Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

March 9

Russia has provided Iran with information that can help Tehran strike US military, AP sources say

Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region, according to two officials familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter. The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that the U.S. intelligence has not uncovered that Russia is directing Iran on what to do with the information. Still, it’s the first indication that Moscow has sought to get involved in the war. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

March 9

A boost for Moscow in the shadow of Iran war: US allows India to buy Russian oil for a month

The U.S. Treasury Department’s decision to allow India to buy Russian oil for 30 days underscores a boost for Moscow’s fortunes against the backdrop of the Iran war as Russia’s oil exports help the Kremlin pay for its own war on Ukraine. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Hungary detains 7 Ukrainians and seizes $80 million cash shipment. Kyiv calls move ‘taking hostages’
US and Mideast countries seek Kyiv’s drone expertise as Russia-Ukraine talks put on ice
Families of Kenyan recruits duped into fighting in Russia’s war on Ukraine demand their sons return

ps:Now that is a surprise? NOT!!!!!

March 9

Congress is on track for record retirements. In Illinois, that’s created a candidate frenzy

Congress is on track to see record turnover this year as lawmakers forgo reelection, and in few places is that spate of retirements felt as deeply as in Illinois. Fueled by the retirements of senior members of Congress, six House and Senate seats in the reliably Democratic state are open. That’s offered a rare chance for the party to draw a new crop of candidates — all told, nearly 60 hopefuls are vying for the six seats. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

March 9

💵 The Trump administration said that it can't immediately issue tariff refunds, casting doubt on when businesses will get the hundreds of billions of dollars owed to them. Go deeper.

ps: of course they can't or should I say you'll be lucky if they actually do refund any of the money!!!!!

The Trump administration’s macroeconomic agenda harms affordability and raises inequality

The Trump administration’s unwise policy agenda has the potential to do great damage to U.S. families—and this is true even if it does not lead to recession or spiking inflation in the near term. While this agenda has heightened the risk of recession in coming years, the greatest future damage will come from slowing growth in the economy’s supply side and raising inequality. Trump’s economic policies will cause incomes and wages for typical families to grow more slowly, and this will lead to a less affordable life for many.

https://www.epi.org/publication/the-trump-administrations-macroeconomic-agenda-harms-affordability-and-raises-inequality/?

Trump says he’s ‘won affordability.’ The data shows a different story.

President Donald Trump has said some strikingly out-of-touch things about affordability: that it’s a “hoax,” he’s “solved it” and he’s “won affordability.” In his State of the Union address, he even said “prices are plummeting downward.” U.S. families know this is nonsense. But to see how much Trump’s policies will erode affordability in the coming years, you must understand that affordability isn’t just about prices.

https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-economic-policies-affordability?

Trump’s State of the Union Ignored the Root Cause of Affordability Problems

During President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, he claimed to be working to improve affordability for U.S. families. But Trump didn’t talk about the root cause of these affordability problems: the long-running rise in inequality. And he didn’t call for the single most-effective way to reverse this inequality: raising taxes significantly on the ultra-rich families and corporations. In a new Economic Policy Institute report, I highlight how we got here and offer meaningful solutions to tackle growing inequality through wealth taxation.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-state-of-the-union-income-inequality?

DoJ releases Epstein files containing uncorroborated abuse allegations against Trump

The US justice department released additional files related to Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday, including FBI memos describing interviews with a woman who made uncorroborated allegations against Epstein and Donald Trump.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/06/justice-department-epstein-files-trump-allegations?

March 9

Self-Inflicted Pain

a siren flashing yellow with coins moving across it

																(Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic)
															

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The job market is weakening, inflation is still too high, and we’re at serious risk of a once-in-50-years oil shock. This is almost the exact set of conditions that triggered the stagflation of the 1970s, which at the time was America’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. At the moment, the economy is still far from that kind of doomsday scenario, but the direction of travel is disquieting. The economy’s warning lights might not yet be flashing red, but they are certainly flashing yellow.

The jobs report released this morning showed that the U.S. labor market lost 92,000 jobs in February, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 4.4 percent. The numbers for the previous two months, which had suggested decent job growth, were also revised downward: January now showed fewer job gains than initially estimated and December showed overall job losses. These new numbers continue the trend of last month’s revisions, which showed that the economy had added just 181,000 jobs in all of 2025, a tenth of the jobs that had been added the year prior. Taken together, the numbers suggest that 2025 appears to have had the most months with negative job growth since 2010—the midst of the Great Recession—and that 2026 is off to a similarly slow start. The Trump administration sometimes claims that weak job numbers are the by-product of deporting undocumented workers, but the native-born unemployment rate has risen by half a percentage point since Trump took office.

The labor market is not the only sign of trouble. A report released by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis on February 20 showed that economic growth slowed dramatically in the final months of last year, from 4.4 percent in the third quarter down to just 1.4 percent, bringing total yearly growth to its lowest level since the pandemic decimated the economy in 2020. (The BEA estimated that one percentage point of the quarterly drop was caused by the federal-government shutdown.) On the same day, another report from the BEA showed that prices had risen by 3 percent in December compared with a year prior, the highest rate of inflation since April 2024.

The worst job numbers since the Great Recession, the slowest economic growth since COVID, and the worst inflation in nearly two years—these are not the signs of a healthy economy. And we haven’t even talked about oil yet.

As I wrote this morning, the U.S.-Iran war carries a very high risk of triggering an energy crisis if it lasts for more than a few weeks—the kind of crisis that experts believe could cause the price of oil to double or triple from its current level. That risk jumped almost immediately after my article was published, when Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the war would not end without Iran’s “unconditional surrender.” The price of crude oil promptly shot up to about $90 a barrel and may go higher still. Meanwhile, Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, has begun warning that oil prices could rise as high as $150 a barrel within weeks and that the situation could “could bring down the economies of the world.” As recently as yesterday, the oil markets were responding relatively calmly to the outbreak of war. Now panic might be setting in.

All of this looks eerily similar to the 1970s. At the beginning of the decade, the economy was already struggling. Inflation, after a period of decline, was starting to tick up again. The unemployment rate was low, about 5 percent, but higher than it had been just a few years prior. The economy was still growing, but less quickly than before.

Then came the 1973 Arab oil embargo, and everything fell apart. Oil prices nearly quadrupled from late 1973 to early 1974. Because so much of the economy is dependent on energy, that caused the price of everything else to go up too. Inflation reached double digits. Meanwhile, consumers pulled back from spending, which, in turn, forced businesses to start laying off workers, setting off a vicious cycle. Economic growth plummeted, unemployment spiked, and the economy fell into recession. The Federal Reserve, facing both higher inflation and higher unemployment, hesitated to raise interest rates, making the inflation problem even worse. The crisis abated only at the end of the decade when, with inflation spiraling out of control, a new Fed chair jacked up interest rates to record levels and made the recession even deeper, with unemployment eventually reaching 11 percent and remaining high for most of the 1980s.

The current situation is not yet 1973 all over again, and it doesn’t have to be. The biggest difference between the situation then and the one we face now is that this time the pain is mostly self-inflicted. When Trump came into office, inflation was falling, job creation was strong, and the economy was projected to grow quickly. Only after the imposition of his global tariffs did things take a turn for the worse, and only after his decision to wage war on Iran did the world face the prospect of a full-blown energy crisis. Trump is old enough to remember the history that led to the bad old days of the ’70s. Perhaps that will keep him from repeating it.

Related:

March 9

Trump Is ‘Seriously Interested’ in Ominous War Escalation

The president has privately floated the idea of deploying a small contingent of American forces for strategic missions inside Iran.

The war with Iran could be on the brink of further escalation.

President Donald Trump privately expressed interest in sending U.S. troops into Iran, according to several current and former officials who spoke to NBC News.

The idea came up in conversations with aides and Republican officials, where the president is said to have discussed what a post-war Iran might look like and floated the possibility of deploying a small contingent of U.S. forces for strategic missions rather than a full-scale ground invasion.

Either possibility would run counter to Trump’s repeated promises to keep the United States out of any new foreign wars.

Some analysts say a limited deployment could involve missions targeting facilities that cannot easily be destroyed through air strikes.

“You could envision them doing some sort of special operations insertions if there were targets that they absolutely needed to take out or reduce but didn’t lend themselves to bombardment,” Joel Rayburn, a former Trump administration official and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told NBC News.

Officials told NBC News that Trump has not made a final decision on whether to deploy troops to Iran, but the private discussions suggest he may be more open to putting U.S. “boots on the ground” than he has publicly acknowledged.“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” Trump told The New York Post in an interview this week. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’”

The White House disputed the characterization of Trump’s thinking.

“This story is based on assumptions from anonymous sources who are not part of the president’s national security team and are clearly not read into these discussions,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

“President Trump always, wisely keeps all options open but anyone trying to insinuate he is in favor of one option or another proves they have no real seat at the table.”

Iranian officials have said they are prepared for the possibility of a U.S. ground invasion.

“We are waiting for them,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News.

“We are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them.”

The conflict began early Saturday morning, with U.S. and Israeli air strikes on Iranian targets.

Six U.S. service members have so far been killed and 18 wounded in Iranian counterattacks since the fighting began, according to the Pentagon.

Araghchi said Iran has prepared for the possibility that the conflict could escalate further.

“We have prepared ourselves to confront with any scenario,” he said.

During a visit to U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said there is “no shortage of American will” to sustain Operation Epic Fury.

“We’ve got no shortage of munitions; our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to,” Hegseth said.

“Our will is ironclad, which means our timeline is ours and ours alone to control.”

Hegseth’s remarks underscore how open-ended the conflict may become, particularly as Trump continues to keep the possibility of ground troops in play.

For now, the war has largely been fought from the air, with U.S. and Israeli strikes targeting Iranian military infrastructure. But Trump’s private discussions about deploying American forces suggest the next phase of the conflict could look very different.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-is-seriously-interested-in-ominous-iran-war-escalation/?

March 9

Trump's risky business

Illustration of a man resembling Donald Trump pushing all the poker chips in toward the center of the table.

Illustration: Maura Kearns/Axios

President Trump is mired in risk, Axios' Zachary Basu writes:

Risk his Iran war of choice goes bad.
Risk the February job losses are a trend, not a blip.
Risk the stock market keeps dropping.
Risk his tariffs, and now soaring oil costs, are pushing prices higher.
Risk that deregulated AI accelerates job losses.
Risk that Democratic enthusiasm leads to a midterm wipeout.

Why it matters: Trump fancies himself a high-risk, high-reward president, a confidence cheered by the vast majority of Republican officials and voters. But risk is risk — and by most measures, it's rising everywhere.

By the numbers: Early polling on the Iran war suggests there may be little or no reward to be had, particularly with the swing voters Trump has lost over affordability concerns.

Pollster G. Elliott Morris took an average of high-quality surveys and found just 38% of Americans support U.S. military strikes in Iran — lower than retrospective support for the war in Iraq in 2014.
Most Republicans support the war. But no broader rally-around-the-flag effect has materialized.

Zoom in: For years, Trump, Vice President Vance and the broader MAGA movement argued that war with Iran would be catastrophic — too costly, too risky, too likely to spiral.

Six U.S. service members have died since the opening strikes. Trump told TIME when asked whether Americans should be worried about retaliatory attacks at home: "I guess ... When you go to war, some people will die."
The first 100 hours of the war alone are estimated to have cost $3.7 billion. Oil prices are up more than 25%, with the instability threatening Persian Gulf investments that Trump has made central to his economic vision.

📱 Trump told Axios he must be "involved" in selecting Iran's next leader — but also acknowledged the worst-case scenario: "We do this, and then somebody takes over who's as bad as the previous person."

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Covers of the new TIME, today's N.Y. Post

The intrigue: Some Middle East experts, including hawkish Trump allies in Washington, believe the president is playing with fire by encouraging Kurdish militants to cross into Iran and fight the regime.

The possibility of a brutal civil war — in an ethnically diverse country of 93 million — could tip Iran into the prolonged chaos that defined George W. Bush's legacy in Iraq.
Trump, asked about polls showing most Americans oppose the war, told the New York Post he's not worried: "I think that the polling is very good, but I don't care about polling. I have to do the right thing."

Zoom out: Even before his attack on Iran rattled global markets, Trump was losing the argument on the economy — historically his strongest issue.

New data show the economy shed 92,000 jobs in February — far worse than the 60,000-job gain economists expected, and the third time in five months the labor market has contracted.
Surging oil prices threaten to reverse the genuine progress Trump has made on gas prices and inflation, with new risks to the kitchen-table costs at the core of voters' affordability concerns.
His tariffs — sold as a path to cheaper goods and more American jobs — have so far delivered neither, with prices rising and manufacturing shedding jobs for 13 of the past 14 months.

Between the lines: The Trump administration has gone all-in on AI accelerationism, pressuring GOP state lawmakers to back off on safety regulations that could constrain the technology's explosive growth.

This might be Trump's biggest bet of all: AI could supercharge the economy and cement his legacy as the president who unleashed the next industrial revolution.
But most Americans are deeply skeptical and anxious, fearing AI could accelerate job displacement, hollow out the middle class and eventually threaten humanity itself.

White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai said in a statement to Axios: "The biggest risk America faces is backing down from President Trump's America First agenda and abandoning the president's push to secure our borders, mass deport criminal illegal aliens, safeguard our national security, and restore America as the most dynamic economy in the world."

"The so-called 'experts' have repeatedly predicted doom and gloom since President Trump took office, and they have repeatedly been proven wrong. President Trump and his administration are laser-focused on continuing to deliver for the American people."

🔮 What to watch: Trump's biggest political risk is losing Congress in November, and watching his second term collapse into investigations, impeachment and legislative gridlock.

The midterm environment is trending against Republicans across every early indicator — primary turnout, generic ballot polling and special election results.

The bottom line: A swift, clean victory in Iran could help stabilize Trump's numbers. A prolonged conflict — with casualties, spiking prices and no clear endgame — could turn a difficult midterm map into a wipeout.

Go deeper: Trump's power play.

March 10

Trump Finds Jaw-Dropping Way to Disrespect His Own War Dead

The president’s shocking move came during the dignified transfer of six U.S. service members.

President Donald Trump made a bold accessory choice while attending the dignified transfer of six U.S. service members killed in his war with Iran.

Trump, 79, stood as six coffins covered in American flags were solemnly carried from an aircraft to a waiting vehicle at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base on Saturday afternoon. On Trump’s head sat a gold-embroidered white hat with the letters “USA” on the front, “45-47″ on one side, and the American flag on the other.

The $55 cap is available to purchase on the president’s merch website.

The six service members, all part of the 103rd Sustainment Command, were killed by an Iranian strike in Kuwait on Sunday, March 1. They were Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39; Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20; Major Jeffrey R. O’Brien, 45; and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert M. Marzan, 54.

In the early morning hours of Saturday, Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Based on publicly available images, the president’s baseball cap, which he has never worn during a dignified transfer, drew immediate outrage. No other U.S. president has worn a baseball hat during a dignified transfer, based on publicly available images.

California governor and top Trump critic Gavin Newsom wrote above a video shared by the White House, “Take your hat off, you disgusting little man.”

“This fool has ABSOLUTELY no sense of dignity or appreciation for the moment,” wrote former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele on X. “It is called the Dignified Transfer for a reason. Take your damn hat off!!”

Political strategist Chris D. Jackson wrote, “Trump just wore a campaign hat to a dignified transfer for fallen U.S. soldiers that were killed during his Iranian blunder.”

“These are the same people who spent weeks attacking Biden for briefly glancing at his watch,” Jackson continued. “The hypocrisy is absolute. There is no bottom for these people.”

Others were quick to point out that Trump’s hat broke with military custom for those in civilian dress. Guidance from the Veterans of Foreign Wars states for military funerals, “it is appropriate (and a visible sign of respect) to remove the hat or headdress and place it over your heart.”

While the dignified transfer is not a funeral, it is also a common custom in the United States to remove a hat as a sign of respect. For example, baseball hats are typically removed during the national anthem at baseball games.

During the transfer, when not saluting, Trump—who was reportedly warned by intelligence officials that his plans for an Iran war would likely fail to achieve his stated goals of regime change in the country—could be seen fiddling with his jacket buttons and lapel as he bowed his head.

Following the death of the six service members on March 1, Trump said, “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is.”

Later in the week, he reiterated that sentiment in an interview with Time Magazine, “…You know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.”

Within hours of the transfer, Trump continued to post on Truth Social.

At 4:12 p.m., Trump wrote, “The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East. That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

Various reports indicate that the transfer was scheduled for roughly 3 p.m.

The president was not wearing the hat when he arrived at Dover Air Force Base, based on footage shared by the White House at around 1:30 p.m. Instead, the baseball hat can be seen in his hand as he disembarked Air Force One.

Trump arrived in Dover from Miami, where earlier in the day he addressed leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean at the inaugural “Shield of the Americas” event.

There, the president threatened Cuba, declared he would never learn how to speak Spanish to several leaders of Latin American nations, and insisted that the event continue to play music during a photo op.

Trump preceded this busy day by posting on Truth Social that Iran would be hit “very hard” today and the country was “being beat to hell” and “under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death.” News reports out of Iran seemed to confirm that major strikes occurred in Tehran on Saturday.

The bombardment follows reports that it was a U.S. strike that hit a school during the initial attack, killing at least 175 people, including children.

When asked about this by a reporter on Air Force One on Saturday, Trump denied that the U.S. was responsible. “No. In my opinion, and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump said.

When the same reporter asked Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if he agreed with Trump’s assessment, the former Fox News host hedged slightly. “We’re certainly investigating,” he said, before adding that “The only side that targets civilians is Iran.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-finds-jaw-dropping-way-to-disrespect-his-own-war-dead/?

ps:As the world continues to laugh at us!!!!!

March 10

FBI Met Four Times With Woman Who Said Trump Assaulted Her When She Was 13

Interview summaries from the Epstein files detail allegations from a woman who said she was trafficked to Trump as a teen.

A woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually abusing her when she was 13 was interviewed by FBI agents four times in 2019, according to the newly released Epstein files.

The interviews were conducted during the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

A Department of Justice source told The Miami Herald that the number of interviews reflected the investigators’ view of her credibility.

“They would not have interviewed her four times if they thought she was lying,” the source said.

According to FBI interview summaries in the newly released files, the woman said Epstein began abusing her after he responded to an advertisement for babysitting services her mother, a real estate agent, placed in a packet she provided to her clients.

The woman told investigators that Epstein later trafficked her to several other men when she was between 13 and 15 years old, including Trump.

“She was introduced to someone with money, money… it was Donald Trump,” the FBI report stated.

She said she first met Trump when Epstein took her to a “very tall building with huge rooms” in the New York or New Jersey area.

“[REDACTED] could not recall the identities of the other individuals present; however, they all exited when TRUMP asked everyone to leave the room.”

“Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be,” Trump reportedly told her.

The woman alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her after the others left the room.

“TRUMP unzipped his pants and put [her] head ‘down to his penis.’ [REDACTED] ‘bit the s--t out of it,’” the report stated.

The woman told investigators she bit him because he “disgusted” her.

According to the FBI summary, Trump then “struck” her and told others to take her out of the room, a point she clarified in a later interview.

“[REDACTED] clarified that when she previously said TRUMP struck her after she bit him on the penis, she provided further details that he, ‘pulled [her] hair and punched [her] on the side of [her] head.’”

The report states that the woman’s mother later served time in federal prison in South Carolina for embezzling money from her employer in an effort to obtain explicit photos Epstein allegedly used for blackmail.

The woman also told investigators in 2019 that she and her mother received threatening calls “throughout her life,” and described “four to five close calls” where her car was almost run off the road.

She told investigators that threats had increased “a little” in the four years before the interview.

When pressed to explain what she meant, she declined to elaborate. But administrative notes from the interview record her briefly telling her attorney the change had occurred “when he was running,” before the lawyer replied that there were “more tracks to cover.”

During her fourth and final interview, the woman told investigators she felt discouraged about pursuing the allegations because the incidents had happened decades earlier.

“What’s the point?” she said.

The allegations outlined in the newly released FBI summaries closely echo claims that surfaced during the 2016 presidential campaign, when a woman using the pseudonym “Jane Doe” filed a lawsuit accusing Trump of raping her at age 13.

Earlier versions of the lawsuit had been filed under the name “Katie Johnson,” another pseudonym used for the same accuser.

The case was filed several times that year before ultimately being withdrawn. The woman’s attorney at the time, Lisa Bloom, said the accuser had received threats and was too frightened to appear publicly.

The allegations also drew scrutiny after lawsuits filed under the pseudonym “Katie Johnson” were linked to former television producer Norm Lubow, an anti-Trump activist who circulated the accusations to reporters during the 2016 campaign.

When reached for comment by the Daily Beast, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the allegations “completely baseless” from a “sadly disturbed woman” with a criminal history.

“The total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden’s Department of Justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them—because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong,” she said in a statement.

“As we have said countless times, President Trump has been totally exonerated by the release of the Epstein Files.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-sources-verdict-on-13-year-old-trump-accuser-revealed/?

March 10

Trump Whines About Spanish Language to Room of Latin Leaders

The president told the leaders of Latin American countries that learning their “damn language” would be a waste of his time.

President Donald Trump demonstrated his hosting charm by telling the leaders of Latin American countries he invited to a meeting in Florida that he can’t be bothered to learn their “damn language.”

Speaking at the “Shield of the Americas” summit at his Doral golf course, Trump complained to the 12 regional heads of state that he would rather use an interpreter than invest the time to learn Spanish.

“I’m not learning your damn language,” Trump said. “I don’t have time.”

“I was OK with languages, but I’m not going to spend time learning your language; that much I won’t do,” he continued. “Just give me a good interpreter.”

Trump delivered his comments ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio—the son of Cuban immigrants—who gave comments in both English and Spanish.

“Is he better in Spanish or in English?” Trump asked as he returned to the podium to introduce the self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth.

“Mr. President, I only speak American,” Hegseth joked to muted response.

The awkward dialogue from the pair was an attempt to smooth over the Trump administration’s transition to a new era of greater U.S. focus on its regional neighbors.

Approximately 14 percent of the U.S. population is native Spanish speakers, and almost 60 million people can speak the language, particularly in major metropolitan areas like New York City, where Trump was born and raised.

The 79-year-old president continued to share his thoughts on what makes a good interpreter, complaining that “a woman” he used recently appeared to cut his “long, flowing, beautiful” sentences down significantly.

“Their language may be efficient, but it’s not that efficient,” he said.

Trump is known for his long and often rambling speeches that frequently meander into unrelated topics, including the way Barack Obama climbs stairs, Hannibal Lecter, and the weight of his close friends.

His speech patterns have appeared to become more distorted in his second term, sparking health concerns.

The Shield of the Americas will reportedly be headed by Kristi Noem, who was summarily dismissed from her role as Department of Homeland Security secretary earlier this week.

Without mentioning her swift job transfer, Noem later said at the conference that she was looking forward to delivering for the region what she had achieved for the U.S.

“Now that America is secure, and our borders are secure, we want to focus on our neighbors and help our neighbors with their borders and the challenges they have,” she said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-whines-about-spanish-language-to-room-of-latin-leaders/?

March 10

As citizen voting bill stalls in US Senate, some states forge ahead

While the U.S. Senate remains deadlocked over President Donald Trump’s call for strict citizenship voting requirements, Republicans in some states are pressing ahead with their own measures. Proof-of-citizenship legislation won final approval this past week in South Dakota and Utah, already has passed one chamber in Florida and received a committee hearing in Missouri. The federal Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE America Act, would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. That could be satisfied with such things as a U.S. passport, citizen naturalization certificate or a combination of a birth certificate and government-issued photo identification. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

March 10

Trump’s War to Nowhere

The Israel–U.S. military campaign in Iran has killed more than 1,000 people since the assault began on February 28. A war powers resolution in the Senate to curb President Donald Trump’s ability to drag the U.S. into the war failed on Wednesday. Similarly, a measure in the House failed on Thursday.

https://theintercept.com/2026/03/06/podcast-trump-iran-israel-war/?

AI company Anthropic sues Trump administration seeking to undo ‘supply chain risk’ designation

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic is suing to stop the Trump administration from enforcing what it calls an “unlawful campaign of retaliation” over its refusal to allow unrestricted military use of its technology.

https://apnews.com/article/anthropic-trump-pentagon-hegseth-ai-104c6c39306f1adeea3b637d2c1c601b?

March 10

Trump’s ‘roaring’ economy meets a rough start to the year

President Donald Trump promised that 2026 would be a bumper year for economic growth, but instead it has kicked off with job losses, rising gasoline prices and more uncertainty about America’s future. That could set the tone in this year’s midterm elections as Trump tries to defend his party’s majorities in the House and Senate. Read more.

Why this matters:

In his State of the Union address less than two weeks ago, the Republican president confidently told the country: “The roaring economy is roaring like never before.” The latest batch of data on jobs, prices at the pump and the stock market suggests otherwise.
With Trump’s tariffs drama ongoing, the war in Iran has suddenly created inflationary concerns regarding oil and natural gas. To the White House, it is still early in the year and stronger growth is coming. The administration is banking on plans to contain any energy price increases, essentially betting that either the conflict will end shortly or the administration can succeed in getting more tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump can point to a win in that the economy has become more productive — generating more value for each hour of work. That is a positive sign for long-term growth in the U.S. and a reflection of its strong tech sector. But the challenge is that the gains might not be spread to workers in the form of higher pay as labor’s share of income last year fell to the lowest level on record, noted Mike Konczal, senior director of policy and research at the Economic Security Project.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

March 10

MAGA Melts Down Over Hours-Long Airport Line Chaos

MAGA voices are trying to find anyone but Trump to blame for the shutdown.

The White House has joined MAGA outrage to blame Democrats for lengthy airport delays on Sunday, which left passengers queuing for over three hours. Passengers at airports in Houston faced 3.5 hours of delays leading into spring break travel, according to KHOU 11 News, while fliers in New Orleans were told to arrive at least three hours early for their flights.

TSA workers are required to attend work during a shutdown as they are deemed essential employees, but will not be paid until a funding deal is reached. DHS funding finished on Feb. 13.

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno claimed some TSA workers were calling in sick, leading to understaffing.

“We’ve got really, really long lines at the airport, and from talking to the airport officials, it appears that this has to do with the funding bill in Congress,” she posted on social media. “TSA agents didn’t receive a paycheck, so you have a lot of the workforce that has called in sick, which is causing these huge, huge lines.”

The White House and other MAGA figureheads were quick to point the blame at Democrats.

The White House’s Rapid Response 47 X account shared a photo of a passenger queuing in the airport at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to get to the TSA screening. “Thank a Democrat. It’s their shutdown,” it read.Republicans John Cornyn, Chip Roy and Don Bacon all borrowed the “Thank a Democrat” messaging.

Texas Rep. Ted Cruz posted on X, “The Dem shutdown of DHS NEEDS TO END.” Louisiana Rep. Jeff Landry said Democrats “have no shame” and are “fine with Americans suffering if it means winning political points.”

The Department of Homeland Security also raged at the lines in a post on X, claiming, “This chaos is a direct result of Democrats and their refusal to fund DHS. Their political stunt is forcing patriotic TSA officers to work without pay — leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.

“Enough is enough: stop holding national security and everyday Americans hostage. Democrats must fund DHS NOW.”

When quizzed by the Daily Beast, Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the DHS, echoed that sentiment.

“These political stunts force patriotic TSA officers, who protect our skies from serious threats, to work without pay,” Bis said in a statement to the Daily Beast.

“These frontline heroes received only partial paychecks earlier this month and now face their first full missed paycheck, leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.”

Californian congressman Ken Calvert posted on X, “As we get closer to the busy Spring Break travel season, airport delays for you and your family will only grow worse because Democrats refuse to join Republicans in funding our TSA agents.”

Conservative journalist Nick Sorter shared a video of passengers waiting in an “HOURS LONG” security line in Houston “due to Democrats having TSA shut down for several weeks now.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted about a security incident at a Kansas airport that was averted on Sunday, but has yet to post about the travel chaos.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Department of Transport for comment.

The partial shutdown began three weeks ago after Democrats refused to fund DHS until further restrictions on ICE and its agents were imposed.

They have sought reform in the department after federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good in January during ICE protests in the city.

Democrats want ICE agents to better identify themselves, be banned from wearing face masks, and have rules tightened for obtaining warrants.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it was a “problem of policy, not personnel.”

“The rot is deep,” Schumer said on March 5. “No one person can straighten this up until the president changes the whole agency, stops the violence and reins in ICE.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Press Office X account reposted TSA stating, “The Democrat shutdown of DHS must end!”

Newsom’s page responded, “The official TSA account is spending more time ‘owning the Dems’ than keeping you safe. Let that sink in.”

Washington Sen. Patty Murray said on Sunday that they are still holding out for their changes to be implemented at the DHS.

“Democrats want to get TSA agents paid, but we won’t help Republicans cut a blank check to help Stephen Miller terrorize Americans,” Murray posted on social media.

“And I won’t let Trump blackmail Democrats into funding rogue ICE agents just because he started a war with Iran.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-melts-down-over-hours-long-weekend-airport-queues/?

March 10

Trump Triggers World Financial Panic as War Chaos Spirals

Panic-selling hits global markets as investors look to White House for clarity on Trump’s Iran war.

Global stock markets plunged into the red on Monday as panicked investors counted the cost of Donald Trump’s chaotic new war in the Middle East.

With rocketing oil prices threatening to push up inflation around the world, forcing central banks to raise interest rates, share prices fell sharply as trading started for the week in Asia, Reuters reported. Japan’s Nikkei index fell 7 percent, after a 5.5-percent drop last week. The main South Korean index fell by 8.2 percent after falling more than 10 percent last week.

Brent crude, the worldwide benchmark for oil costs, rocketed up 27 percent Monday to $104.57 a barrel, marking its single biggest daily increase since 1988 and pushing prices into the triple digits for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, per Reuters and Axios.“Faced with the worst oil supply shock since the 1970s, ⁠all eyes will be on Washington’s response,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Helima Croft told Reuters. “With no clear definition of what winning looks like, it is hard to forecast whether this will be a multi-week or multi-month conflict.”“To date, neither White House policy prescriptions nor upbeat television soundbites have alleviated acute market anxiety about the shipping standstill and cascading shut-ins across the region,” she added.

Adding to the global market nerves is the White House’s failure to explain the rationale for Trump’s decision to join Israel in launching attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, or set out an exit strategy.

U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets have since claimed the lives of dozens of senior Iranian officials, among them Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian forces have responded with attacks against regional oil infrastructure as well as vital trade channels like the Strait of Hormuz, through which it’s estimated up to a fifth of the world’s crude oil supply passes each year. At least eight U.S. service personnel have been killed, and Trump has warned that “there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is.”

Amid widespread anxiety over rising prices across the U.S., the president has previously dismissed cost-of-living concerns as little more than a Democratic Party “hoax” while claiming to have created “the greatest economy in history.”

American voters don’t seem to agree with him, leaving the Republicans facing a battle to retain control of the House and Senate at November’s midterm elections.

The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment on this story.

“The President has been clear about short term disruptions due to Operation Epic Fury even as U.S. and allied forces make stunning progress against the Iranian terrorist regime,” spokesperson Kush Desai said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-donald-trump-triggers-world-financial-panic-as-war-chaos-spirals/?

March 10

Trump’s War Story Falls Apart After Damning New Video

Pentagon Pete has been avoiding the question, and evidence that Trump is wrong is now mounting.

President Donald Trump’s claim that U.S. forces are not responsible for a deadly missile strike on an elementary school in Iran suddenly looks a lot less convincing.

Pro-regime media outlet Mehr News Agency uploaded footage Sunday of last week’s strike on a naval base located right next to the school in Minab, southern Iran.

The New York Times has now independently verified the footage, which appears to show a Tomahawk cruise missile was used in the strike.

The United States military is apparently the only force engaged in present hostilities across the region that has access to those rockets.

Trump has flat out denied the U.S. had anything to do with the strike, which killed 175 people, many of them students at the elementary school.

“No, in my opinion, and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” he told reporters Saturday.

“They’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions,” he went on.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the Pentagon has launched an investigation of the killings, but insisted “the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”

Footage verified by the NYT was first reported by Bellingcat last week.

It was apparently captured at a building site across from an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base, and shows what is believed to be a Tomahawk missile striking the compound’s medical clinic.

“As the camera pans to the right, large plumes of dust and smoke are already billowing from the area around the elementary school, suggesting that it had been struck shortly before the strike on the naval base,” the newspaper writes.

The Pentagon describes Tomahawk missiles as “long range, highly accurate” rockets that can fly for approximate distances of 1,000 miles.

The U.S. military has fired dozens of those missiles from Navy ships in the region since Trump first initiated hostilities on Feb. 28, and has released footage of those launches, including on the day the school was hit.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Pentagon for comment on this story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-donald-trumps-iran-school-bombing-story-falls-apart-after-new-video-released/?

March 10

Billionaire Trump Gives Deranged Lecture as Oil Prices Explode

The president claimed it’s a “very small price to pay” for his war.

President Donald Trump offered up cold comfort to Americans concerned about oil prices surging above $110 a barrel for the first time in four years.Responding to the news on Sunday in a Truth Social post, the 79-year-old wrote, “Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace.”He ended his post with an insult for good measure, writing, “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!”

Crude oil prices hit their highest point since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 on Sunday as major producers cut their output amid the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which was closed in response to Trump’s war on Iran and threats from Iran to attack any ship that passes through. According to the New York Times, gas prices in the U.S. have jumped by 14 percent since Trump ordered the Iran attacks, reaching an average of $3.41 per gallon.

Kuwait announced cuts to its oil production on Saturday, citing “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” Kuwait has already been struck by retaliatory Iranian strikes that resulted in the deaths of six U.S. service members.

Also on Saturday, the United Arab Emirates said that it was “carefully managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements.” Meanwhile, CNBC reports that output in Iraq has “effectively collapsed.”

Homayoun Falakshahi, lead crude research analyst at Kpler, told CNN that oil could rise to as much as $150 a barrel by the end of March if ships continue to be unable to travel through the Strait of Hormuz.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that traffic through the strait, the only sea route for oil from the Persian Gulf, would resume after the U.S. had destroyed Iran’s ability to threaten tankers.

“We’re nowhere near normal traffic right now,” he told CNN. “That will take some time. But again, worst-case that’s a few weeks, that’s not months.”

He also dismissed concerns about rising oil prices as “fiction,” telling Fox News’ Shannon Bream, “It’s fiction. It’s right along the line. I’ve read about a dozen fiction pieces from Politico and other news things about stuff just totally made up, whole cloth.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was quick to seize the opportunity to hit out at Trump for his actions, sharing a screenshot of a tweet Trump posted in 2013 that said, “Do you notice that oil prices just went up big time?” and adding, “We noticed.”

Trump has been criticized for having ulterior motives for many of his foreign interventions, including those in Venezuela, with critics suggesting that he is motivated by a desire to obtain more oil for the U.S.

In the month before U.S. forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January and transported him to the U.S. to stand trial for drug trafficking, the U.S. seized two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela.

While the president did not provide a reason when asked about the first seizure, FBI Director Kash Patel said that the vessel had been used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.

Shortly after Maduro’s abduction, Trump welcomed almost two dozen oil executives to the White House to discuss the future of Venezuela’s oil industry, following the announcement that the U.S. would seize the country’s oil reserves and put them under the control of American oil companies, with taxpayers potentially footing the bill for upgrade costs.

Speaking to The Daily Beast’s Joanna Coles in January, former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said that Trump saw the opportunity for self-enrichment in Venezuela and took it.

“Somebody went to [Trump], because he’s a great conspiratorialist, and said, ‘OK, listen, you’ve got 46 billion or so barrels of known reserves. They’ve got 300-plus. You take them, Canada, U,S., and we’re roughly 50 percent of the known reserves,’” Scaramucci told Coles.

“So essentially we’re reducing our reliance on foreign actors and helping ourselves to Venezuela’s oil coffers?” Coles asked in response.

“It’s imperialism, is what it is, yeah,” Scaramucci responded. “That’s what he’s doing.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-drops-pitiful-response-as-oil-prices-surge-to-new-high/?

March 10

Key Details of 13-Year-Old Trump Accuser’s Accounts Are Verified

The newly corroborated details suggest the woman was truthful about numerous aspects of her life.

The woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually abusing her when she was 13 provided several verifiable details about her life in interviews with the FBI, according to a new report.

The woman detailed her alleged abuse by Trump and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein over four interviews in 2019, the Epstein files revealed. The interviews were initially kept secret by the DOJ.

The Post and Courier reported that the woman gave FBI agents details about her family background and legal history which the paper was able to verify as true.

The South Carolina paper corroborated several aspects of the woman’s life using archived government records and news reports, although none of the newly verified details relate directly to her accusations about Trump.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Beast in a statement that the woman’s allegations are “completely baseless” and came from a “sadly disturbed woman.”

The newly corroborated details suggest the woman was truthful about numerous aspects of her life in the interviews..

In her account to the FBI, the woman claimed that Trump forced her to commit a sex act on him sometime around 1984, after she was recruited by Epstein, then a friend of Trump.

She said Epstein began abusing her and trafficked her to several men when she was between 13 and 15 years old, after he responded to an advertisement for babysitting services her mother, a real estate agent in South Carolina, placed in a packet she provided to her clients.

The woman named one Ohio businessman as one of her abusers, describing him as a man with grey hair and “big ears.” She told agents she believed he was affiliated with a Cincinnati-based college.

The Post and Courier reported that the unnamed Ohio businessman was a board member of the college.

The Daily Beast is not disclosing the woman’s identity in accordance with its policy on sexual assault victims.

The woman told agents that she only saw Epstein once in a non-sexual context, recalling a chance encounter at a Rick James concert in Savannah, Georgia, when she was about 15. Newspaper records confirm that James regularly performed in the Savannah area at the time, according to The Post and Courier.

The woman also said that Epstein had blackmailed her with nude photos and that her mother embezzled money from her employer in an attempt to pay off the pedophile around 1985.

The mother ended up in federal prison near Columbia, South Carolina, according to the woman.

Records confirm that her mother was involved in a crime of this nature around that time, The Post and Courier reports.

In addition, the mother’s boss at the real estate firm pursued criminal charges against the mother, according to the paper, with records indicating she was accused of stealing $22,000.

Both the Trump accuser and her mother later settled on the West Coast. In the 2019 FBI interviews, the woman spoke of calls to her mother at an assisted living facility on the West Coast.

The Post and Courier reports that the mother listed a private nursing care home as an address in her later years, and that a Washington state death record matches the mother’s age and name.

Alongside her accounts of alleged abuse by Epstein and other men in the FBI interviews which were released by the DOJ last week, the woman described allegedly getting trafficked to Trump when he was a developer with a new casino in Atlantic City.

She told the FBI she first met Trump when Epstein took her to a “very tall building with huge rooms” in the New York or New Jersey area when she was between 13 and 15.

“[REDACTED] could not recall the identities of the other individuals present; however, they all exited when TRUMP asked everyone to leave the room,” the FBI report states.

“Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be,” she alleged Trump said.

The woman alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her after the others left the room.

“TRUMP unzipped his pants and put [her] head ‘down to his penis.’ [REDACTED] ‘bit the s--t out of it,’” the FBI report states.

According to the FBI summary, the woman alleged that Trump then “struck” her and told others to take her out of the room, a point she clarified in a later interview.

“[REDACTED] clarified that when she previously said TRUMP struck her after she bit him on the penis, she provided further details that he, ‘pulled [her] hair and punched [her] on the side of [her] head.’”

In her fourth and final interview, the files released by the DOJ indicate that the woman told investigators she felt discouraged about pursuing the allegations because the incidents had happened decades earlier.

“What’s the point?” she said.

When reached for comment on the newly verified details of the woman’s account, Leavitt provided the Daily Beast with a recycled statement.

“These are completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence, from a sadly disturbed woman who has an extensive criminal history. The total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden’s department of justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them — because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong,” Leavitt said.

She added, “As we have said countless times, President Trump has been totally exonerated by the release of the Epstein Files.”

Lisa Bloom, the woman’s attorney, declined to comment when reached by the Daily Beast.

Previously, the DOJ had only released the memo in which the woman accused Epstein. Following a backlash, as well as threats from Democrats to open an investigation into the missing files, the DOJ released the other memos on Thursday, claiming that they had been incorrectly tagged as duplicates and withheld.

“After this error was found, the Department reviewed the entire batch of ‘duplicative’ files to ensure no other mistakes were made. During this review, 15 additional documents that were incorrectly coded as ‘duplicative’ were found,” a DOJ statement reads.

“Additionally, the Southern District of Florida separately determined that 5 prosecution memos initially marked as “privileged” could be released while still protecting the privileged materials. All 20 of these documents are now live in the Epstein Files Transparency Act library.”

“In our continued effort of maximum transparency, the Department will make all files coded as “duplicative” available for Members of Congress to review in the Congressional Reading Room.”

“The Trump Department of Justice mobilized hundreds of lawyers to review and release millions of pages of files related to Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes — a feat that no other Justice Department ever even attempted. We continue to address concerns as they are raised, the public can view files for themselves online, and lawmakers continue to be invited to view the unredacted files as well.”

Trump has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in connection with his friendship with Epstein and has not been charged with any crime.

There are more than 38,000 references to Trump, Melania Trump, the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate, and other related words and phrases in the Justice Department’s Epstein files January dump, according to The New York Times.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/key-details-of-13-year-old-trump-accusers-accounts-are-verified/?

March 10

Trump Blindsided by What’s Happening in His Own War

The president is vexed as his war veers off script.

President Donald Trump’s war against Iran is already throwing him and his officials for a loop.

The U.S. was blindsided by Israel’s extensive strikes on Iranian oil depots on Sunday, according to a U.S. official, an Israeli official, and a source with knowledge, Axios reports.

Tehran was blanketed in a toxic cloud of smoke after Israel struck 30 Iranian fuel depots in an attack that far exceeded what the U.S. had expected, triggering the first rift between the U.S. and Israel in the war, according to Axios.

Trump, who has sought to tout his efforts on affordability, was angered by the strike, fearing that footage of burning oil depots would remind Americans of soaring gas prices at home, the outlet reports.

“The president doesn’t like the attack. He wants to save the oil. He doesn’t want to burn it. And it reminds people of higher gas prices,” a Trump adviser told Axios.

Oil prices have jumped roughly 50 percent since the U.S. and Israel—led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—attacked Iran on Feb. 28, as the Strait of Hormuz has effectively been closed off.

Trump, 79, tried to argue Sunday that “short term” increases in oil are “a very small price to pay” for “safety and peace.”

“ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” the billionaire president wrote on Truth Social.

The IDF had informed the U.S. military ahead of the strikes, but the full scale of the operation still caught Washington off guard.

“We don’t think it was a good idea,” a senior U.S. official told Axios.

An Israeli official said the U.S. message to Israel was “WTF.”

U.S. officials also fear that Israel’s attack on infrastructure that affects everyday Iranians could rally the population behind the Islamic regime instead of weakening it.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

The IDF said in a statement to Axios that the fuel depots “are used by the Iranian regime to supply fuel to different consumers including its military organs” while an Israeli military official said the operation was designed, in part, to deter Iran from attacking Israeli civilian infrastructure.

The Iranian regime has warned that if attacks on its oil infrastructure continue, it may retaliate by striking similar infrastructure in the Middle East, which could drive up global oil prices even higher.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-blindsided-by-whats-happening-in-his-own-war/?

March 10

I Could Have Been Trump’s First Congressional Endorsement. Now I’m One of His Biggest Critics

Trump’s behavior makes even our worst past presidents look like Boy Scouts, writes former GOP Rep. David Trott.

It was January 2013, and the Lincoln Dinner was just a few months away. Oakland County, Michigan has one of the largest and oldest Lincoln Dinners—which raise money for the county’s Republican Party—in the country. I had promised, as the chair of the event, to organize the most successful event in our 125-year history and I had no keynote speaker. I had asked various GOP stars (of the time)—Bobby Jindal, Dana Perino, Ted Cruz—and they all declined. So I threw what I thought was a Hail Mary pass, and overnighted an invitation to Donald Trump. A week or so later, I received a call from Rhona Graff, Trump’s longtime assistant in New York. She told me he would love to be the speaker. We set a date for after Trump was done taping that year’s season of The Apprentice: May 21, 2013.Honestly, I could not believe Trump had agreed. The event was a huge success, with almost 2500 people in attendance. Trump gave a rambling, seemingly extemporaneous speech that nonetheless energized the base. He was also very personal and gracious—much different than the man we see today. Afterwards, I gave him a framed copy of the Gettysburg Address, which Trump would later claim was the “Michigan Man of the Year Award.” For some reason, every time Trump visits Michigan he talks about this, though I have told at least half a dozen news organizations over the past ten years that it is not actually true. Maybe once he wins the Nobel Peace Prize, he will move on? Regardless, the night was a success and Trump contributed to my successful campaign for Congress the following year.

Fast forward to 2015. I had been in Congress for about six months when Rhona called me again. Trump had just announced he was running for President—who can forget the speech where, after riding down the Trump Tower escalator, Trump insulted just about every ethnic group in America under the pretense of “taking back” our country—and she was hoping I would be the first member of Congress to endorse him.

I was really flummoxed. Trump had done me a big favor in 2013, but in my mind, he had no chance of getting the nomination—or beating Hillary. I do remember thinking that he might be a good President, though; managing the federal government is a near impossible job, but maybe a business person could handle it. But I couldn’t get there, or not until there was no other option: I eventually endorsed him after Kasich dropped out and left Trump as the only candidate left in the GOP primary.

Well, I was wrong about all of it. Trump got the nomination, won the White House (twice) and it turns out he is the worst president in American history. Of course, assessing the performance—and, specifically, the shortcomings—of presidents is a subjective endeavor, other than perhaps by the number of their impeachments. (And if that’s the case, then Trump is the clear winner.) Perhaps the best way is to look at some of the leaders who are considered failures and see how Trump measures up. I will do my best to set aside my Trump derangement syndrome as I do so.

James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce are often among the worst Presidents because they divided our country over the issue of slavery and failed to avoid the Civil War, the most serious crisis in our nation’s history. Trump, however, has not only exacerbated division over existing problems but also created new reasons for people to hate each other. He has attacked and disparaged immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community, racial minorities, academics and scientists, the media and anyone who criticizes him, all under the guise of putting America “first.”

Several Presidents are poorly regarded because of unconstitutional actions. Nixon used the DOJ and IRS to pursue his enemies. Andrew Johnson ignored and opposed Reconstruction laws. John Tyler was almost impeached for abuse of power. Trump’s behavior makes all of them look like Boy Scouts. He recently said he is not bound by any laws, just his morals. (God help us.) He has either ignored or chosen to violate multiple sections of the Constitution and any number of court orders at any given time. He has weaponized the DOJ, ICE, FBI and other federal agencies, all but eliminated Congressional oversight and, while his family has pocketed billions, has probably violated the Emoluments clause.

Yes, presidents are human and make mistakes. Some have addictions and character flaws. Pierce was supposedly an alcoholic, Harding had such a bad gambling problem that he lost the White House’s china in a bet, Cleveland was accused of rape and there has been plenty of adultery over the years. Trump does not drink or gamble, to be sure, but he has most of the other seven deadly sins covered—and these vices in the Christian tradition are not even his most serious character flaw. Trump is unfit to serve as President because he lacks decency. He is a narcissist and a bully. He lies about everything and cannot be trusted. He is a terrible person.

Trump has been oddly obsessed with his legacy long before he ever set foot into the Oval Office. And with all this in mind, he will certainly leave a legacy behind.

Yes, I have been wrong about Trump several times. I think, however, that once historians have the time and space and context to consider the Trump presidency, assuming that is still allowed, they will conclude he is, in fact, the worst President ever. Unfortunately, I might be right about Trump this time.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-could-have-been-trumps-first-congressional-endorsement-now-im-one-of-his-biggest-critics/?

March 10