Poetic Justice
Buck Banks | Aug. 28, 2026
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.
Verbatim
“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.”
— Jane Haman
“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.
Numerati
2.5 million
“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.”
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50%
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.
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$100 billion
“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.”
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36%, 27%
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.
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.
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8 points
A new University of Massachusetts Amherst poll finds Democrats leading Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, 42% to 34%.
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