Trump Tells Purple Heart Recipients Life Wasn’t So Easy for Him Either

Donald Trump’s version of a Purple Heart ceremony apparently involves honoring himself.

The president, a reputed draft dodger, likened himself to America’s wounded or killed veterans Thursday: “It wasn’t that easy for me, either,” he said.

The ceremony was attended by 100 Purple Heart recipients—three of whom had given Trump their own medals last year in the aftermath of the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt.

“Last year, after an assassin tried to take my life in Butler, Pennsylvania, Thomas generously mailed me one of his Purple Hearts. Many of the other veterans showed me the same unbelievable gesture of kindness, including three-time Purple Heart recipient John Ford and Gerald Enter Jr., who also came along with us and did us a great, great favor,” Trump said.

A bullet struck the top of Trump’s right ear during a campaign rally in July 2024.

“Gerald, John, and Thomas, I want to thank you very much. What a great honor to get those Purple Hearts,” the president continued. “I guess in a certain way, it wasn’t that easy for me, either, when you think of it. But you went through a lot more than I did, and I appreciate it all very much.”

Trump’s gifted medals belie his candid disregard for the American military: He has requested that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades; refused to visit a World War II graveyard; derided deceased soldiers as “suckers” and “losers”; and claimed that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to one of his billionaire donors was “much better” than the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor.

And Trump never earned his own military honors thanks to a conveniently timed bone spur diagnosis that helped him skirt the Vietnam War draft in 1968.

Donald Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., clearly thinks it’s hilarious that WNBA players are getting dildos hurled at them on the court: On Thursday, he posted a cringey meme of his dad tossing one from the roof of the White House.

The 44-year old posted a meme on Instagram (already off to a bad start) showing the president during his eerie rooftop walk Monday, and a neon green sex toy flying toward the ground where an AI-generated image of a women’s basketball game has been inserted.

“Posted without further comment. 😂😂😂” the eldest Trump wrote in the caption.

The meme was made in reference to a recent series of incidents at WNBA games where audience members tossed dildos onto the court, as part of a viral trend started by a crypto company. The trend has been used to sexualize and demean athletes during games, with some of the players being purposefully targeted with airborne sex toys. Since July 29, there have been at least six incidents at games, frustrating players, coaches, and fans.

For Trump Jr., the meme seems to be the perfect intersection of furtive interests in both misogyny and cryptocurrency—something he and his dad have in common! Trump Jr. recently purchased 350,000 shares of a hemorrhaging social media firm for a stake in its bitcoin stockpile, as Trump Media & Technology Group has raised $2.3 billion to create a “treasury” of Bitcoin.

A lot of the comments on the post appeared to be people asking for more information on alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein—a promise the Trump administration made but then clawed back. Brian Glenn, a right-wing propagandist and boyfriend of MAGA Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, responded enthusiastically.

“Greatest IG account. Ever,” Glenn wrote.

Trump Jr. replied, “you’re welcome.”

A federal judge has ordered Florida to halt construction of President Trump’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility for two weeks.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams’s temporary restraining order, issued Thursday, gives some reprieve to the environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians who brought the lawsuit against the state of Florida on the grounds that the facility violates numerous environmental laws and is a threat to the region’s rich wetlands in the Everglades. The center would also be a specific threat to panthers, according to Randy Kautz, a wildlife expert who testified in the lawsuit.

“There has been a stable reproducing population of panthers in this area in this range at least over the last 30 years,” he testified in court. “Panthers have succeeded and resided here.… There is a chance that [expanding Alligator Alcatraz] results in putting this species at risk.”

Alligator Alcratraz’s leadership has also disregarded the environmental review process required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

While temporary, this halts a pet project for Trump that has already received accusations of abuse and inhumane conditions for detained immigrants and workers alike. Williams will continue to hear the case.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was finally able to admit that tariffs are indeed a tax on American importers and consumers, as Trump’s tariffs affecting virtually the entire world took effect on Thursday. 

“We’ve got a tariff of 50 percent on Brazil now, I think. And so, if um, someone here, an importer, wants to buy Brazilian products today or tomorrow and import them, they’re gonna pay 50 percent through the Treasury,” MSNBC’s Eugene Robinson said to Bessent, explaining the policy to the treasury secretary as if he were a child. “So who writes that check?” 

Bessent has had some issues answering this question directly in the recent past, and he began to equivocate once again. 

“Well, couple of things. First, we could have substitutions, so there’s very little that only comes from Brazil,” Bessent replied. “It could come from Argentina, it could come from—”

“But assuming it does come from Brazil, say, or it comes from any country with a tariff,” Robinson said, pulling him back to the actual question. “Who writes the check to the Treasury?”

“Well, the check is written to the person who receives it at the dock, in the U.S.” 

“Mhm, the check, is, quote, ‘written by the person who receives it at the dock.’ So the tariff is paid in this country by the importer, is that right?” Robinson said, again highlighting the crux of the matter.

“But the Brazilian exporter could decide that they wanna keep market share, they could lower their price to the full 50 percent of the tariff—”

“Right, they could eat part of the cost.”

“Which is what we’ve seen,” Bessent continued unconvincingly.

“Uh-huh, OK, OK. But the check is written by the importer right, at the dock?” 

“Right, and then the importer can pass it on or not.” 

Not only is Bessent doing everything in his power to avoid the truth of the situation—U.S. importers foot the bill here—he’s also spinning pipe dreams regarding the likelihood of American companies or other countries willingly volunteering to “eat part of the cost.” Trump’s tariffs will raise prices on importers, and those importers will pass those prices on to consumers. Products from Brazil, India, and countless other countries will grow more expensive. Trump has already publicly feuded with Walmart after the corporation said it would refuse to eat tariff costs and would raise prices. 

“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS  last year, far more than expected,” Trump wrote in May. “Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!” 

American consumers should expect more lies and business confrontations from this administration while prices everywhere rise. 

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is basically a Democrat, according to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

AIPAC, one of the largest lobbies in the United States, excoriated Greene in a fundraising email to its supporters Thursday for describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “genocide,” likening the MAGA Republican to some of the most progressive voices on Capitol Hill.

“You expect anti-Israel smears from Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar,” the group said. “But now, Marjorie Taylor Greene has joined their ranks—spouting the same vile rhetoric and voting against the US-Israel alliance.”

Advocates, academics, United Nations experts, and human rights groups in and out of Israel have said the state, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, is committing genocide in Palestine. Last week, Greene joined them.

“It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” the far-right Georgia congresswoman wrote on X at the time.

AIPAC derided Greene’s comments as “disgusting.”

A U.N.-backed international food security body reported last week that the “worst-case famine scenario” is currently occurring in Gaza, where Israeli forces have restricted local access to food, water, electricity, and medicine. The report fell short of labeling the situation a full-blown famine, though at least 197 starvation deaths have occurred in the war-torn region, local health authorities told Vatican News.

“This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement, underscoring that the “trickle of aid” to Gaza “must become an ocean.”

Yet help may not be on the way. Speaking with reporters Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Donald Trump had effectively given Israel a pass to take over the remainder of Gaza.