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CNN kicked off its morning show discussions talking about the epic failure that President Donald Trump's Reflecting Pool project has become. There are ongoing questions about whether the algae can be fully removed, and now it appears the $14 million paint job is peeling off in chunks. The U.S. Department of the Interior continues to insist that the water is perfectly clear and everything is fine. Those visiting have filmed something entirely different.Two companies were responsible for the project that cost nearly $16 million: Greenwate

With the United States' 2026 midterms only four and one-half months away, many GOP strategists are sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump's weak approval ratings. And Trump's ceasefire deal with Iran is frustrating hawks in the Republican Party, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) — who declared that "Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave." But Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal, has a message for worried Republicans: "I'm the president, and you're not."Journalists Brian Schwartz, Natalie Andrews and Alexander Ward, in the Journal, report that Trump used those words with GOP allies who "offered him strategic advice.""Seventee

A Politico analysis argues that Trump's second-term foreign policy signifies a fundamental departure from his nationalist messaging, undermining his political brand and effectiveness on the worldwide stage.The piece contends that Trump, who built his political identity around nationalist principles—particularly his 2016 endorsement of Brexit—has lost sight of the power of national sovereignty and patriotism in other countries. During his first campaign, Trump positioned himself as "

U.S. President Donald Trump's ceasefire deal with Iran is drawing vehement criticism not only from Democrats and Never Trump conservatives, but also, from some of his supporters. Danny Zaken, an Israel-based journalist for Israel Hayom — which is owned by billionaire GOP donor Miriam Adelson — has been a strong supporter of Trump's Israel policy. But in a

CNN on Friday aired a supercut of Republican senators criticizing President Donald Trump’s Iran deal, with host Audie Cornish describing leaders as “kind of up in arms” over the president’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Iranian regime.Kurt Volker, an American diplomat and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, joined CNN to discuss the deal, telling Cornish “there's a lot to play out here.”As Cornish described, “the people who are loudest in their complaints about this deal are Republicans.”“We're just hearing so many senators saying similar things,” Cornish said before rolling the supercut.“Everything I've heard about it causes me concern,”

Recent news disclosures are only adding to our understanding that for the Trump administration, grinding away at basic democratic values is a feature, not a bug.Any thinking that Donald Trump's mass deportation strategy, for example, was such a high priority that he would suborn Constitutional rights—including the right to a hearing before a judge before a deportation sentence—is giving way to deeper recognition that erasure of individual rights is the point, not a byproduct.The disclosure by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan

A longtime fixture in local government, Lorene Kamalu’s seen controversy come and go. But she was shocked last week to learn that the newest elections officer in the state was a young conservative influencer who’s described himself as “anti-universal suffrage” and declared “women generally do not have what it takes to endure the pressures of a public office.”Kamalu, a Republican running for a third term as Davis County commissioner, recalled thinking, “How could this be happening in this day and age? How could this be happening, you know, in the U.S., in very important elected offices? And then, how in the world is this happening in Utah?”Kamalu is among dozens of women in elected office wh

This was the plan all along.That’s my strong suspicion after reading about and reporting on Senate Bill 105, a Kansas law passed last year that appears to give Republican power brokers a get-out-of-jail free card in this year’s U.S. Senate race.As reported Wednesday by Kansas Reflector, the law’s text grants any Senate appointee a free two-year trial period before having to face voters. The bill’s ostensible purpose was t

In his first term of office Donald Trump achieved the lowest average job approval ratings (41%) among Americans since the end of the second world war. In his second term he has fallen well below that with an approval rating of only 35% in a recent Economist/YouGov poll.Much of this can be explained by voter perceptions of the state of the US economy. The chart below shows the relationship between the percentage of Americans who approve of the president’s handling of his

In December 2025, Trump axed today’s holiday — Juneteenth, the official celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation — from the free admission days at the more than 100 national parks across America. He also axed Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a free admission day. Instead, he substituted his own birthday, June 14, as a free admission day. There you have it: the venal combination of Trump’s white supremacy and his malignant narcissism. It’s much the same with Trump’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday. He has erased any mention of the slavery that scarred most of America’s first century and of Jim Crow, during most of the next — and has instead merged the nation’s anniversa