Video

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."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

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.”

- YouTube youtu.be

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.”

- YouTube youtu.be

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.”

- YouTube youtu.be

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.”

- YouTube youtu.be

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."

- YouTube youtu.be

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."

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins took Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) to task over his support of President Donald Trump’s widely panned Memorandum of Understanding, forcing him to defend several of the plan's more outrageous points.

“My point of view is that we have to give peace a chance to get done,” Moreno told Collins. “We have absolutely not made Iran stronger. We've killed almost 80 of their top leaders. We've destroyed their army, their navy, their ballistic missile program. Like I said, they are absolutely in a dramatically worse position as a result of president Trump's actions. And he prevented them from actually using a nuclear weapon that they could have cobbled together.”

“[But] this deal lets them have waivers,” Collins pointed out. “They can start selling oil tonight. Eventually it will potentially unfreeze billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars in frozen assets. Iran is still a state sponsor of terrorism, according to the United States. Do you have an issue with the U.S. doing things that allows them to have money to potentially rebuild all of those things that you just mentioned?”

“What's the alternative, Kaitlan?" Moreno demanded. "What would you want the president to do? Allow them to have built a nuclear weapon?”

“That's a question for some Republicans, too, it sounds like,” said Collins, referring to many GOP critics who find the deal offensive. She also pointed out that Iran now stands “make more money because they're selling it at competitive market prices to buyers with more attractive currencies.”

She also reminded Moreno that he said in April that money from Iran’s oil sales doesn't “go to the people. It goes to a corrupt leadership.”

“Aren't you worried that corrupt leadership is now going to get tens of billions of dollars from these sales?” she asked.

“Yeah, but we'll be watching exactly what they do with the money,” said Moreno.

“But the president pledged not to get involved in their domestic affairs in the MOU that he signed,” Collins quickly countered, to which Moreno could only repeat: “We're going to make certain that they behave, and they do exactly what they need to do.”

Moreno then made a comparison to Trump’s intervention in Venezuela, saying Trump “saved Latin America,” and promised “you’re gonna see that happen in Cuba.”

“It’s not the same thing. You can’t really compare the two,” said Collins, before then asking Moreno about the plight of the Iranian people.

“[Trump] told that Iranian people that this was their chance to rise up and take back their government. Their government is being run by the former leader’s son. Do you think that they have been left hung out to dry here?”

“Look, I don't know what's going to happen there,” said Moreno. “Again. We don't know.”

- YouTube youtu.be

President Donald Trump released less than two pages outlining his memorandum of understanding that will be the framework for the ultimate deal with Iran to end the war. While some Republican lawmakers have come out against the deal, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) hasn't even read it.

The 14-point agreement was available nearly 24 hours ago, CNN producer Kit Maher remarked after reporter Manu Raju faced off with Collins outside the members-only elevator.

"I have not reviewed the MOU yet," Collins told reporters. When pressed on whether the war was successful or she thought it was a "good deal," she reiterated, "I have not yet had a chance to read it."

CNN's Aaron Blake remarked, "Collins sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee."

Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett commented, "'There is high level dismay' among Senate Republicans about the Iran deal, one senator says, adding it’s 'unlikely' that a final deal with Iran is ever reached."

One of Blake's followers thinks that Collins is lying.

"She may SIT on the committee, but there's no intelligence in evidence..." another commented.

A mock account named Art Vandelay suggested that Collins plug the plan into ChatGPT and have it summarize the MOU into five sentences.

A lawyer who previously worked for the Democratic Party called the comments "Embarrassing and disqualifying." He urged Collins, "Do your job or go away."

The X account Collins Watch, which heckles the senator on the social media platform, commented, "You can't just wait for the elevator doors to close when you get an uncomfortable question in the middle of a town hall...which is probably why Susan Collins hasn't held one since the 1990s."

Trump already has a strong opposition force in the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Roger Wicker, a far-right Republican from Mississippi, made it clear he isn't happy with Trump's MOU and went so far as to blame "ill-advice" that he thinks the president's advisors are giving him.

"Specifically, the $300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran — though not funded by U.S. taxpayers — would make Iran's payoff under President Obama's 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison. I believe it would be an error to force Israel to stand down against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that continues to attack Israel on its northern border," he continued.

President Donald Trump appears to be showing "observable signs" of a "severe decline" in a short amount of time, according to one pathologist, who also suggested that the signs might be consistent with a recent stroke, though stopped short of diagnosing.

Hilary Shae is a licensed speech-language pathologist with a specialty in concussion treatments, as well as a political content creator who shares various takes critical of Trump and gives professional examinations of his seemingly deteriorating cognitive and physical health. In one of her latest videos, she suggested that "something has changed" with Trump after noticing numerous worrying signs in clips from his G7 Summit visit.

Firstly, she noted an odd interaction with French President Emmanuel Macron, when it seemed like Trump was unable to hold up his own hand while giving him a handshake. She also argued that he seemed "unable to turn his body" and had "no idea what was going on" at this time. She also noted his "ability to go down stairs" while exiting Air Force One, suggesting that his mobility was worse than usual and seemed to require him to have "singular focus" on the task.

Beyond those points, Shae further explained potential signs of "dysarthria" in Trump's speech. This refers to a condition, typically following a stroke, in which changes in coordination and muscle control can lead to a patient's speech having a "breathiness, misarticulations" and speech that generally sounds more "unintelligible." This, she argued, was noticeable in a clip of Trump speaking at the G7, in addition to odd jaw movements and signs of him having to much saliva in his mouth, causing him to sound more "wet" and smack his lips more often.

Shae also noted signs of respiratory issues in the clip.

"He required such frequent breaths that he had very, very short phrases, and the phrases were not typically on an actual phrase ending," she explained. "They weren't at an appropriate place... It seems like it's breath-related, and part of dysarthria can be the muscle control and coordination for breathing as well."

She asserted that these dysarthria signs were new for Trump, and not things that she has observed in his behavior recently, noting that they were missing when he stormed out of an NBC interview earlier this month.

"All of this, everything that's happened kind of in the beginning of June, tells me that there's been a significant change in the last couple of days," Shae added. "He's been sleeping more frequently... falling asleep at the NBA Finals, falling asleep at the UFC championship."

She added: "And there's one final thing that I want to point out that, while it's somewhat dementia-related, I think it's much worse, it's that he seems to have zero awareness of his surroundings, absolutely none. There just seems to be nothing behind the eyes. Just no awareness whatsoever. And, I don't know how people continue to argue against this, but Donald Trump is sick, and he's got to go."

Former First Lady Michelle Obama issued strong praise for her husband at the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center on the south side of Chicago on Thursday. And in that profound speech, she criticized President Donald Trump without mentioning his name.

After words of thanks, she turned to her husband to talk about watching him serve eight years in the White House.

"I know it hasn't always been easy, but there hasn't been a single second through this experience that standing by your side hasn't left me in awe," Mrs. Obama said. "Eight years in the crucible. And not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence, your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage. Your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber. And to do it all as a first and the higher standard that comes with all that."

She recalled that he was criticized for not being experienced enough as a one-term U.S. senator and constitutional law expert. She then delivered a thinly-veiled take down of Obama's critics, including the current president.

"The lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism. The outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you'd had a son that he too would be Black. Yet, you were unflappable at every turn, always focused, always calm, always looking at the long view," she championed. "How absurd it is to even imagine that you might have buckled under the pressure, even once lashed out in frustration, lost your temper."

She continued: "How absurd it is to imagine that you might have done anything but make our family and this entire country proud. No, you were too busy ... You were doing the people's work, rescuing our economy, expanding health care, ending a war, ordering the [Osama] Bin Laden raid, saving an auto industry, winning a Nobel Peace Prize. Keeping us safe from Ebola. Regulating the banks."

Trump has been frustrated about his inability to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sitting behind former President Obama, could be seen laughing, turning to her husband, covering her mouth and making a comment.

She closed the speech saying that "a lasting legacy isn't a name on a building," — another slight at Trump, who's pushed to add his name to the John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts.

At many points in the speech the former president could be seen wiping away tears as his wife's voice echoed with passion and love.

One of President Donald Trump's own supporters made it clear just how furious she was with his deal with Iran.

Speaking to CNN, Batya Ungar-Sargon of "Batya" on NewsNation said that it gave her no pleasure to trash the president.

" You wrote the greatest superpower to ever exist, brought to its knees by a few minds, just a disaster for America," said co-host John Berman.

Ungar-Sargon noted that the "disaster" Iran deal only guarantees free passage to ships through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days. After that, Iran can begin charging tolls. It will likely increase the price of oil starting in mid-August.

"If they could plant a few mines in that strait, they could bring the greatest superpower to ever exist in human history to its knees," she said. "And that is just such a disaster. I mean, what message do you think that signals to China right now? It's really, really horrifying. And I'm very surprised that this administration would go down this road. "

On Truth Social, Trump has called any critics of the deal are "jealous," "bad people" or "stupid."

Berman asked her what would have happened had a Democrat signed the deal that Trump did.

"I mean, you know the answer to that, right? There's no Republican who, if a Democrat had signed this exact document, they would blast them to kingdom come. We all know this," said Ungar-Sargon.

She went on to slam Trump for his comments during the press conference on Wednesday, in which he "repeatedly said things that were the exact opposite of the things that he had promised."

She conceded, "I am a big fan of this president. I think he has done amazing, amazing things in the first year of his second term, which is why I'm so surprised by this."

Berman keyed in on her comment, "Again, just to reiterate what you said, you are a Trump supporter by your own words there. You were a fan of this president."

"So when we first went into this, the president laid out three main goals. He said he wanted to get rid of their navy. He wanted to get rid of their ballistic capabilities, and he wanted to get rid of their ability to achieve a nuclear weapon," said Ungar-Sargon. "Um, I don't see any of that in this [memorandum of understanding]. Of course, they promised not to pursue a nuclear weapon. Guess what? They promised that to President Obama as well."

She falsely claimed that Iran then "lied and cheated." In fact, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed that Iran was in compliance as late as of March 2018, a timeline on its website showed. In May 2018, Trump withdrew the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which required the weapons inspectors to test for enriched uranium, Bloomberg News reported at the time.

Ungar-Sargon called Trump's attacks on those who disagree with the deal "very insulting."

"They have never been as weak as they were last Friday, right before the president agreed to this exact deal. And I just do not understand why we're letting up the pressure in 60 days when they have all their money back, they're going to be much stronger and much less likely to agree to anything that would make this not just better than the JCPOA, but just as good as the JCPOA," she added.

Vice President JD Vance has the bad luck of trying to sell another book at the same time that he's being put in charge of a much-maligned deal to end the war in Iran. But one strategist thinks the real intention is to cover up who the actual architect was.

CNN's Audie Cornish closed her Thursday show talking about President Donald Trump's comment during his G7 press conference, during which he said he'd blame Vance if the memorandum of understanding (MOU) fails.

Democratic strategist Meghan Hays asked if anyone truly believed that Vance was the one who negotiated the Iran deal.

Hays, the former Joe Biden White House director of messaging, asked: "Are we just trying to hide that Jared Kushner was actually the one negotiating this deal, who does not work for the United States government?"

"I mean, I just think that maybe Marco Rubio will end up better when he's trying to run for president," Hays continued. "But I don't think that Donald Trump cares who gets blamed as long as it's not him. But I don't think the American people are that stupid to [not] realize their gas prices went up because we went into a war of choice by Donald Trump."

A report from The New York Times in May said that Trump wanted to give Iran a $300 billion "bribe to back out of a war he never should have waded into," as The New Republic characterized it. The Times said that an Iranian official put the reconstruction of Iran at $300 billion.

The idea came from United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law, both of whom are real estate investors. The two had also pitched a kind of real estate investment fund that would help provide financial incentives for developers in Iran. Kushner is already being investigated by the House Judiciary Democrats for cashing in on foreign investment funds while working on behalf of the United States government.

If Democrats win in November, the Trump administration believes that investigations will promptly begin, The Hill reported.

The Jerusalem Post noted that Israeli right-wing figures are attacking Witkoff and Kushner as "losers" over the plan.

President Donald Trump had a press conference at the G7 in France, where he appeared to be rambling to such a degree that MS NOW cut from the press conference to refer to him as "incoherent."

Deadline's Ted Johnson commented on X that MS NOW's Alecia Mendez broke into Trump's speech, calling him "a rambling, incoherent president of the United States attempting to take a victory lap over his page-and-a-half Iran agreement."

One of Trump's bizarre comments included, "When you see young men walking around without legs, that's [Qasem] Soleimani."

Trump also acknowledged that they would be releasing money to Iran, which he has criticized former President Barack Obama for doing.

"The unfreezing, that's the easy one to answer. We have taken a lot of their money. And we have their money. We have taken a lot of 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 gonna have to give it back. You know that if we didn't give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again," Trump said.

Trump bragged that "drugs are down by water 97 percent. And over 60 percent we're down. And now we're going to go and focus on the land. And they come through Mexico. Mexico has lost control of their country. The cartels run Mexico. And it's sad. And the president is a very good woman, but she's a very scared woman. The drug cartels are totally running Mexico. It's not even close."

He then swatted at a fly, saying, "I wanted to get that little sucker. But I missed. I hate missing."

The rambling presser prompted a lot of comments from those observing the press conference.

Filmmaker Steven DeKnight remarked, "Trump in the G7 presser is rambling, delusional, and completely disconnected from reality. 'The word affordability is a fake word made up by the Democrats.' What a pathetic old man. If you still support this moral and ethical black hole, you deserve the pain he’s causing."

Retired soldier Robert Clark wrote, "Trump speaking about the Iran Agreement after the G7 Summit on live TV. Rambling, delusional, demented word salad. Flanking Trump, [Secretary of Commerce Howard] Lutnick and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio look very uncomfortable and are staring aimlessly away."

The News Agents, Lewis Goodall, called Trump "largely incomprehensible in a rambling set of remarks at the G7."

President Donald Trump, speaking at the G7 Summit in France, took questions about the one-and-a-half-page Iran memorandum of understanding and revealed that if nothing works out, he'll blame it on his vice president.

The final question in Tuesday's rambling press conference came from Fox News' Peter Doocy. Doocy asked the president why he isn't staying in Europe over the weekend to participate in the signing of the agreement and is sending the Vice President JD Vance instead.

"Yeah, I might, but ... this is a memorandum of understanding. It's very important, but it might not be the kind of a document that I should be signing," Trump said.

"Is there some element to this where you send the vice president, and if it works out, great, you'll look like a genius for sending him. And if it doesn't work out, it's the vice president?" Doocy asked.

"I like that idea. Sure. Why not? This way, if it works out, I'm going to take the credit. If it doesn't work out, I'm blaming JD. You better be careful. JD, he's going to turn his plane around and get the hell out of here. Yeah, I like that idea. I think it's a good idea," Trump said before ended the press conference.

On Tuesday, The Mirror reported that Trump is pondering firing some of the top Cabinet officials who oppose his deal with Iran. Those include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

"The debate has been settled. Anyone who opposed it could pay a personal price," a source told The Mirror.

One person who appears to be safe is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who serves in multiple roles for the president.

It's unclear whether Trump would be willing to fire Vance, who has opposed to the Iran war from the start. In April, The New York Times reported that Vance was the most skeptical voice on the strikes. But The Mirror reported that Vance now supports the deal.