Trump Says He Gave Iran Permission to Bomb U.S. Base in Qatar and…Well, Mostly Crickets?

INSIDE: Republican lawmakers vs. the Senate Parliamentarian ... Edward 'Big Balls' Coristine ... the GOP’s New Red Scare

(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Alarming Verbal Diarrhea From the President

When political scientist Seth Masket shared this story on Bluesky yesterday, I couldn’t believe it was real. The right-wing Washington Times reported that at a press conference at the NATO Summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Trump revealed that he had given Iran permission to bomb the U.S.’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for the American bombing of their nuclear sites.

“They said, ‘We’re going to shoot them. Is one o’clock OK?’ I said it’s fine,” Trump said. “And everybody was emptied off the base so they couldn’t get hurt, except for the gunners.”

I poked around for other major coverage of this extraordinary admission, and landed only on a transcript of the press conference. And yes, amid a characteristically meandering monologue, Trump actually said that he let a foreign adversary bomb an American military installation. But this story has pretty much come and gone with virtually no attention and certainly none of the outrage commensurate with what Trump said.

Let’s consider what Trump’s verbal diarrhea here could mean. Suppose he is (for once) telling the truth. Wouldn’t that represent the most shocking dereliction of duty one could imagine for the commander-in-chief? (A high crime or misdemeanor, perhaps?) Is he saying he let Iran get its retaliation out of its system with what he called “a very weak response” to bring an end to hostilities? Perhaps Trump simply was rambling incoherently as he basked in his new “daddy” glow at NATO.

What would have happened if a Democratic president, particularly one named Joe Biden, had said he let a foreign adversary fire on an American military installation? As you consider that hypothetical, keep in mind that House Republicans are currently spending their precious oversight time investigating the former president’s mental acuity.

Flailing Administration Attacks Press for “Lies” About Iran Nuclear Intel

Trump loyalists are taking up his charge to attack any journalist who reported on intelligence contradicting Trump’s claim to have “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites in last weekend’s strikes. The tenor of this authoritarian campaign is that reporters are not permitted to contradict the president.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth came out swinging against his former Fox News colleague, national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, in an early morning press conference yesterday. In response to a question from Griffin about whether the Pentagon was certain that Tehran had not moved highly enriched uranium from the Fordow site prior to the American strike, Hegseth lashed out, “Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says.”

Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went after CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, after Trump had demanded she be “thrown out like a dog.” Leavitt claimed Bertrand is “being used to push a fake narrative to try to undermine the President of the United States and more importantly the brave fighter pilots who conducted one of the most successful operations in United States history.” CNN issued a statement standing by Bertrand’s reporting.

Meanwhile Senate Democrats remain unconvinced of Trump’s obliteration claims following a classified intelligence briefing yesterday. Trump ally Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who also attended the briefing, struggled to save face for the president, telling reporters afterwards, “The real question is, have we obliterated their desire to have a nuclear weapon.” Graham went on to tread lightly around Trump’s feelings. “I don’t want people to think that the site wasn’t severely damaged or obliterated,” he said. “It was. But having said that, I don’t want people to think the problem is over, because it’s not.”

Republicans Incite Hostility at the Senate Parliamentarian

Following a pattern of dangerous social media attacks on perceived political enemies, some Senate Republicans have begun to assail Elizabeth MacDonough, the nonpartisan Senate Parliamentarian who has struck numerous provisions out of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill. NBC reports:

“The WOKE Senate Parliamentarian, who was appointed by Harry Reid and advised Al Gore, just STRUCK DOWN a provision BANNING illegals from stealing Medicaid from American citizens,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., wrote on X. “This is a perfect example of why Americans hate THE SWAMP.”

“THE SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN SHOULD BE FIRED ASAP,” he said.

MacDonough was appointed by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2012, and is well-respected by leaders on both sides of the aisle. But Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, also said MacDonough needs to go and called for term limits for parliamentarians.

“She’s been here since 2012; she has a lot of power,” Marshall told reporters. “I don’t think anyone should stay here that long and have power where she doesn’t answer to anybody.”

While other Senate Republicans seem less eager for such a fight, their failure to firmly and publicly tamp down these inflammatory statements in the current climate is disheartening, to say the least.

Trump Has Cut Funding for Political Violence and Terrorism Prevention

At Mother Jones, Mark Follman reports on the dangers of Trump’s dismantling of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), a Department of Homeland Security initiative tasked with developing evidence-based community programs to prevent political violence and terrorism. The administration has diverted resources from this and other programs to fund Trump’s brutal deportation agenda.

“We’re at real risk of normalizing political violence as a part of our democracy,” CP3’s former director William Braniff told Follman. “[W]hen these norms are accepted at a societal level and encouraged at a political level, they become entrenched and really difficult to reverse.”

The Trump Administration Continues to Turn Civil Rights Upside Down

The Republican goal of eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion and “gender ideology” is aimed squarely at rolling back hard-won civil rights protections for people who aren’t white, straight, or cisgender. The Trump administration is carrying out this agenda, in part, through investigations and pressure campaigns against educational institutions, threatening to cut their federal funding.

Yesterday, the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services announced it is investigating the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League over trans girls playing sports, part of what it says is a “larger initiative to defend women and restore biological truth to the Federal government.”

In another arena, the New York Times reports the Justice Department is pressuring the University of Virginia to fire its president, James Ryan, “over what the department says is the school’s disregard for civil rights law over its diversity practices.” In other words, the Department of Justice, which historically has enforced civil rights laws protecting against race discrimination, is now strong-arming educational institutions it claims have discriminated against white people.

The Tough-on-Crime President Wants More Guns on the Street

The Washington Post reports this morning that staffers from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are setting up shop at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with a “goal of revising or eliminating dozens of rules and gun restrictions by July 4.” DOGE might want to run roughshod over it, but there’s a legal process for amending or ending federal regulations. You can count on litigation over any such efforts, not to mention public outcry.

Put a Pin in This

According to the Associated Press, in a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought committed to restoring funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting if the Senate votes down a House-passed “rescissions” package to make billions of dollars in DOGE-led cuts permanent.

Actually, Big Balls Never Left

Earlier this week I linked to a piece in Wired, reporting that Edward Coristine, the 19 year-old Department of Government Efficiency staffer also known as Big Balls, no longer worked for the federal government. The New York Times had matched Wired’s reporting, and then, yesterday, issued a correction. Coristine, who before joining DOGE had been fired from a job at a data security firm for leaking company information, is now a “special employee” at the Social Security Administration.

GOP’s New Red Scare Is About Muslims, Particularly Zohran Mamdani

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking her to “denaturalize” and deport New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, falsely claiming he failed to disclose material support for terrorism prior to becoming a U.S. citizen.

Religious Freedom Is Only for Trump’s Supporters

The House Homeland Security Committee has launched an investigation into hundreds of religious organizations and even entire denominations, claiming they were “involved in providing services or support to inadmissible aliens during the Biden-Harris administration’s historic border crisis.” Ominously, the letter the committee is sending religious organizations includes questions about their federal government funding through grants or contracts, their provision of services to immigrants, and whether they have ever sued the government.

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