Convicted Felon Donald Chump has found a new way to harm the world -- going to war on Iran. Alex Henderson reports:
Early
Saturday morning, February 28, Americans woke up to the news that U.S.
forces, on orders from President Donald Trump, were carrying out
military strikes against Iran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Shiite
fundamentalist dictator since 1989, was killed. And since then, the
conflict has escalated — with Iran launching retaliatory strikes against
U.S. military installations in Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) and other countries in the Middle East. The U.S. Embassy in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to Saudi officials, was attacked by
Iranian drones. And Israel is facing missile strikes from both Iran and
Lebanon's pro-Iran Shiite militia Hezbollah.
During an appearance on The New Republic's podcast, "The Daily Blast,"
posted on March 3, journalist Mark Jacob cited the strikes against Iran
as an example of how "erratic" Trump is at this point. And he warned
that Trump will grow even more "erratic" as his desperation grows.
When
host Greg Sargent noted that only 27 percent of Americans, according to
a Reuters poll, approve of Trump's attack on Iran, Jacob responded, "I
mean, he was already way down in the polls. There's actually not that
much farther he can go, considering that some people will support
absolutely anything he does because of the whole cult mentality, which
we've been talking about for a long time. He really has lost the
country, opinion-wise. And one thing that scares me is that as that
happens, he becomes more desperate and does more erratic and autocratic
things."
Jacob noted that Trump has set off a
broad conflict in the Middle East, "What he's done is unleash a Middle
East war — it's not just an attack between Israel, the U.S., and Iran;
all these other countries are involved now, and Lebanon is in it. So he
has sparked a wide war in the Middle East, and you don't put the genie
back in the bottle that fast. So, I think it's going to be very
damaging…. And I think you may find some Republicans start saying,
'Well, this is not a good idea.'"
He has no clue, his mind is failing him, and he is a threat to himself and others. John Towfighi (CNN) notes:
Global
stocks remained volatile for a second day Tuesday, moving sharply lower
as concern mounted among investors that the widening conflict in the
Middle East could escalate further.
The Dow
tumbled 1,140 points, or 2.33%, shortly after the market open. The
S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq each sank 2.1%. Wall Street’s fear
gauge, the VIX, surged 22% and hit its highest level in three months.
Stocks
in Europe and Asia were lower for a second day. Europe’s benchmark
Stoxx 600 sank 3.2%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 3.06%. South Korea’s Kospi
index tumbled 7.24%, posting its worst day since April. Markets in South
Korea were closed Monday in observance of a holiday.
President Donald Trump has less than 30 days to end the Iran conflict before his hopes of lowering inflation start to fizzle.
Markets
are pricing in a short, surgical U.S. military operation — a “Venezuela
II” scenario where the bad guy falls, order returns and oil drifts
lower. If that assumption proves wrong, crude will climb, rate cuts will
be pushed further out and Trump’s economic messaging will collapse
(along with his “peacemaker” moniker).
Along with the lives he is destroying -- six American service members so far and hundreds of Iranians -- he is yet again destroying the economy.
Tuesday March 3, 2026. The death toll in Iran increases -- for Iranian
civilians, for US service members -- as Chump tries to distract from The
Epstein Files with his war of choice.
The war over Iran engulfed more of the Middle East on Monday as
strikes intensified, Iran-backed groups stepped up attacks and a sixth
U.S. service member was killed in action.
Trump has said his
administration expects the conflict to go on for "four to five weeks,
but we have capability to go far longer than that."
The
Iranian Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization, said at least
555 Iranians have been killed since the beginning of the joint
U.S.-Israeli military campaign on Saturday.
Videos shared by Iranian state media and
independently verified by The New York Times showed thousands of people
attending a funeral procession in the southern town of Minab on Tuesday
for victims of a strike on an elementary school. The school was in
session on Saturday when an airstrike hit it, killing 175 people,
Iranian officials and rights groups said.
Some
of the funeral-goers held photographs of victims aloft as group prayers
were recited, and a large vehicle carried small coffins draped in the
Iranian flag through the crowd. Other videos showed people in the crowd
chanting “Death to Israel” and proclamations of support for the Islamic
Republic.
Today on MORNING JOE, David
Ignatius spoke with Joe and Mika about how this is not another Venezuela
with Iran calling this "a war of endurance."
Last night on MS NOW, Rachel Maddow noted how FBI Director Ka$h Patel had made the US less safe.
Patel
"fired a dozen FBI agents and staff last week for their role in the
classified documents investigation of Donald Trump, he targeted an elite
counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign
adversaries and specializes in Iran, according to more than a half dozen
sources with knowledge of the firings."
And it's not just Ka$h getting things wrong as Rachel notes in the segment below.
One of the reasons for Chump's war on Iran is to distract from The Epstein Files. It's not working. Rasmussen Poll notes:
Even
after the release of millions of documents related to the late Jeffrey
Epstein, a majority of voters still suspect the Trump administration of
trying to conceal evidence of the president’s association with the
disgraced finance mogul.
The latest Rasmussen
Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 54% of Likely
U.S. Voters believe it’s likely that administration officials are
engaged in a cover-up to hide Donald Trump’s involvement with Epstein –
including 40% who consider a cover-up Very Likely. Forty percent (40%)
say it’s not likely administration officials are engaged in a cover-up,
including 26% who consider it Not At All Likely. Last July, 60% thought
it was likely that the administration was covering up a Trump-Epstein
scandal. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Last
month, the Department of Justice published more than 3 million pages of
documents related to the case of Epstein, who died in custody in 2019
amid sex-trafficking accusations. However, only 43% of voters are
confident that the public now has access to the full truth about the
Epstein case, including just 18% who are Very Confident the full truth
is known. Nearly half (49%) are not confident they have the full truth
about Epstein, including 24% who are Not At All Confident.
People are right to wonder about what hasn't been released when so much remains unreleased and unexplained. Matthew Rozsa notes:
President
Donald Trump said he was going to expose the deep state and end
America’s regular warmaking, and yet according to a former Republican
congressman, Trump is supporting the deep state and waging
unconstitutional wars.
“If you're a Trump
supporter right now, you're a Trump voter right now, you're Mr. or Mrs.
MAGA right now, man, your head's gotta be swimming, baby,” former Rep.
Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said in a Substack post on Monday.
“You got to be dizzy, baby, because not only do you know now MAGA, not
only do you know now Trump voter, that Donald Trump is actually on the
side of the deep state — and that's been so tough for you to grasp, and
it has been, because I engage with hundreds of Trump voters every single
day, and Donald Trump keeping doing what he can do to keep the Epstein
files hidden, and man, the disillusionment I've heard from MAGA, the
confusion I've heard from MAGA is off the charts.”
PBS'
AMANPOUR & COMPANY featured NPR's Stephen Fowler who broke the news
of the Justice Dept hiding documents of a witness detailing -- three
times -- that Donald Chump assaultedher.
The
state of New Mexico attempted to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s state
residence in 2019. Then the Trump administration got involved.
Epstein’s
Zorro Ranch, located roughly 30 miles south of Santa Fe in the high
desert, was rumored to be a hotbed of illicit activity. Some of the
notorious child sex offender’s victims, including Virginia Giuffre,
claimed they were trafficked at the New Mexico estate, and emails issued
by ranch staffers allege that the bodies of at least two girls were
killed and buried under the building by Epstein’s order, according to
documents made public by the Justice Department via the Epstein files.
Epstein even contemplated turning the estate, which he purchased in
1993, into a headquarters for genetic engineering experiments.
Yet
somehow, the property—dubbed “Playboy Ranch” among locals—has never
properly been investigated, according to New Mexico officials.
A
report by The New York Times, published Monday, revealed that state
officials had every intention to do so—until the first Trump
administration intervened in 2019. The government ordered New Mexico to
turn over its probe to federal prosecutors, but then they closed the
case, according to recently unsealed records obtained by the Times.
Grasp
that. Chump covered for Epstein then. Just like he covers for Epstein
now. Howard Lutnick is in The Epstein Files and has repeatedly lied to
the American people. A photo of him at Epstein Island popped up and
then the Justice Dept disappeared it. Friday, Janna Brancolini (DAILY BEAST) reported:
Pam
Bondi’s Department of Justice has offered a questionable explanation
for the removal of a photo of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick from its
public library of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein.
The photo, which was found in a
downloaded cache of Epstein files but was later removed from the DOJ’s
dedicated site, appears to show Epstein and Lutnick walking on Little
St. James, the Caribbean island where many of Epstein’s crimes took
place.
It also shows three other unidentified men,
all wearing baggy shorts and T-shirts or button-down shirts, while
Epstein is dressed in a white T-shirt and pants.
In
a statement to the Daily Beast, a DOJ official said the image was “part
of a batch of files that had been flagged for nudity.”
“The
batch of thousands of images was pulled for review and is being
uploaded with necessary redactions on a rolling basis,” the official
said. “No files are being deleted.”
All of the men in the photo are fully clothed.
The
picture was located by “jmail,” a site run by two tech workers who have
created a searchable version of Epstein’s Gmail inbox by downloading
all of the latest releases.
The DOJ’s
explanation for its removal was particularly shameless, given that more
than 100 explicit photos of Epstein’s victims were accidentally uploaded
to the portal before being removed and redacted.
Howard
Lutnick has so far defied Beltway predictions of his ouster as commerce
secretary, but his appearance in the Jeffrey Epstein files has put him
in his toughest spot yet.
During an awkward
appearance before a Senate panel recently, the billionaire former chief
executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP sought to explain a 2012 trip
to the disgraced financier’s private island. The visit with the
notorious sex offender came years after his conviction for procurement
of minors for prostitution — and during a period in which Lutnick had
claimed he had no contact with Epstein.
Lutnick
repeatedly insisted he “barely had anything to do” with Epstein and
stressed that his wife, four children and nannies were with him for the
island visit.
He may not be done with his
explanations. House Oversight Chairman James Comer told reporters
Thursday it was possible Lutnick would be called to testify in the
chamber’s Epstein probe. Comer added that there was a “possibility that
his name will arise in some questioning today,” as he prepared to depose
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill
Clinton.
Pam
Bondi, Attorney General and all around fool, played dumb last month
when asked by the House Judiciary Committee, about the prison transfer
of Ghislaine Maxwell. That's not going over well. Arthur Delaney (HUFFINGTON POST) reports:
The
Justice Department has to explain why Jeffrey Epstein’s sole convicted
co-conspirator won a transfer to a cushy federal prison camp last year,
Democrats told U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a letter on Monday.
The
Epstein Files Transparency Act specifically requires the government to
release all documents related to Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a
20-year prison sentence for her role in Epstein’s *** abuse schemes. The
text of the statute doesn’t distinguish between documents from her
criminal case and anything more recent.
That
means the Justice Department is legally required to put out any
documents “related to her transfer to a minimum-security prison camp
where she has been granted numerous unusual special privileges,” Reps.
Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)
said in a letter to Bondi.
The Bureau of
Prisons, which is part of the Justice Department, transferred Maxwell
from a low-security facility in Florida to a minimum security prison
camp in Texas. The transfer happened days after Deputy U.S. Attorney
Todd Blanche conducted an unusual interview with Maxwell last year in
which she said she never witnessed President Donald Trump behave
improperly when she, he and Epstein were all partying together in the
late 1990s and early 2000s.
People
are right not to trust Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche and Donald Chump. All
have been caught lying too often on this topic. And the release of the
files has not taken place as it was supposed to. There are files that
have still not been released. Those include the files regarding the
woman accusing Donald Chump of assault when she was a teenager. They
have been highly selective in what they've released.
Rep.
Thomas Massie issued a pointed reminder on Sunday that war won’t
distract him from his push to force the Department of Justice to release
all documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
“PSA:
Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won’t make the Epstein
files go away, any more than the Dow going above 50,000 will,” the
Kentucky libertarian wrote on X.
Massie is one of
several Trump critics who have accused the president of staging foreign
policy crises and other White House controversies to deflect scrutiny
from his historic relationship with Epstein, particularly as new Justice
Department documents related to the late sex trafficker’s crimes are
released.
In January, critics also alleged that
the administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
served as a temporary reprieve from bipartisan pressure surrounding
Trump’s ties to Epstein, who once described himself as Trump’s “closest
friend.”
It's not going away. He
doesn't have Bill Barr to help him hide it this go round. He's got Pam
Bondi and she's an idiot. In fact, she created the problem for him.
She wanted some easy press so she said she had the files on her desk.
Told that to FOX "NEWS." And Chump called her out on it. Because she
hadn't looked at the files and didn't know what was in them. But Chump
did. And all these months later, her incompetence has kept it in the
news.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Bondi, Wiles reportedly met with Netflix CEO mere hours before Netflix dropped out of bidding war
“If Paramount Skydance’s deal
with Warner Bros. goes through, one family will become a dominant force
in American entertainment…Federal antitrust law is designed to prevent
mergers that would create massive conglomerates like this, which are bad
for our economy and for Americans.”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), Representative Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), and Senator Richard
Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House
Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on their role in Netflix abandoning its bid
to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (Warner Bros.), and whether political
influence with the Trump administration helped Paramount Skydance
(Paramount) win instead. Bondi and Wiles reportedly met with Netflix CEO
Ted Sarandos hours before the company dropped its bid, and President
Trump reportedly favored Paramount to buy Warner Bros.
“Your conversations with Mr. Sarandos…rais[e] suspicions that the
Trump administration’s DOJ is making merger review decisions based on
politicized favoritism rather than the law or the facts,” wrote the lawmakers.
On February 26th, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos reportedly met with Bondi,
Wiles, and Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust officials in an
attempt to dissuade the administration from blocking the Netflix-Warner
Bros. merger on antitrust grounds. Hours later, Netflix bowed out of the
Warner Bros. bidding war, leaving Paramount as the apparent winner of
the contest to purchase the company.
From the beginning, President Trump reportedly favored Paramount’s
bid to take over Warner Bros. As a result of its merger with media giant
Skydance in 2025, Paramount is owned by Trump ally David Ellison.
Ellison’s allies have reportedly suggested Paramount “is the only buyer
who would pass muster with Trump administration regulators,” and made
“Trump’s implicit support for the deal … their number one talking point”
in negotiations. Just last week, Ellison attended the State of the
Union address as a guest of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
“[Your reported meetings with Mr. Sarandos] look even more disturbing
because the meetings occurred just days after the politicized ouster of
Antitrust Division Chief Gail Slater and amidst increasing lobbyist
influence over DOJ’s antitrust work,” wrote the lawmakers.
Public reporting indicates DOJ leadership has been meeting with
lobbyists and influence-peddlers for companies involved in merger
discussions, and has repeatedly overridden antitrust concerns in order
to approve massive deals. One such lobbying firm is Ballard Partners,
hired by both Netflix and Paramount. Federal law requires executive
branch officials to recuse themselves from matters of former employers
they worked for in the past year, but Bondi and Wiles, who both worked
for Ballard Partners, “appear to be heavily involved in politicized
discussions about the merger.”
David Ellison is the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, who
recently acquired a stake in TikTok. If Paramount successfully merges
with Warner Bros., the Ellison family will own Warner Bros., Paramount+,
HBO, CBS News, CNN, TNT, TBS, Food Network, Discovery Channel, Animal
Planet, HGTV, among other media properties, and have partial ownership
of TikTok’s U.S. business. Paramount is expected to derive $6 billion in
“synergies” from the deal, which could come largely from firing workers
and cutting content.
“Federal antitrust law is designed to prevent mergers that would
create massive conglomerates like this, which are bad for our economy
and for Americans,” wrote the lawmakers.
“The American people deserve to know what Mr. Sarandos was seeking in
your meetings, what you said to him, and how your discussions may have
contributed to Netflix backing out of the bidding war,” the lawmakers concluded.
The lawmakers asked Bondi and Wiles to provide details about their
conversations regarding the Warner Bros. merger, including any
communications with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and Paramount CEO David
Ellison, by March 16, 2026.
Convicted Felon Donald Chump continues to break the rules. Senator Tom Cotton defends him for doing that. Katie Francis (DAILY BEAST) reports:
Sen.
Tom Cotton on Sunday was put on the defensive over President Trump’s
decision to announce a war in a Truth Social video instead of seeking
congressional authorization.
Pressed on Face
the Nation about whether Americans are “owed something more” than an
eight-minute clip unveiling deadly strikes on Iran, Cotton brushed aside
concerns.
“I think an eight-minute address to the
American people, whether the president posted on social media or whether
it happens on your network, is in-keeping with presidential custom of
addressing the American people,” he said of the clip, which was posted
to TruthSocial around 4 a.m. Saturday.
Cotton
added: “Again, I’m sure that he’s going to be speaking more in coming
days. The administration will be briefing Congress, and we’re all going
to have a vote in Congress, the Democrats are forcing a vote.”
Cotton
also waved off polls showing 74 percent of Americans believe Trump
needs Congress’ approval before taking military action.
Sadly for Mr. Cotton, not all Americans agree with him or, for that matter, the majority disagree with him.
A
post to social media? That is how Mr. Chump announces a war? That is
not acceptable. He should have spoken to the American people and made a
case for war. He did not do so. He is not presidential in any way or
form. He is a convicted felon who thinks the rules do not apply to
him.
Some comments on the article:
Gerry Laga
21 hours ago
Well,
it seems Trump found a way to get criticism of his lie-filled State of
the Union Address off of the Sunday Morning talking heads shows.
However, Trump keeps escalating his distractions. Where can he go from here?
Mel Pfeiffer
21 hours ago
Cotton
is just another sycophant who continues to enable our current president
and allow him much more power than checks and balances would permit.
Our three branches of government are supposed to be co-equal but are
certainly not functioning that way.
Neil Watson
6 hours ago
“I think an eight-minute address to the American people"
I'm
an "American people" who does not think I should have to join a social
media network that makes a crooked politician richer, just to know what
my country is doing.
J**** H
14 hours ago
The
lies and mistruths coming from Trump, his administration and his
followers in congress have GOT TO STOP! He has already destroyed our
NATO allies trust, our Country's safety, economy and trust of Americans
with the constant cover-ups including the Epstein files, his corrosive
lies and political hate rhetoric he and his administration spews
constantly.
Meanwhile Trump's
loyal MAGA boot licking congress refuses to do their job and SWORN OATH
to our Country and Constitution and STOP HIM, while proving their own
GUILT to his illegal actions. Maybe they forgot we are a democratic
republic which has 3 branches of government that are supposed to be
lawful and bipartisan, instead of being clouded by Trumps insane and
corrupt attempt to dismantle EVERYTHING the USA stands for!
Ginger Peale
19 hours ago
This
is insane. Under No Circumstances does the president have the
authority to initiate regime change in another country by military
force. Also, the majority of the American people aren’t on Truth
Social, and even if they were Trump is required to get consent from
Congress before taking any military action unless it is under imminent
threat.
After
unleashing operation "Epic Fury" in Iran, President Donald Trump is
facing MAGA skepticism at home as the military campaign threatens to
strain his political coalition heading into the midterm election.
Trump
campaigned as a staunch critic of U.S. wars in the Middle East, and his
aggressive foreign policy moves since returning to office have sparked
backlash within the MAGA movement, including accusations he has betrayed
those who subscribed to his anti-interventionist, “America First”
pledges.
And it is not just the people in the center and on the left who are disgusted with Mr. Chump. Zac Anderson (USA TODA) notes:
After
unleashing operation "Epic Fury" in Iran, President Donald Trump is
facing MAGA skepticism at home as the military campaign threatens to
strain his political coalition heading into the midterm election.
Trump
campaigned as a staunch critic of U.S. wars in the Middle East, and his
aggressive foreign policy moves since returning to office have sparked
backlash within the MAGA movement, including accusations he has betrayed
those who subscribed to his anti-interventionist, “America First”
pledges.
Polling indicates
many Republicans are wary of military involvement in Iran, presenting a
challenge as the president works to keep them motivated in a crucial
election year. That skepticism has been aired publicly by prominent
voices on the right since the U.S. and Israel launched a military
campaign targeting Iran’s leadership, missile sites and nuclear program.
Tucker
Carlson, a long-time Trump backer and former FOX News host who recently
attended a White House event, was scathing in an ABC News interview,
describing the Iran operation that was launch on Feb. 28 as "absolutely
disgusting and evil."
Others in the MAGA sphere
questioned how the operation squares with the spirit of the president’s
political movement, which over three White House campaigns centered
around a more populist approach that eschewed years of GOP foreign
policy orthodoxy on utilizing American military might.
“I
don’t see how this is in keeping with the president’s MAGA commitment.
I’m disappointed,” Trump ally Erik Prince, a private military
contractor, said Feb. 1 on a podcast hosted by Steven Bannon, who served
as White House chief strategist during Trump’s first term.
Former
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has become a fervent Trump critic
after years as one of his top supporters in Congress, accused the
president and his team in a flurry of social media posts after the
initial attack on Iran of betraying their promises.
Greene
called the Trump administration “sick (expletive) liars” in a Feb. 27
post declaring, “We voted for America First and ZERO wars.”
And regardless of political stripe, most Americans are against Mr. Chump and Mr. Netanyahu's war on Iran. Camilla Jessen (DAGENS) reports:
A
new Reuters/Ipsos survey shows most U.S. adults do not support recent
U.S. military action against Iran and believe President Donald Trump is
too quick to use force abroad.
The poll,
conducted during the initial coordinated Israeli and U.S. strikes on
Iran, found that just 27 percent of Americans approved of the military
action, while 43 percent disapproved and about 29 percent were
undecided, according to Reuters.
Some comments on the article:
Stephen Dahl
5 hours ago
We
have three branches of government and the president is supposed to go
through Congress to get approval before attacking another country.
Trump is not doing that. Trump is not abiding by his oath of office,
he's circumventing our written laws and our Constitution. It's beyond
obvious that he does not respect what our founding fathers created for
us all.
holly R
1 hour ago
So,
what is the long-term strategy? Our troops are supposed to go in and
kill without providing any plans for a long-term stability in Iran?
Telling ordinary people who don't have guns, the equivalent of "Well,
we've done the hard work now you find people to run your country is just
stupid! Haven't heard a thing about that. The felon goes in, starts a
"war" we don't need to be involved (Iran doesn't have the capability to
do anything to us) in while partying in with his billionaire friends in
Florida? Are you kidding me?
Mike Marcel
2 hours ago
Seeing
Trump partying in his Florida cave while reports of war were pouring in
was grotesque; it looked like some kind of twisted carnival. I’ve
served during wartime, and the idea that our Commander‑in‑Chief would be
off celebrating while my life and the lives of my brothers‑in‑arms were
on the line is beyond infuriating. And then hearing from negotiators
that there was actual progress toward a breakthrough before the attack?
It makes it painfully clear this was Trump flexing for show and trying
to pull attention away from Epstein. It’s revolting.
Monday, March 2, 2026. To distract from The Epstein Files and the tanking economy, Chump starts a war.
What's Ben talking about this morning on MEIDASTOUCH NEWS?
If
you had a weekend and tuned out, you're forgiven for not knowing. On
Friday, Chump was in negotiations with Iran. Early Saturday morning,
Chump and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu went to war on Iran.
When President Donald Trump addressed the cameras this morning to announce the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran,
he put the theocracy’s nuclear program in his sights: “They’ve rejected
every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can’t
take it anymore.” He denounced them for attempting to “rebuild their
nuclear program” and “developing the long-range missiles that can now
threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops
stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.”
What the president elides is that he scotched the nuclear deal that,
imperfect though it was, provided monitoring of Tehran’s nuclear program
and might have prevented this moment. He was trying to forge his own
one through his son-in-law as recently as Thursday. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
was signed by Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council
(the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China) and Germany. The
European Union also took part. The JCPOA was never intended to curb the Mullahs’ support for Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis,
or terrorists inside Iraq any more than the arms control regimes
negotiated by American presidents from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan
required the Soviets to abandon Eastern Europe or Communism. Instead, it
had a limited purview. To unwind its nuclear program, Iran agreed to
very low levels of enrichment of nuclear materials and an inspection
regime that kept real human inspectors and sophisticated monitoring
equipment at the country’s nuclear sites. In exchange, Tehran would get
sanctions relief, including the unfreezing of certain assets. Hence, the
infamous plane of cash dispatched to Iran for which Barack Obama received so much grief.
Did the JCPOA work? Not perfectly, and there were plenty of
Democratic skeptics of the program, including Senator Chuck Schumer and
former Senator Ben Cardin, who had chaired the Foreign Relations
Committee, both of whom voted against the agreement. What is certain is
that when Trump scuttled the accord,
the P5+1 signatories and key international monitoring bodies, such as
the International Atomic Energy Agency, lost their ability to assess
Tehran’s nuclear status. Iran walked away from it, too.
In the absence of any international nuclear monitoring in Iran, we’re
blind, in a situation where the U.S. and Israel supposedly eviscerated
the Shia regime’s nuclear program last year, but were apparently caught
unaware of its build-back efforts and are striking again. One minute, the president is doing an end-zone dance about crushing Iran’s nukes.
Months later, he is sounding like George W. Bush, standing before
Congress, suggesting America’s enemy is getting close to launching
nuclear missiles.
President Donald Trump responded to the death of three U.S. service members by bragging he got a "great deal" in the war that ended their lives.
[. . .]
"We expect casualties with something like this," the president said. "We
have three, but we expect casualties - but in the end it's going to be a
great deal for the world."
We should all remember
that Chump received multiple deferments during the Vietnam War. He
refused to serve. And he refused to protest the war. He was for it as
long as he didn't have to go. And now, all these years later after
having been a Chicken Hawk, he's sent others to die in a war.
Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan (N.Y.), an Army veteran, accused President Trump on Sunday of not looking out for U.S. troops, as three American service members have so been far been killed during the operation against Iran.
Speaking to Kaitlan Collins on CNN, Ryan said Trump not answering
questions from reporters at the White House on the three Americans
killed is “pathetic.”
“For the president to not answer those questions, to have nothing to
say to those family members, is pathetic. It’s pathetic. And it’s
because he doesn’t have answers. There is not a plan here, if [there] is
he’s not sharing it with the American people,” added the New York
Democrat, who was an Army intelligence officer during the Iraq War.
Ryan later said the U.S. operation against Iran,
which began in tandem with Israel early Saturday, harkens memories of
“past ill-conceived, half-baked, regime-change wars that sound good
until they start, and then all of a sudden no one knows what the heck is
going on, and it’s young American men and women that pay the price, and
that pisses me off.”
Mike Walz was Chump's
National Security Advisor until he took the fall for Signal gate and
ended up being made the US representative to the United Nations. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) notes Walz reposted the announcement of the three dead:
That
set off a wave of outrage, with Missouri Democratic House of
Representatives candidate Fred Wellman writing, “Three service members
died and you act like it was a check. You are just disgusting. None of you give a damn about our military members.”
“This is disgusting. Vile. Tone deaf. What is wrong with you?” asked Nikkib.
Former Republican Paige suggested, “I’m sure their families are not comforted by these words.”
“Freedom for who?” America First conservative David Giglio asked.
Podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen raged, “Three Americans dead and Trump’s UN Ambassador waves it off with some bulls—t jingoism. From the people who wailed about Benghazi for a decade. Absolute soulless ghouls.”
Former Trump ally-turned-foe Marjorie Taylor Greene also took aim at far-right influencer Laura Loomer’s response to the deaths.
“3 US Service members have been killed in action as part of Operation
Epic Fury,” Loomer wrote. “American heroes. God bless them and their
families.”
In response, Greene wrote:
“This b—h is celebrating the death of American military members and
thanking their families for their blood sacrifice. Loomer lost two
Congressional races bc nobody respected her or valued her enough to
elect her.”
Greene continued: “But this is who
Trump takes late night calls from and laps up her praise and worship.
Loomer hated Charlie Kirk bc he spoke out against war with Iran the same
way I do. War with Iran is AMERICA LAST and we voted against it the
same way voters voted against Laura Loomer twice!”
The
former Georgia congresswoman went even further: “And now Americans are
once again coming home in flag draped coffins from another stupid
pointless foreign war for foreign regime change on behalf of Israel. And
Laura Loomer demanded it and begged for it. Sign up for the military,
Laura! Go to the front lines, Laura! Maybe then they’ll give you a gun.
You don’t love Trump enough unless you go fight Iran yourself.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
asked whether President Trump was “too mentally incapacitated” to
realize he set the stage for the growth of Iran’s nuclear program during his first term.
“Has
President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran
and forever wars in the Middle East?” Kaine asked. “Is he too mentally
incapacitated to realize that we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran
that was keeping its nuclear program in check, until he ripped it up
during his first term?”
Chump
isn't able to walk a straight line, his mind meanders. The signs of
dementia are evident. He's a madman who needs to be relieved of his
duties. Marcia regularly charts Chump's decline. Last week, she did so
in three posts:
He's
79 years old, will hit 80 in July. Has a family history of dementia.
Exhibits all the signs of dementia. Tim Kaine is right to wonder if
Chump is "too mentally incapacitated to realize" what is going on.
Senator Mark Warner: I
am down in Hampton Roads part of Virginia where most of the sailors in
the conflict area are from. I had four events today. Half the crowd in
these events knew people who were deployed. And they have no idea why
their sons and daughters are being put in harms way. You know, the
president, a week ago, said Iran's nuclear activities he claimed had
been obliterated seven months ago. He then switched to saying this was
about Iran's ballistic missile capacity. And now -- in the last 36
hours -- regime change. Why are the sons and daughters -- now
casualties, some of them -- in harms way? What is the essential
criteria for America being in this war? I can tell you as
someone who was part of the Gan of 8, there is and was no eminent,
immediate threat from Iran against America. So "why take this action
now?" is the question I'm getting from the parents and friends of
sailors deployed and I don't have any answer for them.
Emily Kwong:
President Trump said in this statement "sadly there will likely be
more" referring to US casualties. What do you make of that?
Senator
Mark Warner: Well I make of it the fact that this is a war of choice
chosen by Donald Trump in the Middle East where our record has not been
great. Again, there was no intelligence that showed and immediate,
eminent threat. That should be normally the criteria --
Emily Kwong: Let's --
Senator Mark Warner -- matter of fact, let me just, matter
of fact if the president had chosen to take action back in January when
the Iranian people were on the streets in record numbers, he would have
more of a case but he couldn't do it then because the aircraft carrier
that was needed was off the coast of Venezuela and our allies that would
be normally supportive were concerned rightly about Chump's plans on
Greenland.
Sunday also saw Senator Chris Murphy appear on CBS' FACE THE NATION:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Joining us now is Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, good morning.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: Good morning.
MARGARET
BRENNAN: You have called for Congress to return to Washington and to
vote on whether to try to essentially halt this military action. No War
Powers Resolution has ever overcome a presidential veto. Why do you
think you need to take one?
SEN. MURPHY: Well, nobody in this
country is asking for war with Iran. Just like months ago, no one in
this country was asking for war with Venezuela. This President is
intentionally tanking our economy. He's the most corrupt president in
the history of our nation, and Americans want him to focus on the crises
here at home. Instead, he is busy getting us involved in quagmires
overseas that already are becoming deadly to American soldiers. This is a
disaster. It is illegal, and the President is obligated under the
Constitution to come to Congress and ask for an authorization of
military force. He wouldn't get that authorization if he asked for it.
Congress wouldn't vote to give him the permission to do it, but he's
obligated to come to Congress.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The
administration would argue Venezuela was a limited military operation.
They see- They're not explaining to the public yet, beyond that Twitter
video, exactly what the plan is here, but the President has tweeted, in a
way, describing this as an open ended conflict until peace is achieved.
You are using the term war. You do consider this to be a war?
SEN.
MURPHY: Oh, of course, we are engaged in regular, ongoing military
strikes that have, that has already killed American soldiers with the
goal of regime change. If that is not war, what is? Now, the president
has said that the goal is regime change, and the goal is to eliminate
Iran's missile program and their nuclear program. He is not going to
succeed in either of those endeavors. His intelligence agencies have
already told him that the most likely outcome is that hardline members
of the IRGC replace the current leadership. So we're not going to get a
democracy. We're going to get an even worse Iranian leadership. We
already know that you can't bomb their nuclear program out of existence.
He told us last year that he had obliterated the program, and then
apparently, over the course of the last year, they had gotten back to
within a week. So we're going to have Americans dying, and the end
result is going to be hard line leadership continues in Iran and we
don't get rid of their nuclear program. That's a moral and strategic
disaster for the country.
Saturday night, Senator Patty Murray also made that call for members to return to DC to vote on the action:
Senator Murray: “Congress must return immediately
and vote to put an end to this war. Every Senator should be on the
record, and Congress must assert its authority—the American people
deserve to know which of their leaders supports another potentially
bloody and costly war in the Middle East. I voted against the war in
Iraq in 2002 and I urge every Member of Congress to join me in voting
against a war with Iran today.”
Senator Murray: “I think back
to the hours and hours of briefings and discussions before we voted on
war with Iraq—none of that. President Trump is just blithely throwing
American lives and taxpayer dollars at a vainglorious effort at regime
change. What the American people want—we the people—that’s just an
afterthought for this President.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the
following statement in response to President Trump engaging in war with
Iran:
“President Trump promised to end wars—not start them.
Congress must return immediately and vote to put an end to this war.
Every Senator should be on the record, and Congress
must assert its authority—the American people deserve to know which of
their leaders supports another potentially bloody and costly war in the
Middle East. I voted against the war in Iraq in 2002 and I urge every
Member of Congress to join me in voting against a war with Iran
today—stand on the right side of history.
“Iran should never possess a nuclear weapon, but there was a
diplomatic agreement that was already in place to constrain Iran’s
nuclear program that Trump tore up. And now just months after he claimed
he had nearly obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, President Trump is
shamelessly telling the American people that he’s started this war in
self-defense. There are no concrete goals. There is no long-term
strategy.
“I think back to the hours and hours of
briefings and discussions before we voted on war with Iraq—none of that.
President Trump is just blithely throwing American lives and taxpayer
dollars at a vainglorious effort at regime change. What the American
people want—we the people—that’s just an afterthought for this
President.
“No one supports the brutal Iranian regime—but already
this President’s reckless actions are triggering attacks on U.S.
military bases. There is no clear endgame here and no guarantee that
these strikes will mean democracy and freedom for the Iranian people or
that the world will be any safer for it. The situation in Iran and the
surrounding region could quickly spiral out of control, endangering our
servicemembers and tens of millions of innocents.
“Leader Thune, whether you agree with this war or not, it is
your responsibility to call the Senate back into session—I am calling on
you to recognize the gravity of this moment and bring the Senate back.
We are a democracy and our Constitution demands that Members of Congress
debate and vote on this war for all the American people to see. No war
with Iran.”
###
The attack is a distraction from The Epstein Files and Chump's involvement in them.
While
House Republicans work to protect Chump, while Pam Bondi covers up for
him, nothing stops the conversation. And that's what bothers Donald
Chump and his administration.
A
rogue “Jeffrey Epstein Walk of Shame” highlighting politicians and
businesspeople with links to the late child sex offender has surfaced
near the White House.
The
stickers, designed to resemble the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
were photographed by Getty on Sunday, with Epstein’s face replacing the
symbols of TV, film, music or theatre on the regular plaques.
It’s
unclear who is responsible, but they were placed around Farragut Square
in Washington, a five-minute walk from the White House.
People
walk along the "Jeffrey Epstein Walk of Shame", which features
prominent names that appear in the Epstein files, near the White House
on March 1, 2026, in Washington, DC.
Each sticker has a QR code
that, when scanned, opens to documents on the Department of Justice
website or to information linking the person to Epstein, according to MS
Now.
Epstein’s
accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell also features with the caption “child sex
trafficker.” Maxwell, 64, was jailed for 20 years for sex trafficking in
June 2022. The Trump administration approved her move to a low-security
prison camp in Texas.
Weeks after justice department officials released more than 3m investigative documents related to Jeffrey Epstein,
there have not been any arrests in the US, prompting questions about
whether any potential co-conspirators will be held accountable on
American soil.
Indeed, consequences in the US
for the sex trafficker’s associates have largely been limited to a
handful of sombre resignations and public apologies of late – not
high-level criminal prosecutions that victims and advocates have long
demanded.
This lack of arrests contrasts sharply with authorities’ handling of Epstein associates in the UK. The former royal prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on 19 February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, as was ex-Washington ambassador Peter Mandelson
days later. Neither man was arrested on suspicion of Epstein-related
sexual misconduct, and Mountbatten-Windsor has adamantly denied such
claims in prior statements.
Let's wind down with the latest LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER.
