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

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White House Rages After Embarrassing Trump Story Exposed

The president hoped he would be praised for lowering food costs at America’s biggest retailer.

The White House has gone into full defense mode after Donald Trump was found taking credit for price cuts that had nothing to do with him.

On Monday, the 80-year-old president posted on Truth Social that Walmart would be “lowering prices, by a lot, at my Administration’s request,” including cutting the cost of beef by 15 percent as part of the country’s 250th birthday celebrations.

Trump took a victory lap, praising the announcement as a “huge deal” for millions of Americans suffering through a cost-of-living crisis. The president’s second term has been dogged by high food prices, despite Trump making lowering them a central pledge of his 2024 campaign.

However, a Walmart spokesperson told The Bulwark that the company’s price cuts had already been in place at its stores for a week before Trump tried to suggest he had convinced the country’s biggest retailer to implement them.

White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai then melted down on X while replying to Sam Stein, managing editor at The Bulwark and a former politics editor at the Daily Beast, who had shared an article by the site’s economics editor, Catherine Rampell.

“The President and Walmart’s announcement was that the sale is extending all summer long. This is a big win for Americans. The media’s obsessive need to try to undermine any good news when it affects President Trump is pathological.”

Desai also tried to suggest that the White House had something to do with Walmart’s discounts, writing in an earlier X post that the Trump administration “stays in close contact with retailers to ensure savings are getting passed on to American consumers, and results like this prove the strategy is working.”Shortly after Trump’s Truth Social boast, Walmart issued a statement detailing its signature Rollbacks and Sam’s Club offers, which the chain typically introduces during the summer. The statement mentioned price reductions on beef and other products but made no mention of Trump or the administration.

On July 7, one day after Trump’s Truth Social post, The Wall Street Journal reported that an Agriculture Department official had called some of the country’s largest grocers to urge them to lower their beef prices.

However, during a call with Walmart, the company told the USDA that it already planned to lower prices on a range of items, including beef, and that the reductions had been in place since June 29.

Walmart executives had also been discussing lowering prices for months to help consumers, as they expected billions of dollars in tariff refunds after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s sweeping import levies in February.

“We think the single best return that we can have on a dollar of capital right now is to invest in the customer and invest in price,” Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said on an earnings call in May, according to the Journal.

The Daily Beast has contacted Walmart for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-melts-down-after-trump-walmart-price-cut-humiliation/?

ps:It's obvious that trump doesn't go to the store and shop! The prices have been going up, up and up, and now they came down a little, but nothing to what they were before!!

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Trump Humiliated as Google Maps Busts His Big Brag

Historical images show that Trump’s win isn’t as grand as it seems.

President Donald Trump’s initiative to lower gas prices has been met with an embarrassing reality check by Google Maps.

A White House account bragged on Wednesday that one of its Philadelphia “Freedom Fuel Network” stations had provided much-needed financial relief to Americans struggling with high gas prices caused by Trump’s war with Iran.

The “Rapid Response” account shared a video segment from NBC Philadelphia that discussed how one former Karco K Shop gas station—now wrapped in “Freedom Fuel” signage—posted a price of $3.47 per gallon, which it said was around 40 cents below the state average.However, Google Street View images of the gas station at 3101 N. Broad Street show that the promotion was not quite as monumental as the White House portrayed.

In April 2025—three months into Trump’s second term—the gas station displayed a price of only $3.05 per gallon. Other historical images captured of the station show prices either similar to or lower than the $3.47 under the “Freedom Fuel” promotion.

Those images appeared to serve as a stark reminder that the price decrease touted by the White House was still effectively an increase over the prices seen before the war.

Trump, 80, had campaigned on bringing domestic gas prices below $2 a gallon. However, gas prices skyrocketed in the wake of his strikes on Iran over four months ago, leaving Americans to deal with the consequences at the pump.

The White House did not address questions emailed by the Daily Beast when reached for comment.

The president announced the “Freedom Fuel Network” in a Truth Social post on July 1, saying that 25 gas stations across the greater Philadelphia area would be lowering their prices ahead of the nation’s semiquincentennial.

“This Retailer is taking the lead, and others should follow. They are doing this because they love the U.S.A.,” the president wrote. “America has never been stronger than it is now, and Gas Prices will soon be back to the Record Low Prices Americans enjoyed at the pump before our very successful ‘excursion’ in Iran.”

The administration has not shared any details about how the selected gas stations can sell gas at prices well below market.

The national average price for a gallon of gas reached as high as $4.56 in May, but has since dropped to around $3.85, according to AAA. However, renewed airstrikes between the U.S. and Iran this week threaten to send prices soaring again.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-humiliated-as-google-maps-busts-his-big-gas-prices-brag/?

ps:Notice that he didn't call for Mobil, Shell, etc. to lower the prices that they sell gas to the stations, but asks the gas stations that barely make any money to lower there prices!!!

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Murdoch Paper Goes Scorched Earth on Trump for ‘Destroying’ Jobs

Trump’s favorite policy has done little to promote economic growth, argued the paper’s editorial board.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal eviscerated President Donald Trump over the reality of his beloved tariffs.

The newspaper’s editorial board published a scathing piece on Thursday evening, ripping the 80-year-old president over one of his signature policies as he seeks to “rescue his underwater job rating.”

Following Trump’s Truth Social brag on Tuesday, in which he took credit for Toyota’s announcement about a $3.6 billion expansion in Texas, the Journal asserted that the president likely had nothing to do with the decision.

The company shifted production of its Tacoma truck from Mexico to a manufacturing facility in San Antonio, and as the newspaper pointed out, only made reference to the state’s pro-business milieu and local political leaders. Neither Trump nor his Senate endorsee, Ken Paxton, were mentioned in Toyota’s press release.

“But the President is right that his tariffs are at work—in destroying U.S. jobs and raising prices,” the Journal wrote.

The editorial board highlighted how the U.S. has lost around 75,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump took office in January 2025, over a third of which were in motor vehicle and auto part production.

The paper cited rising vehicle costs due to Trump’s tariffs as one possible explanation for the job losses, as dwindling sales correlate with a lower need for workers.

Additionally, the newspaper emphasized that Trump’s tariffs have actually hurt Americans rather than helped, noting that foreign retaliation has affected U.S. farmers and raised costs for domestic manufacturers.

“Mr. Trump’s Section 232 national security tariffs on autos and parts have cost $35.2 billion through April of this year, and his steel and aluminum tariffs another $17.5 billion, according to U.S. government data,” the board wrote. “Mr. Trump and his advisers claim that foreigners pay his border taxes, but the evidence shows that U.S. companies, workers and consumers are picking up most of the tab.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on the Journal’s editorial.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision in February that Trump’s sweeping global tariffs were unlawful, upholding the principle that only Congress may exercise the power to tax.

Despite the illegality of his initiative, Trump has continued to boast about the supposed economic benefits of his policy, even as Americans bear the brunt of higher prices.

The nation’s inflation rate has risen drastically month to month since February, when Trump launched his war on Iran.

It has risen by nearly two percentage points, from 2.4 percent in February to 4.2 percent in May. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to publish its June report on Tuesday.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/murdoch-paper-wall-street-journal-goes-scorched-earth-on-trump-for-destroying-jobs/?

ps:Again more foot n mouth disease for this pathetic little man!!!!!

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Trump Purges Election Officials in Midterm Power Grab

The president has fired the remaining members of an independent election agency.

President Donald Trump has fired the last three members of the Election Assistance Commission just months before the midterm elections.

The Commission is an independent government agency set up under President George W. Bush to help officials across the country administer elections.

One of the commissioners, a Republican appointee, was allowed to resign, while the other two, both Democratic appointees, were informed of their termination via email from the White House presidential personnel office, according to VoteBeat. The fourth commissioner previously left their role in April.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, which has been seen by Reuters, said.

The terminations were made possible by a Supreme Court decision late last month which upheld the president’s firing of a Democratic Federal Trade Commission member and expanded his powers over regulatory agencies.

The White House confirmed the firings to Reuters, citing the Supreme Court decision as precedent and saying in a statement, “The President, and head of the Executive Branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted.”

The White House official also said that the government has been “working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain ‌that mission, especially in the midterm elections.”

The Election Assistance Commission is an independent, bipartisan commission that works to “help election officials improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process,” according to its website. It also manages the national mail voter registration form, which Trump sought to change last year to require proof of citizenship, a move blocked by a federal judge. Republicans are now seeking to push the president’s SAVE America Act through Congress, which would require voters to show proof of citizenship before they can cast their votes.

Commissioner Benjamin W. Hovland was sworn in in February 2019 after being nominated by Trump during his first term. Commissioners Thomas Hicks and Christy McCormick were sworn in in January 2015 after being nominated by then-President Barack Obama. Donald Palmer, another Trump appointee, left in April.

The departures come only a few months before November’s crucial midterm elections, which have both sides of the aisle scrambling as Democrats work to flip Republican districts and Republicans try to maintain control of Congress.

The Trump administration has sought to intervene in the electoral process ahead of the elections by supporting controversial redistricting pushes in red states, designed to increase the number of GOP-majority districts, prompting Democrats in blue states to respond with redrawn maps of their own.

The president has also advocated for a crackdown on mail-in voting, despite both his wife Melania and son Barron making use of it to vote in a recent Florida election.

Trump, 80, has also doggedly pursued the same debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him that prompted his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

His persistence has resulted in the FBI raiding election facilities in order to seize boxes of ballots and computers related to the election in an attempt to find proof of voter fraud. No such proof has yet to be produced.

It is unclear what the Commission’s future will look like, particularly since the commissioner roles must be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats and confirmed by the Senate.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said in a Thursday social media post that the firings should concern all Americans, regardless of their political affiliation.

“Removing every remaining commissioner just months before the 2026 midterm elections is an extraordinary step that demands an immediate explanation from the administration and raises profound concerns about political interference in the institutions that support our elections.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-purges-election-officials-in-midterm-power-grab/?

ps:Tell me this isn't a tell all sign what he's trying to do!!!!!!!!!!

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• 🏡 President Trump will allow a housing bill to become law after canceling its signing ceremony more than two weeks ago — a mostly symbolic gesture, as the bill will become law at midnight with or without Trump's signature. Go deeper.
• 🇮🇷 President Trump said today that the U.S. agreed to continue talks with Iran, but it will not adhere to the ceasefire anymore, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

A US license could let Ukraine produce Patriot missiles, but it won’t be simple or quick

U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air-defense systems could mark a major breakthrough for Kyiv, but experts and Ukrainian officials warn that turning the idea into real weapons would likely take years. Read More. ps:Well ain't that nice of him!! He wants to look like he's actually doing something for Ukraine, but just keeps them in check so they can't really do much for a while!! Just pathetic help is all it comes down to!!!!!!!!!!

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A Symbol of Power (Samuel Corum / Sipa USA / Reuters)

View in browser Donald Trump summoned the National Guard to Washington, D.C., last August in an attempt to “rescue” the city from “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” Since then, the number of soldiers in the capital has ebbed and flowed as states have lent their own Guardsmen to the cause. A month ago, there were just under 3,000 members of the National Guard in the area; now there are more than 5,000. Officially, this “summer surge” was framed as a way to address an anticipated spike in visitors and activity around the capital for America’s ongoing 250th-birthday celebrations. But the National Guard is also involved in a much broader project known as the Safe and Beautiful mission—a federal initiative to clean up the city that Trump once described as a “rat-infested, graffiti-infested shithole.” Troops from across the country are currently stationed in the city, but their remit is not entirely clear, and their effect on violent crime remains limited. Eleven months into Trump’s experiment, they remain an ever-present symbol of the administration’s power. Last year, Trump declared a “crime emergency” in the city. Crime is a real problem in D.C., as it is in all cities. But the president’s framing of the situation as an emergency meriting the immediate assistance of outside forces (which are usually called in for dramatic upticks in civic unrest) doesn’t align with the numbers: Around the time when Trump first sent in the National Guard, violent crime in D.C. was hitting 30-year lows, in line with a national trend. The precise tasks involved in keeping D.C. “safe and beautiful” have so far been ill-defined; troops have spent time directing traffic, clearing out homeless encampments, raking leaves, and mulching flower beds. Their presence has had mixed results on crime in the city. In May, the Niskanen Center released data showing that the deployment seemed to have decreased opportunistic property crime, such as theft, by 24 percent—a notable downturn. The data also showed that the deployment had had no measurable effect on violent crime, which had already been declining when the National Guard arrived. (The Guardsmen whom Trump deployed to D.C. are not authorized to make arrests, but they can detain individuals.) The advantage of the National Guard is its flexibility, Richard Hahn, one of the study’s co-authors, told me. D.C. police have been “struggling to hire police officers for 10 years,” he said, but with the Guard, “you can command these soldiers to go to the city and police it.” Trump’s decision to deploy these soldiers has thoroughly spooked a populace that already distrusts the president. Roughly 80 percent of D.C. residents opposed the arrival of Guardsmen last year, according to one survey. The fear, as my colleagues Ashley Parker and Nancy A. Youssef put it at the time, is that “Washington is being used as a test case—the blueprint for Trump to deploy the National Guard across the country as a paramilitary police force—and that Americans are being conditioned to accept authoritarianism.” In February, a report from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security indicated that the National Guard was using a variety of advanced data-collection tools (including the Defense Department’s AI-enabled Maven Smart System) in support of its duties, raising “potential privacy and civil liberties concerns.” Ever since the National Guard arrived in D.C., troops have been criticized for seeming to spend a lot of time just standing around. Just standing around can be a component of law enforcement—being a visible presence on the street is one way to deter opportunistic crime—but it also generates unease. Jeffrey Butts, the director of the Research and Evaluation Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told me that the fear this deployment has created is likely part of the point. “This is not about crime, and it’s not about policing,” he argued. “It’s politics and demonstrations of state power.” Many Republican-led states have dispatched their Guardsmen to the capital, but a few states with Democratic governors have also quietly lent their support. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer sent approximately 170 of her state’s Guardsmen to D.C. as part of the summer surge. This week, a coalition of watchdogs and observers signed a letter urging her to withdraw the state’s troops and expressing concern that Guardsmen are carrying out operations unrelated to the July 4th celebrations. “When the governors put their Guard forces in the hands of the Trump administration, they are trusting the Trump administration not to misuse their Guard forces,” Elizabeth Goitein, a contributor to The Atlantic and a senior director of the Brennan Center for Justice—an organization that signed the letter—told me. “The administration, to put it mildly, has not earned that trust.” Whitmer herself has expressed some skepticism about the administration’s plans for the troops. About two weeks ago, she wrote her own letter to the head of the Michigan National Guard warning him to “take all necessary measures” to keep the state’s troops focused on bolstering security for the festivities—and to keep them away from the more nebulous Safe and Beautiful mission. She added that if Michigan National Guard leadership is unwilling or unable to keep them focused solely on security for the anniversary festivities, she plans to withdraw the troops altogether. Another blue-state governor, Tim Walz, recently made the decision to pull Minnesota’s Guardsmen from D.C. earlier than expected, although a spokesperson for the state’s National Guard told the AP that the decision was due to “the successful conclusion of festivities.” The AP also reported this week that the one member of the Kentucky Guard who’d been sent to D.C. had been diverted away from the 250th-anniversary celebrations “without the knowledge or consent” of the state’s governor or its Guard command, per a spokesperson for the Democratic governor. The Guardsman returned to Kentucky before the main events began. Hawaii’s adjutant general, Major General Stephen F. Logan, confirmed to me that the state’s troops, who began their duties in D.C. on Monday, will not be supporting the Safe and Beautiful mission either. The longer these troops remain in the city, the more fear and anger they may inspire. The tension between the people and the troops has already exploded into violence; in November, two Guardsmen were shot and seriously injured. The deployment may have reduced some kinds of crime, but there’s more than one way to measure its effect on the city. Related: A terrible and avoidable tragedy in D.C. Why is the National Guard in D.C.? Even they don’t know. (From 2025)

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Trump is enabling Musk and DOGE to flout conflicts of interest

What is the potential cost to U.S. families?

https://www.epi.org/publication/trump-is-enabling-musk-and-doge-to-flout-conflicts-of-interest-what-is-the-potential-cost-to-u-s-families/?

The right wing has always had an asymmetric power to destroy—DOGE makes it much worse

In parliamentary systems, winning an election gives one party control of both legislative and executive powers. This means there are big policy swings after elections when parties switch. In the United States presidential system, the separation of powers combined with legislative chokepoints—like the Senate filibuster—means that opportunities for very large policy swings are much less common.

https://www.epi.org/blog/doge-power-to-destroy/?

At least 26 states have launched their own version of DOGE

The Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has wrought havoc on the federal government, diminishing its ability to perform essential work—like administering Social Security benefits for retirees, weather forecasting to predict tornadoes, and environmental pollution cleanup—while creating new inefficiencies and increased public costs. Now, many Republican governors and state lawmakers are demonstrating their loyalty to the Trump administration by setting up state-level versions of DOGE.

https://www.epi.org/blog/at-least-26-states-have-launched-their-own-version-of-doge-these-states-are-simply-rebranding-longstanding-efforts-to-undermine-government-in-service-of-the-wealthy/?

What is DOGE doing to Social Security?

Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) attacks on Social Security aren’t about efficiency. The word “efficiency” may be in the name of his initiative to reduce the size of the federal government, but a more accurate description of what President Trump’s advisor is doing to Social Security is sabotage.

https://www.epi.org/blog/what-is-doge-doing-to-social-security/?

ps:These are a little more than a year ago, but still relevant!!

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Trump Lays Out His Own Assassination Revenge Fantasy

The president explained the “instructions” to be acted upon should he fall victim to an Iranian plot.

President Donald Trump delved into the “instructions” he has left behind in case Iran assassinates him, and they sound like one of his furious Truth Social posts.

Trump, 80, spoke about his plans for posthumous revenge in an interview with The New York Post, as his war with Iran stretches into its fifth month and after he called a tenuous peace agreement “over” due to the resumption of hostilities.

“I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with,” Trump said, echoing comments he made this week in Ankara, Turkey, at a NATO summit.

“…The only thing is, I’ve left instructions—if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before,” he continued.

There have been Iran-linked threats to Trump dating back to at least 2020, when a U.S. drone strike killed one of the country’s top generals, Qasem Soleimani.

When Trump was in Turkey this week, according to CNN, Israeli intelligence informed U.S. officials of an Iranian plot to assassinate him. Trump hurriedly left the country on a different plane than the one he flew in on, telling reporters later that they were still on a “dangerous” flight “because of the sleazebags that we have to deal with.”

At least one version of Trump’s instructions to hit back in the event of his death in an Iranian attack has been around since shortly after he took office for a second time in January 2025.“If they did that, they would be obliterated,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office then. “That would be the end. I’ve left instructions.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether any details in Trump’s instructions have changed since the war began.

Some of Trump’s social media posts about an elusive peace deal have been just as dramatic as his instructions to his successor.

In early April, he warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again”—unless a deal was reached.

Chief negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, have been criticized for failing to bring an end to the conflict.

“They’re business guys. They have not been effective in Ukraine, not been effective in Gaza. They have not been effective in this,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said this week. “They can’t have three portfolios to begin with. We have a State Department for a reason.”

The duo could continue trying to negotiate with Iran, Trump said, but it’s “just a waste of time dealing with them.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-lays-out-his-own-assassination-revenge-fantasy/?

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🗞️ NYT reporters subpoenaed

The New York Times' front-page headlines yesterday and today.

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration issued subpoenas yesterday to several of the paper's journalists after they reported on security fears about President Trump's new Qatari-donated Air Force One. The subpoenas order the reporters — including Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt — to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday. "In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters' homes," The Times said. The subpoenas were issued by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Clayton was nominated by Trump to serve as director of national intelligence, although the confirmation process has been delayed. David McCraw, The Times' lead newsroom lawyer, said in a statement provided to Axios: "The appearance of Federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience. ... This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs." Read on (NYT gift link).

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Trump Crisis Spirals as He Kills His Own Deal

His goons are trying to put the pieces back together.

Donald Trump is showing the world just how “over” his peace deal with Iran is—as mediators scrabble to salvage talks for an end to the conflict.

Washington and Tehran both insisted Monday that they alone control the Strait of Hormuz after an intense exchange of fire over the weekend. The vital waterway in the Persian Gulf transports around a fifth of global oil supplies each year and its closure has sent gas prices sharply higher at the pump.

Things kicked off after Iran attacked a container ship on Saturday, with hostilities continuing into Monday morning, the New York Times reports. U.S. military officials say they carried out 140 strikes in an immediate response, with a smaller number of rockets also fired on Sunday.

Iran now says it is targeting American military forces stationed in neighboring allied countries like Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain. President Trump, 80, tried to calm nerves Sunday during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. “We bombed the hell out of them last night,” he told the network, insisting that the strait remains open.

The Associated Press reports that mediators from Egypt, Pakistan, and Qatar have pushed hard to keep the two sides at the negotiating table. “A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss talks, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued Sunday,” the outlet writes. “Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged ‘de-escalation’ on both sides.”

The current flare-up began last week when Iran attacked a number of tankers in the waterway on Tuesday night. Trump responded on Wednesday by declaring his tentative ceasefire agreement, struck last month, was “over.” He promised that “every time they hit us, we’re going to hit them 20 to one.” The U.S. launched 170 strikes between Wednesday and Thursday. The president has been more evasive about whether the exchange of strikes means a return to full war. “I don’t know,” Trump told reporters that evening en route back from last week’s NATO summit in Turkey. “We’d win it very quickly.”

He then appeared to undercut that statement with a Truth Social post on Friday declaring that “the U.S. military is ready, willing, and able” to “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran.” His post suggested any renewed campaign could last for “a one year period of time, subject to extension.”

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-crisis-spirals-after-killing-his-own-deal-to-end-the-war-he-started-with-iran/?

ps:How pathetic!!

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Delusional Trump, 80, Dreams Up Approval Figures as Disaster Looms

The president seemingly plucked a number showing how popular he is out of thin air.

Donald Trump has found a new way of self-soothing—by swapping around his approval and disapproval ratings to make himself sound more popular.

In a Sunday night Truth Social post, the 80-year-old president boasted about his “59 percent” approval rating, which he attributed to “prices coming down along with the lowering of oil and gas.”

However, there are no reputable polls showing Trump with anything close to a 59 percent approval rating. In fact, several surveys published over the last few weeks show the president’s disapproval rating is closer to 59 percent, and in some cases even higher.

There have been repeated warnings that Trump’s poor approval rating and handling of the economy are likely to have a disastrous effect on the GOP in November’s midterms, with Republicans facing a potential electoral wipeout in the crucial nationwide elections.

According to Silver Bulletin, Nate Silver’s polling and election-forecasting Substack, Trump’s current national average approval rating is a dire 40.1 percent, while his disapproval rating stands at 56.5 percent.

The last time Trump’s average approval rating was above 50 percent was in February 2025, with the deeply unpopular war in Iran and rising gas prices helping drive the president’s national average down into the high 30s at times.

Multiple polls published in June and July, which are included in Silver Bulletin’s average, show the president with approval ratings that do not come close to the 59 percent Trump claimed.

A TIPP Insights survey of 1,473 U.S. adults, published on July 6, found Trump with just a 38 percent approval rating, compared with a 54 percent disapproval rating.

A July YouGov/The Economist survey also revealed similarly dire numbers for the president, with 35 percent of Americans approving of Trump’s job performance and a whopping 61 percent disapproving.

There has not been a single poll within 10 percentage points of the 59 percent approval rating Trump claims to have recorded since early June.

The closest is a Zogby Analytics survey from early July, which found Trump with a 47 percent approval rating and a 57 percent disapproval rating.

Even Rasmussen Reports, one of Trump’s favored polling firms that often skews results to favor GOP candidates, cannot mask how unpopular the president is with Americans.

Rasmussen’s latest numbers put Trump’s approval rating at 45 percent and his total disapproval at 54 percent, including 43 percent who said they “strongly disapprove” of his performance as president.

Whit Ayres, a leading Republican pollster, warned that historical precedent suggests the GOP is likely to lose control of the House in the midterms because of the president’s poor approval ratings.

“We know that the party in power tends to lose House seats in a midterm election, but the number of seats lost is highly correlated with the president’s popularity,” Ayres told The Hill.

“When presidential job approval is above 50 percent, the average loss of House seats for his party is 14. When it’s below 50 percent, the average loss of House seats for his party is 32.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/delusional-trump-80-dreams-up-approval-figures-as-disaster-looms/?

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Trump Honors ‘Dear Friend’ Graham With a Tribute to Himself

The president found a way to make himself the center of attention.

President Donald Trump paid tribute to Lindsey Graham—but not without managing to praise himself in the process.

The 71-year-old South Carolina senator died on Saturday night. His office said a preliminary examination conducted by the medical examiner found he died from an “Aortic Dissection due to Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.”

Trump, 80, initially posted on Truth Social at 3:21 a.m Sunday after hearing the shock news. He wrote, “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead! He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!”

In another post, he ordered “all American Flags throughout the United States lowered to Half Mast until Saturday evening at 6 P.M,” in honor of his “dear friend” and “truly great man” Graham.

Trump shared the flag post three times, on the last adding a video of a flag at the White House being lowered.

At 9:10 p.m. Sunday, Trump shared an image of Graham with the caption “So sad!!! President DJT.” The White House shared the post, adding, “Senator Lindsey Graham will be greatly missed!”

While Trump did not include a photo of himself, he chose one in which Graham is holding a large printed version of a fake Wikipedia profile page from January that shows Trump as the “Acting President of Venezuela.”Graham is smiling in the undated image, and wearing a black cap that reads “Make Iran Great Again.” Trump first posted the digitally altered image on his Truth Social page on Jan. 11. The previous week, Trump had launched Operation Absolute Resolve, in which U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and transported them to New York to face narco-terrorism charges.

Trump has a history of making aides print hard copies of documents that take his fancy.

His 34-year-old adoring aide, Natalie Harp, has earned the nickname “human printer” for her role following Trump around, fulfilling his every request, including fetching merchandise, performing Google searches, printing stories from right-wing websites, and suggesting possible Truth Social posts.

Trump phoned into Jake Tapper’s State of the Union on CNN on Sunday to speak about Graham and shared details of their final phone call.

“It’s devastating, I thought he was fine. He called me last night, he just got back from Ukraine, he had a great trip, he was telling me about the trip... he was full of vim and vigor.”

Trump added, “He was tired... because it’s a long trip but other than that he was fine. He called me, I guess, just moments before... what a terrible loss.”

Despite Sunday’s glowing tributes, Trump and Graham had a complicated history over the last decade. Both men ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Graham called Trump a “jackass,” a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot,” and warned he would destroy the Republican Party.

After Trump won the White House in 2016, the pair were convinced into a “make-up” lunch in March 2017, according to New York magazine, and they became fast friends by 2018 and regular partners on Trump’s golf courses.

Trump admitted that Graham used to be a “great enemy” but was now a “great friend.” “I really like Lindsey. Can you believe it? I never thought I’d say that, but I do.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-honors-dear-friend-lindsey-graham-with-a-tribute-to-himself/?

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Judge says Trump IRS lawsuit was filed for ‘improper purpose,’ refers lawyer for possible discipline

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over his leaked tax returns was filed for an “improper purpose,” a judge said Monday as she referred one of his lawyers for potential disciplinary action and characterized the $10 billion complaint as an exercise in self-dealing.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-irs-justice-department-61adebe5de8982eb214b30889ad4f251?

12 states challenge Paramount’s takeover of Warner, say merger would ‘extinguish competition’

NEW YORK (AP) — Twelve states sued to block Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, arguing that the $81 billion merger would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers across the U.S.

https://apnews.com/article/paramount-warner-bros-antitrust-ce87c4c10c956cbb5d98cdc7e954126b?

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Trump Sons’ Jaw-Dropping Pentagon Cash-In Exposed

Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are backing firms making billions from spending priorities set by their father.

President Donald Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., have poured money into more than a dozen federal defense contractors that are collectively making billions from their father’s administration.

A Washington Post analysis published Monday reveals that those firms have raked in more than $3.2 billion in Pentagon deals under the second Trump administration. Most of Eric and Donald Jr.’s investments came after President Trump, 80, retook the White House last year. The firms have also secured $3.1 billion in potential future work, along with the right to “bid exclusively” for up to $200 billion more.

Eric, 42, and Donald Jr., 48, cast their investments as acts of “patriotic capitalism,” claiming they’re helping to defend the U.S. against enemy threats.

Neither Donald Jr. nor Eric had any great experience in the defense sector before they began investing in companies seeking federal contracts.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly insisted “there are no conflicts of interest” and that the Washington Post report represents “the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade.”

The brothers’ profits come from companies cashing in on spending priorities the Pentagon says are designed to modernize military systems and assets. That push “prioritizes smaller, nimbler weaponry” like drones, the Post reports. It was already “well underway” under Joe Biden, and Trump has now “turbocharged” the drive.

The money moves through two vehicles: 1789 Capital, where Donald Jr. signed on as a partner days after his dad’s win, and American Ventures, Eric’s outfit run out of Dominari Holdings, which is based inside Trump Tower.

Two names dominate the haul. SpaceX and Anduril—run by MAGA allies Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey, respectively—make up 97 percent of the direct government cash the Post tallied, plus 42 percent of the promised future work. Strip those two out, and 13 lesser-known start-ups still cornered almost $1.8 billion in long-term Pentagon commitments.

Companies that answered the Post said they won their contracts on merit, with no help from Trump’s family. Of the 15 firms, 10 already held federal work before the brothers invested. Eight had deals under Biden.

Trump Jr. has openly touted his sway over Pentagon decisions. At an event last year, he said he “helped craft some of [the department’s] messaging,” according to the Post. He has also steered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth toward DoD hires eager to spend on drones.

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-sons-eric-and-donald-trump-junior-cashing-in-on-defense-tech-as-war-with-iran-rages/?

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👀 Trump wants to give more prime-time talks

President Trump's prime-time Thursday speech from the White House is slated to include election integrity, an update on Iran and whatever else he deems important, a senior adviser tells Axios' Marc Caputo.

• "It will be a potpourri," the adviser says.

Why it matters: Though ever-available to reporters, Trump hasn't given many prime-time, direct-to-camera speeches from the White House. He wants to do more of them, the adviser says.

🔎 Zoom in: Trump announced on Truth Social yesterday that he plans to give a "Speech to the Nation" on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET. The specifics beyond that — where in the White House and the exact topics — are less certain. But two issues are top of mind for Trump:

1. Resumed hostilities with Iran. "It's changing by the minute, but it's something he wants to address," the adviser says.
2. Election integrity. The president wants to pass the SAVE America Act, a strict voter ID law that's stalled in Congress. And he may present his intelligence officials' findings about the 2020 election, which Trump won't admit he lost.

Trump's adviser denied online reports that the president plans to discuss Georgia's 2020 Senate elections that were won by two Democrats.

🥊 Reality check: You never know what Trump's going to talk about. He just wants to talk. And he wants to do more of it.

• "We want to get into the rhythm of doing this," the adviser says. "It's powerful when you give prime-time speeches that give a sense of importance to what he's saying."

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📉 New data: America's trust tanks

Data: Gallup. Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios America's confidence in 14 of its core institutions is at or near all-time lows, Axios' Avery Lotz writes from Gallup polling out this morning. This year, 27% expressed "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in those institutions. That's just one point higher than the all-time low in 2023. Zoom in: 27% expressed confidence in the presidency — well down from its 2002 high of 58%. Congress, at 9%, is up 2 points from its rock-bottom ratings in 2014 and 2022. Explore the data … Keep reading.

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Judge says Trump IRS lawsuit was filed for ‘improper purpose,’ refers lawyer for possible discipline U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams accused President Donald Trump and his lawyers in a scathing ruling of having manipulated the court system when he sued a federal agency under his control, bypassing a requirement that parties in a lawsuit must have adverse interests. Read more.

Why this matters: The judge stopped short of explicitly voiding the deal shielding Trump from tax scrutiny but said the government cannot claim in official proceedings that the agreement was the result of a legitimate legal process.   Though the practical impacts of the ruling may be limited since the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed months ago and the administration has already abandoned the $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that came out of it, the order nonetheless amounts to a scathing rebuke and tees up a politically uncomfortable line of questioning for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as he faces the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ FACT FOCUS: Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden death spurs false claims   Sister Darline Graham Nordone will serve remainder of his term   Questions linger about aging politicians and health transparency   Aortic tear blamed in Graham’s sudden death is a fast-killing emergency   What to know about Trump’s order shrinking the size of 2 national monuments in Utah   Abortion rights are on the ballot in 4 states. Here’s what to know   Supreme Court justices to testify before Congress on increasing security funding in rare appearance

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12 states challenge Paramount’s takeover of Warner, say merger would ‘extinguish competition’ The states sued to block Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, arguing that the $81 billion merger would lead to fewer choices for consumers across the U.S. Read more.

Why this matters: A Paramount-Warner combo would bring together two of Hollywood’s last five legacy studios. In Monday’s complaint, the states said such a tie-up would “inflict substantial harm” on movie theatres and basic cable distributors.   Paramount said Monday’s lawsuit “distorts settled antitrust law” and maintained that its merger would instead create a “stronger competitor against dominant streaming and technology platforms who have harmed the market for theatrical exhibition and jobs in the entertainment industry.”   Questions of political influence have piled up — with criticism falling largely along party lines in Washington. No Republicans signed on to the states’ case on Monday. Several attorneys general joining Monday’s lawsuit took aim at the Justice Department’s decision to not challenge the deal — pointing in particular to President Donald Trump’s close relationship with the billionaire family of Paramount CEO David Ellison.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Subpoenas issued to NY Times reporters seen as ‘unprecedented’ threat to press freedom   Hundreds of economists say ‘we must act now’ on AI’s economic impact and job displacement risks

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Trump administration orders ICE to suspend most vehicle stops after 2 deadly shootings

BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Trump administration officials told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings within a week, people familiar with the decision said Tuesday.

https://apnews.com/article/maine-ice-shooting-man-killed-73681fcf59fceb8b43b198ccaec554d3?

• 🏞️ President Trump is cutting nearly 3 million acres from Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, Axios Salt Lake City's Erin Alberty reports. Go deeper.

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Trump walks back Hormuz fee

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

President Trump today walked back his plan to collect a 20% toll from ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. Instead, Trump said, Gulf states would make major investments in the U.S. 🤳 Trump wrote on Truth Social: "Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States." Trump later told reporters that he received calls from "kings and emirs" asking him not to impose tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. The president said: "I don't think anybody should charge a fee for the strait or any other strait in the world." "I don't like the concept of a fee, but at the same time it is not fair that we are protecting this strait for the entire world ... and we are not somehow compensated." 💰 Reality check: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain had already committed to investing more than $2 trillion in the U.S. over the next several years — even before the war with Iran. Trump said in his post that the Gulf countries will make "new Investments" that "will make that Number even larger." ⚓️ Trump made his comments several hours before a U.S. naval blockade on Iran comes into effect, and amid exchanges of fire between the U.S. and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz for the fourth day in a row. Trump wrote: "The Strait of Hormuz is open to ALL Ship traffic except for Iran — and that is because of their lying, violent, malicious leadership, which is taking them down the path of TOTAL DESTRUCTION." Go deeper.

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Trump AG Pick Hit by Bombshell Exposé on Eve of Confirmation Hearing

Todd Blanche’s emails show he isn’t the calming presence in the administration that his supporters claim he is.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has been personally leading President Donald Trump’s revenge campaign against his perceived enemies, according to a bombshell new report released in the lead-up to his Senate confirmation hearing. Supporters of Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s defense attorney, claim he has served as an important check on retribution crusades launched by the president’s most provocative attack dogs, including the DOJ’s Ed Martin and acting director of national intelligence Bill Pulte. But just a day before Blanche’s confirmation hearing to serve as Trump’s permanent attorney general, The New York Times revealed that rather than being a calming influence on the administration, Blanche has been spearheading the president’s retribution effort within the DOJ.

That work began last year, when he served as his predecessor Pam Bondi’s top deputy, and continued after Bondi’s ousting in April, according to emails obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and shared with the Times.

In particular, Blanche has been tasked with enacting Trump’s executive order purporting to end the “weaponization” of the U.S. government, part of a major drive to punish members of prior administrations who tried to hold Trump legally accountable.

In May 2025, Blanche diverted top lawyers from his office to the DOJ “anti-weaponization” group responsible for investigating Trump’s enemies, giving him tight control over the cases, the emails reveal.

One of Blanche’s aides was responsible for digging into the actions of special counsel Jack Smith, who prosecuted Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents and attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Another longtime Blanche aide was assigned to investigate Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who secured convictions against Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records over his payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

A third Blanche aide led a team focused solely on Tina Peters, the Colorado elections clerk who served four years out of a nine-year sentence for violating state election laws in a bid to uncover “proof” of nonexistent fraud during the 2020 election.

Blanche also allowed Martin to personally oversee investigations into two of Trump’s pet causes: the prosecutions of more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters—some of whom Martin had represented in court—and a probe into former President Joe Biden’s autopen use.

But in May, Blanche removed Martin from his role with the anti-weaponization group. He had been concerned all along that Martin wasn’t experienced or effective enough to do the job, the emails—which were handed over under the Freedom of Information Act—reveal.

Since then, the anti-weaponization group has ramped up its investigations and reports, even as regional U.S. attorneys’ offices have begun trying to build a massive yet flimsy conspiracy case against Biden and other Trump adversaries, the Times reported.

In the meantime, Blanche has also been busy securing an indictment against Trump foe and former FBI director James Comey after he posted a photo of seashells that appeared to spell “86 47” on the beach.

In slang, the number 86 can mean tossing something out or getting rid of it; it’s commonly used in restaurant kitchens to mean something was removed from the menu. Critics of Comey’s post took it to mean he thinks the president should be killed, given that he is the 47th president.

Blanche also signed off on a $1.77 billion taxpayer slush fund to compensate Jan. 6 rioters and agreed to give the Trump family immunity from tax investigations.

The slush fund was abandoned following political and legal challenges, and the immunity agreement has been blocked in court.

Last week, a group of 1,205 Justice Department alums urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Blanche’s nomination, writing that “corruption and abuses… have defined” his tenure, and that he has “degraded” the DOJ’s apolitical career workforce. The Daily Beast has reached out to the DOJ for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-ag-pick-todd-blanche-hit-by-bombshell-expose-on-eve-of-confirmation-hearing/?

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World Cup Star Reveals How Trump’s Meddling Rocked U.S. Team

Folarin Balogun got sent off in the knockout stages of the World Cup.

U.S. soccer star Folarin Balogun has described how President Donald Trump’s interference destabilized his World Cup teammates.

Balogun, a Londoner who is eligible for the American team because of birthright citizenship, scored three goals as the United States reached the round of 16 before being knocked out by Belgium.

The 25-year-old was only able to play in that game because FIFA, soccer’s governing body, overturned his red-card suspension after Trump called its president, Gianni Infantino, which created a furor and generated global headlines.

Now, the striker, who plays his club soccer in France, has spoken out. “My initial reaction was that I was happy to be back in the team. But when I started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy,” he said on CBS Mornings on Tuesday.

He admitted that the controversy destabilized his teammates ahead of the vital game against Belgium, which they eventually lost 4-1.

“And I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it’s something that is so unique. But the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could, but it was difficult—a lot of outside noise, and that’s hard to avoid.”

Trump openly admitted to pressuring his FIFA lackey, Infantino. “All I did was ask for a review—I didn’t say, ‘You have to do this,’” he told reporters. He admitted that prior to Balogun’s suspension, “I didn’t know what the hell a red card was.”

Afterward, he took a victory lap. He thanked FIFA on Truth Social for “reversing a great injustice.”

In a statement, the Royal Belgian Football Association had said it was “astonished” by FIFA’s decision to suspend the red card.

Balogun told CBS Mornings he was “confused” by the saga. “It was confusing because the team was practicing without me in the team, I’m almost just playing a supporting role to keep morale high,” he said.

It comes after Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House’s World Cup Task Force, conceded that the saga “potentially” distracted the players.

Balogun assured fans that, despite the distraction, the USMNT was focused going into the game against Belgium. “It was a difficult game against Belgium, and that can overshadow whether we were focused or not. But from me being inside the camp and inside the setup, I know we had full concentration going into the game.”

The Belgian team clearly used Trump’s intervention as motivation for their win against the U.S. Following their 4-1 victory, players mocked Trump by doing his infamous dance both on the field and later in the locker room.

The Belgian national team also delivered a brutal two-word jab on their official X account following Trump’s complaint.

“Overturn this,” they posted.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), meanwhile, has received an official complaint from the human rights organization FairSquare over the handling of the red card. It claims that Infantino has repeatedly violated the Olympic Charter and the IOC’s code of ethics, including in Balogun’s case.

Last month, 50 Members of the European Parliament urged the same committee to address the allegations.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/world-cup-star-florian-balogun-reveals-how-trumps-meddling-rocked-us-team/?

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Tit-for-Tat (Amirhosein Khorgooi / AP)

View in browser Yesterday, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that the United States would become the “GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” blockading Iranian ports and ensuring the safe passage of non-Iranian vessels. And in the spirit of “FAIRNESS,” he added, the U.S. would charge vessels a fee for the trouble. Then, this morning, an amendment: Trump disposed of the fee idea while still indicating that he intends to assert control of the strait and resume the blockade. Now, Trump says, the Gulf states will be making “the Trade and Investment Deals” with the U.S. as a form of compensation. But the particulars of those deals (and of which states will participate) remain unclear. Today marked the fourth consecutive day of strikes across Iran. The cease-fire has disintegrated—Trump formally notified Congress yesterday that the war has resumed—and negotiations have collapsed. If American forces do try to reassert power in the strait, they’ll face a difficult path. Iran is still clamping down on ship traffic, and recent violent clashes in the waterway have once again dramatically reduced the number of vessels entering and exiting the Persian Gulf. The United States’ ability to exert control in the strait could depend on its ability to erode the system of dominance that Iran has established in recent months. Dominance in the Persian Gulf has never been clear-cut. In the early 16th century, Portuguese mariners brought their cartaz system of permits to the Strait of Hormuz, overseeing the waterway for more than a century. In 1622, the joint forces of Persia and England’s East India Company seized it. The Strait of Hormuz is now broadly understood as an international zone, and yet portions of the waterway remain contested. Its narrowest stretch is just 21 miles wide—meaning that, according to a United Nations convention, it is entirely within the territorial waters of Iran and nearby Oman. Neither Iran nor the U.S. are party to the UN treaty, but the U.S. nevertheless recognizes it as international law, Michael Poznansky, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told me. The U.S. has assumed some responsibility for the Strait of Hormuz in the past. Defense of the Persian Gulf was at the core of the Carter Doctrine—Jimmy Carter’s attempt, in 1980, to respond to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Iran periodically attacked foreign vessels in the strait during the Iran-Iraq War of the ’80s; in 1987, the U.S. Navy launched Operation Earnest Will, escorting Kuwaiti tankers through the strait for more than a year. During that war, the Iranian regime threatened to fully close off the strait but decided against it, realizing that the damage to its own economy would be too great. Iran has repeated this threat over the past two decades, but it never actually followed through until February, in retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli strikes on its land and the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Despite the persistent threat of Iranian interference in the strait over the past half century, its leadership was never guaranteed to be able to enforce an effective blockade. But what remains of Iran’s military, decimated by months of war, has still proved capable of maintaining the transit restrictions that the regime announced in the spring. The persistent threat of mines, and of its nimble boats that can harass or attack other vessels, has kept ship traffic to a minimum; the number of crossings on Sunday was the lowest it had been in a month. Past efforts to break Iran’s stranglehold over the course of this war have failed. In May, American forces began escorting some vessels through the strait as part of an initiative called Project Freedom; it ended after just two days, in part because Saudi Arabia declined to let the U.S. use its military bases and airspace. European allies could provide support for potential U.S. missions in the Gulf, as they did during Operation Earnest Will, but Trump has now eroded many of those relationships. Given Iran’s demonstrated ability to influence ship traffic, the project of ensuring freedom of navigation in the strait might require a permanent U.S. effort, Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told me. This could end up being cumbersome and dangerous, Takeyh explained, given the military assets involved in escort missions and the inevitability of Iranian interference. And even then, ship traffic may not return to prewar levels. Trump’s social-media posts over the past couple of days have gestured at the desire for a strong and continued American presence in the strait—a profound shift on the part of a president who spent years decrying the country’s role as “the policemen of the world.” He may soon come to realize that policing the strait does not always mean controlling it. Related: “We may sleepwalk our way back to war.” Why Trump didn’t plan for the Strait of Hormuz