#truth-social
27 entries with this tag
The President Ran a Truth Social "Poll" to Rename "Artificial Intelligence" — Which He Called "Inaccurate, and Very Ineloquent" — Proposing the Grander-Sounding "Superior," "Supreme," or "Extreme" Intelligence, in a Post So Muddled It Argued AI Was Inaccurate "Relative to AI" and Offered Two Options Abbreviated the Same Way; the Same Day, He Announced He's Forming an "AI Force"
On September 19, 2026, Trump used Truth Social to run a "poll" asking his followers to help him rename artificial intelligence, which he declared "inaccurate, and very ineloquent." His proposed replacements: "Superior Intelligence (SI) or, Extreme Intelligence (EI) or, Supreme Intelligence (SI)." The post is a small monument to muddle. It argues that "Artificial Intelligence" is an inaccurate description "relative to AI, or Artificial Intelligence" — a sentence that compares the term to itself — and it offers three choices, two of which ("Superior" and "Supreme") carry the identical abbreviation, SI. More than 27,000 people voted. The same day, Trump announced in a second post that he is forming an "AI Force" and will name an AI czar. The episode fits a now-familiar pattern of renaming things he has no power to rename — the Gulf of America, "Lake America," New Mexico as "New America" — but this one adds a particular tell. His stated goal was a "more accurate" name, yet "artificial" is precisely the accurate word: the intelligence in question is machine-made, not natural. His alternatives — Superior, Supreme, Extreme — are not more accurate; they are grander, swapping a plain descriptor for superlatives. A president who is simultaneously standing up an "AI Force" and naming a czar to govern the technology cannot, in the same breath, articulate why it is called what it is called.
The President Posted a Meme of Himself Trading Stocks From Behind the Resolute Desk and Profiting Off Intel — a Company He Personally Bought Shares In and His Own Government Has Propped Up — Captioned "I Do This for Our Country, Not Myself," a Claim That Is False on Its Face Because the Money Is His: He Made $2.2 Billion in 2025 and Ran About 3,600 Stock Trades Worth Over $100 Million in a Single Quarter
In September 2026, Trump posted a meme on Truth Social depicting himself at the Resolute Desk, studying trading screens across four monitors and profiting from a rise in Intel's share price, over the caption: "I do this for our Country, not myself." In an accompanying post he wrote: "I've made Hundreds of Billions of Dollars on Stocks, and many other type Holdings, for the U.S.A., not myself, and all I do is get criticized by the Radical Left Dumocrats." The boast is self-refuting in two ways. First, personal stock profits are, by definition, personal — they accrue to Trump, not to the country, so "for the Country, not myself" describes the opposite of what stock trading does. Second, the choice of Intel is self-incriminating: Office of Government Ethics filings show Trump personally bought Intel shares earlier in 2026 (between $50,000 and $100,000 on February 3, and more on March 11, 13, 17, and 23), even though the U.S. government itself acquired a 10% stake in Intel in August 2025 — the textbook conflict of interest that presidents have historically avoided by placing assets in a blind trust, which Trump has not done. The scale is staggering: about 3,600 stock trades in the first quarter of 2026 alone, worth more than $100 million, and a 2025 financial disclosure showing $2.2 billion in income. His "hundreds of billions" is itself an exaggeration of even that enormous figure. The president is not hiding the profiteering; he is turning it into a meme and daring anyone to object.
Amplifying a Satirical Hoax That Claimed He Had Signed Such an Order, Trump Spent Labor Day Posting Seven Times in an Hour to Rename the State of New Mexico "New America" — Crossing "Mexico" Off the Map of a Majority-Hispanic State Whose Name Predates the United States, Smearing It as "One of the Great Vote Cheating States of All Time," and Proposing Something No President Has Any Power to Do
Over the September 6-7, 2026 Labor Day weekend, Trump repeatedly posted that the state of New Mexico should be renamed "New America." He shared a map with "Mexico" crossed out in red and "America" written beneath it (reshared by the White House), an AI-generated video of himself slapping "America" over a "Welcome to New Mexico" road sign, and wrote: "Many people suggested changing the name of New Mexico, one of the great vote cheating states of all time, to NEW AMERICA." He posted about it seven times in a single hour. The spree was triggered by a satirical account's fake claim that he had signed an executive order to that effect — a hoax Snopes debunked — which Trump then adopted as his own. Two things are worth stating plainly. First, a president has no power to rename a state; that requires the state and Congress, so this is pure posting, not policy. Second, "New Mexico" is not named for the country of Mexico — the name predates the United States itself, and the state is majority-Hispanic — so crossing out "Mexico" and stamping "America" over it is a nativist gesture aimed at one of the most Hispanic states in the country, bundled with an evidence-free smear that it is a haven of "vote cheating." Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham responded that the name "isn't up for debate — it's been ours since before the United States existed," and that the stunt was an attempt to "distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran" while "the price of gas — and everything else — keeps rising."
Reacting to a Strong Jobs Report by Demanding the Opposite of What It Called For, Trump Threatened to Halt U.S. Trade With Every Country It Runs a Deficit Against — Most of Its Major Partners — Unless the Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates: an Act of Economic Hostage-Taking Economists Likened to the Protectionism That Deepened the Great Depression, and That One Analyst Said Could Make the Depression "Look Like a Walk in the Park"
On September 4, 2026 — hours after a stronger-than-expected jobs report showed employers added about 162,000 jobs in August, nearly triple what economists forecast, with unemployment holding at 4.1% — Trump posted an ultimatum on Truth Social: "LOWER THE RATE OR I'LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT." He was threatening to halt U.S. trade with every nation the country runs a goods deficit against — which is most of its major trading partners, from China to the European Union to Mexico — unless the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, and he doubled down when challenged. The threat is reckless on every axis. It reacts to good economic news by demanding an emergency measure (rate cuts) that a strong economy does not call for. It attempts to extort an independent central bank into serving the president's political timetable — the same assault on Fed independence documented elsewhere in this archive. And the act itself, a broad trade cutoff, is what economists have spent a century warning against: more than 1,100 of them, including Nobel laureates, have signed a letter against his tariff approach that quotes directly from the 1930 warning against the Smoot-Hawley protectionism that helped turn a downturn into the Great Depression, while banks like Scotiabank model his measures pushing trade costs to "Great Depression levels." As one analyst put it, a full halt could make the Great Depression "look like a walk in the park." Whether Trump carries it out or not, a president threatening to detonate the global trading system to bully the Fed is the kind of statement that moves markets and reveals a method.
Six Months Into the Iran War He Sold as a Weeks-Long "Little Excursion," Trump Declared Victory by Posting an AI Meme of Himself Reading "Mission Accomplished 2026" — Reviving the Most Notorious Premature Victory Boast in Modern American History, the One Bush Staged Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln — the Very Carrier Now Stranded at Sea Past 260 Days Because This War Won't End; and Around the Same Time, He Approved Sending More Troops
Six months into a war he had promised would be a weeks-long "little excursion," Trump declared he had won it — by posting an AI-generated meme of himself standing between George W. Bush and Iran's slain supreme leader, with one placard reading "Mission Not Accomplished 2001–2021" and another "Mission Accomplished 2026." The imagery deliberately invokes the single most infamous premature victory declaration in modern American history: Bush's 2003 "Mission Accomplished" banner, staged aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, after which the Iraq war ground on for eight more years. Trump apparently intended the comparison to flatter himself; it does the opposite. The war with Iran is not over. There is no final agreement. The Strait of Hormuz is not reliably reopened. His own defense secretary's "decisive military victory" and his serial victory claims — 58 ships sunk in March, a "deal" in June — have all been overtaken by a conflict that keeps going. And in the clearest tell of all, at roughly the same moment he declared the war won, Trump approved the deployment of more troops to the Middle East. You do not reinforce a war you have finished. The victory lap and the reinforcements cannot both be true, and the reinforcements are the ones with soldiers attached. There is even a grim symmetry Trump seems not to have noticed: the carrier that hosted Bush's false victory in 2003, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is the same ship this archive has documented stranded at sea past 260 days, its sailors rationed to corn dogs, because Trump's war has no end.
"This Is Imperialism": Eight Months After U.S. Special Forces Seized Venezuela's President in a Raid on Caracas, Trump Announced the United States Had Taken "Majority Control" of More Than 65 Billion Barrels of Venezuela's Oil — a Stake Second Only to Saudi Aramco — Struck With the Government That Replaced the Leader America Captured, to Paper Over the Record Gas Prices His Own Iran War Created
On August 28, 2026, Trump announced on Truth Social that the United States had secured "majority control" of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's proven oil reserves — through a new company, structured with private business, in which the U.S. would hold a 55% stake and the right to buy oil at cost, making it the second-largest corporate holder of proven reserves in the world after Saudi Aramco. He offered few details. The context is what gives the announcement its weight: in January 2026, U.S. special forces raided Caracas and seized Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, spiriting him to the United States to face narcoterrorism charges. The oil deal was then negotiated with the government that took his place, led by acting president Delcy Rodríguez. So the sequence is: the United States removed a foreign head of state by military force, and then took majority control of his country's oil from the government installed in his wake — to lower American gas prices driven to record highs by Trump's own war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz standoff. Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, named it in three words on MS NOW: "This is imperialism." Other analysts called it "colonial" and urged Congress to stop it, while critics called it "yet another Trump grift." A superpower seizing a weaker nation's oil after decapitating its government is the oldest story in the imperial book, and the United States just told it out loud.
Trump's Most Loyal Aide — Natalie Harp, the "Human Printer" Who Sits Just Outside the Oval Office and Handles His Truth Social Account — Worked More Than a Year Inside the White House With No Security Clearance, Repeatedly Refusing the Standard Vetting Every West Wing Staffer Undergoes, Until Trump Personally Intervened to Get Her One; a Former CIA Official Called It "Mind-Boggling"
Natalie Harp — one of Donald Trump's closest and most devoted aides, known as his "human printer" for the stream of flattering news clippings and poll numbers she hands him, who sits just outside the Oval Office and has access to his Truth Social account — worked inside the White House for more than a year without a security clearance, according to reporting broken by MS NOW on August 19, 2026. The clearance is a routine step every West Wing staffer completes; Harp repeatedly declined to fill out the paperwork after Trump returned to office in January 2025, and her reason for refusing was never made clear. The problem is her access: national security officials noted that her physical proximity to Trump — in both the West Wing and the residence — gives her exposure to more sensitive information than almost any other senior official, and she had it for a year while un-vetted. Concern grew inside the White House counsel's office and among security officials until Trump himself intervened, after which Harp finally submitted the forms, underwent a federal background investigation, and received the clearance in recent months. A former CIA official called the situation "mind-boggling." Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded that Harp "has a security clearance like everyone else" and called her a dedicated team member. The episode fits a documented pattern of the administration treating the national-security vetting system — the safeguard that exists to keep the un-vetted away from classified information — as optional for loyalists: FBI Director Kash Patel similarly granted deputy Dan Bongino a waiver around a key clearance while giving him access to the President's Daily Brief.
They Did It Anyway: Trump Media Launched the Truth API Exactly on Schedule on August 1 — Selling $100,000-a-Month Early Access to the President's Market-Moving Posts — Days After Senators Referred It to the SEC as Illegal Insider Trading and a Former SEC Official Called It "Misappropriated Information"
When Trump Media unveiled the Truth API — a paid feed selling banks and high-frequency traders a millisecond head start on the president's market-moving Truth Social posts for up to $100,000 a month — the objections were immediate and bipartisan in their substance. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff wrote to the SEC on July 29 calling it "an outrageous abuse of the President's office for his personal benefit that undermines everyday investors and the integrity of our markets." Rep. Ritchie Torres pressed the SEC on what he labeled the "insider trading API." Renée Jones, a former top SEC official, told NPR the arrangement appears to run afoul of insider-trading law: "If the president's Truth Social posts are being monetized, and if some people get special access to them, that's misappropriated information." None of it mattered. On August 1, 2026 — on schedule, without modification — the Truth API went live. Institutional clients now receive the president's posts before the public, and the president's company collects the fees. The launch is its own, separate scandal from the plan to launch: it is the moment the administration was told, in writing, by U.S. senators and former regulators, that a product might be criminal insider trading and monetized state power — and shipped it anyway, betting that an SEC run by Trump's own appointees will never investigate the president's own company. The going-live, over the objection, is the point.
Trump Is Bombing Iran to Stop It From Enriching Uranium — and in the Same Week Signed a Deal Giving Saudi Arabia a Path to Enrich Uranium, Reversing Decades of U.S. Nonproliferation Policy, Handing the Technology to the Crown Prince Who Ordered Khashoggi's Murder, and Then Denying on Truth Social That His Own Signed Deal Allows Any Enrichment at All
On July 22, 2026 — as U.S. forces waged the deadliest stretch of a war against Iran that Trump justifies as preventing Tehran from enriching uranium — the administration signed a landmark civil-nuclear "123 agreement" with Saudi Arabia that opens a path for the kingdom to enrich uranium itself. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed the 30-year deal, under which U.S. companies would help build the Saudi program, including a potential uranium-enrichment facility pending a joint feasibility study. It reverses the longstanding U.S. "gold standard" that required partner nations to forgo enrichment and reprocessing — the exact capability Trump is dropping bombs on Iran to deny it. Critics called the double standard staggering: Sen. Ed Markey said the administration is "allowing Saudi Arabia, a belligerent and authoritarian nation, to develop nuclear weapons technologies while starting a war with Iran under the guise of preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb." Former Sen. Claire McCaskill, reacting on MSNBC, put it plainly: "It's nuts!" Then Trump contradicted his own government: after officials and the agreement text referenced enrichment, he posted on Truth Social, "There will be no enrichment of material!" He also said the deal hinges on Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel. The recipient is the government of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom U.S. intelligence concluded ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The agreement takes effect unless both chambers of Congress pass resolutions to block it within 90 days — meaning it would need a veto-proof supermajority to stop, and almost certainly stands. The message to the world: America's friends may enrich uranium; its enemies get bombed for it — a precedent that guts the nonproliferation regime and hands Iran every reason to seek the bomb.
Three U.S. Troops — Including a 19-Year-Old Private and a 25-Year-Old Lieutenant — Were Killed in the Iran War Over the Weekend, the Deadliest Since It Began; Trump Golfed at Bedminster, Attended the World Cup Final and Presented the Trophy, Called the Deaths "a Very Sad Thing" in a Phone Call, and Never Mentioned Them on Truth Social
Over the weekend of July 17–20, 2026, the war with Iran had its deadliest stretch since it began in February. Three U.S. service members were killed and five wounded. The Defense Department identified two of them: 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, both killed when Iranian ballistic missiles and drones struck the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on Friday. A third service member was killed during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The U.S. death toll in the war reached 17. President Trump spent the weekend golfing at his Bedminster resort on Saturday and attending the FIFA World Cup final at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, where FIFA broke from its recent protocol to let him present the trophy to Spain after its win over Argentina — and where he lingered in the champions' celebration until FIFA President Gianni Infantino tried to usher him off the stage. His first public acknowledgment of the dead came not in an address but in a brief phone call to a TV reporter, in which he called the loss "a very sad thing" — a solemn line sandwiched between a round of golf and a trophy ceremony. His Truth Social account was active all weekend but carried no mention of the fallen troops; the posts instead pushed the SAVE America Act and a bid to add Iran to a Russia sanctions bill. Only later did he post, "Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over," and, after landing from the game, tell reporters, "We hit them very hard again tonight." It is the conduct of a commander in chief treating a war he started as a backdrop to his weekend — golf, a stadium suite, a gold trophy — while the families of the dead learned their names.
Trump's Media Company — Which He Owns Nearly 60% Of — Will Sell Wall Street a Millisecond Head Start on His Own Market-Moving Truth Social Posts for Up to $100,000 a Month, Letting High-Frequency Traders Trade on Presidential Announcements Before the Public Even Sees Them
Trump Media & Technology Group unveiled "Truth API," a paid, licensed data feed that gives banks and high-frequency trading firms "the fastest" access to posts from the 10 most influential Truth Social accounts — Trump's being "by far the most prominent" — delivering them to paying clients up to a thousandth of a second before the public gets them. The fee runs up to $100,000 per month, or $60,000 a month on a three-year plan. It launches August 1, 2026, and the company says it has already signed up customers, including high-frequency trading firms and financial news organizations. The value is obvious and specific: Trump's posts routinely move markets. On April 2, 2025, his "Liberation Day" tariff post helped send stocks down nearly 5%; days later, "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!" — announcing a 90-day tariff pause — sent them up 9.5%, adding $4 trillion to the S&P 500; his June 2025 "THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT" post instantly moved oil. Selling a head start on those announcements to the fastest traders is, in effect, monetizing advance access to U.S. government policy. Ordinary conflict-of-interest law would bar a federal official from owning a company that profits off his office — but the president and vice president are explicitly exempt from that provision, and Trump owns roughly 60% of Trump Media (a stake worth about $2 billion on paper, held in a revocable trust controlled by Donald Trump Jr.). Ethics experts were blunt. Kathleen Clark of Washington University: "He's selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president... yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself." The Project on Government Oversight's Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette: "It's odious, selling access to the highest bidders." The move comes as Trump Media flails — DJT stock is down roughly 70% since he took office, closing around $9.66 against a pre-inauguration price near $40, with losses topping $1 billion — making the one asset that still reliably prints money the presidency itself.
Trump Used America's 250th Birthday to Campaign for His Face on Mount Rushmore — He Posted a Gold Video of Himself Carved into the Monument, the White House Said He'd Be "No Better Addition," He Distributed Cookies on Air Force One Depicting Himself as the Fifth President on the Mountain, and He Flew the Qatari Jet Over the Sacred Lakota Site While Hailstorms Battered the Crowd Below
On the eve of the 250th anniversary of American independence, Trump flew to Mount Rushmore on the Qatari-gifted Air Force One, buzzed the monument twice for the cameras, delivered a 28-minute speech warning of a "communist menace," and distributed cookies aboard the jet depicting his face carved into Mount Rushmore as the fifth president. Conservative commentator Benny Johnson posted photos of the cookies — which showed five presidential faces instead of four — calling them "the cookies Trump gave out last night on Air Force One." Earlier that day, Trump had posted a video on Truth Social showing a gold-plated 3D rendering of Mount Rushmore with his face mounted next to Lincoln's, with a voiceover: "I will be the greatest president for many, many years to come." White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said publicly: "There would be no better addition to the iconic Mount Rushmore than the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump." Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) introduced H.R. 792 in January 2025 directing the Interior Secretary to carve Trump's likeness into the monument. Roger Stone pushed a "One More for Rushmore" petition. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said there is "certainly" room. None of this is possible: the National Park Service says Mount Rushmore is a completed work of art with no viable locations for additional carvings. The original sculptor wrote in 1936 that adding a fifth head was impossible due to stone limitations. An engineer who oversaw rock monitoring at the site: "It comes down to the geology, the engineering. It just can't be done." The mountain is sacred to the Lakota Sioux — known to them as the Six Grandfathers — on land the Supreme Court ruled in 1980 was illegally seized. The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council passed a resolution opposing the event. The 4,800 lottery-selected attendees endured two hailstorms and shelter-in-place alerts before Trump spoke. The fireworks — first at the site in six years, revived by Trump over environmental concerns about drought, wildfires, and endangered bat species — cost $700,000. In 2020, then-Governor Kristi Noem gifted Trump a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore with his face. He was "totally serious" when he told her it was his dream to be up there.
Trump Claims Vandals Cut a "350-Foot Gash" in the Reflecting Pool and Calls Them "Enemies of Our Country" — But the Government Won't Produce Any Records, the Gash Length Keeps Growing, a PolitiFact Reporter Couldn't Find It, and the Only Person Charged Is a 67-Year-Old Three-Time Olympian Who Touched a Piece of Already-Peeling Paint
As the Reflecting Pool renovation continues to unravel — algae, peeling paint, storm drains, $16+ million in costs — Trump has constructed an alternative explanation: vandals did it. He claims six people were arrested and seven cited for cutting "a 350-foot gash" in the sealant with "a very sharp knife or razors." He calls them "enemies" who "want to destroy our country." The problems: (1) The government has produced no records of these arrests — no complaints, no citations, no court filings. The New York Times reported "no records of arrests or citations have been produced to support the president's claims." (2) The alleged gash keeps growing: 150 feet, then 250, then 300, then 350. (3) A PolitiFact reporter visited the pool and saw no visible gash. Officers on-site could not point to it. (4) Interior Department staff noticed coating defects including bubbling and small holes in May — before any alleged vandalism. (5) The only confirmed arrest is David Carter Hearn, a 67-year-old three-time Olympic canoeist, who says he simply reached in to touch a piece of already-peeling paint during a bike ride and was held in a Park Police jail for five hours. (6) Pool experts say the polyurea coating is naturally chemical-resistant, and the tools Trump describes would cause only superficial damage. Former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori: "My operating hypothesis is that this information is not being produced to the public because it would not support the president's claims." He compared it to a pattern where the D.C. U.S. attorney's office under Jeanine Pirro loudly publicizes cases that serve the narrative — like the "sandwich guy" arrest video — but goes silent when the facts don't cooperate. Khardori: "I don't believe him. I'll just be honest."
Trump Cancels His Own Signing of a Wildly Popular Bipartisan Housing Bill — Hours After the Set Was Built — to Hold It Hostage for a Voter-ID Bill That Can't Pass
On June 24, 2026, hours before a scheduled noon signing ceremony in the Capitol's Statuary Hall, Trump abruptly canceled his signing of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act — the most comprehensive housing legislation in decades — and held it hostage to his stalled SAVE America Act voter-ID bill. The housing bill had passed with crushing, veto-proof bipartisan margins: 85-5 in the Senate and 358-32 in the House. It increases housing supply, lowers costs, and caps how many single-family homes private equity can buy — exactly the affordability message both parties wanted to run on in the midterms. Trump posted that the signing was "hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency," dismissing the housing measure as "The Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren centric housing bill, which is of minor importance." A full set with podium and flags had already been assembled; House GOP leaders were literally on stage touting the bill when his post landed, and staff scrambled to pry the presidential seal off the podium while Democrats moved in to use the stage as a backdrop. This is the same SAVE Act demand for which Trump days earlier sabotaged his own DNI nominee's hearing and let FISA Section 702 lapse. The SAVE Act lacks the 60 Senate votes to pass; Thune has refused to kill the filibuster for it. Republicans called it a "shocker" and said Trump was "digging a hole." Because of the veto-proof margins, the housing bill will likely become law anyway — making the cancellation a self-inflicted political wound for nothing.
Trump Posts "MY REAL POLL NUMBERS ARE THE HIGHEST THEY HAVE EVER BEEN" on the Same Day His Approval Hit a Record Low — Worse Than His Post-January 6th Numbers
On the morning of June 24, 2026, Trump posted to Truth Social: "MY REAL POLL NUMBERS ARE THE HIGHEST THEY HAVE EVER BEEN. THANK YOU!!! President DJT." He cited no poll. The actual polling, released the same week, showed the opposite: a Reuters/Ipsos survey put his approval at 34% (64% disapprove); Economist/YouGov had him at 39% (58% disapprove); American Research Group found a new low of 30%; and Marist found just one-third approve of his handling of the economy, his worst ever in that poll. The RealClearPolitics average for May 29–June 23 was 40.4% approve / 57.7% disapprove — lower than the 41.1% he averaged during his final ten days in office at the end of his first term, in the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol riot. The only favorable number was a single outlier Daily Mail poll at 47%. The decline tracks almost perfectly with economic anxiety over tariff-driven price increases, five months before the November midterms. It is at least the second time Trump has declared "highest ever" poll numbers without evidence — he made the same claim in November 2025.
For the First Time in History, Both Chambers of Congress Passed a War Powers Resolution to Stop a President's War — Trump's Own Party Helped Do It
On June 23, 2026, the Senate voted 50-48 to direct President Trump to remove U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran — the first time in the 53-year history of the War Powers Act that a resolution to halt a president's war has passed both chambers of Congress. The House had passed the same concurrent resolution on June 3 by 215-208. Because it is a concurrent resolution, it does not require Trump's signature. Four Republican senators — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, and Rand Paul — broke ranks to join the Democrats; the measure cleared the chamber partly because Mitch McConnell and Dave McCormick, who had blocked earlier attempts, did not vote. It was the tenth time the Senate had tried to stop the war. Sen. Tim Kaine, who led the effort, said: "The most solemn power for Congress is Congress has the power to declare war, not the president." Kaine pressed the vote even with talks underway in Switzerland and pointed to the administration's request for $80 billion in emergency spending to rebuild munitions depleted since the war began on Feb. 28. Trump called the House version "a meaningless vote" and branded the Republicans who crossed him "GRANDSTANDERS." The rebuke is historic precisely because it required Congress to formally tell a president to stop a war that his own intelligence community said was never necessary.
Trump Sabotages His Own DNI Nominee's Hearing, Holds National Security Hostage for a Voter ID Bill That Can't Pass — FISA Lapses for the First Time Ever
Trump blindsided Senate Republicans with an overnight Truth Social post from the G7 in France, ordering the cancellation of Jay Clayton's confirmation hearing as Director of National Intelligence — hours before it was scheduled to begin. His demands: (1) the Senate must first confirm Jamie McDonald, his pick to replace Clayton as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and (2) Congress must attach his SAVE America Act voter ID bill to any FISA renewal. The result: FISA Section 702 — which provides 60% of the president's daily intelligence briefing — has lapsed for the first time since 2008; Bill Pulte, a housing official with zero national security experience who is under GAO investigation for weaponizing mortgage fraud allegations against Trump's critics, remains as acting DNI; and the qualified, bipartisan-backed nominee sits idle. Sen. Cotton initially said he'd proceed with the hearing anyway, then reversed. GOP Sen. Cramer: "Frankly, I was disappointed again." Thune acknowledged the SAVE Act "doesn't have the votes." Schumer: "Trump is holding our national security hostage." Homeland Security Secretary Mullin warned the threat level is "the highest it's ever been" — during the FIFA World Cup and Freedom 250 celebrations — while the president insists a surveillance program he calls essential cannot be renewed unless Congress passes a voting bill the Senate cannot pass.
Trump Posts 60+ Times in 14 Hours After Kennedy Center Ruling — Attacks Judge's Wife, Shares AI Slop, Says Center Should "Never Open Again"
After a judge ordered Trump's name removed from the Kennedy Center, the president spent 14 hours posting 60+ times on Truth Social from his golf course. In a 700-word opening rant, he called the center "rusted, rotted, and rat and bug infested," attacked Judge Cooper's wife by name, accused the judge of a "total Conflict of Interest" that merits criminal charges, threatened the center would be "closed, probably never to open again," and declared the court system "RIGGED." He then spent the rest of the day sharing AI-generated images of himself on Mount Rushmore, commanding a space station, and walking with an alien. He also attacked the Pope, the judge blocking his White House ballroom, and Gavin Newsom — whom he depicted in a padded cell. His posting pace: 565 posts in April alone, a third of them at night.
Trump Calls Reporting "Virtual TREASON" After Intelligence Shows Iran Retained 70% of Its Missiles
U.S. intelligence assessments revealed Iran retained ~75% of its mobile launchers and ~70% of its missile stockpiles despite weeks of bombing — and restored access to 30 of 33 Hormuz missile sites. Trump called the reporting "virtual TREASON" and accused journalists of "aiding the enemy." The DOJ had already subpoenaed Wall Street Journal reporters for their Iran war coverage.
"RIGGED": Trump Cries Fraud After Virginia Voters Approve Redistricting That Could Cost GOP 4 Seats
Virginia voters approved a redistricting referendum 51.5%–48.6% that could flip four House seats to Democrats. Trump immediately declared it "RIGGED" on Truth Social, claiming a "massive Mail In Ballot Drop" — with zero evidence. CNN: the count pattern had a "straightforward explanation" — big counties take longer to count than small ones.
Trump Attacks Pope Leo XIV: "If I Wasn't in the White House, Leo Wouldn't Be in the Vatican"
Trump went after the first American pope on Truth Social, claiming credit for his papacy and demanding he "stop catering to the Radical Left." It is the first time in U.S. history a sitting president has been in open conflict with an American pope. Pope Leo had called Trump's "civilization will die tonight" threat "truly unacceptable."
Trump Posts AI Image of Himself as Jesus — Even MAGA Calls It "Blasphemy"
Hours after attacking Pope Leo XIV, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus healing a sick man. Even his own supporters called it "gross blasphemy" and an "Antichrist spirit." He deleted it — then claimed he thought it was "me as a doctor" and a "red cross worker." The image shows him in biblical robes emanating divine light.
Another Midnight Meltdown: Trump Threatens Iran Hours After Backing Down on His Own Deadline
One day after agreeing to a ceasefire (and one day after threatening to end "a whole civilization"), Trump posted a midnight rant demanding all U.S. forces stay in the region until a "REAL AGREEMENT" is reached. The ceasefire Israel already broke.
Trump Rages at Supreme Court in 1 AM Meltdown: Justices Should Watch Fox News
At 1 AM, Trump posted that the Supreme Court should have "studied" Mark Levin's Fox News show to understand the 14th Amendment. This after his own appointees were skeptical at oral arguments, Roberts told him "It's the same Constitution," and he left the hearing early.
"Open the Fuckin' Strait, You Crazy Bastards — Praise Be to Allah": Trump's Easter Rant and Missed Deadlines
On Easter morning, Trump threatened to bomb Iran's power plants and bridges: "Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell. Praise be to Allah." It was his fourth missed Hormuz deadline. Tehran accused him of planning war crimes.
$580M in Oil Trades Minutes Before Trump's Iran Post — "Mind-Blowing Corruption"
6,200 oil futures contracts ($580M) traded in a single minute, 15 minutes before Trump reversed his Iran stance on Truth Social. $1.5B in S&P futures were bought 5 minutes before. A Nobel laureate called it "treason."
Trump's Christmas Eve Rant: CBS Should "Put Colbert to Sleep" — "Merry Christmas!!"
On Christmas Eve at 2 AM, Trump posted that CBS should "put him to sleep, NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!" about Colbert — using euthanasia language about a comedian. He signed off: "Merry Christmas!!"