Most voters think President Trump made the wrong decision to go to war with Iran, a New York Times/Siena poll found, leaving the Republican Party on rocky political footing heading into the midterm elections as his approval rating sinks and economic concerns rise.
Majorities of voters said that the war was not worth the costs and held deeply pessimistic views about the economy.
Mr. Trump’s approval rating — a key historical predictor of how a president’s party will fare in an election — has sunk to a second-term low in Times/Siena polls of 37 percent amid the deeply unpopular Middle East conflict.
Nearly two-thirds of voters said that going to war had been the wrong decision, including almost three-quarters of politically crucial independents. Less than a quarter of all voters thought the conflict had been worth the costs.
As we noted Friday, Chump crashed and burned in China. He walked away with nothing. Nada. Zilch. He folded and cowered and was meek and pretty much played. On the world stage. Among others, he let down US farmers. Myriam Toua (THE MIRROR) reports:
Donald Trump has, all of a sudden, announced a total U-turn on his campaign promise to American farmers he would intervene on Chinese nationals buying up land in the US, which has been met with fury by his once-loyal MAGA voter base.
[. . .]
But in Beijing, Trump was arguing that going ahead with his campaign pledge would suddenly hurt farmers instead of help them, and asserted pulling out the external investment [by Chinese buyers] would dramatically drive down the price of land.
He sang a very different tune, however, on his campaign trail in 2024 as he pledged to protect farmland “by saying you can’t come” in response to a reporter’s queries about Chinese-owned land at a Pennsylvania event.
Another broken promise from Chump. Another time when he could have stood strong for America but revealed himself to be a weak, inept and cowardly character. After his state visit to China where he met with President Xi Jinping,
With the trip to China ended -- and so clearly having been a failure -- many are weighing in. Anton Troianovski (NEW YORK TIMES) offers:
There was a vague agreement that China would purchase Boeing jets and more American soybeans. There was discussion about Iran and opening the Strait of Hormuz, and a nod to other issues, like cracking down on chemicals used to make fentanyl.
But President Trump departed Beijing on Friday with almost nothing concrete to show for his two-day summit with President Xi Jinping of China. After months of buildup and a delay necessitated by Mr. Trump’s difficulty in extricating the United States from the war with Iran, the summit ended with no major public progress on the Middle East, trade, Taiwan, nuclear proliferation, artificial intelligence or any of the other myriad issues that are sources of friction between the world’s two superpowers.
Michael Tomasky (THE NEW REPUBLIC) registers with:
Donald Trump says China agreed to buy 200 jets from Boeing. He crowed about it on Fox News Thursday night. But funny thing: A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked specifically about the jet deal after Trump spoke, and he said nothing about any such agreement. Wanna take bets on whether it actually happened?
Three points here. First of all, we should stop quickly to note that it’s sad that it’s come to pass that we just automatically believe a foreign government—and China’s no less—over the president of the United States (sad about him, that is, not us). Second, let’s remember that Boeing is an American company in a deep and sustained crisis that was brought on by basic greed: As David Goldstein explained in Democracy journal in 2024, after its acquisition of McDonnell-Douglas in 1997, the historically proud engineering culture at Boeing was destroyed as the company became more anti-union and outsourced more of its production.
And third, assuming that Trump is lying or at least exaggerating, well, we’ve just learned again for the jillionth time that Mr. Art of the Deal is a total fraud. Let’s review.
- Remember how, in his first term, Trump was going to bring North Korea to its knees? Remember how he consistently heaped praise on Kim Jong Un and his “beautiful vision for his country”? Well, it’s not a “beautiful country” to the people who live there, and meanwhile, its nuclear progress has been steady over the last decade—during most of which, of course, Mr. Art of the Deal has been the president of the United States. Experts think the nation has assembled about 50 warheads.
- Remember also that he was going to solve the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day back in office? In late March, a UN expert testified that the violence was “worse than ever.” We—that is, most decent people—are heartened by Ukraine’s resilience and wowed by its innovative drone technology. But that “we” doesn’t include the president of the United States, who obviously is cheering for his pal Putin—over whom he has zero leverage.
- The 2025 tariff war on China totally backfired. China responded to Trump’s tariffs by limiting exports of rare-earth metals, and Trump backed down. Today, U.S. soybean exports to China are down (they peaked during Sleepy Joe’s “disastrous” presidency), as are auto exports. The first Chinese EVs are landing in Canada even as we speak. These are ultra-luxury cars that sell for $10,000 or even $20,000 less than their American equivalents.
- Speaking of Canada, why isn’t it the 51st state yet? And speaking of Northern annexation, why isn’t Greenland part of the United States yet?
- How’s that world-class Gaza resort coming along?
- U.S. relations with Europe are at an all-time low. And it isn’t because of anything Europe did. Last December, the Trump administration released a security strategy paper calling Europe a bigger threat to the United States than Russia or China because of its progressive social and immigration policies, which threatened the continent with “civilizational erasure.”
- And finally, of course, there is Iran. The economic impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will be felt for months ahead. The latest wrinkle? In India, where they apparently lap up Diet Coke, there’s a shortage of the beloved elixir because there’s an aluminum shortage (Diet Coke is sold only in cans there). The Middle East accounts for 98 percent of the global aluminum supply. Stock up on that Reynolds Wrap. Joking aside: There are and will be dozens of such shortages, some far more serious than Diet Coke. A UN official told AFP in Paris this week that up to 45 million people in the developing world could face hunger or even starvation because of the global fertilizer shortage.
And at WSWS, Andre Damon weighs in:
US President Donald Trump returned to Washington Friday from a two-day state visit to China—the first by an American president in nearly a decade—that offered no let-up in the global eruption of American imperialism. The trip produced no easing of the US blockade of Iran, no halt to the US arming of Taiwan, no reduction of Trump’s anti-China tariffs and no communiqué.
The meeting took place in the shadow of the US attack on Iran that was launched less than three months earlier. Despite the brutality of the US onslaught, the Trump administration has failed to achieve its aims of overthrowing the Iranian government, destroying its military and gaining control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump hoped to arrive in Beijing as the conqueror of Iran, ready to dictate terms to China with a stranglehold on its energy supplies. Instead, he was facing a geopolitical disaster, and he sought Xi’s aid in resolving the crisis created by the war.
Chump flamed out. As usual, his self-promoting created hype and expectations that his mediocre abilities were never going to delier on. Putin will be in China on Tuesday -- presumably showing Chump how a nation negotiates with China.
With the conflict in Iran still smoldering, President Trump’s obsession with Greenland seems like a forgotten sideshow.
But for the past four months, negotiators from the United States, Greenland and Denmark, which controls Greenland’s foreign affairs, have been holding confidential talks in Washington about Greenland’s future.
The talks were meant to give Mr. Trump an offramp to his threats of a military takeover of Greenland and to scale back a crisis that risked breaking apart the NATO alliance. But Greenlandic leaders are worried about what is being proposed, which is a much larger U.S. role on the Arctic island. And they fear that if the conflict with Iran winds down, the president will swing his aggression back on them.
Some Greenlandic politicians say they have even circled a date on their calendars to be wary: June 14, Mr. Trump’s birthday.
“It’s just time,” Michael Banks, who worked for Border Patrol for over 20 years, said in an interview with Fox News. “I feel like I got the ship back on course,” he added, referring to immigration enforcement at the southern border. “It’s time to enjoy the family and life.”
January 16, 2025, he was put in the position by Chump. What changed? At the start of last month, Ana Giaritelli (WASHINGTON EXAMINER) reported:
The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes, according to six current and former Border Patrol employees who spoke with the Washington Examiner.
Banks “bragged” to colleagues while in his previous management role at Border Patrol about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling in Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. Banks’ behavior was said to have been investigated by Customs and Border Protection officials twice, including last year, but the investigation ended abruptly while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in office, leading to more questions.
“I don’t know how he became the chief of the Border Patrol with his character,” a former Border Patrol agent told the Washington Examiner in a phone call, adding that now-53-year-old Banks had personally pushed him to come along on one of the trips. “He’s going to third-world countries to take advantage of poor f***ing women, which disgusts the hell out of me.”
Four others said Banks talked freely with his subordinates about his travels and that it was known why he went, making his promotion to the top of the agency last year that much more flabbergasting.
“He would tell people that’s why he was going on these trips — he would go there to engage in activities with prostitutes,” a second person said. “So I think those stories are out everywhere, and you can’t put them away or not give it attention because he was the one telling people about these trips.
The day after NYT did their bury their head in the sand post, THE SPECTATOR noted:
Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks has resigned, ostensibly “to retire and return home to Texas to focus on my family and ranch.” Banks served under President Biden but quit in frustration over the administration’s lax border policies. When Trump returned to office, Banks took up his old job again: like Cincinnatus, he came out of retirement to serve, and will now return to his plow.
Perhaps “plow” is the operative word here. It’s widely speculated that Banks is in fact resigning because of a Washington Examiner investigation, which claims that he was a sex tourist who made regular trips to Colombia and Thailand while in post. According to six current and former Border Patrol employees, Banks used to boast of his sexual exploits to colleagues, and would be remarkably upfront about the purpose of these trips to anyone who asked. It ought to be said that prostitution is legal in both those countries, but that using the services of ladies (or gentlemen!) of the night is against agency policy.
But Banks’s sudden departure comes at a curious time, as reports circulate about his penchant for sex workers. Border Patrol employees told the Washington Examiner last month that Banks was “known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes.”
Banks even “bragged” about his deviant habits with colleagues while in his previous role in Border Patrol, and allegedly paid for sex with prostitutes while travelling across Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. CBP reportedly investigated his behavior twice, including last year, but the probe was squashed by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The paper of record, THE NEW YORK TIMES, is going to let this pass without comment? And you wonder how Jeffrey Epstein or, for that matter, Harvey Weinstein got away with so much for so long. It's right there in the 'report' by Ashley Ayn.
And not only does the record need to reflect these allegations against Banks to be accurate regarding Banks, it also needs to reflect the allegations to be accurate regarding Donald Chump. Yet again, Chump's surrounded himself with people who never should have been appointed by him. Did Chump know about the allegations before he appointed Banks to the job? If not, when did Chump find out?
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
FDA approved mifepristone for use over two decades ago
Supreme Court set to rule on right-wing extremist attempt to roll back access to medication abortion
“Law and policy governing access to lifesaving, time-sensitive medication abortion care in the United States should be equitable, transparent, and based on the best available peer-reviewed evidence-based science.”
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.), led the entire Senate Democratic caucus in reintroducing a resolution affirming that the abortion medication mifepristone is safe and effective, and underscoring that law and policy related to the medication must be equitable, transparent, and based on the best available peer-reviewed evidence-based science.
The resolution comes hours before the Supreme Court’s administrative stay in Louisiana v. FDA is set to expire — which, without action, would uphold the Fifth Circuit’s ruling threatening millions of women’s access to mifepristone, even in states where abortion is legal.
The resolution was co-sponsored by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
The resolution was endorsed by the following organizations: All* Above All, American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Reproductive Rights, EMAA Project, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, National Abortion Federation, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, National Council of Jewish Women, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, National Network of Abortion Funds, National Partnership for Women and Families, National Women's Law Center Action Fund, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Power to Decide, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), and URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity.
“Abortion opponents nationwide continue to push their politically motivated attacks on mifepristone and medication abortion to make it harder for everyone, everywhere to get care. That’s despite decades of research and millions of people using mifepristone to safely and effectively end a pregnancy,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “In the face of these attacks, we are grateful to Senator Warren, Sen. Baldwin, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, Sen. Wyden, Sen. Murray, and Sen. Smith for reaffirming that science-based policies must govern access to mifepristone.”
“Mifepristone continues to be crucial to our ability to access abortion care— and that is precisely why abortion opponents have been relentless in their efforts to restrict it nationwide, including in states where abortion is legally protected,” said Jessica Arons, director of the Liberty Division for Policy and Government Affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “As this resolution affirms, millions of people have used mifepristone to safely end pregnancies and treat miscarriages for more than 25 years, including by telemedicine. We thank Senator Warren for introducing legislation to set the record straight and push back on anti-abortion propaganda, and we call on Congress to protect the right to abortion and end this political interference with our personal healthcare decisions once and for all.”
'“For decades, the science has been overwhelmingly clear: mifepristone is safe and effective. Millions of Americans have relied on this critical medication, which revolutionized access to care. We’re grateful to Senator Warren, Sen. Baldwin, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, Sen. Wyden, Sen. Murray, and Sen. Smith for their ongoing efforts to ensure the critical decisions about necessary—and sometimes life-saving— healthcare are based in science, not ideology,” said Rachana Desai Martin, Chief U.S. Program Officer at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The lawmakers first introduced this resolution in 2023, following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which sparked attacks on reproductive rights across the country. Since then, 20 states have banned or restricted access to abortion care.
Senator Warren has led the charge to protect reproductive freedom:
- In May 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) led 12 senators in pressing the Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on the Commission’s efforts to weaken a rule affirming employment protections for workers undergoing fertility treatments.
- In March 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Ron Wyden, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee; and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) led 23 colleagues in publishing a new report revealing the harm Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have caused to Americans in the six months since their dangerous provision to “defund” Planned Parenthood, buried in their Big, Beautiful Bill, went into effect. The report reveals that, in addition to acting as a backdoor abortion ban, the “defund” provision has ripped away Americans’ access to essential services — including primary care, birth control, cancer screenings, and wellness exams — and raised health care costs.
- In November 2025, ahead of the Senate Finance Committee’s confirmation vote for Thomas M. Bell, Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General (IG), U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) exposed Bell’s flip-flopping and slammed his extreme anti-abortion views.
- In July 2025, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Michael Stuart, nominee for General Counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), on his dangerous anti-vaccine views, staunch anti-abortion advocacy, and more. Ahead of his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee later today — at which Senator Warren will question Stuart — Senator Warren sent Stuart a letter outlining her key concerns with his nomination.
- In February 2025, Senators Warren and Duckworth pressed Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Trump’s then-nominee for the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), on his hostile anti-abortion record.
- In December 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) reintroduced the Health and Location Data Protection Act, legislation banning data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive personal information.
- In September 2024, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the dangerous consequences women faced after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
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