Dem
47
GOP
53
Some days, Donald Trump suffers so many setbacks, embarrassments and other might-be-bad-for-his-party developments that it's hard to keep up. Yesterday was such a day. To wit:
Regime Change: There was something of a cottage industry in Trump exposés during Trump v1.0; that hasn't happened as much this time around. Maybe there hasn't been time, or maybe the market has been sated, or maybe there aren't as many angry former Trump staffers looking to stand outside the tent and pi** in. Whatever is going on, we got our first Trump v2.0 entry in the genre this week; it's Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. It's full of dirt, albeit not-that-surprising dirt. According to the authors, for example, the most powerful person in the White House is Stephen Miller. And during the first days of the Iran War, Trump's focus was buying trees for the White House lawn. And Trump flatters himself that he's more powerful than Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Adolf Hitler.
Senate Finger, Meet Trump Eye: Speaking of Iran, it's only symbolic, but the Senate voted yesterday to order Trump to remove American forces from Iran. The vote was 50-48, with most of the Republicans and John Fetterman (D-PA) in the minority, the rest of the Democrats, the independents, and Republicans Bill Cassidy (LA), Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Rand Paul (KY) in the majority, and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Dave McCormack (R-PA) absent. This certainly isn't going to improve the administration's negotiating position.
Full Court Press: Some days, the administration suffers many losses in court. Some days, it's only one or two. Yesterday was one of the "better" days, with only one loss. Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California P. Casey Pitts ruled that it's not legal for the administration to show up at immigration courts and arrest people. This is going to be very disappointing to the most powerful person in the White House. And it's not going to make Trump happy, either.
Dead Ducks: We mean that literally. As we have already written, one of the predictable effects of filling water that is used by ducks—say, the water in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool—with heavy-duty chemicals is that you're going to kill some ducks. At this point, at least three photos of dead baby ducks floating in the pond are all over social media. We are not going to share any of them, because they are very depressing. It is true that three ducks (or five, or ten) are relatively small in the grand scheme of things. It is also true that Americans love, love, love animals and they hate, hate, hate people who do harm to animals, especially baby animals.
Patient Zero?: There is a new anti-obesity drug, called retatrutide, that is in the final stages of clinical trials. Yesterday, STAT reported that a single person was given a "compassionate waiver" in April to gain early access to the drug. This person was 79 years old at the time, is clearly well-connected, is clearly OK with the idea of "rules for thee, not for me," and is significantly overweight. You can presumably figure out who STAT is pointing the finger at. The publication did manage to get some indirect evidence from White House staffers, while the White House Press Office originally did not deny the reporting, and then later offered only a tepid denial.
If STAT has connected the dots correctly, then at very least, it means that even Trump realizes that the image he has created of the lean-and-mean "fittest president in history" is a load of garbage. However, the fact that it's this drug, that the whole thing was so aggressively fast-tracked, and that Trump has already shown outward signs of issues, gives at least some suggestion that there is something more serious going on. One diagnosis that fits the facts (assuming, again, that it was Trump who got the drug) is pulmonary hypertension, which is a very serious and potentially fatal condition.
Again, not a great day for the fellow in the Oval Office. (Z)