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

July 31

Musk’s Massive Midterm Plot to Rescue Trump Revealed

The world’s richest man is hoping to plug a gaping enthusiasm gap among Republicans.

Elon Musk is planning a massive political spending push to try to help Republicans prevail in the November midterms despite President Donald Trump’s record-low approval ratings.

The former “First Buddy” was the president’s biggest donor during the 2024 election cycle, with his America PAC pouring more than $260 million into Trump’s re-election effort.

The Tesla chief was rewarded with a powerful White House position as head of the nebulous task force DOGE, but after an explosive falling-out with Trump last year, he said he was pulling back on political spending.

Those threats appear to have been short-lived, according to a new report from Axios.

The world’s richest man is reviving his dormant super PAC, which will invest heavily in door-knocking, digital advertising, and direct mail aimed at energizing conservative voters who are less likely to cast ballots in off years, sources told the outlet.

Polls have shown a worrying lack of enthusiasm among reliable GOP voters, with Trump underwater on key issues including the flailing economy and his deeply unpopular war on Iran.

Musk’s representatives declined to say how much he plans to spend, but given his previous donations, it’s fair to expect a windfall for Republicans, according to Axios.

Republican super PACS and committees already hold a $300 million cash advantage over their Democratic counterparts, and Musk’s 2024 donations through America PAC made him the largest individual political donor in a single cycle in U.S. history, the outlet reported.

James Blair, Trump’s senior political adviser, told Axios that America PAC was an “essential partner for our historic GOTV operation in 2024, and their return for 2026 is a huge boost for Republicans across the country.”

America PAC spokesperson Andrew Romeo told the outlet that Trump and the GOP apparatus had “put Republicans in a strong position to buck history and retain control of Congress this fall.”

The Daily Beast has also reached out for comment.

Musk’s political brand became toxic early last year when he was leading DOGE, the executive branch’s “Department” of Government Efficiency that tried to unilaterally cancel government grants and contracts, dismantle government agencies, and purge the federal workforce.

Despite Musk pouring a record $21 million into a normally low-profile, non-partisan Wisconsin state Supreme Court race in April 2025, liberal appellate Judge Susan Crawford beat his preferred candidate, Brad Schimel, by 10 points.

After Schimel’s loss, Musk said he would spend far less on political campaigns.

He also said he had “done enough” political spending right around the time of his shockingly public—and personal—break from Trump last summer over the Republicans’ “big beautiful” spending bill.

Musk, however, has made nice with the president and resumed pouring tens of millions of dollars into Republican super PACs, The Hill reported in February.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musks-massive-midterm-plot-to-rescue-trump-revealed/?

ps:Just imagine that, if the democrats had done that in the 2024 election , or any other one, to get people out there to vote the republicans would've been up in arms and crying foul!! But here we are and not one peep from republicans about this travesty!

July 31

📔 Trump's Senate playbook

President Trump has three go-to moves for GOP senators who frustrate him: persuade them when he can, ignore them when he must and bully them at will.

Why it matters: The approach doesn't always produce results. But it almost always provides drama.

🥕 Persuade: Trump dispatched two top deputies to the Senate GOP lunch yesterday to make the case, in person, for a third reconciliation bill with elements of the SAVE Act.

Then he sent in the big guns. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles huddled with the Senate GOP leaders shortly after their lunch.
When Trump faced a Senate rebuke over the Iran conflict last month, the White House aggressively lobbied wavering Republicans to flip their votes.

Ignore: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche doesn't need Senate confirmation to do the job, Trump declared on Truth Social today.

He can serve as acting attorney general indefinitely. Problem solved.

🥊 Bully: Trump began the week by demanding that Majority Leader John Thune scrap the filibuster and pass the SAVE Act.

"Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!" Trump wrote.

👀 What we're watching: Bullying appeared to be Trump's preferred tactic this week. By yesterday, he was openly questioning whether Thune should remain majority leader.

Thune's best defense was to downplay his own powers.
🪄 "He thinks I can wave the magic wand," Thune told Politico. "I wish it were that easy."
Trump's penchant for bullying has emboldened some senators to stand their ground — such as John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who have blocked Blanche's nomination. Both will be out of the Senate in January.

🔎 Zoom in: Trump's anger with the Senate keeps flaring, despite Thune's success in rapidly confirming his nominees.

With Jay Clayton's confirmation as director of national intelligence, the GOP-led Senate has confirmed 515 of Trump's nominees — with another batch of 74 on the way.
👟 That's a faster pace than the first administration and leaves only a handful of civilian nominations remaining on the Executive Calendar.
Trump now has the authority to install many of the remaining nominees in acting roles across the federal government.

🌎 Zoom out: With one week left before the August recess, Senate Republican vibes are going from bad to worse.

New polls show Americans continuing to sour on the GOP.
The MAGA base is still enraged over the SAVE Act.
Everything from the NDAA to crypto legislation is hitting roadblocks.

And Trump doesn't appear interested in easing the pressure on his own party.

The bottom line: Trump reserves the right to toggle among his three approaches, depending on his needs and mood.

And while he can ignore the Senate on some personnel, he can't ignore it on legislation. He still needs 50 votes — or, in some cases, 60.
"When crazy becomes the norm, it feels pretty routine," one GOP senator told us.

— Hans Nichols and Stef W. Kight

August 1

📉 Trump's second-term low

A line chart that tracks President Donald Trumpâ€™s net approval rating daily from Jan. 21, 2025, to July 30, 2026. It starts at 11.7 on Jan. 21, 2025, falls to minus 3.9 by June 9, 2025, reaches minus 9.3 on Oct. 26, 2025, and declines to minus 20.6 by July 30, 2026.

Data: Silver Bulletin. Chart: Noah Bressner/Axios

President Trump's net approval rating slipped to the lowest level of his second term yesterday, according to data from Nate Silver.

⛽ Trump's ratings improved earlier this month before dipping again over the last couple of weeks — a decline Silver notes coincides closely with rising gas prices and the resumption of the Iran war.
The president's latest numbers: 38.2% approve and 58.8% disapprove, for a -20.6% net approval rating.

More numbers.

August 1

Trump administration ends Medicare drug subsidy

Around 25 million older adults with Medicare Part D prescription drug plans could face steeper monthly costs in 2027 after the Trump administration concluded a temporary subsidy program that has helped offset premiums for the past two years. Read more.

What to know:

The program was initially implemented by the Biden administration in 2024 to lower patients’ Part D prescription drug costs in response to effects of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. While federal officials insist the financial impact on Medicare beneficiaries will be minimal, Democrats slammed the move as part of a pattern of federal attacks on healthcare affordability.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

August 1

Trump announces a deal for Hamas to disarm in Gaza

President Donald Trump announced Thursday what he said was an agreement that would also include Israel withdrawing its forces from Gaza, but hurdles and uncertainty remain. Read more.

Why this matters:

The White House announcement comes nine months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was signed. Negotiations between Israel and Hamas had largely deadlocked over the implementation of its second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza. On Friday, a Hamas official said they have reached an agreement on disarmament. Israel didn’t give an indication that they had agreed.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

August 1

MAGA Star Flees Stage After Trainwreck Speech to Home Crowd

An audience member called the Republican a “political cretin.”

MAGA Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has been furiously booed off stage by an angry right-wing audience in his home state.

Ramaswamy was speaking at the Young Americans for Liberty conference in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, on Wednesday when he enraged members of the conservative student activist organization.

Ramaswamy was scheduled to start at 8.20 p.m. and finish at 8.50 p.m before YouTuber and firearms manufacturer Brandon Herrera. However, the 40-year-old pulled the plug after just 14 minutes, as documented by a video of the full speech posted on social media.

The divisive Republican was booed and heckled as soon as he walked on stage. Ramaswamy did not address the awkward entrance initially as he launched into his speech, promising to do things “a little differently” from normal political speeches.

In between being rampantly heckled over issues including Israel, Ramaswamy told the YAL audience that the “real divide” in America was not between Republicans and Democrats, but “winners and whiners.”

At one moment after being heckled, he says to one, “You want to give a speech...? Well, you can get on when they give you a slot, alright? So, until they do, can sit down.”

Talking about the chance to Make America Great Again, he taunted the crowd by asking, “Are you in the camp of people in this country who want to win? Or are you in the camp of people who want to whine?”

“What does winning look like?” one crowd member screamed back.

“That choice belongs to you,” Ramaswamy continued unsuccessfully. “It belongs to us, it belongs to We the People.”

He continued, “And the truth of the matter is, you know, no matter what happens in whichever direction we go, people in my generation have already made it. We’re gonna be fine. It’s gonna be your generation...that pays the price.”

That comment saw the audience erupt in anger, with one person shouting, “We don’t want to hear your bulls--t talking points. You’re a political cretin and you need to get the f--- outta here!”

Ramaswamy then attempted to continue, telling the crowd, “If you believe that the government is the source of actually creating a solution to your problems, go ahead and clap your hands. If you want the government to print money from on high and give it to you and penalize the people you don’t like, then go for it.”

Seconds before his abrupt exit, the Republican asked if anyone still believed in free enterprise and capitalism and “actual liberty.”

When some audience members cheered, Ramaswamy told those who applauded, “You’re gonna be carrying the rest of this room on your back... I hope for the rest of them, that you are successful and can actually create wealth and create success, instead of villainizing it.”

He then said “Peace out, see you guys,” before leaving to a sea of deafening boos.

The latest New York Times/Siena College poll has the race for Ohio governor as a dead heat, with both Ramaswamy and Democratic candidate Amy Acton at 47 percent each. Donald Trump won the state in the 2024 election with 55.1 percent of the vote, compared to Kamala Harris’ 43.9 percent.

The Daily Beast has contacted Ramaswamy’s office and YAL for comment.

Ramaswamy was the youngest presidential candidate in the 2024 Republican primaries, but withdrew his bid and endorsed Donald Trump. The president has since endorsed him in his race to become governor of Ohio. He was reportedly ousted from DOGE by his co-captain Elon Musk in January 2025.

The Republican is no stranger to being booed. In December 2023, he was booed at least four different times during the fourth Republican debate stage, after attacking rivals Chris Christie and Nikki Haley.

He called former South Carolina Gov. Haley “the only person more fascist” than the Biden administration.

At the time, Christie called Ramaswamy “the most obnoxious blowhard in America.”

Ramaswamy was also booed at the Libertarian Party Convention in May 2024 in Washington D.C. after talking how he had “gotten to know Donald Trump over the course of the last several years.”

After being booed, he noted “Y’all get to speak your mind, I respect that.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to make clear where Ramaswamy was speaking.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-star-vivek-ramaswamy-flees-stage-after-trainwreck-speech-to-home-crowd/?

ps:Maybe they're wising up! But I doubt it!!

August 1

Trump Sends Ice Maiden to Clean Up His Embarrassing Mess

“A lot is stalled in the Senate… what can we do?”

President Donald Trump’s problems with Congress have gotten so bad that he sent his chief of staff to Capitol Hill to clean up the mess.

Senate Republicans have handed Trump, 80, a headache even his sleepless nights can’t match. They have stalled his latest obsession, the SAVE America Act; refused to eliminate the filibuster; failed to advance a budget package; and two of them are stalling on his attorney general nominee.

Trump appears to have realized his usual playbook—public attacks, pressure campaigns, and political arm-twisting—isn’t breaking through. So he dispatched his chief fixer, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, 69, to the Hill on Wednesday for meetings with GOP leadership, according to Politico.

According to people familiar with the discussions who spoke with Politico, Wiles’ message was that the White House recognizes the Senate is stuck and wants to find a way forward.

One source told the outlet that the meeting was supposed to signal to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, 65, and GOP Whip John Barrasso, 74, that the administration was looking for solutions amid stalled priorities: “A lot is stalled in the Senate… what can we do?”

“Thune basically said: ‘I want to move the president’s agenda whenever it has the votes,’” the source told the outlet. Another person familiar with the meeting described the conversation as “candid,” but said it did not produce any major breakthrough.

A White House official told Politico that the meeting was part of a “regular” effort to advance the president’s agenda.

Thune’s reported reaction is hardly surprising given the tensions that have been building between the Senate majority leader and the president in the past months.

Thune has repeatedly warned that there are not enough votes to pass the SAVE America Act, which would introduce mandatory ID and proof of citizenship for voters, while Trump has pushed to cancel a planned five-week August recess until the bill and the elimination of the filibuster are passed.

Trump doubled down on that demand in a Truth Social post Monday, writing: “John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER.”

He added: “Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT, the Budget, and the ever looming Debt Ceiling disaster, 1929!”

Speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump criticized Thune’s handling of the restrictive voting bill, saying it was “too bad for him and too bad for the Republican Party. He’s got the votes. He should get it done.”

But Thune has continued to push back, arguing that he supports advancing Trump’s agenda when there is a realistic path to success. “If I thought there was a path to getting a result, I’m all for it,” he said, while voicing frustration over the president’s demands: “Show me how this ends. What’s the picture of victory at the end?”

Last Thursday, 28-year-old White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt joined Trump’s pressure campaign against Thune, warning at her press briefing that the president’s “patience is running out” with Senate Republicans over their repeated failure to move the SAVE America Act.

“The House did its job, the Senate needs to do its job too,” she said.

Thune fired back, suggesting the White House’s frustration was misplaced. “Maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes. Right? It’s 50 around here,” the Senate majority leader said, according to The Hill.

The MAGA world has also erupted into a blame game, targeting “establishment” Republicans for blocking Trump’s agenda, particularly the passage of the flagship election bill that would impose new proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration and other election rules that could make it harder for some eligible Americans to vote.

Conservative lawyer Mike Davis attacked Thune, calling him “a pussy” and accusing him of hiding behind the need for 60 votes to pass the bill. Davis claimed the measure could move with a simple 51-vote majority, a reading of Senate procedure that doesn’t match reality.

Under current Senate rules, the SAVE America Act would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster unless Republicans first change the rules to eliminate the legislative filibuster—a move neither party has been willing to make.

“You can’t show how high the importance of this issue is to the president other than bringing in Susie,” a former Trump adviser told Politico. Wiles has often been tasked with cleaning up the president’s messes and has reportedly tried to steer Trump’s focus toward affordability issues ahead of the November midterm elections.

“If there is an ability to land it, the president is certainly putting pressure on Susie to land it. It’s still an uphill battle,” the adviser added.

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-sends-ice-maiden-susie-wiles-to-clean-up-his-embarrassing-mess/?

August 1

Bombshell Poll Raises Eyebrows in Crucial Senate Race

One of the president’s enemies is gaining ground.

A new poll shows one of Donald Trump’s most despised political foes overtaking the Trump-backed MAGA candidate in a crucial Senate race.

Democrat James Talarico, 37, has given Democrats their strongest shot in years of flipping a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, where he’s facing Republican Ken Paxton, 63, the state’s controversial attorney general.

A New York Times poll taken last month showed him neck and neck with Paxton, a Trump ally who spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally in D.C. before the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, and was backed by Trump over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.

However, a Fox News poll aired on Thursday shows the Democrat leading Paxton by 3 points, 51-48, and gaining ground among key constituencies—heralding a potential upset that could help Democrats gain control of the Senate in November’s midterms.

The poll also shows Talarico, who is a student at a Presbyterian seminary as well as a politician, winning 68 percent of independents, 98 percent of Democrats and about a quarter of non-MAGA Republicans.

Fifty-nine percent of Democrats polled said they were extremely motivated to vote, compared to 52 percent of Republicans. Only 47 percent of Republicans said they were interested in the election, compared to 53 percent of Democrats.

Talarico is the preferred choice among white evangelical Christians, white men without a college degree, rural voters, regular worship attenders, men, and voters ages 65 and older.

Talarico is also popular with Black voters, a turnaround after claiming only a fifth of Black votes in Houston and Dallas in a contentious primary win in March over U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

He also polled well with moderates, voters under age 30, Hispanic voters, women and voters with a college degree.

Paxton defeated Cornyn for the Republican Senate nomination in May after winning Trump’s endorsement despite a string of controversies including longstanding securities fraud charges, impeachment in the Texas House of Representatives, and a messy divorce in which he was accused of adultery.

“Although Paxton dominated Cornyn in the GOP primary, that bruising contest left scars,” Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts Fox News polls with Democrat Chris Anderson, said on Thursday.

He said Paxton has “considerable work to do with non-MAGA Republicans and independents, and that undoubtedly requires aggressively tying Talarico to the Democratic Party’s far left.”

The poll found 59 percent of voters overall—and 36 percent of Republicans—believe Paxton lacks the character to serve as a senator.

Despite the figures, Paxton’s team said the “only poll that matters” will be on Nov. 3. “Talarico’s campaign will end up exactly where every Democrat before him has ended up in Texas: a pipe dream,” Nick Maddux, a senior adviser to Paxton, said in a statement.

The Daily Beast has contacted Paxton’s team for comment.

Trump christened Talarico “Talafreako” during his speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last week.

The president said Talarico “hates guns, hates oil, hates sex, hates women, and says he is a ‘Christian who hates Christianity.’ Other than that, I think his platform is quite good.”

He added, “And that means he’s not going to do very well against Ken Paxton, who hopefully in Texas is going to win.”

Dipping into one of his trademark vintage pop culture references, the 80-year-old president again compared Talarico’s appearance to that Alfred E. Neuman, the Mad magazine mascot introduced in 1954.

In a Truth Social tirade in May Trump said Talarico might be “the worst TEXAS candidate I have ever seen.”

As part of the rant, Trump claimed Talarico “believes there are 6 genders” and “was a big Mask Wearer until recently.” He also claimed that he was a “Vegan who dislikes meat.”

Earlier this month, Paxton abandoned his own press conference when he was grilled on the latest controversy surrounding him.

The New York Times reported this month that Paxton had expanded his real estate holdings, which are worth an estimated $9 million.

His latest real estate transactions included the purchase of three condominiums worth $1.6 million at a luxury resort in Utah.

An angry Paxton stormed out of the press conference insisting that he only wanted to answer questions on law enforcement, rather than his personal finances.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bombshell-poll-raises-eyebrows-in-crucial-senate-race/?

August 1

Murdoch Paper Hits Trump With a Scathing Reality Check

The U.S. economy’s growth has fallen short of experts’ expectations.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal has warned Donald Trump that his disastrous policies are hindering the country’s economic growth.

The newspaper’s editorial board said that, despite the 80-year-old president’s insistence, the U.S. economy is merely “tepid” rather than booming.

The sluggish pace was evident on Thursday, when figures from the Commerce Department showed the U.S. economy grew by 1.5 percent from April to June, below forecasts of around 2 percent.

The Journal’s board noted that what little growth there was came from an increase in consumer and business spending, as well as the domestic AI boom.

However, it added that the numbers show that while the economy “continues to plod along and is shrugging off the war in Iran,” the overall figures are nothing to brag about.

“Mr. Trump thinks that, with the stock market hitting records and the economy avoiding recession, his tariffs are working wonders. But based on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s 3 percent GDP growth target, the economy is underperforming by half,” the board wrote.

“Last year’s tax bill and deregulation would be driving faster growth if not for Mr. Trump’s border taxes that raise costs and uncertainty for business.”

Trump’s original sweeping tariff plans were struck down after the Supreme Court ruled in February they had been implemented illegally.

However, the president announced a fresh wave of levies on imports from more than 80 countries last week, ranging from 10 percent to 12.5 percent.

Trump’s deeply unpopular war in Iran has also helped stunt economic growth, with the conflict affecting areas such as gas prices and inflation.

While the latest figures suggest the economy has been somewhat resilient during the war, economists note that conditions could—and should—be much stronger.

“It’s an economy that’s doing OK. It’s not overheating. It’s not underheating,” Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College, told The Washington Post.

The Journal’s board also offered some advice on how to give the economy a bigger boost going forward.

“Some of Mr. Trump’s most ardent fans tell us they wish he’d drop his tariff fixation and return to the supply-side policies that produced broad-based prosperity during his first term. Most Americans probably do too,” the board wrote.

In response, White House spokesman Kush Dasai told the Daily Beast: “Robust investment spending–from trillions in investment commitments to the Q2 GDP report showing that capital goods imports are at a record high–reinforce how the administration’s pro-growth is laying the groundwork for a long-term restoration of American Greatness.

“Meanwhile, prices of prescription drugs, eggs, insurance, dairy, and other essentials have come down thanks to the Trump administration’s policies. Once President Trump forces the Iran situation to a successful conclusion, Americans can count on the real wage and economic growth to continue accelerating.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/murdoch-paper-hits-trump-with-a-scathing-reality-check/?

August 1

Trump’s Big Gamble Blows Up in His Face in Devastating Poll

New polling shows Americans, including a growing share of Republicans, have turned against President Trump’s war in Iran.

President Donald Trump is facing a stinging public rebuke over his war in Iran, with a majority of Americans declaring the dragging conflict isn’t worth fighting as his approval numbers crater.

About two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war, which began February 28, has not been worthwhile, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, along with about 37 percent of Republicans. The poll was conducted July 23-27, as the United States and Iran paused attacks following a nearly two-week escalation during which the U.S. targeted Iranian military and commercial sites while Iran struck U.S. military facilities in the Middle East, killing American service members.

Eighteen U.S. service members have died since the war began, though the Trump administration has sought to revise those numbers.

The survey underscores how unpopular the war has become at home, a potential liability for congressional Republicans up for re-election in November who have defended Trump’s military actions. Just 28 percent of U.S. adults now approve of how Trump is handling Iran, down slightly from 34 percent last month.

Even Republicans appear increasingly unhappy with the prolonged conflict, with roughly 61 percent approving of Trump’s handling of Iran, down from 71 percent in June.

The margin of sampling error for Republicans is 6 points, making the decline modest, but it’s still notable given Republicans’ much higher approval of Trump’s presidency overall, which currently sits at 33 percent, slightly below where he stood at this point in his first term and comparable to where former President Joe Biden stood roughly a year-and-a-half into his presidency, when inflation peaked.

The findings also suggest most Americans’ priorities for the conflict don’t line up with Trump’s own stated rationale. He has repeatedly said the war was launched to keep a nuclear weapon out of Iran’s hands, and about two-thirds of U.S. adults, particularly Republicans, agree that’s “extremely” or “very” important.

But even more Americans say it’s highly important for the U.S. to keep gasoline prices low or negotiate a permanent ceasefire with Iran.

There’s little appetite for a prolonged conflict. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults want to continue military action in Iran, while about 3 in 10 say the U.S. should pause and seek a renewed ceasefire through negotiations, and roughly 2 in 10 want to stop military action entirely.

About half of Republicans, particularly those who identify as “very conservative,” say the U.S. should keep fighting, and Republicans who identify with Trump’s Make America Great Again movement are far likelier than non-MAGA Republicans to want the war to continue.

About 7 in 10 U.S. adults, 72 percent, say it’s “extremely” or “very” important for the U.S. to prevent domestic oil and gas prices from rising, up slightly from 67 percent in March.

Oil topped $100 a barrel last week, ending a brief dip when hostilities eased in June, and gas prices have climbed above $4 a gallon on average. Inflation has cooled but remains elevated, and consumer spending has slowed, with signs Americans are increasingly hunting for sales.

About 7 in 10 Americans also say reaching a ceasefire is “extremely” or “very” important, slightly higher than the roughly two-thirds who prioritize keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and well above the 4 in 10 who prioritize preventing Iran from threatening Israel.

The grim numbers come as bleak polling for Trump and the GOP keeps piling up, with just 96 days until Americans head to the polls. A separate CNN poll conducted by SSRS found Democrats holding an eight-point lead over Republicans in the generic congressional ballot among registered voters, widening to a 20-point advantage among those “extremely motivated to vote.”

Sixty-three percent of Americans say the Republican Party doesn’t show enough interest in economic matters, focusing too little on cost-of-living issues.

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales responded to the figures by saying that “What matters most to the American people is having a Commander in Chief who takes bold action to keep them safe, which is exactly what President Trump is doing.”

She added: “The President does not make national security decisions based on fluid opinion polls, but on the best interests of the American people, and he will not stand by as Iran kills our soldiers, fires at our ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and breaks the MOU.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-big-gamble-blows-up-in-his-face-in-devastating-poll/?

August 1

Stephen and Katie Miller’s Brazen Hypocrisy Exposed by Secret Diary

The entries revealed that they were happy to take help from a MAGA hate figure.

Stephen and Katie Miller secretly turned to Anthony Fauci for COVID advice—then demanded the doctor be jailed for his handling of the pandemic.

The couple’s hypocrisy was exposed in secret passages from the diary kept by Fauci as he led the country’s response to the deadly virus.

The diary was released by Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who claims to be investigating the “origins” of the COVID-19 virus, but who on Wednesday turned a Senate committee hearing into a public berating of Fauci.

Among those fulminating in public against Fauci were both of the Millers, with Stephen melting down on Fox News against the 85-year-old, and Katie ranting on X that he should be jailed.

The passages about the Millers were initially part of the release, but quickly censored by Paul’s staff. The secret diary entries reveal how Fauci calmed Katie when she tested positive for COVID while only 10 weeks pregnant with her first child, and gave her husband advice on what to do for both their safety.

Katie had “anxiety,” and the two remained in touch about her health for months. They texted as she traveled to be with her parents in Texas at the height of the pandemic.

Fauci also called their doctor personally, while being in charge of trying to save lives across America as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci, 85, was initially hailed as a hero for his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic before being vilified by the vaccine-skeptic right.

On Wednesday, he appeared before the Senate Homeland Security Committee after being subpoenaed, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights and refusing to answer questions.

Kentucky Republican Paul released over 1,000 pages of Fauci’s diary from 2019 to 2022 over the weekend. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News that he handed the entries over to Senate Republicans after finding them on government servers.

Fauci’s close relationship with Katie Miller is revealed in diary entries from 2020, when she was Vice President Mike Pence’s communications director and intimately involved in the White House’s response to the pandemic, a new report by NOTUS reveals.

Fauci’s friendly diary entries highlight the Millers leaning on him for advice in 2020, despite the podcast host now slamming him on social media.

Fauci writes about providing medical advice to both Katie and Stephen Miller, including when Katie tested positive for COVID-19 while pregnant in 2020, as well as when her husband later tested positive, and after their newborn child experienced a medical episode later that year.

“I am calling katie frequently to check on her couple time per day” Fauci wrote in an entry dated May 9, 2020. “She is very anxious about getting very ill since she is 10 weeks pregnant. Tonight she had an anxiety reaction. I calmed her over the phone.”

He also wrote about directly contacting the doctors looking after Miller’s infant to discuss the child’s medical care.

On March 25, 2020, Fauci wrote in his diary, “katie Miller is great (tough, smart,but great),” and said he spoke to her multiple times as she headed to her parents’ house in Texas after her husband tested positive.

“Spoke to her at Houston airport and after she landed,” he wrote in an entry dated Oct. 6, 2020. On Dec. 31, 2000, he wrote, “Am on phone frequently with katie and Stephen.”

Highlighting what seemed to be a friendly relationship, Fauci wrote on May 6, 2020, “katie Miller and I laugh at each other in the Sit Room.”

Miller told NOTUS that while she was initially in regular contact with Fauci at the beginning of the COVID-19 response, she felt he was “incredibly self-centered and sought to promote himself above the good of the people.”

“He was not my doctor. He was not my friend. He was a work colleague who called me for work purposes, and in the course of a phone call, you would discuss other things,” Miller said.

Miller also stated she deliberately gave Fauci the impression they were friends so that he “did not leak against me or my husband.”

“I understood who he was, and I understood how to manage somebody like him,” Miller said.

Referencing an incident in Fauci’s diaries where he mentioned agreeing with Stephen Miller on implementing border restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19, she asked rhetorically, “How did Stephen Miller manage to get Dr. Fauci there?”

She added, “It’s understanding how to communicate with somebody who wants to put themselves above others.”

The Daily Beast has contacted Katie Miller and Fauci for comment. Fauci did not respond to a request for comment from NOTUS.

After Fauci’s Wednesday hearing, Miller posted on X, “Why plead the Fifth if you believe you have a preemptive pardon? Is it because it was auto-penned?”

Days earlier, on Monday, she reacted to the release of Fauci’s diaries with a post on X. “The most disturbing part” of its contents “is what he decided to memorialize versus what he kept out of his diary,” she wrote.

She added, “It’s almost like he knew this diary would one day become public. He wanted to cast himself as the hero, as famous, as the savior... Dr. Fauci used the opportunity to become a celebrity and manipulate the situation to maximize his popularity.”

Last month, Miller called for Fauci to be jailed on X, saying he had “used the government’s medical establishment to push an agenda that protected and promoted himself at the expense of the American people. ”

She added, “His autopen pardon should be trashed, and he should be in jail,” referencing President Joe Biden pardoning Fauci in January 2025, during his final hours in office.

Speaking on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle on Wednesday, Stephen Miller was quizzed on the diary and whether Trump has any regrets.

While he failed to reference the diary, the deputy chief of staff went into a long diatribe gushing over Trump’s pandemic policies in 2020.

He claimed Trump was “sometimes single-handedly” fighting the “broken” healthcare establishment.

“I was there,” Miller said. “President Trump saved America from a great depression by fighting against those who wanted to shut down the schools, and shut down our way of life. He fought to reopen the government.”

Miller added, “I salute President Trump for what he achieved,” and without mentioning Fauci by name, called out “so-called healthcare government experts who sometimes have an agenda of their own.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stephen-and-katie-millers-brazen-hypocrisy-exposed-by-secret-fauci-diary/?

ps:How pathetic!!

August 2

Trump Slapped Down in Court Defeat Over 54-Minute Firing

The DOJ has failed to boot a judge from a case brought by a prosecutor Trump fired less than an hour after he landed the job.

Donald Trump has been slapped down by an Obama-appointed federal judge the president had tried to boot from overseeing a case against him.

Roger Rogoff, 57, was unanimously handed the job of U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington by the district’s 17 federal judges on July 15—and axed by Trump, 80, just 54 minutes after being sworn in.

His appointment would have made him the boss of Trump’s own man in Seattle. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi installed Charles Neil Floyd, a Tacoma immigration judge, at the office’s helm in September.

Trump never asked the Senate to confirm Floyd, and when Floyd’s interim term lapsed in February, the Justice Department simply made him first assistant U.S. attorney for the district and left the top job vacant, leaving him in charge by default.

Rogoff sued six days after his axing, in the first case of its kind testing whether a president can fire a prosecutor lawfully installed by the courts. Because Seattle’s own judges made the appointment, the case could not stay with any of them, the Daily Beast’s sister Substack, PunchUp, reported.

The first judge assigned, George W. Bush appointee Ricardo Martinez, recused himself, and the lawsuit passed to Stanley Bastian, 68—chief judge in Washington’s Eastern District, an Obama pick confirmed 95-0 by the Senate—under a standing Ninth Circuit designation letting outside judges sit in the district, court records show.

The DOJ wasn’t happy. Its lawyers filed a motion demanding the Ninth Circuit reassign the case—or, failing that, that Bastian recuse himself over his sideline as a regular visiting judge in Seattle.

Bastian’s answer, delivered Thursday without so much as an oral argument, was a flat no. The government offered “no binding authority” requiring him to step aside, he wrote in the three-page order, noting drily that the defendants considered the reassignment “somehow improper.”

He added that he played no part in hiring Rogoff and has no hand in running the Seattle court—then quoted the oath he swore to “administer justice without respect to persons,” and promised to honor it in full.

The administration insists the firing was lawful. “District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on X the day Rogoff was fired. A DOJ spokesperson said the move was “wholly within the President’s authority.”

But courts keep ruling against the administration’s games over who runs prosecutors’ offices. In November, Clinton appointee Cameron Currie tossed the indictments of James Comey and Letitia James, ruling Trump’s hand-picked prosecutor Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully installed in Virginia.

Obama appointee Matthew Brann ruled Trump’s ex-personal lawyer Alina Habba was unlawfully serving as New Jersey’s top prosecutor—a finding upheld on appeal in December—and in March, Brann ruled the trio installed to replace her was serving unlawfully too.

Rogoff, who says Trump’s actions “violate the law,” is now asking Bastian to order him back into the job—meaning the administration’s fate in the case rests with the judge it just tried, and failed, to remove.

PunchUp has contacted the Justice Department, the White House, and Rogoff’s legal team for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-justice-department-slapped-down-in-court-defeat-over-54-minute-firing-of-roger-rogoff/?

August 2

Trump’s Smithsonian Crackdown Could Be Its Best Promotion Yet

Trump’s effort to dumb down history and shave off the rough spots is not what we, the people, want.

Another D.C. institution in the culture war crosshairs. The Smithsonian has been a target of the Trump administration for over a year now, since an executive order in March 2025 put Vice President JD Vance in charge of “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” and eliminating “divisive race-centered ideology.”

Republicans are scapegoating Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian’s history museum, who faced hostile questions from lawmakers about an exhibit on girlhood which dared to include a transgender girl, and for sullying Benjamin Franklin’s reputation by suggesting that, in addition to family and friends, he might have used “indentured servants and enslaved people in his household” to test his experiments, “although we may never know for certain.”

The first woman to lead the history museum, Hartig refused to apologize for any of the exhibits she oversaw and denied she is trying to “rewrite history” during a contentious congressional hearing. She said the museum’s focus is “scholarship, accuracy, independence and nonpartisanship,” and that it does not take sides in America’s political debates.

She said at least half a dozen times, “I love this country unconditionally.”

None of it mattered. Just days later, Trump ordered the National Park Service to place signs along sidewalks and walkways leading to the history museum warning the public about the danger of “Ideological Capture.” A 162-page report issued by the White House on July 4 accused the museum’s leadership of engaging in “anti-White activism,” “illegal alien activism,” and “transgender activism.”

Trump cut to the chase in a Truth Social post, declaring of the museum that there’s too much about “how bad Slavery was,” he wrote. “Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

(As the New York Times has reported, Trump’s State Department this week unveiled the exhibit “Passport to Patriotism” in honor of America’s semiquincentennial. “We don’t need professional revisionists to dictate our nation’s history to us; we all know what our flag stands for, who our founding fathers are, and the exhibition will speak for itself,” a State Department spokesperson told the Times.)

True, the Smithsonian has worked hard to include everybody in America’s story. And for those who prefer a literal ‘whitewashing’ of that story, it’s bound to be disappointing. Still, the top exhibits at the history museum include the original copy of the “Star Spangled Banner,” Thomas Jefferson’s desk, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Mister Rogers’ sweater, and a collection of protest signs—not one of them being anti-Trump. What’s there not to like?The administration’s reaction is “very reflexive and very uneducated,” Rebeccah Miller, executive director of the D.C. Preservation League, told the Daily Beast. (The all-volunteer organization is focused on protecting historic buildings and sites through advocacy and education.) “The Smithsonian has done a very good job presenting information… They’ve covered all the historical sites to celebrate the collective history of the U.S. and not just one demographic.”

Hartig’s obvious unease before a panel of Republicans thirsty for elite, academic blood is similar to what the presidents of Columbia and Harvard faced last year when they testified about antisemitism on their campuses. That didn’t end well for them.

And if the past is prologue, Hartig’s job is likely on the line along with her boss, Lonnie Bunch, the current Secretary of the Smithsonian—and the first Black man to hold the position. He helped create and then led the African-American museum before being named to the top job. He now walks a tightrope Trump is jiggling, maintaining that the American experience is being portrayed by the Smithsonian fairly and fully, while saying there’s always room for improvement.

We don’t know yet what the Park Service signs will say, but they’re expected to warn visitors about “inaccurate information.” (The Parks Service did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.) At the same time, this kind of spectacle is likely to heighten interest in the work that’s being critiqued. The Smithsonian museums, and there are 21 of them plus the National Zoo, don’t lack for visitors to begin with, and surely just as tourists now get their picture taken with National Guardsmen and women still patrolling D.C., a photo next to a sign warning of the dangers of pink “Latina Power” baseball caps will be the money shot for visitors wanting to show they braved the political storm. And admission is free!

“Whenever you really try and tell people what they should know about, that’s when it backfires. People become more interested in the information you’re trying to censor,” added Miller.

Angelo Villagomez, a Senior Fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, labeled Bunch and Hartig heroes. “The reason these signs are going up is they haven’t rolled over,” he told the Daily Beast. They’re not fighting out loud, but they’re holding their own—and that’s good for now.

“The same people who are complaining about historical references in the “Odyssey” blockbuster movie don’t want to see Black people in our history or on our theater screens or on our public lands,” he said, noting that a third of the exhibits on public lands across the country have been flagged for amending or removal because they mention Black History, Indigenous people, or science.

At the White House Visitors Center, an exhibit was flagged for noting President Warren Harding served cocktails during Prohibition. At Fort Sumter, a sign was removed for saying rising sea levels threatened the historic site. At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia—steps from where the Declaration of Independence was signed—a sign detailing the nine enslaved people George Washington brought from Mount Vernon to serve at the President’s House Site was removed, erasing from public view the lives of people who made his presidency possible. At Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana, language describing how American Indian boarding schools “violently erased cultural identities and language in the children they were entrusted to educate” was flagged for revision. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe had specifically requested this language and is opposed to its changing. I could go on, and on.“The reason we are studying history is to help us understand today,” Villagomez concluded. Build it, and they will come is a common history lesson; in this case, it might better be said, tear it down and people will come. Unlike the Kennedy Center, which Trump has destroyed and now stands almost vacant from neglect, the Smithsonian is at a crossroads where it can still turn back the worst of Trump’s instincts. It has the power of a product that is seen by visitors from across the country who can decide for themselves who’s telling the truth about a changing world.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-smithsonian-crackdown-could-be-its-best-promotion-yet/?

ps:Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic administration!!!!!

Sunday at 08:00 PM

Blinking on Blanche

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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Donald Trump blared yesterday on social media, “is a STAR, and everyone knows it!” But the rest of the presidential missive told a very different story. Blanche’s nomination to run the Justice Department has stalled over objections from outgoing Republican Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn to a settlement between Trump and the IRS that would create a $1.8 billion slush fund for rewarding Trump’s political supporters, including those convicted of crimes on January 6, 2021. Tillis and Cornyn have demanded that Blanche deliver written guarantees that the fund would not proceed, and they remain unsatisfied with what they’ve received. Although a deal may still be struck, Trump wrote in his post that he had “no objection to temporarily withdrawing” Blanche’s nomination “and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.”

The senators met with Blanche last night and could still waver, and Trump could still change his mind, but the president this morning posted a strong defense of the slush fund and attacked Cornyn. “John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called ‘Fund,’ which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas,” he wrote. “Todd Blanche, a good man, should be immediately approved as U.S. Attorney General.”

This moment of peril for Blanche’s nomination reveals three things: First, dissident Republicans really can push Trump around if they want to; second, Trump (as usual) seemingly has no strategy or contingency plan to save the nomination; and third, Trump apparently cares more about preserving the slush fund than he does about Todd Blanche.

If Trump really valued Blanche, then reaching an agreement with Cornyn and Tillis would be easy: He’d just have to give up on the fund. Not only is the planned payout politically toxic, but courts may prohibit it anyway. The fund emerges from a settlement in a case filed by Trump against the federal government over a leak of his personal tax returns. In exchange for dropping the case, the government agreed to grant Trump and his family immunity from IRS audits and to create a $1.8 billion pot of money for supposed victims of a “weaponized” federal government, such as people prosecuted for their role in the January 6 insurrection.

The fund is an abomination for several reasons, as my colleague Jonathan Chait wrote when it was announced. The deal was struck between Trump as plaintiff and Trump as head of the executive branch—an arrangement a federal judge later said is improper. It gives the president an opportunity to direct taxpayer money to his allies and supporters—and specifically people who attempted to subvert the 2020 election and rioted at the U.S. Capitol.

One federal judge, Leonie Brinkema, is currently blocking the fund’s creation, and another, Kathleen Williams, concluded that the settlement was improper self-dealing and harshly criticized Blanche’s role in negotiating the deal as acting attorney general. Blanche himself told senators that the money wouldn’t be paid out, but as my colleague Sarah Fitzpatrick reported in June, administration officials said privately that it wasn’t really dead. That helps explain why Brinkema has requested a sworn statement from Blanche about the demise of the fund, and why Cornyn (who lost a GOP primary in May) and Tillis (who decided to retire) have said they want written assurances from Blanche.

By announcing that he would rather pull Blanche’s nomination, even temporarily, than allow Blanche or any other administration official to provide such assurances, Trump has implicitly confirmed that he has no intention of letting go of the fund. His statement also undercuts Blanche’s credibility with senators because it shows that Blanche was either not telling the truth or was making a promise he couldn’t keep when he said earlier that the fund wouldn’t proceed.

The idea of renominating Blanche later on may well be a feint anyway, since Trump hates to ever admit defeat, but it’s peculiar. Trump’s unstated premise is that he will have a more favorable Senate in 2027, which is questionable. Cornyn and Tillis are currently preventing Blanche’s nomination from advancing out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and neither man will be on that panel come January. But most forecasts suggest that Democrats will gain ground in the Senate in the midterm elections, and possibly even win a narrow edge in the chamber. Either way, Blanche will still have a hard time getting the necessary votes for confirmation next year.

That is especially true because Trump’s power over Republican senators appears to be on the wane. For years, senators have trash-talked Trump privately, but meekly followed him in public. Tillis and especially Cornyn made their hesitations about Blanche public weeks ago, and the White House seems to have wagered that they would simply give in as GOP members have in the past. (The administration may have underestimated Cornyn’s taste for revenge against a president who endorsed his opponent in the primary.) At the same time, Trump has been unable to persuade all Republican senators to back the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require people to present proof of citizenship to vote, and they have shrugged off his demands to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass it. After all, they know that they could be in the minority within six months.

What made Blanche attractive to Trump as an attorney general was not his legal acumen but his eagerness as an enabler. Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney, began in the administration as deputy attorney general. Attorney General Pam Bondi was willing to destroy many of the boundaries keeping politics out of the Justice Department, and she pursued many of Trump’s projects of political retribution, but she fell out of favor after some of them stalled and was soon asked to resign. When Blanche became acting attorney general in April, he set out to fulfill Trump’s desires with zeal.

That was enough to win Blanche a nomination to hold the job permanently, but it also made his path to confirmation more perilous. Now Trump has little reason to fight for his nomination. Since Blanche is already deputy attorney general, the president can leave Blanche as acting attorney general indefinitely, even without confirmation. That would surely be a disappointment to Blanche, who worked so hard to win Trump’s favor, but it’s an easy calculation for Trump: Why would he give up a $1.8 billion pot of money when he already has a lackey in place?

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Sunday at 08:08 PM

Regulators propose overhaul to law governing how banks lend to low-and-middle income communities

The Trump Administration has announced an overhaul to the rules governing a critical piece of Civil Rights-era legislation, most notably a reduction in the number of banks that will need to fully comply with the law. Read More.

Camp David, the president's rustic Maryland mountain retreat, through the years

President Donald Trump left behind the gold-accented White House on Friday for a Cabinet meeting at rustic Camp David in Maryland's mountains. Read More.

Sunday at 09:39 PM

Trump’s Soccer Suck-Up Humiliated as Cash Grab Collapses

The proposed deal involving a firm led by Jared Kushner’s younger brother unraveled after fierce backlash and boycott threats from soccer’s regional governing bodies.

FIFA has abandoned a widely criticized plan to sell a stake in the World Cup’s commercial operations after worldwide outrage over a proposal tied to President Donald Trump’s inner circle.

Trump pal and FIFA president Gianni Infantino revealed earlier this week that the organization planned to sell a 21 percent stake to private investors in a newly created entity—FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE)—to manage the commercial operations of top events, including the World Cup. He claimed FFE was worth $20 billion. The FFE investor group was reportedly set to be headed by a firm run by New York venture capitalist Joshua Kushner, younger brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

But the scheme was so controversial among soccer organizations, officials, and fans that it has officially been killed, sources told The New York Post.

“Kushner will figure out another way to get involved in this space. This is becoming a brand nightmare,” a source told the newspaper.

After the Post report, Infantino confirmed to Sky News that the deal is no more. It “has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” he said. “As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”

Trump told reporters he was unaware of FIFA’s private investor plan.

The deal began to cave when UEFA, the governing body of European soccer’s 55-member organization, voted unanimously on Thursday to boycott all games organized by FIFA, including the World Cup, if the scheme went ahead.

“The World Cup is not for sale,” UEFA said in a statement after the vote.

“The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product. It is one of football’s greatest sporting legacies. It has been built over generations by players, national teams, and supporters across every continent. No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors.”

Infantino aimed to hammer out the arrangement by October, reportedly speeding up the process to dodge the mounting attacks, Sports Illustrated reported. He gave member associations only 53 days to approve the scheme.

The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) also threatened to boycott the World Cup.

CONCACAF has a long history of corruption and links to Trump. The organization operated out of Trump Tower in Manhattan when the Department of Justice indicted dozens of CONCACAF and FIFA officials in 2015 on conspiracy and corruption charges stemming from an extensive international bribery scheme tied to sports equipment contracts and World Cup venue choices.

The men were nabbed after their conversations were captured on a wire worn by CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer, who was pressed into service by the FBI over a massive unpaid tax bill.

Blazer was a friend of Trump’s, lived in Trump Tower, and frequently attended Trump’s beauty pageants. Trump’s sole TV ad for his scandal-plagued Trump University was filmed in Blazer’s apartment. The president later paid a $25 million settlement to students who filed lawsuits accusing the “university” of fraud.

Ties between Trump and the current FIFA president remain close. Infantino was widely lambasted after he presented Trump with the organization’s first “peace prize” last year, months before the president ordered the abduction of Venezuela’s president and invaded Iran.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-soccer-suck-up-gianni-infantino-humiliated-as-cash-grab-collapses/?

ps:Oh so pathetic!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday at 09:46 PM

Trump Whisperer Places Blame for Iran Disaster on Vance

The vice president is to blame for the continuing conflict, Marc Thiessen claims.

President Donald Trump would be doing great in Iran if it weren’t for his own vice president getting in the way and stuffing things up, a MAGA commentator has declared.

That’s the assessment of Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, who reportedly has Trump’s ear on foreign policy.

“The ceasefire and memorandum of understanding negotiated by Vice President JD Vance— which have driven Trump into a strategic cul-de-sac of negotiations, Iranian violations and U.S. retaliatory strikes, followed by more negotiations," Thiessen wrote in a column published late Thursday.

Likening a permanent end to war to the running gag in the Peanuts cartoons where Lucy keeps taking the football away as Charlie Brown is about to kick it, Thiessen says Vance’s counsel on Iran sets Trump up to fail.

“Indeed, by elevating a deal as the definition of victory, Vance has given Iran a veto over America’s ability to declare victory. All it has to do is refuse to agree — which it is doing," he continued.

And he claims that Vance, who is broadly opposed to the U.S. getting bogged down in overseas conflicts, is actively undermining Trump’s position on Iran.

“Vance continues to publicly contradict the president’s positions,” he wrote.

“In a recent interview, he suggested that Trump might simply walk away, declaring, ‘If [the Iranians] don’t comply with the deal, the straits are still open, we’ve still done incredible damage to their nuclear program, and we can get on with our lives as a country.’ That is not Trump’s position. His position is: They’ll comply or they will get blown up.”

Thiessen pointed to recent media appearances where Vance said things that seemed to directly contradict Trump’s position.

Trump’s war in Iran caught the American public by surprise when he launched it in February, and has only become more and more unpopular as time has dragged on with no solution in sight.

The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been the subject of intense criticism over the war and how it is being handled.

Congress never approved the offensive, the Pentagon has been caught fudging the numbers on injuries and fatalities, and there is little evidence that Iran is as badly crippled as Hegseth and Trump have claimed.

Finding someone else to blame for the issue would presumably help to ameliorate the damage to the president’s own approval rating.

Thiessen has found his man.

“The vice president doesn’t get his own foreign policy,” he argued.

“Perhaps it’s time for the president to take the advice of those who have delivered him success in Iran — not those like Vance who have failed him," he said.

The White House and the vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-whisperer-places-blame-for-iran-disaster-on-vance/?

ps:You knew that was going to happen!!

Sunday at 09:51 PM

Humiliated Trump Goon Abandons Reflecting Pool Prosecution

Jeanine Pirro admitted “flawed installation” was behind the pool’s problems.

Donald Trump’s top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. has abandoned the prosecution of an Olympic medalist accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Jeanine Pirro, in a motion late Friday, moved to dismiss the charges against David Hearn, 67, a former Olympic canoeist who competed in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics. Heard pleaded not guilty to a single count of destruction of property.

In a devastating blow to the 80-year-old president’s claims that damages to the newly renovated pool were caused by “radical” vandals, Pirro cited the “flawed installation by the contractor” tasked with renovating the pool, as well as the Department of Interior’s “failure to fully and accurately provide information” to Pirro’s prosecutors.

The news comes a week after Pirro, 75, had been warned by Judge Todd Edelman that the Trump administration was “operating at its own peril” in the case.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Pirro’s office for comment.

In a statement, Hearn’s lawyers said Pirro never had a case.

“The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” said Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Fund, Mary Dohrmann of the Washington Litigation Group, and Steve Levin of Steptoe LLP. “Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.”

Hearn previously told NBC that, while on a June 19 bike ride, he stopped at the pool and touched a piece of coating that was already detached.

Pirro’s office had argued that Hearn was seen “forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner.”

But during grand jury proceedings, one of the government’s witnesses “could not quantify any loss” due to Hearn, and said that repairs were already necessary “before the defendant interacted with the pool.”

“Simply put, the government’s witness could not identify any additional cost caused by Mr. Hearn’s alleged conduct,” the filing from Hearn’s lawyers said. “Indeed, the witness did not even say or suggest that the alleged conduct had compromised the liner at all.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/humiliated-trump-goon-jeanine-pirro-abandons-reflecting-pool-prosecution/?

Monday at 12:56 AM

Trump stands to profit off US policy announcements by selling fast access to his social media posts

President Donald Trump knows the world hangs on his every word. Now he wants you to pay for it. Read More.

Trump blasts Pirro after she refutes his claim that Reflecting Pool was damaged by vandals

President Donald Trump on Saturday sharply criticized U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's assessment that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of shoddy construction and not the work of vandals, as he claims. Read More.

ps:I guess she'll be the next to be thrown under the bus!!

Monday at 05:08 PM

Trump’s Polls Hit New Low—With One Notable Exception

Only one other president has bested Trump’s race to the bottom.

President Donald Trump’s latest poll numbers have sunk to the lowest levels of his presidency—and are nearing historic lows for any second-term president.

There’s one exception, however: a lone past president who ranked even lower.

Trump has responded by repeatedly making false claims about his approval ratings. “The highest they’ve ever been,” he preened on Truth Social in June. Late last year, he boasted that his poll numbers were the highest of his entire political career when, in fact, they were the lowest of his second term. He has also claimed he won “all 50 states” in 2020. He didn’t. He lost the election.

“He’s always going to project strength regardless of what the numbers are, and he’ll say they’re fake anyway,” Republican strategist Douglas Heye told The New York Times.

The latest abysmal polls have found that only roughly a third of Americans—33 percent—support Trump amid his increasingly unpopular Iran war and climbing gas and grocery prices.

The findings across a number of surveys are the lowest of his presidency and nearly as low as those of any second-term president since the 1940s, when polling began, the Times noted.

Richard Nixon scored lower than Trump—with only 24 percent support—but that was just days before his resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Trump previously scored nearly as low as he has in the current findings following the violent storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.

Despite Trump’s inflated claims, while he has won a plurality of votes, he has never been elected by a majority of voters in the elections he has won—though he frequently insists he won in a landslide. He also has never been supported by a majority of respondents in Gallup polling.

So many Democratic voters “strongly disapprove” of Trump that they’re more likely to vote this year, handing Republicans yet another headache.

One sliver of support, however, is hanging on: Trump himself. He’s apparently convinced that Republicans have the midterms in the bag, thanks to him. He protects himself from the bad news by dismissing any and all damning surveys.

“Polls are very dishonest, just like a lot of reporters,” he told journalists during the Group of 7 summit in France in June. Days later, he cited his own survey putting his approval rating at 50 percent. Then he arbitrarily boosted that figure by an additional 15 points. “Other Polls have my Approval Rating at 65 percent, and more!” he boasted.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-polls-hit-new-lowwith-one-notable-exception/?

Monday at 08:28 PM

Trump, 80, Self-Soothes With Disturbing AI Slop Spree

The president made dozens of bizarre posts on Saturday afternoon as he melted down over his Reflecting Pool humiliation.

President Donald Trump spent his Saturday afternoon winding down in one of the few ways he seems to know how: by posting bizarre, AI-generated images of himself on Truth Social.Trump, 80, went on yet another disturbing posting blitz in which he imagined himself as Elvis Presley, mocked his political foes, daydreamed over his “Arc de Trump,” and laid claim to both Venezuela and Greenland.The president posted 43 times from Saturday morning to afternoon, in a session that included a mix of reposts and his usual AI slop.His standout post of the day was one in which he pictured himself in an Elvis Presley-inspired jumpsuit, complete with a bedazzled eagle next to his exposed chest. The image was posted with no caption or context.

Trump also spent several posts self-soothing over his advanced age. One image of himself was captioned, “President Trump ages in reverse!” Another post sat current Trump and young Trump next to each other, accompanied by the caption, “Same Guy. Even more energy now!”

The president bizarrely referred to himself in the third person in one post, writing, “President Trump is fixing our wonderful White House, just like he is fixing our Country!” Another image of him, taken in May 2024 as he arrived at a Manhattan courthouse for the Stormy Daniels hush money trial where he was found guilty of 34 felony counts, was captioned, “Only Trump.”

A separate AI-generated post depicted Trump as a Revolutionary War general leading soldiers into battle, with a battered American flag waving behind him. In real life, Trump avoided the military draft five times.

In another post, Trump shared a mock-up of this much-hyped triumphal arch project in Washington, D.C. He captioned the image, “The Triumphal Arch, prior to affixing the magnificent Statues and Artwork!”

In two other posts, Trump attacked his perceived foes Bruce Springsteen and rising Democratic star James Talarico by mocking their appearances.

The president also made clear that he’s still thinking about claiming Venezuela and Greenland, despite strong international opposition to the bonkers idea. In one image, captioned the “51st state,” Venezuela was overlaid with the American flag. In an even more bizarre photo, a gigantic Trump peeked over the mountains of Greenland with the caption, “Hello, Greenland!”

Trump made a string of other posts without an apparent overarching theme, including two dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, a split-face composite of him and George Washington, an AI-generated photo of him kissing a golden Jesus Christ on the cross, and a Trump 2028 poster.

The president also dedicated a throwback to an AI-generated photo he first posted in May that depicted him walking next to a shackled alien.

The White House did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment.

The confounding Truth Social posting sprees have become part of the aging president’s routine. He appears to delight in sharing these often nonsensical creations online. Trump’s flurry of posts also included one that lashed out at Jeanine Pirro, his pick for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool fiasco.

Trump raged at his own appointee for dropping a felony vandalism charge against a suspect in the damage to the pool, which prosecutors attributed to a poor job by the contractor and not to thugs.

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking?” he wrote. “There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-80-self-soothes-with-disturbing-ai-slop-spree/?

Monday at 08:34 PM

2028: Trump's final act

Photo illustration of President Trump and the Capitol dome stylized in a hazy way with red abstract shapes overlaid.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A special look for AM readers at Axios CEO Jim VandeHei's political briefing, published first in his weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter:

President Trump doesn't much care if Republicans lose the House and/or the Senate in November.

Yes, he'd prefer a big win. But he seems indifferent to the election and the possibility of endless Democratic investigations of his family, wealth and policies, close advisers tell us.
A big reason: Trump knows he'll emerge just as strong, or even stronger, heading into his final two years, at least among Republicans.

The big picture: Trump is not a share-the-stage, pass-the-torch, groom-your-successor kind of guy. Instead, he'll exploit his leverage:

🏛️ A more MAGA Senate. Almost all of his critics will be gone through defeat or retirement. The incoming class is very Trumpy. If they keep the Senate, Trump loyalists like Mike Lee (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Rick Scott (Fla.) will chair committees.
🗳️ A more MAGA House. Trump already serves as de facto speaker, but his few outspoken GOP critics — Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) — will be gone, replaced by members who won because of him.
👑 A '28 kingmaker. Trump's firm hold on the base means he will dictate the GOP's nominee and shape their message. He wants a Vance-Rubio ticket and will likely get it if his mind doesn't change. Imagine any '28 hopeful, especially Marco Rubio or JD Vance, trying to break with the boss while working for the boss.
💰 Cashing in. Trump will use levers of power to keep raising money to expand his clout beyond the presidency. "He likes the fact that when he tells someone, 'Give me money,' they give him money," an adviser told us.

👓 3 dramas to watch post-November:

Trump will flirt with running again in '28 until the bitter end, but it's all about PR and keeping Vance and Rubio in their place.
As potential outside-the-walls competition in '28, the White House is watching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.).
A constitutional clash over congressional oversight, among the last and most vital powers lawmakers hold dear. What happens if Trump orders his entire administration, family and friends to just ignore Congress?

Monday at 08:36 PM

🐘 Pre-Trump GOP is coming for Vance

Photo illustration of a newspaper page, with the printed elements falling, including the year 2028 in large headline type, and a photo of JD Vance.

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

The Wall Street Journal opinion page tried to stop Donald Trump a decade ago and again in 2024. Now, the standard-bearer of traditional conservatism is making an early case against his presumed heir.

Why it matters: Vice President JD Vance has the inside track for Trump's endorsement. But a GOP faction that never embraced Trump's overhaul of the party is already arguing against handing the reins to Vance, Axios' Mike Zapler writes.

🔎 The main arguments in the WSJ opinion pages:

Vance is putting ambition ahead of governing. As congressional Republicans try to pass an agenda that might avoid a November wipeout, Kimberly Strassel wrote, "Mr. Vance is promoting a book." She was referring to Vance's media tour to promote his just-published bestseller, "Communion." According to Vance's office, he's been on Capitol Hill over two dozen times since he became VP.
His personality rankles. Strassel wrote a follow-up after Vance's fans came after her for her earlier column. "One answer [for the aggressive response] is simply that Mr. Vance is a sensitive bunny," she wrote.
He's naive. An unsigned WSJ editorial zeroed in on Vance's defense of the memorandum of understanding with Iran that quickly unraveled, as well as his claims that the Iranian regime had turned over a new leaf. "We promise that wasn't Mr. Obama or John Kerry speaking," the editorial board wrote dismissively.
He cozies up to Carlson. "Mr. Vance has spent the Trump presidency trying to curry favor with Mr. Carlson as part of laying the ground for a 2028 presidential run," Allysia Finley wrote.

🥊 The other side: Allies say the Journal is fighting the last war — clinging to a vision of conservatism the Republican Party has left behind. If anything, his supporters say, the paper's criticism helps Vance politically — showing he's in tune with the grassroots and not heeding the old guard.

"No one in Vance's orbit is concerned or surprised about being attacked by the literal beating heart of the pre-Trump GOP establishment," a top Vance ally told Axios. "When the Wall Street Journal ed board hits him, it only sends the exact signal to our base that we want. … These guys are doing our work for us."

Keep reading.

Tuesday at 01:36 AM

Trump Suck-Up Begs White House Goons to Help Save His Job

Gianni Infantino is facing an open revolt over his failed bid to sell off World Cup assets to private investors.

Donald Trump’s pal, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, is appealing to top administration officials to help him keep his job as he faces a mutiny over his failed plot to sell a stake in the World Cup to a firm connected to the U.S. president’s inner circle.FIFA executives and regional soccer associations alike are calling for Infantino’s removal over his plan to sell a $20 billion minority stake in the World Cup to a group of investors led by Thrive Capital, which is run by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s younger brother Joshua. The deal would have reportedly netted Infantino a commissioner role with a $30 million salary—or five times his current salary of $6 million—but was abandoned after near-universal outrage.

Faced with an open revolt against his leadership, Infantino, 56, is now hoping Trump insiders can prevent his ousting, The New York Post reported.

He has repeatedly tried and failed to reach Trump, 80, by phone since the deal collapsed on Friday, and has instead scheduled a call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio for Monday.

“He wanted to get online with the secretary and talk about how soccer can be a form of soft power for America,” an insider briefed on the matter told the Post. “But we all know that it is about job protection. It is not about anything else at this point.”

Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson denied the report in a post on X.

“There are no plans for @SecRubio to speak with Infantino and there is no call this morning,” he wrote. “@nypost should check their sources or they could have just asked us.”

Rubio joined Trump and Infantino for this year’s World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The Swiss-born soccer administrator has been friends with the president for years and spent much of the lead-up to this year’s World Cup flattering the president.

He held press conferences in the Oval Office, allowed Trump to keep last year’s Club World Cup champions trophy, and even invented a fake FIFA “Peace Prize” specifically for Trump.

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

All of that courting was intended to guarantee a smoother World Cup, which was held this summer in cities across North America, but has so far failed to stop the fallout from the privatization plan.

The powerful Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the governing body for 55 national soccer associations, has called for Infantino to resign, and officials at FIFA have launched a campaign nicknamed “Project Kill the Monster” to force him out, according to the Post.

FIFA’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour told the AP on Friday that he wasn’t aware of the secret talks to create a new subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise to manage the privatization plan, and that he felt “deceived” by Infantino.

UEFA has also threatened legal action and demanded that Infantino and other FIFA officials “preserve all documents” related to the abandoned deal, the BBC reported.

When reached by the Daily Beast for comment, a spokesperson for FIFA said the organization “does not comment on speculation regarding internal relationships.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fifa-boss-gianni-infantino-begs-white-house-goons-to-help-save-his-job/?

ps:Well when you get in bed with a criminal you get what you deserve! And I won't be surprised if he throws him under the bus also!!!!!

Tuesday at 01:41 AM

Full Horror of Trump’s Giant Vanity Project Exposed

A federal review names no fewer than 37 landmarks that the president’s vainglorious “triumphal arch” would harm.

Donald Trump’s own officials just listed almost 40 landmarks in and around the nation’s capital that his tacky “triumphal arch” would adversely affect.

The gilded monument, nicknamed the “Arch de Trump” after France’s Arc de Triomphe, is destined for Memorial Circle, the roundabout leading to Arlington National Cemetery. It’s set to rise to 250 feet, dwarfing the 99-foot Lincoln Memorial across the Potomac River. Trump, 80, is racing to get it built before his term ends in January 2029.

The updated roster of sites it will negatively impact, reported by The New York Times on Monday, comes from a review by the National Park Service under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Roger W. Kirchen, Virginia’s state historic preservation officer, wrote to the agency in June that the damage promised by the arch is the whole point of the project. It is “intended to dominate the surrounding landscape,” he said.

Officials who reviewed the plans found the structure would obscure what mourners see from the Eternal Flame marking President John F. Kennedy’s grave. It would also sever the planned axis linking Arlington House, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s former home, with the Lincoln Memorial—a corridor laid out to mark national healing after the Civil War. The arch would also push into the frame at the Jefferson Memorial’s steps, on Georgetown’s waterfront and from the top floors of the U.S. Capitol.

Ed Stierli, vice president for government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, told the Times that the designs mean “you’re building something that will irreversibly harm the experience in these other locations.”

Outside groups have until Thursday to file comments before the review is finalized. Final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, which Trump has filled with allies, could come at a meeting scheduled for Sept. 3. The Park Service did not respond to the Times’ questions about how the review has been run.

Gary Langston, a retired U.S. Army colonel who has objected at the project’s public hearings, asked officials to picture a veteran at a service member’s grave. “You’re going to see this thing looming over you,” he told the paper. Veterans also warn that building work, forecast by the administration to run 20 hours daily over several years, will intrude on funerals.

The White House is standing by the project. “It will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery,” spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to the newspaper. The Daily Beast contacted the White House for further comment. Ingle said “the Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle is going to be one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C., but throughout the world.”

The arch is one thread in a wider redecoration of the capital. Trump tore down the White House East Wing to make way for a $600 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, with taxpayers covering more than half. His $14 million “American flag blue” refit of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool succeeded only in turning its waters a brilliant, algal green that the president has claimed is the work of vandals rather than the contractors he hired for the job.

His handpicked Kennedy Center board voted in December to put his name on the building. A judge later ordered it stripped from the facade. He has also put his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, paved over the Rose Garden lawn, and unveiled a $22.5 billion overhaul of Washington Dulles International Airport—the same airport he had earlier pushed to have renamed for himself.

The Daily Beast contacted the Department of the Interior for comment from the National Park Service. “Great nations build beautiful structures and works of art that cultivate national pride and love of country,” a spokesperson said, calling the arch “a project that all Americans can be proud of.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/full-horror-of-trumps-giant-triumphal-arch-laid-bare-in-national-parks-service-review-of-vanity-project/?

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