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.
There was a gay, black journo named Don Lemon,
Who stopped in Minneapolis to ask questions.
But ICE got to arresting
And now Trump’s lawyers are testing
The use of the civil rights FACE Act to convict ‘im.
“His apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation (and political spectrum) about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s well-being.”
— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is requesting the White House physician conduct a “comprehensive cognitive assessment” of President Trump and brief Congress on the results.
“So the world’s greatest military power went to war with a poor, medievalist theocracy. It was an incredibly uneven match … Yet Iran won. The Iranian regime has emerged far stronger than it was before, controlling the Strait of Hormuz and having demonstrated its ability to inflict damage on both its neighbors and the world economy. The U.S. has emerged far weaker, having demonstrated the limitations of its military technology, its strategic ineptitude and, when push comes to shove, its cowardice. … We’ve also destroyed our moral credibility: Trump may have TACOed at the last minute, but he threatened to commit gigantic war crimes — and for all practical purposes our political and civil institutions gave him permission to do so.”
“God deserves all the glory. Tens of thousands of strikes carried out under the protection of divine providence. A massive effort with miraculous protection. God is good.”
— Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking to reporters.
“Consumer confidence plunged to a record low in April as fears mounted over rising energy prices and the broader impact of the Iran war, according to a University of Michigan survey Friday,” CNBC reports.“The university’s headline index of consumer sentiment tumbled to 47.6, down 10.7% from March to its lowest on record. Current conditions and expectations indexes also saw double-digit monthly declines.”
G. Elliot Morris: “New estimates I’ve produced show that Trump’s approval rating is below 50% among registered voters in 135 Republican-held congressional seats — 104 in the House and 31 in the Senate. … And his approval is below 45% in jurisdictions represented by 44 Republican members of Congress — 34 in the House and 10 in the Senate.”
A new survey finds that approximately 20% of 2024 Trump voters may not vote Republican in 2028, and that almost 57% of voters who switched from Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024 are considering abandoning the Republican party in 2028.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds 86 percent of Americans are concerned for the lives of U.S. military personnel in Iran — and 56 percent believe the war will have a negative impact on their personal financial situation.