Trump says we’re talking to Iranians, but he ain’t naming ’em,
Says he doesn’t want Israel finding, killing or maiming ’em.
But he’s got Kushner and Witkoff
Working their unelected butts off, Negotiating on overtime with a whole team of imaginary Iranians.
“The unsettling reality is that with this president, Americans in wartime are in the unprecedented position of having to suspect that the enemy’s version of events is more likely to be true than our own. We have become Baghdad Bob.”
— Wall Street Journal editor-at-large Gerard Baker, on X.
Pensito IllustrationWhere Donald Trump’s “facts” come from has always been a mystery.
He serves up his version of events without context or consistency.
Though offered with details and relish,
His renditions always seek to embellish
His foreknowledge, role and influence on all aspects of his “fake history.”
Pensito Illustration
The Associated Press published a piece about its fact0-check of the lengthy interview it conducted with Donald Trump for its “Person of the Year” issue:
Time magazine gave Donald Trump something it has never done for a Person of the Year designee: a lengthy fact-check of claims he made in an accompanying interview.
The fact-check accompanies a transcript of what the president-elect told the newsmagazine’s journalists. Described as a “12 minute read,” it calls into question 15 separate statements that Trump made.
It was the second time Trump earned the Time accolade; he also won in 2016, the first year he was elected president. Time editors said it wasn’t a particularly hard choice over other finalists Kamala Harris, Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu and Kate Middleton.
Time said Friday that no other Person of the Year has been fact-checked in the near-century that the magazine has annually written about the figure that has had the greatest impact on the news. But it has done the same for past interviews with the likes of Joe Biden, Netanyahu and Trump.
For Christmas, it’s a blanket pardon for Hunter,
And that’s torn the whole political world asunder.
Everybody’s mad at Joe Biden
For doing some lyin’,
But that’s just one for old Joe and 30,573 for the Trumpster.
“He’s played through this really old entire playbook where there’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go. And we should be prepared for that, we should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth… I think he’s gonna lie.”
— Kamala Harris, on The Rickey Smiley Show, talking about what Donald Trump will do in the debate.
NPR reviewed the transcript of Donald Trump’s news conference and found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies in 64 minutes. “That’s more than two a minute. It’s a stunning number for anyone – and even more problematic for a person running to lead the free world.”
“This has to stop now. This is bad for business and there is a lack of understanding what is happening in these shows. The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material. Bad for business.”
— Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott in an email to Meade Cooper, executive vice president of prime time programming, regarding correspondent Eric Shawn fact-checking then-President Donald Trump’s lies after the 2020 election, reports CNN.
For the GOP, twice-impeached Trump is still the boss,
They’ll follow him anywhere, no matter the cost.
But is Trump beginning to deny
The truth of the Big Lie?
After all, he told the Guardian he didn’t win, which implied he lost.
Donald Trump Jr. fancies himself a bit of a bon vivant,
And since he took over 1789 Capital, the firm’s gone buoyant.
Its assets swelled from $200 million,
In just a few months to over $3 billion,
An arc that lawmakers say ain’t just savvy, it’s clairvoyant.
“Young Americans today have never witnessed Congress authorize a war, they’ve never seen a U.S. administration balance its books, they’ve never watched a well-funded and empowered state department operate, and they see only mistrust between allies. They assume the situation is normal. It is not. … The real cost of forgetting the pre-9/11 world is not a country that has changed, but one that no longer knows it could be different.”
“We’re working through some political issues in Israel. I think we agree with them on the end state. They just have a crazy election, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards.”
— Jared Kushner, quoted by CBS News, on the lack of progress in Gaza.
“If they haven’t understood by now, they should understand before it’s too late that the rules of the game have changed and that from now on, any violation of Iran’s interests and security will receive a ‘faster, heavier, and more painful’ response.”
— “Iran’s ‘proportionate responses’ to U.S. attacks are over, the country’s parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday, while acknowledging the economic impact of the war,” CNBC reports.
“President Donald Trump’s speech on the opening night of the Republican midterm convention ?drew about 2.5 million viewers on Fox News, ?according to Nielsen data, potentially undercutting his claim the event ‘beat the NFL’ opening night,” Reuters reports. “Ratings for the game are not yet available, but the ?NFL averaged ?about 18 million viewers per ?game last season, and last year’s opener drew close to 28 million.”
A new Annenberg Public Policy Center poll finds 50% of Americans say they are somewhat or very confident that Dr. Anthony Fauci provided the public with trustworthy information about matters concerning public health, a statistically significant decline of 5 percentage points since April 2026. By comparison, just 38% of Americans in August 2026 say they are confident that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the secretary of health and human services, is providing trustworthy information about public health.
“The war in Iran has now cost U.S. consumers $100 billion in higher energy prices, and the bill is rising another $1 million about every two minutes, per a real-time estimate from Brown University as of Monday morning,” Axios reports. “Energy inflation shows up across the entire economy, and the recent surge in diesel prices in particular threatens to have a dramatic impact on freight and travel in the weeks and months to come.”
A new Economist/YouGov poll finds the president’s approval at 36%, while 60% disapprove. Key takeaway: Just 27% of adults aged 30 to 44 approved of Trump’s job performance, while 70% disapproved.