Trump's Not Fooling Anyone Anymore

With Memorial Day behind us, summer has unofficially begun. I don’t go on many vacations, and won’t take my computer and drawing supplies to Maine for another month or so. But I thought I’d share one of my personal favorite cartoons that was published by The New Yorker. I don’t know what the little girl’s angle is, but she’s showing her baby brother some beach behavior etiquette.

All eyes are again on Iran. Trump wants a deal badly because the war he started is going very poorly, Americans do not approve of it and oil prices are causing higher prices for everyone, here and abroad. The war continues to eat away at any of Trump’s chances in the midterms.

Yet as Heather Cox Richardson reports, Trump puts out lies on social media that he almosts has a deal, that he’s talked to all the players and then some, and he claims that the calls “went very well.”

Iran State media says the US violated the ceasefire with strikes overnight.

And Iran’s state media immediately posted that Trump’s claim that the strait would reopen as it was before the war was “not true,” adding that “it should be noted that American officials have acknowledged in multiple messages to Iran that Trump’s tweets are primarily for promotional purposes and media consumption within the United States, and they have recommended that no attention be paid to these statements.”

Leaks of the deal from Al Jazeera indicate that if signed, it would be “total surrender” by the US. Trump posted on his social media account endless missives about the deal (no details), and attacked Obama and others as “losers.” We have come to expect this from him, but my observation is that it’s gotten worse.

Social media in the hands of such a powerful man is extremely dangerous. But while it may have “worked” for Trump in the past, it is not working as a negotiating tool for him now at all. Everyone is on to him and his craziness. His aministration excluded— they still seem to think he’s just fine. Or perhaps they believe he’s nuts and don’t care, just hoping to leverage the situation.

Two sources (HCR and the Parnass Perspective) tell me that Rep Thomas Massie will begin naming names in the Epstein Files. Massie lost his re-election primary to a Trump-backed Republican in a race that was the costliest in recorded Congressional history (Trump et al threw $35 million on the race). Along with Rep Ro Khana, Massie is one of the co-sponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. He says he plans to read names soon. YES. Massie also just filed to run in 2028, but he said he’s not decided on what office to run for.

Hopeful news: Federal judges blocked new Republican-friendly voting maps in Alabama, saying it discriminates against Black voters. The state cannot use these maps in the upcoming midterms.

“We cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the court wrote in its opinion. “We again cannot understand the 2023 Plan as anything other than intentionally discriminatory.”

We know there are good people constantly pushing back.

Thanks for being here, and thank you for all your very kind responses to my post yesterday about my uncle who died in WWII. It means a lot to me, truly. I will respond soon.

I hope your Tuesday is going well, see you tomorrow.