A horribly SHITTY businessman.

First true thing he's said.

Which is worse, if this is just a lie or if they're just clueless?

JD Vance on Fox & Friends this morning: "One of the things the president has set us out to do as a high priority is to open the straits. That's now happened." (The strait has since been closed lol)

Stephen Miller can fuck right off.

New in PN: Purged BLS leader on the "surprisingly resilient" economy "There is a disconnect between sentiment and hard data — jobs, GDP, investments, etc. Some of it is that views on the economy have become more partisan. But even when you control for that, the disconnect is still there."

So much winning.

🚨 BREAKING: Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters has announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, citing what it calls U.S. failure to uphold the “end-of-war agreement,” Israel’s continued strikes in southern Lebanon, and Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the area. 1/

This week’s Focus Group Pod with Patrick Svitek is NOT one to miss. Our first general election focus groups in the Maine and Texas Senate races. Texas: 2024 Trump voters who disapprove of Trump Maine: 2020 Biden-Collins voters Check it out. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA_i...

Graeme uses his work not only to entertain but also to do so much good in the community, especially for young people. Cannae wait to talk to him about Raveheart on Monday! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙

Bill Pulte, the know-nothing Trump henchman whom Trump maneuvered to make the acting director of national intelligence, on his first day ordered production of a list of 300 people to be fired from the national counterterrorism center, an effective & important part of our counterterrorism operations.

The blame always goes elsewhere

Protecting democracy is all of our obligation and it starts with being informed. I founded Democracy Docket as a resource in the fight for free and fair elections. You can support its work and help the fight by subscribing now. bit.ly/4qmEiFz

Hard hitting reply brief from the 35 judges before Williams. Says Trump's attack on standing is irrelevant, as it is; that circs of this case give strong basis for inves fraud on the court, as they do; and that Court has authority to sanction lawyers, as it does www.courtlistener.com/docket/72207...

New episode of the PN Pod with @paulwaldman.bsky.social is live. We discuss the humiliating Iran MOU, how “chief negotiator” JD Vance is being set up to take the blame, Israel’s increasingly precarious position, our level of concern about Trump refusing to leave power, and much more. Check it out:

Trump claims that Pete Hegseth, who is 0-1 in wars, "doesn't know how to lose"

There is no rift between Vance and Trump on Israel/Iran, per reporting from my Zeteo colleagues: zeteo.com/p/trump-rage...

Trump delivers a rambling speech at Joint Base Andrews about accepting a jet from Qatar to complete and utter silence. You can't hear a single sound from the audience in this 90 second clip.

Trump: "We have the greatest economy that we've ever had" (Consumer sentiment in fact is near all time lows)

Trump while ranting and raving admits his pillaging Venezuela's natural resources: "We take some"

Quick news break: thank you. Whether you're new here or you've been with us since 2020, we're grateful for your support and trust. We know how exhausting the news can be. The fact that you're still here, still engaged, still fighting for democracy is an accomplishment. Let's keep going. Together.

It’s time to call this out. The most unqualified person to ever be SecDef is blocking the promotions of high level people for racial and gender reasons not related to their experience or merit. That makes him a person with racist and sexist issues - and a hack who weakens our armed forces.

The extent of Trump's destruction of Washington, D.C., is truly stunning. It's the ultimate metaphor. The algae-infested Reflecting Pool. The destroyed grass from the UFC event. The bulldozed East Wing grounds. "86 47" etched into the lawn near the Reflecting Pool. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz

t appears the paint or whatever the Trump regime used to cover the large "86 47" etched into the lawn near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has worn away, and the numbers are once again visible. June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz

An aerial view shows crews dismantling the UFC fighting venue on the South Lawn of the White House. The grass on the Ellipse has been completely destroyed following the UFC viewing party. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz

These 19 election deniers and vote suppressors are on the ballot in the midterms. We should be worried. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

According to the book Regime Change, Donald Trump repeatedly called Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick a "pussy" after Lutnick initially pushed back on Trump's tariff plans. The book says Lutnick eventually embraced the insult, allegedly referring to himself as Trump's "$25 billion pussy."

This is genocidal rhetoric. Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared: "For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep." "All of Lebanon must burn." A senior member of Netanyahu's government is openly calling for collective punishment.

If you'd like to support my work AND the critical election litigation that Marc's team does, please pre-order a copy of THE DAY AFTER today: www.harpercollins.com/pages/theday...

Proud to announce I’m partnering with @marcelias.bsky.social's 501(c)3, the Free Election Fund, which supports pro-democracy, voting rights and election litigation. I’m donating proceeds from every book sold to the Free Election Fund. AND my editor AND publisher will match those funds.

More dates than a sticky toffee pudding! Our wee tour has been EXPANDED, which is very exciting but also quite terrifying. Tickets available for all dates here. 👇 linktr.ee/paulleonardm...

A few shots of the Reflecting Pool today as crews continue working to remove the algae while paint continues peeling from the bottom. June 19, 2026. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz.

NEWS: A senior Iranian official is accusing the U.S. of already violating the new memorandum of understanding. Ebrahim Azizi said Washington's actions show it "lacks the will" to earn Iran's trust and warned that continued violations would bring a "smart and deterrent response."

The question is not what Blanche said to Congress. It's whether those words, coupled with the adamant refusal to put anything in writing, make the settlement agreement moot as a legal matter. Brinkema well within her rights to say they do not. And at that point DOJ has a renewed problem w/ Congress

This is simply not a moot settlement agreement within any regular legal analysis. Possibly they could argue ripeness. But their intransigence demonstrates the agreement is not dead and buried. And they obviously are loathe to make it so.

DOJ says no need to file declarations because Blanche already said fund not going forward, so won't comply with Brinkema's order. Unbelievably provocative and squirrelly; and won't satisfy Brinkema storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

There’s also serious saber rattling going on here. They’re telling her that if she orders the declarations, they will take her up on emergency review to the 4th circuit. It’s a very charged situation.

DOJ spoling for a showdown & saying you can't force declarations from senior officials. But these are the very senior officials whose names are on the agreement! And Woodward signed it. Normal args for not calling on senior people to respond shouldn't apply where they are the actual line attorneys.

There also overstating the level of assurance. Read carefully, the briefs that they count as independent affirmations of mootness only state that Blanche made the statements he made. In other words, it's bootstrapping.

The lack of curiosity from corporate media to seriously deal with Trump’s health as he now exhibits nearly a dozen bizarre visible behaviors and physical phenomena is really something.

"Vance’s bold vision of a new authoritarian world, with the US at its center, seemed to be imperiled. But then came Trump’s defeat in his Iran war, and what could, surprisingly, prove to be Vance’s boldest pro-authoritarian move yet." — @davidrlurie.com

Trump says the green Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is "crystal clear." And the backstory of the no-bid contract reveals stunning details. Plus: the Iran MOU is collapsing, Israel keeps bombing. Trump picked a fight with Italy's PM, and more. Catch up:

🧵

Wild story: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/u...

The $1.7 million no-bid contract to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool went to a company ultimately owned by Trump donor John J. Cafaro, who previously pleaded guilty in separate federal cases involving bribery and campaign finance violations. The company's name? Greenwater Services.

Here are Italian PM Meloni's remarks about Trump, translated to English: "Donald Trump's statements are completely made up. I am frankly stunned. I don't know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies..."

If there is a silver lining, it is that the “only we know best” Trump regime inevitably commits humiliating self-owns on virtually all policy fronts — from a disastrous war and even more disastrous ceasefire deal to failed revenge prosecutions to inflation.

We get govt of, by, and for the paranoid and self-centered. “Our current leadership in Washington believes that empathy is a weakness and that our nation stands supreme and alone,” O’Brien noted. (Certainly “alone”; “supreme” in nothing but lost political support.) open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

Today we celebrate Juneteenth, the day freedom's news finally reached the last enslaved Americans in Texas, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Justice delayed is justice denied. We honor those before us and recommit to the fight for civil rights and equal justice.

wow -- Newsmax hosts are not mincing words about the fact that Trump lost his war against Iran