The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

Documenting the chaos since day one — one awful day at a time.

4,863entries documented
+16added in last 24h
+162this week
Nov 2024covering since

Monday, August 17, 2026

imperialism

diplomacy by airstrike threat, very normal country stuff

Trump explaining that his Middle East strategy is basically ‘Shark Tank,’ except the losers get bombed.

Trump explaining that his Middle East strategy is basically ‘Shark Tank,’ except the losers get bombed.

Trump has reportedly decided the best way to handle a delicate international crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is to threaten to bomb Oman if it gets in the way of his latest ‘deal.’ Because nothing projects strength like telling a small, strategically important U.S. partner, "Nice country you’ve got there, shame if a superpower illegally attacked it." The Strait of Hormuz, through which a massive share of the world’s oil flows, is already a geopolitical tinderbox thanks to Trump’s Iran war misadventures. So naturally, instead of coordinated diplomacy with regional allies, he’s out here tossing around threats of bombing a neutral monarchy that’s historically been a quiet go-between for the U.S. and Iran. Why use Oman as a backchannel when you can use it as target practice? While actual foreign policy professionals are clutching their blood pressure meds, Trump is treating the laws of war like optional EULA text. Threatening military strikes as bargaining chips over an economic choke point doesn’t just destabilize the region, it advertises to every autocrat on Earth that U.S. power is now a personal negotiating tool for one guy’s ego and re-election narrative. But sure, tell us again how this is the “peace through strength” administration.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: today.com
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
killing democracy

trump says uss lincoln is 'beautifully maintained,' sailors try to jump overboard

Trump explains that the USS Abraham Lincoln is in perfect condition because a guy he won’t name told him so, bravely overruling sailors, reporters, and basic human observation.

Trump explains that the USS Abraham Lincoln is in perfect condition because a guy he won’t name told him so, bravely overruling sailors, reporters, and basic human observation.

Donald Trump, noted expert in third-hand anecdotes, announced that the USS Abraham Lincoln is "beautifully maintained" and "beautifully taken care of" because an unnamed retired admiral allegedly told him so. Actual reporting from Navy Times and Stars and Stripes — you know, the outlets that talk to people who have actually been on the ship — describes water shortages, plumbing failures, and multiple sailors so desperate during this record-breaking deployment in the Strait of Hormuz that they’ve tried to go overboard. But Trump has "other people" (also unnamed, of course) who supposedly proved it’s all fine, so reality loses.

When a CNN reporter dared to ask about this tiny discrepancy between "everything is beautiful" and "my loved one is trying not to jump off a nuclear carrier," Trump snapped at her to "be quiet" and dismissed it all as fake news. The commander-in-chief’s message to sailors stuck at sea for over 250 days and their families watching them crumble under the Iran war’s strain is crystal clear: your mental health crisis is an inconvenience to his narrative.

Families of Lincoln crew members, who grew up being told to respect the military’s sacrifices, are now watching the president and defense secretary Pete Hegseth call their relatives’ experiences lies. One sister, speaking anonymously out of fear of retribution — always a great sign in a healthy democracy — says she’s "really angry" that the people with the power to help are instead pretending everything is fine. Trump gets his "beautiful" talking point, Hegseth gets to play tough-guy patriot on TV, and the sailors get to wonder how many more months they’ll be floating in a barely functioning metal pressure cooker so the White House can keep insisting nothing’s wrong.

theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#national-security#forever-grifting
anti immigration

trump briefly remembers big bend is not a home depot parking lot

Big Bend national park, briefly spared so the administration can decide exactly where to pour concrete on America’s face.

Big Bend national park, briefly spared so the administration can decide exactly where to pour concrete on America’s face.

The Trump administration has graciously decided to temporarily stop bulldozing Big Bend national park while the guy in charge of the wall, CBP chief Rodney Scott, flies in for an “on-the-ground evaluation” – also known as: looking at the damage and asking, “So how mad is everyone?” After ramming ahead with a border project that both parties somehow agree is terrible for a pristine, rugged stretch of Texas that already deters crossings on its own, Team Law and Order is pretending to discover the concept of “assessment” after the backhoes are already parked on the riverbank.

Congress handed the administration a $46bn wall allowance last summer to build from the Pacific to the Gulf, and the White House has been speedrunning the “ignore all the rules” category ever since, waiving environmental and other regulations like they’re spam pop-ups. Scott says he still expects to get the first layer of the wall done by the end of next year, but Texas landowners, conservationists, and basically anyone who’s seen a map of Big Bend are not thrilled about turning one of America’s most remote national parks into a monument to Trump’s anti-immigration cosplay. This “pause” looks less like a rethink and more like a PR coffee break before the next round of destruction resumes on schedule.

theguardian.comSource Article
#anti-immigration#forever-grifting
forever grifting

president puts war, markets, and sailors behind a paywall

Trump, hard at work re-rigging the system, bravely day-trading through a war he lied the country into.

Trump, hard at work re-rigging the system, bravely day-trading through a war he lied the country into.

Jon Ossoff went to Atlanta and basically read out loud the crimes section of the Trump presidency like it was an audiobook. He torched Trump’s "uniquely despicable" Iran war — the one built on lies, padded with propaganda, and generously seasoned with record-length deployments for sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln while the commander-in-chief complains they haven’t been stuck at sea long enough. The troops get exhaustion, mental health crises, and nine months on a floating anxiety attack; Trump gets tee times and a Gulf-funded flying palace for himself and Natalie Harp.

Ossoff then walked through the part where the president allegedly looked at the global economy and said, "How can I day-trade this?" Trump announces clown-tariffs, tanks the market, buys the dip, then magically cancels the tariffs right after telling his followers it’s a "great time to buy" — triggering a historic rebound and, coincidentally, padding his own portfolio. This is followed by the logical next step of any healthy democracy: a subscription service charging up to $100,000 a month for early access to the president’s thoughts on war and economic policy. The stock market, foreign governments, and defense contractors now get the premium tier, while the rest of the country gets whatever’s left after the whales cash out.

Ossoff’s pitch is basically: yes, American politics is corrupt and coin-operated, but Trump didn’t drain the swamp — he installed a VIP lounge, put the nuclear football behind a paywall, and turned the entire system into his personal options-trading side hustle. When the sitting president’s decisions on war and peace are delivered first to paying customers, that’s not just corruption; that’s a live demo of how to speedrun a democracy into a kleptocracy.

theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
lawlessness

supreme court declines to rescue trump from consequences, again

Donald Trump, freshly reminded that "being president once" is not a legal force field, stares into the middle distance and calculates how many more defamation verdicts he can afford.

Donald Trump, freshly reminded that "being president once" is not a legal force field, stares into the middle distance and calculates how many more defamation verdicts he can afford.

The Supreme Court has once again told Donald Trump that, tragically for him, "president" is not a lifetime coupon for dodging liability. The justices declined for a second time to take up his attempt to overturn the jury verdict that awarded writer E. Jean Carroll $5 million for sexual abuse and defamation. Trump even pulled the legal equivalent of "no, you hang up" and asked them to reconsider their June rejection — a move the Court almost never entertains — and still got bounced. Trump has already coughed up the $5 million plus interest, proving that while he insists he "doesn’t know" E. Jean Carroll, his bank account is now on a first-name basis with her. The case stems from Carroll’s allegation that Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in 1996 and then defamed her by calling her claims a "con job" and a "hoax" once he was out of office. He denies everything, of course, except the part where he wired her millions of dollars because a jury found him liable. Because this presidency is a never-ending litigation festival, Trump still has a separate Supreme Court appeal pending over the other defamation case, where Carroll won an $83 million judgment based on comments he made while actually in office. That one turns on whether he can wrap himself in presidential immunity like it's a deluxe spa robe that blocks all consequences. The Court will deal with that later this year, but for now, the message is clear: you can sit in the Oval Office and scream "witch hunt" all you want, but sometimes the witch wins and gets paid.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: bbc.co.uk
#lawlessness#perverts
forever grifting

strong national security requires a really nice ballroom, actually

Pictured: the future "security structure" where national security will bravely tango with the donor class under crystal chandeliers.

Pictured: the future "security structure" where national security will bravely tango with the donor class under crystal chandeliers.

Donald Trump, a man who has never met a grift he couldn’t wrap in an American flag, is now insisting that a new ballroom at Mar-a-Lago is actually a vital "security structure." Because when you think hardened defensive facility, you obviously think chandeliers, catering kitchens, and a dance floor big enough for a donor retreat.

Instead of just admitting he wants another gilded party box for himself and his paying courtiers, Trump is trying to launder it through the language of national security — a convenient label that just so happens to justify more government resources and Secret Service integration into his private, for-profit club. Call it infrastructure week for the banquet industrial complex.

This is the Trump doctrine in miniature: take something blatantly for personal benefit, slap a "security" or "official" sticker on it, and dare anyone to complain while taxpayer-funded protection gets further entangled with his private revenue stream. The line between public duty and private ballroom keeps getting blurrier, but as long as the checks clear and the band plays, the regime calls it safety.
today.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#corruption#money
killing democracy

trump admin cures alzheimer’s by canceling the research

NIH leadership bravely shielding America’s brain from dangerous concepts like “racism affects health” by cutting Alzheimer’s research with a red pen and a Fox News segment transcript.

NIH leadership bravely shielding America’s brain from dangerous concepts like “racism affects health” by cutting Alzheimer’s research with a red pen and a Fox News segment transcript.

The Trump administration has discovered a bold new strategy for fighting Alzheimer’s: just stop studying it, especially if the research suggests racism might be bad for your brain. Emory University and the University of Pittsburgh just had at least $15m in long-term Alzheimer’s and brain health grants yanked midstream, after already burning millions and months on work looking at how discrimination and divested Black neighborhoods affect dementia risk. The National Institutes of Health, now helmed by Dr. Jay "surveys aren’t science" Bhattacharya, suddenly decided these projects no longer "effectuate NIH’s priorities" and that self-reported discrimination isn’t a "concrete, objective and measurable" variable. Someone should probably tell him that half of modern epidemiology is asking people questions and then using math. This is not a one-off brain fart; it’s the sequel. After a federal judge ruled that Trump’s earlier mass purge of DEI-related NIH grants was illegal, the Supreme Court’s conservative bloc rode in on the shadow docket to let the administration kill $783m in funding anyway. Now HHS secretary Kennedy and friends are running what one legal expert calls "test cases"—same political purge, slightly different legal packaging. Grants were mysteriously delayed for months, then finally released in June with new kill-switch language, only to be terminated by the end of July. Labs were "running on fumes", staff went unpaid, and years of Alzheimer’s research into racial disparities were quietly shoved off a cliff, all so the government wouldn’t have to acknowledge that structural racism might damage more than just feelings. So to recap: 7.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, Black Americans are twice as likely to develop it, and the federal response is to defund the people trying to figure out why—because their work contains the wrong words. The same administration that screams about "free speech" on campus is micromanaging the NIH budget like a book-burner with a spreadsheet, rewriting scientific priorities to match Fox News chyrons. Real rigor, according to these guys, is when your outcomes are politically convenient and your variables never include "racism".
theguardian.comSource Article
#killing-democracy#anti-science
national security

prime minister catfished by trumpworld’s hacked phone tree

Andy Burnham, moments before realizing his high-level White House contact was basically a geopolitical phishing email with better spelling.

Andy Burnham, moments before realizing his high-level White House contact was basically a geopolitical phishing email with better spelling.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has apparently joined the elite club of world leaders who can’t tell the difference between a real Trump official and someone LARPing as one on their phone. Burnham traded a handful of messages with a person posing as Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s de facto chief of staff, before someone noticed that maybe international diplomacy via mystery SMS isn’t a great national security protocol.

Downing Street is hiding behind the classic magic words — "we do not comment on national security matters" — which is a polite way of saying, "yes, this is embarrassing." Officials insist there were "no messages of significance" and that everything was "quickly reported" once it started to smell like a scam, which is exactly what you’d say if the prime minister just got punked by whoever currently has access to Trumpworld’s contact list.

This all traces back to Susie Wiles’ phone, which the FBI has been poking at since last year after an impersonator used her contacts to message US senators, governors, and business bigwigs. Wiles, a key Trump ally already targeted by an Iranian cyber espionage unit in 2024, is apparently running a one-woman demonstration of why giving these people power again is like handing your nuclear codes to the guy who still falls for "Your package is waiting" texts.

And because the Anglosphere loves a sequel, this follows former UK PM David Cameron getting duped by a fake Petro Poroshenko in 2024. The Foreign Office even pre-emptively released the details so they couldn’t be "manipulated" — a phrase that now doubles as a mission statement for anyone who manages to steal a Trump lieutenant’s phone and scroll through the global rolodex of Very Important But Apparently Extremely Gullible People.

bbc.co.ukSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.com
#national-security#killing-democracy

Sunday, August 16, 2026

national security

trump trades korea war games for love letters from kim

Trump, fresh off another Truth Social foreign policy brainstorm, bravely protects America by canceling war games and trusting Kim Jong Un’s good vibes instead.

Trump, fresh off another Truth Social foreign policy brainstorm, bravely protects America by canceling war games and trusting Kim Jong Un’s good vibes instead.

Donald Trump hopped on Truth Social to announce that the US will "substantially reduce" joint military exercises with South Korea, because nothing says strong national security like weakening your most important Asian alliance to impress a hereditary dictator you once exchanged love notes with. The drills, scheduled to start Monday, are now apparently too "costly" and "hostile" toward Trump's favorite pen pal, Kim Jong Un.

Instead of talking to the Pentagon or, say, South Korea, Trump framed it as a customer service issue: America pays "as usual!" and Seoul had the nerve to decline to join his Iran "denuclearisation" cosplay, so he's now adjusting the U.S. defense posture like he's canceling a gym membership. Real presidents use joint exercises to deter nuclear-armed regimes; Trump uses them as a loyalty punch card and bargaining chip in his ongoing effort to convert U.S. foreign policy into a one-man reality show.

American foreign policy norms with North Korea were already on life support after his photo-op summit tours, but this is a fresh step: rewarding Pyongyang by dialing down allied readiness, while scolding South Korea in public for insufficient participation in his Iran fan fiction. The message to allies is clear: mutual defense treaties are now subject to the vibes of Trump's latest social media post and how many compliments he’s getting from dictators this week.

bbc.co.ukSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: bbc.co.uk
#national-security#killing-democracy#imperialism
killing democracy

slumlord princeling attempts to rebrand as gaza's savior

Jared Kushner explains peace in Gaza using the same strategic genius that brought you overleveraged Manhattan office space and a $2 billion Saudi investment in his post-White House hobby fund.

Jared Kushner explains peace in Gaza using the same strategic genius that brought you overleveraged Manhattan office space and a $2 billion Saudi investment in his post-White House hobby fund.

Jared Kushner, the real estate failson who once pitched peace in the Middle East as a kind of zoning variance, has resurfaced as Trump's "Middle East envoy" to personally fix Gaza. This time he's doing it under the banner of Trump's self-appointed "Board of Peace" — an "international organisation" that appears to consist of Trump, some letterhead, and whoever still answers Kushner's texts. The Board claims it has an agreement for the "complete disarmament" of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, plus an Israeli troop withdrawal and a shiny new civilian Palestinian administration, which is a lot of words for a plan Israel has already publicly torched.

Undeterred by reality, Kushner held rare talks in Egypt with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, alongside Nickolai Mladenov and, because we apparently live in a cursed reboot of 2005, Tony Blair. They reportedly discussed how to actually dismantle Hamas's arsenal, get Israeli forces out, and rebuild a strip of land that has already seen more than 73,000 people killed and 1.9 million displaced. Israel's answer remains: no withdrawal until full disarmament first — and also a flat rejection of Trump's 15-point plan, just to really underline how much respect they have for America's new freelance peace corporation.

Meanwhile, eight Muslim-majority countries — Egypt, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia — issued a joint statement saying Israel's rejection threatens Trump's peace efforts, which is a polite diplomatic way of saying, "We are all pretending this Board of Peace is a real thing now, apparently." Trump, naturally, chairs this pseudo-institution himself, having expanded it from a Gaza project to a global conflict fixer, because when you've already broken American democracy, why not cosplay as the UN too? The ceasefire technically still exists, the IDF is still conducting strikes, Hamas is still accused of violations, and into this meat grinder strolls Jared Kushner, armed with vibes, spreadsheets, and his father-in-law's delusions of imperial grandeur.

bbc.co.ukSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#imperialism#forever-grifting
killing democracy

america’s top cop pledges loyalty to the defendant-in-chief

Todd Blanche, auditioning for the role of Attorney General in ‘The President Will Have Some Very Strong Feelings About Your Case.’

Todd Blanche, auditioning for the role of Attorney General in ‘The President Will Have Some Very Strong Feelings About Your Case.’

The Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche, went on national television and cheerfully confirmed that yes, the Justice Department will be taking notes when Donald Trump tells him who to prosecute. Not even a hint of shame, just a casual "of course" when asked if he’ll listen to Trump’s opinions on prosecutions, as if the AG’s job description has always been "chief lawyer for one very angry man" instead of "independent guardian of the rule of law." Instead of drawing a bright line between the White House and federal prosecutors, Blanche basically walked out with a can of gasoline and a match and asked which line Trump wanted burned first. The entire post‑Watergate norm that DOJ doesn’t act like the president’s personal hit squad? Reduced to a polite suggestion that this administration is declining to follow. We’re now at the stage where they don’t even bother pretending the Justice Department works for the public; it works for Trump, and Trump has some very specific ideas about who should be investigated. The message to career DOJ lawyers and U.S. attorneys is clear: your new chain of command runs through Donald J. Trump’s grievances desk. If you were wondering how quickly a democracy can slide into strongman politics when the top prosecutor proudly advertises his willingness to take direction from the guy demanding retribution, Todd Blanche just helpfully provided the live demonstration.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: nbcnews.comAlso: nbcnews.com
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
anti science

trump takes medical advice from facebook comments, rewrites vaccine rules

Doctor tries to calmly explain vaccines while the federal government speed-runs a Facebook comments section into national policy.

Doctor tries to calmly explain vaccines while the federal government speed-runs a Facebook comments section into national policy.

The Trump White House has apparently decided the best people to rewrite childhood vaccination policy are not doctors, not epidemiologists, but the guy who once tweeted that vaccines cause autism and a rotating cast of anti-vax whisperers. The new order on childhood vaccines doesn't come with new data, new science, or new safeguards — just new ways to second-guess established schedules and inject political whim into basic pediatric care.

Instead of shoring up trust in vaccines after years of disinformation (some of it from Trump himself), the administration is busy formalizing that disinformation into policy. Parents are now told to "consult" and "question" long-settled science as if measles and polio are just lifestyle choices, like gluten-free bread or CrossFit. Public health experts warn this kind of meddling is a great way to bring back diseases your grandparents were thrilled to never see again.

The message from Trumpworld is crystal clear: your kid's immunity is just another culture-war prop. Doctors and scientists spent decades building a system that protects children; Trump spent a few years doomscrolling conspiracy theories and has now decided he knows better. Herd immunity is out, herd stupidity is in.
today.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#anti-science#healthcare#trumps-america
healthcare

trump discovers a bold new frontier in cruelty: poor trans kids on medicaid

A crowd of trans kids and allies outside the Supreme Court, still under the quaint illusion that the federal government might someday care more about their lives than about pandering to bigots.

A crowd of trans kids and allies outside the Supreme Court, still under the quaint illusion that the federal government might someday care more about their lives than about pandering to bigots.

The Trump administration has finally answered the age-old question, "How can federal health policy be even more vindictive?" By issuing a new rule that bans any federal Medicaid or CHIP dollars from covering gender-affirming care for trans youth, they’ve managed to turn the country’s safety net into a weapon. The affected group is tiny — an estimated 130,000 trans minors in states where care is still legal — so of course the White House focused its full attention on them, because nothing screams "strong leadership" like beating up the smallest, poorest, most politically powerless kids you can find.

One California mom, a lifelong Republican now on Medicaid after her husband’s company collapsed, gets to learn firsthand what "family values" actually means in Trumpworld: you can have your child’s medically recommended care or you can be poor, but not both. She’s so afraid of federal retaliation she won’t even use her full name, because this administration has made it perfectly clear that parents of trans kids are not just undeserving of help — they’re potential targets. Health law experts call the move "unprecedented" and "untested"; the administration calls it Tuesday. States can theoretically backfill the lost funds, but with red legislatures already racing to outlaw the care entirely, the plan is obvious: strangle access from Washington while the states finish the job.

So here we are: a federal government that has never before singled out a specific diagnosis and patient population to defund is doing exactly that, for no reason other than ideology and spite. Medicaid — a program literally designed so low-income kids don’t die for being poor — is now being rewritten so some of them can die for being trans, too. "Pro-life," of course.

npr.orgSource Article
#healthcare#trumps-america
imperialism

little marco discovers his inner colonial viceroy

Marco Rubio studies Donald Trump at a mining roundtable, perhaps wondering how much further he has to crawl to finally be promoted from "little Marco" to assistant regional viceroy.

Marco Rubio studies Donald Trump at a mining roundtable, perhaps wondering how much further he has to crawl to finally be promoted from "little Marco" to assistant regional viceroy.

From Foggy Bottom, the world is on fire and Marco Rubio’s big idea is to show up with a can of gasoline and a British Empire fan club membership. As Trump’s Secretary of State and national security adviser, Rubio has somehow decided his unique power to promote peace is best used to cheer on an unresolved Iran war, watch Russia escalate attacks on NATO allies, and preside over a Ukraine conflict that Candidate Trump promised to end "in 24 hours" but is now well into year five. Diplomacy, it turns out, is for people who don’t have Jared Kushner and random Trump business buddies on speed dial. Rather than act like a diplomat, Rubio’s auditioning for the role of pith-helmeted colonial viceroy. He’s explicitly lamenting the decline of "the great western empires" and whining about "godless communist revolutions and anti-colonial uprisings" like it’s 1898 and he just lost his favorite sugar plantation. In Munich, he basically told Europe to stop feeling bad about colonialism and start feeling proud enough to help him defend "civilisation"—a word that, in this administration, mostly means fossil fuel profits and arms deals. Meanwhile, Trump has attacked eight countries in a year, and Rubio’s beloved Cuba is being publicly floated as a potential next target. Nothing says "peace" like lining up your parents’ homeland for a possible bombing run. On the home front of global governance, Rubio is busy taking a wrecking ball to whatever is left of the rules-based order. The one-time foreign aid champion has gutted USAID, turning America’s primary humanitarian arm into a budgetary corpse, and is now trying to dismantle the International Criminal Court—you know, the place that might one day ask awkward questions about war crimes committed by, say, leaders who bomb eight countries in a year. He used to rage against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal; now he backs a Trump-branded version that offers even more concessions, because the only consistent principle in Rubio-world is "Is Donald happy?". What little remains of traditional diplomacy has been outsourced to Jared Kushner and Trump crony Steve Witkoff, while JD Vance is left holding the Iran bag and the political shrapnel that comes with it. Rubio, ever the survivalist chameleon, keeps his distance from actual negotiations like they’re student loan payments, hoping to glide into 2028 as the "serious" statesman who somehow just happened to be national security adviser during a spree of botched wars, imperial nostalgia tours, and systematic attempts to kneecap international law. America’s top diplomat has power to push for peace—and is using it to cosplay empire while the world burns.
theguardian.comSource Article
#imperialism#killing-democracy

Saturday, August 15, 2026

imperialism

when your ‘maximum pressure’ policy ends with iran telling you to log off

Pictured: yet another foreign government explaining U.S. ‘strategy’ like a disappointed teacher going over a failed group project.

Pictured: yet another foreign government explaining U.S. ‘strategy’ like a disappointed teacher going over a failed group project.

Iranian officials are now going on TV to politely suggest that the United States accept the reality of defeat, which is diplomatic code for, “you clowns lost, stop embarrassing yourselves.” This is what’s left after years of Trump shredding the Iran nuclear deal, tweeting threats like a bored Bond villain, and turning U.S. Middle East policy into a Fox News segment with missiles. Washington spent the Trump years doing “maximum pressure” photo-ops while Iran quietly built regional clout, deepened ties with Russia and China, and waited for America’s foreign policy brain to finish melting. Now Tehran gets to lecture the U.S. about failure on international television, and the rest of the world nods along like, “Yeah, that tracks.” The superpower that used to negotiate complex multilateral agreements is now the guy who rage-quit the group chat and is stunned no one begged him to come back. The real achievement here isn’t just that Iran feels confident enough to taunt the U.S. on camera; it’s that after years of Trump’s performative toughness, there’s not much the U.S. can do about it beyond more sanctions press releases and some very stern podium noises. American credibility took a long walk off a short pier, and the countries we were supposedly outsmarting are now writing the post-game commentary.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: nbcnews.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
forever grifting

trump brings the receipts, forgets to read them

Trump proudly displays a Washington Post article that proves Joe Biden’s policies worked, which in this White House apparently counts as a self-own performance art piece.

Trump proudly displays a Washington Post article that proves Joe Biden’s policies worked, which in this White House apparently counts as a self-own performance art piece.

The Trump White House spent the day blasting out a photo of Donald Trump proudly waving a Washington Post article about prescription drug prices hitting their biggest drop in 60+ years, declaring it proof of his economic genius. Tiny footnote: the article itself explicitly credits Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and its Medicare drug price negotiations, and quotes multiple experts saying Trump’s policies probably had nothing to do with it. Minor detail, easily solved by simply not linking to the story and hoping no one can read past a headline.

During a carefully staged tarmac photo-op, Trump strutted up to reporters, brandished a printout showing the headline and first few lines, and demanded they capture the moment like he’d just split the atom. "I told you that was going to happen," he bragged, omitting the part where it happened because Biden signed a law forcing Big Pharma to negotiate with Medicare. The same article notes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics data he’s celebrating comes from an agency whose former chief Trump fired last year for producing job numbers he didn’t like, which really ties the whole "facts are whatever I say they are" aesthetic together.

Over on X, White House communications director Steven Cheung posted a screenshot of the Post headline with the caption, "All thanks to President Trump!" and, crucially, no link to the actual piece that contradicts him. The official White House accounts joined in with "POV: you bring the receipts," which is a bold slogan for a team that apparently considers reading comprehension an optional elite hobby. It’s not policymaking so much as government-by-screenshot: strip out the context, slap Trump’s name on Biden’s reforms, and hope the propaganda beats the truth to everyone’s feed.

theguardian.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting

trump’s america: now with extra salmonella

A carton of American eggs, now available in cage-free, brown, and "may cause serious adverse health consequences or death" varieties.

A carton of American eggs, now available in cage-free, brown, and "may cause serious adverse health consequences or death" varieties.

Nearly 1.6 million dozen eggs are getting yanked off shelves across the south and south-west because they might come with a surprise side of salmonella, which the FDA has now upgraded to its highest-risk, "reasonable probability this could seriously hurt or kill you" category. Almost 100 people in 17 states are sick, over two dozen are in the hospital, and the contamination window stretches back to November 2025, so this wasn’t so much a problem as a long-running subscription service. Midwest Poultry Services did eventually flag the issue with what the FDA calls “proactive environmental monitoring,” which is a polite government phrase for "we finally checked." The company stopped distributing eggs from its Texas farms in July, but the recalled eggs have best-by dates through 17 August, meaning millions of potentially contaminated eggs have already gone through Kroger, Brookshire’s, and assorted smaller stores and into people’s kitchens. Consumers are being told not to eat them and to go get a refund, because nothing says food safety like hoping people kept their receipts for biohazard omelets. This is all happening while the Trump administration is juggling one of the largest foodborne illness outbreaks in US history: more than 13,000 cyclosporiasis cases linked to lettuce, plus another salmonella mess tied to jalapeños and Taylor Farms products in 26 states. The FDA just announced a tweak to the rules on how manufacturers tell the government what they’re putting in food, which closes one loophole but falls dramatically short of the administration’s big talk about overhauling regulations. So the pattern continues: deregulate, under-enforce, toss out some half-measure when the headlines get embarrassing, and hope voters are too busy running to the bathroom to notice.
theguardian.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting

trump’s big beautiful bill for guys who already own a boat

Donald Trump explains that helping millionaires is basically trickle-down charity, while an army of "small business" car dealers and dentists quietly backs dump trucks up to the Treasury.

Donald Trump explains that helping millionaires is basically trickle-down charity, while an army of "small business" car dealers and dentists quietly backs dump trucks up to the Treasury.

Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" is basically a GoFundMe for people whose biggest problem in life is whether to buy a third vacation home or a second plane. The bill pairs more than $5tn in tax cuts with over $1tn in cuts to food stamps and Medicaid, while House speaker Mike Johnson swears it’s not a giveaway to millionaires, just a little treat for "small business owners"—the kind who live in $3.7m townhouses owned by millionaire donors.

Republicans have decided that "pass-through" businesses—legal entities that magically dodge corporate tax rates so their owners can pay lower individual rates—are the true oppressed class of American life. The 20% pass-through deduction they made permanent will cost $820bn over 10 years, almost matching the Medicaid cuts, and a majority of that income flows straight to the top 1%. Senator Ron Johnson, who once held up Trump’s 2017 tax bill until pass-throughs got sweeter treatment, just happened to make tens of millions from his own pass-through plastics company. Pure coincidence, obviously.

Economists estimate there are thousands of these "everywhere millionaires" for every billionaire, quietly hoovering up tax breaks while posing as your friendly local dentist, car dealer, or real estate guy. Their combined wealth dwarfs the Forbes 400, and they’ve wired the system to keep it that way: frozen doctor residencies to keep physician incomes sky-high, franchise laws that protect car dealers from competition, and a steady stream of PAC money from Realtors, beer wholesalers, and auto dealers to the very lawmakers writing their tax gifts. Cut health care for the poor, lock in permanent discounts for the already rich, and call it helping Main Street—Trumpism in one big, beautiful scam.
theguardian.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting

oil salesman-in-chief explains your gas bill

Trump, seen here explaining that gas prices are very high, very unfair, and absolutely not related to the oil industry he’s been spoon-feeding for years.

Trump, seen here explaining that gas prices are very high, very unfair, and absolutely not related to the oil industry he’s been spoon-feeding for years.

Trump took a brief break from trying to annex international waterways to address the crisis that truly keeps him up at night: the price of gas and how to blame it on anyone but the people actually in charge of energy policy. In a sub–one-minute burst of economic "insight," he reportedly gestured at higher gas prices like they were a natural disaster unrelated to years of gutting environmental rules, cozying up to oil states, and treating energy markets like a Fox News prop table. The White House message is the usual: deregulate everything, shovel benefits at fossil fuel companies, and then act shocked when the bill comes due at the pump for everyone else. While Americans watch the numbers spin higher on the gas station display, Trump’s political allies and donors in the oil patch keep cashing in. It’s a neat trick: privatize the profits, socialize the outrage, and let the president play confused TV pundit about a mess his own administration helped create.
nbcnews.comSource Article
#forever-grifting#money
forever grifting

stable genius discovers subpoenas work both ways

Trump stares into the distance, contemplating the grave injustice of being asked to provide evidence in a lawsuit he filed himself.

Trump stares into the distance, contemplating the grave injustice of being asked to provide evidence in a lawsuit he filed himself.

Trump’s latest legal masterstroke: suing the BBC for allegedly "doctoring" his January 6 speech, then panicking when the BBC says, "Great, let’s hear from the kids." BBC lawyers now want subpoenas for Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner, arguing they have personal knowledge of what Daddy meant when he stood outside the Capitol and did his usual "I’m just asking questions" routine about democracy. The family of transparency is, naturally, impossible to find. Process servers get blocked by police checkpoints, brushed off by the Secret Service, and told at Trump Tower that the person who handles legal documents is either "at lunch" or that the entire "legal department" has apparently ascended into the cloud. For people who never stop screaming about law and order, they’re suddenly very committed to the "have you tried not being home" legal defense. BBC has already admitted to an editing screw-up and apologized, but is calmly pointing out that the show probably wasn’t even available in the U.S., while Trump’s lawyers quietly concede they have no actual evidence it aired on BritBox, BBC.com, BBC Select, or U.S. broadcasters. Yet Trump insists the documentary devastated his business interests, and when the BBC asks for financial records to prove that, his team shrieks that disclosure would cause him "irreparable harm". Curious how the damage is always loud and public, but the proof is always fragile and secret. A trial is penciled in for February 2027, assuming Trump doesn’t run out of delay tactics or lawyers first. Until then, the man who spent years demanding everyone else’s emails, servers, and tax returns is suddenly allergic to subpoenas and financial records. Accountability for thee, NDAs and stall tactics for me.
bbc.co.ukSource Article
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy