This crushing truth will have MAGA survivors fleeing Trump

Trump begs Israel, Iran to 'immediately stop shooting' as ceasefire crumbles in real time

President Donald Trump publicly pleaded with Israel and Iran to halt their fighting early Monday as the two countries traded their worst strikes since the April truce, threatening to collapse the peace deal Trump had declared was days away from completion."Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting,'" Trump posted on Truth Social at 5:36 a.m. Eastern. "President DONALD J. TRUMP."The all-caps signature did not appear to have the desired effect. By morning, Israel was defending fresh waves of Iranian missiles — with CNN's Oren Liebermann reporting interceptions visible over Jerusalem — while Iran threatened to target all oil and gas facilities associated with the U.S. and Israel if attacks on its energy infrastructure continued.The escalation unraveled a week of optimistic diplomacy. Trump had told the Financial Times just days earlier that negotiations were "very close" and predicted a deal would be announced this week. He had also told Netanyahu to hold off on retaliating against Iran, according to a U.S. official — an instruction Netanyahu appeared to ignore.The sequence: Iran fired close to 30 ballistic missiles at Israel, according to the IDF, with Yemen's Houthi rebels launching two more in the first such attacks since April. Israel responded with two waves of strikes on Iran, targeting aerial defense systems in the first wave and a petrochemical facility in the second. Iran then struck petrochemical infrastructure in Haifa, with footage showing missiles bearing the message in three languages: "You will regret this."Iran's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. "bears responsibility" for Israel's actions as a party to the April ceasefire. Iran also called "absurd" any suggestion that frozen Iranian assets could be redirected to compensate U.S. allies for war damages.The financial fallout was immediate. Brent crude surged nearly 5 percent to $97.52 a barrel. Asian stock markets tumbled, with South Korea's KOSPI plunging more than 8 percent.Pope Leo XIV, speaking at the Spanish parliament in Madrid on a peace-focused visit, called war "a painful defeat of the capacity to negotiate" as the strikes unfolded. Israel's military said it was preparing for at least several days of fighting and the possibility of a prolonged campaign.Trump told Fox News the Iranian attack "certainly is not going to help negotiations" and called on Iran to "get back to the table and make a deal." He had previously told the Financial Times that Israel "would have to accept any deal" the U.S. reaches with Iran, saying "I call all the shots."On Monday morning, that bold claim was being tested in real time.

Global trade faces 'two-front crisis' as Trump's war sparks second strait blockade

The Yemeni Houthis announced early Monday they would impose a “complete ban” on Israeli sea vessels from passing through the Red Sea, a partial blockade that risks hitting global trade with a “two-front crisis” as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted, several outlets reported.“We declare a complete ban on enemy navigation in the Red Sea and we consider any Zionist movements to be military targets for our forces,” said Houthi spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Al Saree in a televised statement released on Monday, according to the United Arab Emirates news outlet The National.“We will respond to escalation with escalation and our operations will intensify in line with the battle and in conjunction with the axis of jihad and resistance."The announcement comes in response to Israel’s strikes on Iran Sunday, itself a response to Iranian strikes on northern Israel as retaliation for Israel’s siege on Beirut, Lebanon.While not as critical to global trade as the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea is still a major shipping waterway, with around 12% of global trade passing through the channel, “including 30% of global container traffic,” according to The Guardian. Together, disruptions to both shipping waterways would likely further exacerbate supply shocks sparked by President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran.“The two waterways together carry an estimated 30% of global container shipping and approximately 22% of the world's seaborne oil supply, according to analysis by The Middle East Insider,” reads a report from Insurance Business Magazine. “A combined disruption places an estimated US$10 billion per day of global trade at risk.”YEMENI HOUTHIS ANNOUNCE NAVAL BLOCKADE ON ISRAEL IN THE RED SEA pic.twitter.com/AWSP9pEgvI— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) June 8, 2026

Trump says Israel, Iran must ‘stop shooting’ after airstrikes rock Tehran

President Trump called Monday for Israel and Iran to lay down their weapons in his first public comments since the Middle Eastern enemies traded attacks overnight.

THE ESSEX FILES: The New Battle for the West - Pete Hegseth Brings Uncomfortable Truths to Normandy

Deep in Rural Virginia, a MAGA Pro-Gun Push Takes an Unnerving Turn

When Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a new assault weapons ban in Virginia last month, it got almost zero national news coverage. Yet it amounted to an important milestone: It marked the first time in U.S. history that such a gun control measure was passed into law by any state government in the American South.So it’s sadly fitting that passage of this law has been greeted by what you might call its very own nullification movement. That’s right: In a brewing situation that has gone largely overlooked, a number of county-based prosecutors in red areas of Virginia are publicly declaring that they will not enforce the new ban on assault-style weapons. This movement is taking shape as a direct, openly confrontational challenge to the authority of Spanberger and the Virginia legislature that passed the measure—and it only appears to be growing.“It is an abdication by MAGA elected officials of their duty to enforce the law,” State Delegate Dan Helmer, a Democrat who represents a northern Virginia district and co-sponsored the measure, tells me. The law bans the sale, purchase, and manufacture of many military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines of more than 15 rounds, among other things.At least nine of Virginia’s “commonwealth attorneys”—who are elected county-wide to serve as chief law enforcement officers —have now issued statements declaring that they don’t intend to uphold the new law. All the counties in question voted for Donald Trump in 2024 by lopsided margins—some by more than 40 or 50 points—and many are deeply rural.“After careful review of the legislation and existing Supreme Court precedent, I find the assault weapons ban signed by the Governor unconstitutional—and as a result, unenforceable,” Phillip Blevins, the commonwealth attorney for Smyth County, recently announced. Smyth, a rural area in the Appalachian southwestern corner of Virginia, backed Trump by 60 points.The stakes here are considerable. The law already faces legal challenges from gun rights groups. The groups and these prosecutors alike argue that assault-style rifles are in common use—and that banning them steps outside the nation’s historic traditions of firearm regulations—which under Supreme Court precedent, they say, renders Virginia’s law unconstitutional.But the prosecutors are taking this further. They appear to be suggesting they won’t enforce the law beginning the moment it takes effect on July 1, even if the courts haven’t weighed in by then (while vowing to still prosecute violent crimes). Though some of them describe this as exercising prosecutorial discretion, it seems to mean something more: that as a general matter, people who buy or sell these weapons illegally may simply not face prosecution.Indeed, some of the prosecutors are even in effect arguing that the sovereignty of the people within these counties overrules the authority of the state legislature—which is also duly elected—and relieves them of any obligation to enforce its new gun-control law. Several sheriffs in the same counties have also declared their refusal to enforce it.So now what? Virginia District Attorney Jay Jones, a Democrat, is warning these prosecutors that they must enforce the new measure. “Commonwealth’s Attorneys are elected to enforce our laws, which is what we expect them to do when these laws take effect on July 1,” Jones said in an emailed statement. But his office hasn’t said whether it’s examining actions it might take against them or what actions, if any, are available.Yet this appears unlikely to go away and seems all-but-certain to come to a head. Indeed, Helmer, the delegate from Northern Virginia, argues that this movement is not mere posturing—it amounts to a direct challenge to state legislative authority. “The context is a culture of lawlessness that pervades the Republican Party under Trump, and it’s extending down to Republican elected officials who feel empowered to ignore the law,” Helmer told me. “Your duty if you’re a commonweath attorney or a sheriff is to enforce the law, and if you’re not willing to do that, you should resign.”Helmer also pointed to the state’s recent history of high-profile gun killings. “The largest mass murders in U.S. history—and also in Virginia history—have been committed either with assault weapons, or high-capacity magazines, or both,” Helmer, who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said. If future purchases go unprosecuted, he argued, it could lead to more “mass killing in our communities.”Research suggests this is plausible. And efforts to act on assault-style weapons are aimed at curbing a whole range of violent crimes, not just mass shootings.Spanberger has yet to comment on the growing rebellion. But it creates an awkward situation for her. In coming weeks, she is expected to preside over a signing ceremony for the law.

Trump repeats same story over and over as signs of deterioration mount

Either the nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump believes a cognitive test is an intelligence test or he's lying about his mental health. I don't think there's a gray zone here. If it's the first, he's demented. If it's the second, he's hiding something (probably dementia). Either way, it's bad.It happens too frequently to ignore. The president brags about passing a cognitive test to the point where he seems to believe it's a measure of his IQ. In public remarks, he often puts special emphasis on the word "cognitive" as if to stress that it demonstrates his intelligence. Here's what he told the New York Post after a third trip in a year to Walter Reed. "I do physicals because I think I have an obligation to do it. I took a cognitive test and I got 100 percent on it. The doctors told me very, very few people can ace it. It's actually a tough test."That's only the latest iteration. I went to the Bluesky feed of Aaron Rupar, founder of Public Notice. Aaron watches most of Trump's public appearances. I searched for "cognitive."On May 22, during a rally, Trump said: I said, how many presidents have taken [a cognitive test]? "None." I said, well, is it tough? "It’s a tough test. It starts off easy, then it gets very, very tough." I said well, you know what? I’m gonna take that test. ... This was in my first term. I took it and I aced it. ... So the first question was, you have a bear, a snake, an elephant and a horse. "Name the horse." That’s the horse. ... The New York Times story ... only use[s] the first question that you go into. The other questions they didn’t go into. ... It had a question like "pick a number, sir, any number." Okay, 203. "Multiple by 9. Divide by 2. Add on 1,324. Subtract 1,292. Sir, multiply it out one more time by 19. What is the answer, sir?" I got it right. And the one doctor said, "I've been doing this test for 20 years. I've never seen anybody ace it."On May 4, during a presser, Trump said:In my opinion, anybody running for president or vice president should take a cognitive test. No president has ever taken one, except me. I’ve taken three and I’ve aced each one. One in the first administration, two over here. And whenever they get a little sassy like, "Does he still have what it takes?" I say, all right I’ll take another one. They are hard. There are many people in this room I know that are smart. They’re not gonna ace them. The first question is very easy. You have a lion, a bear and alligator and a squirrel. "Which is the squirrel?" ... The first four or five questions, they get a little more difficult. By the time you get to the end, I don’t wanna be insulting, I’m not gonna do what Gavin Newsom [did] ...On May 1, during a speech, Trump said:I took three of them. Aced all of them. ... I’m the only president to take a cognitive test. I don’t think Obama could pass it. ... Well, Biden – give me a break. The first question is very easy. It’s a lion, a giraffe, a bear and a shark. Which one is the bear? It's a very standard test, but very tough around those 10 questions. ... I’m in a room of brilliant people, but a lot of you wouldn’t have been able to answer. When I got the score of the test, the doctor said "wow." ... I’ve had different phases. They’ve said "he’s a mad genius" and I didn't mind that too much. They said "he’s a horrible human being" and I didn't like that much. Then they said "he’s really not a smart person at all." I really hated that, so I took a cognitive test. ... Dr. Ronny ... had a whole team of doctors at Walter Reed. I said, should I do it? He said, "well, it’s a tough exam, actually. Those last 20 questions they get tough. A lot of people can’t do them." ... I said, I do well on things, so let’s do it. I got every one right.On March 26, during a Cabinet meeting, Trump said:I’m the only president that ever took a cognitive test. I took it three times. It’s actually a very hard test. It wasn’t hard for me, but it’s a cognitive test. It starts off with an easy question and by the time you get to the end ... very few people can answer those questions. They get very tough, mathematical equations and things. I took it three times. I aced it all three times. ... Doc Ronny told me ... "if you take it, it’s Walter Reed ... and if you do badly, it’s probably gonna get out." But I aced it. I got them all right. One doctor said "I’ve never seen anybody get them all right. I’ve been doing the test for 20 years." ... I would love to see anybody that’s a president or a vice president ... take a cognitive test.On December 2, 2025, during a Cabinet meeting, Trump said:They said, "would you like to take a cognitive test?" I said, is it hard? They said, "yes." ... I said, who is the last president to take one? "No president has ever agreed to take one." When you get into the mid questions, meaning, question No. 10, 11, 12, 28, 30, they get harder and harder. ...

Trump’s Department of War reportedly alarmed by Israel spying on U.S., White House has harsh reaction

'They're all over the country stealing defense secrets'

MAGA melts down as Dem overtakes Spencer Pratt in LA mayoral primary: 'This is egregious'​

Fans of President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again movement melted down on Sunday after reality TV personality Spencer Pratt fell out of his second-place spot in Los Angeles's mayoral primary race. Pratt, who ran as a Republican, had held a strong lead against Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a Democrat, in the primary race until Sunday. The Los Angeles Times reported that mail-in ballots were the key reason why Raman was able to make such a large comeback, and the trend seems likely to continue as the state allows mail-in ballots to be counted for several days following an election. MAGA fans weren't happy to see their favorite candidate lose his lead and shared their reactions on social media. "Spencer Pratt was robbed. This is egregious," MAGA influencer Laura Loomer posted on X. "A woman with absolutely zero following, no groundswell of support, and no name ID absolutely killed it in mail-in voting in Los Angeles. It's just the way this state counts ballots, guys!!" Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, posted on X. "Free PSA: If you don't want us to assume cheating, maybe make it a little less obvious.""Stolen election in broad daylight," Dana Loesch, a MAGA radio host, posted on X. "Total. F------. Fraud," Mike Davis, a lawyer for the Article III project, posted on X. "I feel genuinely terrible for all my Southern California friends who worked so hard. It was always going to go this way because that’s how communism works. Once you vote it in, you can’t vote it out," MAGA pundit Jesse Kelly posted on X.