs on his campaign playlist, as well as the campaign merchandise," but showing little interest in campaign spending or coming up with a new campaign theme, The New York Times reports. He does care about his approval ratings, though, and how he fares in matchups against various top Democrats, especially Joe Biden.

"Biden seems to have gotten into the president's head — at least for now," the Times reports, and his campaign is using that obsession to "invigorate a candidate who needs an identifiable opponent to keep his interest and who has been alternately engrossed in and detached from his re-election effort." One internal poll certainly captured Trump's attention, the Times says.

After being briefed on a devastating 17-state poll conducted by his campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, Mr. Trump told aides to deny that his internal polling showed him trailing Mr. Biden in many of the states he needs to win, even though he is also trailing in public polls from key states like Texas, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. And when top-line details of the polling leaked, including numbers showing the president lagging in a cluster of critical Rust Belt states, Mr. Trump instructed aides to say publicly that other data showed him doing well. [The New York Times]

Campaign manager Brad Parscale did just that, insisting that the numbers showing Trump losing Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin were "selectively leaked information" based on "a subset of questions asked." Trump doesn't yet have a chief political strategist, the Times reports, and Fabrizio's "blunt approach is not always welcome by a candidate who prefers good news and can take a shoot-the-messenger approach to receiving information he does not like." Read more about Trump's Biden strategy at The New York Times. Peter Weber

Fox's Tomi Lahren has apparently had enough with all this talk of a humanitarian crisis at the southern border.

In a Tuesday appearance on Fox & Friends, Lahren was asked by guest host Jedediah Bila about comments from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in which the congresswoman praised Wayfair employees for planning a walkout on Wednesday over the company's decision to sell beds to furnish migrant detention facilities. Bila questioned the logic of Ocasio-Cortez's opinions on the humanitarian border crisis, asking if she would rather the children in the facilities not have beds.

But while Bila appeared to agree that the situation at the border is a humanitarian crisis, Lahren dismissed that idea entirely, even putting the words in scare quotes. Instead, Lahren suggested, it's all a part of plan. Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez want to release currently-detained migrants into the "shadows of society" to overwhelm U.S. cities and become Democratic voters, turning red states blue.

"This is all strategy," Lahren said. "And they cloak it in a humanitarian crisis. It's an opportunity." Watch the clip below. Tim O'Donnell

President Trump in a Wednesday interview went on a bizarre rant about supposed Twitter censorship, claiming the company is intentionally making it difficult for people to "join" him.

During an interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo that lasted nearly an hour, Trump bemoaned "what they did to me on Twitter," claiming it's "very hard for people to join me" and that the fact that he isn't picking up followers at as quick a rate as he used to is evidence of some sort of a conspiracy.

"I was picking up 100,000 followers every few days … then all of a sudden, it stopped," Trump complained.

Trump then bizarrely suggested that many of his supporters are unable to follow him on Twitter, adding a new item to his long list of things he claims people just keep walking up to him and saying.

"I've had so many people come to me [and say], 'Sir, I can’t join you on Twitter,'" Trump said. "I see what's happening 100 percent."

Trump had previously met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in the Oval Office during a meeting that he supposedly spent "a significant portion of" complaining about losing followers and probably launching into a rant not dissimilar to this one, no doubt making Dorsey long to be back on one of his silent meditation retreats. Brendan Morrow

Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent two years heading up a major investigation into 2016 Russian election interference, but, come on, that doesn't mean he actually knows its details, says Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade.

The Fox & Friends team on Tuesday was discussing the news that Mueller is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees on July 17. The Democrats, like House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who have been pushing for Mueller's testimony for quite some time are undoubtedly excited by the news. But Kilmeade thinks it could actually backfire.

"He's like the King of England on this," Kilmeade said, referring to Mueller. "He assigns the people." Kilmeade added that Nadler-led hearings "often get out of control," and he senses this one might as well, with the results differing from the Democrats intentions.

Kilmeade did concede that Mueller has a few weeks to "bone up" on the report, and guest host Jedediah Bila said that if Mueller doesn't know the details now, she's pretty sure "he's sitting with a highlighter going over it" because he'll want to "make this his moment." Watch the clip below. Tim O'Donnell

President Trump during a lengthy interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday tore into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who he again said he has the right to fire.

Trump during the interview mocked Powell as a guy who "nobody ever heard of " before, saying that "I made him and now he wants to show how tough he is." This came after Bartiromo pointed out that Powell has said he won't be pushed around amid Trump's repeated criticism.

"Let him show how tough he is," Trump said of Powell. "He's not doing a good job."

The president also once again contended that he could fire or demote Powell while noting that he never said he's actually going to do so. After Bloomberg reported that Trump had discussed demoting Powell earlier this year, Trump said in a Sunday interview that he "didn’t ever threaten to demote him" but "I'd be able to do that if I wanted."

"We have a Fed that keeps raising interest rates," Trump also said on Wednesday. "I mean, you explain that one." Brendan Morrow

On Tuesday, Russell Moore, a prominent evangelical Christian theologian and president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, deplored how the U.S. is treating detained migrant children, suggesting that "we can do better than this."

Jerry Fallwell Jr., a prominent evangelical leader who heads Liberty University and is famously friendly with President Trump, decided to publicly disagree, calling Moore "a bureaucrat" who has never "made a payroll" or "built an organization of any type from scratch."

The comments on Falwell's tweet veered from the saucy — "Have you ever hired a pool boy?" asked conservative pundit Bill Kristol. "Have naked photos of your wife ever showed up on Michael Cohen's computer?" — to the serious. "How did Jesus treat children?" asked Christian journalist Elizabeth Bruenig. Brian Zahnd, founding pastor of Missouri's Word of Life Church, brought the fire and brimstone:

Were there memes? Yes, there were memes.

Did anyone defend Falwell's thoughts on Christianity? If so, their comments were buried among questions about Jesus making payroll and how many people Falwell had just driven away from Christianity. To be fair, Falwell has pointed out that he is not an ordained minister, just a businessman who runs a Christian university. Maybe he can audit some New Testament classes this fall. Peter Weber

After the publication of a graphic photo showing two migrant deaths at the border, former congressman Beto O'Rourke took aim at President Trump.

A disturbing picture of Salvadoran migrants, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, lying in shallow water at the Rio Grande was published by The Associated Press on Tuesday after originating from the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, and it quickly gained viral attention. Ramírez and his wife and daughter had reportedly tried swimming across the river because his family could not request asylum. The Trump administration has limited the number of migrants who can request asylum per day.

O'Rourke in response placed the blame right on Trump, linking to the Associated Press story while writing, "Trump is responsible for these deaths." He also said that the administration's refugee policy comes "at the expense of our humanity, not to the benefit of our safety."

Other 2020 Democrats similarly spoke out on the photo while not being quite as direct as O'Rourke, with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) writing that denying asylum to families fleeing violence is "inhumane" and that "this is a stain on our moral conscience," while former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro called the photo "absolutely heartbreaking" and called for immigration reform.

The White House hasn't commented on the photo, but Trump on Wednesday morning tweeted that Democrats "want Open Borders, which equals violent crime, drugs and human trafficking." Brendan Morrow