Jim Babbitt
@jb2755
Retired and very happily married for 50 years
Although DJT continues to make his false and continually disproved claims about election fraud, as Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican gadfly, noted last week, squawking about election fraud is an odd choice when your party controls the White House, House, and Senate.
DJT’s boasts about America’s reputation are part of the case he is building for rejecting the results of the midterm elections. He isn’t just insisting that everything is rigged against him. He’s also insisting that since he’s doing such an great job, nobody should place any limits on his power.
Last week, Canadian wildfires led to the upper Midwest recording the worst air quality in North America. Experts affirm that climate change is fueling more severe wildfires worldwide. If lawmakers are serious about wildfire prevention, they might consider measures to limit the use of fossil fuels.
A new WaPo/Ipsos poll shows DJT has lost many Republicans. Only 37% of those polled approve of his job performance, while 61% disapprove. The percentage who “strongly” approve of Trump has dropped to a new low of 15%. Only 26% of Independents approve of his job performance, while 71% disapprove.
Last Monday, US District Court Judge Kathleen Williams asked if Todd Blanche is fit to even practice law. She found the slush fund/immunity deal he signed with DJT, his family, the Trump Organization and their associates was created to give cover to a deal they didn’t want reviewed by a judge.
Paul Krugman: Massive political spending has given billionaires massive political power. True, some of what DJT’s administration does reflects DJT’s personal whims, obsessions and vanity, but a large part of federal policy now is government of billionaires, by the billionaires, for the billionaires.
Last week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that between the passage of the OBBBA in July 2025 and March 2026, more than 4 million people lost access to SNAP. At least 1/4 of those are children. Those losses will mount in 2027, when states have to assume much more of the costs.
Poll watch: Only about 1 in 4 (27%) Americans express a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in 14 core countrywide institutions, one point above the record-low average in 2023, according to a Gallup survey of 1,001 adults. Gallup has rated 14 institutions annually since 1993.
You know conspiracy theories have gotten out of hand when even DJT thinks so. Last week reporters asked him about Kash Patel’s statement that his agents were assisting in an investigation into Lindsey Graham’s death. DJT said the matter was simple: Graham had fallen victim to a heart problem.
Poll watch: Nearly four in five Americans (79%) expect the U.S. war with Iran to “go on for an extended period of time,” up from 65% in late March, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey. Only 18% think the war will “end pretty quickly in a matter of weeks.”
DJT’s comments lately have gestured at the desire for a strong, continued US presence in the Strait of Hormuz, a huge shift on the part of someone who spent years decrying the country’s role as “the policemen of the world.” He may soon realize policing the strait doesn’t always mean controlling it.
Borowitz Report: In a brutal defeat for DJT, Mitch McConnell handily trounced him on a cognitive test administered to both men last week. According to an attending neurologist, when asked the test questions, Senator McConnell was totally unresponsive, as opposed to DJT who got every one wrong.”
Paul Krugman: The overarching moral of the Iran mess is the folly and criminality of a war that has left America and the world in a much worse place than they would’ve been if DJT had just left things alone or, better yet, had preserved the pretty good 2015 deal Iran and Barack Obama had agreed to.
US District Judge Kathleen Williams earlier this week accused DJT of attempting to “manipulate the judicial process” when he sued the IRS for $10 billion over his leaked tax returns. She also suggested that DJT’s legal team in the case, including Acting AG Todd Blanche, should be sanctioned.
The WaPo reported that DJT’s sons “have amassed a portfolio of defense technology start-ups that are benefiting from new Pentagon priorities and spending.” These defense companies have received $3.2 billion in business directly from the government, along with $3.1B in options for future contracts.
More than 1/3 (34%) of Americans consider DJT the worst person in US history, per a YouGov survey of 2,228 adults. This includes 64% of Democrats, 34% of independents and 4% of Republicans. Conversely, 24% of Republicans think he’s the best, choosing him over runner-up George Washington. Seriously?
Despite repeated assertions by DJT that the US “holds all the cards” in the Iran war, the NYT reported this week that the MOU he signed on June 17, 2026, formalized Iran’s power over the Strait of Hormuz. Former US analysts and officials told the reporters that the agreement was dangerously vague.
During his time as acting attorney general, Todd Blanche has demonstrated blind loyalty to DJT: If DJT tells him to do something, he does it. The past few months have shown why that’s a dangerous disposition for an attorney general and especially perilous to free speech and a free press.
It’s Friday morning, which means it’s time for my billboard/sign of the week …
Last Saturday, the DOJ subpoenaed reporters from the NY Times over a story they published regarding security concerns the Secret Service had about the new Air Force One Boeing 747-8 given to the US by Qatar. Issuing subpoenas to journalists, who are protected by the 1st Amendment, is a red flag.
Jonathan V. Last in The Bulwark - “The Roberts court (SCOTUS) seems to have the idea that it will hand Trump tactical defeats so it can give him strategic victories … John Roberts is clever enough to realize the best way to do this is to create confusion by throwing in the occasional defeat …
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I would be the greatest communist in history. I’d be right up there with Lenin. I’d be as good as anybody.” DJT in a press conference at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, responding to questions about the dangers of global communism.
Poll watch: 43% of Americans living in rural areas believe a cancer diagnosis means inevitable death, compared to 35% of people in urban or suburban areas, according to a survey of 7,150 adults by the Prevent Cancer Foundation. This is likely due to skepticism of both cancer medicine and prevention.
Paul Krugman: Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, climate change is going to impose large economic costs, some of which are already baked in. But DJT’s administration’s rejection of both science and basic energy economics will make the damage to America much worse than it should have been.
If DJT ever had any control over the war he started with Iran, he’s lost it. The Iranians are now setting the terms of this conflict and are routinely humiliating the American president. The “cease-fire” Trump declared last month, never really existed, because neither side ever ceased firing.
In a poll released last week, Politico found that six in 10 Americans feel “like politics are everywhere these days where it does not make sense for things to be political.” SCOTUS’s recent Slaughter decision all but guarantees that the problem will get worse soon.
Paul Krugman: Soon after he arrived in Ankara for the NATO Summit, DJT reiterated his demand that Denmark hand him control of Greenland. But reactions were subdued. As far as I can tell, our allies are now treating DJT as the senile uncle who says outrageous things, but shouldn’t be taken seriously.
The conservative movement “turned Roe into its jurisprudential white whale,” said Balls and Strikes. The difference across 50 years that led to killing it was conservatives “at last marshaled the five votes they needed to do it.” The crusade against birthright citizenship is “just getting started.”