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.
From Trump’s “stolen election” lies, we can’t get no relief,
He carps on about stolen votes, but he never names the thief.
Somebody needs to tell this guy
Americans aren’t buying his lies,
And that he’s turned us into the United States of Disbelief.
“If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should be trying to stop it and throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”
“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”
“The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas during President Donald Trump’s administration so far,” Fox News reports.
President Donald Trump is asking for $1,500,000 million for the military for next year. That’s close to $600 billion (adjusted for inflation) more than we were spending on the military in fiscal year 2025, before Trump took office, Alternet reports. This increase is huge by any measure. It comes to around $4,600 per household. It is around 8% of the total budget.
A new Emerson College survey of likely 2026 voters finds the Democrats with an 11-point advantage over the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, leading 53% to 42%. President Trump holds a 39% job approval rating, consistent with the past two months, whereas his disapproval increased another point, to 57%.
A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.
Wall Street Journal: “Around 40% of voters in the 2024 election said the economy was their top issue, far outstripping any other matter. And those voters favored Donald Trump by 60% to 38%. Many say they were moved by his pledges to tame inflation, rebuild U.S. infrastructure, cut red tape and trim government waste. … About a year and a half later, more voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy than approve, 61% to 35%, an average of polls by the Cook Political Report found this month.”