Saturday, July 04, 2026

Idiot of the Week

First up, Katie Phang.



Next up, Idiot of the Week.  Since we're avoiding handing it to Donald Chump every week, let's go with Pete Hegseth.  Petey's got masculinity issues.  He had to have a beauty salon set up at the Pentagon to do his hair and make up.  He's got psoriasis   So he needs make up to cover it up.  


And make up, that says extreme masculinity, right?  No.  No, it doesn't.  Nor does being the Secretary of Defense and demanding that you be called the Secretary of War.


Pete's a macaroni and he's working hard to cover it up.  Nicolai Haugsted (DAGENS) reports:

Political tensions flared once again in Washington, D.C., after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used unusually blunt language while addressing National Guard troops stationed in the nation’s capital ahead of Independence Day festivities.

According to The Irish Star, the remarks came at Meridian Hill Park, where National Guard personnel were assembled as part of the Trump administration’s “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.” As Hegseth spoke, protesters gathered nearby could be heard chanting for the troops to leave the city.


He called the protesters "ingrates" because that is what he is  An ingrate who doesn't appreciate all the breaks -- unearned and undeserved -- he's been given.  Kathrine Frich (DAGENS) reports: 


According to The Wall Street Journal cited by the Independent, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth prepared a massive policy shift. He wanted to announce significant troop cuts across Europe.

The defense chief planned to deliver this news to top NATO leaders during a meeting last month.

However, the proposal never made it out of Washington. The Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump stepped in to stop the announcement after Secretary of State Marco Rubio successfully shelved the plan.

The internal clash highlights a growing divide over how fast the United States should pull back from its historic overseas bases.

Isabel van Brugen (DAILY BEAST) adds:

According to The Wall Street Journal, the former Fox & Friends Weekend host, 46, was planning to announce further cuts to Washington’s forces in Europe during a meeting of NATO’s top military officials in Brussels last month.

Under the proposal, the Trump administration would reduce the American contingent in Europe beyond the canceled deployment of an armored brigade to Poland and the withdrawal of an infantry brigade from Romania, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Trump administration has been moving to reduce its military presence in Europe, with President Donald Trump, 80, pushing for members of the NATO military alliance to ramp up defense spending to 5 percent of their GDP—up from a target of 2 percent set in 2014 that the majority of member states, including Washington, still fail to meet.


Clarence Page (CHICAGO TRIBUNE) notes:


Is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth resegregating the military?

I hear that question a lot since the news broke that our nation’s current secretary of defense has actively blocked or delayed the promotions of dozens of senior military officers — with women and people of color disproportionately affected.

The Pentagon’s recent track record on promotions is in keeping with broader efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to push back on diversity, equity and inclusion policies in government, academia and the private sector.

It also comes at a time when the Trump administration has made symbolic moves — such as attempting to rebrand Hegseth as the “secretary of war” — as well as actual warfare in an attempt to project an alt-right air of manliness.

It’s as if a military with Black officers, female officers and — heaven forfend! — transgender officers could not possibly defend American interests across the globe.

In March, The New York Times reported that Hegseth took the “exceedingly rare” step of striking two Black and two female officers from the list of candidates put forward for promotion to the rank of one-star generals.


He's a joke.  A racist, a sexist, a homophobe -- add it all up and you get Idiot.  And he's brought shame of this nation that will take years to recover from.  


Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Friday, July 3, 2026.  Chump's greed and corruption are on full display, ICE arrested a nun on her way to church this week, Chump's ordered ICE to ramp up arrests, his failing state fair turns out to be another corrupt fraud, and much more. 





Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and billionaire mogul who died in 2023, is often considered to have set the mold for President Trump with his mastery of the news media, gilded taste and, above all, legislative maneuvers that drew accusations of conflicts of interest.

Mr. Berlusconi passed laws that appeared tailor-made to protect and benefit his family’s vast business empire. And his annual earning disclosures showed he had been paid tens of millions of dollars while serving as prime minister.

This week, new financial disclosures suggested that Mr. Trump has broken that mold by making at least $2.2 billion in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses.

Mr. Trump’s profits are a haul once unimaginable for any leader of a liberal democracy, particularly a sitting American president. No modern Western leader has ever publicly disclosed such big windfalls while in office.

The Trump family’s earnings, experts said, have moved him into an echelon of enrichment more associated with strongmen in Russia and Turkey.

His gains were all the more striking because the United States has long positioned itself as a standard-bearer for financial regulation, anti-graft measures and the rule of law. Yet his cryptocurrency earnings highlight an unusually glaring conflict: As president, Mr. Trump oversees the regulation of an industry that, as a businessman, he also greatly profits from.



The typical American has suffered a major decline in wealth since the start of the decade, even as the United States has continued to create millionaires at a remarkable pace, according to UBS’ Global Wealth Report 2026.
UBS found that inflation-adjusted median wealth per adult in the U.S. fell significantly between 2020 and 2025, while average wealth per adult increased, underscoring a growing divide between households in the middle and those at the top of the wealth ladder.


That's the typical American.  Not the typical crooked American.  This isn't Donald Chump, you understand.  He's been grifting like crazy -- so much so that he took in two billion dollars last year.  Two billion dollars.  Casey Tolan, Isabelle Chapman and Kevin Liptak (CNN) report:

As President Donald Trump’s wealth has soared since retaking office, a new financial disclosure shows his two premier Florida resorts have also delivered record-breaking surges in revenue – a potent illustration of how Trump’s personal business and presidential politics overlap.
Trump has visited the properties, Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral, more than two dozen times since the beginning of last year, hosting million-dollar-per-plate fundraising dinners, feting foreign dignitaries and welcoming GOP galas as industry leaders and political groups have scrambled to book their own events there as well.

Trump has also supercharged the money coming from Mar-a-Lago by raising the membership initiation fee to $1 million shortly before his reelection. The lavish resort is conducive to impromptu conversations with the president, who often dines on the patio at night, according to people familiar with the club.

Some ethics experts described the confluence of politics and profit as a blatant opportunity for special interests to get a direct line to Trump.

“People are going to Mar-a-Lago because they want proximity to the president,” said Robert Weissman, the co-president of Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group. “A whisper in the president’s ear is worth an awful lot – more than what they’re paying to get in the door.”



And how are people reacting to this news.  Emily Davies (NEW YORK TIMES) notes:

President Trump’s $2.2 billion in personal earnings during his presidency has been met largely with silence from his MAGA base, which has been increasingly willing to revolt against policies they view as an abandonment of his promises to put everyday Americans first.

Far-right members of Congress, prominent media pundits and grass-roots activists have criticized Mr. Trump’s war with Iran and openly broken ranks to demand the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. They have accused him of prioritizing his own interests over the needs of the voters who elected him to office.

But few far-right voices aligned with Mr. Trump have criticized him over the scale of his personal haul, reported this week, or the conflict inherent in his status as a major cryptocurrency industry operator and its top policymaker.

First off, not every supporter of Chump is being quiet.  Second of all, the amount is stunning.  The  amount of money this crook has taken in is stunning.  I'd say give it a few more days and then see if grassroots activists on the right are still silent.  Members of Congress?  On the right?  On the right most of them -- the majority of them -- have been silent this whole time on what Chump's doing and what he's done.  Don't look for them to lead.  





But the average person who supported Chump?  Look for them to awaken.  A few already have processed it.  



Two people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 have blasted the president for how much he has enriched himself while in office.

The two individuals were interviewed by MS Now’s Laura Barrón-López about their reaction to the revelation that Trump’s income soared by $2.2 billion in 2025, including more than $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures.
Speaking at the sparsely attended Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., Barrón-López asked whether it is “appropriate” for the president to make so much money while in the White House.

“I actually don’t, no. I don’t think that’s appropriate,” one man, whose name was not given, replied. “If you’re in office, take your salary. Your investments are in the hands of third parties that you don’t have influence over.”
A woman standing next to him added, “I think you should just concentrate on being the president. I think he has enough money already.”

After playing the clip, Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace repeated the woman’s belief that Trump “has enough money already.”

“I do too, but those folks are people who voted for Donald Trump 18 months ago,” Wallace said.
Trump, who has an estimated net worth of more than $6 billion, made improving the economy and tackling the cost-of-living crisis two of his main 2024 campaign promises.

However, the 80-year-old president has only exacerbated the financial hardships facing millions of Americans during his second term because of policies such as his sweeping tariffs and the war in Iran, which sent gas prices soaring.



In a segment that aired on Morning Joe on Thursday, several Florida residents who had voted for Trump were asked about the disclosures, and every one was unhappy with how much the president has profited.

“That’s very frustrating to actually hear that. And like I said, I don’t do the politics and stuff, but to hear that come from another American that, you know, is not getting $2 million put in their pocket,” Olivia Danielle told the MS NOW reporter.

“$2 billion,” the reporter corrected.
Stunned, she added: “$2 billion, $2 million, $2 trillion – you know, that’s a lot of money. You know, that’s a lot of money. And that would help out a lot of people around here, a lot of homeless people. You could open shelters. You could really help somebody out with that.”

“Somebody’s making money on the side. It’s not me. That’s all I got to say,” MAGA voter Allen Warfield said.

“Is it frustrating?” the reporter pressed.

He replied: “It’s frustrating that you see your president getting richer and richer, and the middle class is getting poorer, and that’s about it.”

One MAGA voter at a gas station, Jerry Lepore, told the network: “Life in America right now, the economy is tough. People are struggling, you know, and hopefully it’ll change.”

Another man, Kevin Chavez, raged at Trump more specifically: “He definitely made lots of promises and he made them seem like they were going to come a lot quicker, faster than they actually were to ever come or ever will come.”


Today on MS NOW's MORNING JOE, they noted Chump's advocating for inside information. 



This is not a one day story.  The amount is mind boggling, the sweep is grandiose.  It's something that will be absorbed.  






Not all of Chump's get rich grifts pans out  Angelina Velasquez (ATLANTA BLACK STAR NEWS) reports:

Namesake products like the God Bless the USA Bible, which retails for $99, dipped in revenue, decreasing from $1.306 million to $208,486 following a year of his bizarre Bible references.

On multiple occasions, Trump rambled off twisted verses from the revered text. His flub from a decade earlier resurfaced in 2025. He inaccurately boasted, “Proverbs, the chapter ‘never bend to envy.’ I’ve had that thing all of my life where people are bending to envy.”
The Trump Sneakers and fragrances profits also decreased from $2.5 million to $67,634.



The economy.  Chump's tanked it.  Trina noted last night: 


That reads like a slap in the face to Chump because it is one.  This lower number is a rebuke to all the lies he continues to tell about the economy which has not recovered.  Our economy was in recovery -- when Joe Biden was president.  But Chump has destroyed the economy and doesn't want to take credit for doing that.  He will lie to steal credit for every and any success in the world but when it comes to owning blame, the  little weasel never wants his earned credit. 


What's she talking about?  The jobs report that just came out for the month of June.  


There was more bad news for Donald Trump on Thursday morning as the new jobs report revealed dismal growth, leading MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle to raise a new red flag for the president’s embattled administration.

Appearing on “Morning Joe,“ Ruhle, a former Wall Street executive, noted that only 57,000 new jobs were created — a far cry from the 115,000 expected by economists.
Speaking with host Jonathan Lemire, who warned, “We've seen downward revisions for the last two months,” Ruhle first explained that Trump should not expect a rate decrease from the Fed as the job market remains stagnant.

She later elaborated, “People cannot afford to get their lives started; they cannot afford the basic things they need to work to get to work, a place to live, a decent job that's an issue —we're talking about a jobs number that's almost half of what we expected."


Donald Trump was dealt a brutal pre-4th of July blow when the jobs report showed weaker-than-expected growth, with Americans souring on the president for his handling of the economy.

The U.S. added only 57,000 jobs in June, less than half of what forecasters had anticipated. Economists had expected 115,000 jobs added last month.

Matthew Robinson (NEWSWEEK) points out, "The unemployment rate edged down to 4.2 percent from 4.3 percent in May, though economists noted that the decline was driven largely by fewer people participating in the labor force rather than a surge in hiring."  Sean Williams (THE MOTLEY FOOL) weighs in with:

 Inflation is the proverbial torpedo that can sink Wall Street's ship, and we appear to have entered the next phase of Trumpflation.

To preface this discussion, a modest level of inflation is normal and healthy for the U.S. economy. But when prices rise quickly or move beyond subjective "modest" levels, it can upend the economy and/or the stock market. As of May 2026, U.S. inflation is at a three-year high.

The bulk of this year's inflationary surge has been driven by two decisions from President Donald Trump (i.e., "Trumpflation"). The first policy, implementing sweeping global tariffs, has placed modest upward pressure on prices for select goods.
However, the primary catalyst behind inflation's jump from 2.4% in February to 4.2% in May is the Trump-led Iran war. Shortly after the president approved military operations against Iran, the latter closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels. This action crippled the daily flow of approximately 20 million barrels of petroleum liquids.
The reaction in energy markets was impossible to miss, with gas prices climbing at the fastest pace in over three decades and diesel prices rising by an even steeper percentage.

Yes, Chump worked hard to destroy this economy.  Under President Joe Biden, the economy was recovering from the pandemic and it was the envy of the world.  Chump trashed it on the campaign trail and promised to fix it all on day one.  Instead he destroyed the economy with his tariffs (which were a tax on Americans) and then his war of choice on Iran.  People are struggling.  They're not like him doing insider trading.  They're struggling   


ICE?  It has not gone away, it's just flown under the radar of late.  Armando Garcia (ABC NEWS) reports:

Questions about why ICE arrested a nun continue to grow after her release from custody. 
The Catholic Diocese of Brownsville said that on Sunday, Sister Leticia Ugboaja was detained by agents as she was walking to attend mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, Texas.
Sister Ugboaja, a Nigerian national, is a registered nurse at South Texas Health System and was a certified nursing assistant at health center in Edinburg, Texas, for 10 years, the Diocese said in a press release. She's part of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy congregation and volunteers as a minister at Our Lady of Sorrows Church. 
Sister Ugboaja was released the same day she was detained, according to Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Republican, who initially posted on Facebook that her office was working with DHS to "resolve Sister Letty's detainment as quickly as possible."
In a statement, the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville said: "At this time, we are continuing to gather information regarding the circumstances that led to Sister Leticia's detainment and the manner in which she was detained."
[. . .]
Bishop Daniel E. Flores condemned the arrest. 

"Sister Letty is a well-known source of goodness and hope in our community, and I am grateful she has been released. There are many questions remaining about the circumstances surrounding Sister Letty's arrest and detention," Bishop Flores said in a statement. 

"For now, it is clear that Homeland Security enforcement protocols that make it possible for a religious sister, or anyone, to be detained and handcuffed while peacefully walking to Church on a Sunday morning are wildly disturbing and need to be reformed," he added. 


Covering the same story, Thao Nguyen (USA TODAY) notes:

The Diocese of Brownsville said Ugboaja is part of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy congregation, which is headquartered in Nigeria. She volunteers as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church and is a registered nurse at South Texas Health System's McAllen Medical Center.
Before volunteering at the church, Ugboaja worked for a decade as a certified nursing assistant at DHR Health in Edinburg, Texas, according to the diocese.
[. . .]
As news of Ugboaja's detention spread, members of southern Texas’ congressional delegation called for her release. Rep. Monica de la Cruz, a Republican, said June 28 that her office was working with the DHS to secure Ugboaja's release as quickly as possible.
"As I have repeatedly said, our immigration enforcement should target violent criminals," de la Cruz said in a post on Facebook. "A Catholic nun on her way to church is not a threat to our community."
Later that day, de la Cruz announced that Ugboaja would be released after discussions with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
"I just got off the phone with Secretary Mullin. I'm pleased to announce that Sister Letty will be coming home," de la Cruz said in a post on Facebook. "My office worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security, and I'm grateful they acted to resolve this quickly."
Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez and Joaquin Castro also criticized Ugboaja's arrest. Cuellar had demanded that Ugboaja be released and said he was in contact with federal officials about the nun's arrest.



Donald Trump has quietly ordered a surge in immigration arrests that has seen more than 10,000 people detained in just five days.

The clampdown marks a change of gear for a president, 80, whose high-profile enforcement operations last year descended into chaos and bloodshed. Border Patrol and ICE agents shot at least 14 people between September 2025 and February 2026, among them two U.S. citizens killed in Minneapolis.

They were Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother shot dead by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7, and Alex Pretti, also 37, and a VA intensive care nurse, who was thrown to the ground and shot by Border Patrol agents at a protest weeks later.
Agency leaders have now ordered top ICE officials to throw more of their officers into rounding up immigrants marked for deportation, according to the New York Times, which obtained internal documents and spoke to federal officials. The White House wanted more arrests, three officials with knowledge of the conversations told the paper. They were told 2,000 detentions a day was the new benchmark.

According to its own figures, that appears to have worked. Daily arrest numbers have roughly doubled from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year. Agents have seized people at routine immigration check-ins, during traffic stops, and out on the street.



Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have reportedly been instructed to set a new standard of at least 2,000 daily arrests. The number of people in ICE detention has also climbed to more than 63,000, adding thousands of detainees to the nation’s sprawling network of prison-like facilities.

The operations do not appear to be part of any surge, such as operations of militarized officers into Democratic-led cities, after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin entered office earlier this year hoping to keep the agency out of the headlines as he fulfills the president’s mandate to deport 1 million people a year.

But the latest wave of arrests has already come under intense scrutiny from immigration lawyers as well as Democratic and Republican lawmakers. A 56-year-old Catholic nun in Texas left a detention center in tears after she was arrested on the way to Sunday mass, and several arrests inside an immigration courthouse in New York City this week appear to have violated court orders that struck down the Trump administration’s policy of picking up immigrants the moment they leave their hearings.

How's Chump's State Fair working out?  Not so good. 

 





They're covering US House Rep Jared Huffman's statements and the new report he's overseen.  This is the press release his office issued yesterday: 

Washington, D.C. – Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) released a new 55-page report following months of investigative work by Committee Democrats exposing how Donald Trump hijacked what was supposed to be a unifying, non-political celebration of our country's 250th birthday and made it all about him – his vanity projects, his political and religious agenda, his business ventures, and his cronies who gorged on public funds under cover of a shadow corporation shielded from public scrutiny.

The report, "From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday," traces how the machinery Congress built for a national commemoration that would be above politics was commandeered, over a period of months, into an apparatus for raising and spending money in service of the President's ego, political agenda, and personal financial interests.

Watch Ranking Member Huffman discuss the report's findings.

“Donald Trump’s hijacking of America's 250th birthday will go down as one of the most corrupt, brazen abuses of public trust in presidential history, even by the dubious standards of this administration. As our country prepared to celebrate a milestone that belongs to every American, Trump and his operatives launched a hostile takeover of the bipartisan commission established by Congress to lead the celebration. When that failed, they sidelined the commission, siphoned its resources, and infiltrated a beloved national charity under cover of a shadow corporation that shielded them from public scrutiny. Then they proceeded to deceive donors, solicit foreign money, sell access to the President, award no-bid contracts to Trump loyalists, harvest Americans’ personal data, and push a white-washed, Christian nationalist version of history,” said Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif).

“But they didn’t account for us. Over the past year, our investigation has pursued the truth about the machinations, schemes and abuses of trust they’ve tried to hide. We’ve uncovered extensive evidence of corruption, self-enrichmentand potential crimes. The Republican majority in Congress, which has far more investigative tools and power than we do, could have joined us in conducting serious oversight and demanding answers. Instead, they’ve used their power to shield the individuals and entities involved.

“The American people deserve to know the truth about how the official national celebration of our country’s 250th anniversary was stolen, along with a large – and so far unaccounted for – sum of their taxpayer dollars. So, today – against the obstruction and resistance of our Republican colleagues – we are dragging this fiasco out of the shadows and shining a bright light on the corruption and fraud surrounding Freedom 250. We can’t stop from tarnishing the country’s July 4th celebration, but we can stop it from ever happening again – we can protect the next government program, the next fund, the next thing that's supposed to work for all of us, from being exploited and misused this way. That’s why we must confront this grift and corruption now. From our earliest days, America has stood for government by the people, not powerful tyrants. We will fight to keep it that way.”

When the nonpartisan, congressionally chartered America250 Commission refused to bend to the President's demands, the White House built a replacement - Freedom 250 LLC – and declared it the central platform for the national celebration. The White House lodged this shadow organization inside the National Park Foundation so it could exploit the credibility and donor relationships of a beloved public charity while operating outside the transparency rules Congress wrote into law for the commission.

Key Findings

  • The President put himself at the center of the nation's birthday. Trump issued an executive order making himself and the Vice President Chair and Vice Chair of a White House task force, then staged his own birthday as a national event twice: the Army's 250th military parade on June 14, 2025, and a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn on June 14, 2026, run under the Freedom 250 banner.
  • The White House built Freedom 250 on deceit. Musical performers, among others, were misled about programming and connections to Trump’s political machine. Fundraisers may have misled donors who intended to support America250 and handed them Freedom 250's banking information, routing contributions meant for the nonpartisan foundation to the President's substitute entity instead. The report finds that, if true, this could constitute wire fraud and charitable solicitation fraud under federal and District of Columbia law.
  • Freedom 250 sold access to the President and courted foreign money in America's name. The organization circulated sponsorship packages starting at $500,000 and climbing above $10 million, backed by a "historic photo opportunity" with President Trump. Its CEO solicited foreign governments, corporations, and individuals at the World Economic Forum in Davos to fund the President’s priorities. If foreign funds reach the President's vanity projects, the report finds the conduct would clearly violate the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause.
  • Trump and his operatives cashed in. Event Strategies, Inc., the firm that helped plan the January 6th rally, has collected tens of millions in federal contracts connected to the anniversary, including a master contract worth up to $100 million. Trump traded in the stock of companies that donated to Freedom 250 and staged a White House UFC fight that shamelessly promoted his own investments and business ventures. Freedom 250's event registration process was run through Campaign Nucleus, the firm founded by Trump campaign operative Brad Parscale, which uses artificial intelligence to score visitors and target "persuadable" voters. Thousands of unwitting fans handed over their personal information at a free FIFA World Cup Fan Zone on the National Mall. Freedom 250’s official merchandise is sold by the Trump campaign’s official merchandise vendor, Ace Specialties, and agencies have purchased the merchandise and required employees to wear it.
  • The White House imposed a false, Christian nationalist history. Federally funded "Freedom Trucks" carried revisionism and outright falsehoods to schoolchildren, including an AI rendering of George Washington claiming, "our rights are a gift from God," a statement Washington is not documented to have made. The Interior Department also urged employees to wear Freedom 250 pins and threatened discipline against those who refused the pin, which anonymous employees took to calling their "Vichy pin," a reference to World War II-era lapel pins that served as loyalty and propaganda badges.
  • Freedom 250 created a blueprint for corruption. The report concludes Freedom 250 is "a blueprint, not a one-time abuse," already test-driven at the Department of Agriculture, where the administration steered companies with business before the government to donate through a conservation charity into a fund the Secretary controls.


The investigation drew on confidential disclosures from sources interviewed by Committee Democrats, internal Freedom 250 documents and talking points obtained by the Committee, sworn testimony from two Committee hearings, and written responses from the National Park Foundation and the National Forest Foundation.

Republicans on the Committee refused to conduct any oversight to hold the administration accountable, even when Democrats repeatedly raised evidence of wrongdoing at Republicans’ own hearing entitled, “All in for America250: Public-Private Partnerships Supporting America’s Semiquincentennial on our Public Lands.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum testified he was "not aware of the final decisionmaker" behind Freedom 250, and the Department has refused to provide that information since.

Read the full report here.

 
Chump's state fair has been a huge failure.  OK reports:


The Great American State Fair has already dealt with thin crowds, power problems, canceled performers and weather delays. Now it has anti-Trump graffiti inside one of its state exhibits.

Photos taken at the National Mall event showed “8647” scrawled onto a Cadillac-themed installation inside the Texas pavilion, part of the broader America250 celebrations leading up to the nation’s 250th anniversary. The exhibit, called “Let’s Texas,” was designed to showcase the state’s culture and identity.

The number sequence is widely read in political contexts as “86 47,” a coded message suggesting the removal of Donald Trump, the 47th president.


But that's not all.  Like everything else about Chump, it just gets worse.  DC is expected to have a heatwave and Rhian Lubin (INDEPENDENT) reported yesterday, "Air conditioning units reportedly failed at some exhibits at President Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., as temperatures hit a sweltering 100 degrees.  It is the latest setback for Trump’s fair, a weeks-long celebration of America’s 250th birthday on the National Mall, amid lackluster crowds and musicians dropping out of performances."  But apparently he's now focused solely on Saturday's speech -- specifically the turnout he'll have.  Cheyenne Ubiera (IRISH STAR) reports: 


White House aides are reportedly worried about the turnout for President Donald Trump's July 4th address after he was infuriated by the crowd during his Great American State Fair.

The president promised that his July 4th rally on the National Mall would be the "most unforgettable birthday party any country has ever seen." But some inside his White House aren't sure how many people will actually show up.
Trump had a lackluster attendance during his speech on the mall last week, which infuriated the president behind the scenes. Following the address were days of scattered crowds and incidents at the Great American State Fair. It comes just days after JD Vance committed a huge national security breach after viewers spotted a tiny detail in a photo.
Discussing the crowd size fears, a White House official told CNN: "I’m really not sure who thought this was a good idea. I do not understand why we are doing this so late." The president will speak at 9.45 pm on Saturday.
Trump was reportedly livid over the small crowd at his campaign-style speech last week, according to two sources familiar with the matter. His remarks were thrown together after nearly every musical act backed out over the state fair's ties to MAGA.



Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

On Friday, Trump admin cancelled vast majority of grants awarded to communities nationwide to prevent teen pregnancy

Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, led a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blasting his recent decision to terminate nearly all Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program grants—and calling on him to immediately reinstate the funding for over 50 grantees nationwide.

“We write to express our outrage over your recent decision to terminate the vast majority of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants, which will deprive teens across the U.S. of vital resources and threaten to unwind decades of progress made in reducing teen pregnancy,” write the senators. “These grants, which were canceled in the middle of their five-year project period, supported evidence-based programs that worked to prevent teen pregnancy and behavioral risk factors underlying teen pregnancy, as is required by law.”

In their letter, the lawmakers note that teen pregnancy in the U.S. has been on a steady decline for decades, thanks in part to successful programs like TPP: “For the last 35 years, the teen birth rate has been declining. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the teenage birth rate fell by 7% in 2025, reaching another historic low.”

The senators explain that Congress has appropriated $101 million in fiscal year 2026 for the explicit purpose of making grants to support “medically accurate and age appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy,” and state that these cancellations ignore congressional intent for the program, perhaps because the administration simply disagrees with the program’s goals. “[A]llies of the president have increasingly suggested that declining teen birth rates are a ‘problem,’” the senators write. “It appears this administration may agree with that assessment as you cancel funding for these proven programs.”

“We demand that you immediately reverse course and reinstate funding for established grantees of the TPP Program, who are midway through their grants and doing essential work to prevent teen pregnancy,” the lawmakers conclude.

Joining Senator Murray in sending the letter were U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

The full letter is available HERE and below:

Dear Secretary Kennedy:

We write to express our outrage over your recent decision to terminate the vast majority of Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program grants, which will deprive teens across the U.S. of vital resources and threaten to unwind decades of progress made in reducing teen pregnancy. These grants, which were canceled in the middle of their five-year project period, supported evidence-based programs that worked to prevent teen pregnancy and behavioral risk factors underlying teen pregnancy, as is required by law. This decision to cancel 53 of 66 existing grants follows a pattern of actions the Trump Administration has taken to undermine access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare and put the health and wellbeing of our young people at risk. We call on you to immediately reinstate funding for these grantees who have a proven track record of working to uphold the goals of the program in accordance with the law. 

For the last 35 years, the teen birth rate has been declining. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the teenage birth rate fell by 7% in 2025, reaching another historic low. In 1991, the number of babies born to mothers ages 15 to 19 was more than five times higher than it is today. Evidence suggests that these declines are driven by several factors, including the use of more effective forms of contraception, greater access to information about pregnancy prevention, and a decline in teen sexual activity, which the TPP Program has supported.

The very goal of the TPP Program when it was established in 2010 was to support evidence-driven practices that would reduce teen pregnancy, with the majority of funds directed to programs with models whose effectiveness at preventing teen pregnancy had been demonstrated through rigorous evaluation, known as “Tier 1”, and a smaller portion of funds for the development and testing of new prevention programs, or “Tier 2,” which helps to grow the list of approved Tier 1 curricula.

The bipartisan law that most recently appropriated funding for the program in fiscal year 2026 reiterated the program’s goals—providing $101 million for “making competitive contracts and grants to public and private entities to fund medically accurate and age appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy” with 75 percent of funds directed toward “replicating programs that have been proven effective through rigorous evaluation to reduce teenage pregnancy, behavioral risk factors underlying teenage pregnancy, or other associated risk factors.”

These grants were awarded to state and local health departments, universities, and community organizations across America, like the Boys & Girls Club. These are organizations that know exactly how to reach young people to provide them with the information they need to make smart decisions about their health and futures.

We know that both Trump Administrations have long sought to destroy the TPP Program. President Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposed to eliminate it, as did his prior budgets, and in 2017, the Trump Administration attempted to cancel every TPP Program grant, a decision that was ultimately struck down by the courts. Now, however, allies of the president have increasingly suggested that declining teen birth rates are a “problem.” It appears this administration may agree with that assessment as you cancel funding for these proven programs. Your decision to terminate this funding squarely aligns with your department’s established pattern of rejecting evidence and science, ignoring Congressional intent, and undermining the ability of people to make their own healthcare decisions.

We demand that you immediately reverse course and reinstate funding for established grantees of the TPP Program, who are midway through their grants and doing essential work to prevent teen pregnancy. 

Sincerely,

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The following sites -- plus Ruth's "Chump's vast corruption," Rebecca's "ridiculous jared polis and another strong episode of general hospital" and Mike's "Miss Sassy JD Vance" -- updated:

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