Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Washington Secrets. We take a look at the smartest way to ensure a warm phone call with Donald Trump, examine the campaign to discredit Joe Kent as his resignation from the administration threatens to rip the MAGA movement wide open, and we have the latest skirmish in the race for […]
President Trump’s abrupt decision to pull an executive order on AI testing has exposed a deeper divide in the White House over how to oversee the technology’s development without stopping its growth. After ushering tech leaders to the White House for a signing ceremony Thursday, Trump’s eleventh-hour decision to scrap the order displayed his administration’s…
With the midterm elections fast approaching in November, outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) issued a bleak prediction for his party’s chances at the ballot box, and laid most of the blame on the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers he argued were overly loyal to the president.Appearing on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Massie was asked by Kristen Welker whether his defiance to President Donald Trump on pushing for the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related files, deficit-increasing tax cuts and the U.S. war against Iran was “worth it” given his recent election loss.“It was absolutely worth it for me – now, I don’t think it’s going to be worth it for the party,” Massie said.“They've disenfranchised a large portion of that constituency that Trump assembled to get us in the White House. They’ve alienated [the Make America Healthy Again movement] by kowtowing to the pesticide manufacturers and the pharmaceutical manufacturers, they’ve alienated the fiscal hawks by running DOGE out of town, they’ve alienated the people who don’t want to fight another war for other countries.”And, with the midterm elections just over five months away as of Sunday, Massie predicted a bleak outcome for his own party.“And so I’m worried that in November, this is gonna cost the party a lot,” he said. “But for me, it was completely worth it, and I’ve got seven more months to keep going against the grain.”When the swamp and Epstein class couldn’t buy my vote, they bought the most expensive congressional seat ever.I joined @MeetThePress this morning to talk about putting people & principles over parties.I’m optimistic because the younger generation understands what’s going on. pic.twitter.com/kSg2PRjosN— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) May 24, 2026
On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced via social media that a negotiated settlement with Iran to end the war had “been largely negotiated," but on Sunday, a foreign policy expert raised doubts about whether the president himself authored the post, and what that may reveal about the ongoing negotiations.“First of all, there's no misspellings, there [are] no grammatical errors, there are no attempts at humiliating any side. He's got the titles and the names of each of these different world leaders correct,” said Trita Parsi, an Iranian-Swedish writer, political analyst and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, during an appearance on “Breaking Points.”“I'm mentioning this because before, we have seen Truth Social posts by the president in which he says 'we're really close [to a deal with Iran],' and it's not a serious post – it is timed to manipulate the markets, it doesn't have any indication that anyone else has reviewed the post in any way shape or form.”He added, “This clearly was not written by him alone, although it does have his flavor to it as well towards the end.”As to why Trump may allow someone other than himself to author a social media post on his personal Truth Social account, Parsi suggested it to be a form of protection from domestic right-wing figures that have urged him to walk away from negotiations and resume the war against Iran.“It gives him a certain degree of protection here in Washington,” Parsi said. “We saw the massive meltdown of warmongers last night when this was first announced, and even before it was announced when they were getting notice that this was coming. They were just in a public panic.”In his announcement, Trump named nearly a dozen world leaders that had helped in negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Their inclusion, Parsi claimed, may have been a pro-active attempt to get ahead of right-wing critics of a deal to end the war.“For him to be able to say 'look, I'm doing it because all of these regional leaders are asking me to do this' is very important,” Parsi said. “Not just to be able to show the regional anchoring of this, but also to be able to deflect the criticism that invariably will come, which is 'you abandoned Israel.' Well, perhaps Israel had abandoned the United States by manipulating the United States into this war in the first place.”
The outlines of a 60-day framework agreement suggest U.S. concessions before a nuclear deal is signed.
The mayor of Garden Grove warned those who have remained that it was a "very dangerous situation" and they should flee now.
President Donald Trump has remained defiant amid a wave of criticism from right-wing figures urging him to resume hostilities with Iran and walk away from peace negotiations, but according to Israeli-American academic and podcast host Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, that pressure may be gaining traction.“I am currently talking to two sources I really respect. They are both telling me that Trump is backing away from the deal with Iran, likely under extreme internal pressure (i.e. Israel and its domestic allies in the US),” Ben-Ephraim wrote in a social media post Sunday on X. “This is a terrifying turn of events.”Washington and Tehran have already “agreed in principle” on a deal to end the U.S. war against Iran, though such a deal has yet to be finalized. Amid reports that the Trump administration was nearing a peace deal, several prominent right-wing figures expressed skepticism, including former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), as well as Trump-ally Laura Loomer, who claimed there to be “no such thing as peace with Muslims” and urged the president to “bomb the Iranian regime.”Amid the alleged “internal pressure” being placed on Trump to resume the war against Iran, Bloomberg has reported that the president has also faced significant “outside” pressure to resume the war, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch.On Saturday, Trump said that he would likely come to a final decision on whether to resume hostilities by Sunday, with there being a “solid 50/50” chance that he would authorize the U.S. military to “blow [Iran] to kingdom come.”I am currently talking to two sources I really respect. They are both telling me that Trump is backing away from the deal with Iran, likely under extreme internal pressure (i.e. Israel and its domestic allies in the US). This is a terrifying turn of events.— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) May 24, 2026
