Hey everyone, welcome back.
Our top story today: yet another White House meltdown. A CNN reporter asked the President a question, and he and his staff responded by attacking her. All because she dared to ask about a story everyone’s talking about. And now Trump’s defenders have jumped into action, because his feelings got hurt.
We’ll also get into the President’s new Attorney General opening the door for convicted felons to get their guns back, Trump quietly voting by mail again in Florida after constantly calling it corrupt, his entire Cabinet hitting the campaign trail while the crises they’re supposed to manage burn out of control, and the alarming new signs that Russia is gearing up for a much bigger fight.
Let’s get to it.
1. Trump Berates CNN Reporter In Oval Office
Over the weekend, Jon Ossoff made Natalie Harp a household name. And judging by the reaction, the White House really wishes he hadn’t. Yesterday in the Oval Office, CNN’s Kristen Holmes did what reporters do. She asked him about it. Simple as that.
What she got back was the typical Trump rant. He dodged the question, called Ossoff “Pee-wee Herman,” and rambled about his ballroom for two minutes. Then everyone else in the room moved on. But clearly Trump was still mad. Because when Holmes asked him about something else entirely, watch how the President of the United States spoke to her:
He screamed at her to be quiet. Called her a fake reporter. Is this how you act when there’s nothing to the story? No, it’s how you act when someone gets under your skin. OR you’re a five year old throwing a temper tantrum.
And it didn’t stop there. His official White House account put out a statement attacking Holmes personally, saying, quote, “Someday, your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question. They will be sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous and vindictive.” That’s an official account of the United States government going after a journalist’s children. Over a question.
Then all the President’s little minions went to work since his feelings were hurt. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung attacked Ossoff on social media, calling him names I can’t repeat on this show, before landing on the typical “radical, extremist Dumocrat” talking point.
Scott Jennings, a conservative commentator on CNN, tweeted that Ossoff’s comment was, quote, “quite a message for the Democratic Party to send to young women working in politics. Party of women? Pretty ugly stuff.” Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna called it sexist and misogynistic.
As a reminder, all Ossoff did was say the first name of the President’s aide who writes him love letters. Meanwhile the President screams at a female reporter in the Oval Office and tells her that her own children will be ashamed of her. We’ve watched this man belittle female reporters over and over again for asking tough questions. He literally called one “piggy” to her face. Scott, Kristen Holmes is your colleague. You had nothing to say?
And let’s be honest. If a Democratic president had a young aide following him around writing him letters that said “You are all that matters to me,” Fox News would be in the Oval Office screaming for an answer. And Trump? He’d be saying a lot more than her first name at every rally and, of course, he’d have some dumb nickname for her. You know it and I know it.
None of this rage is about protecting Natalie Harp. If these people cared about women, they would’ve said something yesterday, when their boss attacked a female reporter and her children. They’re furious because Ossoff said something out loud that they’ve all been tiptoeing around. So I hope Ossoff doesn’t let up. Because clearly, he’s onto something.
2. Blanche Opens Door For Felons To Rearm
On Monday, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, finalized a rule creating a new pathway for convicted felons to get their gun rights back.
Now, they say violent felons and sex offenders will stay ineligible. Everyone else gets reviewed case by case. If you trust the people making the call, maybe there are cases where this makes sense. Somebody made one mistake decades ago and turned their life around. Reasonable people can debate that.
But that’s the whole problem. This system runs entirely on the judgment of the people making the call. And these are people who look you in the eyes and tell you that January 6th rioters were peaceful protesters exercising their rights. Rioters who beat police officers with flagpoles.
And we don’t have to guess how they’ll use this power. Look at what happened last year, when the U.S. Pardon Attorney was fired. She says it happened right after she refused to recommend restoring the gun rights of the actor Mel Gibson, who had pleaded no contest to domestic battery against a former girlfriend. Her termination letter was signed by Blanche, who was Deputy Attorney General at the time. In this reality, if you don’t want to arm a domestic abuser, you get fired.
It doesn’t matter if this rule sounds reasonable, because rules are only as trustworthy as the people enforcing them. And there is not one trustworthy thing about a DOJ run by Trump’s former personal lawyer.
3. Trump Uses Mail Ballots He Calls Fraud
For years, Trump has repeatedly warned about one thing that supposedly threatens the integrity of American elections:
Mail-in ballots. Ever since he lost in 2020, that was all he could talk about: mail-in ballots, and how allegedly fraudulent they are.
So what did the President do last week? He voted by mail. For the second time this year. The very thing he says is destroying our democracy, he uses himself without a second thought.
And why did he vote by mail? Well, it’s pretty simple. He’s a Florida voter who lives and works in Washington, and mailing a ballot is easier than flying home. That’s it. That’s the same reason a soldier overseas votes by mail, or a nurse working a double shift, or a parent who can’t stand in line for three hours on a Tuesday. But Trump wants to keep that convenience for himself, and take it away from you. He trusts mail-in voting with his own ballot, so it was never about fraud. His only goal is making it harder for your voice to be heard.
4. Cabinet Skips Crises For Iowa Campaign Trail
With the President’s approval rating sinking to just 33 percent, Trump officials flooded into Iowa, of all places, to prop up shaky Republican candidates. Leading the parade was Pete Hegseth, who showed up at the Iowa State Fair to campaign for Congressman Zach Nunn:
And while Hegseth tried to sell that war on the campaign trail, our sixty-day MOU with Iran expired the same day with no agreement. No final deal. No talks even scheduled. Today the President said he won’t extend it, and told Iran to, quote, “put up the white flag of surrender.” All while our troops are still exhausted at sea and we are quite literally running out of missiles. That’s what’s on Hegseth’s plate, but he opted for a state fair instead.
For the record, this isn’t normal. There’s a reason every previous administration, Republican and Democrat, has kept the Pentagon out of campaign season. The military stays out of partisan politics. That’s the rule, so why break it now? Well, thirty-three percent is why. Hegseth knows exactly how much trouble his party is in, and his answer is to go save some seats.
And he didn’t go alone. RFK Jr. was in Iowa too, while childhood vaccine exemptions hit another record high and measles surges. So was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, while the economy is losing jobs. A whole procession of Cabinet officials, each with their own emergencies to deal with, out stumping for votes. And remember, they’re doing it in a state Trump won by thirteen points. That’s how far the map has slipped.
But there’s just one thing Republicans haven’t figured out: the approval rating is sinking because of their messes. The war, the economy, the outbreaks. Fix those, and the numbers will look better. But of course, they’d rather campaign than actually do their jobs.
5. Russia Silently Moves Missiles Towards Europe
Russia began moving warships armed with hypersonic missiles into the Baltic Sea amid threats against NATO allies. This signals a regional escalation in the war against Ukraine, with a top Kremlin security official declaring that Russia can attack any merchant ship, in their waters or neutral waters, if there is quote, “sufficient suspicion” that it’s carrying cargo in the interest of Ukraine. What does that mean?
Next, in a previously undocumented move, Russia began supplying drone components, ammunition, and TNT to Iran, as their stockpiles deplete during the war with the US and Israel. This isn’t some generous move to support an ally, and Putin is no saint. By helping Iran attack US bases and allies in the Middle East, he diverts precious US defensive resources that could have been going to support Kyiv. Trump played directly into the Bear’s hands.
And third, maybe the most telling sign of all. The Washington Post reports that Russian citizens are pulling their cash from banks, out of fear that the Kremlin will seize their savings to fund a wider regional war. While this is unlikely to even make Putin pause for a moment, it’s an indicator to the rest of the world that something big is looming.
But here’s the thing. While our allies abroad are preparing for what could escalate to a regional war in the Baltics, the American President just spent his week screaming at a reporter and sending his Cabinet to the Iowa State Fair. This is the man who is arguably the most culpable actor in the whole affair.
Putin is watching an American administration that is distracted, chaotic, and crumbling along party lines. He is doing the math right now on whether America would actually respond.
Hopefully somebody in the White House will wake up before Putin finishes his calculation.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Trump’s request to reconsider its decision not to hear his appeal of the $5 million verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case, exhausting his last legal option to challenge it. The justices, as usual, gave no explanation and noted no dissents. Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said she was “pleased that the United States Supreme Court has declined again to hear this case.” Carroll first won this verdict in 2023, when a jury found Trump sexually abused her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and later defamed her by publicly denying it. He’s already paid her more than $5.6 million with interest, and a separate $83.3 million verdict against him in Carroll’s other case is still working its way through the courts.
President Trump said Monday that Kim Jong Un has responded to his outreach for renewed talks, a day after Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea. Trump called the exchange positive but gave no details, telling a reporter who asked why Kim hadn’t responded, “How do you know he hasn’t responded?” The exercise reduction followed a Truth Social post in which Trump cited his relationship with Kim, and he’s now pressuring Seoul separately, saying it should pay more toward the cost of the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there. Trump claims South Korea once agreed to pay nearly $3 billion a year before the Biden administration reversed course, though that hasn’t been independently confirmed.
