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

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Trump, 80, Fantasizes About Dead President in Bizarre Posting Spree

As sailors endure grueling conditions aboard a carrier in his Iran war, Trump has been busy posting bizarre AI-generated fantasies on Truth Social.

President Donald Trump spent his Saturday living it up in a Truth Social fantasy world while thousands of American sailors continue to endure brutal conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier serving in his Iran war.

In four of his wild posts, Trump, 80, imagined himself showing off his new White House ballroom to the nation’s first president, George Washington, who has been dead for 227 years.

Trump’s tacky $400 million construction project is currently on hold after a federal appeals court ruled that the administration lacked the necessary congressional authority to move ahead with it.

Trump followed that up with a photo of him with the nation’s first president, both on horseback. Trump, wearing a suit and tie, sits astride a black horse beside Washington and his white mount.

In another AI-generated image, Trump and Washington are shown writing together on what appears to be a map.Trump also posted a shadowy photo of himself wearing a “TRUMP 2028″ hat with the caption “We are going to win.”In another message, Trump fondly reminisced about the time he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un enjoyed each other’s company, though they decidedly did not look that way in the photo. “Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling,” the president wrote. “Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!”

Trump furiously crammed several endorsements for Republican candidates into his twisted trip through history, as the party grows increasingly fearful of the midterm results.

When asked on Friday whether sailors’ family members were worried about conditions aboard the ship, Trump, who has never served in the military, flatly replied: “No, they’re not.”

When he was asked whether the deployment had gone on too long, given the conditions and mental health risks, the president responded: “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough.”

The wife of one of the crewmen on the ship told Jake Tapper in a phone interview on CNN on Friday that her husband’s experience was like being “stuck in a floating metal prison in the middle of the water, eating prison-like food with the same people in the same bunk beds in the same small quarters for 200 days, 250 days. You start to go a little insane.”

At least two desperate sailors have attempted to jump overboard, while another soldier actually did (and was rescued).

Regarding Trump’s callous dismissal of the conditions the sailors are enduring, the woman, whose identity was not revealed, said: “I don’t think the man thinks before he talks. Try to redeem yourself at least a little bit,” she said of Trump.

“Have some sympathy, some empathy, take some accountability for what’s going on with your military, your ship, your war,” she continued. “It’s infuriating.”

On Friday, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao said the USS Abraham Lincoln will “return home soon as part of its scheduled rotation.” He didn’t specify the timeline.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-80-fantasizes-about-dead-president-in-bizarre-truth-social-posting-spree/?

ps:What a joke!!!!!

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Top College Calls BS on Trumpy Justice’s Self-Pitying Smear

A Supreme Court justice’s claims were swiftly shut down by an elite university.

A George H. W. Bush-appointed Supreme Court justice claimed that a prestigious university was “off limits” to conservatives like him—but quickly got shut down.

Clarence Thomas, 78, suggested that places like Stanford Law School are unwelcoming to him. He made the remarks at a forum hosted by Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank at Stanford University.

“You know, I have never been to Stanford Law School,” he said. “Never been. That’s the reality. That’s the world we’re in. Because there’s certain places that are just presumptively off limits. This is the way it works.”

“I mean, I’ve been to Yale Law School, but that’s the way it works. And to say it isn’t is to lie, okay? So you don’t get [in], and even if you do, it comes with all this attendant animosity and negativity,” he continued. “In other words, to make it unpalatable. So this person, we’ll allow here, but this person’s views are unpalatable. Whereas if you’re agreed with, it’s sweetened up and it’s rose petals and, ‘This is presumptively the right idea.’”

Thomas claimed that the ideas of thinkers like the economist Thomas Sowell, who were critical in shaping his views, would never reach the younger generation if it wasn’t for YouTube. The forum centered around the legacy of Sowell, a prominent Black conservative intellectual.

“What these kids are getting is all that stuff [that] is not there,” he said. ”It’s just on YouTube. It’s available to everybody, and they get to make up their own mind. The five of them or whatever can sit together and decide whether they agree without all this negative trapping.”

But the high-ranking university was quick to call Clarence’s bluff.

“We would be honored to host Justice Thomas at Stanford Law School,” a Stanford spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

“The Stanford Constitutional Law Center, directed by Professor Michael McConnell, former Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, regularly hosts members of the judiciary on campus,” the spokesperson added. “Our students and faculty would welcome the opportunity to hear from Justice Thomas and engage with his perspectives on the Court, the Constitution, and the law.”

Editor’s note: This post has been updated to make clear which president appointed Thomas.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stanford-university-calls-bs-on-supreme-court-justice-clarence-thomas-self-pitying-smear/?

ps:How pathetic!!

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Trump to Splurge Billions on Deranged 1940s Obsession

The president’s aesthetic preferences are stalling the rollout of a naval carrier class.

Donald Trump, 80, is demanding changes to the Navy’s new aircraft carriers that could cost billions of dollars and delay the rollout of the much needed vessels.

Officials told The Washington Post the Navy has been forced to consider changes to the Ford class aircraft carriers because Trump doesn’t like their current “look.”

The changes would constitute a major ship redesign that would involve moving the tower that serves as the carrier’s command center closer to the middle of the ship, officials said, in order to “resemble older vessels,” like those used in World War II.

The potential redesign is estimated to cost billions more and take years longer than the current budgeted Ford class rollout.

The change was attempted during the first Trump administration but never carried out due to a study that warned of the high costs and subsequent delays.

“It came back that the cost and time to do so would just be extraordinary,” a former official said.

But according to the officials, the president is determined to have his way and has again asked for a review.

The Navy’s most recent shipbuilding plan is for 10 Ford class ships, at a cost of $22 billion each.

There is currently just one Ford class carrier in service—the USS Gerald R. Ford, but there are three more in various stages of construction—the USS John F. Kennedy is undergoing sea trials, and two more are being built.

On Thursday, Trump signed a national security memorandum that also called for reverting the catapult on the carriers that help propel fighter jets off the ship’s deck back to the previous steam-powered design, another change that will cost time and money.

The USS Gerald R. Ford has an electromagnetic catapult, one of many new technologies that contributed to the 17-year build time for the ship.

According to the Navy’s own website, Naval Air Systems Command, the electromagnetic catapults are more reliable and efficient than the steam powered ones, and make for a “quieter and cooler work and living spaces for Sailors.”

They are also cheaper over time, allow for “expanded operational capability” and “higher launch energy capacity” than the old steam catapult.

According to the Post, changing the placement of the island is also seen by officials as an unwanted throwback to a less safe and efficient time.

The Pentagon referred The Daily Beast to the White House, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-to-splurge-billions-on-deranged-1940s-obsession/?

ps:Pathetic!!!!!

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Trump’s Own Aides Admit He’s Lost Interest in His Job

The president’s aides say he does not like hitting the campaign trail unless it’s to get himself elected.

President Donald Trump’s aides admit that their boss has little interest in traveling across the country to prop up weak GOP candidates for the midterms, a new report alleges.

Anonymous aides tell CNN that Trump will finally embark on a long-awaited tour to energize MAGA voters—but that traveling across the country to stump for other politicians is not a part of the job he enjoys.

“He loves to travel, but he hates to travel,” an aide told the outlet.

They added, “Once he’s traveling, he’s like: ‘Why am I doing this? I want to be doing other things.’”

The report on Trump’s reluctance to hit the campaign trail comes as he finally gave the OK for Republicans to use millions from his personal PAC to support vulnerable Republican candidates in November, as fears grow that the GOP will lose its majorities in both chambers.

“Without a doubt, we’ve got to make sure we get some of these voters who show up for Donald Trump in presidential elections to show up for these congressionals,” an adviser told the network.

Yet, GOP lawmakers also worry that Trump could become a liability heading into the midterms, as Republican voters are increasingly frustrated with the president over the war in Iran and his lack of concern for the affordability crisis and rising gas prices.

Reached for comment, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told the Daily Beast that “President Trump is the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party who is committed to maintaining Republicans’ majority in Congress.”

Despite Trump’s high disapproval ratings over his handling of the economy, the president has told Punchbowl News plainly that he will not take the blame if his party loses in November.

“The question is, will they vote?” he said, before supplying his own answer: “They’re angry at Republicans, but they’re not angry at me.”

Trump spoke in Long Island, New York, on Friday in an effort to boost his party’s chances in the elections, including those of his gubernatorial pick, Bruce Blakeman, who is challenging New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

But during the law-and-order rally with New York police officers, Trump repeatedly fixated on the “young, beautiful girls” he sees at the White House rather than focusing on domestic policy. He also appeared to forget the name of Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican candidate for New York attorney general—whom he has endorsed—as the woman he had “just met.”

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has reportedly told staffers to keep steering Trump back to the issue voters find most important: affordability. Staying on topic has proven to be difficult for Trump, who is often more interested in discussing his construction projects—such as the so-called Arc de Trump, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and his White House ballroom.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-own-aides-admit-hes-lost-interest-in-his-job/?

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US military base schools put new emphasis on Western civilization and Christianity The Department of Defense is introducing a course centered on Western civilization and Christianity this fall in the schools it operates for military families, part of an effort by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to redirect the education system toward patriotic values and classical learning. The Department of Defense Education Activity operates about 160 schools across 11 countries and educates roughly 70,000 students who are children of active-duty military or civilian service members. Conservatives have eyed the schools — which, unlike most public schools, are run by the federal government — as a testing ground for reshaping education. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Judge refuses to block Trump administration from building border wall along tribe’s reservation A federal judge blocks Idaho from prosecuting doctors for health-protecting abortions Federal judge denies attempt to strike down Mississippi county’s majority-Black judicial districts Homicides at the lowest rate since 1956, FBI says America In Focus: Inflation cools in July, but so do consumers with their spending A surprise credit after an overseas purchase: The tariff refunds now flowing through shippers Democrats’ 2028 presidential calendar gives Black and Latino voters and union members an early say The buck stops somewhere else: A look at Trump’s tendency to avoid blame when things go awry Suspect arrested in World War II Memorial vandalism in Washington Wife of US soldier is removed from deportation flight and released from federal immigration custody

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Trump blames vandals for damaged grass where he held July 4 celebration President Donald Trump posted a photo on social media showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial now patchy and brown. Trump did not say why he believes it’s the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. Read more.

Why this matters: Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for damage to his renovation projects in the nation’s capital, often without evidence and sometimes despite opposing accounts from his officials. Trump lashed out at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro this month after her office concluded that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of poor construction and not the work of vandals, as Trump claimed. Authorities on Friday announced an arrest in connection with vandalism at the World War II Memorial.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: ‘Clean hands dirty $’ painted on World War II Memorial and soap in fountain BBC asks a US court for help in getting testimony from the Trump family in defamation suit In Florida, Wasserman Schultz sparks a debate over what representation means in diverse districts  Democrats disagree over abolishing or reforming ICE at DNC meeting Republicans won the redistricting competition. Don’t tell that to this California congressman Democratic primary turnout has soared in some states. Can it carry over to November?

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🐘 Trump's GOP erosion

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

High prices, a persistent war and anxiety about corruption are eroding President Trump's support among some Republicans with just 78 days until midterms, Axios' Mike Zapler and Ben Berkowitz write. 📉 An Economist/YouGov poll out Tuesday had Trump's approval rating among Republicans at a second-term low of 79% — down 12 points since he took office. In that time, the share of Republicans who "strongly approve" of Trump's performance has dropped 20 points, from 68% to 48%. ⬇️ In a poll on the front page of today's Financial Times ("Most US voters feel worse off under Trump"), 23% of Republicans said they're worse off since Trump's term began. Another 37% said the economy is headed in the wrong direction. 💰 Republican consumer sentiment fell 9.5 points in August from July in the University of Michigan monthly survey released Friday — one of the biggest declines ever recorded by the decades-old survey. The intrigue: Trump's political strength has long derived from outsized loyalty among Republicans, so even a slight slippage could be consequential. In Trump's first term, his approval among GOP voters averaged 88% (Gallup).

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Trump, 80, Screws Up Attempt to Insult Female Fox News Host

The president’s venomous Truth Social post lost him the argument—and the spelling bee.

Donald Trump bungled an online tirade torching a Fox News host who dared question one of the D.C. vanity projects sucking up all the president’s time.

“Why didn’t Shannon Bream, ‘Milktoast’ to her friends, show the updated pictures instead of ones that were so old and irrelevant?” the 80-year-old raged on Truth Social after the network mainstay’s Sunday comments about his White House ballroom.

The word “milktoast” does not exist. “Milquetoast,” which Trump presumably meant, comes from the comic strip character Caspar Milquetoast. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as a “timid, meek, or unassertive person.”

Bream, 55, however, enraged Trump by being assertive as she interviewed the newest Senate-confirmed member of his Cabinet.

She pointed out during an interview with Attorney General Todd Blanche that the president is charging ahead with construction despite a D.C. District Court ruling earlier this month that he must either stop or get congressional authorization to continue. The White House is appealing that decision rather than taking the issue to the House.

“Why not just go to Congress?” Bream asked Blanche. “We don’t believe we have to go to Congress,” Blanche, a former personal attorney to the president who’s now the nation’s top prosecutor, shot back.

Trump’s post was the second part of a one-two online attack after Bream’s show aired on Sunday morning. In his first post, he moaned that “watching Fox News with Shannon Bream is always like watching the Worst of Fake News CNN” while falsely claiming that her ratings had started to “fall.” In his second, he went even further, bizarrely suggesting that “her show, Fox News Sunday, is so biased against MAGA, ‘TRUMP,’ and Republicans, that it is ridiculous!”It’s not the first time Trump has gone for the host—nor lost the spelling bee in doing so. He similarly attacked her as “Milk Toast Shannon Bream” in a vitriolic June Truth Social post for supposedly not doing enough to defend his record on immigration enforcement.

He also doesn’t reserve it exclusively for her. He’s used it to go after Bream’s fellow Fox mainstay Kayleigh McEnany, who served as his press secretary during his first term. Both women are only two targets in a wider pattern of attacks on female journalists that has included calling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins “the worst reporter” and telling Bloomberg News correspondent Catherine Lucey to be “quiet, piggy.”

Trump’s continuing fixation with the project and other MAGAfication efforts around the nation’s capital, all deeply unpopular with voters more concerned about his war with Iran and the soaring cost of living at home, has left pundits and pollsters wondering what the president actually trying to lose GOP control of the House and Senate at midterms might look like.

The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment on Trump’s Truth Social tirade about Bream. It declined to provide one.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-80-screws-up-attempt-to-insult-female-fox-news-host-shannon-bream-by-calling-her-milktoast/?

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Trump, 80, Insults His Own Goon in Unhinged Ragepost

Top prosecutor Jeannine Pirro is quickly becoming President Trump’s least favorite person.

Donald Trump launched a thinly veiled dig at his own handpicked MAGA prosecutor, Jeanine Pirro, in a Truth Social ragepost.

Pirro, the United States attorney for the District of Columbia since May last year, is in the president’s bad books for her failure to prosecute former U.S. Olympian David Hearn for alleged vandalism to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Pirro, one of many former Fox News hosts in the Trump administration, initially gunned for Hearn, blaming him for ripping up some of the lining Trump had laid to try to meet a July 4 deadline for his $16 million renovation of the D.C. landmark. Soon, though, she dropped the case and said the damage was due to a botched job by Trump’s own contractor.

Trump publicly said he was “disappointed” with Judge Jeannine, who “folded like an umbrella.” He urged her to “revisit” the “hastily made decision.”

Now, he’s taken another potshot. Writing on Truth Social on Sunday at 11 p.m., he complained about more damage inflicted by “VANDALS.”

“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” the 80-year-old moaned, sharing a picture of worn grass on the lawn near the memorial that looks like regular wear and tear, caused by footfall and high temperatures.

It is also the same spot where Trump hosted crowds for a Fourth of July celebration, with a large bandstand and seating areas. After the structures were removed, photos showed the same browning grass Trump now blames on bad actors.

Even still, Trump used it to swipe at Pirro—who got her JD from Albany Law School—adding, “Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!”

His digs come despite U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche’s insistence that Trump supports Pirro. “I absolutely support U.S. Attorney Pirro, as does President Trump,” Blanche said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” just hours before the president’s Truth Social broadside.

Blanche also risked Trump’s ire, saying, “That’s different than whether ultimately we have the proof... I think judging her on a single case because of the evidence that we had is not fair.”

Sources told Reuters last week that the White House asked the Department of Justice to explore new vandalism charges related to the pool, whose botched renovation cost nearly $15 million.

“U.S. Attorney Pirro is doing a phenomenal job enforcing that, going after anybody who’s doing it,” Blanche said.

Pirro began her legal career in 1975 as a Westchester County assistant district attorney and became the first chief of the county’s Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Bureau in 1978.

She was elected to the Westchester County Court in 1990, becoming the first woman to serve as a county judge, then won election as Westchester County district attorney in 1993 and served three terms through 2005.

Her growing profile turned her into a television regular, particularly during the O.J. Simpson case, and she later made unsuccessful runs for New York attorney general and the U.S. Senate.

She moved fully into television in 2008 with Judge Jeanine Pirro on The CW, followed by Justice with Judge Jeanine on Fox News from 2011 to 2022; she then joined The Five as a co-host. In 2025, she left television after President Trump appointed her U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Pirro’s office has been contacted for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-80-insults-his-own-goon-in-unhinged-ragepost/?

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Trump Pulls Rug From Key Ally to Suck Up to Brutal Dictator

The president made the shock decision at the last minute.

President Donald Trump has claimed he will “substantially reduce” imminent joint U.S. military drills with South Korea while bragging about his “very good relationship” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The military drills between the U.S. and South Korea, as part of Ulchi Freedom Shield, were due to start on Monday and run until August 27.

The drills, which happen twice a year, were expected to involve around 18,000 South Korean troops, alongside U.S. forces and personnel from 11 of the 18 member states of the United Nations Command.

However, in a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said that he was “not happy” with America’s participation in the drills “based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un”.

He added that the exercises were costly and that they “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been president, has been unthreatening and respectful.”

His post stated that because it was too late to completely cancel the drills just hours before they were due to begin, he had ordered Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” them.

Trump then appeared to criticize South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, adding, “While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, `No thanks!’”

On Friday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry threatened unspecified action against the U.S. and South Korea, describing their joint military drills as “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” that are triggering greater instability in the region.

“It is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent,” the statement said, as reported by Politico. North Korea also said the drills would be of a “more serious provocative nature and dangerousness than last year.”

When asked about Trump’s Sunday evening post, a spokesman for South Korea’s defense ministry said: “We will proceed as previously notified and scheduled,” according to the South China Morning Post.

The Daily Beast has contacted South Korea’s defense ministry and the Pentagon for comment.

On Saturday, Trump shared a photo of himself with the North Korean leader taken in June 2019, with the caption “Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!”

The 11-day military drills were designed to strengthen South Korean soldiers’ readiness against North Korean threats. The joint practices aim to “fortify the combined defense posture” and enhance Alliance response capabilities against a “spectrum of security threats.” The drills include live, virtual, constructive and field-based training, engaging personnel from various military services.

Trump has long flaunted his “very good” relationship with North Korea’s supreme leader.

Speaking in the Oval Office last August, Trump said, “I know him better than anybody, almost, other than his sister, his sister knows him pretty well.”

He added, “I’m not supposed to say I really like him a lot, because if I do then I get killed in the fake news media, but I got along with him very well.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-pulls-rug-from-key-ally-to-suck-up-to-brutal-dictator-kim-jong-un/?

ps:Pathetic!!!!!!!!!!

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How Trump’s Women Twist Themselves to Please Him

“He’s a full-on misogynist, no question about that,” the president’s former adviser Anthony Scaramucci said.

The women in President Donald Trump’s orbit have to lavish him with praise if they want him to treat them well, the president’s former adviser Anthony Scaramucci has claimed.

Speaking on The Daily Beast Podcast, Scaramucci, who infamously lasted just 11 days as communications director during Trump’s first administration, described the women the 80-year-old president wants around him as having to be “subservient” and “more or less a lackey of his.”

“Remember, people are transactions to Donald Trump—they’re not people,” Scaramucci told author Nell Scovell and host Joanna Coles, explaining that the president sees the women around him as “transactions in his field of vision.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail this week, several MAGA women appeared to confirm Scaramucci’s assessment of how Trump views women, revealing that the president’s relentless pressure to keep up with the latest beauty standards—including daily blowouts and regular Botox treatments—can grow tiresome.

The women spoke to the outlet after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, 28, announced that she was stepping down to spend more time with her young children. But Leavitt was also reportedly fed up with Trump’s constant demands, a frustration the MAGA women who spoke to the Mail said they couldn’t blame her for.

“You have to be exceptional at your job, which is a given, but if you’re a woman you have to look a certain way, dress a certain way and be available 24/7, because this is a President who barely sleeps,” one MAGA woman said of working for Trump. A woman Trump has increasingly appeared to like having by his side is his personal assistant, Natalie Harp, 35, who, according to the bombshell book Regime Change by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, would leave gushing letters for Trump to find in his “personal spaces” during the 2024 campaign, including one that read, “You are all that matters to me.”“If you were saying something nice about him, he would be flattering to you,” Scaramucci said of the president’s behavior, adding that if someone said something negative about him, Trump would make some type of “AI rendition” of the individual.

Scaramucci referred to a “joke” the president made about CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, 34, at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he singled out the journalist and said she looked like transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who prompted a Bud Light backlash a few years ago after appearing in an ad for the popular beer.

During the speech, Trump also said Collins should smile more and suggested she did not deserve an award she received that day.

Collins isn’t the only female journalist the president has treated rudely. Trump has had multiple incidents of lashing out at female reporters, including telling Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey “quiet piggy” last year.The president has also made a point of criticizing women who disagree with him on Truth Social, even dragging the wives of political candidates he dislikes into his attacks. Last week, he targeted Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and his wife in a post that appeared intended to compare their marriage with his own.

But Trump doesn’t always hide behind social media when attacking women. During the 2024 presidential campaign, he called his opponent Kamala Harris “mentally impaired,” while in 2016 he repeatedly branded Hillary Clinton “Crooked Hillary.”

“He’s a full-on misogynist, no question about that,” Scaramucci said about the president. “I look at him, and I say, this guy is weird about sex. He’s weird about women,” he added.

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-trumps-women-twist-themselves-to-please-him/?

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Deranged Trump Threatens to ‘Bomb the S**t’ Out of Key Ally

With friends like Trump, who needs enemies?

Donald Trump has threatened to “bomb the s--t” out of a key ally.

The president said on Monday that if the Gulf state of Oman interferes with his war with Iran, he would drop bombs on it.

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s--t out of them,” the 80-year-old said in an interview with Fox News.

Longtime U.S. ally Oman has served as a backchannel intermediary during the conflict, which began in February.

Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz since the bombs first fell, causing gas prices to rise and putting pressure on Trump, and helping to crater his public support back home.

Iran said it had been working with Oman to find a way to reopen the lane, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas flows during peacetime.

Trump threatened Muscat with military action in May after it discussed regulating the flow of traffic with Iran.

“Nobody is going to control it,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting. “It’s international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”

Although it’s classified as an international strait and open to international navigation, most of it lies within Iranian and Omani waters.

Little progress has been reported in reaching a peace deal since Trump signed a memorandum of peace at Versailles. That agreement set an ambitious 60-day deadline to agree a broader peace deal. Day 60 was reached on Monday with the two sides no closer to an agreement.

The U.S. has sought to regain control of the narrow waterway with a strong naval presence. However, fuel flow remains slow.

“Despite President Trump claiming total control over the strait, traffic has slowed really to a trickle,” Fox News host Bret Baier said live on air last week.

“If you look at this, before the conflict, more than 100 vessels a day were crossing. Monday, eight vessels crossed. Yesterday, 14.”

The USS Abraham Lincoln has led efforts to reopen it. The aircraft carrier has, however, become a source of pressure on the president, as she and those who serve on her endure their ninth month of a grueling deployment.

Conditions are feared to have deteriorated on board, with reports citing crews’ family members suggesting some have attempted to go overboard.

The attack on Iran has also raised concern that the U.S. is burning through its munitions stockpiles at an unsustainable rate.

Asked about this during the same interview with Fox News, Trump said, “What we’ve used is peanuts. We have a lot of mid-level weapons.”

The Center for Strategic and International Studies reported that the U.S. has enough for this war under all circumstances, but the concern is that it could create a future shortage in conflicts down the road.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/deranged-trump-threatens-to-bomb-the-st-out-of-key-ally/?

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Trump’s Embarrassing Bioweapon Reversal Exposed

Maybe all those White House researchers dedicated to biological security shouldn’t have been fired.

The Trump administration is in a full-on scramble to bandage the deep cuts it made to research staff as fears grow that AI could supercharge development of new-age weapons straight out of a horror movie.

President Donald Trump, 80, has scythed away at the number of White House researchers dedicated to biological security since retaking office last year, The Washington Post reports. Under President Joe Biden, up to 30 experts worked on how best to protect the U.S. from deadly pathogens being weaponized by the nation’s adversaries. Under Trump 2.0, their number has shrunk to the point that, at times, no one has been committed solely to these threats, according to the newspaper.

“They have kneecapped themselves in their ability to create any policy that would have staying power,” one former official, who withheld their name for fear of retaliation, told the Post. “That’s the risk, they’re not playing the long game.”

Biological security has never been the responsibility of a single federal authority. The White House team under Biden, made up of leading experts in the field, instead helped coordinate between multiple agencies with overlapping mandates. One of Trump’s first moves after retaking office was to throw out a 2023 presidential order on artificial intelligence that explicitly called for stronger measures against biological threats.

He has instead relied on what the Post describes as “a small revolving cast of employees,” among them a “junior fellow without a security clearance,” an Air Force doctor otherwise working as “a consultant to the White House medical office,” a part-time researcher, and “a pair of CIA staffers with little expertise in the field.”

The newspaper adds that Trump has shut down a unit at the National Security Agency specifically “dedicated to health security,” along with breaking up teams at both the Department of Homeland Security and at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who had worked on these types of threats.

The president has stripped back regulations in an effort to boost the tech and particularly the AI sectors during his second term, a move panned by many critics as pandering to the Big Tech interests that have given generously to pro-MAGA causes over the past few years.

Ever more advanced AI models have shown aptitude for highly complex biological research, prompting fears even within the industry that those capabilities could, in the absence of safeguards, potentially “aid even a relative amateur in carrying out a biological attack” or be used to develop weapons that “set off a new pandemic,” the Post reports.

The administration now appears to be taking that threat more seriously. Efforts to engage with the danger have included “a recent string of briefings on biological risks between OpenAI and the White House and half a dozen agencies,” the newspaper reports, citing a source with knowledge of those talks.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story. “The administration’s commitment to addressing AI and biological safety risks is clear and ongoing,” a spokesperson told the Post. “The White House has been developing policy for over a year, including in our AI Action Plan last summer.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-launches-embarrassing-bioweapon-reversal-after-firing-researchers/?

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Trump administration briefly pauses contentious border project in Texas’ Big Bend National Park

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday it is temporarily pausing construction of a contentious border construction project in Texas’ Big Bend National Park while the head of the agency tasked with building the wall visits to do an “on-the-ground evaluation.”

https://apnews.com/article/trump-border-big-bend-national-park-immigration-c8439ceed11ff5e7f3ca95fa0003327b?

• 🇮🇱 President Trump adviser Jared Kushner told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today that the U.S. wants Israel to take "small steps" in Gaza to test whether Hamas' commitment to start disarming is genuine. More from Barak Ravid.
• 🧑‍⚖️ The Supreme Court once again declined to take up President Trump's attempt to toss a jury's $5 million finding that he sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. Get the latest.
• 🏗️ The Trump administration temporarily paused border wall construction at Big Bend National Park in Texas while U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott visits the site. Go deeper.

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Days of Incoherence (Anna Moneymaker / Getty)

View in browser A memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States, reached in June and intended to provide breathing room to end the conflict between the two countries, expired today. The agreement will be little missed: A cease-fire had effectively ended within about three weeks of its signing, and the MOU had failed to produce fruitful negotiations or a real opening of the Strait of Hormuz. The president’s actions in the days leading up to the deadline demonstrate that his approach to the world, always contingent and improvisational, has lost its last shred of coherence. The White House cannot agree on the goals of the Iran war, much less on how to achieve them. The president is clashing with long-standing allies, in conflict with his vice president on the aims of the war, and publicly at odds with uniformed commanders over conditions for American troops stationed abroad. Trump on Friday called on Americans to accept higher gasoline prices as the cost of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He posted this morning that the “number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon”—even though his administration assessed before the war that Iran was not actively building weapons, even though the White House hasn’t offered any explanation for how the war will prevent the regime from restarting its weapons program, and even though the war may make Iran’s desire for a nuclear arsenal only more urgent. Meanwhile, Vice President Vance says that lowering fuel prices is actually now “goal No. 1” of the war. In practice, the real aim of any diplomatic or military action now is resuming ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran seized early in the conflict—a risk foreseen by many analysts but not by Trump. For weeks now, Trump’s basic choice has been clear: Either launch a much larger military operation, including ground troops, or else surrender de facto control of the strait permanently. The president refuses to accept this. He continues to complain that the Iranians are bad-faith negotiators, which is surely true but was well known before the war. During a speech on Friday, Trump said that “pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.” This is dishonest, delusional, or both. Such a declaration would contradict Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s insistence on the neutrality of the strait as well as Trump’s repeated statements that the U.S. should not act as a global policeman. But it’s also beside the point, because the United States has no means to control the strait. The conditions for those U.S. troops already in the region are reportedly awful. Aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been at sea for nearly nine months, sailors report shortages of basic supplies, malfunctioning systems, and faltering mental health. When Trump was asked Friday about service members’ families who have publicly voiced their worries, he insisted that they were not concerned: “No, they’re not,” he said, adding that the ship’s deployment had not gone on “nearly long enough” yet. In a sign that military brass takes these worries seriously, the admiral overseeing the war visited the carrier this weekend and acknowledged mental-health issues. With the U.S. unwilling or unable to break the Hormuz deadlock, Oman has embarked on negotiations with Iran to create a toll system for ships. This morning, Trump threatened to expand the war with strikes against that country. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” he told Fox News. Trump’s frustration with Oman is understandable, yet a threat to attack a venerable regional ally is still shocking. This kind of public conflict with allies has become typical. Over the weekend, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner—who has no official government post—met with Hamas officials in an attempt to revitalize an administration plan to disarm the group and rebuild Gaza. That plan is struggling for several reasons, including a flat rejection from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long been close to Trump and reportedly talked him into the Iran war. Meanwhile, Trump announced yesterday that he was curtailing joint military exercises with South Korea, “based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea.” This supposed friendship has produced a splashy 2018 summit and flattering correspondence that Trump purloined from the White House after he lost the 2020 election, but it has done nothing to advance American interests. Most important, it has done nothing to curtail North Korea’s nuclear program. At the same time that Trump is fighting a war in Iran that he claims will prevent nuclear proliferation, he’s bestowing a favor on North Korea, which has offered no concessions and many threats. But Trump also gave another reason for his snub, noting that South Korea—like every other major U.S. ally—has declined to get involved in the Iran quagmire. Throughout Trump’s two terms, many analysts have sought to discern some sort of guiding doctrine to his foreign policy. The incoherence of his actions in the past week alone should provide further evidence that looking for a framework is futile. Earlier this year, my colleagues Missy Ryan and Ashley Parker reported that the White House’s foreign-affairs philosophy was “Fuck around and find out.” Administration officials meant this as a warning to the leaders of other countries. But as the current crisis festers, they, too, are finding out. Related: The fuck-around-and-find-out presidency Trump will make South Korea pay for his Iran humiliation.

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Trump torches allies

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

President Trump has a new rule for America's partners: Cross him in one theater, and the consequences will follow you into the next, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: Trump has spent his second term battering U.S. allies, humiliating their leaders, and using decades-old security relationships to settle personal and political scores. The Iran war has only deepened those impulses: Trump is growing angrier at allies that stayed out of the conflict — and punishing them as he struggles to end it. 🔎 Zoom in: South Korea — recently hailed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a "model ally" — is the latest and most surprising casualty in Trump's retribution campaign. On Sunday, Trump ordered the Pentagon to "substantially reduce" an annual military exercise, citing the cost and his "very good relationship" with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Trump noted in his Truth Social announcement that he "recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, 'No thanks!'" For years, Europe has borne the brunt of Trump's assault on American alliances. As the Iran war has widened those transatlantic fractures, his pressure campaign has become more systematic. Bloomberg reports the Pentagon sent NATO allies a survey probing their loyalty to Trump's foreign policy as it weighs where to keep — or withdraw — U.S. troops. Between the lines: Allies that departed from that submissive posture have already paid a price. The Pentagon moved in May to withdraw roughly 5,000 troops from Germany after Chancellor Friedrich Merz publicly savaged Trump's Iran strategy. Trump threatened to cut off all trade with Spain after Madrid denied U.S. base access for strikes on Iran. Even Oman — the key intermediary trying to broker a Hormuz deal — is now in Trump's crosshairs. He threatened yesterday to "bomb the sh*t out of" the longtime U.S. partner if it "gets in the way" of an agreement with Iran. 🔭 Zoom out: The same war fueling Trump's fury at U.S. allies is also exposing the limits of American hard power. The 60-day deadline Trump and Iran set for a final peace deal expired yesterday with no agreement — and the two sides further apart than when they signed their June memorandum of understanding. The Strait of Hormuz remains a stubborn monument to that impasse after months of U.S. military and economic pressure. The Navy is pulling the USS George Washington from the western Pacific to relieve the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln, temporarily leaving Asia without a U.S. carrier.

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Trump dwarfs his predecessors in the number of ultra-rich in his second White House, report shows The number of people worth at least $100 million whom the Republican president has appointed to his administration is more than four times the combined total under the three previous presidents, according to a report from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. Read more.

Why this matters: In all, 57 Trump officials are worth at least $100 million, including 17 ambassadors and the remaining 40 in senior posts across the executive branch. The president, himself a billionaire, has described his inclination toward appointing the ultrawealthy as deference to financial success. And yet, Trump, who owes his White House comeback to support from middle-income, working Americans drawn to his pledge to lower everyday costs, now faces a midterm election electorate decidedly less keen on his handling of the economy.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump administration briefly pauses contentious border project in Texas’ Big Bend National Park  Trump focuses on violent crime reduction as he boosts GOP candidates at New York police academy  US school vaccination rates inch down yet again and exemptions reach record high  Florida holds primaries for governor and Congress, testing Trump’s grip on adopted state  2 Dan Sullivans face off in Alaska’s US Senate primary, which also features a former congresswoman

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Trump threatens Oman as it works with Iran on a Strait of Hormuz deal Iran said it has reached an agreement with Oman over a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump told Fox News that the U.S. would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way.” Fully reopening the waterway has been a key U.S. demand. Read more.

Why this matters: This is not the first time that Trump has threatened Oman. In May, he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.” Meanwhile, the 60-day negotiating period to find a peace deal between the United States and Iran was expiring, with no word of an extension and both sides seemingly as far apart as they were at the start.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Where things stand as deadline for an Iran peace deal passes The ripple effects of the Iran war could threaten education for millions of kids around the world Marathon US-Israel meeting produces no firm commitment to American plan for Gaza Trump’s slight of South Korea in favor of the North raises broader US security concerns

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Judge blocks the Trump administration from moving FBI headquarters to DC office building The decision found that the administration illegally tossed out a previously approved plan to build a new facility nearby in Maryland, picked during former President Joe Biden’s administration. Trump’s appointees sought to repurpose the Ronald Reagan Building instead. Read more.

Why this matters: The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong battle over the FBI’s main office. The suit was brought by the state of Maryland and Prince George’s County. “This is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective for American taxpayers,” the FBI said in a statement. “The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Justice Department watchdog to review DEA tactic that permitted deadly fentanyl to hit streets DOJ creates a new pathway to restore gun rights for some convicted of felonies Supreme Court again rebuffs Trump’s push to toss out $5 million verdict in E. Jean Carroll case SCOTUS asked to review Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments in public schools