The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 2)

[bobot]

Oh, wow then. So Trump himself was the one who posted that, right?

[kenobi_65]

@bobot

So Trump himself was the one who posted that, right?

It appears so, though I would guess it was a “re-Twuth” of a supporter’s post, rather than something that he or his staff composed.

[bobot]

Because otherwise, I mean, there is literally nothing that Trump won’t lie about. Which I thought I understood, but this one got me. He knows he’s not 20 in that picture. Motherfucker.

[Johnny_L.A]

@kenobi_65

making him 17 or 18 at that time.

Maybe he was held back three years?

[kenobi_65]

@Johnny_L.A

Maybe he was held back three years?

Nah. He was born in 1946; the picture is from a 1964 yearbook; according to various sources, he graduated from high school in 1964, right around his 18th birthday (June 14), and started attending Fordham University in the fall of '64.

For what it’s worth, his Wikipedia entry indicates that he was also in ROTC at Fordham during his freshman year, but dropped out of ROTC after just one year. So, even if that had been a picture of him wearing an ROTC uniform at Fordham (which it isn’t), he still would not have been 20 years old in such a picture, having dropped out of ROTC some time around his 19th birthday.

[Johnny_L.A]

I was making a joke about how he was still in high school at 20 years old.

[kenobi_65]

Whoosh on my end.

[DesertDog]

Liz Dye has posted on Legal Eagle a 19-minute analysis on the Reflecting Pool debacle including the various arrests.

One thing was mentioned I did not know. When the pool was refilled the water was city water rather than drawn from the Potomac River. The water had organo-phosphates added to prevent pipe erosion and nasties like lead from leaching into the water. So, water warmed by the dark coating, plenty of phosphorus, and a few stray algae spores fall into it, what do you think is going to happen?

Evidentially they did not.

[dougrb]

First comment on that video. “Can’t believe they closed the strait of Warm Ooze”

[penultima_thule]

@DesertDog

When the pool was refilled the water was city water rather than drawn from the Potomac River.

Do you think the Potomac River water, being rated a “solid B grade in 2025” and too polluted to allow swimming or fish consumption, is lacking in organo-phosphates, sewerage waste, heavy metals, other nasties and a few stray algae spores in comparison with the city water?

[Broomstick]

@Kelby2

One of our first (rental) homes had a carpeted bathroom…shag.

The thought of it makes me gag to this day.

Weirdly, my Trumper friend who was also a landlord really, really liked carpeted bathrooms, too.

Personally, I don’t get it. Always struck me as an unsanitary mold farm.

[DavidNRockies]

When I first heard that, I thought it had the rare flavor of Flint, Michigan’s water supply.

Though, partially in reverse and – generally – with a super sized helping of hubris and incompetence.

Textbook Trump.

[needscoffee]

@Johnny_L.A

I just thought I’d share Barbara Walters’ interview with Donald Trump on ABC’s 20/20 - August 17, 1990.

And what is the point of it? I don’t want to watch the whole video to know what you’re talking about.

[Johnny_L.A]

Basically, she calls him on his lies about being a ‘successful businessman’. He, of course, explains that high finance is complicated, and the media were singling him out unfairly. In 1990.

[Jackknifed_Juggernaut]

Trump was just himself, but that video reminded me of what an amazing interviewer Barbara Walters was.

[needscoffee]

@Johnny_L.A

Basically, she calls him on his lies about being a ‘successful businessman’. He, of course, explains that high finance is complicated, and the media were singling him out unfairly. In 1990

Thanks!

Oh geez, I actually saw that last week on FB and forgot! That was a great summary, btw.

[Monty]

@DavidNRockies

Textbook Trump.

I don’t think those two words belong together.

Good Lord! And what do you think the first thing seen at a celebration of the United States of America is?

A shocking display at The Freedom 250 Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., has sparked national fury after a Confederate “Southern Cross” was spotted by visitors on the National Mall.

The Freedom 250 Great American State Fair kicked off on Thursday, June 25, and a visitor noticed the flag on Friday, June 26, and shared the image on Instagram. The controversial image, which was seen inside a privately sponsored North Carolina pavilion, triggered an immediate backlash from top officials and led a major corporate sponsor to withdraw its funding in disgust.

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein led the condemnation, with his office blasting the use of the flag and demanding its immediate removal from the exhibition, reports TMZ.com.

The fraud’s still tossing taxpayer money like it’s confetti.

Donald Trump reportedly used nearly $700,000 in taxpayer funds designated for the National Park Service to replace a White House walkway, despite publicly claiming he paid for the renovations himself.

Internal budget documents obtained by The Atlantic reveal that the pathway connecting the executive residence to the Oval Office cost taxpayers $689,232 to upgrade. The renovation replaced the historic Tennessee flagstone with polished, Italian-carved African granite featuring a specialized flamed-finish stripe.

When questioned by reporters in March regarding the funding source for the path, Trump stated it was “paid for by me.”

However, records show the walkway overhaul was part of a larger $1.3 million project covering adjacent masonry repairs and new door hardware. The documents also disclosed a separate $347,503 “rush project” requested by the president a year earlier to replace stucco on the colonnade wall, which enabled the installation of gold frames and plaques criticizing past administrations.

This spending represents a broader redirection of federal resources. Taxpayer funding for projects in the National Capital Region surged by 92 percent over the last year, drawing from revolving maintenance accounts and more than $100 million in fees collected from national parks across the United States.

There are lies, damn lies, staticstics, and then by far the worst, anything the felon says.

Not that he cares, but the felon’s trashed our reputation around the world.

International trust in the US has collapsed in Donald Trump’s second term, according to a damning new poll, amid growing concerns over the president’s foreign policy.

The Pew Research Center surveyed more than 42,000 people in 36 countries between February and May, finding an overwhelmingly negative response to Trump around the globe.

Overall the poll found 76 percent of adults questioned had no confidence in Trump’s leadership on the world stage, with just 23 percent having confidence.

“Trump gets mostly poor marks for his handling of key foreign policy issues, including tariffs, Gaza, Iran, Greenland and the Russia-Ukraine war,” a report by the nonpartisan American thinktank said. “There is no country surveyed in which attitudes toward him have become more positive.”

And now America has its very own Great Replacement Theory, touted by the felon’s daughter-in-law.

Lara Trump is urging families in the South to have more Republican babies as she promotes a patriotic clothing brand targeting the party’s supporters.

That link is to a video. The quote is part of the blurb. No need to watch it; the blurb has it all.

The United States of America now officially has only one branch of government.

“At every turn, we see this administration undertaking policy motivated by a toxic combination of racism and xenophobia,” said Kristen Clarke, General Counsel at NAACP.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority dealt a devastating blow to more than 350,000 Haitian migrants living in the United States, ruling that the Trump administration’s determination to terminate Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for Haitians, as well as Syrian migrants, was legal.

Most notably, the high court determined that race was not a factor in the administration’s decision to end TPS for Haitians, despite several racist and unsavory remarks President Donald Trump made about them over the years.

“None of the cited statements by either the President or the Secretary was overtly racial, and in substance all expressed policy views that could rest on race-neutral justifications,” reads the majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. “Viewing all the relevant evidence…respondents are unlikely to prove that race was a motivating factor in the decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation, and it follows that they are not entitled to interim relief on their equal protection claim.”

In other words: even the judicial branch cowers before the dictator.

What beautifies the nation’s capital city more than a chain-link fence around a monument to the man who freed people. (The formatting is from the linked article.)

Claim:

Fencing went up around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., in June 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed vandals had damaged the newly renovated monument.

Rating:

Context:

The U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, told Snopes in an emailed statement that the original plan was to surround the pool with fences for the country’s 250th anniversary celebration in July, but “With the increase in vandalism by leftist activists, the fencing is going up earlier than originally planned to ensure no more damage is done to this historic site.”

In late June 2026, a rumor spread that fences went up around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that vandals had sabotaged his effort to renovate and repair the pool, a process that included covering its surface with an “American flag blue” coating.

Several social media posts shared the claim, including on Facebook and Reddit. On X, one post shared a video with a watermark for TMZ, the digital tabloid, showing workers setting up fences around the pool as it rained. The text of the post said “the Trump regime” was fencing up the perimeter of the pool

Who needs the stinking first amendment anyway?

A new report by a Trump administration commission suggests replacing the idea of separating church and state with the idea of building bridges between them.

The assertion — challenging a longstanding concept in American law — comes amid a raft of recommendations in a draft report of the Religious Liberty Commission, released Friday afternoon.

The advisory body was created by President Donald Trump last year and filled almost entirely by conservative Christians. The 224-page draft report — part policy document, part philosophical argument — echoes members’ support for a stronger role for religion and religious expression in government, schools and the public square.

The report applauds recent Supreme Court decisions expanding rights to religious expression in public settings, such as creating opt-outs for religious objections to school lessons.

The report recommends eliminating the " Johnson Amendment " that forbids political activities by tax-exempt religious groups — a longstanding goal of Trump.

That’s not a bridge. It’s a ladder. I’d dearly love to see the high school civics grades of the commissioners.

About time! The first step has been taken to impeach McMahon.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., on Thursday introduced articles of impeachment against Education Secretary Linda McMahon for attempting to abolish the Department of Education.

Though Democrats have been critical of McMahon’s agenda of dismantling the department she leads, Bonamici’s resolution is their first effort to impeach her.

On the House floor Thursday, Bonamici said that McMahon has lied to Congress and she scolded the secretary for making “illegal transfers” of critical Education Department functions to partner agencies.

“It’s completely out of bounds,” Bonamici told ABC News after her floor speech. “You can’t just unilaterally move a program that Congress put at the Department of Education and put it somewhere else,” she said.

The articles of impeachment argue that McMahon has shown a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and that she’s breached the public’s trust while making false statements before Congress.

The felon is a legend in his own so-called mind.

President Donald Trump is once again comparing himself to legendary figures, this time the Greek mythological character Atlas.

On Saturday, Trump posted what appears to be an AI-generated image depicting himself literally holding the world on his shoulders. He is on one knee and is draped in an American flag.

The image appears to be a reference to Atlas, the Titan from Greek mythology tasked with holding the celestial spheres on his shoulders. Later depictions — and those most people are familiar with — depict him holding the Earth.

Note that in the image, he took a knee.

And now we know the real purpose of the felon’s “board of peace”, as if there were any doubt.

The UN-sanctioned Board of Peace announced by Donald Trump earlier this year to rule Gaza is planning a sweeping grant of legal immunity for itself, according to a draft of the resolution obtained by the Guardian. The draft language would also let the organization obtain public property in Gaza “free of charge”.

The four-page resolution, labeled “sensitive but unclassified”, extends broad protections to every member of the Board of Peace and its administrative affiliate, the office of the high representative (OHR), as well as to the Palestinian technocrats, international military forces and nonresident contractors lined up to perform work in Gaza. It defines legal processes from which they would have immunity as “any arrest, detention or legal proceedings in the courts or other entities in Gaza”.

Felon-supporting “Uncle Sam” arrested at the felon’s tacky fair for, you guessed it, lewd act.

A MAGA supporter dressed as Uncle Sam was arrested at Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair after police alleged he committed a lewd act.

Police documents reviewed by the Daily Beast show that Gian Rachtelli was charged with “lewd, indecent, or obscene acts” after three separate witnesses told police they observed what appeared to be a sexual act while watching a troupe of female circus performers.

Rachtelli, 54, has been identified online by supporters as the MAGA livestreamer known as “Manny,” who was broadcasting live from the event. The influencer’s most recent livestream from the day of the arrest cut off abruptly when police officers were shown approaching him, though there was no audio to capture what was being said. He has not posted since.

[Monty]

The wheels on the bus run over the flacks; the wheels on the bus…

President Trump slammed his former national security adviser after he pleaded guilty on Friday to improperly retaining sensitive materials from his time in the White House.

“John Bolton, a very dumb, unbalanced, and unskilled former representative of the United States of America, just pleads guilty!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on late Friday evening.

“He is a terrible person, a lunatic who only wanted to start trouble and wars, and who was a needless pusher of death and destruction wherever he went,” the president continued. “Hopefully, he will be dealt with harshly!”

Wait a minute.

• Terrible person?
• • Check.
• Lunatic who only wants to start trouble and wars?
• • Check.
• Needless pusher of death and destruction wherever he went?
• • Check.

The felon’s talking about himself!

The felon freaks out in advance at SCOTUS.

President Donald Trump’s attacks on the Supreme Court are colliding with a slate of pending rulings, including on birthright citizenship, that could carry outsized consequences for Asian American families.

State of play

Some of the court’s biggest unresolved cases this term test Trump’s reach over government. Soon, the justices must decide whether he can curb birthright citizenship, fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook — a move that would hand him far greater control over the central bank — or remove independent agency heads without cause. Trump is seen as having the strongest odds on the agency-firing case, but there is deeper skepticism toward birthright citizenship and Cook’s ouster. So far, he has attacked the justices in personal terms, at various points calling them “bad,” “stupid” and “weak.”

Nobody’s going to be getting two scoops.

The first day of President Donald Trump’s America extravaganza got off to a runny start.

The food hall at the president’s “Great American State Fair” experienced a power outage on Thursday, which caused dessert vendors’ ice cream to melt, Fox 5 DC reporter Homa Bash revealed.

“Food hall at Great American State Fair has lost power - they have food but tell me all their ice cream has melted​,” Bash wrote in a post on X.

Additionally, reporter Ben Brasch noted on X, “the lights keep turning off and then power back up in one of the food tents.” His post included a video of the lights turning back on, adding that the “daytime crowd here at the Great American State Fair is light.”

Also impacted by the blackout were the food court’s stuffed pretzel rolls, according to USA Today, which ranged in price from $12.48 to $24.96. Workers told the outlet that after the power returned, there was a 30-minute wait before they could heat up additional rolls.

In addition, according to the outlet, the only food stalls open at the beginning of the festivities were turkey legs for $23, a smash cheeseburger for $20, and a giant western sausage for $20. A drink of lemonade, additionally, cost $9.

Felon’s flack freaks out at Fauci.

President Donald Trump senior adviser Peter Navarro flipped out on Dr. Anthony Fauci during a blistering rant on Fox Business Thursday, accusing him of creating the COVID-19 virus that killed millions.

Appearing on “Mornings With Maria,” Navarro said Fauci should be held accountable over his pandemic policies following the release of documents from former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that alleged Fauci covered up the origins of COVID-19 and spread misinformation.

Navarro said that Fauci, who was chief medical adviser to former President Joe Biden, needs to “come clean.”

“You idiot! You need to come clean, Fauci … Quit hiding behind your money and your laurels and your PBS documentaries,” he continued. “Come clean! Because you killed people. All the kids that had to sit in their homes. My mom, I couldn’t see my mom where she was. She was holed up in her apartment getting food under the door. I mean, it’s like a prison.”

I refuse to quote the conspiracy nonsense the felon’s flack blathered in the rest of the linked article.

Federal judge orders USPS to not act like they are election authorities.

June 25 (UPI) – A federal judge barred the U.S. Postal Service from refusing to mail ballots in states that haven’t turned over their registered voter rolls, one day after the postmaster general testified before a Senate committee.

The Postal Service doesn’t have the constitutional authority to administer elections and hasn’t been given the power by Congress to create binding regulations on voting by mail, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said in the decision.

The proposed rule said that states would have to give the Postal Service the names, addresses and ballot barcode numbers for the people who are to get ballots in the mail. The proposal follows President Donald Trump’s executive order from March 31 that requires the federal government to compile state citizenship lists and for the Postal Service to refuse to mail ballots to those the federal government has determined are ineligible to vote.

Talwani also said the timing of the executive order made it impossible for the Postal Service to propose the rule through the proper channels. It offers “no allowance for Congress’ mandated procedure regarding USPS rulemaking.”

There were 23 states that sued the Trump administration to block the executive order.

[Steve_McQwark]

There has been a follow-up to the elephant peeing on the floor at the Texas GOP convention story. In a twist which should not be a surprise to anyone who was not literally born yesterday, no one took out the correct permits to display a wild animal inside the city of Houston. According to an article in the Dallas Morning News

Public record requests submitted by The Dallas Morning News confirmed Trunks and Humps, the Montgomery County exhibitor cited repeatedly for federal animal welfare violations, failed to apply for a permit before bringing Paige to the June 12 convention.

And there is apparently a video showing one of the handlers poking the elephant with a bullhook while she was peeing. Ya know, I thought the original story was a good allegory for the party as a whole, but these new details just add to the GOPness of the story. Create a big spectacle, a showy splash if you will, one that the creators of the mess will absolutely not be cleaning up. Do it without any regard to rules or regulations. And make sure that someone, or in this case some animal, is hurt in the process. As soon as we learn who got a kickback from the animal handlers we will indeed have the perfect GOP story.

This is supposed to be a gift link to the story, but I’ve never done this before so I hope it works correctly.

Client Challenge

[scudsucker]

@Steve_McQwark

but I’ve never done this before

It works.

I wonder why Paige the Elephant is wearing hand-cuffs? (Well, foot-cuffs with a very short chain connecting them.)

Is this an allegory? A prophesy? Or just ordinary Republican callousness?