Donald Trump is desperately trying to salvage his gala commemorating the United States’s 250th anniversary after many celebrities pulled out. He let out a weird tirade insisting that he is telling them not to come, and also announced a paltry set of acts that’s downright humiliating. This comes after he seethed that he didn’t need other musical acts because he himself will be performing. Also, he’s bigger than Elvis! Trump’s plans drew savage mockery from MAGA influencer Matt Walsh, who ridiculed Trump’s organizers for inviting “washed up geriatric one hit wonders.” Walsh added cuttingly that this will now be a rally where “Trump will talk about himself for 90 minutes.” We talked to New Republic senior editor Alex Shephard, who writes well about Trumpism and the American zeitgeist. We discuss how Trump/MAGA had their cultural moment in 2024, how they pissed it away to inflict mass suffering on the people they hate, and the deeper reasons MAGA is so toxic within the culture. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
Iran declared an end to its latest strikes against Israel, after tit-for-tat attacks that prompted President Donald Trump to call for a halt to fighting. The escalation followed renewed fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which remains a sticking point in peace negotiations. (Source: Bloomberg)
President Trump blasted the Los Angeles Mayor election on Monday after Democratic City Councilwoman Nithya Raman overtook highly popular Republican Spencer Pratt in the ongoing total vote count, which remains ongoing six days after the election. As The Gateway Pundit reported on Sunday, Nithya Raman was projected to advance to a runoff election with incumbent Mayor Karen Bass after another fraudulent vote result dump gave her a lead over Spencer Pratt. The post NEW: “Rigged Election!” – Trump Responds to Nithya Raman’s Impossible Comeback in LA Mayor’s Race appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
President Trump early Monday morning demanded that Israel and Iran stop “shooting,” after a weekend that saw the sides trading strikes. Iran shortly thereafter announced an end to hostilities, which it says were resumed when Israel attacked Lebanon. Trump later said in a Truth Social post that while both sides sought a ceasefire, “Final negotiations…
Former national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday warned that President Trump’s actions in the war against Iran could spark a nuclear arms race. “Whatever deal President Trump makes with Iran, his often-contradictory decisions during the conflict have laid the groundwork for more nuclear proliferation in the Middle East,” Bolton said in an opinion piece…
This Monday night, June 8, President Donald Trump is planning to attend an NBA Finals game at New York City's Madison Square Garden. But the Queens native is unpopular in his home town, which is predominantly Democratic. And according to the Washington Post reporter Dan Diamond, Trump is "widely expected to be showered with boos" at the NBA (National Basketball Association) game — where the New York Knicks will be competing with the San Antonio Spurs.Trump, Diamond reports, was invited by Knicks owner James Dolan."Some sports fans and analysts have urged Trump not to attend the game — commentator Stephen A. Smith said it would create an unnecessary spectacle — or pledged to jeer the president," Barrett explains in the Post. "Online betting services also predict Trump will be booed in his visit to deep-blue New York City and the Knicks' arena, Madison Square Garden. The team's fans are famously unforgiving — quick to taunt rival players, the team's own stars and recent New York mayor Eric Adams just days after his inauguration."Barrett continues, "As an added frustration, Trump's presence will create logistical hurdles for the roughly 20,000 other attendees, who have been told to arrive at least two hours before tip-off because of the enhanced security measures that follow the president."Dan Pfeiffer, who served as an adviser to former President Barack Obama, suggested that the high price of NBA Finals tickets could make Trump less likely to be booed at Madison Square Garden.Pfeiffer told the Post, "(A) typical Madison Square Garden crowd would boo the daylights out of Trump, but he might benefit from a crowd willing to spend $10,000 to sit in the rafters."Harrison Fields, a former White House deputy press secretary, told the Post, " New York City and an NBA audience might be considered hostile territory, but when has that ever stopped the president?"In a June 5 post on X, sportswriter Shea Serrano encouraged NBA Finals attendees at Madison Square Garden to "boo this m– – so thunderously when they show him on the jumbotron that my TV vibrates off the wall."Serrano told the Post, "His decision to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals will do for the game what his participation in seemingly everything does: make it actively worse, in one way or another, for everyone else involved."Progressive New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an ally of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) is also expected to attend the game and, according to Barrett, "has been embraced by some fans for his willingness to join them in the rafters."
Fans of the New York Knicks are telling President Donald Trump, who once called New York his home, to "stay home" instead of attending Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night, according to a new report. MS NOW's Laura Haefeli spoke with several Knicks fans in New York on Sunday after it was announced that the team's watch party was canceled because of Trump's attendance at the game. The Knicks, in conjunction with the New York Police Department and the Secret Service, decided to cancel the event, which was scheduled to be held near Madison Square Garden. Instead, the parties will be held in Central Park and in Brooklyn, miles away from the arena. Knicks fans who spoke with Haefeli expressed frustration and consternation over the decision to cancel the watch parties near MSG. "Please, Mr. Trump, stay home," one Knicks fan said. "Do not jinx my Knicks because no McDonagh in the next 100 years will vote Republican. Just like we haven't voted Republican since the 1950s.""Enjoy being in New York. Enjoy the stadium. Don't be too much of a distraction, and let's keep everything about what's important, and that's Knicks basketball," another fan said. "It's going to be impossible to get on this block," another fan told Haefeli outside of MSG. "It's going to be a long walk in for a lot of these fans. It's going to be hard for them to get in. But you know what? That's what's going to need to happen to keep everybody in there safe. You know, I get it. It's going to be a pain for a lot of people to get in there."The Knicks lead the series against the Spurs 2-0. Game 3 will tip off on Monday at 8:30 p.m. ET.
The New York Knicks return home to Madison Square Garden riding a historic 13-game playoff win streak and two wins from the NBA championship, but many fans worry that President Donald Trump could jinx them.The president will attend Game 3 back in his hometown, which is forcing the cancellation of some watch parties that have sprung up around New York City during his year's postseason, and panelists on MS NOW's "Morning Joe" wondered whether his injection of partisan politics will end the team's good fortunes."I think we close out by looking ahead to tonight, which was going to be a huge party," said co-host Mika Brzezinski. "I mean, people were going to party and then they were going to party outside Madison Square Garden. There were going to be post parties and pre-parties, and the streets were going to be filled with joy, and how is that still happening?""It'll still happening in New York City, but it's not going to happen near Madison [Square] Garden, which is where it's been the heart of this, these sort of organic fan gatherings – wild scenes, pretty funny stuff, frankly, and yet, because President Trump has chosen to attend tonight's game three of the NBA Finals, Knicks up 2-0 on the [San Antonio] Spurs. That stuff can't happen, and there – you're a Knicks fan. There are a lot of Knicks fans like yourself who are deeply apprehensive that, as the as the kids say, the vibes are immaculate around this team, but Trump might ruin it."Journalist Pablo Torre expressed trepidation about the president's attendance and its possible impact on the Knicks chasing their first title since 1973."They're careening into a a historic ditch if this is how this goes," Torre said, "and look, Knicks fans, I grew up one, born and raised blocks from the Garden. We're always waiting for the next shoe to drop, and if that shoe belongs to the president as he walks in through the VIP secret tunnel that no fan can afford to enter, right. I cannot help but think sports, like America, has an affordability crisis right now, and the most on-the-nose is just exemplar of this is this story. You can't even be outside. You can't even be outside, let alone inside, and so who's this for? What's it about?""I thought the Knicks were ours as a city, turns out none of it is ours," Torre added. "It belongs to the same guy that we've spent now, you guys have spent hours this morning taking us from the Middle East to private prisons and into, of course, the question of whose birthday is this again? It's all his birthday party, that's what we are learning."
With his grip on the South Carolina Republican primary suddenly less certain than anyone anticipated, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is calling in the biggest favor he has — President Donald Trump.Graham announced Monday that Trump has agreed to join a last-minute tele-rally Monday evening ahead of Tuesday's GOP primary, urging supporters to dial in at 5:30 p.m. "I'm proud to be endorsed by President Trump, and I'd be honored to have you join us for a Tele-Rally TONIGHT at 5:30 PM," Graham wrote on X.The move underscores an uncomfortable reality for the four-term incumbent: heading into Tuesday's vote, Graham cannot be certain he will clear the 50% threshold South Carolina requires to avoid a June 23 runoff.The most recent polling tells a mixed story. A late-May Citadel Poll of likely Republican primary voters had Graham at just 46% — four points short of the runoff barrier — with challenger Mark Lynch at 36%. A Trafalgar Group survey conducted around the same time showed a more comfortable 52%-28% edge, and a poll released Saturday by The Public Sentiment Institute put Graham at 51% to Lynch's 26%.The wild card is Graham's hawkish support for the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. Lynch has made it the centerpiece of his challenge, arguing Graham is focused on prolonging a conflict South Carolinians are growing tired of. "People are tired of him getting [the United States] into endless, needless wars," Lynch told the Christian Science Monitor in a piece published Monday.The TPSI poll found that among voters who believe Israel has too much influence in American politics — roughly 36% of the Republican electorate — Lynch actually led Graham, 37% to 33%.Graham has shown no sign of backing down. "If you're scared of losing your job, you cannot be a very good senator," he told the Post and Courier, according to the Christian Science Monitor.Trump formally endorsed Graham on June 4, urging South Carolina Republicans to vote for him, and Graham has leaned hard into that alliance. But with Lynch self-funding his campaign to the tune of $5 million and anti-establishment energy running high, Trump's voice on a phone line may be the deciding factor between a clean win and two more weeks of political headaches for the Palmetto State's senior senator.