Sunday, August 02, 2026

Chump's learning that there's no easy way down

Katie Rogers (NEW YORK TIMES) offers an analysis of crazy Chump:


President Trump headed into the weekend having vowed that U.S. forces would unleash a furious new round of attacks against Iran, saying that the military would be “hitting them very hard.” By Saturday night, Mr. Trump said that the military was still “locked and loaded” to carry out the strikes, but that he had decided to call them off.

“I was asked to by Saudi Arabia, by U.A.E., by Qatar and by Iran,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Sunday evening aboard Air Force One on his way back to Washington from his golf club in New Jersey. “We were all set to go. Just about at this time, right now. The reason they asked is they think there’s a deal.”

Mr. Trump said that talks with Iran would begin on Monday, and that he was told there could be a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route, as well as “a deal on the nuclear.”

He has, of course, said most of this before. Repeatedly.


Yes, he has.  And despite repeated claims the result has repeatedly and consistently been: No He Can't. 


The paper's Linda Qiu fact checks some claims by Chump such as this one:


What Mr. Trump Said

“We have a lot of ammunition, different types. You know, Biden gave a lot to Ukraine and so we’re building that up, but we have a lot. We have a lot of the midlevel stuff, too; I mean, more than we could ever use, no matter what. But we have a lot. I’d like to have more, to be honest, but so much was given to Ukraine by Biden.”
— in remarks on Monday

This is misleading. The New York Times and other news outlets have reported that the Iran war has drained the United States’ arsenal of munitions. But Mr. Trump dismissed those concerns, blaming the Biden administration’s military aid to Ukraine instead. The president has a point that the Biden administration sent vast amounts of equipment and munitions to Ukraine, reducing stockpile levels. But those transfers played just a small role in the current issues with the Pentagon’s arsenal, because the military uses different weapons in the war with Iran.

Exact figures for stockpiles and weapons used are not publicly disclosed. But according to a Pentagon fact sheet from January 2025, the Biden administration transferred more than 100 types of equipment to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. The vast majority of that equipment was related to ground combat and not critical to Mr. Trump’s war in Iran, said Mark F. Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and expert in war funding and procurement at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

For example, the Biden administration provided Ukraine with thousands of armored vehicles, trucks and tanks; anti-tank weapons like Javelin and TOW missiles; mortar systems, artillery and millions of rounds of ammunition.

In contrast, the war in Iran has been fought in the sky. The Trump administration and congressional officials as well as outside military experts have raised concerns of depleted inventories of other types of weapons. According to reporting by The Times and other news outlets and calculations from Colonel Cancian, the military has recently used:

  • 1,200 Patriot missiles out of an inventory of 2,330

  • More than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles out of 3,000

  • More than 1,100 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM, out of 4,400

  • 40 to 70 Precision Strike Missiles out of 90

  • 130 to 250 SM-3 missiles out of 410

  • 90 to 370 SM-6 missiles out 1,160

  • 190 to 290 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missiles out of 360

The United States only provided a few weapons and munitions on that list to Ukraine, such as 600 Patriot missiles. Other aerial equipment given include short-range air defense equipment, like more than 3,000 Stinger antiaircraft missiles.


Chump also got a fact check on NBC's MEET THE PRESS today -- from Republican Senator John Kennedy:


KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. Let me ask you about another big topic this week, senator. The Justice Department just this week dropped its charges against the Olympic canoeist that it accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. The DOJ admitted that the damage was caused by, quote, “botched installation and not vandalism.” This was a case that the DOJ had said was open and shut. They said they could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Does this reversal undercut the public’s faith in the Justice Department, senator?

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY:

Well, the whole thing is a multiple vehicle pile-up. Let me start with the president. The president says it was caused by vandals. I don’t know whether he really believes that, or it’s part of his political messaging, or he’s just thinking out loud. You and I both know the president well. He exists loudly, and he grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought. I’m not saying he doesn’t really believe it, I just don’t know. Now, the stakes are a lot higher for U.S. Attorney Pirro. You can’t lie to a federal judge. If she can’t prove her case, she was right to pull back. Because if you fool around with a federal judge, you will find out. When I was in private practice, one time I put my briefcase on a brand new conference table bought by a federal judge. And he got so mad, I’ll never forget, I thought I was going to get to spend overnight with Bubba in central lockup. Federal judges will not tolerate. And so I don’t know why she filed the suit without having a — doing a full investigation. She says she relied on the Department of Interior. But she was smart to pull it back.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Very quickly, senator. Given that — because I have one more question on the shutdown — should the grand jury records be released so the public can see the evidence for themselves, senator?

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY:

Fine with me. Let the whole world see.


At THE AMERICAN PROSPECT, Robert Kuttner writes:


On Thursday, President Trump said he was prepared to withdraw the nomination of Todd Blanche to be attorney general rather than accede to demands by two Republican senators to kill the sweetheart deal that gives Trump permanent immunity from the IRS. He said on social media that he could just wait until the two Senate holdouts, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, were out of office in the next Congress and then reappoint Blanche; in the meantime, Blanche could function on an acting basis.

But as Cornyn quickly pointed out, there is no guarantee that the next Senate will produce a majority willing to confirm Blanche. More importantly, this breach of ordinary courtesy only stiffens the resolve of other Republican senators not to bend to Trump’s wishes.

Exhibit A is the majority leader, John Thune of South Dakota. When Trump tried to put all legislative business on hold until Congress passed the SAVE America Act to give him control of elections, Thune refused to do his bidding. Thune and his caucus also refused to accede to Trump’s demand to get rid of the filibuster.

“He gets obviously frustrated with me because he sees me as the person that’s the impediment to some of the things he wants to get done,” Thune said in an interview yesterday with Politico. “But as I continually point out … I don’t make this stuff up. Math is math … He thinks I can wave the magic wand. I wish it were that easy.”

Now Thune is trying to wrap up the legislative session so that members of his caucus can get home to campaign. At stake is the Republican majority and Thune’s job as leader. “You end up … basically for the 60 or 90 days heading into an election, fighting among Republicans, which to me seems really counterproductive, going into an election that’s pretty high-stakes,” Thune said.

What stands in the way is budget reconciliation. The latest obstacle to getting a reconciliation bill passed is Democratic demands, shared by some Republicans such as Susan Collins of Maine, that Congress kill a proposed OMB rule that would give Trump’s White House political control over all federal grants. One option under discussion is for Congress to pass a continuing resolution that would keep the government funded through December 4 and sideline the proposed OMB rule. And once again, Senate Republicans are stiffing Trump and treating him as irrelevant.


Poor Chump.  He's losing it all.



The view from the cliffs must have been exciting
And up to the peaks you were bound
Now you're stranded alone
And the path is unknown
And there is no easy way down

No, it isn't very easy
When you're left on your own
No, it isn't very easy
When each road you take
Is one more mistake
And there's no one to break your fall
And lead you back home

-- "No Easy Way Down," written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, she first recorded the song for her album WRITER


No easy way down for Chump.  Peter Baker (NEW YORK TIMES) notes: 


After a spate of bad polls earlier this summer, President Trump simply declared that they were not true. “MY REAL POLL NUMBERS ARE THE HIGHEST THEY HAVE EVER BEEN,” he wrote on social media, using capital letters as if they would shout away any contrary data.

In fact, his real poll numbers are at or near the lowest they have ever been in some nonpartisan surveys. A flurry of new samples in recent days found that Mr. Trump is at the nadir of his presidency, with support from just around a third of Americans as a stalemated war in Iran and high gas prices take a political toll.

The latest surveys indicate that Mr. Trump is now all but the most unpopular second-term president at this stage of their tenure in the history of polling going back to the 1940s. The only exception is not one that would give Mr. Trump much solace: Richard M. Nixon had even less public support at this stage in his second term but at that point he was just days away from resigning over the Watergate scandal.


Again, there is no easy way down.  


And he's not helped by the collection of crook, con artists and flim-flammers that make up his Cabinet.  Take Junio.  Tara Suter (THE HILL) reports:


Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CNN’s Dana Bash clashed over vaccine safety and COVID-19 in a heated interview on Sunday.

The tension in the “State of the Union” interview began when Bash pushed back on a claim from Kennedy about the U.S. having “the highest death rate from COVID of any nation on earth.” Kennedy then reasserted his claim and took shots at Dr. Anthony Fauci — the longtime health official who was in the national spotlight during the pandemic — over lockdowns that occurred during the health emergency.

Bash then said state governors issued the lockdowns mostly after “hearing from hospitals saying that their ICUs were overrun and they needed some help.”

As the conversation went on, Kennedy made claims about how constitutional rights were violated during the pandemic and those who were critical of the COVID-19 response were censored. He alleged that Bash was “part of the problem,” stating that “there was absolute press malpractice” and that the CNN host was “beating up on people who were dissenting” during the pandemic.

“You want to sit here and attack me? Or do you want to have conversations about public health?” Bash said.


Dana Bash did get him to admit that children need to be vaccinated for measles.  Ed Pilkington (GUARDIAN) notes:


Kennedy’s statement was extracted from him by Dana Bash, CNN’s host, who invited him to use his “bully pulpit” to talk directly to parents as the new school year approached. She urged him to tell families that they should vaccinate for measles “because it is safe and it will help them save their children’s lives”.

The health secretary replied: “Parents should get their children vaccinated for measles. A measles vaccine is effective, it stops measles in about 97% of the cases. People should get vaccinated.”

Later in the interview he added that people should also get the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, the main protection against the disease that has been a particular target of the anti-vaccination movement.

The health secretary’s call for parents to vaccinate their children for measles contrasts starkly with the many years in which Kennedy has been a leading proponent of misinformation questioning the efficacy and safety of vaccinations. Even since he became the country’s top health official, he has depicted a measles vaccination as a personal choice and claimed inaccurately that the power of the inoculation is waning.

The call also comes late in the day, given the rate at which measles is spreading in the US. The 37 new measles outbreaks that have already been recorded this year are putting the US in danger of losing the measles elimination status that it has held since 2000.

Kennedy continues to shrug off criticism that his work as a prominent vaccine skeptic, both before and after he entered the Trump administration, has exacerbated the problem. Asked whether he took any responsibility for the measles surge, he said: “Absolutely not.”


Let's wind down with this Friday press release from Senator Adam Schiff's office:


Washington, D.C. – Last night, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined CNN’s OutFront with Erin Burnett and MS NOW’s All In with Chris Hayes to discuss President Trump threatening to withdraw Todd Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General over Trump’s tax immunity deal and proposed billion-dollar slush fund. 

In his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Schiff condemned Blanche’s role in approving the President’s proposed slush fund and compromising his integrity for the president.  

During the interviews, Schiff also slammed Trump Media’s new initiative to sell early access to Trump’s Truth Social posts, emphasizing the president’s focus on himself over the well-being of the American people.  

View the full interviews here and here.  

Key Excerpts on CNN’s OutFront with Erin Burnett: 

On Trump threatening to pull Blanche’s nomination: 

[…] The Senators are only asking that Blanche live up to what he testified under oath — that the fund is truly dead, this slush fund for insurrectionists and cop beaters. And that this self-dealing IRS settlement will only apply to Trump, his two kids, and the Trump Organization – those were the litigants in this supposed litigation. They are asking for so little, and the fact that the president is willing to walk away from his own attorney general, willing to have the country not have an attorney general, unless he gets the full benefit of this corrupt bargain, is striking for the reason you mentioned. And that is, the American people have nothing to do with it. He could [not] care less what that might mean to the public. It is always, always about Donald Trump and never about anything else.

On Republicans’ possibility of backing down from Blanche’s nomination, the IRS tax settlement and slush fund: 

[…] He is so greedy a president. He wants not just himself, his organization, his two kids. He wants all of their subsidiaries, all of their companies. It could be dozens of corporate entities. He doesn’t want the IRS looking into any of them. And what’s more, they’re not even insisting, Cornyn and Tillis, are not even insisting that the Justice Department not pay insurrectionists. They’re getting paid anyway. The president’s cronies are getting paid anyway.  

Michael Flynn got paid by the Justice Department anyway. There are these private settlements going on anyway. They just wouldn’t have this massive fund to do it. Now, obviously, I think they should be asking for a lot more to earn their votes, like an end to this corrupt IRS settlement, an end to any use of DOJ funds for cop beaters, but that is not what they’re asking for. 

On Trump’s latest self-enrichment scheme: 

[…] Here’s a president who made $2.2 or $2.3 billion dollars in his first year as president, and it’s still not enough. He wants even more. And whether it’s this sham of a tax deal that gives him hundreds of millions of dollars more, or whether it’s this new fiasco where they’re going to sell off early access to his Truth Social posts so that his donors or investors in his private business get a leg up on ordinary Americans who might be investing in the market – it’s just one scam after another. But the central core is they all benefit the president financially. 

Key Excerpts on MS NOW’s All In with Chris Hayes:  

On Republicans holding out Blanche’s nomination: 

[…] Cornyn is asking for so little, and the fact that it’s still not enough for Donald Trump is just striking. He will go without an attorney general if he must, but he’s not going to give up an inch of this self-enrichment scheme of his. But the other thing that struck me about what he said also is just how extraordinary it is that they can’t get the Justice Department, the attorney general, or the administration to live up to what they’re promising under oath. I mean, it really does take your breath away when you think about just how modest a requirement or request that is. 

[…] I think it’s less vindictiveness on the part of these two senators. I think it’s more freedom, frankly. They don’t have to face the electorate again. They don’t have to worry about another tough primary. They feel liberated to not only speak their mind but liberated to do the right thing when they have so often felt it necessary to carry some really dirty White House water. So, I think it is being liberated. It also may be a little bit of cover for other Republicans that can’t take that position, that wish they could. But at the end of the day, what it all comes back to on the other side of this is a president who really doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the Justice Department, the American people, fighting crime or anything the AG is supposed to do. It is always about Donald Trump and what’s best for him.

On Trump’s all-time low approval rating: 

[…] I think those poll numbers reflect the fact that corruption is a powerful issue when it is in combination with the fact that the president isn’t focused on the problems of the American people. And why isn’t he focused on it? Because his only care is making money for himself. The combination of greed, incompetence, broken promises – that’s not a prescription for high poll numbers. And I think we’re seeing that reflected. 

###


Kat's "Kat's Korner: The Stones' Foreign Tongues are right at home" went up earlier tonight and the following sites updated:





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