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

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🗳️ Trump obsession ties Senate in knots

President Trump won't let go of the SAVE America Act voting bill, no matter how many times Senate Republicans make it known it's never going to happen, Axios' Mike Zapler writes.

• Why it matters: Trump's refusal to relent on his voter ID/proof of citizenship plan shows how far removed he is from the vote-counting realities of Congress — and how that disconnect is starting to carry real consequences.

Trump dropped a bombshell Truth Social post early yesterday, declaring he wouldn't allow the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to be renewed until the SAVE America Act passes as well.

• The move means Bill Pulte, a Trump bulldog with no national security or intelligence experience, will likely take the helm as acting director of national intelligence tomorrow.
• Senators had been eager to prevent that by quickly confirming Trump nominee Jay Clayton — the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — in the intelligence job.

Keep reading.

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MAGA Civil War Erupts Over Trump’s Peace Deal ‘Disaster’

The president’s closest allies are fighting over his not-so-“unconditional surrender” deal.

Donald Trump is facing massive fallout for the tentative deal he reached with Iran to end the war he started, which has exposed fault lines among even some of his most vocal MAGA backers.

The details of the memorandum of understanding with Iran, which the president signed in Versailles, France, on Wednesday before heading back to the U.S., are a far cry from his demand just months ago for “unconditional surrender.”

Instead, they lay out a series of stark concessions to Iran.

Some have called the temporary agreement to talk about a permanent deal the best possible outcome for the president, who has struggled to set clear objectives since he launched the war at the end of February.

But some of Trump’s biggest MAGA allies and conservatives have shredded it as a monumental foreign policy blunder.

The deal lays out a plan to lift all sanctions on Iran, unfreeze billions in assets, and provide $300 billion for reconstruction, all while letting Iran keep ballistic missiles.

While Iran has agreed to never have a nuclear weapon, the enforcement mechanisms remain to be worked out in 60 more days of negotiations.

“History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is a bad idea,” GOP Sen. Ted Cruz told the conservative Daily Wire.

In another quote posted on X from the interview, Cruz said, “Nearly one thousand Americans have been murdered by the Ayatollah and the mullahs... It is not remotely in America’s interest for us to pay to rebuild that capacity that we just took out.”

But Trump’s eldest son was quick to fire back at Cruz and accused him of undermining the president and MAGA.

“The only problem with this quote is that @tedcruz is lying thru his teeth about the deal. We’re not giving them a cent and he knows that,“ he wrote on X. ”Using fake news about the peace deal to undermine @realDonaldTrump is the opposite of MAGA."

While the deal does not include the U.S. directly handing over cash, it does provide massive sanctions relief and the release of assets. Iran would also be able to export oil.

The Obama Iran nuclear deal, which Trump has raged against for more than a decade, also unfroze Iranian assets and settled a long-running arms purchase dispute.

Since Trump launched the war, Iran has also been proven to have immense leverage when it comes to activity in the Strait of Hormuz, which was open for shipping before Trump launched his strikes.

Podcaster Ben Shapiro, who is deeply tied to but not always full-blown MAGA, also slammed the president’s memo of understanding as a “disaster” that did not achieve any of the administration’s goals.

However, after the deal’s details were revealed and Trump signed it, many MAGA influencers furiously promoted it and heaped praise on the president.

They argued he could now come back to the U.S. and focus on domestic issues despite the agreement essentially laying out 60 more days of negotiations with Iran and the president threatening to go back to bombing if Iran does not comply.

Trump also appeared to freak out as he jumped into the fray to sell his deal amid escalating backlash over his war and its outcome.

The president posted an all-caps message on Truth Social on Thursday in which he declared, “OIL IS FLOWING, IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

But Trump indicated at his Wednesday press conference that if the deal went south, he was open to throwing Vice President JD Vance under the bus.Republican critics of the deal quickly appeared to follow the president’s lead, already casting blame on Vance as the negotiator of the agreement.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-civil-war-erupts-over-trumps-peace-deal-disaster/?

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Trump Makes Desperate Pope Pitch to Sell His Surrender

The president is now amplifying the pope’s words as he faces growing backlash over a deal critics describe as a monumental failure.

President Donald Trump is now so eager to sell his embattled Iran deal that he has turned to an unlikely ally: the very pope he has spent months publicly attacking.

Trump on Thursday shared a glowing statement from Pope Leo XIV praising efforts to end the conflict and avoid further bloodshed in the Middle East.

The 80-year-old president followed it up soon after with his own all-caps post on Truth Social.

“OIL IS FLOWING, IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON (THE WORLD WILL BE SAFE!), THE STOCK MARKETS ARE ROARING, JOBS ARE AT RECORDS, AND PRICES ARE DROPPING (AFFORDABILITY!). OUR COUNTRY IS STRONG, SAFE, AND RESPECTED LIKE NEVER BEFORE. “YOU’RE WELCOME!” he wrote.

The Pope’s endorsement was made earlier this week, after months of increasingly bitter exchanges between Trump and the Vatican.

Trump repeatedly blasted the pontiff over immigration, accused him of being weak on crime, and suggested he was naive about foreign policy.

The Vatican, meanwhile, criticized the administration’s migrant policies and repeatedly warned against military escalation with Iran.

But Trump is now eagerly amplifying the pope’s words as he faces growing backlash over a deal critics say gives Iran significant concessions while delivering few immediate guarantees in return.

“I welcome with satisfaction the reaching of an agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, which will be signed on Friday, as an encouraging result of patient work in dialogue and negotiation,” the Pope had posted on Monday before the text of the Memorandum of Understanding had been unveiled.

“I hope that the agreement may help strengthen mutual trust, security, and stability in the Middle East, promoting paths of dialogue and cooperation among peoples.”

Under the framework, Iran would regain access to frozen assets, receive sanctions relief, and continue to use the Strait of Hormuz as leverage.

But broader questions surrounding nuclear power, missiles, regional proxies, and long-term enforcement remain unresolved, with some critics describing the deal as a monumental strategic failure.

“This agreement is far worse than I expected,” said former US Ambassador Michael McFaul, now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

“To reopen the Strait—a Strait that was open before the war—we and our partners are transferring billions to the autocrats. We get nothing else—no elimination of enriched uranium, missiles, or terrorist support."

The backlash has extended well beyond Democrats, with some Republicans lashing out at the agreement, while foreign policy hawks have warned that the framework could leave Iran in a stronger strategic position than before the war began.

“This will go down as a tremendous foreign policy blunder,” said GOP Senator Bill Cassidy, who recently lost his seat after Trump endorsed his opponent in his primary race.

With criticism mounting, Vice President J.D. Vance was dispatched on Thursday to serve as the administration’s chief salesman for the deal.

Vance has spent the week defending the agreement in television appearances and will front the briefing room in the absence of Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave.

 

That has fueled growing speculation inside Washington that Vance is also being positioned as a convenient fall guy if the agreement unravels, with Trump himself joking at the G7 that he would take credit if the deal succeeds but blame Vance if it fails.

The president also took to social media at 4:32 am on Thursday morning to hit out at “fools” who trashed the memorandum of understanding.

“These fools, who think I haven’t been tough enough on Iran, when the Stock Market Just Hit A RECORD HIGH, and Oil prices are ‘tumbling’ down, are either jealous, bad people, or stupid. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” the 80-year-old president wrote.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-makes-desperate-pope-pitch-to-sell-his-surrender/?

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Obama Towers Over Trump in Humiliating Popularity Ranking

A significant portion of Republican voters even admit they like the former Democratic president.

Barack Obama is by far the most popular and admired U.S. president, holding a strong double-digit lead over Donald Trump, according to a poll.

A CNN/SSRS survey of 2,480 U.S. adults found that 57 percent hold a favorable view of Obama, compared to just 34 percent for Trump.

The two-term Democrat is held in such high regard among Americans that nearly one in five Republicans (19 percent) surveyed still hold a favorable view of Obama. He enjoys near-universal support among Democrats (96 percent), nine years after leaving office.

Obama is also considerably more popular than the other living presidents: Joe Biden (30 percent), George W. Bush (42 percent), and Bill Clinton (38 percent).

Elsewhere in the poll, Obama came out on top when respondents were asked which U.S. president they admire most, receiving 30 percent of the vote. He was followed by Trump (19 percent), Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan (9 percent), and John F. Kennedy (6 percent).

The poll results are likely to be particularly humiliating for Trump, especially as the president has helped push his longtime nemesis back into the limelight.

During Trump’s tacky UFC White House event on Sunday, heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit called former first lady Michelle Obama “a man” after defeating Derrick Lewis in the second round.

Trump also could not resist badmouthing Obama during a tantrum when asked about his Iran deal on Wednesday.

Hours before Trump signed the controversial memorandum of understanding at the Palace of Versailles, just outside Paris, the 80-year-old blasted the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, which Tehran signed in 2015 during the Obama administration and which Trump withdrew from in 2018, during a foul-mouthed tirade.

“Nobody could have made this deal. I mean, the JCPOA, done by Obama... He gave them $1.7 billion in cash, green cash from banks, into a Boeing 757 and flew it into Iran.

“They tried to bribe their way out of it, and you know what the Iranians did? They laughed at Obama, and they said he’s a stupid son of a b---h,” Trump said before abruptly ending the press conference.

In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, which took place one day before the MOU was agreed, Obama said he was “doubtful” that any Iran agreement negotiated by Trump would be “significantly different” from, or a “significant improvement” on, the 2015 deal his administration brokered.

“It’s a reminder that on a lot of different foreign policy problems, the notion we can just bully our way or bomb our way to a solution may sometimes seem appealing,” Obama added. “You’d think we would’ve learned that lesson by now, but it seems like every so often we have to learn that lesson again.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obama-towers-over-trump-in-humiliating-popularity-ranking/?

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Trump’s $14M Reflecting Pool Disaster Deepens With Record Slime Explosion

A Washington Post analysis found the reflecting pool is experiencing its worst algae bloom in years.

President Donald Trump’s controversial $14 million overhaul of the White House’s reflecting pool has hit another setback, as officials battle a record outbreak of algae.

A Washington Post analysis found that the reflecting pool now contains more algae than at any point recorded in June over the past five years.

The study also noted algae levels were among the highest seen in any month over the last two years.

Trump said the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which was renovated at a cost of around $13.1 million ahead of the 250th anniversary celebrations, would be refilled and repainted a shade of “American Flag Blue,” and pledged to overhaul what he described as the “filthy” and “disgusting” water in the Reflecting Pool.

After the pool was refilled on June 4, he hailed its “clean, beautiful water.”

But the pool started to turn green with algae less than 24 hours after the renovations were completed earlier this month.Experts say the spike in algae is consistent with seasonal conditions, as hot, sunny weather in the Washington area creates an ideal environment for algae growth.

“We would expect June to have more algae naturally than February, March or April because there is more light availability and higher temperatures,” Alana Menendez, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Sciences, told the Washington Post.

The D.C. region experienced a heat wave as the pool was being refilled earlier this month.

Trump administration officials, however, blamed the problem on residual material left in supply lines that had reportedly been dormant for weeks.

The Interior Department has also linked the issue to an Obama-era renovation, saying the more than $30 million 2012 overhaul “resulted in massive algae clumps taking over the pool’s surface following years of construction that cost taxpayers millions upon millions only to be broken and disgusting days later.”

But critics questioned whether recent changes may be contributing to the problem.

One National Parks Conservation Association official suggested the darker paint color could be raising water temperatures and worsening algae growth, telling the Post: “These are all questions that would normally be answered during that review process that just was not done in this case.”

Elsewhere, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia, told The Daily Beast the reflecting pool is “a mess” and said they have “never seen it this green before.”

“I think it’s a waste of our tax dollars,” said James, who declined to give his surname and has lived in the D.C. area for decades.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-14m-reflecting-pool-disaster-deepens-with-record-slime-explosion/?