climate

The war was not going well for Russia, and it hasn't been since Ukraine stopped holding back its strikes. Until recently, Russia’s offensive was failing, and its battlefield momentum had largely stalled. That's when President Donald Trump threw Vladimir Putin a lifeline.

New York Times columnists David French and Thomas Friedman both detailed in their columns Thursday that Trump's "deal" for a small purchase of diesel from Russia will go down in history as not only a strategic misstep but it will only add to Trump's support of Russia over the years.

“He will enter the history books in the chapter on leaders who sold out their country’s democratic values to appease a dictator," Friedman blasted in his column.

French agreed, "He is turning the American government against Ukraine, funding Russia and — perhaps worst of all — playing directly into Putin’s theory of victory.”

Trump's purchase, he continued, will put roughly $4 billion into the Russian coffers at a time that Putin desperately needs it. Meanwhile, a March CNN report alleged that Russia has been helping Iran by giving the country access to its intelligence, including where Americans are positioned in the region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a similar claim in June, saying Russia helped Iran. A further September CNN report cited two of Trump's own officials, who told them that Russian spy satellites are feeding intelligence to Iran.

But Trump has made it clear that he simply doesn't believe it, Politico reported last week.

Then Trump falsely claimed there was a "deal" and a "ceasefire."

"Consider that for a moment. Trump wasn’t announcing a deal at all. There was no deal. He made it up and then demanded that both nations do what he said," French wrote.

Ukraine complied, pausing its bombing, while Russia did not.

"I don’t think he deserves a respite," said Sergey Lavrov.

To Ukraine, French said, "the message is clear: You are at our mercy.”

It comes after Russia had a very bad summer, he noted. Their offensive was an utter failure. In all of 2026, Russia has managed to gain about 100 square kilometers, under 39 miles.

The Kyiv Post reported Thursday that Zelenskyy said, "We're done." He announced his intention to continue bombing Russian oil infrastructure, particularly after Russia began intentionally striking civilians.

Friedman said that he's never bought into the idea that Trump is some kind of Russian agent or being paid by Putin.

"It is much worse. He simply does not cherish democracy. He cherishes money. And he has no problem selling the first for the second. When he acts in his own commercial interests, that’s his personal business. When he uses the American presidency to make a buck, it is our collective shame," said Friedman.

French agreed, saying it isn't "America First"; it's "Trump First."

He fears that under Trump's second term, the U.S. is "worse than unreliable" he called it "unhinged." However, it'll cost more than just the U.S. It'll impact the world, French closed.

In his Thursday column, former Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor wrote that he thinks it's time that investigations into Trump's "collusion with Russia" be rerenewed.

President Donald Trump boasted about being a "freaking genius" at his recent Arizona rally, but told his devoted followers that only a few of them will be able to manage the standard cognitive test.

Speaking in Bullhead City, Trump, 80, went on a long rant about how he aced the cognitive test he claims is very difficult and bragged endlessly about his intellect. As he described its difficulty, he expressed doubt about the abilities of people who had come to cheer him on to pass it.

"It's a very standard test, but very tough," Trump told the crowd. "There are few people in this audience that can..."

The president, however, believed his fans could handle the much simpler opening question: identifying a lion from pictures of several animals. He called that first question "quite easy," then insisted the questions would get significantly tougher later in the exam.

The president's remarks sounded like an unexpected jab at the very audience he was addressing. It comes after his October 10 rally in Tennessee, in which he told his fans, "I could say the stupidest things, and you'd clap."

Trump argued that mental arithmetic and word recall are more than most can handle, thereby making his own performance proof of his superior intellect.

In one instance, he described being handed five words to repeat at once and then, after further questioning, some half hour later. He said the professionals running the test took notice of his recollection of the words in the order they were given.

He then concluded that his ability to put them together is proof that he is a "freaking genius."

When Mediavine, which shared the clip from the rally, asked for comment about Trump’s remarks, White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the outlet:

“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the last administration when Democrats and the legacy media intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people.”

Ingle added: “President Trump is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health.”

Trump has a history of insulting his own fans. In July 2025, he called his supporters “stupid” and “foolish” for demanding the release of the Epstein files

Some medical experts have theorized that Trump's lack of filter is a sign of dementia, and his symptoms have worsened over time.

President Donald Trump's secret White House ballroom donor list has leaked, revealing that some of the $333 million comes from companies with lucrative government business interests and a $2.5 million pledge by the daughter of a banker who Trump later pardoned.

Internal fundraising records obtained by The Washington Post identify 67 donations over $10,000 and show at least $77 million came from donors who requested to stay anonymous. The report says the money was funneled through a nonprofit into a White House account controlled by the president.

One of the more controversial names on the list is Isabela Herrera, who is the daughter of international banker Julio Herrera Velutini. Her father was indicted in 2022 for allegedly helping finance a Puerto Rican governor's campaign in exchange for getting rid of a regulator investigating his bank.

Following Trump's 2024 presidential campaign victory, the Post’s expose revealed that Isabela Herrera gave $3.5 million to a Trump-aligned political committee. In September 2025, she also pledged $2.5 million to the ballroom fund and paid the first installment of $835,000 the following month.

Shortly after the donation, in August 2025, prosecutors had reduced her father's bribery case charges to a misdemeanor through a plea deal. Trump then pardoned him in January 2026, four months after his daughter's ballroom donor pledge.

The reporting does not establish a specific link to the ballroom donation influencing the pardon.

Apple and Nvidia each committed $25 million, as did billionaire Charles Ergen and the Adelson family. Nvidia sought anonymity for its contribution, even though it publicly supported the project.

Ergen put up his $25 million once federal regulators had closed an inquiry into his firm, the telecommunications company EchoStar. In the case of Rocket Companies, a subsidiary put forward a $10 million pledge some weeks after one of its big acquisitions was given the nod by a federal agency, per the documents. Rocket has said there is no link between the gift and the government’s sanction.

The Post found that about half of the funds raised come from companies or executives tied to federal contracts during Trump's second term.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle defended the donors and said the administration would hunt down the leakers. He described allegations of conflicts of interest as baseless and added that the contributors are “a wide array of great American companies and generous individuals.”

Despite Trump’s claim that he will also help fund the project, his name did not appear on the list.

The $333 million in pledges is far below his initial target of $400 million. Furthermore, the cost of building the larger East Wing project has soared to $600 million.

Spy magazine has returned for at least October, reprinting some of its early Substack issues that feature now-President Donald Trump. That latest example talks about the "body double" that Trump wanted the magazine to use.

The satirical monthly magazine shuttered in 1998

One conversation creators Graydon Carter and Kurt Anderson recalled was Trump's tiny hands.

"Graydon said, ‘This guy, Donald Trump,’ — whom we’d barely heard of — ‘for a tall guy, he has the shortest fingers I’ve ever seen,’” Anderson recalled when speaking to the New York Times earlier this month about the reprinting.

That factoid could explain the post on Thursday from Spy featuring the April 1988 cover about “heck of a guy” Donald Trump. It was Trump's first appearance on the cover of Spy the Substack explained. Trump was on the "Nice" issue of the satirical magazine.

"His body double was a Spy co-founder, which explains the normal-length fingers," the Substack recalled.

"The same issue’s Party Poop feature captured Trump at a society dinner where he seemed to be practicing the alert pose that he has more recently made famous at the World Cup, Lindsey Graham’s funeral and innumerable cabinet meetings," the Substack continued, recalling the photos.

A slumped Trump, then 41, was in a tuxedo with pants hiked up over his stomach. He held a cloth napkin in his left hand like a hot dog and appeared to reach for something in his right pocket.

The caption reads, "Donald Trump demonstrates the fine posture and sparkling joie de vivre of the high-class, swanky real estate mogul he is."

The magazine became known for skewering the New York elites and was the one behind the mockery of Trump as a "short-fingered vulgarian."

Carter is the reporter who, for years, received photos of Trump with his hands circled with a gold Sharpie. Trump evidently felt that his hands looked normally sized in the photos. It has become a running joke about Trump through the years, long before bruises began appearing on top of his hands and he started using makeup to cover it up.

In 2016, then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) mocked Trump's "small hands" during a GOP debate. It triggered Trump to such a degree he began talking about the size of his manhood from the debate stage. From then on, Trump called him "Little Marco" and repeatedly showed off his hand size.

Using a handprint in concrete of Trump, The Hollywood Reporter made a template that allows folks print a life-size outline of Trump's hands to compare with their own.

President Donald Trump’s effort to rescue white South Africans from an imaginary genocide has a problem: they don't seem particularly eager to flee it, even with a straight ticket to America up for grabs.

In what appears to be a desperate attempt, State Department officials are considering spending about $335,000 to advertise the program and find out why they aren't interested, according to an internal proposal obtained by The Guardian.

The report reveals that applications from Afrikaners have “trended lower than expected” since the administration made it easy with an online registration launched in November 2025. Officials acknowledge they have no idea what is keeping them away from flying over.

“There’s currently little research about why Afrikaners are not applying to request referral into the US Refugee Admissions Program,” the proposal reads.

The research and advertising campaign is set to come in three stages. The first phase is to organize focus groups in several South African communities, including Pretoria, Stellenbosch and Orania, which garnered headlines as the nation’s ‘White Only’ community.

A survey of 1,000 Afrikaners would follow, testing what messages could persuade them to migrate. The final phase would be a six-month online campaign, primarily in Afrikaans, aimed at convincing people to immigrate.

The campaign plan is still just a proposal and has not been approved.

With an executive order in February 2025, Trump put the resettlement of Afrikaners at the top of his agenda. He did so on the grounds that white South Africans are being subjected to unfair property seizures and race discrimination.

The administration has been vocal in its promotion of “white genocide” talk as well, even though such claims have been roundly discredited by experts and denied outright by the government in South Africa.

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola used Trump’s favorite term when describing the genocide allegations.

“The story of white genocide does not exist, it’s fake news,” Lamola said during a discussion in New York, adding that there is no evidence to back the White House claims.

Trump drastically cut Biden’s refugee admission cap from 125,000 to 7,500. He eventually increased it to 17,000 with Afrikaners in mind.

According to figures cited by The Guardian, the United States admitted 16,292 refugees in the fiscal year ending September 30, with nearly all being South African. That total, however, has not eased officials’ disappointment with how many are seeking to enter the program.

A State Department spokesperson defended the administration’s approach in a statement:
“We continue to process and admit as refugees Afrikaners in South Africa who are escaping the threat of government-sponsored race-based discrimination”.

“President Trump has been very clear that we are prioritizing the resettlement of Afrikaners in South Africa who are escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination.”

Trump has had a difficult relationship with South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa. Last year, when visiting the White House, Trump presented Ramaphosa with "evidence" of the mass killing of white South Africans, with pictures of burial sites, which were, in fact, showing humanitarian workers lifting body bags in Goma, Congo.

President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement have entered what one former Republican official has described as their "fat Elvis" era, as his campaign tactics and recycled attacks are wearing thin with some Republican voters who feel the president is past his prime.

Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, delivered her verdict in a Thursday interview with The Guardian, arguing that the conspiracy theories and cheap attacks and high school nicknames have run their course and are no longer resonating with voters facing the reality of high living costs

Setmayer said Trump's political playbook has become predictable, describing his movement as the "fat Elvis period of the MAGA election campaign tactics."

The comparison suggests the movement is continuing its most successful hits long after those tactics have stopped working.

The article also touches on the embarrassing misinformation campaign targeting Democrat James Talarico, who is too close to comfort to potentially win the Senate seat in Texas for the GOP.

The controversy began when Talarico disappeared from the campaign trail for nine days to recover from the flu. His absence turned into a weird conspiracy theory that he had checked into a mental health facility after suffering a mental breakdown.

Many MAGA allies, including former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, helped amplify the rumors when former GOP fundraiser Caroline Wren appeared on his War Room podcast and repeated claims that Talarico had entered a psychiatric facility.

Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who is Talarico’s opponent, also joined the attacks, posting a mock wanted poster questioning Talarico's whereabouts.

Trump himself mocked Talarico during an October 7 rally in San Antonio, baselessly suggesting the Democrat had become sick after being forced to eat meat despite supposedly being vegan.

Conservative social media influencer Nick Sorter shared a 47-second audio clip on X that he said proved that Talarico had been discharged from a mental health treatment center in Mason, Ohio. In the clip, a woman Sorter claimed was an employee appeared to say Talarico “was just discharged this evening.”

The Bulwark later exposed the hoax after obtaining the full recording, which contradicted the influencer's account.

The facility also publicly confirmed that Talarico had never received treatment there, and he confirmed that he had never even been to Ohio before.

Setmayer used the Talarico hit job as an example of the conspiracy tactics that no longer move voters.

"The voters have become hip to this game," she said, adding that everyday Americans are preoccupied with dealing with the consequences of Trump’s failed policies.

Reed Galen, a former Republican strategist and cofounder of the Lincoln Project, said of the Talarico fiasco that the case was a reminder of how effective the Russian disinformation machines could be.

Galen argued that the mere fact that it was amplified without any evidence and became an issue in the Texas Senate campaign proved its effectiveness.

One time, Donald Trump friend Donny Deutsch thinks the president wants to lose the election so he can play the victim.

Speaking on "Morning Joe" Thursday, Deutsch said Trump is always happier when he punches back.

Mika Brzezinski rattled off recent numbers from a Fox poll, which has a different standard than the news side. Things continue to collapse around Trump. The most startling number shows that just 18 percent say that their family is "better off" today than two years ago.

"That's the worst number I've ever seen. Ever. The worst number," Joe Scarborough said.

"Eighteen percent, Joe, you were talking about the two seats before. You were talking about corruption and costs. I'll add chaos into that. I can never remember seeing numbers — I've been doing the show for 19 years. I can never remember seeing an election cycle where everything, everything was lining up just so negatively," said Deutsch. "Like, you just, everybody talked about a blue wave. I can't see how it's not a tsunami. I can't see with three weeks away, obviously nothing's going to change dramatically in the next few weeks. And you just go everything you talk about, even Trump people I talk to, they've had it."

Commentator Mike Barnicle said one of the most difficult things about the year is that as soon as a lawmaker is elected, they have to start raising money for reelection immediately. It means the focus has shifted from serving constituents and legislating to reelection.

Semafor reporter Ben Smith said he found that most new members of Congress are more interested in being content creators than in doing the work of the people.

Deutsch cited a recent comment from former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who thinks Trump wants to lose the election.

"I think on some level, [Trump] wants the Dems to win so he can be the victim, so he can play that guy. He can say, look, I wasn't on the ballot. That's why you lost and be the guy who's counterpunching [and] counterpunching. He's comfortable in that position. I just don't think he cares."

Scarborough agreed, noting that Trump is "much better being the politically hunted than being the hunter. He's much better. He likes it. Playing defense. Doing the rope-a-dope."

Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville said last week that he agrees with the assessment that Trump may very well be trying to lose.

Speaking to The Hill, Carville said, “I mean, there’s nothing that he does that’s consistent with trying to win, and [there’s] probably not much he can do. He is the central issue in the campaign, he dominates everything. But I got to keep asking: Is he trying to do this? Does he just want to screw the congressional Republicans? Does he hate them?”

- YouTube youtu.be