Convicted Felon Donald Chump hit 80 today. And the American people are hitting back.
Leah Douglas and Jason Lange (REUTERS) note:
Brian Rauch has felt the squeeze of higher gas prices on his 30-mile
(50-km) drives from his home in rural Stevensville, Montana, to the
doctor's office. He has also noticed food prices going up and, as an Air
Force veteran, sees little rationale for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
These
are among the reasons the 42-year-old increasingly disapproves of the
performance of President Donald Trump, the man he voted for in the last
three presidential elections, putting him among a growing portion of
rural Americans disappointed by his leadership in Washington.
Trump's
approval rating among rural Americans dropped in June to a new low of
50%, according to the June 3-8 Reuters/Ipsos poll. That compares with
60% approval in February 2025 shortly after Trump took office.
Rural
disapproval of Trump's performance meanwhile rose to 48% from 34% in
February 2025, according to the poll of 4,531 U.S. adults nationwide.
The poll, which was conducted online, had a margin of error of 3
percentage points for people in rural areas and 2 points for Americans
overall.
3. Digestive system
Older
adults with diets high in fatty meats and low in fiber often suffer
from constipation. Despite a professed love for steak and hamburgers,
there’s no evidence that the president is backed up. If anything, there
are murmurs of the opposite. A recent poster on social media noticed a
familiar movement from Trump in a video that the White House shared in
late May. “Anyone whose raised or helped raise a toddler will be
familiar with his footwork,” the poster wrote, referencing a moment on
tape where Trump leans forward slightly, widens his stance, and bends
one knee. Snopes jumped in to investigate the claim and concluded that, based on the public evidence, they could not confirm that the president had an accident.
Still,
the Mayo Clinic warns that clenching can actually cause constipation
and advises the elderly not to ignore the urge to have a bowel movement.
So if the president did answer nature’s call while surrounded by aides
and the Secret Service, then that was a healthy thing to do.
4. Weight
As
people age, their metabolism slows, which leads to weight gain. Trump
is not an exception. Here are reported weights starting with his draft
card (avoided) and ending with his medical checkup two weeks ago. All
weights are approximate. Like really, really approximate.
Age 18: 180 pounds
Age 71: 239 pounds
Age 72: 243 pounds
Age 73: 244 pounds
Age 78: 224 pounds
Age 79: 238 pounds
Since
his teens, Trump’s girth has grown by over 30 percent and in the year
since he returned to the Oval Office, he has packed on double digits.
Trump
knows that he’s overweight. In January, when The New York Times asked
if he’d ever been on a GLP1—or as he calls them “fat shots”—he responded, “No, I have not. I probably should.”
It
might be a good idea since there appears to be a correlation between
the president’s approval rating and his weight. When his approval is
down, his weight ticks up. At this rate, he may hit 250 by the midterms.
The president’s birthday on Sunday coincided with a New York Times report detailing
interactions with Trump in which he had a few mental slip-ups. His
allies recounted instances in which Trump, the oldest president ever
inaugurated, forgot someone’s name and described him as more tired than
usual. Notably, some have drawn more attention to the fact that Trump appears to fear old age himself.
“He’s
really uncomfortable with it,” Tucker Carlson, an ally who broke with
Trump in recent months, said of the president’s age, according to the
Times.
That sentiment rang true earlier this week when Trump wished Dr. Mehmet Oz, who turned 66 on Wednesday, a happy birthday.
“I
just wanted to wish you a happy birthday,” he said. “You don’t have to
wish me a happy birthday, because I’m not happy about that birthday.
It’s a number that I never thought really too much about. It’s not a
number I like, but I’m here nonetheless.”
And Michael Tomasky (THE NEW REPUBLIC) offers:
He could not just have a dinner at the White House, or a party at
Mar-a-Lago. No; he had to build a massive arena on real estate that
belongs to the people of the United States to host a vulgar, garish
event that is one of the most violent forms of spectacle available to
the human race today. Trump will be sitting there like some Roman
emperor at the Colosseum watching enslaved men try to stave off lions.
The man who wanted law enforcement to shoot protesters “in the knees” is
probably bummed he couldn’t just replicate that.
But if you can’t
have lions, six UFC fights are the next best thing. Granted, UFC
fighting is very popular in the United States and across the world. I’ve
read various accounts this week contending that UFC fighting has
supplanted hockey as the fourth-most-popular sport on television, behind
the big three of football, baseball, and basketball. I’ve also read
that its popularity may have peaked; here’s a 2025 piece
by a sportswriter who has followed “combat sports” for 15 years,
showing that the number of matches is in steep decline. “The United
States, long the backbone of [mixed martial arts], has seen a sharp
decline in activity,” wrote John S. Nash. “In 2009, more than 6,266
professional fights took place across the country. This would be the
pinnacle for American MMA contests. By 2024, that number had dropped to
just over 3,027—a 52 percent decrease.”
Still—it’s popular. Fine. But guess what’s strikingly, overwhelmingly not
popular? The idea of hosting such fights at the White House, on grounds
we tend to associate with understated, democratic solemnity. A poll released Thursday
found that just … wait for it … 16 percent of Americans considered it
appropriate to hold MMA cage matches on the White House grounds.
Meanwhile, 46 percent opposed. Even among Republicans, only 31 percent
considered it appropriate. Yet a narrow plurality of Republicans in the
survey backed the event, by said 31 percent to 22 percent.
Democrats
opposed it by huge margins, 75 to 5 percent. Independents were strongly
against it too, by 45 to 11 percent. So once again, it’s
Republicans—no; specifically, it’s MAGA Republicans, because they’re
undoubtedly that 31 percent—who are way out of step with what real
Americans think. Yet they—Trump, his lackeys, and all those Soviet-style
propagandists on Fox and Newsmax and One America and elsewhere—will of
course spend the entire weekend equating men beating each other to a
pulpy mass on hallowed civic ground with “real” patriotism.
It’s
sickening. Oh—and it’s also, as we’ve come to expect with Trump, deeply
corrupt. First of all, the cost of constructing the arena is around $60
million. Supposedly UFC is picking up that check, but with Trump, who
really knows? We taxpayers will undoubtedly be on the hook for
something. Meanwhile, the chief sponsor—surprise, surprise!—is
Crypto.com. There are in addition figurines of some of the featured fighters. There’s apparel—garish T-shirts
running $40. Over at TrumpStore.com, somewhat to my surprise, I didn’t
see any merch specifically tied to the event, but you have to believe
that Trump’s short-fingered hand is dipping into some till or another
here. A lawsuit
filed by the group the Public Integrity Project to block the event from
taking place (it’s pending as I write) states that UFC set up a
for-profit entity to manage this event, which is selling seating
packages that cost up to $1.5 million—and that Trump previously bought
$50,000 worth of stock in TKO, UFC’s owner.
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan (NEW YORK TIMES) Wednesday report on the Situation Room meetings of Todd Blanche, Pam Bondi, Susie Wiles, JD Vance and other members of the administration to plot on how to deceive the American people about Epstein and specifically Chump's closeness to Epstein continues to garner attention. Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen (AXIOS) report:
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."
Why it matters:
Such a taped leak would be a shocking breach of one of the most secure
settings on Earth. Independent recording devices in the Situation Room
are forbidden.
- "We're afraid some of our
most sensitive conversations were being recorded," an administration
source told us. "And we have no idea which ones."
Verbatim accounts of several Situation Room meetings were included in excerpts about the Iran war and the Epstein files that The Times posted ahead of the book's June 23 publication. The authors conducted more than 1,000 interviews for "Regime Change," which covers Trump's second term.
- Tellingly, White
House officials haven't disputed verbatim dialogue from the top-secret
Sit Room talks, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying about
Bibi's regime-change scenarios for Iran: "In other words, it's
bullshit."
Department of Homeland Security head Markwayne Mullin said he’s willing to go to extreme lengths to fight the nonexistent scourge of voter fraud in the upcoming midterm elections.
The Republican senator from Oklahoma told CNN‘s Dana Bash that he’s ready to “throw out the Constitution” to make sure “only citizens of the United States are voting.”
“What we want to make sure is that every vote actually counts, that
we’re not having games like you might see in sanctuary cities. I’m not
saying they are,” he said. “Democrats always want to throw out the
Constitution all the time. Well, great, let’s throw out the
Constitution.”
When Bash gave Mullin a questioning look, he immediately backpedaled.
“I mean, not throw it out. Throw it out as an argument,” he said. “I’m glad you had that look on your face.”
No, he meant throw out the Constitution. He's an idiot. He took an oath to the Constitution when he was sworn in the US Senate and he took an oath to it when he became Secretary of Homeland Security. Someone doesn't appear smart enough to grasp what taking an oath means.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Adam Schiff:
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff
(D-Calif.) released the following statement on President Donald Trump’s
nomination of Jay Clayton to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI):
“Trump’s choice of Jay Clayton for Director of National Intelligence
does not resolve the President’s Pulte problem. The Clayton nomination
will be given fair consideration, but in the months before any
confirmation hearing can take place, Bill Pulte cannot be allowed to
weaponize the intelligence community, misuse it for purposes of election
interference, politicize the conclusion of analysts to suit the
President’s false narratives, or rifle through the private data of the
America people.
“The best course of action would be to allow the Senate-confirmed
Principal Deputy DNI – a Trump pick himself – Aaron Lukas, to lead the
office while the Senate undertakes a full and thorough vetting of Mr.
Clayton’s nomination.
“Jay Clayton’s resume reveals a troubling lack of intelligence
community experience. His record as SEC Chair and U.S. Attorney in the
Southern District of New York should be scrutinized to determine whether
he led those offices as a nonpartisan professional, or is likely to
succumb to pressure by the President to abuse the powers and
capabilities of any new office.
“We need a serious intelligence community leader to manage these
vital agencies, to inspire intelligence professionals to do their best
possible work, and to brief the President accurately on the myriad of
threats facing the country. The American people deserve no less.”
###
The following sites updated:
