White House notches 5 major 'flops' in no-good-very-bad week

U.S. President Donald Trump rests his eyes during a healthcare affordability event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

President Donald Trump has had a rough week with one failure after another.

First, a report revealed that his genius "gold card" plan, which would give easy access to U.S. citizenship for $1 million, has failed spectacularly. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said last year that once it went live, they had already received $1.3 billion in commitments. The Department of Commerce reiterated the figure in a press release after the first of the year.

"Now, how much have we sold in three days?" Trump asked Lutnick in December in a video shared by Scripps News.

"One billion, three hundred million dollars worth in a matter of a couple of days," Lutnick said.

"That's essentially it's the green card on steroids," Trump said, before falsely stating the previous administration allowed 25 million people into the U.S.

As it turns out, that was more like $1 million. Lutnick spoke to a congressional committee on Thursday, where he testified that only one person has been approved for the program. But Lutnick said that it was due to the program only now getting off the ground.

“They’ve just set it up, and they wanted to make sure they did it perfectly,” he said.

Second, Trump lost his battle with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who refused to confirm the president's nominee to the Federal Reserve while the Justice Department was investigating outgoing chairman Jerome Powell. Trump caved on Friday, with a statement by Jeanine Pirro. She could bring the charges back, one legal expert said, but for now, it's another Trump loss.

Third, in the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court, Trump failed in his ongoing efforts to stop asylum applications from millions of refugees who have sought a safer life in the U.S., according to Politico's legal analyst Kyle Cheney. The judge rejected Trump's attempts to block the applications. Trump's administration will likely appeal.

Meanwhile, his fourth failure came as Iran continued to refuse to negotiate with the administration, leading Trump to lose it and order "shoot to kill" for anyone going through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's embassies all over the world have been blowing up X with videos trolling Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Trump set a deadline for Wednesday, saying that there would be no extensions of the ceasefire. Then he backed down, drawing further mockery. He hasn't set a new deadline.

When reporters probed Trump about it, he snapped, “Don’t rush me.”

By Friday, CNN reported, the Trump administration said it was sending Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff back to Pakistan to negotiate. Iran made it clear that it wasn't sending any of its top officials, so the administration said it wouldn't send Vice President JD Vance. Kushner and Witkoff have failed every time they've attempted to negotiate with Iran.

All week, Trump has been mocked for offering a deal that looks remarkably like the one President Barack Obama negotiated, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday. In that case, the U.S. unlocked sanctions, giving Iran access to $2 billion of its own money parked in international financial institutions. Trump's plan was to give them $20 billion, Axios said on Tuesday.

Fifth, Trump had another incident where he fell asleep again with the cameras on. Thursday afternoon, Trump was speaking and bragging that he'd solved healthcare amid a new deal with the pharmaceutical company Regeneron. Then Trump dozed off. It makes at least 14 times the president has crashed in public, Indy 100 cataloged last month, before the most recent incident. Once was during a press conference about his Memphis Task Force, and days later was during a Cabinet.

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