June 22, 2026

Good morning! Today is Monday, June 22nd 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day 114 of the war, Vice President Vance opens talks with Iran in Switzerland as 78 percent of Americans tell pollsters to end the conflict now, with Israel's continued bombing of southern Lebanon and a closed Strait of Hormuz dominating the agenda. Janeese Lewis George's primary win positions D.C. to join Chicago, New York, and Seattle under DSA-backed leadership, part of a socialist wave reshaping the Democratic Party from coast to coast. Scott Greer argues the "abundance" agenda pushed by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson is being decisively rejected by Democratic voters, and may end up as forgotten as the "reform conservatism" Trump steamrolled a decade ago. and now for the details. We begin in Switzerland, where a United States delegation led by Vice President J.D. Vance, along with special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, opened talks Sunday with representatives of the Iranian government on the 114th day of the conflict. A new CBS News/YouGov poll of more than twenty-five hundred American adults found seventy-eight percent want the United States to end the war now. The central friction heading into the negotiations is Israel's continued occupation and bombing of southern Lebanon. The first article of the sixty-day interim peace agreement signed last Wednesday by President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian explicitly conditions an end to the conflict on the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and on respect for Lebanese sovereignty. Lebanon's Health Ministry now puts the death toll from Israeli strikes at more than four thousand one hundred since March. Citing those continued strikes, Iran announced over the weekend that it is keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed as long as the bombing continues. Both President Trump and Vice President Vance had criticized Israel for the Lebanon campaign earlier in the week, but on Sunday, Trump pivoted, posting on Truth Social that Iran must rein in its proxies in Lebanon or face renewed American strikes. As Harrison Berger reports for The American Conservative, energy markets remain unsettled. Brent crude sat at just over eighty dollars a barrel Sunday, and AAA pegged the national average for regular gasoline at three dollars and ninety-four cents — well off pre-war levels for American drivers. Turning to domestic politics. Washington, D.C. is poised to elect a Democratic Socialists of America-backed mayor after Janeese Lewis George, a former Black Lives Matter activist who campaigned to defund the police and still calls for abolishing ICE, won the Democratic primary this week. She joins DSA-aligned figures already leading Chicago, New York, and Seattle, with Los Angeles potentially next in November, and socialist-aligned candidates competing for Senate nominations in Michigan and Minnesota and the governor's race in Wisconsin. As Scott Greer writes for The American Conservative, this wave is a direct repudiation of the so-called "abundance" agenda promoted by commentators Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Their book, endorsed by Gavin Newsom and inspiring a "Build America Caucus" of thirty House Democrats, urged the party to embrace deregulation, growth, and a more business-friendly posture while keeping its cultural liberalism intact. Greer argues the Democratic base has decisively rejected that pitch. The candidates winning primaries this year are calling for expanded rent control, more subsidized housing, and tighter business regulation — the very policies abundance liberals blame for urban decay. Greer notes that Seattle's socialist mayor is a major factor in nearly half of Washington state businesses considering relocation, yet the political momentum continues to move left. He draws a parallel to the "reform conservatives" of the mid-2010s, whose wonky agenda was swept aside by Donald Trump and the Republican base. Abundance, Greer concludes, may follow the same path — a fashionable idea among elite commentators with little hold on the voters it was meant to attract. The 2028 Democratic primary, in his view, will likely force even moderates like Newsom to court the party's radical wing. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.