June 14, 2026 at 2:12 PM EDT
Trump stages the perfect 'bread and circuses' event for a dying republic

President Donald Trump is acting like a Roman emperor, not an American president, by hosting UFC fighters to wrestle in front of the White House on his 80th birthday. "The weekend's UFC fight in honor of the Emperor Donald's birthday is about more than his obsessive love for big, powerful men, men with tears in their eyes saying, 'Mr. President, sir, would you like to touch my rock-solid abs?'" wrote Rick Wilson, who co-founded the anti-Trump Republican group The Lincoln Project. "It's about the fall of Rome, and that of America."

June 14, 2026 at 12:20 PM EDT
White House in panic mode over new secret Trump recordings: report

President Donald Trump's White House is freaking out over reports that their secret conversations in the Situation Room were surreptitiously recorded -- and will soon be published. "Top White House officials believe New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan obtained audio recordings of Situation Room meetings for their forthcoming book, 'Regime Change,'" reported Axios on Sunday. Because independent recording devices are not allowed in the Situation Room, the potential leak would be a major breach from protocol that would place many of Trump's top officials under immediate suspicion.

June 14, 2026 at 12:07 PM EDT
There is no bigger Trump lie right now

On June 1st, despite a ceasefire ostensibly underway in the US-Israeli war on Iran, Israel's prime minister launched a major escalation against Lebanon, including threatening airstrikes against the Lebanese capital. The US president called the Israeli leader, furiously demanding an end to Israel's escalation. Six days later, Israel attacked Beirut's southern suburbs, long understood to be a red line for Hezbollah. The Lebanese resistance organization launched a limited response, sending 11 rockets towards Israel, almost all of which were intercepted; no one was hurt or killed. Trump called Netanyahu again, telling him in a brief call that now that Iran and Israel had each "had their fun," that Israel should stand down.

June 14, 2026 at 12:01 PM EDT
'Sounds a lot like a nuclear threat': Trump floats 'ultimate alternative'

President Donald Trump claimed that the US and Iran are on track to sign a diplomatic agreement this weekend, but added that "we have the ultimate alternative" if the process doesn't "work out." "The 'ultimate alternative' sounds a lot like a nuclear threat," Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, wrote in response to the president's Truth Social post. "Not the first time Trump has hinted at it."

June 14, 2026 at 11:49 AM EDT
Trump 'sets the temperature' for political violence: analysis

President Donald Trump has not toned down the rhetoric that contributed to the assassination of a Democratic lawmaker last year, according to a contributor to the local newspaper from that region. "One year ago this week, Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were assassinated in their home in Brooklyn Park," wrote Steve Reuter to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "The man who pulled the trigger was the cause of their deaths, in the way we most readily understand cause. The proximate one, the hand on the weapon, the figure we can name and try and convict."

June 14, 2026 at 11:45 AM EDT
Trump's support collapses in rural America

President Donald Trump's support is declining among a group of Americans who have consistently among his staunchest supporters -- that is, rural Americans. "Trump's approval rating among rural Americans dropped in June to a new low of 50 [percent], according to the June 3-8 Reuters/Ipsos poll," Reuters reported on Sunday. "That compares with 60 [percent] approval in February 2025 shortly after Trump took office."

June 14, 2026 at 11:42 AM EDT
Trump's AG pick accused of massive corruption cover-up

President Donald Trump's choice for attorney general, the current acting attorney general Todd Blanche, would be dangerous to democracy, experts warn. "A year ago, senators uncomfortable with the idea of Trump's criminal-defense lawyer becoming the department's No. 2 could point to Blanche's testimony before the Judiciary Committee, where he said that 'political prosecutions should never happen, period' and that, if pressed to bring a bogus case, 'I will follow the law,'" reported The New Yorker's Ruth Marcus on Sunday. "Now they have a record against which to judge those assurances. Will any of this matter to Republican senators""perhaps to members of the growing 'wounded-bear caucus,' who have been the targets of Trump's fury?"

June 14, 2026 at 5:53 AM EDT
Donald Trump's seven-word claim on Fed policy needs 'a reality check': expert

President Trump has repeatedly pressured the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, claiming in a recent NBC interview that "there's no reason to raise interest rates." However, according to a recent report from financial site The Motley Fool, economic data and market indicators suggest his seven-word assertion requires a reality check. Since Trump's inauguration in January 2025, he has publicly criticized former Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the Federal Open Market Committee for not aggressively slashing rates. The FOMC has lowered the federal funds rate six times between September 2024 and December 2025, but the current range of 3.5% to 3.75% remains well above Trump's stated target of 1% or below.

June 14, 2026 at 5:39 AM EDT
Trump's capitulation has an obvious loser -- one he desperately won't acknowledge

This week, the president canceled a planned attack on Iran intended to pressure the regime into making a deal. Donald Trump said he canceled, because a deal was already close at hand. It was the 39th time he said peace was imminent since the war started. CNN ran a super-cut: The regime denied a deal, but it did leak to Iran's state-run media text of the demands that it said the president had agreed to. The Wall Street Journal 's Yaroslav Trofimov said:

June 14, 2026 at 4:56 AM EDT
Inside the disturbing message behind tonight's Trump spectacle

Tonight, Trump is throwing an 80th birthday bash for himself (he says it's in honor of the 250th birthday of the United States) with a "Freedom250" Ultimate Fighting Championship cage match on the South Lawn of the White House at 8 p.m. ET. It will be a bloody gladiator fight taking place inside a 600-ton, 154-feet-tall skeletal structure called "the Claw," painted red, white and blue. Opponents will punch, kick, wrestle, choke, and use jiu-jitsu on each other until one of them is unconscious or verbally concedes, or a referee stops the fight because one is judged too damaged to absorb any more violence.

June 14, 2026 at 4:03 AM EDT
Americans crushed this same Trump con Republicans pushed 100 years ago

I just toured the opulent Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. I love beautiful homes as much as anyone, but this tour didn't land as intended. To me, America's largest private residence, one that took 1,000 laborers six years to build, is a testament to inherited wealth and inequality . The lavish indoor swimming pool was built at a time when most homes didn't have plumbing. As I walked through the gardens and imported Italian tapestries, I couldn't stop thinking about how the laborers who built the estates of Gilded Age scions lived in squalor themselves, and could barely afford to eat.

June 14, 2026 at 3:07 AM EDT
Trump broke his biggest election promise -- and Republicans enabled the betrayal

Sometimes I provide you with information that I hope you'll find helpful in making arguments with others. I don't expect that what I share with you will change the minds of committed Trumpers, but the facts and the evidence may have some sway with Republicans and independents who are wavering about whom to support in the midterms. One of the main reasons Trump was elected was his pledge to keep the United States out of wars, especially the kind of "endless" wars America has fought in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan.