Year: 2026

Trump Wants More Money for Military Adventures

Buck Banks

$1.5 trillion

“President Trump proposed on Wednesday increasing military spending next year by more than half, raising the defense budget in 2027 to $1.5 trillion as he pushes for American imperialism in Venezuela and beyond,” the New York Times reports. “The president’s request for a $600 billion increase in military spending comes as his administration flexes military strength around the world.”

American Foreign Policy Has Always Been Gunboat Diplomacy

Buck Banks

“In some ways, it has been at the heart of American foreign policy since the beginning. A great many of our foreign military interventions were undertaken not to save lives or for humanitarian purposes, but simply to advance the economic interests of the country as a whole or just particular businesses. … I consulted a Congressional Research Service catalogue of U.S. armed interventions abroad since 1798. I saw that not only were virtually none of them authorized by Congress, but an imperial lust for territory and markets was the motive for the vast bulk. Not surprisingly, Latin America was the focal point of many such actions.”

— Bruce Bartlett

Kimmel: Trump Said He Would Step Down Over Low Ratings

Buck Banks

“After boasting about what a great host he is and how much better he is than I am and how huge his ratings would be, Trump hosted the lowest-rated Kennedy Center Honors telecast of all time. … You know, as I recall, he said he’d step down if this happened. He said, ‘If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel, then I don’t think I should be president.’ Hey, a deal is a deal. Back to Mar-a-Lago you go.”

— Jimmy Kimmel returned to late-night after his winter break and he used his first monologue of the year to taunt President Trump about his low ratings, Variety reports.

Mystery Bettor Made $400k on Maduro’s Ouster

Buck Banks

$400,000

“Less than five hours before nighttime explosions rocked the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, an unknown trader doubled down on bets that Nicolás Maduro would soon be out as the country’s leader,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The wagers on Polymarket, a popular crypto-based betting platform, netted the trader more than $400,000, a 12-fold return on investment—and fueled suspicions that someone used inside knowledge of the closely held U.S. operation to make a quick profit.”

The Profound Pettiness of Our President

Buck Banks

“If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today.”

— A person close to the White House, quoted by the Washington Post, saying Trump is refusing to support Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado because she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.

A U.S. Attack on Greenland Would End NATO

Buck Banks

“I believe one should take the American president seriously when he says that he wants Greenland. But I will also make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO and thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War.”

— “Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that if Donald Trump were to attack the Danish island of Greenland that would mean the end of the NATO alliance,” Bloomberg reports.