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Retired CIA officer pours cold water on Trump’s stunning about-face

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Retired CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos responded to a recent assertion that President Donald Trump has made a U-turn on Ukraine as Russia continues to attack. Outgoing Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) this week complained from the Senate floor that Ukraine still hasn't received the $400 million appropriation Congress approved in 2025."I asked Secretary Hegseth why the Pentagon is taking so long to send this critical aid to Ukraine. He didn't have a good answer," said Durbin. "President Trump needs to send $400 million in funds immediately. They're desperately needed in Ukraine to stop Russian advances. Doing so will help bring President [Vladimir] Putin to the negotiating table. Secretary Hegseth also needs to move $200 million that we appropriated and president signed into law for the Baltic Security Initiative to help frontline NATO allies prepare for Russian intimidation and retaliation."Polymeropoulos said he's dubious about whether Trump has truly made such a shift in his stance on supporting Ukraine. The only thing that will convince him is "substance," he said," not just vibes.""Where is the 400 million?" he questioned of those cheerleading Trump's pivot. Reports this week revealed that Russia has sold off half of its gold reserves, Radosław Sikorski, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, said. Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics and Ukraine's Minister of Economy, translated a recent interview with Sikorski, quoting the Polish leader as saying that Moscow has sold off 44 tons of gold. "It’s a sign Moscow is running low on resources. This winter may be Putin's last chance to break Ukraine, so Europe's help decides if Ukraine wins," said Sikorski. He added that he didn't see Trump swooping in at the last minute to win the war for Ukraine. Secretary Marco "Rubio's call with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov lasted 37 minutes. I don't see grounds to expect a breakthrough from that. Real progress needs Putin himself to lower his ambitions about conquering Ukraine, and I don't believe that's happening," Sikorski said. "Russia keeps testing NATO's response threshold with provocations like drones crossing into member states' territory. Naming these as deliberate tests actually lowers the odds Moscow repeats them, since a provocation everyone expects can't deliver its shock," he added. Poland, he said, is ready to add "our own newest Patriot-class interceptor technology" to the fight, since U.S. support is up in the air.

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Trump has four bad choices on Iran. Here’s the least horrible one

Washington Examiner

28 minutes ago

Trump has four bad choices on Iran. Here’s the least horrible one

In his meeting with President Donald Trump this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented fresh intelligence that he says shows Iran is rebuilding elements of its nuclear program, apparently seeking to compel a resumption of the full-scale war. The decision rests almost completely with Trump, and no one knows where it will go. The […]

Center Right

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Hannity exposed as outside Trump's 'little circle' after 'Orwellian' gaffe: analysis

Raw Story

31 minutes ago

Hannity exposed as outside Trump's 'little circle' after 'Orwellian' gaffe: analysis

Fox News’ Sean Hannity was exposed as being outside President Donald Trump’s “little circle” Tuesday after delivering a series of “Orwellian” remarks during the funeral for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Zeteo’s Andrew Perez argued on Wednesday.Graham, who died of a brief and sudden illness earlier this month, was laid to rest Tuesday at the Washington National Cathedral in a funeral attended by Trump, his cabinet officials, world leaders and media figures, including Hannity.Speaking during the funeral, Hannity attempted to dispel claims that Graham was a “war hawk,” with the South Carolina Republican having a long record of advocating for military actions against other nations, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mexico, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela, among other nations.“[Graham] was often unfairly characterized as a warmonger,” Hannity said, per Zeteo. “I have heard that false criticism a lot. It’s not true. The truth was the opposite.”When delivering his own eulogy, however, Trump offered a starkly different characterization of Graham, one that directly contradicted Hannity's.“He was extremely hawkish. I will tell you, he never saw a war he didn’t like,” Trump said. “Only his true friends would understand that.”For Trump to not only directly contradict Hannity, but to argue that only Graham’s “true friends” would “understand” how “hawkish” he was, Perez argued, was telling.“Sorry, Sean. Seems you just weren’t one of the boys. Maybe you have to call Trump a ‘jacka--' and a ‘race-baiting bigot’ [as Graham once did], before scurrying back under the big man’s wing, to enter that little circle,” Perez wrote. “Either way, Graham was still in there when he said, on tape, that the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, in which more than 100 children were killed on day one by a double-tap strike on a school, made him want to cry with joy. Graham was still close to Trump when he was filmed advising Benjamin Netanyahu on how to respond to an arrest warrant for war crimes from the International Criminal Court.”

Far Left

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Fauci Complained About “Obnoxious Adolescent” Trump in Covid Diary

The New Republic

36 minutes ago

Fauci Complained About “Obnoxious Adolescent” Trump in Covid Diary

Dr. Anthony Fauci started off with a good relationship with President Trump but eventually came to believe he was an “obnoxious adolescent,” according to excerpts of his diary released by Republican Senator Rand Paul, the head of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.The released diary entries start from December 2019, right before the Covid-19 outbreak, and continue to December 2022, when Fauci left his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Paul released over 1,000 pages from the diary as part of an investigation into the origins of Covid-19, which Paul claims came from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China.The diary doesn’t have any kind of smoking gun on Covid’s origins, but it does show an inside view of different moments of the pandemic, as well as how Trump mishandled it. Fauci wrote glowingly about how he met Trump on January 29, 2020, in the White House Situation Room, and the president told him, “Anthony, you are really a famous guy. My good friend Lou Dobbs told me that you were one of the smartest, knowledgeable and outstanding persons he knows.”“He then stayed for 20 minutes and asked most of his questions of me. I was surprised and very pleased and the deputies were clearly stunned and impressed,” Fauci wrote. He added that Trump thanked him after the meeting, telling him, “We are counting on you.”Fauci’s entries show how Trump’s actions over the course of the pandemic quickly changed his mind. After a March 2020 press conference, Fauci complained about how Trump “wasted the opportunity to just focus on the relief package and went into his diatribe against previous administrations.”Later, in August, Fauci wrote that he had a hard time explaining to Trump that increased testing did not increase Covid cases.“All in all it was a manifestation that he is desperate and still does not understand the pandemic. Very interesting encounter,” Fauci wrote.In November, Trump was angry at Fauci for a Washington Post report where Fauci said that Joe Biden’s campaign was “taking [the pandemic] seriously from a public health perspective,” while Trump was more concerned about the economy and reopening the country. Trump called Fauci and let loose.“Tony, I really like you, and you know that, but what the f—k are you doing? You constantly drop bombs on me. Everybody wants me to fire you, but I am not going to fire you, you have too illustrious of a career, but you have to be positive,” Trump said on the call, according to Fauci.“I like you but so many people, not only in the White House, but throughout the country hate you because of what you are doing.… And that f—ker Biden. He is so f—king stupid. You are 10 times smarter than he is. I am going to kick his f—king ass in this election. I will win by a landslide. Just wait and see.… Tony, you have to be positive. I do not want to keep you off TV, but when you are out there, you have to be positive.”By March 2021, as vaccines became publicly available, Fauci called Trump an “obnoxious adolescent.”Looking at these diary entries, it’s obvious that Fauci was simply trying to do his job in the face of an obstinate president, and wasn’t the devious or negligent mastermind that conspiracy theorists in the Republican Party make him out to be. They should be more concerned that Trump is back in power and can’t be trusted if a new pandemic arises.

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Trump explodes after surprise attack with curse-laden threat: 'Going to get a beating'

Raw Story

57 minutes ago

Trump explodes after surprise attack with curse-laden threat: 'Going to get a beating'

President Donald Trump erupted Wednesday following a surprise Iranian attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan earlier that morning, vowing to respond with a curse-laden threat.“We are going to beat the f------ s--- out of them,” Trump told Fox News, according to Trey Yingst. “We'll be hitting them hard, they're going to get a beating.”Following a brief lull in strikes between the United States and Iran, the U.S. Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan came under fire early morning Wednesday from a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles. No casualties have been reported as of Wednesday morning.“So clearly, the United States is going to respond to what the president described as a 'surprise attack,' he says U.S. forces had just minutes to shoot down these incoming Iranian ballistic missiles,” Yingst said. “The president says he has reviewed video of the shoot down, and it was U.S. forces conducting this operation to defend that area. He said it was real time, they were calling out coordinates and ensuring that none of this incoming Iranian fire got through.”Iran’s Revolutionary Guard acknowledged it had launched strikes at the U.S. base, according to the Associated Press, setting the stage for another round of escalation between the United States and Iran.“Again, President Trump telling Fox News 'we are going to beat the f-ing S out of them,' and that U.S. strikes will take place against Iran in response to the surprise attack overnight against U.S. forces in Jordan,” Yingst said."We are going to beat the f****** s*** out of them"- Trump in response to Iran's suprise attack on US base in Jordan pic.twitter.com/aDuzi9j1bB— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) July 29, 2026

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The Gateway Pundit

1 hour ago

MUST READ… Part 2 – Declassified Election Files: CIA Note’s Claims and Assessments Align Closely With Observed Issues in U.S. 2020 Election

In Part 1 of this series covering the declassified documents released by the Trump administration, The Gateway Pundit reviewed a CIA Note examining Venezuela’s electronic-election manipulation capabilities from 2004 through 2020. The post MUST READ… Part 2 – Declassified Election Files: CIA Note’s Claims and Assessments Align Closely With Observed Issues in U.S. 2020 Election appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Far Right

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Trump's worst fear revealed as he faces GOP 'reckoning': analyst

Raw Story

1 hour ago

Trump's worst fear revealed as he faces GOP 'reckoning': analyst

President Donald Trump, not even halfway through his second term in office, is about to see his worst fear realized as he faces a reckoning within the Republican Party, according to a new analysis. The Atlantic analyst Jonathan Lemire argued this week that Trump has "crashed into reality" as he "flails" both internationally and domestically. "Recent months have delivered a reckoning for Trump, who has crashed hard against some real limits," wrote Lamire. "His approval numbers have sunk, and Republicans are finally, in small doses, beginning to defy him." The president predicted his war with Iran would be a quick surgical strike but it has now metastasized into a five-month quagmire with mounting casualties, depleted weapons stockpiles, and surging gas prices making him "just the latest U.S. president to be humiliated by hard-liners in Tehran," wrote Lemire.National policy has stymied as well. "Trump has demanded that the Senate blow up the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act, which would make voting more difficult and require voters to provide proof of citizenship," Lemire noted. "But Republicans have refused." Once the midterms conclude, Trump will face the grim future, he wrote."Trump could face his worst fear," wrote Lemire. "Irrelevance. He will be a lame duck, down to his final two years in office, and at some point will no longer be the nation’s top topic of conversation. As focus shifts to the presidential primaries, Trump risks disappearing from the headlines. Even some of his closest allies don’t know how he’ll react," he wrote.What comes next for Trump looks worse, Lemire wrote."Trump may no longer be among each day’s top stories—arguably for the first time since he came down the Trump Tower escalator more than a decade ago. It’s not as if he will suddenly vanish; he’ll aim to play GOP kingmaker, and he’ll still be commander in chief. But he’ll be staring at life as a private citizen again," he predicted.

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Trump says US will ‘beat the f—ing s—‘ out of Iran after surprise missile attack

New York Post

1 hour ago

Trump says US will ‘beat the f—ing s—‘ out of Iran after surprise missile attack

WASHINGTON -- President Trump vowed Wednesday to "beat the f—ing s— out of" Iran in response to a surprise missile attack by the Islamic Republic targeting US troops stationed in Jordan.

Right

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Trump spills on supposed call to Biden after 2020 defeat: 'The rest is history!'

Raw Story

1 hour ago

Trump spills on supposed call to Biden after 2020 defeat: 'The rest is history!'

President Donald Trump revealed new details Wednesday regarding a supposed phone call he had with former President Joe Biden following his 2020 election loss, one that he claimed was “well received,” but “not acted on.”Trump’s claim was couched in a lengthy rant shared on his social media platform Truth Social against Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. Trump downplayed Fauci’s influence during his first administration, while alleging that Biden later made the health official a “king.”“Fauci was largely taken out of play, and then along came Sleepy Joe Biden, who made Fauci a ‘King!’” Trump wrote. “I called Biden to tell him Fauci was no good, either didn’t have a clue, or was dishonest. The call was well received, but sadly, not acted on. Biden went on to give Fauci vast destructive power. The rest is history!”Fauci has come under renewed scrutiny after the publication of his COVID-19 pandemic-era diary. He’s scheduled to testify before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, where he’s expected to be questioned on his knowledge of gain of function research and the origins of the COVID-19 virus.“His ideas were CRAZY! Also, I said from the beginning that the Virus came from the Wuhan Laboratory in China. Fauci strongly disagreed, always trying to protect China. I Inherited Fauci, who was there since the 1980’s, but with each passing day, relied less and less on him,” Trump wrote. “He made too many bad calls, like on MASKS. Remember at the beginning he was an anti-masker. He then switched to a super-masker. In any event I didn’t let him shut the Country down, although he wanted to. I went the Federalist way, and let the governors decide. The Republican governors did a much better job than the Dumocrats.”

Far Left

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Retired CIA officer pours cold water on Trump’s stunning about-face

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Retired CIA officer pours cold water on Trump’s stunning about-face

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