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MS NOW anchor Katy Tur and contributor Peter Baker took a stab at the mania-grade obsession President Donald Trump suffers over former President Barack Obama, as judged by Trump’s never-ending crusade to try to top the more popular president in speeches, claims and boasts.

“He's really focused and he keeps being focused on this, and he's doing it with Iran too. He's got to be better than Obama," said Tur on her show "The Moment" on Tuesday. "So he brings this up, Peter. He declares that he's going to change [things], he's going to fix it, it's going to be wonderful and he keeps going on about it. … But then he also has to try to top Obama. What is the obsession with trying to top Obama? Why can't he just let it go? The Presidency is over.”

“He's trying to top Obama, because Obama is more popular than him,” said Baker. “He had had a presidency, according to polls, that more Americans supported — then and now Obama, according to those polls, is one of the most popular figures in American life, and I think he just has always fixated on Obama. Why did he talk about the birther lie, why did he sit there and talk about how Obama supposedly wasn't born in this country? And then, of course he was. He's trying to undercut him, trying to undermine him.”

“When he is sitting at that White House Correspondent Association dinner in the audience while Obama is on stage making fun of him, he's was seething,” Baker added. “You can see from the clips, if you haven't been there yourself, you can see the television clips how he was furious at being mocked by Obama and ever since he blamed Obama for all manner of. You know things that have hurt his administration. The Russia investigation is all Obama's fault. Somehow, he's accused Obama of treason. He suggested Obama should be arrested. And yes, as you say on anything, whether it be the reflecting pool or the Iran deal, he has to say he's doing better than Obama when in fact, at the moment it doesn't look like that.”

Other critics say Trump’s fury lies in the fact that Black man continues to top him in both popularity and deed. Trump has even re-posted videos describing Trump as the "King of the Jungle" while depicting the former President and his wife as apes, a frequently used racist trope.

Trump eventually removed the post after Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and even Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker spoke publicly against his post.

But Trump has his own massive popularity problem independent of Obama’s surpassing appeal.

“Well, Katy, the metaphors are so perfect for his adversaries,” said former George Bush and John McCain speech writer Mark McKinnon, referring to Trump’s ick-filled Reflecting Pool. “Metaphors [and the storytelling] are so important, and I'm reminded as I watch the ballroom and the reflecting pool, and just how obvious a metaphor that is for what's going on with the Trump administration, where his priorities are right now. The day that I saw the video of John Kerry windsurfing in 2004 was a perfect metaphor for John Kerry and the flip flop. And we wrote that windsurfing ad in 30 seconds because it made itself, because that perfectly illustrated John Kerry. Well, the reflecting pool and the ball room are perfect metaphors for Donald Trump and the fact that his priorities are not with the American people right now.”

“They want to outdo Obama, but the fact is that, no matter how you draw this up, it doesn't look like there's any possible route to a conclusion [to the war in Iran] in which it is any better and likely much worse than the Obama agreement that was put in place years ago.”

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President Donald Trump claimed over the weekend that the Reflecting Pool was being "vandalized" and that someone carved a 250-foot gash into the pool. As one pool expert explained, that's impossible because the material used is puncture-proof. To make such a gash, vandals would need significant equipment and it would be more difficult to go undetected. Even before Trump deployed more National Guard soldiers to the pool, Park Police patrolled the area.

Trump's story about the large "gash" in the lining evolved over 48 hours and the size became anywhere from 250 feet to 350 feet. While one Truth Social post claimed 300 feet, Trump mixed it up when speaking to the press.

CNN pointed out in its report, that he "increased the size of the alleged gash."

"Well, let's put it this way, when you have a 350, I think it's 350, not 250, a 350-ft slit. From one end to the other. Tampering with federal property carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison," Trump said.

CNN remarked that Trump made the comment "without evidence."

Charges for destruction of federal property were one of the charges used against Jan. 6 attackers who destroyed parts of the U.S. Capitol building. Olympian David Hearn told the press that he was cited for "destruction in defacing Government property and disobeying a Government employee," CNN said. The latter isn't a specific law unless it involves disobeying law enforcement or obstructing justice. He's being represented by Trump legal foe Norm Eisen.

When asked what proof the administration has that someone carved such a gash, Trump claimed that there were videos of the vandalism and that they would come out "in court."

Trucks have now been brought in with equipment and mounted cameras for such surveillance.

CNN called it "one $14 million green-hued pool" that is "overflowing with controversy."

Washington D.C., U.S. Attorney General Jeanine Pirro told Fox News that "several citations have been handed out" and that "these are cases that will be prosecuted."

One TMZ video showed a woman who was given nothing more than a "citation," the report said.

Political commentator David Rothkopf joked during the latest episode of the Daily Beast podcast that President Donald Trump has certainly managed to bring Americans flocking to see the Reflecting Pool.

“It’s turned into a tourist attraction in downtown D.C. for people to hate on Trump, right? They come down, and they reflect on what a bad president they’ve got,” mocked Rothkopf, speaking to Joanna Coles. “And then he’s like, ‘Holy mackerel, this is a mess. What are we going to do?’”

The solution, Rothkopf said, was to invent a conspiracy theory. Thus, the story of the mysterious vandals was born. According to Trump, five people have been arrested, and there are, he believes, five more who were involved somehow in putting a 250-350-foot gash in the liner installed in the Reflecting Pool. Trump promised reporters questioning the claim that the evidence of it would come out "in court."

“I just inspected it, and could only say to myself, and those gathered around me, WOW, who would do such a thing?” the president wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE! We will fix it?”

It's part of the overall metaphor of Trump's so-called beautification projects in Washington.

“Who defaced the Oval Office? Who destroyed the East Wing? Who put a giant claw on the South Lawn of the White House? Who is building a gilded ballroom for billionaires to dance in while Americans starve?” Rothkopf asked. “Who is building an arch to honor himself? Who’s covering all the horse statues in Washington in gold leaf?”

“He didn’t do enough damage as the worst, most tasteless developer in America. Now he’s taken it to another scale with tack,” Rothkopf said.

So, the disaster of the Reflecting Pool is a larger "metaphor for Trump," he said.

“It’s such a symbol of his vandalism, his failure, his inability to take responsibility for anything, his turning Washington into the grimiest, slimiest swamp of all time,” Rothkopf explained.

“The reality is, Trump screws up things all the time,” he said, noting that the Reflecting Pool was “fine” before the 80-year-old president decided it needed a more than $14 million revamp.

Tensions between the Trump administration and the Italian government flared when U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni "begged" to be in a photo with him during the recent G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains, France. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani was so offended that he canceled a visit to the United States. Now, according to liberal SiriusXM host Zerlina Maxwell, Italian media outlets have a devastating new insult for Trump — including those on the right.

During a late June appearance on SiriusXM colleague Dean Obeidallah's show, Maxwell — who has been living in Sicily — was asked how Trump is being covered in European media. And she noted that Italian media routinely describe Trump as a coglione, a crude yet funny term that essentially means "idiot" or "imbecil" in Italian.

Maxwell, sounding amused, told Obeidallah, "The headline that's going pretty viral right now is they call him coglione. I'm not saying that completely correct, but it means idiot. Like, roughly translated, right? It's one of the first words I learned in Italian. And I think that's because of the little kerfuffle with Meloni in that Trump claims she begged him for a picture — and she's like, 'I and Italy don't beg.'"

Maxwell continued, "And I think that Italy that doesn't beg — that's the thing that I think that people are buzzing about."

Maxwell noted that in Sicily, her "community" is a "combination of expats from all over the world and all over Europe" as well as Sicilians.

"It's a mixed bag in terms of how much people are even talking or thinking about Trump on any given day," Maxwell told Obeidallah. "But I think this latest thing is something that — I expect people to bring this up to me. Because I've seen it in my feeds on the Italian pages that I follow. The algorithm is now giving me that."

Maxwell pointed out that the term coglione isn't just being used to insult Trump in liberal or progressive media outlets in Italy; she's also seeing it on a regular basis in an Italian "right-wing newspaper."

"In the right-wing newspaper," Maxwell told Obeidallah, "that was the headline — that Trump is an idiot."

Obeidallah both noted how right-wing Meloni is politically, stressing that even on the right, Trump is making enemies.

Obeidallah said of Trump and Meloni, "She's fighting back. She's like, 'Worry about your own popularity, buddy. You're talking about my popularity. You're very unpopular.' He's alienating everyone."

President Donald Trump is worse than the mafia, a news anchor argued on Monday, because at least the mob tends to be competent.

“I actually think the comparisons to the mob are unfair, because as violent as the mob is, they — historically — can be more competent than that,” MS NOW anchor Nicolle Wallace said on Monday. She was referring to Trump’s failed attempt to renovate the Reflecting Pool. “This was a botched redecorating of a monument.”

She added, “It doesn't belong to Donald Trump. It doesn't belong to any president in office. He's the steward of it for four years, and he ruined it.”

Journalist Scott MacFarlane continued that Trump’s arrests of people he claims without evidence sabotaged the Reflecting Pool are baseless and not even serious cases.

“They're not major cases,” MacFarlane told Wallace. “They are U.S. Park Police or federal law enforcement citations. If the Department of Justice wants to make these major cases and charge these people with felonies, they have to go to a grand jury. And though grand jury deliberations are secret — held in a closed room — you might hear the laughter outside the grand jury room if they try to bring this case to a D.C. grand jury. It's not going to fly.”

He added that people who visit the Reflecting Pool notice “a smell that's emanating now that is reminiscent of a high school locker room. You have a police force, a National Guard presence, that is profound. It's never bad to have federal law enforcement near a gathering place, and a lot of people are gathering there to rubberneck at the damage. But it's like a jewel heist from the Muppets — the caper's gonna happen. You have so many police hanging out there, and it seems to be a misappropriation of resources.”

In contrast to Wallace, former US Attorney Barbara McQuade argued earlier this month that Trump acts very much like a mob boss.

“He uses his power to try to control others, especially would-be critics,” McQuade argued, speaking to The Guardian. “He uses any leverage he can get, inflicting pain to try to coerce them to come to the table to negotiate their own punishment. He’s done it with law firms and the media and universities and even foreign allies with tariffs.”

As one example, she cited how Trump attempted to punish the State of Michigan because of local politicians there opposing him.

“He has threatened to hold up the opening of the Gordie Howe bridge between Detroit and Canada and there’s an owner of a private span next to it who made a million-dollar donation to the MAGA SuperPac at around the same time,” McQuade observed.

A long-time expert in swimming pools knows the culprit behind the Reflecting Pool "vandalism" that caused an ongoing algae bloom.

For the past several weeks, CNN has welcomed on "Swimming Pool Steve," a second-generation pool builder who has a YouTube channel dedicated to explaining aspects of swimming pools and hot tubs.

Speaking to host Boris Sanchez on Monday, Steve Goodale said there would always be an algae problem in the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool.

"Let's start with the algae leak theory," Sanchez began. "What is more likely: that someone planted this algae or that it occurred and spread naturally?"

"Well, somebody definitely planted the algae and it was the very first bird that landed in the water," said Goodale. "You know, in an open-air environment like this, there's no stopping the algae from coming. It's going to be in the water. It's just how are you going to deal with it knowing that it will be expected."

The way to fix it, he explained, is a multi-pronged solution: the pool must be drained and the immediate remediation would likely follow. The algae problem is likely to be back-burnered, he said, while they figure out the problem with the liner.

Monday morning a baby duck was found dead in the pool's water, prompting Sanchez to question whether the new chemicals put in the pool could be the culprit.

"It would really come down to a matter of concentration," said Goodale. "And again, we're talking about, you know, 6.5 million gallons of water or more. So, it would take an awful lot of product to get to dangerous levels of contamination here. It's why hydrogen peroxide would be commonly used for an open-air, clear water environment like this, because it is kind of the safer of the options. It's why we don't use something like chlorine, which wouldn't be as safe for the wildlife."

He also passed along his sympathies for the tragic death of the baby duck.

Sanchez then asked about Trump's claims of vandalism and the "300-foot gash" that was carved into the liner. Goodale explained that the material used is one that would require considerable equipment to produce the gash Trump described.

"You know, in my experience, and, you know, when I heard that it had been vandalized as well, my reaction was surprise as I really tried to understand the mechanism of damage that would cause this kind of vandalism," he said.

Goodale said it would be noticeable and require advanced equipment like power tools.

"This is a robust, strong puncture-proof material," Goodale said of the lining installed by Virginia-based contractor Atlantic Industrial Coatings. "That's why it was likely chosen for this application. It's why it's used in commercial and industrial applications. So it would take, absolutely, a concerted effort. I don't know exactly — what it would take, but it would take a concerted effort to cause significant damage like that."

In an earlier conversation, CNN reporter Manu Raju called on the White House to release footage of the vandalism that caused the gash.

CNN on Monday played a supercut of some of President Donald Trump's big promises about the Reflecting Pool as a panel of analysts ridiculed the president's results.

Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday morning: "Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP! It has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water..."

Referring to it as a "mismanagement" of the project, CNN host Dana Bash introduced "a combination of conversations that the president has had, kind of with himself, but cameras were there about the Reflecting Pool from May 4th until June 10th, during which most of these events were about other things."

The supercut included Trump's promise of something so "beautiful" that "you could never get any anything like that." He also pledged on May 7 that he would do the project for $1.8 million and it would be finished in a week.

"It's going to be something very special," Trump promised later in those remarks.

Trump told his daughter-in-law that he was using "Swimming pool material" to make it "blue, beautiful blue, which is what they always wanted."

By June 10 Trump was bragging that people "can't believe it" and "everybody's looking at that reflecting pool."

Reporter Manu Raju explained that this is one of many reasons that the disaster is such a huge embarrassment for Trump.

"Because he has boasted about this so much. He could have been you know — it's a noteworthy goal to say, okay, I want D.C. to have improvements, look beautiful, et cetera," Raju said.

The costs continue to climb as problems persist ahead of the July 4th event.

Raju recalled that the fix "went to a no-bid contract to someone who's close to the to the president or the president's team. So, a lot of questions about how all that played out. It clearly is not American flag blue, which is why he's now saying vandals and many people arrested when it seems like there are cameras all over D.C., they could release some of this video footage that exists."

CNN reporter John King visited three congressional districts in the north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to ask about the upcoming election and where they stand on President Donald Trump.

King began his road trip by saying that if those districts go for Democrats, then the House is lost. While the party in power generally loses during midterm elections, Republicans have been so fearful that they've tried to pass new congressional maps to change districts to be more GOP-friendly.

Speaking to one voter in Bucks County, King explained that while the man really likes his Republican congressman, he's angry his elected official is not standing up to President Donald Trump.

"Big picture, Trump is the problem that I see," Michael Pesce said. "The president is not doing what I think a president should be doing, and that's disturbing to me. One more person in Congress that is going to stand up to Trump. That's going to get my vote."

His member of Congress is Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R), who won in 2024, but whose district was also won by Vice President Kamala Harris. He is seen as one of the Democrat's top targets in a district that could easily flip.

Pesce bragged that he was a "Reagan Republican" until Trump came along. He's since switched to being a Democrat, saying he wants no part of Trump's takeover of the GOP. He's also a former Coast Guard veteran and "angry at the price of a war he says makes no sense."

Gerard Babb voted for Trump three times, and now wants to see a check on the president's power.

"As of right now, I see President Trump is kind of acting like a regular old politician to me. And no love," he said.

King asked if Trump should have more checks on him by Democrats.

"Yeah," Babb agreed. "No love lost from my opinion."

Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R) is his congressman, who beat Democratic Rep. Susan Wild in 2024. He beat Wild with a mere 4,000-vote margin.

Democratic Spanish radio host Victor Martinez said that his listeners thought that with President Joe Biden gone, "things are gonna change. He promised he was gonna fix it. Let's see. Here we are a year later and things are actually worse."

Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) is in the northernmost district. He, too, was elected in 2024 with a small margin (6,000 votes) over Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.). Once known as "Joe Biden country," the district voted for Trump in 2024 with a 54 percent edge over Harris.

President Donald Trump's niece, Dr. Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist by profession, is sounding the alarm that her elderly uncle is spiraling.

In a conversation with reporter Steven Beschloss for her Sunday newsletter, Dr. Trump explained, “He may still have moments when he appears more coherent, but psychically he’s in a downward spiral. He’s experiencing constant narcissistic injuries, and nothing terrifies Donald more than humiliation.”

Beschloss questioned whether she felt that the 80-year-old president looked “unusually diminished” as of late.

Dr. Trump cautioned, “I think this is simply the direction things are heading.”

"He’s experiencing constant narcissistic injuries, and nothing terrifies Donald more than humiliation," she continued. "The problem for him is that nobody humiliates Donald more effectively than Donald humiliates himself. The G7 came immediately after the sixty-million-dollar taxpayer-funded spectacle at the People’s House. Everything he’s doing now exists in service of protecting his fragile ego and trying to fill what I’ve long described as the black hole of need within him."

She explained that once Trump awakened the next morning, it became clear to him that "once again, ... none of it helped."

"He’s still an empty, unloved man, and maintaining that illusion has become psychologically exhausting," Dr. Trump continued. "Combined with his cognitive, emotional, physical and psychological decline, it’s becoming impossible to hide."

Last week, Trump got into a public feud with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni. After the G7, Trump claimed she was desperate for a photo with him and begged him for it. The PM released a video calling the comment a lie.

Dr. Trump thinks that her uncle is "projecting," particularly when he claimed that he "felt sorry" for Meloni.

"He also claimed he felt sorry for her when, in reality, many of those leaders probably felt sorry for him because he cuts such a pathetic figure," the psychologist said. "I’m certainly not defending Giorgia Meloni. She’s a fascist. However, when somebody politically aligned with Donald publicly contradicts him, it carries more weight than criticism from Emmanuel Macron or Keir Starmer. He simply cannot help himself. His declining impulse control guarantees moments like these will become increasingly common."

Beschloss also noted that at the G7 summit, the leaders appeared to "have stopped pretending"

"Capitulating to Donald has always been the wrong strategy," Dr. Trump said. "Now they’re finding ways to manage him instead. Inviting him to Versailles, surrounded by gold and grandeur, to sign what amounts to a surrender document was an extraordinarily clever move by Emmanuel Macron."

Beschloss commented on the historical aspect of the signing, noting that it was the site of the humiliating surrender by Germany that ended World War I.

"Emmanuel Macron understands history," Mary Trump explained. "Donald does not."

In the past, U.S. President Donald Trump wasn't shy about voicing his total disdain for Camp David — making it clear that he found the presidential retreat in Frederick County, Maryland extremely boring. But Trump headed to Camp David over the weekend, and former GOP strategist Rick Wilson laid out some possible motivations in a "Fast Politics" video with liberal Molly Jong-Fast.

Wilson told Jong-Fast, "Everyone is surprised that Donald Trump is at Camp David because the exact quote, before, was, 'I get f–– bored there in 30 minutes.' Trump does not like Camp David…. I think he's been there, in this administration, never. And I think he went once or twice in the previous (administration). So, this is either the second or third time that I can recall."

The Never Trump conservative added, "What's curious about the whole thing, Molly…. There is a degree to which I am very curious."

Wilson laid out some possible reasons why Trump ventured to Camp David when he would much rather go to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Wilson told Jong-Fast, "If you were looking for somewhere very private where you wanted, say — I don't know, I'm going to speculate; this is just speculation — if you wanted to have doctors come and attend to you, not at the White House. Or not have to go to Walter Reed (Medical Center). You might go to Camp David. You might want to get away."

The former GOP strategist emphasized that Camp David is very private, which might explain Trump's reasons for visiting a place he was openly disdainful of in the past.

"It is way up in the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland," Wilson told Jong-Fast. "You go down a long, long set of pretty much backroads. And there will be more checkpoints than the law allows. Nobody sneaks up on Camp David. Nobody creeps through the woods to get to Camp David unless they want to die. Nobody flies a drone over Camp David unless they want the drone shot down."

Wilson, known for his work with The Lincoln Project, speculated that at Camp David, Trump can temporarily escape questions about his "stupid war" with Iran or his health.

The Never Trumper told Jong-Fast, "It is a restricted airspace, restricted facility…. Every president has traditionally loved Camp David, in its modern iteration, because no one is around. The pressure is absolutely off."

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The DOJ is now refusing the request of a federal judge to submit a sworn declaration that it's backing off from President Donald Trump’s controversial anti-weaponization fund. But legal observers say the White House had best get used to judges requiring signatures and receipts over the word of somebody like Trump.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and other members of Trump's administration have refused to file the statement U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema demanded in her judicial order last week.

AlterNet recently reported that Brinkema said she wanted to "avoid any further litigation in this civil action," and asked Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, Jr. and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to submit a declaration they wouldn't take any further action to create Trump's slush fund. The deadline for that was June 19.

But administration leaders say the judge should “essentially trust all of the representations that they've made so far,” explained MS NOW legal analyst Lisa Rubin. “And those, according to a brief that they submitted, include [DOJ head] Todd Blanche’s congressional testimony. It includes court filings and includes what they say are twice saying so in open court. And they say there's no reason why the court needs declarations from members of the administration.”

However, Rubin added that “this administration is replete with examples of judges asking the administration to put in writing effectively that they have complied with directives from the courts.” But if the administration puts in a sworn declaration that they are not going to pursue the fund and take steps to compensate these people, she said it would expose the administration to judicially imposed penalties, including potential criminal contempt.

Legal reporter David Rohde said the administration’s leeriness means they most certainly have plans to pursue the fund despite Blanche’s claimed commitments.

The problem for the administration here, however, is that judges have caught on that the Trump administration likes to lie. And it lies a lot.

“This is a reflection of what this judge is doing in Florida, reflects what judges have recently done in Chicago and Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. here,” said Rohde. “They have caught DOJ officials withholding information or making demonstrably false statements to federal judges. That hasn't happened in the federal courts for years. It was sort of an accepted thing that just the justice department would not want to lie to judges just because it would slow down so many of their cases. But the second trump administration has done this repeatedly.”

“That's why you have this judge pushing back so aggressively saying, ‘no, it's not sworn testimony from Todd Blanche’. … And that's why they need sworn statements,” Rohde added. “It's an amazing moment to have judges so openly being distrustful of a justice department.”

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President Donald Trump’s arrogance and braggadocio appear to be without bounds, but does he really believe his own claims of supreme power? That was the subject of debate on CNN’s “The Arena” Saturday morning.

The panel consensus, however, could not confirm that he wasn’t nuts.

Trump recently stated during an “Axios Show” interview that there are now "no limits" to his power since he started a war with Iran. As CNN host Pamela Brown argued, he now claims “he's more powerful than some of history's most brutal dictators like Hitler and Stalin.”

“There are only two possibilities,” argued Dispatch co-founder Jonah Goldberg. “Either he believes it or he's just saying it. And I'm not sure which one is better. … it's a dumb thing to get obsessed about on his part. It reflects his utter lack of ability to draw distinctions between good and bad. He only measures things on the metric and the rubric of power.”

“The fact that he doesn't recognize the actual limits on his power, as evidenced by the deal that he was forced to get into, is a sign of delusion that I think is going to create more problems in foreign policy and maybe domestic policy going forward,” Goldberg added. “Because if he doesn't actually see the limits on his power, then he's going to make the same mistakes again.”

Panelist Lulu Garcia Navarro, host of “the Interview,” said she couldn’t see in Trump’s head but could only hope he doesn’t believe his megalomaniacal claims.

“We're trying to understand how delusional is Donald Trump? … Like, does he believe his own press or is the kind of reality that he has created around himself where everyone is constantly kowtowing to him, everyone is constantly serving his ego? Or does he actually realize that there are things that he has to do? … He has entered the second administration with this feeling of being having absolute power. … And so I don't know the answer to that,” she confessed. “I have given up a long time ago trying to understand Trump's psyche.”

“I think he's just messaging,” Navarro then declared with some hesitation. “I think he's messaging to everybody. He's never going to admit that he is not numero uno and he can do whatever he wants.”

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Trump’s loyal Republican lawmakers don’t often get corrected to their face when they play fast and loose with the facts, but CNN Saturday morning anchor Victor Blackwell had no such patience for MAGA Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).

Blackwell derailed Luna’s talking points at the start of the interview after watching her try to explain President Donald Trump calling his Iran Memorandum of Understanding a “win” despite it letting Iran keep missiles that Trump claimed he specifically invaded to remove.

But Luna argued that Trump’s agreement is better because Iran will voluntarily dispose of its missiles out of necessity. “I don't think that they're going to need ballistic missiles,” she said.

“Wait a minute. Why wouldn't why wouldn't they need ballistic missiles?” Blackwell demanded.

“Well, I think that they're not going to need to have to engage in war activities as they did previously,” she answered.

“Say again? What do you base that on?” he asked.

Luna argued the new Iranian administration would instead be “trying to open up and maybe establishing better relationships with countries that they typically wouldn't have.”

The interview then spiraled when the MAGA firebrand made repeated claims that former president Obama was giving Iran “pallets of money” in his old JCPOA agreement with Iran — completely unlike the pallets of money President Donald Trump has agreed to fork over in his own controversial, and much panned, MOU agreement with Iran.

“We're not paying the Iranians to mothball their nuclear program. They have agreed fully and in writing and signed it, that they will not ever have a nuclear weapon. And I think that that's the biggest thing,” Luna claimed

“But that was also part of the JCPOA,” Blackwell countered.

“Well, it wasn't signed and it wasn't in writing and it wasn't codified by the United Nations,” she insisted.

The [International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)], conducted the inspections to determine up until the point that President Trump withdrew the U.S.,” Blackwell pointed out, adding that Iran had also been “in compliance with the elements of the JCPOA.”

“We shouldn't be paying Iran to mothball a program, period,” Luna repeated. “I don't want any of our taxpayer dollars going over there.”

“Okay. But they weren't taxpayer dollars going to Iran under the JCPOA,” Blackwell said, interrupting her. “[T]he $1.7 billion was their money that was returned to them with interest.”

“We should not be paying Iran, sending pallets of cash. Nothing over there, period,” Luna said more forcefully.

At that, Blackwell played her footage of Trump admitting the “we have taken a lot of their money, and we have their money. We have taken their money. 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.”

“And so what's the difference between the JCPOA returning the $1.7 billion that was Iran’s money and President Trump there saying that at some point, the U.S. will have to give back their money?” Blackwell said.

Caught in a philosophical tangle, Luna fell back on: “we should have never sent pallets of cash over there.”

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President Donald Trump was lauding his newly renovated but controversial luxury plane gifted him by the Qatari royal family on Friday. The president presented the plane as the new Air Force One, despite allegations of corruption surrounding the gift, and the fact that Trump treats the plane as a personal gift and has no plan to leave it in the possession of the president who replaces him. But he added that he intends to paint all of the planes in the fleet air force to look just like the new Qatari donation, making this just one more attempt by Trump to mark everything around him with his personal stamp or influence.

However, John Heilemann, Chief Political Columnist for the media company Puck says there is a reason Trump is desperate to mark every taxpayer-funded thing around him as his personal [property.

“He's obviously … into the notion of trying to build monuments to himself in various ways and to leave marks that he thinks will not be will not be able to go away, like to kind of build the arch to Trump, you know, change the reflecting pool, change the [White House] east wing, install the claw and leave it there over the White House forever,” Heilemann told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace. “I mean, Trump is pretty dumb sometimes, but I think he knows some of these things are more transitory than others, easier to tear down. But I think all of it reflects a sense that he recognizes, on some basic level, that that project of exorcising Donald Trump … getting rid of the [stain] of Donald Trump is going to be a big project for the Democrat who gets back in the White House.”

Heilemann said this labor will doubtless be in addition to the work require to restore American democracy and rebuild national institutions.

“You saw it when they took the Trump name down from the Kennedy center. That was a big moment for people. I think you're going to see a lot of that — and Trump knows that,” Heilemann said. “So … if he changes a whole lot of stuff, he probably thinks some aspects of him, some markings that he leaves, some bird droppings of his, will somehow survive the purge to come.”

Wallace said she predicted that, other than rebuilding the east wing, the next administration to “wash away the [Trum] spot pretty darn quickly. “

“I think it's going to be a giant national steam cleaning of everything he's touched,” confirmed Heilemann. “So it's going to be like, ‘okay, let's get in here, clean it all, scrub it all out.’

“And the gold,” quipped Wallace, referring to Trump’s overwrought White House slapped with gold paint. “I mean, I don't know who's going to be in charge of prying all that stuff off the walls.”

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The Trump White House is attacking one of its loyal media figures after she berated Vice President JD Vance over President Donald Trump’s Iran deal.

“The problem is, that it’s an absolutely disastrous deal that has brought us to our knees, weeks before our 250th birthday,” NewsNation host Batya Ungar-Sargon said in a clip she posted to social media, which Mediaite reported.

“This is an utter humiliation of the United States, and everybody knows it,” she continued. “Everybody knows it, but especially Iran knows it. They are celebrating this. They are still calling us the enemy.”

“And while Iran celebrates this and sneers at us for totally capitulating when we had complete military superiority over them,” she said, “JD Vance is out there criticizing Israel, making up fantasies about how it is Israel’s fault, and Israel wants Iran to be a failed state. And if only Israel would lay down its arms and allow Hezbollah to keep attacking it, there would be peace in the Middle East.”

Ungar-Sargon called Vance’s remarks “disgusting,” “utterly deplorable,” and a “complete Tucker Carlsonification of the Vice President of the United States.”

She warned, “if this was a dry run for Vance 2028,” for president, “we sure learned a lot.”

On social media, Ungar-Sargon added: “VP JD Vance just brought the US to its knees with a humiliating deal weeks before our 250th birthday and he has the audacity to blame … Israel! … for the terrible situation we’re in.”

The White House’s Rapid Response team blasted Ungar-Sargon.

“The only humiliation here is Batya desperately begging for an additional brain cell because her failing TV … show is even more irrelevant than the likes of Kaitlan Collins and Fake Tapper,” the White House declared. “Only a moron of her caliber could still doubt President Trump’s leadership.”

In 2024, Ungar-Sargon wrote, “American Jews should vote for Trump because he is the candidate who stands most clearly for the things that have defined us for centuries.”

Political commentator Jonah Goldberg issued a rhetorical body-slam about President Donald Trump's recent claim that there are "no limits" to his power.

Marc Caputo recently asked Trump, " What have you learned about not just the exercise of power, but the limits on your power as a result of the conflict?"

"There are no limits. No, not — I haven't learned that lesson yet. I know there are. But you know, there are no limits. We defeated them totally militarily," Trump said about Iran, his agreement, and what he calls "an unconditional defeat."

It comes at a time when Trump insulted Premier Giorgia Meloni, claiming Meloni "begged" him for a photo and he "felt sorry for her." That mistake prompted Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to abruptly cancel his planned trip to the U.S. Meloni also responded with a video, making it clear that his claim was not true but that “Italy and I do not beg."

Goldberg returned to the Axios interview and merged the two stories together. While Trump was once able to bully his way into foreign policy and make demands of international leaders, the Iran War made it clear that those days are over. Meloni simply vocalized it publicly.

"Where he says, we totally defeated Iran militarily. There are no limits to my power to my power.' The fact that he's coming out of this week with this deal, saying that there are no limits to his power when he was forced to negotiate ending a blockade to open up the Strait of Hormuz, is preposterous," Goldberg said. "And why was the Strait of Hormuz such a problem? They begged to get allies to come in and help with the mine-sweeping, because our European allies have better equipment for that kind of stuff."

The reason that the Strait is closed is that Trump couldn't get Europe to come to his aid.

"Why couldn't they get them to do it? Because he threatened to take, militarily, take over Greenland, and made himself so unbelievably radioactive," Goldberg continued. "The most brilliant thing Trump did — he was already unpopular in the middle and with the left in Europe. But the Greenland thing made the nationalists hate him, too."

After that, it was implausible that any European allies would help at Trump's demand.

"The idea that all these allies were going to jump and help him out in the Strait of Hormuz. It would be political suicide for any elected leader in Europe to act to save Trump's bacon about anything," Goldberg said.

"I think his approval rating in Denmark is like 4 percent, right? So like, those are limits to his power," Goldberg explained. "We would be a much more powerful country if we had allies that were willing to get our back and help us out. Those are limits. What's disturbing is he's so delusional he can't see the limits to his power, and that's something that's going to get him into more mistakes."

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During an interview with Axios' Marc Caputo, U.S. President Donald Trump discussed his ceasefire deal with Iran. Caputo asked Trump about the "limits" on his power, and his response is generating a lot of discussion on social media — some of it quite negative.

Caputo asked Trump, "What have you learned about not just the exercise of power, but the limits of your power, as a result of the conflict?"

The U.S. president responded, "There are no limits. No, none. I haven't learned that lesson yet. I know there are."

The liberal group Call to Activism, started by activist Joe Gallina, found the "no limits" disturbing.

"This should frighten us all," Call to Activism warned on X.

Journalist Jeff Yang tweeted, "Through a series of blunders, Trump's ability to govern has been severely weakened. He is becoming a de facto lame duck even in his second year in office. Bragging about his unlimited power is mere swanking to hide his incapacitated status."

Gregory Haynes, CEO of Point of Success Workforce Solutions, posted, "Had Obama or Biden said this RW media & Republicans would be out in the streets with 'Pitchforks and Torches.' And they would be RIGHT to do so. No President who took an Oath to …Preserve,Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States, should be saying that there are no limits to his power."

The conservative group Republicans Against Trump noted that when Caputo said Trump's Iran deal "doesn't look like unconditional surrender," he responded, "Well, it really probably is unconditional surrender."

X user Peter Toolan commented, "Remind the @POTUS we still have checks and balances regardless if you want to be king."

Another X user, Amma Opoku, wrote, "He lives in Cloud cuckoo land… he lies…. He just can’t help himself and I just wonder whether he has a best friend in his life who will tell him the truth and say to him look you gotta stop lying . Why doesn’t his wife or his children say anything. It’s baffling to me."

Former Republican Debi Ganster argued, "Republicans are responsible for this. They gave up their own power and turned it over to him. Remove every single one of them."

CNN kicked off its morning show discussions talking about the epic failure that President Donald Trump's Reflecting Pool project has become.

There are ongoing questions about whether the algae can be fully removed, and now it appears the $14 million paint job is peeling off in chunks. The U.S. Department of the Interior continues to insist that the water is perfectly clear and everything is fine. Those visiting have filmed something entirely different.

Two companies were responsible for the project that cost nearly $16 million: Greenwater Services, an Ohio company, and Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which was responsible for the paint that is now peeling off in chunks.

"First of all, the fact that it was called Greenwater should have been a giveaway. I'm just saying you can't make that up. Sorry," quipped New York Times reporter Lulu Garcia Navarro.

The Dispatch's politics editor, Michael Warren, called the ordeal "thoroughly predictable."

The issue has been a long-standing problem for the reflecting pool.

"These algae blooms happen because there just isn't enough water flow out of it. And I do think that, you know, two weeks ago, a week ago on social media, you had all these kind of supporters of the president, Republicans, saying finally the president is cleaning this up," he added.

The U.S. Department of the Interior compared it to Trump's success in Iran. At the same time that CNN was reporting the reflecting pool failure, it was also revealed that the signing of the Iran deal was on hold again.

"It was just it was obvious that this was going this was very likely to happen," said Warren.

Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams noted, "Perhaps there ... could have been a benefit to it. Once again, it is Trump, and the folks around him making the case aggressively before it — almost as a moral matter. And that when it goes badly now, sort of it's —"

Host Audie Cornish cut him off, agreeing that it has become a metaphor for the Trump administration as a whole for the "clean-up of Washington." Further, it is indicative of the promises that Trump made during the 2024 campaign and his continued failure to deliver on issues like lower gas prices, lower inflation, affordable living and groceries, cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget and a slew of other things.

ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl compared the pool peeling to the back of Trump's hand.

"Well, now it has cost a lot of money," Cornish said. She played a clip of Trump promising that the project would cost $1.9 million. Trump also promised that his ballroom would only cost $200 million and he would raise the funds for all of it. That has now ballooned to $600 million and Trump was only able to raise half of it.

"You see, that's the point I'm making," Williams agreed. "He went so far out there making the case as to how quickly it was going to happen, how cheaply it would be done and how perfect it would be," Williams continued. "That's what could have been an honest problem of maybe a piece chipped off. People have been in a swimming pool [they] know that that happens from time to time. What could have been a simple problem now becomes an embarrassment."

Cornish said that the Department of the Interior was the one that made the unfortunate mistake of comparing the pool to the Iran war and now it's clear that both have become failures.

"And so now they're able to say, oh, really? A thing no one asked for has gone wrong, costing us way more than we expected. And you're trying to do a cleanup? Sounds familiar. And it was like the messaging," said Cornish.

"The internet is undefeated," Garcia Navarro quipped. " I mean, there is so many jokes about this. There's like the Rothko joke because of the peroxide."

President Donald Trump's new intelligence community chief came into his appointed post ready to fire people, CNN reported Friday morning.

Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte has now also taken over as director of national intelligence and began "asking for a list of every employee in the office so he could assess whether to fire them," CNN reported on Friday morning, citing two sources familiar with the matter. He wants to eliminate hundreds of jobs and he wants to do it quickly.

Outgoing Director Tulsi Gabbard didn't even know Pulte was showing up until she got a brief heads-up.

The report said that he met with lawyers and staff during the day.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) told CNN on Friday morning that the last thing someone does is go into work on their first day and start firing people. It's prompting a lot of concern from him that Pulte "could weaken America's national security."

CNN host Sara Sidner asked whether DOGE, Elon Musk's failed project to eliminate $2 trillion from the federal budget, had already done the firings.

"It did," said Juliette Kayyem, CNN's senior national security analyst and ex-assistant secretary of Homeland Security.

"Look, Bill Pulte is there for one reason, and that is to satisfy the president's agenda of politicizing the intelligence community," she continued. "And that is so we'll look at sort of, you know, his notions of — well, the presidents' notions of election fraud in various elections. I want to say, just it's not a personal opinion: by statute, Bill Pulte is not qualified for this position. The Director of National Intelligence is supposed to come from the intelligence community. Bill Pulte is a businessman with strong ties to MAGA and to Trump."

Pulte has never held a job in national security or intelligence.

Kayyem said that the only reason that Pulte is in the post is to "go after the president's political critics and perceived political enemies."

Another shocking revelation came when Pulte asked whether "he could bring the President’s Daily Brief to his house, raising alarm bells among intelligence officials," one source told CNN.

The top briefing book is highly classified. A "second source pushed back on this characterization, noting that the PDB is provided electronically," the report added.

CNN also reported that Pulte wanted to know his level of security clearance. As the top intelligence official, he would have the top intelligence clearance. He also wondered if he had access to his own government plane.

These were the questions Pulte had in a meeting that was supposed to be an explanation of "the core mission of ODNI to Pulte."

Kayyem said that some people tend to look at the ODNI post the way that Trump does, "which is essentially ... is he a friend or not a friend to what Trump wants to do, which is to use the intelligence agencies, all of them, because that's what the DNI oversees to go after political critics and then to go after anyone who might oppose an election threat to the president."

She added that Pulte will politicize the department more than any other previous person in the post.

Sidner called the matter "fascinating to watch all of this happen" because it is coming "from a president who talked so much about the deep state that was against him. And now to me, it seems like he's trying to create the deep state himself."