Donald Trump launched a sprawling early-morning attack on Republican critics of his Iran deal Sunday, singling out three GOP lawmakers by name and calling them losers, fools, and sleazebags in a 6am Truth Social post that underscored the growing tension between the president and members of his own party.Trump took aim at Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who he declared would soon be "out of office." He went after Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who last week lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger. And he saved his sharpest words for Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, whom he called "a major sleazebag who lost in a landslide" after Massie was defeated in his own primary following a series of breaks with the president."I laugh at all of the Dumocrats, RINOs, and Fools who know nothing about the potential deal I am making with Iran," Trump wrote, before rattling off the names.The post came amid fierce criticism from both parties over Trump's Iran negotiations, with hawks accusing him of repeating the mistakes of the Obama-era nuclear deal and his own base demanding military action rather than diplomacy. Trump has spent the past several days fielding attacks from former allies including retired General Mike Flynn and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, both of whom publicly urged him to walk away from any agreement with Tehran.Trump dismissed all of his critics as "weak and ineffective people" who "do nothing but create division and loss.""These people should go home and rest," he wrote. "In other words, they are losers."He closed with a warning about the deal itself: it will either be "great and meaningful" or there will be no deal at all — and it will be "the exact opposite of the JCPOA disaster," he claimed.
Trump touts breakthrough in negotiations to end Iran war, Middle Eastern countries react to news of a potential deal to end war, Africa races to contain a fast-spreading Ebola outbreak.
Sometime in the last decade, Hollywood stopped making films that parents would enjoy as much as their kids. With 'The Sheep Detectives,' that's changed, writes Kat Rosenfield.
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…
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there may be “some good news” regarding the blocked Strait of Hormuz in the coming hours, as Iran and Washington press ahead with peace negotiations.
President Trump said Sunday that if his administration reaches a deal with Iran, it will be a “good and proper one,” as the two sides reportedly near an agreement to end hostilities. “If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which…
The United States and the Republic of China (the official name for Taiwan) — one of the world’s most vibrant and functional democracies — have had a formal defense relationship since 1955. Last week, Donald Trump — who’s been withholding since last year two shipments totaling $25 billion worth of US military hardware Taiwan has purchased — said that relationship is now a “bargaining chip” to get what he, his oligarch friends, and his family want from China.America was founded on the idea that democracy — a form of government that our Founders discovered functioning well among Native American societies, as I lay out in The Hidden History of American Democracy: Rediscovering Humanity’s Ancient Way of Living — was our north star, the core concept around which all our actions revolved.We fought Great Britain to establish democracy, fought against the fascist Confederacy to preserve democracy here in America, and helped fight German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese fascists to preserve and restore democracy in Europe and Asia.After winning each battle, we became a little more democratic, enfranchising women, formerly enslaved people, and even 18-year-olds. We welcomed the diverse people of the world, groaning under oppression and poverty, to share our democracy and the free enterprise system it enabled.Most of the countries in today’s world, however, have little use for democracy. Certainly, Putin, Xi, and the Middle Eastern sheiks view it as a threat to their wealth and power. Most of the smaller countries across the world are dominated by wealthy families (oligarchy) or violent warlords (autocracy); during the decades I did international relief work, I spent time in many of them.And yet we always fought for democracy, even though we started out imperfectly. We helped create the United Nations, a democratic institution. We fought and died for European and Asian democracy. We encouraged democracy around the world through foreign aid programs like USAID and through pro-democracy advocacy operations like the Voice of America.Until Trump.Today, we have a president who holds democracy and democratic nations in disdain. He openly ridicules our democratic allies while sucking up to and praising autocrats and oligarchs. He gutted USAID, killed Voice of America, and even tried to overthrow our own democracy — and will probably try again.His racist, homophobic, and “poorly educated” followers agree with his disdain for democracy, openly embracing his despotic proclamations because he hates the same people they hate. Republican politicians who once defended American democracy cower before his threats of revenge when, like Senator Bill Cassidy, they don’t join him in embracing Putin and fail to nakedly cheer Trump’s violations of international law.Foreign billionaires like the Fox “News” Murdochs and the Middle Eastern sheiks who’ve poured billions into Trump’s family are apparently happy to see our democracy under assault. About a hundred domestic billionaire families are enthusiastically willing to trade democracy and the free press it requires for tax cuts and deregulation.So, what happens if they win?What happens if America finally, fully abandons the alliances we’ve built up over 250 years and instead embraces this autocratic new world order of Putin, Xi, and the corrupt billionaires who run most of the world’s autocracies?If we formally pull out of NATO or, simply, quietly continue the process of abandoning the alliance? If we leave Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and South Korea to the tender mercies of the Chinese Communist Party? If we continue our embrace of “America’s coolest dictator,” Bukele in El Salvador and Rodriguez in Venezuela, and let their authoritarianism continue to metastasize across our hemisphere?If the GOP and its billionaire owners manage to muzzle all but a token remnant of our once-vibrant free press, if ICE becomes Trump’s and Vance’s personal Schutzstaffel and throws open their “detention centers” to the “liberal” Americans they’ve already designated as “domestic terrorists”? If they continue to follow Putin’s system of tightly regulating who’s eligible to vote (while corrupting Democrats like Fetterman) so Republicans never lose?What happens if they win?Then the wealthiest people on Earth finally get the world they’ve always wanted, from the days they opposed the American Revolution, to fighting against Lincoln, to “America First” billionaires trying to hire Smedley Butler to assassinate FDR, to now supporting Trump:A world where democracy is weak.Labor is powerless.The press is controlled.Religion is weaponized.Elections are managed.Fear keeps people obedient.And billionaires rule without accountability.That’s the oligarch’s endgame and has been for millennia. It’s why they bought off Sinema, Manchin, Golden, and Fetterman and are inserting themselves in elections across the nation. It’s why they’re buying our media.
