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You may have read of President Donald Trump's mounting fury at news that he and his administration have depleted precious U.S. munitions with his entirely self-created debacle in Iran, but what if the “embarrassing” news wrecking the White House was just a subtle ploy? The American Prospect reports that voters and fiscal hawks should not ignore the possibility that the White House and the compulsive liar within are manipulating news for their own ends.

“… [M]ilitary sources spilled to Reuters that the U.S. has now wasted ‘virtually all’ of its long-range and defensive missile stockpile, launching strikes and downing Iranian drone attacks on regional bases and allies,” reports American Prospect writer Zachary Groz. “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded on social media, saying, ‘We don’t hate the Fake News media enough,’ after CNN picked up the story.”

The Pentagon held what NBC News called a “crisis meeting” about the issue, and the Washington Post followed up with a claim that Trump lit into his defense secretary over the missing missiles, even as he denied claims of a shortage as fake news.

But analysts say if you want to spot the real location of the pea hiding under the sliding cup look no further than the money.

Democratic senators recently deep-sixed a vote on the administration’s ghastly $1.15 trillion military spending request, combined with a separate $350 billion package proposed by the White House through reconciliation. They also killed rule proposals to fast-track military contract acquisitions, and potentially quadruple missile production.

But Groz said talk of a shortage could make Dems’ blockade hard to sustain, “forcing lawmakers to sign a blank check for an aggressive war they never authorized and for future campaigns they may have no say in, all to stave off an actual crisis.”

“The administration is manufacturing false urgency around the missile shortage to build political will for more defense spending, which is what the president wanted long before he started this war,” said Julia Gledhill, a research analyst for the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center. “It’s all part and parcel of a broader effort to lean increasingly on rapid acquisition pathways, which have fewer requirements around cost and pricing data, around competition, and therefore are less accountable, and hinder congressional oversight.”

In testimony to the House Oversight Committee earlier this summer, Gledhill pointed to structural problems in defense contracting that allows Trump to “run wild with discretionary spending on weapons, should it be granted 50 percent more budget to do so.”

Trump adores no-bid contract like the one that led to his disastrous Reflecting Pool. Now he wants an exception to ordinary contracting rules for the military, known as “Other Transaction Authority,” or an OTA — which are designed as a way for the federal government to bypass standard competition and cost comparison regulations.

Gledhill said the Pentagon has already multiplied its expenditure through the contracting vehicle tenfold between 2016 and 2024, up to $18 billion in 2024. Now Trump wants more … much more, and Congress is in a hard place to deny him.

“Congress may have no good moves left between dangerously depleted stockpiles and carte blanche for a war with no endgame,” Groz wrote.

President Donald Trump lost his 21st court case in his attempts to rig the midterm elections through various voter suppression methods. He has not prevailed a single time.

"A California court dealt Republicans a major defeat Thursday, rejecting their bid to soften the official description of an anti-voting measure and preserving ballot language warning that it would bar citizens from voting unless they present government-issued identification," wrote Democracy Docket's Yunior Rivas on Thursday. "The decision is a significant win for California voters seeking clear information about how the measure could prevent eligible ballots from being counted."

Rivas added, "Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jennifer K. Rockwell denied the GOP-backed petition Thursday, ruling that Attorney General Rob Bonta’s title, summary and label accurately describe Proposition 39 and fall within his legal authority to prepare ballot materials."

Republicans attempted to rationalize their measure, Proposition 39, by arguing that it would not actually stop voters from casting ballots, but instead make sure that they had complied with voter ID requirements before that ballot could be counted. Judge Rockwell begged to differ.

“Petitioners’ contention that Proposition 39 would not prohibit “voting” because it may allow the submission of ballots that will not be counted is inconsistent with the settled understanding of what it means to ‘vote,’” Rockwell explained in her decision. “Because Proposition 39 would prohibit the counting of ballots not submitted in compliance with the identification requirements, there is nothing misleading or inaccurate about the statement that the measure ‘prohibits citizens from voting unless they present government-issued identification.’”

Trump has lost all of his voter suppression attempts in court, including those cases that appeared before other Republican judges. in lieu of prevailing in court, Trump has threatened to use the Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies to meddle in elections, which are constitutionally delegated to the purview of the states.

President Donald Trump is reportedly a massive golf cheat, at least according to a prominent sportswriter discussing the sport that the president has played for more than 26 percent of the days of his second term.

"He's got a pancake swing and the yips — that's when you just can't commit to the shot, and you suddenly flinch," Rick Reilly, author of "Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump," told MS NOW Ari Melber on Thursday. "He chips like Edward Scissorhands. He's just awful, especially around the green. He hits it pretty well off the tee, but when he plays his own courses, he's got a caddy who'll toss it out of the rough or out of the bunker for him. One time I saw him hit it into the lake, and suddenly he's on the fairway. I said, 'What the hell, Donald?' And he said, 'It must have hit the tee marker.'"

Reilly added, "There's no beating him at his own course, because nobody wants to get thrown out of the club. It's kind of like when you race your three-year-old in a foot race and say, 'You won"'— because nobody wants to be the one who ruins it."

Melber then asked Reilly, "We got video from last year showing a caddy dropping a ball closer to the green. But the bigger question — what did you assess years ago that this said about the man who would go on to become president of the United States?"

Reilly replied by keeping the subject about sports, not politics.

"Look, I don't know about politics, but I do know golf," Reilly told Melber. "Golf is like bicycle shorts — it reveals a lot about a man. If he's going to cheat you at golf, is he going to cheat his friends and family? He's going to cheat the country. He's going to cheat in elections. He's going to cheat on his wives and his taxes. In fact, we've asked him, 'You can't cheat me like this,' and he said, 'Well, I cheat on my wives, I cheat on my taxes — why wouldn't I cheat on my own golf course?' That's how it works."

Reilly has previously called out Trump's controversial behavior about golf. Earlier this week, Reilly posted on X that Trump has "f---" up everything, using golf as an example.

“Reflecting pool was fine," Reilly posted on X. "Now it's fenced off. Kennedy Center was fine. Now it's closed. WH was fine. Now it looks like a 99-cent Thai joint. Boats sailed thru Hormuz. Now Iran owns it. Golf was cool. Now there's a greasy orange splotch on it.”

Reilly is not alone in raising alarms about Trump's golf-related behavior. In July, it was revealed that one of Trump's golf courses has been dinged by health inspectors for various violations.

“When a Loudoun County health official visited the Trump National Golf Club Washington D.C.’s restaurant last month, the inspector spotted some invaders,” NOTUS' Dave Levinthal reported on Monday. The issues included a “large quantity of small flies” at a storage room and possible health hazards included “several food items stored at a temperature above the required 41 degrees Fahrenheit minimum. That included the blue cheese (54 degrees), sausage links (51 degrees), sausage patties (49 degrees) and pasta (49 degrees).” Additionally, the report found improperly stored “raw steak, fish and burgers above ready-to-eat foods such as tortillas and sauces.” and that the sink’s chemical sanitizer solution exceeded regulations for maximum strength level.”

In February, NOTUS also reported that Trump has been renovating Washington DC's public golf courses in ways that are making them unaffordable to all but the most affluent golfers. Trump furthered this plan by terminating the National Links Trust's lease, citing violations they dispute.

“The National Links Trust is devastated by the Trump administration’s decision to terminate our 50-year lease with the National Park Service,” the National Links Trust declared in a statement. “Since taking over stewardship of Rock Creek, East Potomac, and Langston courses five years ago, NLT has consistently complied with all lease obligations as we work to ensure the brightest possible future for public golf in DC.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked judges who rule against him by accusing them of being traitors and threats to America. Perhaps as he anticipated, his supporters have taken his rhetoric as a call to intimidate those same judges, from falsely reporting that a judge killed his wife and threatening judges with violence to vowing to commit sexual assault against them and harassing their family members.

Now one of those judges is speaking out against the bullying.

“It's not an easy thing for any of us to come forward and talk about the personal threats,” Judge John J. McConnell Jr., the Chief Justice of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace on Thursday. “It's also not an easy thing for us to come forward as judges, because you all work on... There is an unprecedented amount of personal attacks against judges — not just me, but all across the country. It's systematic, it's growing, it's severe. There are sustained efforts.”

He added, “There are, in my opinion, results of sustained efforts by high-level members of the executive branch who have called judges rogue, insurrectionists, radicals, haters, moneyed, lunatics, corrupt, vicious. And this constant personal attack on my fellow district judges and myself and our families is the beginning of the attack on equal justice under the law, according to the rule of law.”

He continued, “My story is not unique — it's disturbing, but it's not unique. I received six or seven credible death threats. My daughter was doxxed by Laura Loomer and by Elon Musk. I have a picture of myself on a wanted poster made by a congressman. Ethics complaints were filed against me, and some of the attacks were against my wife — certainly not a public figure. And so that level of personally attacking judges by a co-equal branch of government is detrimental to our democracy as we know it.”

He later told Wallace that this is not “a partisan issue.”

“We had Democratic members of the Senate speak inappropriately about judges, using deceptive language,” McConnell told Wallace. What we're seeing right now, out of the executive branch, appears to be an attempt to delegitimize the courts, to delegitimize judges. The Deputy Attorney General — who's potentially in line to be the Attorney General — said we're at war with the courts, and called people to action. These kinds of things are not acceptable in a democratic society when we follow the law.”

McConnell is not alone among jurists warning that Trump’s rhetoric against judges is meant to undermine the judiciary. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made a similar comment in 2025.

“The attacks are not random,” Jackson said. “They seem designed to intimidate. The threats and harassment are attacks on our democracy, on our system of government. And they ultimately risk undermining our Constitution and the rule of law.”

https://youtu.be/5KoNEZF_td0

The Financial Times reports President Donald Trump’s Truth Social media platform is bleeding users as the unpopular president plays out the second year of his White House return.

Kevin McGurn, interim chief executive of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) told Financial Times that Truth Social does not disclose numbers. However, digital market intelligence company Similarweb estimates the platform had about 261,000 daily active users for its mobile app in July — down from more than 436,000 that same month last year.

“The low numbers relative to rivals such as X have led to questions about how sustainable the platform will be, especially after Trump stands down as president,” reports Financial Times. “… Part of [its] original mission has been usurped by X — popular among many rightwing commentators.

However, The New York Sun reports news publications “built on harvesting clicks from MAGA supporters are fading as President Trump begins his final act in American politics,” and their web traffic “is falling across the board."

MAGA sites’ success appears to still be inextricably connected to Trump — and they’re not doing well in Trump’s twilight months. This may include Trump’s own site.

“The trend is lending credence to the president’s prediction that the press will miss him when he’s gone, with those who advocate for his movement hardest hit,” reports the Sun, adding that an analysis by Similarweb found that a whopping 90 percent of the top right-wing sites saw drops in visits between May 2025 and May 2026.

Additionally, the Sun reports “when a team is losing, fans tune out, choosing to spend time on pursuits less aggravating than endless, post-game obituaries.”

“Putting [Trump’s] name in a headline will no longer be enough to earn a windfall of clicks,” the Sun explains, adding that The Pew Research Center reported the percentage of podcasts has doubled from 2020. This means “there are more publications than ever chasing a shrinking audience for MAGA content.”

Last month, Trump attempted to save the platform by proposing TMTG’s controversial launch of a premium version of Truth Social designed to share inside information with Wall Street firms. The service offers early access to Trump’s posts on the platform for an asking price of $100,000 per month.

But Financial Times reports several Wall Street types are claiming to be offended by the “extreme asking price for early access to potentially market-altering events, with one calling it ‘scandalous.’”

Several Wall Street execs have said they do not plan to purchase the premium version of the platform, reports the Times, but there is likely no way of confirming for sure if they plan to benefit from Truth Social’s exclusive plan benefits in secret.

Meanwhile, Financial Times reports TMTG shares "have sunk 39 per cent over the past year," linked to the price of bitcoin, which makes up the majority of a $2.5 billion investment in crypto and other assets that acts as its corporate treasury.

"TMTG reported a net loss of $712.3 million in 2025, mostly from changes in the value of digital assets given an annual revenue of just $3.7 million," the Times said.