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There's a French theory from Roland Barthes that addresses the symbolic meaning of what he describes as the "spectacle of excess." That's exactly what President Donald Trump's birthday blood sport was, writes The Atlantic's Gal Beckerman. Beckerman calls it "pure, distilled Trump. No previous American leader could plausibly have presided over the scene of a tattooed Brazilian fighter in a black cowboy hat and Lycra shorts running out of the White House, saluted by honor guards, with the intent of pulverizing another human being."

Do Trump’s “humiliating loss to Iran” and his White House cage fight signal a nation in free fall? Or the moment America wakes up and fights back? Those are the questions The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol is asking.“The coincidence yesterday of the announcement of an agreement on a deal and the cage match at the White House has led to much discussion of imperial decadence, and of our entering an age of bread and circuses,” writes Kristol in “Bread and Capitulation.” He says that the Roman Empire lasted 80 years after the advent of “bread and circuses,” but warns that “things see

Writing for the conservative Washington Examiner newspaper, a scholar specializing in Middle East policy tore into President Donald Trump's new Iran deal, saying that it "takes Americans for fools" and calling it the "gravest blunder" of Trump's political career.After much hype and numerous failed starts, the U.S. and Iran signed a deal on Sunday to pause their ongoing conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz for oil shipments and giving the nations two more months to negotiate a final deal. While the actual full text of the deal has not yet been released, some of the details have already

The Villages in Florida, the largest retirement community in the world, has been home to an extremely active MAGA movement. Roughly seven out of ten county residents voted for Trump in 2024, and its MAGA golf cart parades are legendary.But Sunday’s parade was sparsely attended, according to a letter to the editor in The Villages News, which declares that the MAGA movement there is “dying.” Casey Marr writes that they arrived at President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday golf cart parade, found many open parking spaces “and only a few people milling around” 30 min

President Donald Trump refers to his fixer Boris Epshteyn as his informal “psychiatrist” — and his reliance on the personal special counsel deeply troubles insiders and experts alike.“Epshteyn, the president's senior personal counsel, speaks with ‘the boss’ so often that Trump sometimes puts him on speakerphone without telling others in the room, two people familiar with the routine” reported to Axios on Monday. Trump has joked that Epshteyn is “like my psychiatrist," with Axios writing that Epshteyn “typically offers such enthusiastic support that it's like therapy for the president.”

One of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken supporters is turning on him over his deal to end the Iran war.“I have asked for days, why can't we, the people, see the damn [memorandum of understanding]?” radio host Mark Levin, who traditionally supports the president, commented on Monday. “Not through people briefed by an anonymous person. Honestly, I've never seen anything like this. If it is a great outcome for peace, then release it.”In a separate post, Levin commented on how Trump has shifted in his characterization of America’s relationship with Israel.“In a period of two-months, Israel has gone from a great ally and partner in war, fighting by our side against a

President Donald Trump turned 80 this weekend, and according to his one-time biographer, it was far from a celebration for him, as his advancing age has him anxious and shutting down his own administration's plans to tackle voter concerns about it head-on.Trump is the oldest person ever elected to the presidency in the U.S., and is set to end his second term in the White House at age 82. His advanced age has prompted widespread concern about his mental and physical fitness for office, concerns which have been greatly exacerbated by recurring bruises on his ha

On Monday, a new Supreme Court announcement complicated the fate of a settlement paid by the Department of Justice to an ally of President Donald Trump, turning down a request by Trump 2016 advisor Carter Page to revive a lawsuit filed against former FBI director James Comey and others. The Trump administration had previously paid Page a $1.25 million settlement tied to the lawsuit, but now the top court’s decision means that the case prompting the payout had no legal merit. The matter dates back to the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 election, during whic

President Donald Trump's political career has brought a number of significant electoral gains for the Republican Party, but now, according to NOTUS, some are growing panicked as it appears "he doesn’t give a s——" about helping them anymore.In a report published Monday morning, NOTUS detailed a telling exchange between the president and a Republican who was reaching out to court his endorsement for a forthcoming election. The president, it seemed, was not interested in helping anymore, claiming that he had "already done enough.""When a former U.S. ambassador reached out to Donald Trump seeking his endorsement fo

The Kennedy Center board is forging ahead with a new plan to keep President Donald Trump's name associated with the center for the arts, per a new report from CBS News, after their previous gambit went down in flames.After Trump installed a new board of loyalists to the venerated Washington D.C., institution, the Kennedy Center last year approved a wildly unpopular plan to add the president's own name to the building, serving as a prelude to his bro