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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."

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.”

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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.

President Donald Trump announced at the G7 Summit that he was "canceling" the confirmation hearing for his nominee for director of national intelligence, which was scheduled for Wednesday. A president can't decide whether or not a congressional hearing is held.

Punchbowl News' Andrew Desiderio reported on Wednesday morning that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is still planning to hold the DNI hearing for Jay Clayton anyway. Cotton is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The only reason he wouldn't hold the hearing is if Trump withdrew the nomination or Clayton didn't show up.

“And then from there on, we'll just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on what the White House position is on this," said Thune.

Desiderio asked Thune why he thought Trump was doing something like this and Thune said, "Good question."

His colleague, Jake Sherman, called it an "absolute mess for Trump/The Hill."

CNN showed footage of reporters chasing after Cotton to ask whether there would be a hearing on Wednesday as planned and if they intended to vote on Clayton. Trump hasn't indicated whether he will withdraw Clayton's name from nomination, but Trump made it clear he was happy to let his "acting DNI Bill Pulte" continue his work without congressional support.

Congressional correspondent Lauren Fox said that congressional officials are just as confused about what is going on as the press seems to be.

Fox asked Cotton whether he'd spoken to Clayton and if he had a comment, but Cotton said he didn't have any comment beyond the statement that the committee released. He then tried to run into the member's elevator but was stalled waiting for it.

"So, you will proceed. Just to be clear, you will proceed with the hearing. And you expect Jay Clayton to be there despite what the president is saying?" reporter Chad Pergram asked as Cotton stood waiting.

"Chad, you have our statement," Cotton said.

"It's about as clear as mud about whether this hearing is going forward," Fox said.

Democratic ranking member of the committee Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a statement on Tuesday that Trump's latest social media posts underscore the reality that "the biggest obstacle to resolving these issues has not been Senate Democrats or Senate Republicans. It has been the chaos and confusion coming from the White House."

The goal was to hold the hearing quickly with a vote on Thursday.

On his Wednesday morning show, "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough attacked President Donald Trump for bungling the Iran War.

Trump spoke to the press from the G7 Summit in France around 6:30 a.m. EST where he gave details about the tentative deal to end the war in Iran.

Bloomberg News has the 14-point agreement, though it has little in the way of details. Among the details is a $300 million "reparations" payout, as confirmed, in part, by the Wall Street Journal, Scarborough said.

"JD Vance has admitted on TV to the $300 billion — he was asked about this $300 billion fund, which really is — it's reparations for Iran. It's as if we lost the war, $300 billion in the MOU language that we have seen. The draft language says that the financing will be guaranteed by the United States of America. So we're guaranteeing $300 billion in reparation funding for Iran. And then the Wall Street Journal is also reporting the unfreezing of Iranian funds across the globe. "

Ultimately, they're scoring "a tidy $500 billion slush fund for Iran to use on their nuke programs, to use for Hamas to use for Islamic Jihad, to use for Hezbollah to use for terrorism attacks as terrorism attacks across the globe. It is it again, half $1 trillion for a regime that was about to fall before we went in and gave them new life," the host said.

Scarborough cited an editorial saying that Iran is "euphoric over what has happened."

He said that in Iran's eyes, they stepped into the ring with "The Great Satan" and "took the punch. And we're now going to help them get $500 billion. They took America's best punch, and they've come out stronger, richer, and more powerful because of it."

Trump's problem won't be with Democrats, but with his own GOP allies.

"Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist commented on some of the striking language coming from the president.

Among the odd things Trump has done is praise the new regime in Tehran, saying they've been "nice to deal with" and that they are "very rational people."

"That's the president of the United States talking about the regime in Tehran that has called for the death of the United States for 47 years," Geist said. "And, Joe, you made the point that Iran feels like it took its best punch. It also made a bet that all the bluster from President Trump was just that bluster when he said, 'A civilization is going to die tonight if they don't come to the table and get rid of the nuclear program. We're going to hit them harder than they have ever been hit.'"

"And that was the bet that this regime made, that Donald Trump was all talk. And to this point, it appears that he has been and that none of those objectives laid out on February 28th have been achieved yet," he added.

Geist called the plan "disastrous."

Scarborough took a victory lap, claiming that from the start of the war, he knew that this would be the way things would ultimately be resolved.

"And he's just going to pull the ripcord and get out of there when it becomes too uncomfortable. Politically, they became quite indignant and said, That's not a possibility. I said, well, you've got to know who you're dealing with now," he said.

President Donald Trump spoke at the G7 on Wednesday about the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that his administration developed with Iran to end the war.

Among the most perplexing things the president said was that the markets love the MOU, and if he doesn't like the final agreement, "we'll just start bombing again." He continued to refuse to hand out text of the agreement, but said that among the things in the agreement is that, for now, the Strait of Hormuz will be open "toll-free beyond the 60 days" and that Iran will "never" have a nuclear weapon.

Trump promised Americans would see prices go down because the Strait will reopen without tolls.

"Oil is at 73 or 74 and it's getting to very close to where it was before the crisis," Trump claimed. "The difference is now we have Iran without a nuclear weapon. So, we'll see how that all plays out. I think people are going to be very happy. But there's nothing so smart as the market and the market loves it beyond anything that I've actually seen."

Third, Trump claimed "stupid people" and Democrats want the war to continue. In reality, there are plenty of people on the right who are displeased with the current outcome of the war.

"The alternative would be a worldwide depression. You know, the stupid people want to have a worldwide depression. And the stupid people, so you can only go so far," Trump said.

"You could drive somebody into the ground and a lot of bad things happen. Number one, the Strait would never open because, uh, they don't like floating billion-dollar ships up and down a strait when there's rockets flying over them and mines all over the place. So the Strait would never be open. It wouldn't be open for a long time."

Fourth, Trump claimed that the "affordability crisis" was caused by Democrats. He then said Democrats "caused affordability" and then that affordability is "just another con job. They made up the word affordability."

Another bizarre comment from Trump was relitigating the 2020 election while in a bilateral meeting with the President of Egypt.

"Uh, a dam was built in Ethiopia, and it's causing tremendous problems for Egypt, and I'm very aware. I had that deal settled, and then we had a rigged election, and somebody came in, and they didn't know too much about that deal. They were not going to settle anything. But but we'll get back into it. We'll see if we can settle it. Okay," Trump said.

In 2020, Trump said that the U.S. would simply "blow up the dam." Critics at the time blamed Trump for escalating the tensions. Trump claimed that he "saved a big war" and demanded a Nobel Peace Prize, the BBC reported at the time. On Wednesday, he claimed that former President Joe Biden messed up the whole thing.

Finally, Trump repeated his debunked claim that former President Barack Obama "handed [Iran] a billion seven in cash. Gave them ... billions and billions of dollars, but he gave them $1.7 billion dollars in cash, green cash from banks, into a Boeing 757 and flew it into Iran," Trump claimed.

In fact, the U.S. simply gave Iran access to its money that had been tied up in banks as a result of the sanctions. Part of the JCPOA was allowing Iran to have access to it's own money again.

Former MS NOW analyst David Shuster said Trump’s “word salad and cognitive confusion” was undeniably on display at this week’s G7 summit in France.

Shuster had plenty of fodder to choose from at the event. While speaking with the Emir of Qatar Trump launched into a rambling geography lesson that would fail most any 7^th Grader.

“Working with Qatar and the people of Qatar was really a pleasure,” Trump told Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. “They were tough and strong. They are the closest to Iran, physically. With other countries I’ve noticed they’ve got to travel about 45 minutes to get there. But you, you can walk right across the border.”

“No. You cannot walk across the border from Qatar to Iran because they are separated by the Persian Gulf,” Shuster informed viewers of his Rebel HQ podcast. “Did Trump confuse Qatar with Kuwait or Iraq? Who knows? And who knows where Trump’s mind was as he sat around the table with G7 members for a working meeting.”

Shuster then cited the brutal tableside moment when French President Emmanuel Macron asked participants to turn and face the cameras. Trump ignored the request, seeming oblivious and spacing out despite the whole table facing forward in expectation. Shuster pointed out that Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni appeared to be fumbling with a notebook and was looking down, and it only appeared that Trump bounced back and took notice of the camera op after Meloni faced the camera and smiled.

“Only then did Trump seem to snap out of it and catch on,” said Shuster.

Shuster also referenced the long, painful moment Trump took clutching at the hand of Macron’s wife Brigitte Macron and holding it awkwardly “a full 15 seconds before releasing it,” even as the first lady made efforts to pull back.

“As everybody can see Trump has gained some weight since his last G-7 summit,” said Shuster adding identifying arrows to the president’s protuberant belly and hips. “But it’s his confusion that has taken world leaders and international leaders by storm. At the end of the G7 arrival photo op, Trump was told to exist stage left. He wandered to the right.”

“The other side,” international leaders called out to him before he wandered off.

“This way,” urged Macron.

“To be fair these large photo ops can be confusing for everybody, but Donald Trump’s physical appearance, including his weight, the heavy makeup on his hand and his befuddled facial expressions are getting noticed,” said Shuster. “And Trump’s apparent health challenges are raising more questions about his judgement, or lack of judgement.”

“Does Donald Trump really know or understand what is in the emerging Iran peace deal?” demanded Shuster. “Does Trump even remember why he took the U.S. to war with Iran to begin with?”

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Speaking with MS NOW host Katy Tur on Tuesday, a former Republican governor who used to frequently interact with President Donald Trump expressed surprise at how far Trump has deteriorated after seeing footage of a more vibrant Trump a decade ago.

“The video you showed of Trump in 2015 worked,” former Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina told Tur. He was referring to a campaign speech in which Trump denounced Washington for being full of insiders and corruption. “It worked with me. I was governor at the time of the ninth largest state in the United States. That is not the same President Trump — where, at that time, he became President-elect Trump. His voice has changed dramatically, and I think he has lost some touch with the American people.”

McCrory is not the only one to notice a change in Trump’s voice. Speaking to AlterNet in May about a letter signed by three dozen health experts to Congress, psychiatrist Dr. Henry Abraham (formerly of Tufts University) said that “there has been a frightening progression of symptoms. These include grandiosity without moral safeguards, paranoia, impulsivity, vindictiveness, easy misperception of being harmed, moments of omnipotence, uncontrolled rage, and sole control over the use of nuclear weapons in a time of war.”

He added, “As a psychiatrist reviewing these, I can only say Yikes!”

The North Carolina politician also criticized his fellow Republican for allowing big money to influence his policies. Prior to doing so, Tur had discussed how American taxpayers were always expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on his planned White House ballroom, even though he previously claimed it would be entirely funded privately. Most Americans oppose the ballroom, Tur added, and Trump has not helped his image of being in the pocket of the wealthy by holding a Great Gatsby-themed party after repealing health care subsidies and recently visiting the opulent palace at Versailles, where the French Revolution occurred.

McCrory said that in 2022 he ‘realized both parties were bought and paid for by the crypto industry. They were taking money from anyone to pay for super PACs to get on TV, to get the majority of the Senate. That's all they cared about — power, both parties. And it's escalated even more since then. We're not Versailles. I don't think the American people wanted to be Versailles. Neither did Ben Franklin. Neither did John Adams.”

When it comes to Trump’s ballroom, the story of its dishonest origins was broken on Tuesday by Washington Post reporters Sarah Blaskey and Jonathan O'Connell. They found that the estimated "total construction cost" of the ballroom is "$600 million — with more than half coming from taxpayers."

"By the time Trump made his comments in March, the federal government had already approved more than a dozen payments to the contractor overseeing the work, Clark Construction, totaling tens of millions of dollars in public funds, according to a log of the contractor's invoices obtained by The Post,” Blaskey and O’Connell wrote. “Since first announcing the East Wing project last July, Trump has repeatedly said that the price tag would not exceed $400 million and that private donations routed through a nonprofit would cover its entire cost."

They added, "At other times, he has said that the Secret Service and the military would contribute security enhancements, without elaborating on the price of those upgrades. Multiple project summaries provided to the White House by Clark Construction show that internal cost estimates have been significantly higher than administration officials have acknowledged in public comments or court filings. They also show that the work was projected to rely heavily on taxpayer dollars from the moment it was announced."

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In his final episode, "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert gave a parting gift as his own way of flipping the network the bird. Now CBS is on the hook and the cash will go to Colbert's favorite charity.

In the final edition of his popular segment "Meanwhile," Colbert mentioned recent copyright enforcement for Lee Mendelson Film Productions, which owns the song from the cartoons of Peanuts by creator Charles Schulz. They have recently gone on a kind of legal blitz over the usage of their content by Vince Guaraldi. One of those enforcement agreements concerns Guaraldi's musical reproductions of the song, including the theme from the animated film "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which features the famous theme song "Linus and Lucy."

“Peanuts is a powerful brand and corporation in and of itself," Colbert said. "Anyone illegally using that music is going to have to pay through the nose... Louis, Louis! Is the band right now playing the same Peanuts music I just said people were being sued for using without permission? Is that what you're doing? Oh no, I hope this doesn't cost CBS any money!”

Variety reported on Tuesday that CBS has made an agreement to avoid further legal trouble. According to the deal, CBS will pay for a license for “Linus and Lucy,” which the band played on air.

The proceeds from the deal will be given to Chef José Andrés' World Central Kitchen, the charity that Colbert has supported for years. In the final months of the show, he began a campaign to sell things from the "Late Show" set, including ties he wore, props from segments, and other mementos. The proceeds all went to World Central Kitchen, totalling nearly $2.5 million. Variety didn't indicate how much would be donated to the charity.

“LMFP found the music’s use on 'The Late Show' funny and entertaining, and is proud to support World Central Kitchen’s mission,” the group’s chairman Jason Mendelson said.

“A principal goal of our enforcement actions is to educate individuals, businesses, and government entities about the need to obtain written license agreements to use music in a commercial setting,” Mendelson added.

A spokeswoman for CBS confirmed the two had reached an agreement but declined to comment further.

Colbert's "Meanwhile" segment is still on YouTube and has over 1.2 million views and the song remains in the video played by Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine.

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The Tuesday crew of MS NOW’s “The Moment with Katy Tur” have heard the song before, and all were convinced President Donald Trump’s GOP are going to confirm his controversial AG nomination despite the swarm of complications that come of hiring Trump’s personal lawyer and committed lacky.

“I think it's going to be somewhat difficult to get him confirmed, although … they fold on everything when it comes to Trump,” said MS Now contributor Jake Sherman. “… listen, they all fold, right? I mean, they all fold. [Rep.] John Cornyn [R-Texas] is somebody to keep an eye on. Tillis, Lisa Murkowski [R-Alaska], Susan Collins [R-Maine] — any number of these people could vote against Todd Blanche, and he has to get through the judiciary committee, which is treacherous and will be treacherous for him.”

MS NOW anchor Katy Tur could not easily swallow Sherman’s nihilism, however.

“I know you say it doesn't matter, but I think it does matter,” insisted Tur. “I mean, he can be deputy ag for forever, but it does matter politically and it does matter for our country, Alex. It matters whether Republicans are willing to hold the very people that they nominate to the standards that they have given for them, which Thom Tillis laid out pretty clearly during that initial confirmation hearing.”

But MS NOW senior political analyst and host of the “Runaway Country” podcast host Alex Wagner warned Tur not to get her hopes up, no matter how loudly a smattering of Republicans protested Blanche’s overt dedication to Trump, despite taxpayers footing his bill.

“Every time we ask ourselves whether republicans will do the right thing, it's like lucy with the football we keep, keep going after it, Katy. And yet the football keeps disappearing,” Wagner told her.

“But we have to ask it. We can't avoid it,” protested Tur. “We have to ask.”

“Katie, my best guess would be [that] I think that John Thune is going to allow some members to vote against Todd Blanche's confirmation, just like he did on key votes, basically, swing state vulnerable Republicans, whether it's Susan Collins or others, so that they can say they didn't vote to confirm him — which is the coward's way out, knowing full well that he'll get confirmation more broadly,” said Wagner.

“But secondly, … they are genuinely afraid of Trump's wrath,” Wagner added. “Even if they're leaving office, they don't want the headache of him targeting them and their families. They don't want to deal with the internet onslaught. They want to make sure that they have some kind of career after they leave the Senate. They want to make money, and to do that, they need to stay in the good graces of the GOP. And Trump, he is the king.”

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President Donald Trump’s clinical psychologist niece explained to her comedian friend on Tuesday who ordinary Americans can defeat her uncle.

“One of the challenges has always been getting people to recognize the difference between spectacle and governance,” observed Erich McElroy for Mary Trump’s Substack “The Good In Us.” “Donald seems completely focused on creating distractions while institutions quietly deteriorate underneath him.”

The younger Trump replied that this has been the Republican politician’s strategy from Day One. He does this, she argued, to avoid being held responsible for his corruption.

“Donald creates chaos because chaos prevents accountability,” Mary Trump explained. “If everyone is reacting to the latest outrageous statement or manufactured controversy, they are not paying attention to the dismantling of institutions, the erosion of democratic norms, or the extraordinary corruption taking place in plain sight.”

She added, “That is why it is so important to remain focused. Every day there is another scandal, another outrage, another attempt to normalize behavior that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to it.” If Trump’s abuses of power begin to seem normal, she opined, “democracy becomes much easier to dismantle.”

McElroy told Trump that the situation is so exhausting, the inducing of weariness feels deliberate — and she agreed that it is indeed part of a strategy.

“People become overwhelmed,” Trump said. “They stop paying attention because it feels impossible to keep up. That is exactly what authoritarians want. They rely on people becoming exhausted, cynical, and disengaged.”

Yet she did offer a solution.

“The antidote is community, persistence, and continuing to tell the truth no matter how overwhelming the moment feels,” Trump said. “That is why independent media matters so much right now. We need places where facts still matter and where people are willing to speak honestly about what is happening instead of pretending everything is normal. Nothing about this moment is normal.”

Earlier in the same interview, Mary Trump broke down the Trumps’ overall character by analyzing a recent controversy in Albania. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump have aroused mass protests due to overwhelming opposition to an exclusive luxury resort they plan to build on an island and coast that are currently open to the public and home to endangered wildlife.

“Of course they believe they deserve a private island,” Mary Trump said. “Of course they believe they should be allowed to destroy an ecosystem if it benefits them financially. Entitlement is the defining characteristic of every member of that family.”

She concluded, “The only encouraging part of that story is that people are pushing back against it.”

McElroy then pointed out how Ivanka and Jared claim they discovered the island while walking barefoot across it, even though later reports revealed that large parts of Sazan Island have unexploded land mines.

“That certainly would make for an interesting walk,” the younger Trump joked.

Since her uncle’s rise to power, Mary Trump has been outspokenly critical of him, drawing from both her career as a clinical psychologist and her numerous firsthand experiences with the entire Trump clan (including the president himself) to explain his behavior. In her firsthand account “Too Much and Not Enough,” she described him as warped in his childhood by his mother’s debilitating illnesses, which caused her to be distant and needy, and his father’s consistently sadistic, vulgar, dishonest and domineering behavior. She described the Trump in that book as “my malignantly dysfunctional family.”

More recently, the younger Trump raised alarm that her uncle appears to be showing symptoms of the same cognitive decline that ultimately manifested in his father’s Alzheimer’s disease, which eventually took his life.

“Obviously what we're dealing with now are age-related cognitive declines,” Trump explained in February. “We're dealing with physical issues that the White House tries to cover over. But this is somebody who for decades now has had serious, undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric disorders, which are only going to worsen, especially given the pressure he's under and given the cognitive and physical declines.”

She added, “So it's great that the majority of the American people are starting to wake up to this. But I have to say, it's a long time coming.”

Mary Trump is not alone among mental health care professionals in believing Trump is experiencing decline. Speaking to AlterNet in May about a letter signed by dozens of mental health and other health care experts, psychiatrist Dr. Henry Abraham — formerly of Tufts University and one of the chief signatories of a public letter to Congress raising the alarm about Trump’s well-being — detailed Trump’s seeming debilitations.

“There has been a frightening progression of symptoms,” Abraham told AlterNet. “These include grandiosity without moral safeguards, paranoia, impulsivity, vindictiveness, easy misperception of being harmed, moments of omnipotence, uncontrolled rage, and sole control over the use of nuclear weapons in a time of war. As a psychiatrist reviewing these, I can only say Yikes!”

Retired War College professor and staff writer for The Atlantic Tom Nichols on Tuesday warned that President Donald Trump appears to start bombing when he needs to "change the news cycle."

Speaking to MS NOW on Tuesday, Brennan alleged, "There are so many elements of this that I think make [the Iran deal] a real fraught agreement."

He added that there is a large segment of the GOP that is nervous about this deal and that the U.S. might be in a worse position than before the war began.

Nichols said, "So if this brings this conflict to an end and people start talking, that's all the better. But this is an American strategic defeat. There is no question about that. The Iranians achieved their strategic goals, which was the survival of their regime, proving that they could control the Strait of Hormuz, intimidating all of their neighbors by striking them, more or less, at will, as punishment for cooperating with the United States."

CNN reported on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence found Iran can shut down the Strait of Hormuz at will from now on.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has achieved none of its goals, he said. Trump also tried to walk back his goal of "regime change."

"Trump today said, well, we weren't interested in regime change. Of course, he was," Nichols said. "That's why he launched this war. He thought this was going to be a quick, easy knockdown of the Iranian regime. So we haven't achieved regime change. The Strait is in a more perilous position than before the war."

Meanwhile, he said that the U.S. has lost control over the nuclear situation. While he had his own concerns with the JCPOA from the Obama administration, he noted that it was actually working before Trump ripped it up.

"And now Trump is saying, well, you know, the nuclear dust can sit there. Maybe it's not that important, which is his way of saying we can't get it. And I give up," Nichols said of Trump.

Another thing Nichols criticized is that the U.S. hasn't allowed Israel to see the deal and hasn't told them whether it has anything in it to do with military action in Lebanon. It's one of Iran's demands and it has been a red line for Israel. The anti-Israeli terrorist group, Hamas, operates out of Lebanon. Iran has been funding Hamas for decades.

He later recalled Vice President JD Vance saying on X that no funds would be released to Iran in exchange for signing an agreement to halt the war.

"First, the Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting," Vance wrote.

"When people say that billions of dollars of assets will be released, that's not true," Vance later said to CBS. "What is true is that Iran will have a much better and much more prosperous future if they meet the obligations they make in this agreement."

Nichols chuckled, calling Vance's attempts to walk back his initial statements as "a very careful circumlocution."

In reality, the U.S. isn't giving any money, Nichols said.

"We're just going to make it possible for them to get billions and billions of dollars from everybody else. I'm sorry, what happened to a month or two ago that this was the worst regime in the world? It was run by monsters. These were tyrants who had to be overthrown, that the Iranian people could be freed?" he asked.

Nichols said now it appears that the administration is saying, "Well, you know, these new guys, they're very rational, they're reasonable, they're nice fellows. They're nice to deal with."

"You know, I've never been in a room with Iranian negotiators, but I've never known anybody who said, you know, these are nice guys. These are easy guys to deal with," Nichols added. "This is all just a way of of Vance rationalizing Trump's burning desire to get out of this war in which we have been defeated, a war that we started, that we screwed up and that now we need to get out of."