The Dispatch

Vanity Projects All the Way Down

May 6, 2026Center Right

The similarities between the East Wing renovation and Operation Epic Fury.

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Millions expected at delayed Khamenei funeral as Iran seeks to project strength

NBC News Politics

15 hours ago

Millions expected at delayed Khamenei funeral as Iran seeks to project strength

Four months after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes, Iran is preparing for a massive multi-day funeral. It’s a calculated move by the regime to project strength and unity during a shaky peace deal with the U.S.

Center Left

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Author claims Melania Trump is trying a 'preposterous' new way to silence him

Raw Story

22 hours ago

Author claims Melania Trump is trying a 'preposterous' new way to silence him

An author who has written four books about President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that first lady Melania Trump has concocted a "preposterous" new way to try and silence him. Michael Wolff, co-host of the "Inside Trump's Head" podcast with Joanna Coles of The Daily Beast, said during a new episode that Melania Trump's legal team has moved to sanction the lawyers representing Wolff for bringing a frivolous lawsuit against her. A federal judge threw out Wolff's anti-SLAPP lawsuit against Melania Trump in May, which he filed after she threatened to bring a $1 billion lawsuit against Wolff for his claims about the Trump family's ties to disgraced financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. “Essentially, they are moving to sanction my lawyers for doing nothing more than bringing the lawsuit against Melania Trump,” Wolff said on the podcast. “So this is preposterous on its face.”Wolff also claimed that he found out about the move from Boris Epshteyn, a lawyer close to the Trumps, whom Donald Trump has described as someone who will "say anything" to make him happy. He claimed that hearing about the move from Epshteyn revealed that the strategy behind the lawsuit “was being coordinated at the highest levels of Trump law.”

Far Left

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Trump hijacked US’s 250 anniversary to serve ‘political ideology and pet projects’, congressional report says

US news | The Guardian

Yesterday

Trump hijacked US’s 250 anniversary to serve ‘political ideology and pet projects’, congressional report says

House Democratic subcommittee report outlines web of alleged corruption, wire fraud and pay-to-play schemesDonald Trump staged a hostile takeover of the US’s 250th anniversary celebration to enrich political allies, harvest voter data and promote Christian nationalist ideology, according to a congressional investigation released on Thursday.The interim report, “From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday”, outlines a web of alleged corruption, wire fraud and pay-to-play schemes orchestrated through a shadow corporation embedded within the National Park Foundation (NPF). Continue reading...

Center Left

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Wall Street Journal: Trump family ‘cashing in on the presidency in big and sketchy ways’

The Hill News

Yesterday

Wall Street Journal: Trump family ‘cashing in on the presidency in big and sketchy ways’

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board published a Wednesday op-ed slamming President Trump and his family for “cashing in on the presidency” after his financial disclosures showed the president brought in $2 billion last year alone. Trump’s crypto venture, effectively managed by the Trump Organization, reaped in more than $526.8 million in proceeds from tokens…

Center

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A simple way to cure America’s self-inflicted infrastructure paralysis

Washington Examiner

Yesterday

A simple way to cure America’s self-inflicted infrastructure paralysis

Today, building the infrastructure necessary to maintain America’s prosperity often requires navigating a maze of permits, lawsuits, and regulatory delays. The power to block has systematically triumphed over the freedom to build. Yet our infrastructure paralysis is self-inflicted. Whether it is a natural gas pipeline, a transmission line, or mines for the building blocks of […]

Center Right

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Three ways to fix the US supreme court, with Elie Mystal - Stateside with Kai and Carter

US news | The Guardian

2 days ago

Three ways to fix the US supreme court, with Elie Mystal - Stateside with Kai and Carter

This term, the US supreme court handed down decisions on issues ranging from voting rights to immigration and birthright citizenship, reshaping life for millions of people. Kai Wright speaks with Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for the Nation, about how the court got all its power in the first place, and why Mystal thinks court reforms to reign in that power aren’t just constitutional – they’re necessary. Continue reading...

Center Left

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How Trump’s America 250 'pet projects' left small towns out in the cold

Alternet.org

2 days ago

How Trump’s America 250 'pet projects' left small towns out in the cold

In Ohio, the Trumbull County Historical Society had ambitious plans for local celebrations of the United States' 250th anniversary. But they encountered a major obstacle thanks to cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) carried out earlier in President Donald Trump's second term. And on top of that, according to NOTUS reporter Anna Kramer, the president redirected Congress-approved funds from America 250 activities to "toward Trump's Freedom 250 pet projects.""While America 250 is now asking Congress for more money to fill a funding shortfall," Kramer explains in NOTUS, "Congress has already responded to last year's DOGE cuts by funding state humanities councils at their normal levels for the 2026 fiscal year. The Trump administration just hasn't dispersed those funds. As of June, the administration has only given the councils less than half of what Congress appropriated — and told them not to expect the rest, council leaders told NOTUS."Kramer adds, "Now, with the 250th anniversary just days away, the councils have been unable to fund anniversary projects. The Federation of State Humanities Councils, after a year of litigation against the Trump administration, just asked a federal judge in Oregon to declare that Trump is in violation of basic constitutional separation of powers rules by refusing to fully distribute what Congress intended."Trump, according to Kramer, "redirected tens of millions of dollars from the DOGE cuts toward" his "plans for a triumphal arch and a statuary garden of 'American heroes' in Washington D.C.""In the end," Kramer reports, "Trump's focus on the nation's landmark birthday made it harder for local groups across the country to plan their own celebratory projects."Meghan Reed, executive director of the Trumbull County Historical Society, is expressing her frustration. Reed told NOTUS, "There's certainly things that we could have done for America 250 if the funding was available. That just didn't work out how we thought it could have."Interviewed by NOTUS, Jessica Cyders — executive director of the Southeast Ohio History Center — said of the funding cuts, "It means that we are not able to do things that are extra, things that are bigger projects. A lot of humanities organizations would have had some incredible projects that none of us have been able to complete."According to Kramer, "local libraries and historical associations across the country" had to "abandon planning for ambitious history and civics initiatives" because the Trump administration "axed federal funding for state and local humanities projects last year."Rebecca Brown Asmo, executive director of Ohio Humanities, told NOTUS, "As the director of Ohio Humanities, I don't take any sort of position about those particular projects. But what I do think is important is that Americans have access to funding and have access to history and humanities experiences in their own communities. And we're missing that as a result of now a second year of this funding being held back. These are taxpayer dollars that are intended to go to local communities — and right now, they're being held back and funneled to projects in Washington D.C."

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