Trump Confusingly Brags About Constantly Getting Played

Donald Trump’s self-advertised credentials for solving the Russia-Ukraine war: his ability to constantly get played.

Speaking to reporters during a White House lunch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Friday, Trump attempted to instill confidence in his negotiating tactics by describing himself as a sucker.

“Aren’t you concerned that maybe the Russian president is trying to buy himself more time?” asked a reporter.

“I am, but you know, I’ve been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well,” Trump said. “A little time … I’m pretty good at this stuff.”

Despite spending months boasting about his cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump has pulled an aboutface in his public stance on the foreign conflict in recent weeks. Last month, Trump claimed that Ukraine could reclaim all of its occupied territory, and earlier this week, he threatened to deliver Tomahawk missiles—which have a range of more than 1,500 miles—to Kyiv should Russia not end its assault.

However, seated feet away from the Ukrainian leader Friday, Trump began to waffle about sharing American munitions, expressing to the room that he was concerned about America’s diminishing supply.

“We’d much rather have them not need Tomahawks. We’d much rather have the war be over,” Trump said. “It could mean a big escalation. It could mean a lot of bad things could happen.”

The two world leaders openly negotiated on the arms while in front of reporters, with Zelenskiy suggesting that Ukraine could support the development of more drones in exchange for the missiles, which would give Kyiv power to strike far beyond Moscow.

MAGA politics neatly align with Russian interests. Halfway across the world, between the borders of America’s cold war nemesis, elements of the MAGA agenda have already been perfected: being gay or transgender is illegal, the majority of the country identifies homogeneously as Orthodox Christians, and NATO is a loathed institution rather than a celebrated one.

But even their closely synced political ideologies could not broker an arrangement when Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska this summer. After the theatrics were over, the two world leaders failed to reach a consensus on how to end the bloodshed, with Trump losing his cool while Putin demanded that Ukraine cede more territory to Russia, according to a bombshell report published by Financial Times Friday.

President Donald Trump, 79, invented a bizarre claim that a Democratic senator from Hawaii wants to build a railroad from the continental United States to the archipelago.

Apparently speaking about Senator Mazie Hirono, Trump said Friday, “She wanted a tunnel from the mainland to Hawaii. Then she said, ‘Well, we can’t do that, so we’re gonna build a railroad to Hawaii.’ Do you remember? She’s a current, sitting senator, a Democrat. She wants a railroad to go to Hawaii. You know who that is, right?”

“She’s another b—” the president started, before stopping himself. “She’s another beauty.”

The president’s statement is a nesting doll of inaccuracies, stemming back to a 2019 joke Hirono made regarding misinformation about the content of the Green New Deal.

At the time, conservative media outlets and politicians were spreading the false claim that the Green New Deal would eliminate air travel and replace it with high-speed rail. A Fox News reporter asked Hirono, who supported the progressive climate plan, about the nonexistent provision. The senator laughingly replied, “That would be pretty hard for Hawaii.”

Some on the right, including Trump, took that comment and ran with it. At a February 2019 rally, Trump called the Hawaii Democrat “crazy” for supporting something that (he incorrectly believed) would eliminate air travel to her state. In the six years since, Trump’s grip on reality has apparently only slipped further.

Eric Trump, the second son of the president, did little to allay concerns about his father’s apparent promise to arrange a phone call about Trump Organization business between Eric and the president of Indonesia.

In a hot-mic moment at Monday’s Gaza ceasefire summit, President Trump and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto were caught exchanging words, seemingly about a Trump Organization project in Indonesia.

Trump told Prabowo that he would have Eric, a vice president at the company who holds no government role, reach out to him. “He’s such a good boy,” the president said of his son. “I’ll have Eric call.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday asked about this apparent instance of the president using his office to advance his and his family’s business interests. Eric Trump, 41, said of his father: “I’m glad he acknowledges that I’m a good boy. I am a good boy.”

He also said he hasn’t received the call (yet), but expressed gratitude that the president of Indonesia is aware of the Trump Organization’s ventures in the country. “I’ve never met the president of Indonesia,” he said, “but it doesn’t surprise me, given the magnitude and prominence of those projects, that he knows about what I’m doing over there.”

But Prabowo’s conversation with Trump raises the possibility that he is more than just aware of the Trump Organization’s works in Indonesia. Trump and Prabowo seemed to discuss details about the progress of a specific project, and at one point, the Indonesian president told Trump he had spoken to “Hary”—possibly meaning Hary Tanoesoedibjo, a businessman who frequently partners with the Trump Organization on its projects in the region.

Collins asked Eric Trump if he sees the hot-mic conversation as weakening the notion that a “wall” separates his father’s presidential and private affairs.

“I think there’s a huge wall,” he replied. “I mean, there’s so much of a wall that the guy [Prabowo] has never met me.” It was an interesting response, given the president clearly promised to arrange the very meeting his son was citing as proof that a “wall” exists.

Even America’s top military commanders are jumping in on the AI chatbot wave.

A U.S. Army general told reporters earlier this week that he’d become very fond of “Chat,” even trusting the algorithm to make “key command decisions” in relation to his post.

“I’ve become—Chat and I are really close lately,” Maj. Gen. William “Hank” Taylor said, using a cozy pop culture moniker to refer to generative AI programs during a roundtable at the annual Association of the United States Army conference on Monday.

“As a commander, I want to make better decisions,” Taylor explained. “I want to make sure that I make decisions at the right time to give me the advantage.”

Taylor did not provide specific examples as to how AI has assisted him in completing his duties, though he underscored its use in writing weekly reports and noted that the field army he commands in South Korea was “regularly using” relevant AI programs for predictive analysis.

“As we talk about protection, drone use, counter-drones and counter-UAS, medical modernization, aviation modernization, we have something going on in almost every domain of modernization in Korea, right? AI is one thing that, as a commander, it’s been very, very interesting for me. Obviously, I’ve been in the Army for a long time, right? And so I was in the Army before computers,” Taylor said, according to DefenseScoop.

Like most of America’s managerial workforce, Taylor said that he’s also turned to AI to inform his leadership approach.

“One of the things that recently I’ve been personally working on with my soldiers is decision-making—individual decision-making. And how [we make decisions] in our own individual life, when we make decisions, it’s important. So, that’s something I’ve been asking and trying to build models to help all of us,” Taylor said. “Especially, [on] how do I make decisions, personal decisions, right—that affect not only me, but my organization and overall readiness?”

How much playing dumb can House Speaker Mike Johnson do before he reveals that he’s a genuine idiot?

During a press conference Friday, Johnson had an outlandish response when asked about a recent ProPublica report that found 170 U.S. citizens had been unlawfully detained by ICE, including 20 children.

“I’m not—I don’t know what you’re talking about with the children,” Johnson replied.

When the reporter interrupted to repeat the number of U.S. citizens that had been detained, Johnson doubled down. “I haven’t seen that, so I’m not going to comment on it. But I will tell you that ICE is doing the job that the American people demanded that they do.”

Johnson was also asked about Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments criticizing the speaker for failing to address the protective order against Representative Cory Mills for allegedly threatening to release sexually explicit materials of his ex-girlfriend.

“They expelled George Santos, Mike Johnson did. He was speaker and oversaw George Santos being expelled. Why isn’t he doing anything about Cory Mills?” Greene told Axios Thursday.

“There’s clearly proof behind her accusations that a judge is issuing a restraining order. So I would say to Speaker Johnson, this is a serious matter, and it needs to be taken seriously,” she added.

But Johnson didn’t seem interested in that. “I don’t—I try not to react to what Marjorie Taylor Greene says every day,” he replied Friday.

“I did see, somebody told me that she accused me of ousting Santos, which of course is the exact opposite of the history. Everyone can go review what happened. I opposed his expulsion from Congress. I voted against it. I advocated to my colleagues not to do that,” he said.

Johnson oversaw Santos’s expulsion in 2023, though he noted at the time he had voted against the measure because he didn’t want to set a precedent of removing members who had not been convicted of a crime. The Louisiana Republican also claimed that as Santos reported to prison, he had posted a friendly message about the speaker. In fact, Santos had accused Johnson of blocking his shot at a presidential pardon.

“So look, I don’t know what Marjorie’s talking about,” Johnson said, adding that he’d wait for the legal procedures against Mills to play out. (Johnson had dismissed a question about the Mills allegations Wednesday as not “really serious.”)

This is far from the first time Johnson has played dumb about a question, as he continues to conduct daily propaganda press briefings during the ongoing government shutdown. “I don’t know” has become his answer for everything.

Johnson claimed Thursday he had “no idea” how the government shutdown would end. When asked about reports of brutality by federal agents operating in Chicago, Johnson claimed he’d “not seen them cross the line yet.”

Lawyers for alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO–killer Luigi Mangione on Friday cited President Donald Trump’s own social media posts in court to argue the entire case should be dismissed, or at least the death penalty should be taken off the table.

Mangione’s defense team argued that the Trump administration is using their client as “a pawn to further its political agenda,” and that statements and reposts by DOJ officials have completely tarnished his right to a fair trial.  

On September 18, Trump said in a Fox News interview that Mangione looked like a “pure assassin.”  

“He shot someone in the back as clear as you’re looking at me.… He shot him right in the middle of the back—instantly dead.… This is a sickness. This really has to be studied and investigated.” 

Everything Trump said was only alleged. 

A clip of the interview was posted by the White House social media team Rapid Response 47. Justice Department Public Affairs head Chad Gilmartin retweeted it, commenting that the president was “absolutely right,” violating the judge’s explicit orders that DOJ employees refrain from public comment about the  case. 

“The Department of Justice and the White House have coordinated to cultivate and disseminate negative public rhetoric deliberately designed to taint the prospective jury pool,” defense attorneys Karen Agnifilo and Avi Moskowitz told the court. “The significance of these prejudicial statements is that they have life or death consequences for Mr. Mangione.”

The Justice Department tried to argue that Trump’s statements are irrelevant given that he’s not related to the case, but the defense highlighted the president’s growing control of DOJ.

“Unlike any of its predecessors since the Watergate era, the Department of Justice has not acted independently of the White House in this case—or in several others,” the defense filing read. “This departure from the longstanding principle of prosecutorial independence has created a blurred and constitutionally troubling line between the Department of Justice and the Executive Office of the President.”

Prosecutors also argued that any potential jurors have plenty of time between now and Mangione’s trial to forget about Trump’s statements. Mangione’s lawyers disagreed. 

“The government has engaged in purposeful, repeated, unlawful actions specifically designed to hurt Mr. Mangione’s chances at fair legal proceedings and a fair trial and as part of a wider government effort to further a political agenda,” they said. “These same officials—whether acting directly or through their subordinates—have continued on this course even after this Court has explicitly directed them not to has caused this case to be unlike any prior death penalty case.”

Mangione still sits in a Brooklyn jail awaiting a trial date. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pulled no punches in comments about White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Friday morning.

Leavitt had drawn widespread outcry with an inflammatory claim Thursday that the Democratic Party’s “main constituency” consists of “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

Jeffries, in turn, described the press secretary as “sick” and “out of control.”

“I’m not sure whether she’s just demented, ignorant, a stone cold liar, or all of the above,” he told reporters. “But the notion that an official White House spokesperson would say that the Democratic Party consists of terrorists, violent criminals, and undocumented immigrants. This makes no sense that this is what the American people are getting from the Trump administration in the middle of a shutdown.”

Leavitt’s divisive statement has earned condemnations from other prominent Democrats as well.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut called it both “grossly dark” and “politically dumb,” writing on X, “How do they think Americans will react to being told that anyone who doesn’t support Trump is a terrorist?”

“Most Republicans are good people. Most Democrats are good people. The White House says outrageous things to make you hate your neighbor,” said Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and previous Democratic nominee for vice president. “Your neighbor isn’t the problem. The White House is.”

Representative Greg Casar of Texas, a progressive Democrat, called on Leavitt to resign. “They try to make us hate each other,” he said, “to distract from the fact that they’re robbing us all blind.”

What President Donald Trump described as a “great and successful day” at his Alaska summit with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin two months ago was apparently a major disaster.

The Financial Times reported Friday that after the visiting autocrat’s warm welcome, ice caps quickly formed between him and Trump. Putin firmly rejected America’s offer to relieve sanctions in return for a ceasefire with Ukraine, and insisted that the bloodshed would only end if Ukraine ceded more territory to him, according to multiple people briefed.

Putin then launched into a rambling historical tirade, citing medieval princes and seventeenth-century chieftains as evidence that Ukraine and Russia were meant to be a single nation.

Trump was reportedly upset at his good buddy’s attitude and raised his voice several times, even threatening to leave, people told the Financial Times. The U.S. president ended up cutting the meeting short and canceling a lunch afterward to discuss further cooperation.

And Trump’s business partner Steve Witkoff may be partially to blame for the screwup. The U.S. special envoy reportedly traveled to Russia in August to urge Putin to come to the table, and Witkoff apparently misconstrued Russia’s openness to make a deal. “He misunderstood everything Putin said about what the summit was going to be about,” a person briefed on the talks told the FT.

Since the summit, Trump has changed his tune on making endless concessions to Russia, even suggesting that Ukraine could claw back its original borders. Trump is scheduled to host Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House Friday, to discuss the possibility of providing arms to Ukraine in the ongoing conflict with Russia, which may be starting to expand across Europe.

The new details about Alaska have emerged as Trump prepares to meet with Putin again. Trump announced Thursday that he would sit down with his Russian counterpart in Budapest “within two weeks or so.” He did not give a more specific date.

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro has once again failed spectacularly, as she has been unable to charge the same D.C. woman in court four different times.

On Thursday, a jury found Sidney Lori Reid not guilty on misdemeanor charges of assaulting an FBI agent. Reid was accused of assaulting FBI agent Eugenia Bates back in July while being detained. Video shows Reid outside D.C. Jail filming Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who were waiting to arrest two people.

As she was filming, ICE officer Vincent Liang took her arms and pushed her against a wall. Bates came to help Liang, and while Reid was struggling, she made a “jerk movement” with her knee that ventured near—but never touched—Bates’s groin. Pirro’s office nonetheless argued that this was an assault of an agent.

Bates, the only witness Pirro’s office called forward, had her text messages after the incident exposed in the trial, where she was seen calling Reid a “libtard.” One message was apparently missing as well.

“You should be livid that the government brought this case,” federal public defender Tezira Abe told the jury on Thursday. “They overplayed their hand on this one.” The jury ended up agreeing.

Pirro’s office had already tried three separate times before this to federally indict Reid on felony charges, which can carry up to eight years in prison. They alleged that Reid “forcibly pushed” an FBI agent’s arm off of her with the intent to injure the agent. That argument failed then, and it failed again on Thursday.

“Seeking an indictment for a third time is extremely rare and usually only reserved for the most serious of crimes,” attorney Christopher Macchiaroli told D.C.’s local WUSA9 at the time of the felony indictment attempt. “If a governmental entity cannot convince a supermajority of grand jurors that there is a fair probability that a crime was committed, it is virtually impossible to believe that twelve jurors in the same relevant jurisdiction could unanimously at a future date find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest standard of proof under the law.”

It’s clear that Pirro’s office is vindictively overcharging in a desperate attempt to make an example out of someone, to have a headline to tout for President Trump. But regardless of how many resources and indictments they throw, it doesn’t seem to be working.

House Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t understand why Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva isn’t working—even though he’s the one holding her back.

Johnson has delayed Grijalva’s swearing-in ceremony for weeks. At first, Johnson claimed that she couldn’t start her job while Congress was in a pro forma session. But as the weeks have dragged on, it’s become clear that Grijalva—and her constituents in Arizona’s 7th congressional district—are not a priority for Republicans during the government shutdown.

Still, there’s plenty of precedent for her to join the ranks of the lower chamber, regardless of the scenario. In April, Congress swore in two Florida Republicans the day after their respective special elections. And in 2019, the entire House was sworn in during a shutdown in Trump’s first term.

But rather than try to instate Congress’s missing member, Johnson has cooked up a new offensive against Grijalva: blaming her for not doing the job that he won’t allow her to do.

“Representative Grijalva should be working for her constituents right now. I don’t know what she’s doing,” Johnson told CNN Thursday. “She should be in her office. She should be working or in the district for her constituents.

“She’s already hired 16 staffers, she should be taking constituent calls. She should be directing and helping them navigate the crisis that her colleagues here have created for her constituents,” Johnson said, adding that his party was focused on “getting the lights back on” while minimizing the political significance (and requirement) of Grijalva’s oath.

Except, although Grijalva finally got access to her congressional office, there’s nothing in it to allow her to do her job. When Grijalva got the keys to her office earlier this week, she was stunned to find “just a space”—no phone lines, no computers, and not even working internet.

Earlier Thursday, Johnson attempted to extort Grijalva’s seat, telling CNBC that the representative-elect could assume her duty as soon as Arizona’s two Democratic senators vote to reopen the government.

Grijalva became the first Latina that Arizona has sent to Congress when she won an election last month to determine the replacement for her late father, Raul Grijalva. She’s also the last signature that the House needs on a petition to force a vote on releasing government documents related to the investigation of deceased pedophilic sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

But the unending holdup has brought surged fire and fury among Arizona’s public officials. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes told CNN Thursday night that she had lawyers “downstairs right now” drafting litigation to sue Johnson for refusing to swear in Grijalva.