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

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⚖️ Trump's lousy day

President Trump was handed a trio of bad news rulings by judges yesterday:

1. His $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund was blocked from moving forward for the time being by a federal judge.
2. He was ordered by a different federal judge to respond to "grievous" accusations that his settlement with the IRS, which led to the creation of his anti-weaponization fund, was "premised on deception."
3. His name was ordered to be removed from the Kennedy Center, with a D.C. district judge declaring, "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."

Excerpt of President Trump's response to the Kennedy Center ruling. Screenshot: Truth Social

In a Truth Social post, Trump indicated he may abandon the Kennedy Center effort. The administration has not given its next steps on the fund battle.

🎸 Outside of court, a sixth performer withdrew from the Freedom 250 concert series over concerns about the event's partisan tilt.

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📱 What Trump's thinking

Here are two of President Trump's Truth Social posts from this weekend. Why it matters: We have every reason to believe these are his direct, unfiltered words. So nothing better captures his mind. 12:35 a.m. ET today: Screenshot from Truth Social After Trump visited Walter Reed last week, the White House released a three-page doctor's letter saying the president, who turns 80 in two weeks, "remains in excellent health" at 238 pounds: "Preventive counseling was provided, including guidance on diet, recommendation to take a low-dose aspirin, increased physical activity, and continued weight loss." 7:03 p.m. ET yesterday: Screenshot from Truth Social Freedom 250 (the Trump-created group, which is separate from the congressionally established America250) announced yesterday that after the spate of cancellations by musical acts, "As the visionary behind the Great American State Fair, we are excited to announce that President Trump will personally kick off this historic celebration on Wednesday, June 24 in an opening ceremony celebrating America's 250th birthday."

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As the Pentagon pushes for battlefield AI, some military leaders urge caution The Trump administration is pushing to use artificial intelligence in the U.S. military even as it faces calls for caution from some companies and military leaders. Adm. Frank Bradley of U.S. Special Operations Command emphasized in recent remarks at a conference in Florida that troops “have to be very careful" about use of AI when it comes to deadly strikes. He says he can see a future where AI determines what targets to hit but that humans have to ensure that it would “deliver violence only where we intend it to be delivered.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pushing for rapid AI integration, clashing with Anthropic over safety concerns. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Capitol rioters clamor for payouts from Trump’s new ‘anti-weaponization’ fund despite backlash Judge temporarily blocks payouts from Trump’s $1.776 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ settlement fund  Photos show protesters and ICE agents clashing outside a New Jersey detention center  ICE officer wanted in the shooting of a man during the Minneapolis crackdown is arrested in Texas  Louisiana enacts new congressional districts in a bid to give the GOP another seat Federal judge says New Hampshire must make it easier to prove citizenship when registering to vote Bondi refuses to answer lawmakers’ questions about Trump’s involvement in Epstein files release US strike on an alleged drug boat kills 3 in the eastern Pacific Ocean in fourth attack this week US and China trade journalist expulsions in tit-for-tat moves In a California Chinese enclave, a mayor’s guilty plea stokes fears of Beijing’s influence  Former head of Iowa school district sentenced to 2 years for falsely claiming to be a US citizen Kenya court suspends US plan for Ebola quarantine facility for Americans White House moves to give political appointees more power over federal grants Trump tells agencies to align with study calling for narrower childhood vaccine recommendations Trump vents about judge who blocked the Kennedy Center renovation America In Focus: Inflation gauge hits multiyear high as American consumer confidence slides Trump claims he’s making food more affordable but his examples ignore the big picture Trump to headline ‘Great American State Fair’ for nation’s 250th anniversary after artists drop out Trump’s physician says the president is in ‘excellent health’ and is ‘fully fit’ to serve

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DHS to Sell ICE Barbie’s Mile-High Boudoir

After spending billions on planes and detention facilities, DHS is now considering whether it needs them at all.

The Trump administration is eyeing a fire sale of some of Kristi Noem’s most controversial purchases.

During her stint as Homeland Security secretary, Noem spent an estimated $40 billion acquiring giant detention warehouses to expand ICE’s capacity to hold up to 100,000 migrants at a time and purchasing aircraft, including a luxury Boeing 737 Max 8.

The customized jet became one of the most controversial symbols of her tenure after reports revealed it featured a private boudoir.

Now, under new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, officials are considering selling off some of those same assets, according to NBC News.

Photographs showed the private jet outfitted with a queen-sized bed, mirrored wardrobe, kitchen, living area, showers, multiple large televisions, and a custom red, white, and blue paint job.

A DHS spokesperson previously told the Daily Beast that the plane—which was earmarked for deportation flights—was also needed for Cabinet-level travel, and that it was cheaper than using a military plane to carry out deportations.

However, DHS most often uses chartered flights rather than military ones.

The jet also became caught up in the controversy surrounding Noem and former adviser Corey Lewandowski. The pair have denied being romantically involved, despite persistent speculation.

A New York magazine exposé in October 2025 reported that a relationship between the pair was “widely understood” in Washington, with one FEMA official describing it as the “worst-kept secret in D.C.”

Their travels generated a steady stream of gossip, including reports that a pilot was fired and later rehired over a supposedly missing blanket, which some officials suspected was actually a cover story for a misplaced bag.

Now the luxury aircraft appears to be just one item on a sweeping—and expensively acquired—list of assets up for sale.

ICE has also reportedly identified several warehouses purchased under Noem that could be sold off, though officials stressed to NBC that no final decisions have been made.

The facilities were obtained in a $38 billion acquisition and retrofitting program intended to create enough detention space to hold 100,000 migrants at a time.

The Daily Beast reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the White House for comment.

DHS officials told NBC that ICE no longer believes it needs that level of detention capacity, representing a remarkable retreat from one of the most ambitious components of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.The so-called mega-warehouses sparked fierce opposition in communities across the country.

Maryland successfully sued to block a proposed facility near Hagerstown, while Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker publicly criticized plans for another warehouse in his state.

A lawsuit filed by the city of Social Circle, Georgia, alleged ICE paid more than five times a property’s assessed value to acquire a warehouse there.

“We are a quaint, small Southern town, and this would triple the population overnight and have all kinds of strain on our water and sewer infrastructure,” city manager Eric Taylor told NBC.

Taylor welcomed reports that ICE might be backing away from the project but remained skeptical.

“That’s great news,” he said. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dhs-to-sell-ice-barbie-kristi-noems-mile-high-boudoir/?

ps:What a pathetic administration!!!!!

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Trump Lashes Out at Pope Leo for Meeting With His Foe

The president wasn’t happy to see who was on the pope’s agenda.

President Donald Trump hit out at Pope Leo XIV on Saturday after seeing photos of the pontiff meeting with Brandon Johnson, the mayor of the pope’s hometown of Chicago.

“Someone should explain to the Pope that the Mayor of Chicago is useless, and that Iran cannot have a Nuclear Weapon! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the 79-year-old commander-in-chief wrote on Truth Social in the midst of a prolific stretch of posting.

The president also posted some of the mayor’s own photos from the trip, suggesting he’s lurking on social media to monitor his political rivals.

Johnson took a large delegation of leaders with him on his trip to Rome this week, and met with Leo at the Vatican on Thursday.

The mayor, 50, gifted the Supreme Pontiff a box of various Chicago goodies, including hats from the Cubs and the White Sox, a key to the city, and local Chicago honey.

Johnson, who appeared to be sending a message to Trump with his gift for the pope, which also included a hat that read “Immigrants Make America Greater” and a sanctuary city pin.

The gift also reportedly included letters from families of detained migrants, and a pin from one of the city’s “ICE Watch” groups.

Johnson and Trump have been feuding for months now. The president is furious that the 50-year-old politician has not cooperated with ICE operations in Chicago and claims he has endangered officers.

In October, Trump vented wildly about Johnson and Illinois governor JB Pritzker on Truth Social.

“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!” Trump wrote without providing any evidence to support his allegation. “Governor Pritzker also!”

Johnson’s city clapped back in the winter, naming a snow plow “Abolish ICE” in a citywide naming competition. (They also named one “Stephen Coldbert,” and another “Pope Frio XIV.”)

The pope, too, has been caught up in the president’s various feuds—and has used his platform to denounce the war in Iran, and warn against tyrannical government and excessive wealth accumulation.

In April, Leo tried to distance himself from comments that seemed to be a direct criticism of Trump, but he has since waded back in.

Just hours after the Justice Department announced it was lifting a moratorium on federal capital punishment and readopting firing squad executions, the pope posted a video message condemning the decision.

“The Catholic Church has consistently taught that each human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is sacred and deserves to be protected,” Leo said.

Leo has also spoken out about the invasion of Venezuela and the treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration.

On X on Friday, Johnson posted a series of photos of himself and the pope and wrote: “It was an honor to share time with a magnificent human, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, yesterday.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-lashes-out-at-pope-leo-for-meeting-with-chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson/?

ps:Unbelievable how pathetic this little man is!!!!!

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Dem Star Busted Sexting Other Women by Own Wife

Graham Platner’s wife is now ripping his campaign aide for betraying them both.

A rising Democratic star in Maine with his sights set on a crucial Senate seat was exposed by his own wife for sexting other women.

Amy Gertner, the wife of Democratic senatorial candidate Graham Platner, told a senior campaign aide about the sexting when her husband was beginning his race to unseat vulnerable GOP Senator Susan Collins last summer.

Genevieve McDonald, who was the campaign’s political director until last October, revealed that Gertner told her last year that her husband had been sending sexually explicit messages to as many as a dozen women.

A current campaign official has said that Platner ended the sexting before his campaign began.

Now Gertner says she and her husband were both betrayed—apparently by the campaign aide, McDonald. She said she told the aide about the sexting under pressure for a vetting process so that the campaign could be prepared for any damaging information that might arise.

She characterized the revelation of that sensitive information as an invasion of privacy, and said she was “deeply hurt” by the betrayal.

“I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend,” Gertner said in a statement released by the Platner campaign. “I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives—the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our mind.” She added that her “marriage today is stronger than ever before.”

Gertner, who married her husband in late 2023, noted in a video she posted on social media Saturday that she and her husband are both in therapy and attending couples counseling to work through their issues, including her husband’s struggles with his “violent” past.

Platner, 41, a Marine Corps veteran and ex-Army infantryman, served four tours overseas—three in Iraq as a Marine and another in Afghanistan as part of the Maryland Army National Guard.

Now, Gertner complained in her video, certain “media outlets” are transfixed by the sexting and ignoring the political issues of the race, like “healthcare and education and childcare.”

She added: “I want everyone to know Graham and I have a great marriage,” though she noted that “marriage is hard.”

Being “newly married is hard,” she emphasized. “Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married, going through infertility and a Senate campaign is hard."

But to go after the couple’s marriage is “extra sh---y,” Gertner added, because what people really care about is “affordable gas” and to be “able to see their doctor when they’re sick” and to “send their kids to a nice school,” and to safely raise their families.

Gertner called it a “waste of time” to attack her husband when “all he’s trying to do is improve the lives of people who work for a living.”

Platner, a charismatic yet down-to-earth progressive Democrat, exploded on the political scene last year. But the political novice has faced questions and concerns about several issues, including deleted Reddit posts about sex workers, and he has admitted to covering up a Nazi-linked tattoo.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/democratic-star-graham-platner-busted-sexting-other-women-by-own-wife/?

ps:Here's another pathetic human being!!!!!

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Trump is facing a new inflation warning from the bond market, adding to his midterm challenges The world is getting more uptight about lending money to President Donald Trump’s government. The energy price spike triggered by the Iran war has seeped into the price of bonds that help fund the U.S. government. That's caused interest rates to climb in ways that are worsening affordability pressures. Read more.

Why this matters: Trump has tried to assure Americans that he has a plan to trim the roughly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit. However economists say Trump’s strategies are unlikely to deliver the promised results.   Higher interest rates make it harder to buy or renovate a home, afford a new car or manage credit card debt. And the rising rates are giving Democratic candidates another line of attack to use in November’s midterm elections at a time when voters are already concerned about high costs for food and gas.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Jerome Powell warns against political pressure on Fed, courts and schools   Judge to decide if a key hearing for the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk will be public   Congress has taken on Epstein. But lawmakers and survivors are still searching for accountability   Platner’s wife calls news coverage of Senate hopeful’s sexually explicit texts with women ‘shameful’   Iowa Democrats hoping to flip a US Senate seat are torn over which of 2 hopefuls has the best shot   Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms show off head start in Georgia as Republicans battle in runoff    Newark mayor imposes curfew around Delaney Hall after clashes over immigration detention center   WATCH: NYC Mayor Mamdani skips annual parade celebrating Israel

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Trump’s War Story Blown Up by Jaw-Dropping New Evidence

New findings undercut the president’s claims.

Iranian strikes have caused greater damage to U.S. military assets in the Middle East than the Trump administration is willing to admit.

Analysis by the BBC, published Monday, reveals that attacks by the Islamic Republic have cost billions of dollars in damage to at least 20, and possibly as many as 28, American military sites across eight countries in the region since Donald Trump launched his war on Iran at the end of February.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that U.S. forces have “destroyed,” “obliterated,” and “shattered” the regime’s military capabilities. The Pentagon has meanwhile tried to limit assessments of the impact on U.S. assets by pressuring Planet, a major satellite-imaging provider, to restrict public access to new images of the region.

The BBC says it was still able to carry out its analysis by using “satellite imagery from other international providers combined with older images from Planet to track the damage caused by Iranian attacks.” Pentagon officials declined to respond to the findings, for “operational security reasons.”

The broadcaster lists “three state-of-the-art anti-ballistic missile batteries systems” in Jordan and the UAE among the U.S. assets that Iran has targeted over the past several months.

“The U.S. is only known to operate eight of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries, which are deployed at bases around the globe and cost around $1bn to manufacture,” the BBC writes. “Each battery needs a crew of about 100 troops to operate it while the interceptors it fires cost around $12.7 operationaln per round.”

Iranian strikes have also “heavily” damaged “refueling and surveillance aircraft” in Saudi Arabia, as well as “fuel storage bunkers, aircraft hangars and troop accommodation” in Kuwait.

The BBC notes that the Pentagon has, at latest count, put the cost of Operation Epic Fury, as Trump has dubbed his war with Iran, at $29 billion. Democratic lawmakers have slammed those figures as an underestimate.

Trump declared the conflict “over” in early May. A ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, technically still holds, but has come under mounting strain as talks between Washington and Iran have failed to yield terms for a lasting peace.

Iran has also yet to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway in the Persian Gulf that transports a fifth of global oil supply each year. Its closure since February has sent gas prices skyrocketing, with the national average price per gallon in the U.S. hitting $4.33 last month.

The Pentagon said on Monday it had carried out “self-defense strikes” on Iranian targets in the south of the country over the weekend in response to the downing of a high-powered drone over international waters. Iran said it had in turn targeted the air base from which those strikes had originated, without naming it.

The latest flare-up has again drawn in Kuwait, where on Saturday, Iranian ballistic missiles targeted the U.S.-operated Ali Al Salem Air Base. Air defenses intercepted the strike, but five people, including U.S. service members and civilian contractors, were wounded by falling debris.

Trump, as reports of those injuries began to emerge, was spotted heading out to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. He has not yet publicly commented on the attack.

The president did however send out a virulent Truth Social post later that evening, lambasting CNN over its coverage of his peace negotiations with Iran.

“Fake News CNN said today, routinely, that my Iran Nuclear Deal doesn’t talk about Nuclear, when actually it states, very clearly, that Iran will not have a Nuclear Weapon,” he wrote.

He then confusingly added of the network’s segment, which was specifically about the nuclear aspects of any prospective deal: “It then goes on, in strong and lengthy detail, to discuss various other aspects of Nuclear. In fact, that’s what most of the agreement is about.”

Trump put out a follow-up post around 1 a.m. on Monday, complaining that negative coverage of the negotiations is somehow making it harder for him to reach an agreement with Iran.

“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us,” he wrote. “But don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively “chirping,” at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever.”

He then signed off with a call for all pundits to find a way of chilling out about the conflict. “Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end,” Trump said. “It always does!”

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

“We do not discuss battle damage assessments for operation security reasons,” a Department of Defense spokesman said. “Our forces remain fully operational, and we continue to execute our mission with the same readiness and combat effectiveness.”

The White House did not immediately respond.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-war-story-blown-up-by-bombshell-new-evidence/?

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

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Why Trump’s Pathetic Circus Act Is Falling Apart

“It feeds the correct view that I think is spreading among more and more and more people that, wow, he’s kind of incompetent, isn’t he?” Kurt Andersen said.

Journalist and author Kurt Andersen says Donald Trump’s entertainment-style “circus” persona may no longer resonate with the public.

“This guy is entertaining,” Andersen told The Daily Beast Podcast host Joanna Coles, speaking about the 79-year-old president, noting that many young people voted for Trump because he is “unlike other politicians” and “shakes it up.”

Yet the Fantasyland author, who for years has examined the forces behind Trump’s rise to power in the United States, said the president’s main source of influence—the entertainment value of his unconventional political style, including unfiltered social media posts and controversial remarks—may be fading.One example, Andersen said, of the president’s waning influence is his recent proposal for a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” intended to compensate people who claim they were politically targeted. The plan was blocked on Friday and was not supported by many in his own party, who urged him to drop it.

Andersen notes that the fund represents a significant failure for the entertainment-oriented president, but argues that what may be more damaging to his reputation is his difficulty even with “inconsequential stuff,” such as the Great American State Fair, a festival scheduled to run on the National Mall between June 25 and July 10, which has been thrown into doubt after the president suggested replacing it with a MAGA rally.

After the majority of artists dropped out of the concert, even conservative commentator Megyn Kelly admitted the shrinking lineup was a “disaster.”

As a solution, on Saturday, the president took to Truth Social to “order” that he be the main act at his Freedom 250 celebration. In a post written in the third person, he described himself as “the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar.”

However, it appears that some MAGA insiders still have no idea what is happening, as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum admitted on State of the Union on Sunday that he does not know whether the concert will be canceled and replaced by a rally headlined by the president.

“It feeds the correct view that I think is spreading among more and more and more people that, wow, he’s kind of incompetent, isn’t he?” Anderesen said.

Polls have shown Trump losing support largely over the economy, made worse by the war with Iran, which appears not to be coming to a close despite the president’s repeated promises. A May Politico survey found that 53 percent of Americans say the cost of living is the worst they can remember, up from 46 percent recorded in November.

“I think that’s what makes people anxious,” Coles told Andersen, mentioning rising prices, to which Andersen replied: “Correct.”

“Bread and circuses,” the author told Coles, explaining that leaders have been putting on a “circus” long before Trump came into power, but that this is only “fine if you’ve got the bread.”

“Just the circus alone, and giant ballrooms for rich people, and giant tax benefits for rich people, and giant crypto scams for rich people. While I can’t afford meat at the grocery store, that doesn’t go down so well,” Andersen added.

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-trumps-pathetic-circus-act-is-falling-apart/?

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Trump’s 1AM War Brag Blows Up in His Face

The president has been pushing for a deal, but Iran halted talks to end the war.

Iran has suspended talks with the U.S. to end the war over Israel’s bombing of Lebanon despite President Donald Trump’s claims overnight that Tehran desperately wanted to reach a deal.

The semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim reported the new setback on Monday.

“Given the continuation of the Israeli regime’s attacks in Lebanon, and considering that Lebanon had been one of the preconditions for a ceasefire—which has now been violated on all fronts, including Lebanon—the Iranian negotiating team is suspending ‘talks and exchanges of texts through mediators,’” Tasnim reported.

Iran has long stated that its willingness to reach a peace deal with the U.S. was also contingent on Israel’s activities in Lebanon and Gaza.

Just after 1 am ET, the president boasted in a Truth Social post: “Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us.”

He went on to attack Democrats and “various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans” for making it harder for him to negotiate an agreement with “negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before.”

“Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end—It always does!” Trump claimed in his post.

The Israeli government ordered strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday after its ground forces advanced further into Lebanon over the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the strikes were against “terrorist targets” in Beirut.

Israel accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire in Lebanon with attacks on Israeli cities and said it had instructed the IDF to strike targets in the Dahia Quarter of Beirut in response.

But Iran’s foreign minister said in a post on Monday that the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is “unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon.

“Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.

Netanyahu is a close ally of Trump, and the two countries initially launched the strikes against Iran at the end of February together, but as the president hopes to wrap up his war with Iran after more than three months, it has put a strain on the relationship with Israel.

In early April, Trump confirmed he had urged Netanyahu to pull back his strikes on Lebanon as the president was attempting to maintain a ceasefire agreement with Iran. He said the prime minister was going to be “a little more low-key” at the time.

According to multiple reports since the war began, Israel has expressed numerous concerns as the U.S. has come close to reaching a “bad” deal with Iran.

In a separate post late on Sunday, Trump raged at the coverage of negotiations and insisted that his deal “actually it states, very clearly, that Iran will not have a Nuclear Weapon” and claimed, “that’s what most of the agreement is about.”

The Daily Beast asked the White House for comment on the latest setback.

Meanwhile, the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran remains fragile. U.S. Central Command announced it had conducted “self-defense strikes” on Iranian radar and drone sites over the weekend in response to Iranian action, including shooting down a U.S. drone over international waters.

It also announced that late on Sunday, the U.S. successfully intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces in Kuwait.

“U.S. Central Command remains vigilant and will continue to protect our forces from Iranian aggression while supporting the ongoing ceasefire,” the post stated.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-1am-war-brag-blows-up-in-his-face/?

ps:What's new?

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Turn Off, Tune Out, Drop Out

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For once in his life, Donald Trump wishes he was getting less attention.

“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us,” the president posted this morning at 1:02. “But don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever.”

The first part of the post is wrong. Weeks of stalled negotiations indicate that the Iranian regime is in no rush to reach an agreement—and this morning, Tehran said it was pulling out of talks and would completely block the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon against Hezbollah, an Iranian ally. The United States, Iran, and Israel all launched strikes today.

Trump’s puffery and prevarication about the war are not new, but the second part of the post is more illuminating about his approach to governance. The president brings an odd combination of authoritarianism and hypersensitivity to the job. On the one hand, he wants to start, fight, and resolve wars without having to answer to Congress or the American people for it. On the other hand, he gets easily distracted and upset by their criticism.

The president’s agitation about pushback from Republicans is perplexing. As I wrote last week, recent primaries show that Trump’s iron grip on the GOP appears to be strengthening, even as the American public further sours on him. (One caveat is that Trump’s conquests of congressional Republican incumbents create a clique of legislators not beholden to him and possibly eager for payback.) Yet he seems very reactive to GOP commentary. Last weekend, he seemed to back off a rumored deal with Iran after attacks from hawkish allies including Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Now he’s fretting about public criticism again.

Members of Congress will always criticize a war that’s going poorly eventually, but Trump could have shored up support among loyal Republicans (and, to some extent, the public) had he sought congressional authorization or made a case for war to the American people. He declined because it was easier not to bother, but the vocal opposition to the war now is a reminder of how checks and balances can be a political benefit to a president, not just a restraint. The pushback hasn’t manifested in any kind of action—Republican leaders in Congress have so far abdicated their right to be involved—but Trump is nonetheless upset that lawmakers are exercising their right to free speech.

Trump wants them to pipe down and go away. “Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!” he wrote in the same post. The past few days alone have offered ample reasons to doubt that. The Trump administration took over planning for the nation’s 250th birthday, installed poorly qualified commissars, and the result—as my colleague David Frum wrote yesterday—is a fiasco. The lineup for a splashy concert turned out to be a mix of has-beens and retreads, and even then many of them pulled out, leading Trump to say this weekend that he may pull the plug and just host a political rally instead.

Over the weekend, Trump also saw a blow to his planned Kennedy Center takeover. He promised that his overhaul of (and addition of his own name to) the arts institution would make it stronger. A few months later, as his plan failed, he announced his intention to shutter the center for two years. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that Trump had to remove his name and couldn’t close the center—though, as my colleague Janay Kingsberry reports, it’s not clear what is left to stay open, and Trump is threatening to walk away from it altogether.

Trump’s attempts to secure a $1.8 billion fund from the Treasury for payouts to his political pals, to redress supposed “weaponization” of the federal government, may be going even worse. To make that happen (and to avoid a judge blocking it), Trump aides hastily engineered a deal that sidelined government lawyers and took some advisers by surprise. Now it’s facing blowback from Congress and doubts from inside the White House, and two judges on Friday issued rulings calling the fund into question. Axios reported this afternoon that according to two senior administration officials, the White House intends to drop its plans for the fund entirely.

That brings us back to Iran, where few indications forecast success. The White House teased and then pulled back deals several times in the past few weeks. Trump held a meeting in the Situation Room on Friday that he promised would result in a “final determination” on Iran, but it ended without a resolution and seems to have been totally overtaken by events. In an interview with his own daughter-in-law Lara on Fox News over the weekend, Trump said that “we’ve actually left their military alone. People would be surprised to hear that.” They surely would, because Trump has repeatedly claimed to have destroyed most Iranian military capacity. Trump said in the same interview that if he didn’t get a good deal, he’d “finish the job” with military might.

Trump can’t get his talking points straight now. This afternoon, the president told CNBC’s Eamon Javers that he didn’t care whether talks were over, saying, “I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less. If they’re over, they’re over. If they’re not, you know, I think they took too much time.” Not long after, he posted that “talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Today’s hostilities could be a sign of the larger conflict that Trump threatened, or just more evidence of how tenuous the supposed cease-fire in place is. Either way, the fact that so many big initiatives are heading in inauspicious directions explains why Trump doesn’t want people paying too much attention—and doesn’t offer a lot of reasons for anyone to relax and take his assurances that everything will work out fine.

Related:

• The war Trump can’t end
• Trump’s 250th celebration is a fiasco.

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☎️ Trump rages at Netanyahu

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis and Win McNamee/Getty Images.

President Trump lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel's escalation in Lebanon during an expletive-laden call yesterday, Axios' Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo report. Summarizing Trump's remarks to Netanyahu, a U.S. official said: "You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this." A second source briefed on the call said Trump was "pissed" and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: "What the @#$% are you doing?"

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⏱️ "60 Minutes" blowback

Nick Bilton, the new executive producer of "60 Minutes," faces a crisis of confidence as senior CBS News staffers openly rebuke his appointment amid broader backlash to changes at the show and network, Axios media expert Sara Fischer writes.

• Why it matters: "60 Minutes" has spent more than 50 consecutive seasons as the top-rated news program in the country. Insiders credit its insular culture within CBS News with preserving its editorial sanctity.

Longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley told Bilton yesterday that he had "slender" qualifications for his role, and that the program was being "murdered" by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, the N.Y. Times reports.

• The exchange occurred during Bilton's first meeting with members of the "60 Minutes" team in New York City.

The intrigue: A source familiar with the network's inner workings said Bilton reached out to Pelley directly before the meeting, but his outreach went unanswered.

• Keep reading …

ps:This is what happens when idiots are put in charge, or should I say geniuses!!!!!

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Republican senators want more answers on $1.8 billion settlement fund as Trump considers its future Senate Republicans will meet Tuesday to discuss next steps in a standoff with the White House. The discussion comes after the Justice Department said it would comply with a court order pausing the implementation of a settlement fund designed to compensate President Donald Trump’s political allies. Read more.

Why this matters: Trump is reconsidering whether to move forward with the $1.8 billion fund, a person familiar with his thinking said Monday.   The extraordinary standoff comes after Trump announced the fund with no heads up to lawmakers as part of a settlement to resolve his lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. When word of the settlement broke, the Senate halted progress on legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies.     Senate Republicans want more information from the Trump administration about the future of the fund, which could go to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ How Trump has used the presidency to benefit himself and his allies   WATCH: Tensions over the ‘anti-weaponization’ fund explained   Pentagon bars journalists from its press office, saying it has become a ‘classified space’   Pentagon policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, appeals court panel rules   California holds crowded primary in race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom   LA Mayor Karen Bass, acknowledging mistakes, angles for second term in struggling city   Sen. Bernie Sanders stands by Graham Platner after controversy over sexually explicit texts   Iowa Democrats to settle a tense Senate primary as the party looks to flip GOP seats this fall   What to watch in Tuesday’s primaries   Colorado elections clerk released from prison after governor commutes sentence   US to drastically slash the number of embassies in Africa that can process visas

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Trump’s Fury Over Humiliating Music Event Disaster Revealed

Almost all of the originally announced acts have pulled out of the upcoming D.C. shows.

Donald Trump is so furious at how his Freedom 250 concerts have already flopped that he wants people fired, according to a report.

A White House source told the Daily Mail that the 79-year-old president is irate at how much he has been embarrassed by “Z-list” celebrities pulling out of the shows celebrating America’s 250th birthday at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between June 25 and July 10.

While several musical artists were announced for the shows, almost all of them—including the Commodores, Morris Day, Poison frontman Bret Michaels, Young MC, and headliner Martina McBride—have announced they will not be performing, claiming they were duped into believing it was a nonpartisan event rather than one organized by Trump loyalists.

The situation surrounding the concerts had gotten so bad that Trump threatened to “cancel it” and make himself a headliner at a hastily organized rally in D.C. later this month instead.

“Allowing Z-list celebrities to embarrass the president like this, in a world where actual celebrities like Jason Aldean and Nicki Minaj actually support him, isn’t just embarrassing, it’s grossly negligent, and firings are coming,” a White House insider told the Daily Mail.

“It’s a circular firing squad over there. Some artists hadn’t even been contractually locked down before the announcements were made.”

Fab Morvan, the surviving member of the lip-syncing ’80s pop duo Milli Vanilli, was the latest artist to confirm they would be pulling out of the event.

“Throughout the week, it turned into a circus. And this is not what I signed for,” Morvan told CNN on Monday. “I’m not into politics. So you hear it first here. I’m not attending [the] celebration.”Morvan added that his concerns were first raised when rapper Young MC pulled out of the event just hours after the bill was announced, claiming “artists were never told about any political involvement” with the shows.

A source familiar with planning the Freedom 250 events desperately tried to suggest that the artists had no intention of performing and announced they were pulling out to embarrass Trump.

“They have been irrelevant for years, and my theory is that they just wanted their 15 minutes of fame. It was a publicity stunt,” they told the Daily Mail.

“We’ll get the money back. We could force them to play—we’ve already paid them, they are under contract—but it’s not worth it,” the source added.

In a typical Truth Social meltdown, Trump suggested the artists who pulled out got the “yips” and that he could headline the event instead, as he gets “much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar.”

Vanilla Ice, who has played Mar-a-Lago multiple times, Flo Rida, and C+C Music Factory are the only remaining acts from the original lineup still scheduled to perform at the Freedom 250 shows.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-fury-over-humiliating-freedom-250-music-event-disaster-revealed/?

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Trump taps housing regulator Pulte to be acting director of national intelligence

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as acting director of national intelligence — elevating a real estate scion with no clear national security credentials to a key post as the U.S. remains at war with Iran.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-pulte-gabbard-national-intelligence-281fd6ba9992487dc701768803f9c475?

Trump administration is scrapping $1.8B fund meant to compensate president’s allies, Blanche says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is scrapping plans for a $1.8 billion fund that would have compensated allies of the Republican president, the Justice Department’s top official said Tuesday in retreating from a program that faced a fierce political backlash that had threatened to stall key elements of the White House agenda.

https://apnews.com/article/blanche-fund-justice-department-january-6-c06a4aa4a1052055bc67c4a0a54984e3?

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Trump signs more relaxed AI order

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios President Trump signed a narrowed executive order on AI and cybersecurity today, Ashley Gold and Maria Curi report. The surprise move comes after Trump nixed another version with stricter requirements, saying it could hurt American competitiveness. 🥫 The new order lets the White House kick the can down the road while it considers new rules for cutting-edge AI models and what to do about their cybersecurity risks. "Advanced AI capabilities make our Nation stronger, but also introduce new national security considerations that require coordinated action across executive departments and agencies, and components," the order says. "As these capabilities evolve, my Administration will continue to work closely with industry to ensure that the best and most secure technology is deployed rapidly to confront any and all threats to our country." 👾 Under the order, several federal agencies and White House officials must "develop and maintain a classified benchmarking process to assess the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models" and decide when a model should be treated as a "covered frontier model." National security agencies must also bolster their cybersecurity abilities and create a "cybersecurity clearinghouse." 👨‍💼 The intrigue: Former White House AI czar and current adviser David Sacks pushed for language in the new order prohibiting mandatory government licensing for new AI models, a knowledgeable source told us. Read Trump's order ...

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Intelligence Failure

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There are two reasonable reactions to the news that Bill Pulte has been named acting director of national intelligence: “Who?” and “Him?” Pulte, the current head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, will replace Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her departure last month after an unhappy and unempowered spell as the DNI.

Pulte is taking the post on an interim basis, becoming the latest administration official to do multiple jobs. In some cases, such as Marco Rubio’s dual roles as secretary of state and national security adviser, obvious connections exist between the jobs. In others, such as Rubio’s stint as the national archivist, they do not. Pulte is in the latter camp. Knowing how long he might be in the job is impossible. Donald Trump has in the past shown little eagerness to fill roles. He prefers to have loyalists on hand, and he might struggle to find anyone qualified who is willing to serve. Besides, the Senate, which has already been slow to confirm some appointees, is currently gummed up on other business.

Three things about Pulte are important to know: First, he has no apparent intelligence experience. Second, he is being assigned to fill an important government-coordination position, but his brief track record shows that he has a tendency to clash with and infuriate colleagues rather than work with them. Third, the most notable thing that Pulte does bring to the role is a demonstrated history of using sensitive government data for political retribution.

The law that established the DNI states that “any individual nominated for appointment as Director of National Intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise.” When Trump appointed Gabbard—a former Democratic member of Congress who endorsed him in 2024—she became by far the least-qualified person to ever hold the job. Pulte somehow has fewer qualifications; Gabbard was at least a member of Congress. (On the plus side, he’s never been accused of lying about conversations with foreign dictators or being a Russian asset, unlike her.)

Trump’s announcement of Pulte’s assignment conspicuously did not cite any relevant work, and The New York Times delicately notes that Pulte “has no known experience for a national security role.” Some intelligence work is necessarily secret, but given that Pulte is just 38 years old and has a well-documented work history, past clandestine work seems unlikely. Trump may see a bit of himself in Pulte: the young scion of a real-estate family (the Pultes are major home builders) who has boundless confidence in his own abilities. That approach has not been working well for Trump recently.

This shallow experience is particularly concerning given the reason the job exists. The DNI was created as part of post-9/11 reforms to the intelligence community. Inquiries including the work of the 9/11 Commission found that intelligence agencies not sharing information with one another had contributed to the failure to prevent the attacks. The DNI was designed to sit atop all of the agencies, including the CIA and the NSA, and ensure their coordination (although critics of the current structure have argued that it needs more power).

If the goal is for top officials to work together, Pulte is not a promising person to make that happen. One of the most notable incidents involving Pulte during this administration was when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent heard that Pulte was badmouthing him to Trump and tried to fight Pulte. “Why the fuck are you talking to the president about me? Fuck you,” Bessent said, according to Politico. Even cooler-headed intelligence officials may not be enthused about taking direction from a young, unqualified political appointee.

The one area in which Pulte has shown actual skill is the use of government information to launch retribution campaigns against Trump’s political enemies. Using agency data, Pulte launched mortgage-fraud investigations into Senator Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, and Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. (James was charged, but a judge threw out the case because she found that the acting U.S. attorney involved had not been lawfully appointed, and a grand jury declined to bring new charges. Cook accused Pulte of cherry-picking data; after Trump fired her, she sued, and the Supreme Court has not issued a final ruling, but lower courts ruled against Trump. Schiff denied wrongdoing and has not been charged; Cook remains on the board.) Reuters reported that two members of Pulte’s family have filed housing claims similar to the ones for which he investigated Cook.

Last year, the Government Accountability Office opened an investigation into whether Pulte had improperly used mortgage data. And top Fannie Mae officials were fired after they complained that a Pulte aide had improperly shared data from the federal housing lender with a competitor.

The efforts to investigate Schiff, James, and Cook are all troubling, and more so if federal data were used improperly. So far, these efforts seem to have mostly come up short, either for lack of evidence or for other procedural failures by the Trump administration. But as the DNI, Pulte would have much greater access to sensitive data, creating the opportunity for far greater abuses than anything alleged during his time at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and he could pursue Trump’s revenge against anyone involved in investigating his ties to Russia. It’s hard not to suspect that that’s the reason Trump has chosen someone otherwise so unqualified for the job.

Related:

• Trump’s strange choice for director of national intelligence
• Tulsi Gabbard takes the exit ramp.

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Scott Pelley fired from ‘60 Minutes,’ deepening turmoil at CBS News

CBS News fired longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday, a day after he reportedly said Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was “murdering the show” and accused its new producer of having “slender qualifications” for the job.

https://apnews.com/article/cbs-news-60-minutes-pelley-fired-db75daea29a1996f9db5e7951e6f5064?

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Secret White House Crisis Leaks as Trump’s Agenda Unravels

Several of the administration’s priorities have been shelved because of Trump’s obsession with one topic.

President Donald Trump’s agenda is unraveling in real time because of his obsession with his growing quagmire in Iran, insiders have revealed.

A host of campaign promises have been shelved because of the focus on the conflict, which has entered its fourth month. Insiders have now said there’s a pervasive sense of “burnout,” and some wonder if a staff shake-up would inject a newfound rigor into the executive, according to Politico.

“The administration is all-consumed by this conflict. They’re pretty much in a funk with it—or fatigue—in that there’s nothing happening,” said one person close to the White House. “Even if there are wins, no one’s communicating them. There’s just no other play outside of—we are stuck in this quicksand of Iran.

“This is the first time that I’m even questioning, maybe he doesn’t have as much political capital as I thought he did, or they’re just not using it right in the right way.”

“You passed a Big Beautiful Bill. Crime is down. The border is secure,” another person close to the White House said. “They’re not out there selling what they’ve done.”

While Trump has tightened his hold on the GOP with the ousters of incumbent Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Senate Republicans remain no closer to passing the elections-focused SAVE America Act, which Trump has called his top legislative priority. Lawmakers have also yet to act on his push for bipartisan housing legislation or provide funding for his proposed White House ballroom project, including an underground bunker he argues is needed for security.

The administration also backed away Monday from its $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” following Republican resistance and a court setback handed down last week.

“Is this how MAGA ends—with a whimper, not a bang?” said Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist. He added, however, that “Texas shows that the president still has all the juice—it needs to be applied starting with Thune’s removal.”

John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, has stood in the way of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, much to the ire of Trump.

The president, meanwhile, continues to project a positive image. On Monday, he insisted that he was fine with Tehran’s decision to suspend talks with the U.S. after strikes hit Iranian targets.

“I don’t particularly want to talk either. We talk too much,” he told NBC News.

The White House, too, claims everything is fine. “President Trump can walk and chew gum at the same time,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly.

“It’s a shame that the media would rather push false ‘doom-and-gloom’ narratives than highlight all the administration is doing for families across the country, but President Trump remains focused on delivering on all of his promises for Americans while simultaneously ensuring Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-white-house-crisis-leaks-as-trumps-agenda-unravels/?

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Study Reveals Jaw-Dropping Cost of Trump’s War to U.S. Households

The deeply unpopular war in Iran has been a “big economic blow” for Americans.

A new study reveals the staggering cost of Donald Trump’s war in Iran on U.S. households.

Trump started the war in February without congressional approval. Since then, energy prices have spiked, and the war has no end in sight.

According to Moody’s Analytics, the war has cost U.S. households $100 billion overall so far. That amounts to nearly $750 a household.

That is mostly down to rising energy prices. According to AAA, the national average price for regular gasoline has climbed above $4.50 a gallon, topping $5 in seven states, following Trump’s decision to wage war in Iran and the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, oil prices have surged by about 35 percent.

Although Trump has brushed aside fears over rising prices—saying the rise in cost was “peanuts” in comparison to the threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon—polls have shown that the impact of rising prices is hitting U.S. households hard.

A May survey, conducted by Public First for Politico, found that 53 percent of Americans say the cost of living is the worst they can remember, up from the 46 percent recorded in November.

Mark Zandi, Moody’s chief economist, said in a post on X that the deeply unpopular war in Iran has been a “big economic blow” for Americans.

He added that the tax cuts in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill had cushioned some of the impact of the rising prices, until now.

“As of May 16, the bigger tax refunds Americans have received this year no longer cover the higher costs of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel caused by the war,” he wrote.

So overall, Zandi said, households are feeling more financial pressure—especially middle- and lower-income families who are already struggling.

“The financial pressure is thus mounting quickly, particularly on already hard-pressed middle and lower-income households,” he wrote.

It comes as the personal savings rate fell to 2.6 percent in April, down from 5.8 percent a year earlier, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, suggesting households are setting aside less money as prices rise.

For Zandi, the trend is concerning, particularly if fuel prices remain elevated. He said lower savings leave families with less of a financial cushion to absorb higher costs, forcing them to cut back on spending and potentially further slowing the economy.

“With the saving rate about as low as it ever goes, unless the war ends soon and energy prices come down, they will have little choice but to rein in their spending, weighing further on the already sagging economy,” he wrote.

The White House has insisted the price of energy will “plummet” once the Strait of Hormuz reopens.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told the Daily Beast: “The President remains laser focused on keeping the American people safe, lowering costs for working families, and making our country greater than ever before.

“President Trump has delivered thousands of dollars in tax relief for the average American family and brought oil and gas prices down to multi-year lows at record speed, and when the Strait of Hormuz fully opens, these energy prices will plummet once again.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/study-reveals-jaw-dropping-cost-of-trumps-iran-war-to-us-households/?

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Deep trouble

The Trump administration plans to dismantle a monitoring system that provides critical data on the world’s oceans. With record-breaking sea temperatures and an imminent super El Niño, experts are alarmed. ps:The ignorance is astounding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Trump, Reframed

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What’s a party without a little music? This year, the National Mall was meant to host a free summer concert series in celebration of the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding. Now President Trump may be replacing it with a different kind of performance: a supersize MAGA rally, with “Only Great Patriots invited.”

The concert series—which is still officially on, at the time of writing—had already been facing significant challenges before the president’s proposal on Saturday. First announced last Wednesday by a Trump-affiliated organization called Freedom 250, the event was set to feature nine musicians, at least six of whom have since dropped out. The rapper Young MC wrote that he was put off by the event’s “politically charged” nature; Celebrity Apprentice alumnus Bret Michaels called it “divisive”; and the country singer Martina McBride claimed that she’d been presented with a chance to celebrate America in a nonpartisan way, but “that turned out to be misleading.” (One wonders why these artists were so surprised: Freedom 250 does bill itself as nonpartisan, but it was created by Trump himself in an executive order.)

The president’s enjoinder to “cancel” the event was clearly a desperate bid to reframe an unfolding PR disaster. But it also revealed something about how Trump sees himself, and how he understands the role of art in bolstering his political project. In one post, he called himself “the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime.” Trump often talks about his own greatness, but here he’s nodding to  his capacity for showmanship, positioning art and politics as interchangeable arenas for promoting the MAGA agenda.

Take the Kennedy Center, which has been the primary site of Trump’s attacks on the arts during his second term in office. Last year, not long after his inauguration, he fired the members of the institution’s board who had been appointed by Joe Biden and replaced them with his own appointees. The new board elected Trump chairman of the Kennedy Center and voted to add his name to the building. (On Friday, a federal judge ruled that his name would need to be removed from the facade.) Trump has explicitly acknowledged his intent to remake an ostensibly nonpartisan stage in his own image: During his announcement of the Kennedy Center’s annual honorees last year, he said that “If we make it our kind of political,” the institution will see greater success. Many performers withdrew from planned shows over the institution’s new association with the president. Ticket sales plummeted. In February, Trump announced that the center would close for two years “in honor of the 250th Anniversary of our Country.” Instead of celebrating the occasion with music or dance, the building would fall silent.

Art is often political, and good art often creates controversy. But the White House isn’t simply curating performances and exhibitions that carry political meaning; it’s linking them to the president and his agenda. An executive order last year attempted to exert control over the exhibits at the Smithsonian museums, pushing the institution to promote “American greatness.” Amid the cost-cutting efforts of DOGE, department officials tried to revoke National Endowment for the Humanities grants, pulling federal funding for projects that clashed with the administration’s anti-DEI priorities.

The federal government reoriented its plans for the Venice Biennale, the international arts expo, around similar mandates. Typically, the government outsources its artist-selection process to a committee of art-world experts. This year, the State Department gave that responsibility to Jenni Parido, a former pet-food-store owner with ties to the Trump administration. Some prominent  artists turned down the chance to display their work in this newly Trump-inflected setting. The department’s press release announcing the final pick, Alma Allen, suggested that his work showcased “American excellence.” Reviewing the pavilion last month, my colleague Spencer Kornhaber called it “a very pretentious form of propaganda.”

Trump is also putting his own personal stamp on the nation’s aesthetics. This is especially apparent in the realm of design and architecture: A new White House ballroom will be clad in Trump’s signature gold, and a proposed triumphal arch at Memorial Circle in Washington, D.C., will be topped with gilded statutes. (It will also be 250 feet tall, in honor of America’s 250th anniversary.) As my colleague Sebastian Smee has written, the completed arch will not only look bad; it will also contort the meaning of the nearby Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery. Trump has made the semiquincentennial all about himself—if he gets his way, even our currency could bear his likeness.

The White House clearly recognizes the soft power of art in promoting its agenda, even as it’s unable to compel individual artists to accept its new status quo. The fact that the president sees a hyperpartisan rally as a reasonable substitute for a week of live music reflects his fixation on art’s ability to reflect ideology. No performer can deliver the MAGA message as well as the president himself.

Related:

• The arch is atrocious, Sebastian Smee writes.
• Trump is focused on becoming one of history’s “great men.”

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AP finds dozens of kids separated from parents under Trump faced separation again  Eight years after President Donald Trump’s forcible border separations came to an official halt following global outrage, an AP investigation has found that the government has re-separated dozens of children from their families, despite a landmark legal settlement meant to keep them together. Read more.

What to know: Some parents have been locked in immigration detention facilities for months, others deported back to their home countries after being taken from their families once again. In some cases, immigration officials conducting interior arrests deported people despite discovering they were legally off limits for removal, according to emails obtained by AP. If parents are arrested or deported under the president’s push for mass deportations, they are being made to choose whether to leave their children behind in the U.S.   “DHS complies with all court orders, even as radical NGOs shop for the most favorable forum and activist judges seek to thwart our operations,” said acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, in response to AP requests for comment about the government’s policies toward separated families.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Dozens of children separated under first Trump administration have faced separation again   Homeland Security secretary says ICE will increase new officer training next month

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Trump Melts Down at Republican Rebels After Humiliating Defeat

The president woke up in a rage.

President Donald Trump melted down on social media after House Republicans joined Democrats in a vote to limit his war powers.

Four Republicans broke ranks with Trump and House GOP leaders to support the measure to block further U.S. military action, which passed 215-208. The GOP defectors were Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

They earned Trump’s ire in a classically unhinged Truth Social post on Thursday morning. “Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he began at 7:13 A.M.

The 79-year-old continued: “Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand. The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories. The four Republicans, that’s a whole other story - They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves. MAGA!!!”

Negotiations with Iran are stuck at an impasse, with April’s ceasefire punctuated by violent skirmishes. On Tuesday, U.S. forces struck and disabled an Iranian-linked oil tanker, prompting Iranian drone attacks on Gulf shipping and subsequent U.S. strikes on Iranian military sites on Qeshm Island. The escalation culminated on Wednesday, when Iran launched its largest barrage since the truce—firing missiles and drones at Kuwait and Bahrain, temporarily shutting Kuwait’s international airport, causing casualties, and triggering U.S. and Bahraini air defenses.

Earlier this week, Trump openly admitted he was growing bored with peace talks. He told CNBC he “couldn’t care less” if the negotiations had bogged down and declared that they had become “boring.”

Even still, he is clearly rattled that he has been jilted by less hawkish members of his own party. “When the members went back home, they heard from their constituents,” Massie said. “It confirmed to [the Republicans who voted yes] that they should do the right thing.”

Barrett, posting on X, said that only Congress “has the exclusive authority under the Constitution to declare war and authorize the use of force,” adding that the War Powers Act of 1973 allows some presidential authority, but only for a finite period.

“That authority has expired, and my support of this resolution tonight is consistent with my belief that it is time for Congress to decide the scope of the mission and the appropriate limits on the use of force in Iran,” Barrett added.

Davidson has long argued that Congress, not the president, should decide whether the country goes to war. “Define the mission. Authorize the mission. Accomplish the mission,” he said after the vote.

Fitzpatrick, one of the most centrist Republicans in the House, flipped on his original position from May and defied the president this time around. “We must keep the world safe, and we must also follow the law,” he said on Wednesday. “The War Powers Act of 1973 states that any conflict exceeding 60 days must be brought to Congress.”

Wednesday’s vote was the first time either chamber of Congress has approved a war powers resolution since the conflict began more than three months ago. Republicans have argued it is null and void because the country is not currently at war, due to the ceasefire signed on April 7.

However, U.S. and Iranian forces exchanged missiles, drones, and retaliatory strikes in the conflict’s biggest escalation in weeks on Wednesday.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-melts-down-at-republican-rebels-after-humiliating-defeat/?

ps:Pathetic! Actually beyond pathetic!!!!!