Cognitive Decline? Trump Rambles About Paper Clip During Speech

During Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Event,” an attempt by the president to win over holdouts in the Senate and push through his tax and spending plan, his remarks meandered briefly into an alternate history of the paper clip.

Trump’s speech touted the bill, in typical Trump fashion, as “one of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of our country.”

It also briefly touched on one provision that would make interest on auto loans for American-made cars tax deductible, an idea Trump suggested he thought up himself—and which, MarketWatch reports, “you probably won’t notice … once you factor in tariffs.”

“What a great idea,” Trump said “people” told him. “It’s like the paper clip.” Trump used the same analogy when announcing the proposal in October 2024.

Here, the 79-year-old president strayed from his monotonously delivered prepared remarks to edify us with a made-up factoid: “Somebody came up with the idea of the paper clip many years ago. 1817. And he became a very rich person, and everybody looked at it and said, ‘Why the hell didn’t I think of that?’”

Trump’s guess was a little bit off, as paper clips didn’t appear in their familiar modern form until around 1892, and the invention was never patented, according to Scientific American.

But a more significant falsehood followed, as Trump went on to claim that his supposedly automaker-friendly policies accounted for his past electoral successes in Michigan, falsely stating, “I actually think we won it three times in a row” because of them. Trump lost Michigan in 2020 against Joe Biden by more than 150,000 votes.

The Trump administration is once again planning to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, this time as he waits in custody for the trial for his first wrongful deportation. This comes as its efforts to criminally prosecute him for being a gang member and drug smuggler fizzle out in court.

This time the administration is looking to send Abrego Garcia to an “unnamed” third country before he gets to have the fair trial he deserves in the United States. Trump maintains that Abrego Garcia is a dangerous criminal, part of the notorious MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia has vehemently denied this, and even federal judges are having a hard time believing that story.

“The government cannot simply rely on the general reputation of a particular street gang to satisfy its burden,” U.S. Magistrate Barbara D. Holmes wrote as she ordered Abrego Garcia released on bail. “The government’s evidence that Abrego is a member of MS-13 consists of general statements, all double hearsay.… The government’s evidence of Abrego’s alleged gang membership is simply insufficient.”

Abrego Garcia was accidentally deported to El Salvador, sat in the CECOT megaprison, came back to the United States, was charged with crimes he very well may have never committed, and is now being deported to another random country before he can be put on trial for those alleged crimes. This feels like an administration trying to cover for the obvious, brutal mistake that it made by doubling down on Abrego Garcia’s alleged criminality and folding him into the countless other detainments and deportations that have been devoid of due process.

“We have said it for months and it remains true to this day,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said to Axios. “He will never go free on American soil.”

The Justice Department has said there is no timeline for Abrego Garcia’s deportation, and that it is not “imminent.”

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is getting exactly what he wants: One in seven people arrested as part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s sweeping raids in Los Angeles earlier this month had no criminal convictions, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

Between June 1 and June 10, ICE arrested 722 individuals across the greater Los Angeles area. But 69 percent of those arrested had no criminal conviction, and 58 percent had never even been charged with a crime, according to a Times analysis published Tuesday of data from UC Berkeley Law’s Data Deportation Project. 

Despite the Trump administration’s hollow assurances that ICE would target criminals, the reality of the government’s massive deportation scheme has targeted average upstanding individuals, ripping family members, friends, and neighbors out of their communities. 

But to Miller, who is on a campaign to ethnically cleanse the country, that must be music to his ears. 

As ICE’s sweep of Los Angeles began at the beginning of June, Miller was reportedly furious when he heard that ICE officers had narrowed their field to undocumented immigrants with criminal records. 

“Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. ‘Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?’” one official recalled after a tense meeting between the ghoulish homeland security adviser and officials from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.  

But DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin insisted to the Times that ICE arrests were “highly targeted.” 

“We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement is trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability,” McLaughlin said. But reports of other arrests suggest that ICE will detain someone even if they know they’re not the target. 

Wall Street was right about the president: Trump always chickens out.

Despite spending weeks fuming about the fact that investors had clocked him for repeatedly reneging on his tariff plan, Donald Trump has once again decided to extend the deadline to implement them.

The White House said Thursday that the deadline for countries to strike trade deals with the United States may be extended past July 9, a deadline that press secretary Karoline Leavitt described as “not critical.”

“The president can simply provide these countries with a deal if they refuse to make us one by the deadline,” Leavitt said during a press briefing. “And that means the president can pick a reciprocal tariff rate that he believes is advantageous for the United States and for the American worker.”

Ultimately, it’s a “decision for the president to make,” Leavitt noted.

The TACO theory was coined in early May by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong, who added a catchy acronym to the practice of loading up on stocks when Trump first announces tariffs and then selling when he ultimately backtracks on enforcing them.

So far, that’s been true for enacting additional tariffs on Mexico and Canada, postponing his “reciprocal” tariff plan on dozens of countries after his April “Liberation Day” announcement went south, delaying a tariff on imports from the European Union, and smashing his plan to fine China, decreasing tariffs on Chinese products to 55 percent from 145 percent.

At the end of last month, Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on the European Union but quickly delayed the penalty to July after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to negotiate.

The extension for implementing practically all of Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, however, is set to expire July 8.

Trump’s tariff proposals haven’t won the U.S. too much negotiating ground. Instead, countries around the world began observing that—rather than playing the waiting game to meet with the White House over potential trade relief—China’s tough negotiating strategy with the former real estate mogul had actually gotten the Eastern powerhouse a significantly better deal.

In the end, it will be the U.S. that pays the price when the Trump administration runs out of time on its “90 deals in 90 days” promise. On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank would wait to see the residual impacts of the country’s new tariff plan before reducing its key interest rate, as companies have already decided to increase product prices this year in reaction to hampered global supply chains.

The White House is embracing Donald Trump’s “Daddy” nickname in a pretty intense way for a guy whose name was in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The White House communications office released an eye roll–inducing supercut video Thursday about Trump’s trip to the NATO summit, declaring “Daddy’s Home,” using Usher’s song “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).”

The video referred to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s cringeworthy comment during a press conference Wednesday about Trump’s surprise military strike in Iran.

“They’ve had it, they’ve had a big fight like two kids in a schoolyard,” Trump said of Israel and Iran, revealing just how elementary his understanding of the conflict actually was. “You know they fight like hell, you can’t stop ’em. Let ’em fight for about two to three minutes. Then it’s easy to stop ’em.”

“Daddy has to sometimes use strong language,” Rutte joked. It seems that “Daddy” liked his new nickname. Now he’s even selling ugly orange T-shirts that say it, complete with his glowering mug shot.

When asked about Rutte’s comment and whether Trump viewed his NATO allies as his children, Trump seemed to love the idea. “He likes me, I think he likes me. If he doesn’t, I’ll come back and I’ll hit him hard, OK?” Trump told reporters during a press conference Wednesday. “He did it very affectionately. ‘Daddy, you’re my daddy!’”

Of course, Trump’s not the only one with a daddy kink: MAGA has been quick to embrace the new nickname, as well. Fox News anchor Jesse Watters gushed about his newfound father figure, applauding Trump for not abandoning NATO.

“The media said Daddy was gonna leave the family, but look at him front and center in the family photo,” Watters said of a photograph of Trump posing with leaders at the summit.

The MAGA mouthpiece joined in on the administration’s complaining about a leaked Pentagon report that had undermined Trump’s claims about the strikes in Iran being successful. “If you stab Daddy in the back, you’re getting more than a spanking,” Watters said. “The punishment for treason: the death penalty.”

And former Fox News host Tucker Carlson—who has since split with Trump over the conflict in Iran—referred to the president as “Daddy” on the campaign trail.

“When Dad gets home, you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now,” Carlson said at a Trump event in October, comparing the U.S. to a teenage girl.

Trump’s new embrace of the nickname seems particularly disgusting considering the president’s alleged involvement in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who faced allegations of trafficking minors.

Trump’s name already popped up in files released by his own government earlier this year. But one of his closest allies, Elon Musk, implied earlier this month that Trump could be more intimately involved in Epstein’s criminal activities, which explained why his administration was soft-footing the release of documents that it had previously promised to unveil.

The Trump administration is going full throttle against a CNN journalist.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lost it on Natasha Bertand during a Thursday press conference, lashing the Pentagon correspondent for daring to report on Donald Trump and his aides.

Earlier this week, Bertrand really got under Trump’s skin when she reported on air that a leaked preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment of Saturday’s airstrike on three Iranian nuclear targets suggested it had not been as successful as the president had advertised, and had only set the country’s nuclear development back by some months, rather than by several years.

When asked about Bertrand’s report, Leavitt used the opportunity to bring up every story Bertrand has written that Trump doesn’t like. For more than two straight minutes, Leavitt flamed Bertrand for reporting that the Hunter Biden laptop controversy was “Russian disinformation” (the New York Post, which ran the original story on its front page, said in the aftermath of the report that the contents of the laptop were mixed with fake material and that most of the data could not be verified), while urging the crowd to agree that the story was a “lie” from the intelligence community.

She further claimed that Bertand had inaccurately reported on the origin of the Covid-19 virus, had taken Trump’s “suckers and losers” comment out of context, and had wrongly accused CIA Director John Ratcliffe of speaking “without any evidence” with regard to Iranian meddling in Trump’s presidential campaign.

“She should be ashamed of herself,” Leavitt said. “And that’s not what reporting is. Journalism is trying to find the facts and the truth, and this week we saw this same reporter 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.

“I think the American people fully know that this operation was a complete and total success,” Leavitt added.

Leavitt’s rant followed several days’ worth of anti-Bertrand comments by the president, who urged CNN to reprimand Bertrand and throw her out “like a dog.”

“It’s people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great Network,” Trump wrote. “Her slant was so obviously negative, besides, she doesn’t have what it takes to be an on-camera correspondent, not even close. FIRE NATASHA!”

CNN released a statement defending Bertrand Wednesday, declaring that they stand “100 percent” behind her journalism, specifically including her and her colleague’s reporting on Trump’s attack on Iran.

“CNN’s reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence,” the network said. “However, we do not believe it is reasonable to criticize CNN reporters for accurately reporting the existence of the assessment and accurately characterizing its findings, which are in the public interest.”

The White House has rejected the Iran strikes report, rebuffing the whistleblower Tuesday as a “low-level loser,” though it still acknowledged that the report had been classified as “top secret.” On Wednesday, the administration had apparently thrown the U.S. intelligence out the window altogether, siding instead with a narrative pushed by the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission that the attacks had “rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.”

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has struck some notable provisions from President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” leading a growing chorus of GOP lawmakers to call on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to overrule or fire her.

Being a reconciliation bill—which can pass with a simple majority, rather than the 60-vote threshold required to overcome a filibuster—the legislation cannot contain provisions unrelated to the budget. Currently, MacDonough is tasked with whittling away “extraneous” measures that run afoul of that rule.

In doing so, she has incensed some MAGA hard-liners, most recently pushing some over the edge by lopping off a number of Medicaid cuts on Thursday morning.

Reacting to the news, Senator Tommy Tuberville on X accused MacDonough of advancing “a woke agenda,” writing, “THE SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN SHOULD BE FIRED ASAP.”

Senator Roger Marshall joined Tuberville, citing the firing of Parliamentarian Robert Dove in 2001 and declaring that “we need to again fire the Senate Parliamentarian.”

The calls are coming from inside the House, as well.

Representative Dan Crenshaw—who was particularly upset about the removal of his proposal to ban federal Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care—said MacDonough “has shown clear political bias, applying ideology and not the rules of the Senate.”

Also pushing to remove or override MacDonough are Representatives Greg Steube, Keith Self, and Jeff Van Drew.

As the majority leader, Thune could theoretically call for a vote to overrule MacDonough, or fire and replace her. But the South Dakota senator seemingly has no intention of doing so, telling reporters on Thursday that overruling her “would not be a good option for getting a bill done”—echoing his previous comments.

“These are … short-term setbacks,” Thune said, according to The Hill. “Speed bumps, if you will.” GOP lawmakers endure these speed bumps as they race toward Trump’s July 4 deadline to pass the bill.

On Thursday Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is still set on removing fluoride from drinking water even after admitting that it did help prevent cavities and tooth decay in children. 

“What has been the response from dentists in America who may be concerned that some children in lower incomes in particular don’t get those regular dental, preventative-type situations where they can go in and get their teeth more indemnified and treated against cavities?” Fox News’s Harris Faulkner asked Kennedy Jr. as he sat next to Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. 

“Well, people will still get indemnified for it to the extent that they’re already indemnified. But you know, it is an issue. It’s a balance. You’re gonna see, probably, slightly more cavities. Although in Europe where they banned fluoride they did not see an uptick in cavities. The issue is, parents need to decide. Science is very clear on fluoride.” 

Europe has not “banned” fluoride, they just don’t add it to their public water supplies like we do here. Europeans still receive fluoride at the dentist. Even still, Kennedy has had his mind set on this fluoride ban for some time now.  

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” he wrote in November. “Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. President ​Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump want to Make America Healthy Again.​”

Dental professionals nationwide are troubled by this development.

“The growing distrust of credible, time-tested, evidence-based science is disheartening. The myths that fluoridated water is harmful and no longer necessary to prevent dental disease is troublesome and reminds me of fictional plots from old movies like Dr. Strangelove,” said American Dental Association President Brett Kessler. “When government officials, like Secretary Kennedy, stand behind the commentary of misinformation and distrust peer-reviewed research it is injurious to public health.” 

Forget “Make America Great Again”—Donald Trump won’t even manufacture his own phone in the United States.

The Trump-branded cell phone, which launched mere days ago, has already scrubbed all language from its website that indicates the product is made in America. Instead, the phone is “designed with American values in mind,” with strange marketing promises that there are “American hands behind every device,” per the Trump Mobile website. That could, of course, mean anything.

The website also features a poorly photoshopped mock-up of the new Trump phone, which looks not too dissimilar to an iPhone save for its three copy-pasted cameras. The cell has a matte gold finish, along with a laser-engraved American flag and “T1” on the back.

A review of the site by The Verge found that the move away from American production wasn’t the only change made since the phone previewed last week. The advertised screen size of the Trump phone has also dropped significantly, changing from a 6.78-inch screen to 6.25 inches.

The site used to list the phone as having 12 gigabytes of RAM—now there are no RAM specifications whatsoever.

Further, the site had previously promised that the gimmicky gadget would ship in September, but that language no longer exists in marketing materials. Instead, the company is offering that it will be available “later this year.”

The Verge reported that the differences could mean that the Trump Organization had switched suppliers for the T1 phone.

The cell phone appears to be just another example in a long line of money-grabbing grifts for the president. Trump’s long list of election-year hustles included launching a remarkably ugly sneaker and a limited-edition $60 God Bless the USA Bible co-promoted by “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood.

Trump also took the parent company of his social media platform Truth Social public and stamped his name on a new cryptocurrency platform headed by his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., that even the president’s allies have criticized as a “huge mistake.” He and his wife also started their own cryptocurrencies, which critics have accused of being a method for wealthy foreigners to buy time and influence with the president.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the Supreme Court was “stymying one of the country’s great civil rights laws” after it ruled 6–3 that states could defund Planned Parenthood on the grounds that Medicaid does not give patients a right to choose their provider.

Jackson offered a biting dissent, essentially calling the court’s decision a bastardization of the first section of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, which bolstered laws against white supremacist terrorism.

“A century and a half later, the project of stymying one of the country’s great civil rights laws continues. In this latest chapter, South Carolina urges our Court to adopt a narrow and ahistorical reading of the 1871 Act’s first section.… That venerable provision permits any citizen to obtain redress in federal court for ‘the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States,’” Jackson wrote. “South Carolina asks us to hollow out that provision so that the State can evade liability for violating the rights of its Medicaid recipients to choose their own doctors. The Court abides South Carolina’s request. I would not. For that reason, I respectfully dissent.”

This ruling makes Planned Parenthood incredibly vulnerable to conservative attacks, as states can now nakedly use anti-abortion activism to deprive it of funds. Though all they’re really attacking is the contraception, cancer screenings, pregnancy testing, and other basic medical care that Planned Parenthood provides as an organization that accepts publicly funded insurance, like Medicaid. The Hyde Amendment already restricts public funding from being used for abortions. And Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of contraceptives and birth control in the country. Its absence will almost certainly lead to more accidental pregnancies—and more abortions, legal or illegal.

“At a minimum, it will deprive Medicaid recipients in South Carolina of their only meaningful way of enforcing a right that Congress has expressly granted to them,” Jackson concluded in her dissent. “And, more concretely, it will strip those South Carolinians—and countless other Medicaid recipients around the country—of a deeply personal freedom: the ‘ability to decide who treats us at our most vulnerable.’”