Delusional Trump, 80, Mounts Unhinged Defense of His Surrender

Axios/CNN
Harry Thompson
Fri, June 19, 2026

Donald Trump has mounted a staggering defense of his peace agreement with Iran.

The president, 80, spoke with The Axios Show in an interview released Thursday, where he said that he thinks Iran's surrender is "unconditional" and that he has effected regime change, despite power landing in the hands of the ayatollah's son.

Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this week to bring an end to the fighting that has rocked the Middle East since February and sparked a global energy crisis following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump's deal has come under fire from critics who think it has given Iran too good a hand. Economic restrictions on the country will be lifted, and it will receive "at least" $300 billion in reconstruction and development aid, which some people have described as war reparations.

Questions have been raised, too, that securing a memorandum of understanding is a far cry from the "unconditional surrender" that Trump promised when he first rained down bombs and killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Trump doesn't see it that way.

"There are no limits," he said of his own power. "I haven't learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but there are no limits. We defeated them totally militarily."

Iran's former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed early in “Operation Epic Fury.” / ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images

He then went one step further, claiming that the memorandum "probably is unconditional surrender."

Since the killing of Khamenei, 86, the White House and the Pentagon have banged the drum of regime change.

His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has now taken his place, and while several high-ranking officials have been killed, many of the top brass from the Islamic Republic and its military wing, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, remain.

Challenged on this, Trump stuck to the party line.

Mojtaba Khamenei, center, in Tehran, the Iranian capital. / picture alliance / picture alliance via Getty Image

"I actually think it's regime change, if you want to know the truth," he said. Asked why he thought that, he said, "Because they're different people."

He added, "They're different people. All right, Khamenei junior is different from the father."

In his eyes, the military display put on by the U.S. has shown its total power, despite not being able to break Iran's vice-like grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

"Who else could have done a blockade like that?" he said, of the U.S. counter-blockade established to prevent Iran from having total discretion over what did and did not pass through the narrow waterway. "I did a naval blockade where not one ship was able to get through. Some tried. It didn't last very long."

But still, Trump faces questions from hawks, who think the memorandum gives Iran too much breathing room.

"The only way I can get tougher is if I go in there for another two or three weeks and continue to bomb the hell out of 'em. Right?" he said. "But what does that get us? The Strait of Hormuz will not be open."

Axios cited a source who said that behind the scenes, Trump had become increasingly concerned about dwindling oil reserves. Global oil prices had already spiked, and American prices at the pump were approaching the $5 mark.

"We wouldn't have oil for months. As long as you're dropping bombs, that thing is automatically closed," he said.

Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have cried regime change. / Evan Vucci / REUTERS

"This is the kind of thing that could cause a worldwide depression."

That mindset goes some way to explaining why he was prepared to take a deal that is less than satisfactory to those hawks.

A copy of the memorandum was leaked to NPR by an unnamed source and published Thursday.

Much of the language does not read like unconditional surrender.

"The United States of America undertakes, with regional partners, to develop a definitive mutually agreed plan with at least USD 300 billion, for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran," one section reads.

Another: "The United States of America undertakes to terminate all types of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the United Nations Security Council resolutions, IAEA Board of Governors resolutions, and all unilateral U.S. sanctions."

A third excerpt reads: "The United States of America undertakes to make fully available for use the frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran upon the implementation of this MoU."

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent fuel prices soaring. / Stringer / REUTERS

In exchange for Iran promising it will never have nuclear weapons, the U.S. will begin "the removal of its naval blockade and any disturbances or impediments against the Islamic Republic of Iran" as well as the "permanent termination of military operations on all fronts."

Still, much of the world has breathed a sigh of relief, including French president Emmanuel Macron, who, The Guardian reports, said at this week's G7 summit that it ends a "situation of great instability that had terrible consequences for our economies."

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

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THUS SPAKE THE GREAT MORON ON THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE... And his MAGA morons agreed.

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Iran Threatens Strait Closure as Trump Focuses on Nickname Poll
Wiktoria Gucia
Sat, June 20, 2026 

Al Drago/Getty Images

President Donald Trump's priorities are being called into question after he made a bizarre post on Saturday morning.

Just as Iran announced it was closing the Strait of Hormuz and accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire agreement, Trump took to Truth Social to seek feedback on his derogatory new nickname for Democrats.

Trump posted a poll asking his followers, "Which do you prefer, Dumocrat or Dumbocrat?"

The 80-year-old president then offered a truly bizarre explanation of each spelling.

The president’s poll on Truth Social on Saturday morning. / @realDonaldTrump/ TruthSocial

"In one case, you simply exchange the 'e' for 'u,' so simple and precise (Many people don't know, or assume, that DUMB ends in 'b')," Trump wrote.

He continued, "In the other case, you spell out DUMB, but it seems to lose some of the identity to Democrats when done this way. Which is better?"

He ended the post with his now-familiar sign-off: "Thank you for your attention to this very important matter! President DJT."

The president has been repeatedly musing on the word "dumb" in recent months, claiming multiple times that "a lot of people don't know dumb has a 'b.'"

President Donald Trump signed the Iran deal in the Palace of Versailles, a setting more often associated with historic defeat than diplomatic triumph. / Anna Moneymaker / Pool via Reuters

An hour into the poll, Trump's followers preferred the president's spelling of "Dumocrat," which received 63 percent of the vote.

It was the same spelling Trump used earlier in the day during a posting spree in which he wrote that "Dumocrats realize how well we have done in our War against Iran."

Trump signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran on Wednesday, but it is already showing signs of falling apart, with Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic. Critics and supporters alike have noted it falls far short of his earlier call for "unconditional surrender."

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent fuel prices soaring. / Stringer / REUTERS

The agreement ends military operations, lifts U.S. sanctions on Iran, and establishes a $300 billion reconstruction fund, while Iran commits not to pursue nuclear weapons. It also sets out a phased U.S. withdrawal from its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days.

Iran said Saturday it was closing the Strait of Hormuz in response to continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to implement a peace deal were due to take place in Switzerland on Friday but were postponed.

Vice President JD Vance, who was set to lead the talks, did not travel to Switzerland. Instead, he said that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff were on the ground and "dealing with some of the technical elements of this negotiation."

Trump has joked that he will blame the vice president if the deal falls through.

"If it works out, I'm going to take the credit," Trump said. "If it doesn't work out, I'm blaming JD."

Even American Algae are Refusing to Submit to the Great Moron

[Some parts of this writeup are taken from a MediaITE article] 

Reflecting Pool Rejects Donald Dumb's Abuse by Nurturing a very ‘Aggressive’ Form of Algae.

Donald Dumb's $14 million fake-patriotic renovation project at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is not going well. 

AI says: "For a family of four, the poverty line was approximately $26,200 in 2020, though many analysts suggest families need roughly $52,400 (twice the poverty line) to adequately cover essential costs without financial strain." Let us take the average of these two numbers (i.e. $39,300) as a working number, even though this is a very conservative estimate since we are in 2026 and the cost of living has skyrocketed under the make-the-rich-richer-and-the-poor-poorer policies of the criminal felon moron.

Instead of squandering 14 million dollars of taxpayers' money on a vanity project like this that turned the Reflecting Pool into a mediocre swimming pool, the jackass in the white house could have helped 14,000,000 / 39,300 = 356. Three hundred and fifty-six families of four in poor America could survive one year on the money wasted on the deranged moron's re-do of the stupid pool.

First, materials used to paint the bottom blue turned out to be food for algae as the blue color, close to the color of the sun rays, invites aggressive algal growth. Then, the efforts by the geniuses - recruited in a corrupt no-bidding process - working on this project to kill off the algae apparently selected for a new, even more aggressive algae, according to tests conducted by a reporter for The Atlantic.

Trump's decision to drain the pool and paint the bottom "American Flag Blue" has been criticized for its cost, plus the no-bid contract for the work. Since the pool was refilled, bright green algae spread throughout the water and the paint has been peeling away. Reporters have seen tourists tearing off pieces of the paint to bring home as souvenirs.

The dumb moron dispatched crews to combat the algae through various means, including "hydro-vacuums" and pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water. That appears to have been an inadequate fix, only killing off some of the algae along the outer edges of the Reflecting Pool and possibly even causing or exacerbating the peeling paint.

But the problems caused by the hydrogen peroxide don't end there.

Viser had observed the Reflecting Pool on several different days recently, watching tourists grab their souvenirs and government workers wading through the water making various attempts to remove the algae, noting that the water was "relatively clear" in some sections, an "oily sludge" in others, and multiple shades of green from the algae in others.

The Atlantic decided to run its own tests on the water. Viser gathered samples from multiple areas of the Reflecting Pool, and brought them to two different scientists for testing.

"Testing reveals that efforts to suppress one algal bloom seem to be fueling another," wrote Viser, and the "workers battling against nature" in "the country's most high-profile science experiment" may actually be making things worse.

"After a week of combat," wrote Viser, "they have essentially killed off one type of algae infesting the pool, only to create the conditions for a new type to take over. And Scenedesmus, a genus of green algae nicknamed 'Skinny Dead Mouse' by scientists, is now flourishing," according to the tests they ran.

The original algae that showed up in the Reflecting Pool "appeared to be a blue-green cyanobacterial bloom," wrote Viser, and that type can sometimes produce neurotoxins that are dangerous for humans and animals.

One of the scientists who tested the samples was Hans W. Paerl, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Paerl examined the samples under a microscope and found "remnants of the previous bloom" of the blue-green algae, "but they were too degraded to identify," wrote Viser, and he believed this was caused, at least in part, by the hydrogen peroxide.

"The guys dealing with peroxide treatment can pat themselves on the back," said Paerl. "But it doesn't really solve the overall problem."

"What's happened is they've just switched the players. And the green algae are just taking over," Paerl explained, and this new green algae "is a pretty aggressive grower."

Greg Boyer, a professor emeritus of biochemistry at the State University of New York, concurred, telling The Atlantic he had "never seen it bloom quite this thick." Boyer's testing found similar results of "little to no blue-green algae," wrote Viser, but that could change over the next few weeks. Currently, we were in "peak season for green algae," said Boyer, and "pretty early in the season for blue-green algae."

Both scientists also told Viser that the treatments the NPS was using to attempt to fight the algae, hydrogen peroxide and nanobubble technology, were more effective against the blue-green algae, not the green algae that was currently dominating.

The Reflecting Pool itself was already an ideal environment for algae, Boyer said.

"If I was going to design a facility to grow algae," Boyer explained, "I would probably design a facility that had a lot of surface area and was very shallow, so you have sunlight down to the bottom. And put a lot of nutrients in it. And that's pretty much what the Reflecting Pool is. It's just a perfect facility for growing algae."

The deep blue paint that Trump had added only made it worse, wrote Viser, because it "raised the water temperature and accelerated the growth."

"The water will probably remain green for the foreseeable future," said Paerl.

The post Reflecting Pool Is Now Under Siege by a Different and More 'Aggressive' Form of Algae: Report first appeared on Mediaite.

Trump's Sycophant Dumb Zionist Ass-Kissers Now Feel Betrayed

Americans and Israelis are airing their dirty laundry. For decades, it's been sitting and composting in a filthy corner of their "Special" relationship, one built on mutual financial and moral extortion and blackmail, and one that was for a long time a mask hiding the deeply rooted antisemitism of Trump's right-wing Christian Nationalist Americans. 

But now, the stench coming out of that corner has become unbearable. 

How could the extortion-savvy Zionists not know that befriending an idiot is historically a mistake? Perhaps they are so desperate at being rejected by the entire planet on account of their ongoing rape of Palestine. It is true that the Zionists have been riding and poking the American jackass for so long that they forgot he is a jackass. They thought he had become a programmable robot that operates strictly on an algorithm combining money, pity, racism, moral extortion, media and Hollywood. But a jackass or a donkey is an animal with feelings: He could be tame and patient for a long time, but then suddenly bolt and refuse to cooperate.

So now the Zionists are upset that Trump threw them under the bus to make a really bad deal with the Iranians. It's their fault for poking the jackass into a war he didn't want to fight or didn't understand. He's a moron after all. How did they make such a blundering mistake? No one knows for sure, but they too are desperate at reckoning with a world that has finally understood that their colony in Palestine was born out of a gigantic act of violence, genocide and ethnic cleansing of a native indigenous people. In desperation, they bet their colonial ranch on a moron, and now they may lose the ranch. 

They will have to use a big whip - Election Day is upon us soon - to get him back under their control. But their problem is that Trump is an old, aging and deteriorating jackass who, at 80, doesn't give a sh-t anymore and is irrecuperable. Moreover, the Zionists' biggest problem is that, as the Vice-Moron J D Vance proclaimed, the Zionists have - had? - only one "friend" left in the entire world and it is the US. I wouldn't call a relationship based on extortion, blackmail and hostage-holding a "friendship", but still, whatever relationship exists between the generic MAGA-KKK brand of Americanism and the Zionist barbarians, Trump has frayed it for good. One little wedge is all it takes to peel off the artificial glue. Hence, the damage Trump has done to Israel and the Zionists is far greater than the pseudo-benefits they got out of him, like moving his embassy to Jerusalem. 

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Trump blasted in newspaper owned by top donor: 'You betrayed us'

Alia Shoaib
Fri, June 19, 2026

Israel Hayom, a newspaper owned by billionaire Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson, published an opinion piece accusing President Trump of betraying Israel over his deal with Iran.

A newspaper owned by a billionaire Republican megadonor has published a blistering opinion piece accusing President Donald Trump of betraying Israel over his deal with Iran to end the war.

The critical op-ed was published by Israel Hayom, the Israeli newspaper owned by Miriam Adelson, one of Trump's biggest financial backers and one of the most influential pro-Israel donors in Republican politics.

Adelson, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen with an estimated fortune of tens of billions of dollars, has been a major force in shaping conservative support for Israel and has had close ties to Trump for years.

In the column, Israel Hayom journalist Danny Zaken praised Trump's past support for Israel but said the president had made a "colossal mistake" by signing what he called a "surrender agreement" with Tehran.

In a piece headlined "You could have been the greatest president of all, but you failed," Zaken wrote that Trump had missed an opportunity to be remembered among America's greatest presidents and warned the deal could damage U.S. interests and Israel's security.

The criticism from a pro-Israel outlet closely aligned with Trump's political base comes at a tense moment for U.S.-Israel relations, and suggests Trump's push to end the Iran war tests not only that relationship but his own political coalition.

In the op-ed, Zaken accused Trump of reversing course after initially joining Israel in military action against Tehran, a conflict Zaken described as "one of the most just wars in human history."

The U.S.-Iran agreement, signed this week by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, extends the ceasefire between the two sides, commits Tehran to not developing a nuclear weapon and sets out a framework for further negotiations, though key details remain unresolved.

Zaken wrote about the deal: "Mr. President, you have gravely harmed the human interests of the enlightened world, and you may be remembered forever as the president who brought about America's humiliation. You betrayed us, the Israelis."

He also criticized Trump for pressing Israel to halt further strikes against Iran and accused someone in the president's "circle" of leaking details of a tense conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He hit back at Trump's recent claim that "there would be no Israel" without him, describing it as a "megalomaniacal statement," and contended that "Israel existed before you and will exist long after you."

"You lost your patience and your moral and leadership compass. Only if you walk this back and avoid reaching a final agreement with Iran might there be a correction," Zaken wrote.

Amid recent criticism from Israeli officials, Vice President JD Vance defended the deal and warned Israeli officials against attacking Trump's approach on Thursday.

"If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world," Vance said.

Who Is Miriam Adelson?

Adelson is the widow of Las Vegas Sands' founder Sheldon Adelson, with an estimated net worth of about $41.6 billion, making her the 42nd-richest person in the world. Forbes named her the eighth-wealthiest woman in the world last year.

Her political influence has been closely linked to her support for Israel, which has been a central issue throughout her public life. She and her late husband were among the most prominent backers of a more hardline pro-Israel approach in U.S. politics, and their donations helped make them key figures within Republican foreign policy circles.

Adelson has been one of Trump's biggest financial backers, donating about $100 million to support his 2024 campaign. She and her late husband were also among his largest donors in 2020, spending roughly $90 million to back his reelection bid.

She previously joked that she would back Trump running for a third term, which would violate the 22nd Amendment, and would donate $250 million to the cause.

Sheldon Adelson was also Trump's largest individual donor in 2016, contributing $25 million to support his presidential bid.

Trump has previously referenced the Adelsons' influence on his presidency, saying in 2025 that they had "more trips to the White House than anyone else" he could think of and crediting them with influencing some of his decisions on Israel-related issues.

Trump has also joked about Adelson's strong support for Israel, saying he once asked her whether she loved the United States or Israel more and that her refusal to answer "might mean Israel."

In his first term, Trump awarded Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, which is a prestigious but largely ceremonial award.

Tucker Carlson, the right-wing commentator who was once a staunch Trump ally before recently breaking with him on issues including Iran, told The New York Times in May that he believed Adelson was among the influential figures who applied "pressure" on the Trump administration to take action against Iran.

In February, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticized Israel Hayom's coverage of Iran, calling it "Miriam Adelson's mouthpiece."

What Happens Next

The U.S. and Iran agreed on a period of 60 days to negotiate a final agreement, but major questions remain over enforcement, monitoring and the scope of the deal.

Trump's 'Me-too' Piracy Act in the Strait of Hormuz: Money, money, money

A ship wanting to enter the Strait of Hormuz will have to pay two fees, one to the Iranians and another to Donald Dumb.

The Iranians "discovered" they can control world trade by imposing tariffs on ships transiting through their strait of Hormuz. They made this discovery when the US and Israel attacked them in the latest war.

But now, Donald Dumb is jealous that the Iranians stand to make tons of money from that discovery, and as someone who lives for money and nothing else, he wants a piece of the Strait of Hormuz pie even tough the US has no territorial claims to that region of the world.

Yesterday Saturday, Donald Dumb said he will impose tariffs in the Strait of Hormuz. In a largely incomprehensible post, he said, "…there will be NO tolls after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed, for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs".

Transit through the narrow sea passage between the Iranian mainland and the Arabian peninsula accounts for 20 percent of the world's daily oil supply during peacetime. Iran had never used it before as a pressure tool, but Trump's war against Iran has opened the Iranians' eyes to leveraging the passage to make money and to exercise political control on international trade. Its on-again, off-again blockade has choked off supply routes, roiling the global economy and causing crude oil prices to briefly peak at near record-highs of $126 per barrel in late April.

Iran's joint military command said it intended to close the corridor again if Israeli strikes don't stop in Lebanon, despite a ceasefire seemingly agreed upon by both the Hezbollah thugs and the Zionist barbarians.

"In view of the United States' bad faith and its clear breach of its commitments by failing to implement the first article of the memorandum ending the war, and in response to the continuous and ongoing violation of the ceasefire by the Zionist regime in southern Lebanon"… The Iranian military command announced that "the Strait of Hormuz will be closed to the passage of vessels".

Representatives from both the US and Iran are set to hold an initial round of technical-level talks in Switzerland today Sunday. The U.S. delegation consists of US Vice-president Vance, and Trump's Laurel and Hardy real estate leeches, his "special envoys" Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose task is to find out how to make money out of conflicts and wars, often triggered by Trump himself.

James Carville: ‘Happy 250th Birthday, America. You just lost a war’...

... yet another war lost - after Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq.... - because of the incompetent belief that quantity is sufficient and quality is unnecessary. With a $1 trillion defense - excuse me - war chest, how can the mightiest country in the world keep losing wars? After cavorting to Putin on Ukraine, imagine what would Trump do if his "handsome friend"  Xi Jinping of China invades Taiwan?

Conservative French historian and philosopher Raymond Aaron once (~1984-1985)  told an audience at Syracuse University that the US has "lost its will to power". That may be true, but not because it lacks the will; rather, it seems that the world of the 21st century can no longer morally accept raw, crude colonialism. Gigantic superpowers can no longer as freely as before the mid-20th century invade, conquer, occupy and colonize other countries, with the traditional bedrock of capitalistic colonialism: The ability to dispatch millions of soldiers on a whim to someone else's land and just take it. The world has changed.

In former times, the US would have launched a massive expedition against Iran by land, sea and air, dropping millions of its soldiers who would march onto Tehran and take control of the country. It used to be easy prior to 1945. But it didn't work in Korea (1950s), didn't work in Vietnam (1960s), didn't work in Afghanistan (2001 or Iraq (2003).... The loss of human life (by both the invader and the conquered) that accompanied all former conquests and invasions is no longer acceptable. The idea of replacing humans with war machines is feasible science fiction but it does not lead to victory. The mistreatment of other humans used to be tolerated and even encouraged for its "civilizing" objective during the period of the empires, but now it is simply unacceptable.

Wars used to stir up nationalistic sentiment, but now they provoke disgust and revulsion. Which is why America's continuous stirring up instability in the Middle East, just for the control of the region's oil, has become deeply unpopular and why the US lost the wars it conducted there. Which is why Israel's conquest of Palestine has now metamorphosed in the global public's mind from a so-called "war of independence" during colonial times to a war of genocide and ethnic cleansing in our post-colonial time. Which is why nostalgic adolescent morons with brains nestled in the 1950s, like Pete Hegseth, are trying to revive the silly "warrior" culture he only "experienced" in Hollywood movies with imaginary superheroes. 

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James Carville on Trump’s Iran MOU: ‘Happy 250th, America. You just lost a war’
Ian Swanson
Fri, June 19, 2026


Democratic strategist James Carville mocked the memorandum of understanding reached by the Trump administration with Iran, arguing it effectively shows that the U.S. lost the war just as the country readies for its 250th birthday.

Carville called the deal an "instrument of surrender" during an interview Thursday night with Chris Cuomo, the host of NewsNation's "Cuomo."

The longtime Democratic strategist actually credited President Trump for getting out of the Iran war, arguing that it is better to remove the country from the fighting than continue, given the experience the United States had in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

"And let's give Trump credit where credit's due," Carville said. "He did what Lyndon Johnson did not do in Vietnam. Just get out. He didn't do what Bush and even Obama did in Afghanistan. Just get out. You understand?"

Carville said the best thing former President Biden ever did was to leave Afghanistan.

"And I'll give Trump credit. He thought his thing was going the wrong way, and he just quit and got out, and sometimes you got to do that," he said.

Carville said it was less embarrassing to sign a memorandum of understanding with Iran than to have to evacuate, as Biden did from Afghanistan.

"Well, we had troops. So it's harder when you have to have actual visual of soldiers, of Marines, of airmen being evacuated," he said. "That's more humiliating than just signing an instrument with the regime."

But he argued the actual preliminary agreement with Tehran, which opens the Strait of Hormuz and ends fighting but sets up new talks on Iran's nuclear program, betrays the opposition within Iran while driving a wedge between the U.S. and Israel.

Iran has "always wanted to drive a wedge between Israel and the United States," he said. "Mission accomplished. The regime cares about one thing and holding domestic power in Iran. They did that. We really, the people that really lost were the opposition in Iran. There were actually a lot of people that were opposed to this government. I don't know if they could have succeeded or not, but they're done now, and they're even saying that."

Carville said the deal "really stabbed the Iranian opposition."

"They're very smart people. They're very talented people, and we didn't treat them with any respect, and we hurt the opposition in Iran by this. It's not even as stupid as it was, no it doesn't do justice to just how stupid it was," he continued. "We lost. Happy 250th, America. You just lost a war."

The Trump administration has pushed back hard at critics of the deal.

Trump has argued it was necessary to end the fighting to prevent an economic depression, while Vice President Vance has said those criticizing the deal seemingly want an endless war.

They have also argued the war leaves Iran weaker than before it started, given the killings of much of Iran's former leadership and the heavy blows the country's military and economy took.

A number of voices in Israel have criticized the agreement, and fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia group Hezbollah could threaten the agreement.

Trump has also pointed to a rising stock market and falling oil prices in hailing the agreement reached by his team.

Carville told Cuomo he believed Iran had won leverage by learning it could choke off the global economy by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's supply of oil flows.

"There's going to be a risk premium in a barrel of oil for the foreseeable future," he told Cuomo. "I mean, I can't, I'm not smart enough to tell you what it is, but I don't think anybody could deny that. These oil traders are going to demand a premium because now they know, and Iran knows, they got a choke point, and they can bring it out anytime they want to."

And Now Trump's Fear-Driven Impulsive MoU Deal with Iran is Unravelling

The Great Moron is flailing about. He got into the Iran war without thinking. He then decided to end the war, also without thinking, driven by fear. And now, he regrets ending the war and is threatening again.

This is the behavior of an undecisive senile old man who has lost his bearings and doesn't know which shoe to put on which foot. What a sad spectacle to watch an 80-year-old narcissistic American president decaying in vivo, lashing out at the very few friends he's left with and hating the entire world because he is getting old and losing control. He's like a spoiled little 8-year old brat who didn't get ALL that he wanted and is still sulking.

[See: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-doctor-cornered-over-his-startling-medical-anomalies/] for Trump's troubling health condition.

One moment he praises Iran leaders, and a moment later he attacks them.  He "imagines" that he forced Iran into an "unconditional surrender" and that he acted a "regime change" there, while the memorandum he signed with the Iranians is nothing more than an unconditional surrender by the US that postpones ALL the unmet war objectives set by Trump himself to an indefinite future. Furthermore, Netanyahu continues to shaft Trump and jeopardize the deal, bad as it is for the US, by continuously bombing Lebanon.

Please Congress, do something about it. The man is out of touch with reality. He poses a huge risk to national security and to world peace.

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Trump Says Iran Is ‘FINISHED’ After Cancelled Negotiations — As Israeli Attacks [in Lebanon] Threaten Deal

Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff
Updated Fri, June 19, 2026

President Donald Trump warned Iran is "FINISHED" and would "get no money" out of the newly signed deal with the U.S. after the two sides cancelled a meeting set for Friday in Switzerland—as the agreement appears fragile less than 48 hours after it was signed.

President Donald Trump arrives for a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States at the Chateau de Versailles in Versailles France on June 17, 2026. (Photo by Bastien Ohier / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Trump said "we'll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!" referring to the 60-day period after the agreement was signed overnight Wednesday to negotiate outstanding issues, including the future of Iran's nuclear program.

The deal included a commitment from the U.S. to lift sanctions on Iran and unfreeze Iranian assets in foreign accounts in the final agreement, to be made within 60 days.

Iran and the U.S. cancelled the first meeting of the second round of negotiations without explanation, though the White House suggested the delay was due to "logistics."

Three unnamed diplomats told The New York Times Iran backed out because of Israel's continued attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah reached a ceasefire agreement Friday morning after Israeli airstrikes killed at least 47 people in Lebanon since midnight, Reuters reported, citing the Lebanese health ministry, while Israel said four of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon.

The deal between the U.S. and Iran required military hostilities between both sides and their allies to cease on all fronts, including Lebanon, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear his country was not involved in the agreement and is not required to adhere to its terms.

In an earlier Truth Social post on Friday, Trump attacked critics of his Iran deal, claiming the U.S. has "diminished Iran! It doesn't, any longer, have an Air Force, a Navy, Antiaircraft Equipment, Radar, or practically anything else, and yet the Dumocrats say that Iran is better off now than it was four months ago." Trump has faced bipartisan criticism over the deal, including from some of his MAGA allies, and almost no one has said the U.S. came out ahead in the agreement.

Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to fly to Switzerland on Friday to begin negotiating a final agreement with Iran after Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday. The initial deal ended all military hostilities between the two sides and required Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without tolls during the 60-day negotiating period. The U.S. is also required to lift its naval blockade on Iranian ships within 30 days, and issue immediate waivers on exports of Iranian oil.

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Trump lashed out at Vance telling him, ‘Everyone just needs to copy what I say’ on Iran, book reveals

Josh Marcus
Fri, June 19, 2026

President Trump reportedly criticized Vice President Vance for not using his preferred language to describe the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

President Donald Trump reportedly raged against Vice President JD Vance last year for not using the boss’s chosen line that American planes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.

“Trump vented to others that Vance hadn’t repeated his own new phrase that Iran’s nuclear program had been ‘totally obliterated,’” according to an excerpt obtained by Politico of the forthcoming Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

After the June attack on Iran, Vance had mildly undercut Trump in an interview with ABC News.

“Well, Jon, severely damaged versus obliterated, I’m not exactly sure what the difference is,” Vance said. “What we know is we set their nuclear program back substantially.”

(Intelligence on the strikes at the time reportedly suggested they did not in fact destroy the nuclear program.)

Tensions flared elsewhere between the pair over Iran, according to the book.

Vance, a military veteran and critic of U.S. foreign wars, reportedly appeared “anxious” after the strike and aides thought he was worried about further escalation.

When Vance allegedly suggested Trump soften some lines in his speech about the Iran operation, the president allegedly snapped at Vance, telling him, “I know what I’m doing.”

“Seemingly irritated by Vance’s second-guessing, Trump turned his back on the vice president without saying any more,” Regime Change claims.

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.

Vance has often been one of the administration’s point people on Iran, shuttling between Washington and Pakistan for negotiations.

In recent days, Vance has taken to the media and the White House briefing room to defend the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran aimed at ending the war, which largely returns conditions to their pre-war status quo and does not represent a finalized peace deal.

Vance has also defended the deal from critics in Israel, the U.S. partner in the Iran war, who were nonetheless sidelined in negotiations to end the conflict.

Israeli leaders have taken issue with the emerging truce, which appears likely to leave existing Iranian leadership in place and eventually yield sanctions relief for Tehran, while kicking nuclear negotiations into the future.

Speaking to reporters this week, Vance chastised Israel, warning that if he were in their position, he “might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”

Regime Change, which releases on Tuesday, has been sending shockwaves through the administration.

Trump officials believe sourcing for the book includes leaked secret recordings from inside the Situation Room, the strictly guarded area where the president makes and monitors critical national security decisions, one of the most high-security areas on Earth.

"We're afraid some of our most sensitive conversations were being recorded," an administration source said of the potential leak in an interview with Axios. "And we have no idea which ones."

The book also reportedly captures the tension inside the administration over the Epstein files.

Regime Change reportedly describes a Situation Room meeting about how to handle the fallout from the administration's slow-walking the release of the Epstein files, and it details a reported incident where then-FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino allegedly blew up at then-Attorney General Pam Bondi for what he called the “dumb f***ing charade” of giving an early batch of files to right-wing influencers, then declining to release much more for months.

Fascist Giorgia Meloni, Donald Dumb's Best EU Friend, Learns How to Handle Senile Patients

The right-wing conservative PM of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, finds out the hard way the consequences of befriending the senile-criminal American nutcase geezer.

Donald Trump blatantly mocked Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni by saying she was dying to take a picture with him. He also declared to the G7 leaders that "he is the boss". Naturally, he is the boss of a Mafia of wealthy billionaires bilking the world of its resources and enriching themselves.

As a result, Italy's foreign minister on Friday cancelled his June 21-22 a visit to the United States. "The grave and offensive words of President Trump... offend the whole of Italy," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X.

Meloni said she was "stunned" by Trump's comments to the Italian television channel La7. According to a transcript provided by the channel, Donald Dumb said Meloni "wanted a picture with me so badly" at the G7 summit and he agreed only because he "felt sorry for her". He also suggested that Meloni might be "happy that I talked to her, I didn't have to talk to her".

Meloni replied that Trump's comments were "made up", adding: "Neither I nor Italy ever beg....I don't know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies," the far-right Italian leader wrote on X. She knew all along that Donald Dumb is a womanizing moron. His comments suggest that Meloni might have a crush on him and that she was dying to have a picture with him.

"I can only say that it's a pity he doesn't show the same determination with enemies of the West, with enemies of the United States, with leaders with whom, instead, he is far more accommodating," she said.

Her right-winging Fascism placed her in a "go-between" position between Trump and the other European leaders. But then the Iran and Lebanon wars happened and the tryst between blonde Meloni (Trump has a thing for dumb blondes) and the Great Moron is on the way out. Now, he is a petty grudge-holder, so there are suspicions that Trump turned against Meloni after she defended Pope Leo XIV with whom the jackass US president has also been rude and vulgar.

Trump and his mini-me Hegseth have been threatening to pull US troops from Germany, Poland and Italy, because they haven't been loyal to him, i.e. they haven't cowered and followed him blindly in his asinine and criminal endeavors. The American morons think they are scaring the Europeans since a US withdrawal implies vulnerability to Russia's Putin, a friend of Trump, at least for now. Meanwhile, the Europeans and most other countries that are supposedly friends of the US (e.g. Japan, South Korea...) have begun their divorce from the US and strengthening their ties with more reliable partners like China.

The damage that Trump is inflicting on America's standing is not theoretical. It will be irreversible because at the core of such long term relationships is trust and reliability. Future US administrations, including Democrat ones, will be increasingly isolated on the world stage. The MAGA morons of Trump think that American military power is sufficient to coerce friends and foes to cower. This is why they are known worldwide as dumb and ugly Americans. If it becomes a habit of the American people to elect criminal dumb assholes to the presidency, then no one will ever trust any relationship with the US. Someone once said it is more dangerous to have the US as a friend than as an enemy. Indeed, with friends like Trump, who needs enemies?

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[Addendum]:

Trump and Meloni have traditionally been bonded by their ultra-nationalistic ideology. 

Meloni was the only major European leader to attend Trump's second inauguration.

During talks about a peace deal for Gaza last year, lascivous leech Trump called her a "beautiful young woman."

But then Meloni condemned Trump's attacks on Iran and refused to let U.S. bombers headed for the Middle East land in Italy.

She also criticized Trump for insulting Pope Leo after the pontiff called for peace in Iran.

In return, Trump said Meloni "lacked courage."

"She is the one who is unacceptable, because she doesn't care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance," he raged with stupid imaginary hyper-lies that only a dumb American leader would utter.

"The serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offend all of Italy," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote in a post on X.com. "For this reason, I have decided to cancel my visit to the United States scheduled for the next 21 and 22 June."

Trump's Yuuuge TACO on Iran War

Stable genius Donald Dumb pondering, right before he falls asleep on Macron's shoulder, if his nose will ever grow longer. He's been lying his entire life and his nose has not grown longer. He therefore believes that he never lied.

Trump and his MAGA hoodlum cabinet, donkey-eared vendido Marco Rubio, Jesus-saved drunkard Pete Hegseth, really think the American people are stupid. They lie to them, make outlandish promises and big-time statements, launch unnecessary and ill-planned wars, knowing all of it to be a pile of horse manure. Again, this is typical American business marketing: Your product sucks but your advertisement campaign paints a ravishing picture for the dumb "consumer".

Then, when reality sets in and all the lies exposed and wild promises clash with deteriorating conditions on the ground, and the product actually sucks in the consumer's hands, businessman Trump changes his tune, claim he never made promises or outlandish statements - you should have read the fine print at the bottom of the last page of the Manual for Dumb Americans - and launches again on a stream of bold-face lies that are the opposite of the initial bunch of lies. 

Trump is right now applying Roy Cohn's teachings: Never give up. Never admit defeat. Keep lying every which way. Don't worry about the smart people in your audience; they are a small minority. Everyone else are dumbasses from Middle America, they'll swallow and won't spit. 

Everything he said at the outset of the Iran War has not panned out, but now the Great Moron is saying whatever BS comes to his mind to get himself out of admitting his crushing defeat and his own "unconditional surrender" to the Iranian ayatollahs. For example, the Moron is saying that his objective of regime change in Iran has indeed taken place: The 90-year old Ayatollah has been replaced by his own son, a younger Ayatollah, while the Revolutionary Guards remain in place and the entire structure of the Islamic Theocracy remains intact. You'd have to be a completely ignorant pig-humping white trash waterbrain from the sticks of America to believe what Trump is saying now.  

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Trump's goals for the Iran war and what he's saying now


Zak Hudak
Updated Fri, June 19, 2026

Washington — Hours after the U.S. launched its war against Iran in late February, President Trump laid out an aggressive list of war aims. He pledged to "destroy their missiles," prevent the regime from rebuilding its nuclear program and set the stage for Iranians to "take over" the country's government.

A week into the conflict, he wrote on Truth Social: "There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!"

Now, as the Trump administration touts a newly signed memorandum of understanding to extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire and jumpstart nuclear talks, the president has backed off some of those ambitions.

Mr. Trump told reporters this week it's "OK" for Iran to keep some of its ballistic missiles. He said he isn't in a hurry to recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and isn't vying for "regime change" in Iran. The memorandum of understanding also leaves most specifics on the fate of Iran's nuclear program to be determined in additional negotiations over the next 60 days.

The president also shared some praise for Iran's current leadership.

"We're dealing with people that I think are very rational people, and they were nice to deal with," Mr. Trump said of Iran's current leadership during an event at the G7 summit in France on Tuesday, noting that some prior Iranian leaders were killed during the war. "They were strong people, smart people. … They're not radicalized and they're looking to help their country."

Here's what the president and top administration officials have said about key issues related to Iran, then and now:

Eliminating ballistic missiles

Trump, Feb. 28: "We're going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, March 2: "I'm telling you what the objectives of this operation are. The objectives of this operation are to destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can't rebuild it, and make sure that they can't hide behind that to have a nuclear program. That's the objective of the mission."

Trump, June 17: "If other countries have them, it's a little bit unfair for [Iran] not to have some. A ballistic missile is not the same thing as what we're talking about, when we talk nuclear. But if Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they all have some — in relative proportion, I think it's OK."

Context: While Mr. Trump has said preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is his primary goal, the administration and U.S. allies in the Middle East have long raised concerns about threats posed by Iran's conventional military — especially its ballistic missiles, which can reach Israel and U.S. allies and military assets around the region. Throughout the war, U.S. forces heavily targeted Iran's missile stockpile and missile factories.

The U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding does not make any references to ballistic missiles, though Mr. Trump said Wednesday his administration will work on a "parallel effort" with Persian Gulf countries to address Iran's conventional missiles and other "non-nuclear issues."

Mr. Trump argued Wednesday that most of Iran's missile stockpile was either destroyed or buried under rubble during the war. But he suggested he isn't looking to fully eliminate Iran's ballistic missiles.

He also appeared to mock some hawkish Trump supporters who want the country's missile program to be more thoroughly decimated. "I have guys — I like some of these guys, but I don't think they're smart — 'Sir, you shouldn't let them have any missiles.' I said: 'Well, what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have them?' … It doesn't work that way."

"Nuclear dust"

Trump, April 17: "The USA will get all nuclear dust — you know what the nuclear dust is? That was that white, powdery substance created by our B2 bombers, those great B2 bombers, late one evening 7 months ago."

Trump, April 26: "We have to take that nuclear dust. We're going to take it, and that's part of our negotiation with Iran. We don't want them to have it."

Trump, June 16: "What's happening is that at an appropriate time — there's no rush at all. We have cameras from space on it. We know everybody that goes there, which is, like, nobody. The B2 bombers hit it. The entire mountain collapsed inside it. It's a very tough excavation. Nobody else can do it, but us, and probably China. They have the equipment, we have the equipment. We're in no rush, but we get it. And when we get it, we'll destroy it."

Context: In the years leading up to the war, Iran amassed a stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, which is just a short step away from weapons-grade material. Much of that material was held in a handful of subterranean facilities that were bombed by the U.S. last year, making it difficult to access.

During this year's war, the Trump administration strategized on ways to recover the uranium, which the president calls "nuclear dust." An operation to dig through the rubble and take the material would have been among the most challenging and risky special operations missions in U.S. history, experts say.

In the memorandum of understanding, the U.S. and Iran "agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpiled enriched material" in their talks over the next 60 days. The "minimum methodology" is "down-blending" the uranium to a lower level of purity onsite, under the International Atomic Energy Agency's supervision.

But Mr. Trump suggested this week taking the material is not an urgent task, expressing doubt that Iran can recover it. He said Wednesday "we'd like to get it psychologically, but nobody's touching it."

Uranium enrichment

Trump, Feb. 27: "They want to enrich a little bit. You don't have to enrich when you have that much oil. … I say, no enrichment. Not 20%, 30%. They always want 20%, 30%. … They want it for civil. I think it's uncivil."

Trump, June 14: The final deal must permanently ensure that Iran "can only enrich for nonmilitary purposes" and "can never go beyond a certain amount," the president said in an interview with The New York Times in which he said he wants a suspension on uranium enrichment for 15 or 20 years.

Trump, June 17: "I've said to them always: 'You have probably the third-largest oil reserves in the world. What the hell do you need nuclear for?' … It is a little hard, though, when you say that somebody wants it, other people have it, other adjoining states have it, and you're not letting them have it for purposes of electricity and things like that. It's always a little tough. You have to use a little common sense."

Vice President JD Vance, June 18: "The Obama nuclear deal allowed enrichment. Ours will not."

Context: Iran has long refused to fully give up its uranium enrichment program. Iranian officials insist the program is intended for peaceful purposes, and as recently as last year, U.S. intelligence agencies found Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon, though Iran has enriched uranium in recent years to levels well beyond what's necessary for most non-military purposes.

The 2015 nuclear deal inked by the Obama administration allowed Iran to keep enriching uranium to 3.67%, significantly below the 90% used for bombs, with limits on the size of Iran's stockpile and the number and types of centrifuges Iran could operate. That structure drew criticism at the time, and Mr. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal during his first term in office.

Prior to the outbreak of war, Mr. Trump said he wanted Iran to agree to "no enrichment."

The U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding leaves specifics on uranium enrichment for later, saying only that the two countries "agreed to discuss the issue of enrichment and other mutually agreed matters related to the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear needs." It's unclear what a final deal could look like. Mr. Trump suggested this week it could be "hard" to get Iran to fully give up its nuclear program, but Vance suggested the president's red line of no enrichment is still in place.

Regime change

Trump, addressing the Iranian people in a video on Truth Social on Feb. 28: "Take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations."

Trump, March 29: "We've had regime change, if you look already, because the one regime was decimated, destroyed, they're all dead. The next regime is mostly dead, and the third regime, we're dealing with different people than anybody's dealt with before. It's a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change."

Trump, June 16: "You talk about regime change. I never cared about regime change."

Context: In the war's opening hours, Mr. Trump explicitly framed it as an opportunity for the Iranian people to overthrow the Islamic Republic, which has governed Iran since 1979. After Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in strikes, Mr. Trump said he wanted a role in picking Iran's next leader, and was "disappointed" by the decision to elevate Khamenei's son to the post of supreme leader.

More recently, as the Iranian regime has remained in place, Mr. Trump offered a slightly different view, arguing the killing of prior Iranian leaders was effectively a form of "regime change."

Frozen assets and sanctions relief

Trump, May 27: "No, we're not talking about any easing of sanctions or giving money. No sanctions, no money, no nothing."

Trump, June 17: "It's not our money, it's their money. And we froze it at a certain point in time, I guess we're going to have to give it back."

Context: A key issue for Iran is the removal — or suspension — of intense U.S. sanctions that have hobbled Iran's economy and frozen its assets, many of which date back to the "maximum pressure" campaign in Mr. Trump's first term or even earlier. The Obama-era nuclear deal lifted sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran's nuclear program, an arrangement Mr. Trump argued in 2018 gave Iran "many billions of dollars."

This week's memorandum of understanding says the U.S. will lift "all types of sanctions" against Iran on an "agreed-upon schedule as part of the final deal." The Trump administration has said no sanctions will be removed or assets unfrozen unless Iran demonstrates compliance.

GOP-MAGA Corruption is Without Limits of Conscience or Conflict of Interest

Trump Has Used Taxpayer Money To Purchase Stakes in Dozens of Companies. Congress Is About to Make It Easier.

Eric Boehm
Thu, June 18, 2026 

The Trump administration has taken equity stakes in private businesses, and Congress is considering creating a new fund for future presidents to do the same.

By taking equity stakes in more than a dozen private businesses, the Trump administration has stretched executive power to new heights—and now Congress is working to ensure that future presidents get the same opportunity.

The Senate's version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision to create a new slush fund within the U.S. Treasury for the purpose of buying stakes in more private businesses. The Pentagon would be able to tap the proposed Defense Equity Investment Account to make investments of up to $500 million in private companies involved in the production of "critical minerals, materials, and chemicals" or batteries.

The provision, which is buried within the 1,500-word bill drafted this week by the Senate Armed Services Committee, would allow the "direct or indirect purchase, acquisition, or commitment of funds by the Department of Defense in exchange for an ownership interest, convertible interest, warrant, revenue-sharing instrument, or other similar financial instrument in a non-Federal entity."

Besides the $500 million cap on those investments, the government is also forbidden from taking more than a 50 percent ownership stake in any private business. Other than that, however, there seem to be few limitations or guardrails on how the new equity account could be used.

During a closed-door session last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee reportedly voted down an amendment that would have prohibited the Trump administration from taking equity stakes in businesses with ties to the president, his family members, and members of his cabinet.

Some of the Trump administration's investment decisions have seemingly benefited those close to Trump. Vulcan Elements, which makes magnets out of rare earth elements, got a $620 million loan from the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital. Donald Trump Jr. is a partner at the company.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D–Mich.) told NOTUS that Republicans rejected that proposal after expressing worries about how Trump would react. "Over and over we heard in the NDAA markup a number of my Republican colleagues express concern that they didn't want to insult the president, they didn't want to send a negative message to the president, they didn't want to offend the president, or they were scared of his reaction," Slotkin said.

It would be a good idea for lawmakers to prevent the president from using a new Pentagon slush fund to enrich his relatives and allies. But it would be better to avoid creating this account in the first place. Congress should not be codifying Trump's socialist behavior and should not be making it easier (and legal) for future presidents to follow suit.

"If Washington wants more domestic or allied production of minerals, magnets, chemicals, or batteries, it has tools that do not require making taxpayers shareholders," like removing permitting and regulatory hurdles or following the regular government procurement process, writes Tad DeHaven, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. "What it shouldn't do is pick favored companies and make the federal government an investor, customer, regulator, and political patron."

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Trump administration quietly shifts $352m in federal funds for White House ballroom
Joseph Gedeon in Washington
Thu, June 18, 2026


Donald Trump at the site of ongoing construction of the planned White House ballroom on 19 May 2026.Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Donald Trump's administration has quietly redirected $352m in federal funds designated for the Secret Service toward the president's controversial White House ballroom project, despite repeated promises by Trump that the construction would be financed by private donations

The funds were drawn from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump's signature tax legislation passed last summer on Republican-only votes. The law stipulates the money may only be spent on Secret Service personnel, training facilities, technology and related costs, not construction.

About $340.8m of the funding was placed into an account labeled "Procurement, Construction, and Improvements" on 12 June, according to the office of management and budget (OMB) database. Another account labeled "Operations and Support" was also approved the same day, adding another $10.75m to the budget.

The move came after Congress explicitly refused to provide $1bn in funds for the "East Wing Modernization Project", the Trump administration's official name for a 90,000-sq-ft ballroom being built on the site of the White House's demolished East Wing.

The administration argued the funds were needed for legitimate security upgrades, pointing to recent threats against Trump, including an alleged plot to attack Sunday's UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House south lawn.

"The East Wing Modernization Project is inextricably tied to the security of the president, the White House grounds and the certain security infrastructure assets," White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said. "President Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom to the tune of approximately $400m, which will be a secure and appropriate venue for presidents for generations to come."

Those disrupted attacks, Ingle said, "proves exactly why" the project is needed for events at the White House, which include "drone-proof structures and drone ports among other critical security enhancements".

Senior legislators were unconvinced. "That's a big problem," Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who is retiring at the end of the year, told Notus. "That sounds like a different way to fund the East Wing project. On its face it doesn't sound right."

Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii on the appropriations committee, also told the outlet: "I don't know whether it's the ballroom, but it sounds like the ballroom."

The row is the latest chapter in a widening controversy over who is actually paying for the project. When the ballroom was announced in July 2025 at an estimated cost of $200m, Trump described it as "a private thing", before the East Wing was destroyed in October.

In late March, with estimates doubling to $400m, Trump insisted: "This is taxpayer-free. We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents."

But those assurances have since frayed. Internal records obtained by the Washington Post from Clark Construction, the firm leading the project, show plans calling for $155m from Secret Service funds, $149m from the White House military office and $3m from the executive residence, all of which is public money, alongside private contributions. The Washington Post has reported total costs could reach $600m.

The private fundraising side has drawn its own scrutiny.

Watchdogs including the Campaign Legal Center have warned that donations from major corporations such as Meta, Coinbase and Lockheed Martin, all of whom have significant interests before the US federal government, create a substantial risk of corruption.

Construction, meanwhile, remains subject to ongoing legal challenges, after a federal judge ruled in March that the administration had probably exceeded its authority in demolishing the East Wing without congressional approval.

When anti-Science Morons Run the Country

Binge-drunkard womanizer, Jesus-saved Christian Taliban Secretary of Warmongering, Pete Hegseth, terminated mandatory vaccines in the US military per the recommendation of his creepy "new age" medicine man RFK Jr. 

Hegseth, like RFK Jr, does not like science and prefers voodoo-like charlatanism hiding behind freewill. To this effect, the Christian Taliban Secretary of Warmongering gets inspired by his Islamic equals, the Muslim Taliban, and instead imposed prayers and religious services invoking Jesus's help in warding off diseases. 

It doesn't matter if people get sick because this is God's will, a principle of primitive religious fatalism that makes stupid people even more stupid. John Stuart Mills once said in an 1866 address to the British parliament, "Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
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Nearly 160 sick with flu at US air force base after Hegseth ends mandatory vaccines


Pete Hegseth at a Nato meeting in Brussels on Thursday.Photograph: Omar Havana/Getty Images

Jessica Glenza
Thu, June 18, 2026 

An influenza outbreak has reportedly sickened more than 150 recruits in training at Lackland air force base in San Antonio, Texas.

The outbreak comes just weeks after the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ended mandatory flu vaccination for the military, citing the need for bodily autonomy for servicemembers.

"We're seizing this moment to discard any absurd overreaching mandates that only weaken our war fighting capabilities," said Hegseth in an April social media video. "In this case that includes the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.

"Your body, your faith and your convictions are not negotiable," said Hegseth.

At least 159 recruits have fallen ill, according to the New York Times and ABC News. After Hegseth made influenza shots optional, only about 40% of recruits opted to get vaccinated, air force officials told the New York Times.

About 46% of adults were vaccinated against influenza in the 2025-26 cold season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Lackland is located inside Joint Base San Antonio, a 70,000-member installation sometimes called Military City. Recruits at Lackland live in communal settings, eating together and sleeping in dormitories. Such settings are known to be vulnerable to outbreaks of airborne illness.

It is not clear whether the recent death of a basic military trainee was related to the outbreak. Keon McDaniel died on 16 June after experiencing a "medical emergency". The cause is under investigation, according to an air force press release.

Air force officials said recruits at Lackland had been ordered to be vaccinated against the flu as part of containment efforts, according to the Times.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon directed the Guardian to the air force press office.

The air force press office did not immediately respond.

The US-Iran Deal to Collapse over US-Israel Dispute on Lebanon

[Updated at far bottom]

Donald Dumb continues to earn his "dumb moron" qualifier that most former political associates refer to him with, as they walk out of the Cuckoo's Nest of a White House.

But the dumber than Donald Dumb is Ben-Yamin Netanyahu who thought he could insert his hand up the caudal aperture of the world's village idiot, the American president, and use him like a hand puppet by inciting him to war with Iran. At first, the village idiot went along the idea, an idea that five former presidents, both democrats and republicans, had rejected. But like a textbook example of a mentally-challenged idiot, the village idiot soon began smelling the stench of being played by the Zionist lobby and Netanyahu.

For one thing, the war did not go as planned by the Zionists who thought they were guided by Moses leading the Hebrews and that Yahweh will open the Arabian-Persian Sea and and allow "his people" to smash the Iranians and conquer the new promised land like they did with Palestine the first time some 3,000 years ago, by massacring every man, woman, child and beast.

Then, with a war going nowhere and getting more complicated with new problems that neither the Idiot-in-Chief and his scintillating intelligence people nor his smartass Zionist handlers anticipated, the dumbass president began losing his patience and backtracking on all the superlative-laden hifalutin threats and promises he initially was instructed to believe by his "friends" in the Zionist colony in Palestine.

Then, there is the problem of Lebanon and its Iranian Hezbollah militia. The Zionists have had over some 6 decades to fight an on-off war against the "resistance" and "liberation" BS of the Palestinians first then Hezbollah now. Of all the thousands of miles of border between Israel and the Arab countries, only the 75 miles (120 Km) long border with Lebanon has been assigned as the only active front line between Israel and the entire Arab-Muslim world for the liberation of Palestine, and that is only because Lebanon is half-Muslim, half-Christian. In other words, the Arabs and Muslims felt that if they had to sacrifice one of them in their sublime quest to throw the "alien" Israelis into the sea, it will be the other "alien" in their midst, Christian-led Lebanon. They all made peace (Egypt, Jordan) or signed Abraham Accords (UAE, Sudan, Bahrain...) or even ignored the fact that Israel occupied and annexed a huge chunk of their territory (Syria and its stolen Golan Heights), but they can't let go of Lebanon as their sacrificial lamb.

At this time, Donald Dumb knows he was bamboozled by Netanyahu and he is lashing out. He is desperate to "close" the chapter of the war before the midterms, both because of its unpopularity and because the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the global economy - and the US domestic economy - into a spiral of high energy prices, rising inflation and major disruptions in the supply chains.

Since the narcissistic dumbass will never admit his own failure, he is now blaming the Israelis who thought they could count on the village idiot to let them attain their most fantastic dream of annihilating Hezbollah and its threats to the northern Israeli villages. They want to continue their rampage through Lebanon regardless of the memorandum of understanding signed by Trump with the Iranians who insist of making implementation of their MoU with Trump contingent on ending the Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon.

Still very murky situation, because the MoU is very vague on what happens in Lebanon. Potential settlements there could range from a cessation of hostilities with everyone staying put, to a cessation of hostilities PLUS a withdrawal of Israeli forces, or a cessation of hostilities PLUS a return of Hezbollah within shooting range of Israel, and will any Israeli withdrawal be a full withdrawal back to the Blue Line? Or a withdrawal to some 10 kilometers north of the border such that Israel maintains an occupation zone inside Lebanon?

The Iranians say one thing, and of course they want everything: A full Israeli withdrawal and a restoration of Hezbollah to its former status without surrendering its weapons (as everyone else, including the Americans, the Zionists and the Lebanese government say they want). Netanyahu promised his people he will exterminate and annihilate Hezbollah, but it is apparent he can't unless he launches a massive land invasion, like the one by Ariel Sharon in 1982 to dislodge the PLO. But it seems that the world has changed and land invasions are not cool anymore. Even the Americans have learned from their many invasion debacles of the past several decades (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia...), and as we see before our eyes, Trump's America would not invade Iran to bring it down to its knees because such a venture would be too expensive in treasure and life and it just plainly doesn't really work.

Meanwhile, the Americans are still propping up the Lebanese government as a worthy party with whom to negotiate on the matter of Hezbollah. Whether by stupidity or lack of other options, the Americans negotiate with a Lebanese government that has long been a slave of Hezbollah and whose decisions they know are not binding to Hezbollah.

But Donald Dumb, like most American policymakers, find it difficult to understand the complexities of the region, When you hail from a country whose borders were drawn by a pencil and a ruler on a piece of paper, it is just impossible to comprehend borders drawn by thousands of years of history. So they rush to oversimplify and use a reductionist approach to solving such problems. Donald Dumb just wants the world to stop talking about his war with Iran because it casts a shadow over his chances at the midterms. So he throws the Israelis under the bus. He can't throw the Arabs or the Iranians under the bus because they have lots of oil and his eyes roll like a slot machine's pay line when he smells money.

Donald Dumb wants the Israelis to abandon their decades-old dream of ending the threat against their northern border. Just like that. That is at least what we hear on the news. But there could be a good cop-bad cop game that Donald Dumb and Netanyahu are playing just to get the Great Moron over the finish line in November, after which they can go back to warmongering. We just don't know.

For now, it is the turn of the Zionists to shriek in distress because Trump wants them to stop what they are doing in Lebanon. They must be asking themselves, how many times do we have to wage endless wars in southern Lebanon? This is a good opportunity to end the problem. We don't want to wait another decade or two and repeat the same thing. Why did Netanyahu rely on an unpredictable moron now reneging on his Judeo-Christian love for us?

Until the barbarian Zionist settlers decide what to do, they are fighting among each other as to how to respond to their village idiot's sudden backlash and rebellion. They thought they could always count on the Americans to be dumb and follow their caprice, thanks to AIPAC in DC. But they are discovering that what is worse than your standard dumb American is a dumb-and-ugly weirdo American like Donald Trump who is already setting up a $300 billion fund to rebuild what he destroyed in Iran! 

Meanwhile, Arabs and Muslims are celebrating Iran's "victory" in repelling the US-Israel attack. Should the Zionists relent and agree to also "lose" in south Lebanon (like the US "lost" in Iran) by obeying their breastfeeding American mother and give Hezbollah another "divine victory"? Or should they disobey and risk America's love which they thought was undying and eternal?

The retreat of the US from the Iran front and its badly cooked memorandum of understanding could be a mine of misunderstandings in the coming weeks and months. I bet you the Great Moron would have forgotten everything he may have learned during the upcoming 60 days of "technical" negotiations which in fact have nothing technical about them: They will be negotiating the real issues which they pushed down the road: Nuclear Iran, ballistic missiles, release of withheld Iranian funds... 

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Israel issues new Lebanon occupation map, in talks with US over deployment
By Pesha Magid and Rami Ayyub
Thu, June 18, 2026


A map published by the Israeli army-IDF, indicates the Security zone in which IDF soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon in this handout illustration obtained by Reuters on June 18, 2026 Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

JERUSALEM, June 18 (Reuters) - Israel's military published a map on Thursday showing an expanded zone of control for its troops in southern Lebanon, as Israeli officials told Reuters Israel was holding talks with the U.S. over ‌continuing its deployment.

An interim pact signed on Wednesday to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran calls for an end to fighting on ‌all fronts, including in Lebanon, and for parties to ensure "the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon."

Israel has rejected calls to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon, which it invaded in March ​in response to rocket fire by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Israeli attacks and the destruction of villages have killed thousands and set off a displacement crisis.

Hezbollah has continued to launch attacks on Israeli positions in the south this week, including with explosive drones that have killed and injured troops.

Two Israeli officials, including a senior official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel was holding talks with the U.S. over maintaining its troop deployment in southern Lebanon. The ‌senior official described those talks as "stubborn".

The military, which ⁠in April published a map marking its so-called buffer zone in southern Lebanon, released a new map that shows its troops are operating several kilometres deeper into the country, including near the Hezbollah stronghold of Nabatieh north of ⁠the Litani River.

Israeli troops have been operating in some of those areas for several weeks, but the military had not yet published a map showing the expanded zone of control.

In the map published on Thursday, the military described the territory, marked in dark red, as: "The security zone in which IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers are ​operating in ​southern Lebanon".

IRAN DEAL HAS EXPOSED TENSIONS BETWEEN NETANYAHU, TRUMP

Netanyahu and Donald Trump have ​repeatedly clashed in recent weeks as the U.S. president sought ‌to extricate himself from the war against Iran he jointly launched with his longtime Israeli ally.

Israeli officials have voiced anger with the U.S.-Iran pact, which the two signed on Wednesday, saying it didn't go far enough to address Israeli concerns over Iran's nuclear program and would tie down their military operations in Lebanon.

Trump has made no secret of his frustration with Netanyahu and has criticized Israel's military actions in Lebanon, saying it was unnecessary to bomb entire apartment buildings to hunt Hezbollah militants.

The two Israeli officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks with ‌Washington, said Israel would not back down on its position that its troops would ​remain deployed in Lebanon.

One of the officials said the outcome of the talks would ​ultimately depend on whether Trump "decides to force the issue" by threatening ​repercussions if Israel does not abide by the interim pact's terms.

There has been no indication that Trump's commentary will ‌translate into concrete actions -- such as withholding military aid or ​slowing arms shipments -- that could force Israel ​to rethink its military tactics.

Israel describes the territory it has seized in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria as "buffer zones" between it and its enemies, a core facet of Israel's recent security policy.

The Iran war pact appeared to leave Israel with some "wiggle room", said Jonathan Rynhold, a ​senior researcher at Israel's Bar-Ilan University.

"The reference to ‌the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon certainly implies that Israel will have to withdraw," he said.

"However, it also implies that ​Hezbollah should not be able to hold weapons because that is a threat to the sovereignty of the government of Lebanon."

(Reporting ​by Pesha Magid, Rami Ayyub and Jana Choukeir; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

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The Great American Moron just declared that the Iranian government, with whom he negotiated his ramshackle memorandum of misunderstandings, represents a "regime change". He obviously wants to claim that his war caused a regime change, which his herd of MAGA morons will accept because they are morons. But replacing an aging ayatollah with his ayatollah son while maintaining the entire Islamic Theocracy hierarchy in place does not constitute a regime change. Only dumb ignorant MAGA fools will believe the Great Moron's lies.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is revealing its deep antisemitic sentiments toward the State of Israel, as statements below by JD Vance indicate. Where art thou, AIPAC?

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US lifts naval blockade as Iran's supreme leader says Trump made deal 'out of desperation'
Vicky Wong
Fri, June 19, 2026


[ISNA/WANA/Reuters]

The US has dropped its naval blockade of Iran after the two countries signed a deal to end the war in the Middle East.

US Central Command confirmed the end of the blockade on X "in accordance with the President's direction", and said some US vessels would remain "in the general area".

Soon afterwards, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said he had approved the deal with the US despite having a "different view", without elaborating. He said he allowed it to go ahead after assurances from Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian that he would "protect the rights of the Iranian nation".

Khamenei said President Trump had "out of desperation, used all kinds of leverage" to bring the deal about.

The supreme leader said that while there would be "in-person negotiations in the future" between Tehran and Washington, this "will not mean acceptance of the enemy's position".

This is the first time Khamenei has responded to the agreement. He has not been seen in public since he took office in March following the killing of his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the 28 February US-Israeli strikes on Iran that sparked the regional war.

Trump did not directly respond to Khamanei's statement, but posted on Truth Social that he expects a ceasefire to take effect "on all fronts", including between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that he expects countries in the Middle East to "maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations" to take place.

The US-Iran deal centres around 14 core points, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a requirement that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon, and a commitment to a $300bn (£227bn) fund for the "reconstruction and economic development" of the country - although the US is not required to contribute.

It also binds both sides to achieving a final deal in a "maximum" of 60 days, which could be extended with mutual consent. [How does that piece of garbage of a MoU stipulate an oxymoronic "extendable maximum" of 60 days is beyond comprehension]

The official signing ceremony had been set to take place in Switzerland on Friday. However, mediator Pakistan told the BBC it had been cancelled because the deal had already been signed remotely. US and Iranian representatives are still expected to meet in Switzerland for further talks.

A White House spokesperson said on Thursday evening that the US Vice-President JD Vance would not be departing tonight.

Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing earlier, Vance said the deal had come into effect, triggering the 60-day period of further talks, and that he would likely head to Switzerland for "technical negotiations".

He did not confirm when, adding that Iran was "not an easy country to get out of" and that they were "trying to figure out exactly when that was going to happen".

The White House spokesperson said the US was "looking forward to beginning technical talks as soon as possible".

Trump's decision to end the war with Iran has raised criticism from some in the US, including Republicans dismayed by the terms of the deal - especially the provision of a reconstruction fund for Iran.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy described the agreement as the "worst foreign policy blunder in decades".

"Iran's nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works," he said.

Vance defended the deal on Thursday, saying that Iran will not receive money or sanctions relief unless it meets obligations set out in the agreement.

He said the deal, known as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), requires Iran to destroy its stockpile of enriched uranium, and show it will not fund proxy groups in the region.

Vance also castigated members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet for criticising the Iran deal, saying they should "wake up and smell the reality".

"If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world," the vice-president told reporters. [The dumb American VP is this admitting that the US is the only country around the world that supports the Zionist colony in Palestine and enables it to continue its rape of Palestine].

In an interview with the New York Times also published on Thursday, Vance named Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich as critics of the deal.

He said: "I guess my response to them would be - what is your exact proposal? You're a country of nine million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have."

Iran's supreme leader publicly responded to the US-Iran deal for the first time after it was signed [EPA]

Netanyahu himself stressed the importance of maintaining Israel's close ties with the US on Thursday, saying Washington had stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the country during the war with Iran.

But both Israel and Hezbollah have carried out strikes against each other since the US-Iran agreement was announced, including strikes reported in Lebanon on Thursday that killed three people.

Israel argues its conflict against Hezbollah is separate from its war on Iran. Hezbollah has also rejected the terms of the deal between Iran and the US.

Vance told reporters that Israel would have to respect the peace process with Iran, which he said was good for them, stating that attacks in Lebanon's capital Beirut that kill civilians are "not acceptable".