James Talarico, a U.S. Senate candidate in Texas, was presented as a politically radical girly soy boy who munched on vegan burgers and thought that God was transgender. Graham Platner, a U.S. Senate candidate in Maine, was a Nazi, communist and a trust fund brat all at once.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul was a radical socialist in close cahoots with the ultimate Marxist mastermind New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The only Republican candidate who was mentioned far more than his Democratic opponents was Spencer Pratt. Fox News treated his main rival, Karen Bass, the current mayor of the city, as an afterthought.

Pratt was championed as the next MAGA messiah who would galvanize Angelenos to a path out of socialist mismanagement of the second largest city in America. Pratt was Trump 2.0 - an angry aggrieved privileged white man who would solve problems simply by insulting people and attacking the most marginalized.

Fox News also continued its confused and uneven coverage of what President Trump calls his ‘minor excursion’ into the Middle East.

Jesse Watters presented the war like any 12-year-old might discuss his favorite video game. Sean Hannity continued to insist that every hiccup and stalled peace talk was all part of Trump’s master plan.

The folks on The Five largely ignored the war while stuffed shirts on Fox & Friends were the only hosts on the network who continued to show tiny glimmers of doubt. The lone voice on Fox News that appears to approach the war with any sense of gravitas is Trey Yingst the chief foreign correspondent currently stationed in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Fox News also spent a lot of air time criticizing former First Lady Jill Biden for statements she made about her husband in a book about her time in the White House.

Mrs. Biden was lambasted for saying she wondered if Joe Biden was having a stroke during his wretched debate performance against Trump. Jill Biden’s decision to have her husband visit a Waffle House after the event was portrayed as elder abuse and dangerously reckless. The term ‘Waffle House’ showed up 13 times in the transcripts from last week.

Segments that were critical of the Biden family took up 7% of the airtime last week.

James Talarico, a U.S. Senate candidate in Texas, was presented as a politically radical girly soy boy who munched on vegan burgers and thought that God was transgender. Graham Platner, a U.S. Senate candidate in Maine, was a Nazi, communist and a trust fund brat all at once.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul was a radical socialist in close cahoots with the ultimate Marxist mastermind New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The only Republican candidate who was mentioned far more than his Democratic opponents was Spencer Pratt. Fox News treated his main rival, Karen Bass, the current mayor of the city, as an afterthought.

Pratt was championed as the next MAGA messiah who would galvanize Angelenos to a path out of socialist mismanagement of the second largest city in America. Pratt was Trump 2.0 - an angry aggrieved privileged white man who would solve problems simply by insulting people and attacking the most marginalized.

Fox News also continued its confused and uneven coverage of what President Trump calls his ‘minor excursion’ into the Middle East.

Jesse Watters presented the war like any 12-year-old might discuss his favorite video game. Sean Hannity continued to insist that every hiccup and stalled peace talk was all part of Trump’s master plan.

The folks on The Five largely ignored the war while stuffed shirts on Fox & Friends were the only hosts on the network who continued to show tiny glimmers of doubt. The lone voice on Fox News that appears to approach the war with any sense of gravitas is Trey Yingst the chief foreign correspondent currently stationed in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Fox News also spent a lot of air time criticizing former First Lady Jill Biden for statements she made about her husband in a book about her time in the White House.

Mrs. Biden was lambasted for saying she wondered if Joe Biden was having a stroke during his wretched debate performance against Trump. Jill Biden’s decision to have her husband visit a Waffle House after the event was portrayed as elder abuse and dangerously reckless. The term ‘Waffle House’ showed up 13 times in the transcripts from last week.

Segments that were critical of the Biden family took up 7% of the airtime last week.

Shows I covered on Fox News Last Week:

• Fox & Friends - All three hours on Thursday

• The Five

• Hannity

• Jesse Watters Primtimes

• My View with Lara Trump - Saturday

Spencer Pratt - The Second Coming of Donald J. Trump?

Fox News presented Pratt, a former MTV reality star, as the next iteration of their glorious leader - Donald J. Trump.

Spencer Pratt is an average looking 42-year-old blonde from a wealthy family who started his career as the villain on an reality television show, The Hills, that debuted on MTV twenty years ago.

The Hills was meant as a window into the lives of young adults from upper middle class and extremely wealthy families. The show ran for six seasons with Pratt reportedly making more than $100,000 an episode at its peak.

Pratt went on to star in other reality based programming with his last known project being a podcast he co-hosts with his wife Heidi Montag, 39, a fellow cast member of The Hills who has attempted to have a career as a pop star.

Since his high-rolling days Pratt blew through $10 million dollars on cars, lavish dinners, expensive wine, clothing and plastic surgery. He also invested heavily in crystals, which he believes contain magical powers, when he was planning for what he thought would be the end of the world as predicted by the Mayan calendar in 2012.

That last sentence might sound like a joke but it’s exactly what happened.

Pratt still sells crystals and crystal jewelry on his website.

The former reality star decided to run for mayor of Los Angeles after his house in the Palisades burned down in the horrific fires in early 2025. Pratt blames Mayor Karen Bass for mismanaging the disaster.

He has minimized the role that climate change played in the record-breaking wildfires that destroyed his community. Pratt has instead promoted misinformation about how the city handled the catastrophe.

Since he started his run for mayor Pratt has been caught not being entirely honest with the press. Even though he photographs himself next to a silver Airstream trailer on his charred property he has actually been living in the luxury Hotel Bel-Air and a property in Santa Barbara that is rented by his parents who also lost their home.

According to reporting by The New York Times his parents bought his $2.2 million home that burned down in the Palisades. Pratt said they helped him get a better loan.

Fox News has been aggressively promoting his campaign for weeks now. The week before the election Pratt flew across the country to sit in studio with the cast of Fox & Friends.

He is currently in second place in the primary with only 63% of the votes totaled. Bass has already secured her spot in the general election.

I collected a few clips from Fox News over the past couple of weeks that I found somewhat baffling.

On June 18 Jesse Watters featured a clip of Pratt, from The Adam Carolla Show declaring he would leave Los Angeles if either one of the leading Democratic candidates won the election.

“If Karen Bass is reelected or Nithya gets elected, I will be done with trying to live in LA.”

Last Thursday on Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade mentioned Pratt’s promise to leave the city.

“He’s not just somebody with charisma who’s comfortable on his feet. He actually is diving into the issues and he’s saying he’s going to get things done and if he loses, he’s leaving. He’s leaving the city,” said Kilmeade.

Later in the same program Kilmeade asked Pratt about his political affiliation.

Kilmeade: I didn’t know if you were a Republican, independent or a Democrat. Rick Caruso seems like a Republican but ran as a Democrat. How are you running?

Pratt: Yeah, thankfully, it’s a nonpartisan race. I don’t have to be either. I have probably.

Kilmeade: But what are you?

Pratt: I’m a registered Republican, but my supporters are all Democrats.

The next morning Ainsley Earhardt seemed to have amnesia about Pratt’s statement when she said he wasn’t a Republican.

Earhardt: But Spencer Pratt has said I am not a Republican and I am not a Democrat. I am from Los Angeles, and I’m here to represent my community.

Kilmeade: Right? He did vote for Trump last time, though.

On May 20th President Trump was asked about Pratt during a press gaggle.

“I’d like to see him do well. He’s a character I don’t know. I don’t know. Assuming he probably supports me. I heard he does. I heard he’s a big MAGA person. He’s doing well. I don’t know. You have the rigged vote out there. That’s the problem. But it’s a rigged. You have a really rigged vote in California. You have all that mail in ballots, everything else. Very hard to win because elections are very dishonest. If we had Jesus Christ come down and count the votes. I would have won California. As I do great with Hispanics, but it’s a rigged vote. They send out 38 million votes. Nobody knows where they’re going,” said Trump.

• Spencer Pratt - Los Angeles Mayor

• Ken Paxton - U.S. Senate - Texas

• Susan Collins - U.S. Senate, Maine

• Bruce Blakeman - Governor of New York

• Republican 11th Congressional District of Michigan - Fox hasn’t championed a candidate yet but did spend some time trashing the Democrats in the race.

Candidate endorsements took up 15% of the airtime of the shows I covered on Fox News last week. Fox News doesn’t build Republican candidates up as much as it tears down their Democratic opponents.

Spencer Pratt was the only exception as Fox News mostly promoted him in a positive light even comparing him to President Trump often. The network was also quite critical of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Pratt, Blakeman and Paxton all appeared on Fox News last week to promote their candidacies.

Dana Perino and the War in Iran - “I’m Not Sure”

On Tuesday during one of the few segments The Five dedicated to the war Dana Perino subtly expressed her concerns about where the conflict was headed.

As she spoke, she had the tone of a science teacher trying to explain how photosynthesis worked to a group of bored 7th graders.

“Iran is definitely weaker than it was before because of President Trump. So not only that with the Soleimani killing in the first term, but Operation Midnight Hammer and then this more recent operation where it took out all the leaders, all most of the leaders, 46 or 47 of them, and most of the ballistic missile program, but not enough to say that that is over. os they are weakend, but Iran still maintains the ability to cause some pain, and the Strait of Hormuz is one of them. However, it is a good thing for us that we have all of the Gulf allies on our side to say no, the Strait needs to be open and there needs to be. We have to go back to the way it was. Nobody gets charged. That’s the way that it has to be. I think the realistic scenario is that we go as General Keane said this morning, Keane excuse me, that he doesn’t think that we’re going back to using any weapons. That President Trump has chosen a diplomatic path. And so I guess you try to get to the best deal that you possibly can. And in that scenario, you deal with long term containment and how different does it look from before? Well, as I said, they’re weaker. And you get some sort of deal on this on the uranium in a way that is assured to the Americans and to the allies in the region, of course, to Israel. And then you have to deal with sanctions. But I would imagine that President Trump is not afraid to use military force. Obviously, he’s willing to do it. And I believe that if they keep that threat up at the ready and Iran believes that that threat is at the ready, that the long term containment could actually be assured. But I’m not sure.”

Jesse Watters was Rah Rah War!

I’ve pulled select quotes from Watters’ extended monologues from last week. As usual he talked but most of what he said was a mosaic of catch phrases and cliches.

He also referred to the gulf state countries as ‘the Arabs’ repeatedly. Since the war started Watters has reduced the complexities of the political landscape in the Middle East to simply Arabs vs. Jews which is a massive oversimplification.

The tensions and shifting alliances between countries in the region are complicated to say the least.

Watters also doesn’t seem aware of the many tensions and fractures between Shia and Sunni Muslims or even have a cursory understanding of the history of the Middle East. Since the start of the conflict, he has presented Arab nations in the Gulf region as a monolithic united front - which is a complete fantasy on his part.

Many countries in the Middle East are ruled by monarchies or some form of constitutional monarchy where leaders aren’t always elected by their citizens. Hereditary rulers don’t treat their people in the same way someone facing reelection might.

There is also a tremendous amount of resentment and distrust towards the United States, Israel and Europe in the region that goes back decades.

Wednesday - Jesse Watters Primetime

“Bombs are flying and the mullahs are lying. Do we have a deal? . . .The president has just pulled the plug on his Camp David cabinet meeting and ordered everybody to report to the White House tomorrow to solve the Iran situation once and for all. . . . Over the weekend, the president called the Arabs and said he’s only going to sign the deal and reopen the strait if they join the Abraham Accords. They all have skin in the game. And Trump says if the gay Ayatollah doesn’t give us his John Hancock soon he’ll blow sh*t up . . . No dust, no deal. Before anything happens, though, Iran has to open up the strait. The president has made it clear that he’s not budging on this, and he’s got the wind at his back. . . We’ve played a lot of footsie. We keep hearing that we’re close. Then it’s two steps forward, one step back, boosting Iran’s bargaining power because they make them think that Trump’s backed into a corner. He’s building a UFC cage at the White House for America’s 250 fight night. Remember, the Persians need to save a little face. Go beat their chests back home. Now, the cabinet meeting will determine how Trump lands this plan. And I’d call it a tit for tat,” said Watters.

Trump’s decision to add a UFC cage in front of the White House was presented as a defiant act against Iran. I’m not kidding.

Thursday - Jesse Watters Primetime

“We kind of have a deal. Officials say U.S. and Iranian negotiators have agreed to a 60-day memorandum of understanding. No dust, no deal. And Bessent, says a deal’s the only way they can end the downward spiral. And the midterms are around the corner.”

Friday - Jesse Watters Primetime

“Today’s the day to do the deal. That’s only if Iran holds up their end of the bargain. Pistol Pete (Pete Hegseth) told them not to get too comfortable.”

Of course there was no deal. The war is still ongoing with no real end in sight.

President Trump continues to stall and insist that a deal will come together at any moment.

Jessica Tarlov Fact Checked Jessse Watters

On Tuesday on The Five Jessica Tarlov, the liberal voice on program got an opportunity to correct her bombastic co-host.

“If there is an attack on Israel, it’s bad for business and we don’t have to referee the sandbox. The only thing is, is that you’re going to have to unlock some money now. It’s not like sending pallets of cash over there like Obama did. It’s basically just unfreezing some of their accounts,” said Watters.

Later on, in the same segment Tarlov was able to fact check him.

“But if they get a deal, is it going to be better, the same or worse than the JCPOA? That’s what it’s going to get compared to. I love the quote from Jesse there about the money that would be released to the Iranians, that it denied the fact that it was their money that was being held in Qatar bank accounts when Obama did it, only $1.7 billion. Not the huge numbers that people say versus what’s going to happen this time when Donald Trump has to give them some of their money in order to get them to take a deal. And well.”

The Deal Explained - via The Brookings Institute

If you want to read a far more detailed explanation The Brookings Institute breaks it down in detail.

This is a simplified version of events.

1. Iran used to buy a lot of weapons from the United States - U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS)

2. The U.S. set up a trust fund with Iranian funds to help facilitate the sale of weapons from U.S. arms manufacturers and the Iranian government.

3. Right before the transfer of power in Iran happened (Iranian revolution) the U.S. agreed to put the remaining funds into an interest-bearing account and stop selling arms to Iran.

4. 1979 - The Iranian Revolution - U.S. embassy seized, U.S. hostages taken in Iran.

5. President Carter freezes all Iranian assets in U.S. (approx. $12 billion)

6. 1981 - Hostages returned - a series of financial and commercial disputes emerged. Portions of the frozen assets were returned (U.S.-Iran Agreement) This did NOT include the trust fund.

7. 1982 - Iran files a claim with the Tribunal over the trust fund (interest baring account).

8. The legal battle for the money placed in the account drags on for decades. Most legal experts thought Iran would have eventually won in court.

9. 1990 - A partial settlement is reached. George W. Bush agreed to give Iran $200 million from the account.

10. 2016 - $400 million remained in the account along with $1.3 billion in interest.

11. New agreement $400 million in principle is returned to Iran first through a Swiss bank account.

12. The remaining $1.3 billion was split into 13 claims through the Dutch National Bank and converted to euros. The amount was NOT paid in U.S. dollars due to strict international sanctions.

13. Iran was paid in cash because of the Iranian government’s difficulties in accessing the international banking system.

Retired General Jack Keane Says Something NO ONE ELSE HAS on Fox

On Wednesday Retired U.S. Army General Jack Keane revealed something about Saudi Arabia that I hadn’t heard mentioned on the network until he said it on Hannity.

“Of course. So the focus is really on Saudi Arabia. And listen I think there’s some real pressure we should put on them. I mean, Saudi Arabia, you know, put pressure on the the president when they, they would not let our airplanes fly out of Saudi Arabia when we were trying to open the Straits and Operation Freedom. Remember that? And we couldn’t use their airspace either, which is a huge piece of ground that reduced us to only carrier-based aircraft. That was absolutely outrageous. And Saudi Arabia came back again with the other Arabs just recently and putting more pressure on the administration, saying, listen, we got to make a deal here. We shouldn’t re-attack because we’re afraid that the Iranians are going to retaliate against our oil and gas infrastructure. They didn’t ask us to help defend them like we’re doing with Israel. We could we could do some of that. But the reality is here we should put some real pressure on them. I think the president has got a great idea to put pressure on this country. I it’s a little tiring to hear them, you know, talk publicly one thing and privately another. Let let’s get them to really make some real commitments here to where we’re going. And it’s not just about their own self-interest. It’s about the regional stability that we’re looking forward to here as well.”

Sean Hannity did not add any additional commentary. He simply thanked Keane and moved onto the next segment.

Fox vs. PBS News Hour - How Two Networks Covered the Recent Ebola Outbreak

The PBS News Hour has included segment about the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past few weeks. For the past two weeks PBS has included daily updates that have included the amount of suspected cases and deaths from the disease.

Last week was the first time I saw anyone on Fox News mention it.

Fox News - Fox & Friends - Tuesday

After reading a statement by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Todd Piro, a Fox News correspondent introduced a segment from CBS Sunday Face the Nation.

“But President Trump’s former Covid adviser is giving some reassurance, saying the U.S. is better prepared to handle an Ebola outbreak,” said Piro.

Dr. Deborah Birx appeared on the screen.

“Well, when you see this level of outbreak. Ever since Covid, I can understand why people are worried. But remember, DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) has had 17 or 18 of these outbreaks in the last 20, 30 years, so this is actually fairly commonplace. I think we learned from Covid how to be much more proactive about preventing the virus, getting to the country. What we did is we really strengthened hospitals. Now we have biocontainment facilities and multiple hospitals, so we’re prepared if it ever happens,” said Birx.

“And all of this comes as visitors from around the world will soon head to the U.S. for the World Cup, with matches set in both Houston and Atlanta,” said Piro ending the brief segment.

The PBS News Hour - Tuesday

The PBS News Hour featured Dr. Celine Gounder of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) Health News. She was interviewed by co-anchor Geoff Bennett.

Gounder: So again, we have no vaccine, no specific treatment, which at the time was the case with that species of Ebola. We’re seeing delayed detection, in part because of difficulties with contact tracing, a health care system that is dysfunctional. Cross-border spread, in part by migrant workers. On top of that, you have armed conflict. You have these, militants backed by the Rwandan government in much of the affected area. You also have refugee camps in southern Sudan and Kampala, where we’ve seen some of the cases in Uganda is a major travel hub. So you have all of the conditions, ripe for a huge epidemic.

Bennett: And you’ve raised concerns about the cuts to USAID at a moment like this. Walk us through the practical impact, the capabilities, the staffing, the response infrastructure that is potentially undermined by a lack of funding.

Gounder: So a key number here is 1 in 5, 1 in 5 contacts, of Ebola cases or who’ve had high risk exposures. Only 1 in 5 are currently undergoing contact tracing and follow up. So once they’re identified, having follow up for three weeks to make sure they don’t develop symptoms, they develop symptoms that they’re isolated and they receive treatment. And that’s exactly the kind of work that the people who were funded by USAID were doing. And so now you don’t have, local health care workers funded to do that, contact tracing, to do the isolation. And then also, importantly, safe burials. So a key part of, Ebola control is if somebody passes away from Ebola, that the body is handled safely so that other people don’t get infected. And that requires special safe burials teams that have the equipment to do this and also have a relationship with the community, to do this safely.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News with five hours of The PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This list is slightly truncated due to space. Source - The PBS News Hour transcripts.

• In Saudi Arabia, the annual Hajj pilgrimage officially started last week. Officials say more than 1.5 million pilgrims have traveled to Mecca amid soaring temperatures and instability brought on by the Iran war. Many spend the first day in a vast tent camp in the nearby desert. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, and every able-bodied Muslim with sufficient means is expected to take part at least once in their lives. (PBS News Hour)

• In Western Europe, an early heat wave is shattering records and raising health concerns for millions across the region. For a second day in a row, the U.K. broke a century-old heat record for May, with temperatures topping 95 degrees Fahrenheit near London. Meantime, firefighters in Scotland have been battling a wildfire near Edinburgh. British authorities say at least four people have died in drownings that may be connected to the heat. Similar fatalities have been reported in France, which also broke its heat record for May on Monday. Health officials there are warning people to take the heat seriously. (PBS News Hour)

• Hamas confirmed that Israeli airstrikes killed their latest military leader in Gaza. Mourners and Hamas supporters carried the body of Mohammed Odeh along with some of his family members through the streets of Gaza City. It comes less than two weeks after Israel killed Odeh’s predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad.

  The strikes also injured at least 12 others and came on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The attacks targeting Odeh came despite a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that’s been in effect since October. Gaza health authorities say such strikes have killed nearly 900 Palestinians since the truce took effect. (PBS News Hour)

• Uganda closed its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo “with immediate effect,” as authorities try to slow the spread of Ebola. By mid-week last week there were nearly 1,000 suspected cases in the DRC and at least 220 suspected deaths. In the meantime, the World Health Organization has started construction on a treatment facility in the east of the country. And the Trump administration is reportedly planning to send Americans exposed to Ebola to a new facility in Kenya, instead of flying them back to the U.S., though that site has not yet been built. Kenyans protested in the streets over the proposed facility. (PBS News Hour)

• This week, the head of the world’s largest humanitarian organization is stepping down. Cindy McCain has led the World Food Programme for three tumultuous years, through unprecedented humanitarian crises and global funding cuts. Across the globe, the World Food Program says that more than 315 million people face acute hunger. And for the last three years, executive director Cindy McCain has confronted multiple crises, two simultaneous declared famines, unprecedented attacks on humanitarian workers from Gaza to Ukraine, and widespread funding cuts, including by the United States government. (PBS News Hour)

• Officials at the Treasury Department are laying the groundwork for a new $250 bill featuring President Trump’s image. It’s meant to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary and would be the first time a living person is featured on American currency in more than 150 years. But its fate ultimately rests with Congress, where legislation has stalled that would overturn a federal law prohibiting living Americans from appearing on U.S. currency. At present, no living person can be on U.S. currency. Congress outlawed images of living people back in 1866 after a Treasury official printed his own likeness on a five cent note, leading to widespread outrage at the time. (PBS News Hour)

• The Justice Department has reportedly opened an investigation into former columnist E. Jean Carroll, who won multiple civil cases against President Trump on accusations of sexual abuse and defamation. The Associated Press and other outlets say the DOJ is looking into whether Carroll lied during the course of the litigation. She accused Mr. Trump of forcing himself upon her in a dressing room in the 1990s, which he denies. It is the latest example of the DOJ taking action against one of President Trump’s perceived enemies. (PBS News Hour)

• Romania says that a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building near its border with Ukraine, injuring several people in the NATO country. The stray drone is not the first to fall inside Romania, but was the first to cause injuries. President Putin questioned that the drone was of Russian origin.

  Romania responded by closing the Russian consulate there. NATO allies condemned the incident, including Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who vowed to “defend every inch of allied territory.” (PBS News Hour)

• In Texas, an ICE agent was arrested last Friday. He was wanted for the nonfatal shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year. Hennepin County officials had charged 52-year-old Christian Castro with assault and falsely reporting a crime. Castro was one of two federal agents to face charges related to the Minnesota crackdown, which raised concerns about officer conduct, especially after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed. (PBS News Hour)

• Former Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the Justice Department's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation during a closed-door interview with lawmakers. Bondi said the department under her leadership remained committed to securing justice for Epstein's victims, but she declined to answer questions about President Trump. (PBS News Hour)

• In legal setback for the president, a federal judge has ordered the Kennedy Center to remove Donald Trump’s name from the building. Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the venues board violated the law, writing “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.” In response to the judge’s ruling and in a major concession, President Trump said he will pursue a full and complete transfer of responsibility for the Kennedy Center to Congress. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers

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By mid-week the war wasn’t even a major story. The network’s highest rated show The Five didn’t even include a single segment about the war for the entire week.

Fox News still hasn’t found its footing on how to sell or promote this deeply unpopular conflict in the Middle East.

President Trump wasn’t helping as he held extended press conferences at the construction site of his beloved ballroom, rambled on about his reflecting pool project and exaggerated or fabricated his many perceived accomplishments in his second term.

It seems Trump would rather obsess about his building projects and legacy than do much of anything to help the American public.

Desperate for something to rev up its viewers Fox News demonized Democrats all over the country. The network had a field day with the botched DNC autopsy on its many failures surrounding the 2024 presidential election.

Fox News downplayed a court settlement between Trump and the IRS that would dole out nearly $1.8 billion of taxpayer money in an Anti-Weaponization Fund to anyone who felt they were legally victimized by the previous administration. This could include violent rioters who beat law enforcement officers, terrorized lawmakers and damaged property at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Jesse Watters dedicated a lot of airtime on recently released and declassified Pentagon files about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) commonly referred to as UFO’s. The network also ramped up and expanded its coverage of fraud cases in Minnesota to include multiple Democratically run states it called ‘The Fraud Files.’

The network also found creative ways to promote former reality star Spencer Pratt’s campaign for mayor of Los Angeles. During breaking news segments about a wildfire in California Fox would include Pratt’s social media posts about the disaster while leaving out the mayor’s office response.

Fox News also celebrated wins by Trump endorsed candidates in Republican primaries in multiple states.

By mid-week the war wasn’t even a major story. The network’s highest rated show The Five didn’t even include a single segment about the war for the entire week.

Fox News still hasn’t found its footing on how to sell or promote this deeply unpopular conflict in the Middle East.

President Trump wasn’t helping as he held extended press conferences at the construction site of his beloved ballroom, rambled on about his reflecting pool project and exaggerated or fabricated his many perceived accomplishments in his second term.

It seems Trump would rather obsess about his building projects and legacy than do much of anything to help the American public.

Desperate for something to rev up its viewers Fox News demonized Democrats all over the country. The network had a field day with the botched DNC autopsy on its many failures surrounding the 2024 presidential election.

Fox News downplayed a court settlement between Trump and the IRS that would dole out nearly $1.8 billion of taxpayer money in an Anti-Weaponization Fund to anyone who felt they were legally victimized by the previous administration. This could include violent rioters who beat law enforcement officers, terrorized lawmakers and damaged property at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Jesse Watters dedicated a lot of airtime on recently released and declassified Pentagon files about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) commonly referred to as UFO’s. The network also ramped up and expanded its coverage of fraud cases in Minnesota to include multiple Democratically run states it called ‘The Fraud Files.’

The network also found creative ways to promote former reality star Spencer Pratt’s campaign for mayor of Los Angeles. During breaking news segments about a wildfire in California Fox would include Pratt’s social media posts about the disaster while leaving out the mayor’s office response.

Fox News also celebrated wins by Trump endorsed candidates in Republican primaries in multiple states.

Shows I watched on Fox News last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• Jesse Watters Primetime

• Various press conferences - Donald J. Trump

Monday - Iran’s Last Chance!

On Monday on Jesse Watters Primetime producers opened the program with what looked like archived footage of U.S. troops on the ground somewhere in the Middle East.

The media clips appeared to be training missions as they featured U.S. troops firing artillery shells in what appeared to be vast open spaces of desert. The following are excerpts from Watters’ opening monologue.

“America back to the edge of war. . . News alert, the president’s just issued a final warning to Iran, saying the clock is ticking and the regime knows what’s going to be happening soon. In less than 24 hours, the president will be meeting with his national security team inside the Situation Room to review war plans. Generals say we’re on the brink . . .Now, despite that, the president’s giving them one last chance to have a come to Allah moment. Just moments ago, POTUS has told Pete to take his finger off the trigger. . . If the Iranians can’t agree, the president has instructed the Pentagon to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, which could come on a moment’s notice. . . The president knows Americans are facing an energy shock, so he’s giving peace a chance. But if the gay Ayatollah stays, persnickety, 47, is ready for a love tap. According to him, could be before Memorial Day. . . I was pretty sure we were going to see action this week just by the rumblings in the national security sector. The reporting, the tempo, and then at the last second it got called off,” said Watters.

Tuesday - Another Trump Pause

By Tuesday Watters shifted to hype up the Trump’s latest attempt to stall the conflict.

“Our Gulf allies begged the president to give peace a chance, but 47 declared a new deadline Memorial Day. . .They’re squirrely. They’ve been doing this for decades. It’s like negotiating with an octopus who has amnesia. . . Iran doesn’t look like they’re ready to sign a treaty. They’re trying to bait us into a ground invasion and look tough domestically. It’s their only play because their arsenals almost gone. This is now the third runner that we’ve seized. And NATO is thinking about sending troops to Hormuz. If the strait is not open by July 4th. Gas prices are putting pressure on the White House. How much pain can we tolerate? Trump said it had to be done and should have been done by Sleepy or Hussein. The president’s giving diplomacy time. A lot of people feel like it’s been too much time. Either way, the White House is committed to seeing this done,” said Watters.

Wednesday - A Cusp of a Deal!

On Wednesday Watters was still committed to selling the idea that full blown combat operations could start at any second.

“The president earlier this week was an hour away from restarting the war, and the word on the street is the military was not f*ing around. That’s a quote with this bombing campaign. It was going to be ruthless. The commander in chief gave peace another chance. But those targets are still staring us in the face. . . And this just in. The president is saying he’s going to be making a very big announcement on Iran in the next 24 hours. Axios is reporting that Trump and Netanyahu had a dramatic and lengthy phone call. President Trump reportedly told the Israeli leader that he’s on the cusp of a deal to formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations over the nuke program in the strait. The Pakistanis and Qataris are the middlemen, shuttling proposals back and forth. One source saying Netanyahu’s hair was on fire after the call. But POTUS says he’s got it under control. . . Sources are saying Trump’s not sending a delegation to Islamabad if the Iranians don’t agree ahead of time to our terms, no enrichment and open the strait. Trump says if they don’t agree to that, things are going to get a little bit nasty,” said Watters.

Of course things did not get a little bit nasty. The grand announcement on Iran was unexceptional as the president has frequently said that he was close to a deal with Iran only to fail to reach one.

Thursday & Friday - Crickets

By the end of the week Watters took a brief vacation with his wife. Both episodes of Jesse Watters Primetime were hosted by someone other than the show’s namesake. Although the conflict was briefly mentioned a few times throughout the broadcasts Fox News producers did not include any dedicated segments to the war on Jesse Watters Primetime on Thursday or Friday.

Only Jessica Tarlov Really Pushed Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund

For months President Trump was pursuing a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS for releasing his tax returns during his first term as president. He also filed two administrative claims against the federal government over the same grievance.

The IRS did not release his returns directly they were leaked by Charles Edward Littlejohn, a contractor working as a consultant for a defense and national security tech firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

Trump and the Trump Organization claimed the leak caused "reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs' public standing.

Littlejohn gave Trump’s tax documents, along with tax records of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk along with other mega billionaires to ProPublica and The New York Times between 2018 and 2020. He was eventually criminally charged and plead guilty to leaking tax information and was sentenced to five years in prison.

In suing the IRS President Trump was suing a federal agency that he controls which is completely unprecedented.

Last week the Department of Justice announced the they had reached a settlement with the IRS which would set up $1,776,000.000 or just shy of $1.8 billion to establish a ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund,” to provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.

There is no indication that the fund would exclude rioters who were convicted of crimes related to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

According to reporting by The New York Times the funding would come from a fund created by Congress to settle lawsuits filed against the government. This would allow the DOJ to make monetary settlements without Congressional approval.

The settlement would also give Trump and his family immunity from IRS audits of tax returns they’ve already filed and potentially future tax returns. According to The New York Times this could save Trump from at least $100 million in additional taxes and penalties he would have owed the government.

The press release announcing the fund was extremely brief and short on details. Several lawmakers, including some Republicans, immediately responded by taking steps to try block the fund.

The Fraud Files - The Latest Fox News Crusade Against Democrats

In the past couple of week Fox News has come up with a new term to encompass multiple fraud investigations in Democratically led states - The Fraud Files.

On Monday on Jesse Watters Primetime Watters included a short clip of Vice President J.D. Vance talking about the Trump administration’s anti-fraud task force. Watters implied that several Democratic lawmakers could be under investigation for insider trading or financial crimes.

“So, we’re going to investigate it. We’re going to take a look at it. If we think that there’s a crime we’re going to prosecute that crime. And that’s something the Department of Justice is looking at right now,” said Vance.

It’s not just Omar (Rep. Ilhan Omar D-MN) tonight. Nancy Pelosi might be sweating.

His producers cut back to the same press conference featuring Vance.

“I’m a big fan of banning members of Congress from trading stocks. So, is the president of the United States. All of us believe that nobody should be taking proprietary information gained from public service and buying and selling stocks. We want to ban. We want to ban that. We want to ban that process and I think the way to lead by example is banning that process, banning that approach and making it illegal, which is exactly what the president has proposed doing,” said Vance.

On a recent financial disclosure form President Trump admitted to making thousands of stock trades totaling hundreds of millions of dollars during his second term as president.

Jessica Tarlov Addressed the Slush Fund

The number one question people asked me last week across multiple social media platforms was ‘How is Fox News reporting on Trump’s proposed $1.8 million slush fund?”

The network largely ignored it with the exception of Jessica Tarlov the liberal voice on The Five. She managed to bring it up on Wednesday during a discussion on Trump’s decision to endorse Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate in the run-off election for the Republican primary.

“The endorsement of Ken Paxton yesterday probably not that good for the Republicans. Brian Kilmeade was talking about it this morning. The guy was impeached by his own colleagues to report repugnant for Republicans wife leaving him, divorcing him on biblical grounds. And then Trump is out there and his platform is I want absolute loyalty. I want to trade stocks, make hundreds of millions of dollars. I want my 1776 fund to make sure J-6ers (January 6th rioters) you know, get the money that they’re owed. I want immunity for me and my family from an audit forevermore. His kids are making tons of money. That’s not a compelling platform. There’s no. This is your health care plan. It’s like I want to get rich and I don’t care that you are poorer. So that’s what last night told me,” said Tarlov.

Everything she said about Paxton was accurate. He was impeached by members of his own party during his third term as attorney general of Texas.

He was later acquitted by the Texas Senate.

According to reporting by The New York Times Paxton was impeached over allegations of bribery, dereliction of duty, obstruction of justice and abuse of the public trust.

Before that he was indicted on charges of felony securities fraud.

In 2014 he was actually arrested, photographed and booked for the securities fraud charge and was ultimately fined $1000 for violating state securities law during his first campaign for attorney general.

In 2015 during the summer of his first term as AG he was indicted on three felony fraud charges related to the same case. The case was eventually settled in 2024 when Paxton reached a pretrial agreement which he did not plead guilty but agreed to pay $300,000 in restitution.

During the time between the criminal indictment and settlement he was re-elected twice as attorney general. His legal troubles did not end there as he was embroiled in a scandal in 2020 that involved allegations of bribery and abuse of office.

His own deputies asked federal law enforcement agents to investigate him. Paxton was accused of improperly helping a campaign donor and real estate developer who was also the employer of a woman he was having an affair with.

His office had investigated the same donor for fraud but the investigation was later dropped. The staff members who contacted the feds about Paxton’s behavior then quit or were fired with some of them suing Paxton for whistle-blower retaliation.

He ended up settling with his former employees for $3.3 million then tried to get the state legislature to pay the settlement. Three months later state lawmakers, mostly Republicans, voted to impeach him.

The Texas Senate voted to acquit him partly due to his popularity among Texas voters.

Paxton was also investigated for self-dealing in a land development case and for bribery involving the donor but the charges and investigation against him were eventually dropped.

During his time as AG Paxton has seen his wealth grow from $200,000 to nearly $8 million. Paxton is also currently involved in a messy divorce with his wife of 38 years due to his infidelity.

As attorney general Paxton sued Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin after the 2020 election to challenge the results. He also spoke at the rally in support of Trump on January 6th.

He also sued the Biden Administration over 100 times.

Jessica Tarlov on Trump’s Endorsement of Ken Paxton

Tarlov also brought up the slush fund again on Thursday on The Five.

“So the actions that Donald Trump is taking that are defrauding Americans, are taking your tax dollars to let people off the hook or to pay off J-6ers (January 6th rioters) or whatever he’s going to do with it, is the story of fraud that Americans right now who are struggling are focused on, and it makes these actions. And again, I think anyone who commits fraud should go to jail. But the hypocrisy is so evident, and the fact that the DOJ can’t even answer for it can’t say, well, actually no one should be shown mercy. Who does this? Not the folks who are putting away now and not the folks who are put away before,” said Tarlov.

There were no other mentions of Trump’s planned ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund” on the shows I covered on Fox News last week.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This list has been slightly truncated due to space. Source - The PBS News Hour transcripts.

• Israeli airstrikes hit Southern Lebanon last Monday, as health officials there say more than 3,000 people have now died during recent fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. The two sides agreed to a cease-fire last month, but have continued carrying out strikes ever since. (PBS News Hour)

• In Ukraine, military officials say a barrage of more than 500 Russian drones and missiles wounded more than two dozen people nationwide last week. Most of the injuries were in the southeastern city of Dnipro. The strikes were in response to Ukraine’s own attacks on Russia. At least four people were killed, including three near Moscow. It was one of Kyiv’s biggest attacks against the Russian capital in over a year, and it comes as Ukraine is expanding its long-range capabilities. Last Monday Ukraine’s Defense Ministry unveiled the country’s first domestically produced glide bombs that can strike deep inside Russia. (PBS News Hour)

• A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit from Elon Musk against the maker of ChatGPT after a jury found that he exceeded the statute of limitations. Musk claimed that OpenAI, which he co-founded, had betrayed its original mission of developing artificial intelligence for the good of humanity when it added a for-profit arm. OpenAI’s other co-founders, including Sam Altman, said that Musk knew of the company’s plans all along. In a social media post, Musk called the verdict a “terrible precedent” and vowed to appeal. (PBS News Hour)

• Last Monday Health officials raced to contain a rapidly expanding outbreak of Ebola in Africa. At least 116 suspected deaths and more than 300 other cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Uganda. The CDC says an American medical missionary has contracted the disease. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Dr. Craig Spencer, who contracted Ebola during a 2014 outbreak. PBS updated this story every single day last week as the outbreak continued to get worse. By Friday the number of cases had reached 750 with 170 suspected deaths. (PBS News Hour)

• Federal agents can no longer make arrests in and around New York City’s immigration courts after a federal judge largely banned the practice from three Manhattan buildings. The decision follows months of dramatic scenes in courthouse hallways as individuals were arrested as they showed up for their immigration proceedings. But the court made clear federal agents can still make arrests if there is a threat to public safety. (PBS News Hour)

• The Trump administration is moving to roll back limits on some PFAS, the toxic “forever chemicals” found in the drinking water of millions of Americans. The Biden-era rule set the first national drinking-water limits for several PFAS compounds. But industry groups argued the standards were legally flawed and too costly to meet. (PBS News Hour)

• Two police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6 filed a lawsuit last week to try to block the government’s so-called anti-weaponization fund. Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Officer Daniel Hodges of the Metropolitan Police Department say the Trump administration created the fund - “to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.” The administration says it’s meant to compensate those who believe they have been mistreated by the U.S. legal system. During congressional testimony last week, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did not rule out whether that could include January 6 rioters. More than 100 police officers were injured during that attack. (PBS News Hour)

• James Murdoch is buying roughly half of Vox Media in a deal worth of reported $300 million. Murdoch will acquire the company's podcast operation and Vox.com, plus "New York Magazine," which was owned for years by James' father, Rupert Murdoch. The two have gone their separate ways professionally amid disagreements over editorial content. (PBS News Hour)

• CBS News Radio shut down last week after nearly a century on the air. The storied service started in 1927 and gave rise to such icons as Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite, and Edward R. Murrow. The company announced the closure in March, blaming what it called challenging economic realities. (PBS News Hour)

• According to the latest National Education Scorecard, which is an annual deep dive into data about kids in grades K-12. Children had a steady decline in math and reading scores beginning all the way back to 2013, which happens to be when smartphones and social media really took off. Compared to a decade ago, math scores today are down in 70% of school districts. Reading scores are down in 83%. Scores have climbed a bit since 2022, but nowhere close to making up all the lost ground. In fact, eighth grade reading scores are now at their lowest level since 1990. Fox reported on the National Education Scorecard every year during the Biden Administration. Last week I saw no mention of the latest report on the network. (PBS News Hour)

By. the Numbers

The ‘Fraud files’ has become a catch-all term on Fox News for various stories involving fraud in Democratically run states.

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The Trump administration is trying to re-write history again. These documents regarding the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol should not be hidden from the public.

On January 6, 2021 Trump supporters were trying to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power. According to witness testimony Donald J. Trump sat in the White House dining room and watched the massive melee unfold on Fox News.

During the attack more than 140 law enforcement officers were injured. For now the DHS still has archived documents regarding the attack on its website.

According to reporting by The NY Times

• One officer lost the tip of his right index finger

• Other officers were smashed in the head with:

  • baseball bats

  • flag poles

  • pipes

• An officer lost consciousness as rioters used a metal barrier to push her into stairs

• Some of the injuries included:

  • concussions - neurological impairment

  • heightened anxiety

  • PTSD

  • orthopedic injuries that required surgery and rehabilitation

  • rib fractures

  • burns

  • traumatic brain injuries

  • shattered spinal discs

  • stabbing - suspect used a metal fence stake

  • mild heart attack - the officer was repeatedly hit with a stun gun

  • strokes

• Of the 1200 capitol police officers only 170 were equipped with riot gear

• 140 officers were injured (73 Capitol Police, 65 Metropolitan police)

• Officer Brian Sicknick died immediately after the attack of a stroke

• Four officers committed suicide soon after the attack

Three rioters also died that day Kevin Greeson, 55, and Benjamin Philips, 50, both died due to cardiovascular related events while Rosanne Boyland, 34, died of an accidental drug overdose.

Ashli Babbitt, a rioter, was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer while she and others were trying to breach a barricaded door inside the building. The Department of Justice has NOT purged a press release related to the investigation into her death. The following paragraph is from a press release dated April 14, 2021.

The investigation further determined that Ms. Babbitt was among a mob of people that entered the Capitol building and gained access to a hallway outside “Speaker’s Lobby,” which leads to the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. At the time, the USCP was evacuating Members from the Chamber, which the mob was trying to enter from multiple doorways. USCP officers used furniture to barricade a set of glass doors separating the hallway and Speaker’s Lobby to try and stop the mob from entering the Speaker’s Lobby and the Chamber, and three officers positioned themselves between the doors and the mob. Members of the mob attempted to break through the doors by striking them and breaking the glass with their hands, flagpoles, helmets, and other objects. Eventually, the three USCP officers positioned outside the doors were forced to evacuate. As members of the mob continued to strike the glass doors, Ms. Babbitt attempted to climb through one of the doors where glass was broken out. An officer inside the Speaker’s Lobby fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, causing her to fall back from the doorway and onto the floor. A USCP emergency response team, which had begun making its way into the hallway to try and subdue the mob, administered aid to Ms. Babbitt, who was transported to Washington Hospital Center, where she succumbed to her injuries.

Even though the DOJ just removed this from its website I wanted to share the details regarding - Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers.

The following paragraph is from a press release that is currently unavailable on the DOJ website.

This was published AFTER Rhodes’ conviction.

While certain Oath Keepers members and affiliates breached the Capitol grounds and building, others remained stationed just outside of the city in quick reaction force (QRF) teams. According to the government’s evidence, the QRF teams were prepared to rapidly transport firearms and other weapons into Washington, D.C., in support of operations aimed at using force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power.

If anyone tried to find this exact document on the DOJ website they would see a blank page. Here’s a link

This is what the page currently looks like.

The following text is based off a copy of the press release regarding Rhodes’ conviction from the Internet Archive.

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Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Leader of Oath Keepers and Oath Keepers Member Found Guilty of Seditious

Conspiracy and Other Charges Related to U.S. Capitol Breach

Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, and Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida chapter of the organization, were found guilty by a jury today of seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Their actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

Three additional defendants, who were leaders and associates of the organization – Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell – were found guilty of related felony charges. The verdict followed an eight-week trial and three days of deliberations. No sentencing date was set.

“Today the jury returned a verdict convicting all defendants of criminal conduct, including two Oath Keepers leaders for seditious conspiracy against the United States,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department is committed to holding accountable those criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy on January 6, 2021. The prosecutors and agents on this case worked tirelessly, with extraordinary skill, and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.”

“As this case shows, breaking the law in an attempt to undermine the functioning of American democracy will not be tolerated,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI will always uphold the rights of all citizens who peacefully engage in First Amendment protected activities, but we and our partners will continue to hold accountable those who engaged in illegal acts regarding the January 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol.”

“This case reaffirms the strength of our democracy and the institutions that protect and preserve it, including our criminal justice system,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “Over a period of many weeks, a fair and impartial jury heard evidence in a search for the truth of the conduct of these defendants before, during, and after the events of Jan. 6, 2021.”

“Democracy depends on the peaceful transfer of power. By attempting to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election results, the defendants flouted and trampled the rule of law,” said Assistant Director in Charge Steven M. D’Antuono of the FBI Washington Field Office. “This case shows that force and violence are no match for our country’s justice system.”

Rhodes, 57, of Granbury, Texas, also was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and tampering with documents and proceedings. Meggs, 53, of Dunnellon, Florida, also was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging duties, and tampering with documents or proceedings.

Harrelson, 42, of Titusville, Florida, was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging duties, and tampering with documents or proceedings. Watkins, 40, of Woodstock, Ohio, was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding, interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging duties, and tampering with documents or proceedings. Caldwell, 68, of Berryville,

Virginia, was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding, and tampering with documents or proceedings. According to the government’s evidence, the Oath Keepers are a large but loosely organized collection of individuals, some of whom are associated with militias. Following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, Rhodes, Meggs, and others began plotting to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power. Beginning in late December 2020, via encrypted and private communications applications, Rhodes, Meggs, Harrelson, Watkins, Caldwell, and others coordinated and planned to travel to Washington, D.C., on or around Jan. 6, 2021, the date of the certification of the electoral college vote.

The defendants also, collectively, employed a variety of manners and means, including: organizing into teams that were prepared and willing to use force and to transport firearms and ammunition into Washington, D.C.; recruiting members and affiliates; organizing trainings to teach and learn paramilitary combat tactics; bringing and contributing paramilitary gear, weapons, and supplies – including knives, batons, camouflaged combat uniforms, tactical vests with plates, helmets, eye protection, and radio equipment – to the Capitol grounds; breaching and attempting to take control of the Capitol grounds and building on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to prevent, hinder, and delay the certification of the electoral college vote; using force against law enforcement officers while inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; continuing to plot, after Jan. 6, 2021, to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power, and using websites, social media, text messaging and encrypted messaging applications to communicate with each other and others.

On Jan. 6, 2021, a large crowd began to gather outside the Capitol perimeter as the Joint Session of Congress got under way at 1 p.m. Crowd members eventually forced their way through, up, and over U.S. Capitol Police barricades and advanced to the building’s exterior façade. Shortly after 2 p.m., crowd members forced entry into the Capitol by breaking windows, ramming open doors, and assaulting Capitol police and other law enforcement officers. At about this time, according to the government’s evidence, Rhodes entered the restricted area of the Capitol grounds and directed his followers to meet him at the Capitol.

At approximately 2:30 p.m., according to the government’s evidence, Meggs, Harrelson, and Watkins, along with other Oath Keepers and affiliates – many wearing paramilitary clothing and patches with the Oath Keepers name, logo, and insignia – marched in a “stack” formation up the east steps of the Capitol, joined a mob, and made their way into the Capitol. Rhodes and Caldwell remained outside the Capitol, where they coordinated activities.

While certain Oath Keepers members and affiliates breached the Capitol grounds and building, others remained stationed just outside of the city in quick reaction force (QRF) teams. According to the government’s evidence, the QRF teams were prepared to rapidly transport firearms and other weapons into Washington, D.C., in support of operations aimed at using force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power.

Rhodes was arrested on Jan. 13, 2022, in Texas. Meggs was arrested on Feb. 17, 2021, in Florida. Harrelson was arrested on March 10, 2021, in Florida. Watkins was arrested on Jan. 18, 2021, in Ohio. Caldwell was arrested on Jan. 19, 2021, in Virginia.

The charges of seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and tampering with documents or proceedings each carry a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The charge of conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging duties carries a statutory maximum of six years in prison. The charge of interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder carries a statutory maximum of five years in prison. All of the charges also carry potential financial penalties. Each defendant was convicted of at least one offense that carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The Court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S.

Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case is being investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office with valuable assistance provided by numerous FBI offices throughout the country, including the Dallas, Cincinnati, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Richmond Field Offices.

This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice’s

National Security and Criminal Divisions. Valuable assistance was provided by numerous U.S. Attorney’s Offices throughout the country.

In the 22 months since Jan. 6, 2021, over 900 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 275 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.

Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

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The president was treated like an overpriced trinket. “Look at how he stands next to Xi Jinping. Observe how his tiny makeup covered hands touch the Chinese leader’s! Such majesty!”

It wouldn’t have surprised me if Fox shifted to a sales pitch while discussing the president, “If you call right now, you too will get our exclusive offer and pay for your own Glorious Leader replicate in four easy to pay installments of $19.99!”

There were no definitive trade deals to crow about, no negotiations with Iran, and no relief in sight for sky-high gas prices.

Trump dined with and stood next to the Chinese president while a small group of billionaire business owners followed them around like dutiful ducklings.

China is known for making promises it doesn’t keep, stealing intellectual property, threatening its neighbors, committing human rights abuses, cheating on trade agreements, suppressing freedom of speech, crushing dissent, and violating international embargoes and sanctions.

None of this seemed to bother Trump. If Xi Jinping promised to buy more U.S. soybeans, then that was good enough for the president even if the country has still not matched its prior commitments to U.S. farmers.

It was a lot of pageantry with very little substance, another distraction for Trump’s disastrous war in the Middle East and failed domestic policies.

Other topics on the network included the ongoing war with Iran, an attack on Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the network’s aggressive promotion of Spencer Pratt, a former reality television star, for Los Angeles mayor.

The president was treated like an overpriced trinket. “Look at how he stands next to Xi Jinping. Observe how his tiny makeup covered hands touch the Chinese leader’s! Such majesty!”

It wouldn’t have surprised me if Fox shifted to a sales pitch while discussing the president, “If you call right now, you too will get our exclusive offer and pay for your own Glorious Leader replicate in four easy to pay installments of $19.99!”

There were no definitive trade deals to crow about, no negotiations with Iran, and no relief in sight for sky-high gas prices.

Trump dined with and stood next to the Chinese president while a small group of billionaire business owners followed them around like dutiful ducklings.

China is known for making promises it doesn’t keep, stealing intellectual property, threatening its neighbors, committing human rights abuses, cheating on trade agreements, suppressing freedom of speech, crushing dissent, and violating international embargoes and sanctions.

None of this seemed to bother Trump. If Xi Jinping promised to buy more U.S. soybeans, then that was good enough for the president even if the country has still not matched its prior commitments to U.S. farmers.

It was a lot of pageantry with very little substance, another distraction for Trump’s disastrous war in the Middle East and failed domestic policies.

Other topics on the network included the ongoing war with Iran, an attack on Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the network’s aggressive promotion of Spencer Pratt, a former reality television star, for Los Angeles mayor.

Shows I covered on Fox News last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• The Ingraham Angle

• Jesse Watters Primetime

• Hannity - Thursday for Trump interview

• Special Report with Bret Baier - Friday for Trump interview

• Trump press appearances

Body Language!

Since there wasn’t much concrete progress from Trump’s trip to China Fox News hosts put a lot of focus on the body language between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Hosts on the network repeatedly quoted Lillian Glass, a Florida-based body language expert, who spoke to The NY Post. No one on the shows I covered on Fox News last week thought to invite Glass to speak about it they just quoted The NY Post a popular local tabloid also owned by News Corp the parent company of Fox News.

“The body language between these two men, I think is excellent,” said Bill Hemmer on Jesse Watters Primetime on Thursday night.

Jesse Watters spent far more time obsessing over body language on the same program.

“He pulled up to shake hands with Xi. And it was a long shake. 15 seconds. Some friendly patting. Both men stood still. No one leaned in. Who won? Some call it a draw, but Xi did release first. And then Trump hit him with a little pat in the back. Body language experts say that was a power move. The fashion police noticed that noticed rocked a red tie, which experts say aligned visually with the dominant ceremonial palette of China. . .But body language experts say Trump showed gravitas and stayed focused, quote “I think that Trump feels the power feels like this is a formidable meeting. He is not intimidated by Xi at all. He’s showing kind of like a peacock or a lion. He’s showing his power. ” said Watters while quoting Glass.

The next night Watters put a lot of focus on how the two men moved again.

“Body language experts told The New York Post these two men interacted like the two world leaders were two old buddies. Xi, who tends to be a little rigid. Had a change in posture. Quote. We really have seen she very stiff and very straight before. This is a big thing when you see shoulders relaxed like that. That’s huge. Experts also noticed the two leaders had their toes facing each other, which signified a connection.” said Watters.

The night before Laura Ingraham and Raymond Arroyo also discussed handshakes.

Ingraham: Did you see that final handshake?

Arroyo: You know, I did see it, Laura. And people online were saying Xi dominated Trump in that closing moment of their summit because of the handshake. But look at what Trump does. He gives a hand, Xi’s hand a little swot to diminish whatever that dominant move was at the top. Trump is very aware in these settings of how the here he goes into the swot. He always is very aware of these images and how those images define these historic moments. And you could see him look to the pat on the shoulder. All the dominant moves to counter Xi.

Trump Doesn’t Care if Americans are Suffering

On Friday Bret Baier sat down with the president for an extended interview while he was still in China.

The Fox News host brought up a question Trump was asked in a recent press gaggle.

Baier: You can imagine Democrats and political pundits, the people don’t. It jumped all over this statement that you made the other day. You were asked on that when you were leaving.

His producers cut to a media clip of Trump on the lawn of the White House from Tuesday right before he left for China. The journalist asked Trump about strategy towards Iran.

Journalist: To what extent are Americans’ financial situations motivating you to make a deal?

Trump: Not even a little bit. It’s the only thing that matters. I’m talking about Iran. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about any. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, that’s all.

Producers then cut back to Trump sitting across from Baier in China. The president cut off the clip.

Trump: That’s not, that’s right, it’s a perfect segment, I’d make it again.

Baier: But you can imagine how many people stop the sound bite at, “I don’t think of American’s financial situation,” So what’s your response to that framework?

Trump: Very simple. When people hear me say it. Everybody agrees short term pain. It’s going to be short term pain. But the pain is much less than people thought, because people thought that the oil would go up to $250, you know, was $99 yesterday, $99 a barrel. I thought it might go up to $200. I was okay with that. Not that I wanted it, but you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. They will use it on us. They’ll start off with Israel, wipe it out the Middle East, wipe it out. It’ll go to Europe. You know, they have a missile that goes to Europe. You saw that? Okay. They have a missile, goes to Europe. I have done Europe a very big favor. When you tell somebody’s going to have to pay a little more, not that much more. A little more for gasoline for a very short period of time, because we want to stop the threat of being blown to pieces by a lunatic, by a crazy person. And they are crazy using nuclear weapons. Everybody says that’s fine. And that question was a fake question, and they didn’t put my full answer, I totally care. Look, I inherited high prices and they came in with the word affordability. My first press conference, two days in, and Biden didn’t do press conferences. He’d go for years without doing because he was incapable of doing it. He was an incompetent person. But my first question was about eggs. Eggs have quadrupled. What are you going to do? I said, eggs tell me about eggs. Tell me about the problem. Eggs have gone up four times. I said, I’ll take care of it. By the way, I did take care of it.

As I’ve pointed out in previous newsletters egg prices dropped after U.S. poultry producers survived the worst outbreaks of avian flu in the history of the country.

Jessica Tarlov Pointed Out Trump Didn’t Get Much in China

On Friday on The Five Jessica Tarlov, the liberal voice on the program, broke down some specifics about Trump’s trip.

“In terms of these trade deals, though, there’s no formal commitment. And the Chinese readout, it says we’re currently consulting on details. So maybe some soybeans, maybe Boeing gets, it’s a fraction of what they went in wanting to get, so maybe those come through. But we do know that Donald Trump has told us what, 18 trillion or something like that in deals, and those things haven’t come to fruition. The Taiwan part of this I think, is what is most important. So you say, you know, he didn’t really say anything. It’s a big deal that he stood there and he said nothing. And in the previews of Bret’s conversation with the president that we’re going to be seeing in the 6:00 hour during special report that Shannon referenced, Trump won’t commit to the arms sales to Taiwan, which is the clearest way to say to the Chinese that we respect Taiwan’s independence. I’m sure today, watching this, the Taiwanese are not happy. He also in the interview with Hannity, and this is a big deal for the America First set. He said the Chinese should be able to buy farmland here, and that we should have 500,000 Chinese student visas. I thought the whole deal with this was get off our land and that it’s America First. It should be our students. Now, I think it’s reasonable to have people who are deserving of getting those visas who get into these universities, and they come and spend a ton of money here. Right? It’s not just their tuition. They keep these college towns alive with it.”

Her co-hosts then started talking over her as they usually do.

PBS News Hour - Trump Made the U.S. Look Weak

The PBS News Hour invited Nicholas Burns, former ambassador to China during the Biden Administration, to talk about Trump’s visit to China.

“What about what we did hear from President Trump during this trip? He was very upbeat about all the meetings. He called them extremely positive, very productive. He praised XI Jinping quite a bit. Called him a great leader, said repeatedly what an honor it was to be there and to be his friend. What did you make of that approach?” asked co-anchor Amna Nawaz.

Burns was quite critical of Trump’s approach to Xi Jinping.

“You know, it’s understandable that President Trump wanted to be polite and civil. He’s visiting someone else’s country. That’s I think all Americans would want him to be polite and civil. But to effusively praise Xi Jinping as a great leader in positive terms and that he he President Trump will have a fantastic relationship with him, which is the word he used. I thought it was over the top, and from Chinese ears, it sounded like President Trump was a supplicant and therefore in a weakened position in cultural terms. And, you know, think about what President Trump was saying. Xi Jinping’s a great leader. Xi Jinping is the leader who commanded these cyber attacks against the American grid and the American economy. He’s the leader whose military is trying to overtake our military in the Indo-Pacific. He’s also a major human rights violator. So, frankly, I thought it was a mistake for President Trump to do this. You didn’t see Xi Jinping reciprocate that kind of elaborate, over-the-top praise for President Trump. He stuck to his issues. And I thought it made us look weak as a country and look strong. And that’s not a good look for us.”

Fox News Continues its Chaotic Coverage of the War with Iran

Anyone watching multiple Fox News shows last week might be confused about what’s going on in the Middle East.

Fox & Friends - Monday

“Is the president to believe? Does he know who he’s dealing with? Is he dealing with the foreign minister and speaker, or is he dealing with the IRGC? Because this latest proposal is a huge step back? I mean, they’re they’re not going to turn over their nuclear, 1,000 pounds of nuclear, of enriched uranium. They they’re going to continue to enrich. I mean, this is a total nonstarter. It makes me think the IRGC is taking over,” said Brian Kilmeade.

His co-host Ainsley Earhardt was also concerned.

“As Trey (Yingst) just said, the president took them at their word so that they’re very close to enriching full enrichment, and they have enough to create these nuclear weapons. The question is, do we go in and get the enriched uranium? Benjamin Netanyahu said over the weekend, this is not over. There’s still work to be done. He said the enriched uranium must be removed from Iran, and he believes that can be done physically. Do the Israelis do it? Do the Americans do it?”

“Both,” said Lawrence Jones under his breath.

The Five - Monday

Kellyanne Conway started the discussion about the war.

“But they’re clearly not asked the IRGC how they’re feeling. Three short months ago, they had a navy. They had endless stockpiles of missiles. They had copious amounts of drones. Now they are militarily degraded, economically decimated. Several dozen of its leaders are as dead is the 42,000 peaceful protesters that they killed. And the list goes on.”

Charlie Hurt also addressed Israel’s involvement.

“One of the dumbest things that we’ve heard from, some quarters, on the right of Trump supporters or former Trump supporters, is this idea that Trump is acting at the behest of, Israel? It’s absurd. As if America doesn’t have any interest in, the Middle East in terms of, of oil and things like that.”

Jesse Watters Primetime - Monday - Guest host Kayleigh McEnany

“Fox news alert the cease fire could come crumbling down at any minute. . . Things are heating up, and generals have been swarming the white House all day . . . A little extra relief. The president wants Venezuela to join the union and become the 51st state. He says we’d have $40 trillion of oil at our fingertips. But the Chinese can’t be too happy. We took away their two oil proxies, Iran and Venezuela. The president’s taking a visit to Beijing this week, and he says they have a lot to talk about,” said McEnany.

Trump Appears to Make up Reality Again

On Friday uring his interview with Bret Baier President Trump seemed confused about the Strait of Hormuz.

“It should be able. They’ve closed it in the past. They use it as a weapon. They’re not using it as a weapon with me. And what they did and actually what president she said last night, sort of smiling about it, he said, well, they close this rate and then you close them, but you think they’re going to capitulate sometimes, you know.”

Iran attempted to close off all ship traffic from the Strait of Hormuz. Trump countered by issuing a Naval blockade of the waterway. His comment to Baier made absolutely no sense.

AOC is Both Useless and All Powerful

On Monday producers at The Five dedicated an entire segment to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) along with with Democratic Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner.

Although the Platner was part of the segment I’ve only included what the Fox News personalities said about AOC because their vitriol towards her was so extreme.

“It’s proof that radicals rule the Democratic Party. But I want to ask what has she actually accomplished she’s going for a fifth germ in Congress She’s been in Congress for over 2500 days, probably. What has she done for the working people? What is she done for, quote, women’s rights? She talks a lot. She delivers very little, said Kellyanne Conway.

“Yeah, nothing. She’s done nothing,” said Tom Shillue

The Fox News host simply known as Kennedy went on an extended rant.

“And you’ve got the moderates and the lunatics. It’s the same thing in the Democrat Party. You’ve got the moderates. And I think most Democrats would consider themselves to be pretty rational, pretty moderate. But the loudest people and the only ones with ideas, unfortunately, their god awful ideas are the lunatics. They are the progressives. And, you know, you’ve got the general, the fury who’s out there. . . And she frankly sounds like a fascist. You know, she’s talking about the presidency isn’t enough. You know, it’s like four years is enough. I want all of it. You know, that sounds like a completely unhinged, authoritarian person who wants to inflate the size of the state and wants to increase taxation, which isn’t going to mean on billionaires. That is going to be on the middle class. . . They are looking for more ways to tax you and not just tax the billionaires, because those plans never involve that. Class warfare is never effective. But she doesn’t care because she doesn’t really have any other plan than to make herself as powerful as possible and her cronies as rich as possible.”

“And they’re all about all they care about is obviously their own power. And raising taxes on people who work for a living so that they can extend their power for more deeply into our lives,” said Charlie Hurt.

“The demonization that AOC is going about to and creating sort of this revolution against institution, what have they already built a stronger, more, more chaotic, more insidious institution, I argue, which is academia, which is the mainstream media on the left, which is their coalescence of of protection against rapists and sexual assaulters and stock market cronies and all the things that they pretend to be against. But really, they protect because it’s simply blue in their seat,” said Emily Compango.

I guess Compango wasn’t concerned that a jury in civil case in New York State found Trump liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll, or that the president has gone to great lengths to suppress files surrounding his once close friend Jeffrey Epstein a convicted sex offender who committed crimes against children.

Compango might want to look into Trump’s many stock purchases since he’s become president and his obvious manipulation of financial markets.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This list is slightly truncated due to space. Source - The PBS News Hour transcripts.

• The U.S. Supreme Court is extending access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone. The pause gives the justices more time to consider an emergency request to halt a lower court ruling that would restrict access to the drug. The administrative stay means that health care providers can still prescribe mifepristone via telemedicine and deliver it through the mail. (PBS News Hour)

• A three-day cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine expired last week, with both sides accusing the other of violating the U.S.-brokered pause. Russia says Ukraine has broken the truce more than 1,000 times. Meantime, Ukrainian authorities said that Russian attacks have hit parts of the Kharkiv and Kherson regions, killing at least two people. The cease-fire was announced last week by President Trump to allow Russia time to hold Victory Day celebrations marking the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. (PBS News Hour)

• Venezuela’s acting president is pushing back against comments by President Trump about her country becoming the 51st U.S. state. Mr. Trump told FOX News that he is “seriously considering” the possibility. In response, Delcy Rodriguez told reporters during a visit to The Hague last week that Venezuela is not a colony, but a free country, and that Venezuelan and U.S. officials are working on what she called cooperation and understanding. (PBS News Hour)

• In Texas, medical officials believe that heatstroke was to blame for the deaths of six people whose bodies were found inside a shipping container last weekend. It happened at a rail yard in Laredo near the U.S.-Mexico border. Police believe the five men and one woman were immigrants from Mexico and Honduras, based on their cell phone data and I.D. cards. Laredo is a busy trading port and a hub for illegal immigration, though authorities have not said that this was related to a smuggling operation. (PBS News Hour)

• FBI Director Kash Patel pushed back last week against accusations that he drinks to excess on the job and is at times unreachable by his staff. Appearing before a Senate budget hearing last week, Patel called the allegations unequivocally, categorically false. When Senator Chris Van Hollen pressed Patel about a report in “The Atlantic” that included instances of his drinking, Patel fired back, referencing a visit Van Hollen made to El Salvador last year to visit the mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (PBS News Hour)

• The latest inflation report shows price increases for American consumers in April hit a three-year high, driven by a spike in the cost of gasoline. The Consumer Price Index, which includes energy and food costs, rose 3.8% year-over-year, according to the Labor Department. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Heather Long, Chief Economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. (PBS News Hour)

• In the Philippines, that country’s Senate was thrown into chaos after apparent gunshots erupted inside the chamber during a live session in Manila. No injuries were reported. The incident came after a close ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte claimed police were moving to arrest him. Senator Ronald dela Rosa once led Duterte’s brutal anti-drug crackdown, which rights groups say left thousands dead. Dela Rosa and Duterte are both facing crimes against humanity charges before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Duterte is already in custody there awaiting trial. (PBS News Hour)

• Conflict in the Middle East has drawn attention away from other devastating wars, including in Sudan, where millions of civilians have been displaced and forced to flee to neighboring countries. It comes as nations have reduced refugee assistance, leaving humanitarian agencies scrambling. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reported from Uganda, one of the region’s destinations for refugees. (PBS News Hour)

• The Senate unanimously passed a measure to withhold their own pay during future government shutdowns. The resolution passed by voice vote and would block senators from getting paid whenever a shutdown affects one or more agencies. But like federal employees, they would get back pay once the government reopens. Its sponsor, Republican Senator John Kennedy, says the measure is about, as he put it, putting our money where our mouth is. It’s set to take effect after the midterms and does not apply to members of the House. (PBS News Hour)

• Russia stepped up its attacks on Ukraine just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled the war could wind down soon. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia fired more than 1,500 drones on Ukraine since early Wednesday. Officials say it’s the largest two-day aerial assault since the war began. (PBS News Hour)

• Last week in Cuba, rare protests have broke out over fuel shortages and crippling blackouts made worse by the Trump administration’s energy blockade. Hundreds marched in the streets of the capital of Havana overnight, banging pots, burning trash and shouting, “Turn on the lights.” Many in Havana are going without power for up to 22 hours a day. (PBS News Hour)

• Health officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes killed at least seven Palestinians late last week, including a child. Israel says its attack targeted Hamas’ top military chief there, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, though his fate is unclear. Al-Haddad is the most senior Hamas official to be targeted by Israel since a cease-fire went into effect last October. (PBS News Hour)

• Africa’s leading public health agency says an Ebola outbreak has killed at least 65 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Officials say more than 240 suspected infections have been reported so far in the remote northeastern province of Ituri; 13 cases have already been confirmed. The World Health Organization says it has a team there investigating the outbreak and a stockpile of vaccines ready to go, depending on what strain of Ebola this turns out to be.

  Officials in neighboring Uganda say a Congolese man died after being admitted to a hospital there. They say his case was “imported from Congo” and that Uganda has not yet confirmed any local infections. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers

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It was 1979 again in the absolute worst way possible.

Normally the network forms a united front about any given topic, narrows in on its target and repeatedly pummels it. Fox News hosts will often use the exact same phrasing, slogans, catch phrases, and battle cries across multiple programs.

Since the war started Fox has been a disorganized mess.

At the start of the week Project Freedom, Trump’s plan to open the Strait of Hormuz, was sold as a brilliant strategic move that would bring a quick end to the war. When it collapsed almost immediately after it was implemented the folks on Fox splintered.

Hosts on Fox & Friends shared their doubts about the war, Jesse Watters made excuses for the president, Sean Hannity sold it as a checkmate move and the folks on The Five stopped talking about the war entirely.

Fox News knows how to whip its audience into a frenzy about urban crime, dangerous migrants, woke blue-haired teenagers, eminent communist revolutions, anti-white DEI schemes and shifty transgender athletes but it can’t seem to figure out how to sell the idea of another protracted war in the Middle East or soften the blow around high gas prices.

Sean Hannity thought it was a good idea to recycle some of the worst foreign policy ideas of decades past. He also got so desperate last week he included extended segments about former president Barack Obama even repeating talking points from 2008.

If he could have found a way to bring up Hillary Clinton’s emails, bleach bit servers, Hunter Biden’s laptop and Bill Clinton’s sock drawer he would have.

The network also shifted its focus to topics it knows well - trashing Democrats and endorsing long-shot Republican candidates in California.

It was 1979 again in the absolute worst way possible.

Normally the network forms a united front about any given topic, narrows in on its target and repeatedly pummels it. Fox News hosts will often use the exact same phrasing, slogans, catch phrases, and battle cries across multiple programs.

Since the war started Fox has been a disorganized mess.

At the start of the week Project Freedom, Trump’s plan to open the Strait of Hormuz, was sold as a brilliant strategic move that would bring a quick end to the war. When it collapsed almost immediately after it was implemented the folks on Fox splintered.

Hosts on Fox & Friends shared their doubts about the war, Jesse Watters made excuses for the president, Sean Hannity sold it as a checkmate move and the folks on The Five stopped talking about the war entirely.

Fox News knows how to whip its audience into a frenzy about urban crime, dangerous migrants, woke blue-haired teenagers, eminent communist revolutions, anti-white DEI schemes and shifty transgender athletes but it can’t seem to figure out how to sell the idea of another protracted war in the Middle East or soften the blow around high gas prices.

Sean Hannity thought it was a good idea to recycle some of the worst foreign policy ideas of decades past. He also got so desperate last week he included extended segments about former president Barack Obama even repeating talking points from 2008.

If he could have found a way to bring up Hillary Clinton’s emails, bleach bit servers, Hunter Biden’s laptop and Bill Clinton’s sock drawer he would have.

The network also shifted its focus to topics it knows well - trashing Democrats and endorsing long-shot Republican candidates in California.

Shows I Covered on Fox News Last Week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• Jesse Watters Primetime

• Hannity

• Several Trump media appearances

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Jesse Watters is On His Own Planet in Terms of the Iran War

Jesse Watters was so desperate to spin the complete failure of Project Freedom that he assumed he knew Trump’s intentions. I don’t know if Watters identifies as a journalist, but principled members of the press aren’t supposed to assume anything.

On Tuesday Watters tried to explain Trump’s failed plan.

“The commander in chief must believe that the Iranians are serious about surrendering. If he’s going to pause Project Freedom for the sake of a deal, because you could also continue Project Freedom during the negotiations? You know, you do want to get these foreign ships moving. The president must know what he’s doing . . .And we’re about this is just breaking about the pause on Operation Freedom. We can only speculate that the Iranians called the White House urgently and said, you know, we can’t we we can’t have it. We can’t be embarrassed like this. As these ships sail out of the strait we promised, we controlled. So we got a better deal. Here’s the counteroffer. And the president must have seen that and said, you know, as a gesture of goodwill, we’ll pause it and see where it goes.”

Is that is that how you read it?

“Yeah, I do,” said Clifford May of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) a pro-Israel think tank.

Later during the same segment May seemed to think that Trump only needed to change the name of the conflict to extend it indefinitely.

“And the only thing is, what the president did today was kind of clever. Okay. Epic fury is over. So The War Powers Act no longer applies. Why does that matter? Look, and not this president or any other president has ever accepted that the War Powers Act is constitutional. But why argue about it? No need to. It’s over. Now we’ve got Project Freedom. What’s that? It’s defensive. Anybody can object to that. They started shooting at us. Will we shoot back? Well. We’ll see. Well, at what point we want to. And it’s also what kind of a way to say to the Iranians you want to keep shooting us. Well, you know, as Harry Callahan would put it. You feeling lucky today, punk?”

According to May’s logic the United States can attack a foreign country then block an international waterway in the Middle East and claim to be the victim in a conflict it started.

From the NixonLibrary.gov:

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (also known as the War Powers Act) “is a congressional resolution designed to limit the U.S. president’s ability to initiate or escalate military actions abroad.” As part of our system of governmental “checks and balances,” the law aims to check the executive branch’s power when committing U.S. military forces to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. It stipulates the president must notify Congress within 48 hours of military action and prohibits armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days. The Constitution divides war powers between Congress and the president. Only Congress can declare war and appropriate military funding, yet the president is commander in chief of the armed forces.

The law was written after prolonged frustration by members of congress towards U.S. presidents’ use of military force.

One tipping point came after it was revealed that the Nixon administration was secretly bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War without congressional authorization.

After Congress successfully passed the resolution Nixon tried to veto the bill but there was enough support in Congress to override him. The resolution became law after the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973.

The law has been controversial since its inception. Legal experts have argued that is unconstitutional while some presidents have openly violated it.

Although there are other examples, the Iran-Contra affair was probably the most egregious violation of the law. President Reagan secretly sold arms to Iran, while the country was under an U.S. arms embargo, to help illegally fund the Contras in Nicaragua, an anti-Socialist militia, to defeat what he believed was a pending communist takeover of Central America.

As part of the secret arrangement Iran also agreed to release hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

To try to prevent U.S. intervention in Nicaragua, Congress passed a series of laws known as The Boland Amendments to prohibit federal funding of the Contras’ War.

If Reagan could get away with the Iran-Contra Affair and still remain in office there is little hope that The War Resolution Act will have any bite while Republicans in congress refuse to stand up to Trump over any issue, much less an unpopular foreign conflict.

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Most of Fox News Ignored Israeli Strikes in Lebanon

Last week only Fox & Friends reported on Israeli strikes of Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon. Anyone watching the primetime shows or The Five would have no idea that Israel violated the ceasefire it was supposed to have with its neighbor.

There was no mention of Lebanon on Hannity, Jesse Watters Primetime or The Five.

On Wednesday the PBS News Hour included a brief segment about the strikes.

“But the heaviest fighting today occurred in Lebanon. Israel launched widespread airstrikes across the South today, or Israel has invaded and occupied, Israel’s top general said today. Israeli soldiers were, quote, deepening the dismantling of Hezbollah and accused Hezbollah of launching drones and rockets that injured multiple soldiers. The IDF also warned today that it could return to a, quote, powerful and broad campaign against Iran, but that would require President Trump to give Israel the green light. And President Trump made clear today that he is at least hoping that this deal can be made quickly,” said Nick Schifrin.

The next morning on Fox & Friends Trey Yingst, the chief foreign correspondent for Fox News, included the Israeli airstrikes in a short segment about the Iranian conflict.

“Israel is continuing its offensive action against Iran’s largest proxy, Hezbollah, launching a new strike against the group’s Radwan Forces in Beirut overnight,” said Yingst.

PBS included apocalyptic images of bombed out residential apartment buildings and barren landscapes devoid of any sign of life - human or otherwise. Fox News made IDF soldiers the focus of its brief media clip on the same subject. The scenes were filled with lush green grass with no signs of destruction.

What’s Going on with the Oil Wells in Iran?

Fox also couldn’t keep his story straight about oil wells in Iran.

On Monday Brian Kilmeade claimed Iran was extremely close to catastrophe.

“There are about a day or two from totally reaching capacity with nowhere to put any of their oil, which means they have to cap their wells, which means those wells will never have the same capacity again,” said Brian Kilmeade.

Later that night Sean Hannity said it could take as many as three weeks.

“Scott Bessent says he thinks it’s a matter of a week, two weeks, three weeks when they will have to cap their oil wells, which means that their future production will likely be reduced by as much as 50%,” said Hannity.

On Tuesday Trey Yingst brought up Iran’s oil wells during a segment on Fox & Friends.

“The Iranians are under an immense amount of economic pressure as a result of the successful US blockade of Iranian ports. They’re reaching a point where they have no more oil storage facilities left.”

Later that night Hannity brought it up again but he didn’t give a specific time frame.

“Iran is running out of storage space for the oil. They may soon be capping their wells, which will have long devastating economic impact. Probably know by now they’re also running out of space for oil. The oil that they keep pumping, if their oil wells pop, the country is ripe for a revolution.”

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The War is Over! Let’s Bomb Iran Again!

Fox couldn’t keep its messaging straight on the resolution of the conflict.

On Monday on Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade predicted a swift end to the war.

“Is the sense among the military. We got ten more days, 5 to 10 more days, of, of targets to hit, to finish them off. And I don’t see right now that they fully understand how close they are to utter destruction.”

Later that night Jesse Watters also predicted a quick end to the war. Watters has repeatedly declared that the war was over only to enthusiastically cheer it on the very next day.

“Do we want to wait around for Muhammad’s next 14-point peace plan. Sources tell Axios he wants action, doesn’t want to sit still. He wants pressure. He wants a deal.”

Later that night on Hannity Kevin Corke, a Washington based Fox correspondent, also seemed confident combat operations in Iran could resume at any moment.

“The U.S. is, in fact, inching closer to restarting major combat operations against Iran,” said Corke.

The next morning on Fox & Friends Trey Yingst announced another ceasefire along with a possible return to combat operations.

“That the bottom line here, the Iranians are testing this fragile ceasefire, as the United States is preparing for the possibility of a return to combat operations.”

Later that night Hannity repeated the same mixed message.

“Now, President Trump just announced a temporary halt to the operation amid major progress on a peace deal. . . the U.S. does remain. The Navy remains ready and able to restart Project Freedom and, frankly, epic fury at any time, which has been a huge success.”

According to Fox News’ own reporting about 11 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz during the brief tenure of Project Freedom. Roughly 1500 ships still remain stranded in the waterway.

On Wednesday Jesse Watters kept insisting the U.S. was close to reaching a deal with the Iranian regime.

“Are we close to a deal? . . Trump says we’re getting the uranium . . . News Alert . . . Do we have a deal? But sources say an agreement has never been closer. Trump just told PBS that the Iran war has a very good chance of ending, and told Fox that this could be wrapped up in a week . . . It feels like we’re close to a deal, so the next 48 hours should be pretty interesting.”

Later that night Hannity thought the war could be wrapped up with a one-page memo.

“So, breaking today. According to an exclusive report from Axios, the U.S. and Iran could be closing in on a one-page memo to end the war, according to officials.”

The next night Jesse Watters predicted an immediate end to the war along with an escalation of combat operations.

“The United States launches a fresh round of airstrikes into Iran. They could cry, uncle, tonight . . . and if they don’t sign the deal fast, the War Department’s going to be a lot more violent.”

Both of those statements were part of the same extended monologue.

Within an hour Sean Hannity predicted a peace deal could be reached by the weekend.

“None of our ships were hit. But President Trump says a peace deal could be a week away.”

The Worst Idea in the World - The Neocons are Neoconning Again

On Monday, while a guest on Hannity, Senator Lindsey Graham thought he came up with a brilliant idea.

Graham: So if I were President Trump and I were Israel, I would load the Iranian people up with the weapons, so they could go to the streets armed and turned the tide of battle inside Iran. We don’t need American boots on the ground. We’ve got millions of boots on the ground in Iran. They just don’t have any weapons. Give them the weapons so they can rise up like we did to destroy this regime. A Second Amendment solution, I think, would go a long way to ending this war. If we can take control of the streets, if we can take control of the streets. Checkmate.

Hannity: Okay. My understanding is there have been attempts to do so, and they try to funnel it through. You know,

Graham: Do it again. and again. Oops.

Hannity: All right. My understanding is that, for example, working with the Kurds, they were stealing 90% of the weapons.

Graham: Well then don’t work with the Kurds work with somebody else.

On Tuesday Sean Hannity spoke to Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, about arming the Iranian people.

Hannity: If we could somehow get arms in the hands of the Iranian people. To me, that’s game over for the regime, which probably would give this great former great Persian culture an opportunity to reemerge and join the world community.

Gingrich: As things get worse, you’re going to see an armed rebellion. And I think you’re gradually going to see us, much as we did against the Russians in Afghanistan.

On Friday night on Hannity Mark Levin also thought arming Iranians was a brilliant idea.

Levin: When we armed the Afghan people, the mujahideen in Afghanistan. It work when we act. We armed the Angolan rebels it worked when we armed all kinds of freedom fighters in Central and South America during the Reagan administration. We pushed communism out of there, not everywhere, but in a lot of places. These people are ready to fight, but they can’t fight with their bare hands when they’re facing automatic weapons and tanks and so forth and so on. Can’t we give them a chance? I read and could be dead wrong that Erdogan in Turkey has objected to the Kurds and so forth. All I know is this. There are other people, who would rise up. There are other groups that can be armed if there’s not. We should have been working on them during the cease fire. All I know is the CIA in the 1980s was up to the task in doing this.

Levin was referring to Operation Cyclone, a covert CIA plot to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan. The mujahideen were islamist militant groups who were fighting against the Afghanistan government and the Soviet Union during the Soviet-Afghan War.

Flooding Afghanistan with weapons created instability in the region, a lucrative black market for illegal arms sales and provided an opportunity for terrorist groups to flourish including the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Afghanistan was deeply unstable. Injecting weapons into a region full of desperate people was a recipe for disaster.

Osama bin Laden was a key financier and organizer for the mujahideen fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the 1980s. Many Middle East experts believe Operation Cyclone inadvertently and unintentionally emboldened the same terrorists that would attack the United States on September 11th.

Although weakened and decentralized al-Qaeda continues to cause problems in the Middle East while the Taliban rules Afghanistan with an iron fist.

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A CIA Report on the Iranian Regime

On Friday Fox & Friends was the outlier again when Brian Kilmeade brought up a recent CIA report that indicated that Iran might be able to sustain a blockade for several months.

Kilmeade: I was disturbed by a report in the Washington Post that they say two thirds of the launchers are still, still okay to be used. And still intact after the two week war . . .two thirds of Iran’s. And so and there I mean, they have a lot of munitions left. But for somebody that wants to be heading towards the end of the violence and wants to the end of the blockade, they have a funny way of showing it.”

Charlie Hurt: But to your point, Brian, about that Washington Post article, it also talks about how they believe that Iran thinks they can outlast President Trump and try to maintain some sort of control of the strait. And the president’s made it pretty clear, particularly in Lucas’s report, that that’s not acceptable

Kilmeade: The CIA actually said that, this according to a CIA report that The Washington Post got Ahold of that said that they believe that Iran can last six, seven months with the current blockade of oil. So if that is indeed the case, because they got that shadow fleet is still functioning and they’re still able to make money off the shadow fleet. That’s been existence for 20 years because they’ve been under such heavy sanctions. And guess who’s buying it? China.

Later that night the same report was brought up by Jessica Tarlov on The Five.

Tarlov: We have seen at each juncture of this where we hear from our administration, you know, Iran, they’re on the back foot. All the economic sanctions are being totally crushed. They’re going to fall tomorrow. No, the next day, the next day, the next day. Now there’s this new CIA report that Iran could survive a naval blockade for 3 to 4 months, 3 to 4 month timeline on this. They have dug in there. Foreign Minister was in China this week.

She was interrupted by her co-host Jesse Watters.

Watters: Then there was this, another leak from the CIA. Anonymous sources during the Trump administration. Oh, Iran has 75% of their missiles still. Really? We’re still going to buy anonymous leaks from the CIA deep state to hurt Trump. Oh, they have 4 to 6 months left. Really? Then why are they leaking all their oil into the strait?

David Brooks brought up the same report on The PBS News Hour.

Brooks: The to me, the most significant thing that I’ve learned this week come from CIA report is an assessment that’s floating around now that 70% of the Iranian missiles are still there, 70% of the launchers are still there. The Iranian regime is able to withstand the blockade for another 3 or 4 months before real pain hits.

The report wasn’t mentioned on Jesse Watters Primetime or Hannity.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This list is slightly truncated due to space. Source - The PBS News Hour transcripts.

• Lawmakers from both parties are raising concerns about the Trump administration’s spending decisions. In the latest example, the administration said it will pay nearly $1 billion to energy companies to abandon plans to build two wind farms off the U.S. coast. (PBS News Hour)

• The Supreme Court last week temporarily allowed continued nationwide access to abortion medication that’s often distributed by mail. The court issued a one-week stay on a lower court’s ruling that would have led to sweeping changes in how Mifepristone, one of the two drugs commonly used, can be prescribed. (PBS News Hour)

• Sweeping changes are coming for the U.S. Forest Service, which manages roughly a third of America’s public land. The agency announced a dramatic overhaul of cuts, closures and consolidation. That’s on top of the Trump administration's latest budget request that seeks to slash billions of dollars. But some worry it could undermine the agency's mission. (PBS News Hour)

• More than three dozen former federal workers who quit or lost their jobs last year, in the wake of cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, are now running for political office. Most, but not all, are Democrats who say the assault on public service led them to seek change by standing for office. PBS spoke with three candidates running for Congress in the upcoming midterms. (PBS News Hour)

• Senate Republicans are requesting a billion dollars to fund security improvements for President Trump’s White House ballroom. The money is attached to a broader measure they hope to pass this month aimed at funding ICE and Border Patrol.

  Republicans have been pushing for the financing after a man was charged with trying to assassinate President Trump at a dinner late last month. It’s not clear exactly how the $1 billion would be used, but it is more than double the $400 million to build the ballroom, which the president said would be privately funded. (PBS News Hour)

• U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick faced questioning last week from the House Oversight Committee over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. A person familiar with Lutnick’s testimony told PBS News that he met with Epstein three times over the years, including once at Epstein’s private island. But the federal case files showed the two had kept in contact via e-mail. Speaking to reporters outside the meeting room, Democrats on the committee described Lutnick as a pathological liar and called the decision not to film the session “part of an egregious cover-up.” Lutnick has not been accused of any wrongdoing. (PBS News Hour)

• Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of breaking a unilateral cease-fire announced by Kyiv that was supposed to take effect last week in honor of Victory Day in Russia. Russia says its air defenses shot down more than 50 Ukrainian drones, one of which killed five people in occupied Crimea. And Ukrainian officials say a Russian drone strike killed two people at a kindergarten in the Northeastern city of Sumy. The U.N. says Russian attacks have killed at least 70 Ukrainian civilians in the past two weeks and wounded more than 500 others. (PBS News Hour)

• Candidates running for office in Texas primaries have made Muslims and what they call the “Islamification of Texas” the center of their campaigns. The state’s top Republicans have also passed legislation and made policies targeting Muslim organizations and developments. Stephanie Sy reported on the rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies in the Lone Star State impacting Muslim communities. (PBS News Hour)

• The National Capital Planning Commission held a hearing to consider a White House plan to paint the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white. In presenting an alternative vision for the 19th century building, officials argue that it currently “does not align visually with the surrounding architecture.”

  At the hearing, they said the project is as much about restoration as it is aesthetics. But preservationists and architects have expressed alarm, saying that painting the building's gray granite could damage the stone. (PBS News Hour)

• The Strait of Hormuz closure is not only driving up prices at the pump in the U.S., it’s also driving up the cost of delivering humanitarian aid around the world. That is particularly acute for Somalia, which is facing one of the most complex hunger crises in recent years. (PBS News Hour)

• Last Friday in Florida, a jury convicted four men of conspiracy in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in 2021. His death plunged the Caribbean nation into political turmoil, providing an opportunity for gangs to take increasing control of the country. The four conspirators were not accused of actually killing Moise, but rather of plotting to replace him with their own leader in a bid to enrich themselves. They now face life in prison. At least five others have already pleaded guilty in the conspiracy and are now serving life sentences. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers

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During his presidential campaign Trump repeatedly promised to lower prices on groceries and energy starting from day one of his administration.

On the day of his inauguration he signed an executive order - ‘Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis,’ that was meant to lower the cost of living for most Americans.

This executive order was one of several that President Trump signed in front of a live audience at Capital One Arena with much pomp and circumstance.

I’ve extracted the specific promises Trump made in this executive order.

• Pursuing appropriate actions to: lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply

• Eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that increase healthcare costs

• Eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances

• Create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force

• Eliminate harmful, coercive “climate” policies that increase the costs of food and fuel.

I’m making this available to all readers. Decoding Fox News is reader/listener supporter. I have no large donor, sponsor or advertisers. If you can help support independent media please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you.

How is Trump Doing?

Inflation

This chart shows the last year of the Biden Administration until the last CPI (Consumer Price Index) reading for April 2026. Source - Bureau of Labor Statistics. The gap for October 2025 on this chart and subsequent charts found throughout this document are due to a government shutdown late last year.

The Price of Food

I went through FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) and have kept track of the price of common grocery items for every single month of the second Trump administration.

Although prices for some items have decreased slightly, the overall cost of most groceries have increased since January 2025.

The biggest outlier in terms of price decreases is eggs. During the Biden Administration the United States endured one of the worst waves of avian flu which caused dramatic price spikes for eggs and poultry.

The last H5N1 avian influenza outbreak which started in 2022 was considered the worst in history. Within three years of the start of the outbreak 168 million birds had been infected and were culled across all 50 states.

For context the previous record was around 50 million birds, or less than one third affected by the vicious strain that recently caused havoc for poultry farmers across the country.

This chart from Center for Strategic & International Studies dated April 30, 2025 shows the severity of the most recent outbreak.

Egg prices really only had one way to go after farmers survived that catastrophic event.

This chart includes prices from FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) from the last full month of the Biden presidency (blue column) until the latest reading for Trump (April 2026).

If a shopper bought one item from this list in December 2024, the last full month of the Biden Administration, then purchased the same items in April 2026 they would see a 7% increase in their total cost from $98.71 to $105.62.

Even though prices for some items decreased from December 2024 to April 2026 there was not a single month during the second Trump administration that the overall list dropped in price.

Source - FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)

The price of each item has its own entry in FRED which tracks a limited amount of grocery items. Overall the price of manufactured foods, such as potato chips, soft drinks, and cookies remain stubbornly high while seasonal products such as fresh fruit and vegetables have varied in price.

Other staples such as milk, flour, rice and bread have remained fairly stable partly due high production volumes and federal agricultural subsidies.

The USDA regulates milk prices through the FMMO, Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMO), which establish minimum price floors for producers to prevent massive price swings.

Tomatoes - Record high prices

One of the reasons tomato prices hit a record high last month is due to a tariff the Trump administration issued last year on imported fresh tomatoes from Mexico.

Beef - Record high prices

Beef costs have increased due to record level droughts over the past several years and higher input costs for ranchers which are up 50% over the past five years according to reporting by CNBC. Cattle herds cycle at an 8-12 year period so prices are unlikely to drop soon.

Several market forces have decreased the national herd in 2025 to the smallest it’s been since 1951. Ranchers have also complained about excessive consolidation in the meat packing industry which they claim drives up prices.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating possible antitrust violations in the beef packing industry. Only four companies control 85% of the fed cattle market.

As of yesterday, May 11, 2026, the Trump administration announced it would delay the planned signing of executive order to increase beef imports to the U.S.

Coffee - Record high prices

Coffee has increased in price due to several factors one of which was Trump’s reckless trade policies. Although a small amount of coffee is produced in Hawaii and Puerto Rico in only accounts for about 1% of all coffee consumed in the United States.

The U.S. is the largest importer of coffee beans in the world.

Most of the U.S. does not have the right climate to grow coffee beans. Despite this Trump issued a 40% tariff on Brazil, a major coffee supplier, over its decision to prosecute former Brazilian president, and close Trump ally, Jair Bolsonaro.

The Trump administration also issued 10% blanket tariffs on most countries without an exception for coffee. In August 2025, the administration reversed course and lifted tariffs on coffee and Brazilian food exports but the increased costs have still negatively impacted the entire industry.

In November 2025 the Trump administration removed some tariffs on coffee, beef and tropical fruits partly due to rising costs

Prices are also elevated due to punishing droughts and flooding in Brazil and Vietnam due to climate change. Coffee has also become more popular in China which has increased global demand and pushed prices even higher.

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A Looming Fertilizer Crisis

About 1/3 of the world’s fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz which is currently part of a U.S. blockade in the war with Iran. The war has also disrupted the global market for natural gas which is also used to make fertilizer.

The crisis has caused a shortage which has driven up the price of fertilizer globally. Farmers in the U.S. who plant in the spring will be especially hard hit if they didn’t purchase fertilizer earlier in the season.

In developing parts of the world the increased prices for fertilizer could have devastating consequences as lower crop yields will lead to less food and higher prices.

The crisis in the Middle East will also affect the trade of helium which is used in medical devices and the manufacture of semiconductor chips which could lead to higher prices in other industries.

Energy

During his campaign Trump promised to get energy costs cut in half within the first year of his new administration. So far the average national price of kilowatt-hour in the U.S. has increased in nearly every state. The vertical bar is the last month of Biden’s presidency.

The gap in this chart is due to the government shutdown last year.

Source - EIA (Energy Information Administration)

According to the latest data available, February 2026, Energy Information Administration (EIA) the following states saw the highest increase in residential electricity rates from February 2025 - February 2026.

• Maine 22.6% increase

• District of Columbia (treated as a state on EIA) 21.6% increase

• New Jersey 17.4% increase

• Idaho 15.3% increase

• New Hampshire 15.3% increase

States with the biggest decrease from February 2025 - February 2026

• Rhode Island -11.5% decrease

• Connecticut -7.3% decrease

• West Virgina -2.8% decrease

• Oregon -0.1% decrease

All other states saw an increase in residential electricity rates from February 2025 - February 2026. No state had a decrease of 50% in the first year of Trump’s presidency.

The reasons for increased residential electricity rates are varied from inflation to increased demand from data centers, aging infrastructure, tariffs and climate change. The Trump administration isn’t helping as it just paid over $1 billion to shut down wind energy projects all over the country.

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Gasoline

This chart is based on the national average for a gallon of gasoline. The following chart is from GasBuddy.com.

The last price from the Biden Administration was approx. $3.00 a gallon. According to AAA the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.50 as of May 12, 2026.

The war in Iran has dramatically increased the price of all types of petroleum based fuel across the entire global market place.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate is currently 4.3% it was 4.1% for the last full month of the Biden administration.

Black unemployment hit the lowest rate ever recorded during the Biden Administration at 4.8% in April 2023. During his second campaign for president Donald J. Trump repeatedly said it was the lowest during his first term when it hit 5.3%.

During a campaign event at a community roundtable in Detroit, Michigan on June 15, 2024 Trump said the following,

“Millions of illegal immigrants are pouring in and they are taking your jobs. The Black community is being hurt more by the illegal aliens, 16-17 million. They are taking your jobs. You’re down 6-7% from where three years ago from you were with me, and it’s going much lower because millions and millions of people are coming into your communities.”

Black unemployment was 6.1% during the last month of the Biden administration. It’s currently 7.3%.

This is despite a recent report by the Department of Homeland Security that showed 2.5 million immigrants voluntarily leaving the United States, the deportation of 605,000 immigrants and a dramatic reduction of illegal border crossings.

It doesn’t appear Trump’s theory about immigrants and ‘Black jobs’ was correct.

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Mortgages

The average rate of a 30-year-fixed mortgage dropped from 6.85% in December 26, 2024 to 6.37% for May 7, 2026. If the rate of inflation continues to increase this could cause the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates which would affect the mortgage market.

Home Prices - National Average

The The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index is a leading monthly indicator measuring the average change in value of existing single-family U.S.

The index rate is a bit complicated to explain in something that is meant to be a quick overview of prices. (This chart is based on the Index Jan 2000=100, not seasonally adjusted.)

The rate increased from 323.318 in the last full month of Biden’s presidency to 327.311 in February 2026 the latest month of available data.

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Housing Starts - (construction of new homes)

In the last month of the Biden Administration the total number of units (per thousand) seasonally adjusted was 1,514. The last reading for this chart for March 2026, the last data available, was 1502.

Automobiles

Trump didn’t mention automobiles in his executive order but I thought I would add it since it’s a major purchase for most households. This chart from FRED is again based on an index not a dollar amount. The index increased from 177.552 to 179.207.

Healthcare

FRED only includes data for the producer price index for health insurance premiums which is data about health insurance companies not what consumers pay.

This chart form consumer price index for medical care in the U.S. City Average. It is also based on an index not a dollar amount. It increased from 570.110 to 591.202

.According to KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) employer based health insurance premiums for employer based coverage rose 6% in 2025, nearing $27,000 with workers paying on average $6,850 towards their premiums.

Source - Kaiser Family Foundation

ACA - Healthcare Costs - Huge Increases

For Americans enrolled in ACA (Affordable Care Act) plans KFF found 312 insurers participating in the program from all 50 states and the District of Columbia proposed a median increase of 18% for 2016. This was an 11% increase from the previous year.

For enrollees who relied on the enhanced premium tax credits which expired at the start of the year out of pocket costs are expected to increase by an average of more than 75%.

Insurance companies predicted many enrollees would drop out of the program which would cause premiums and costs to spike even further.

Insurers cited tariffs as one reason healthcare costs are expected to rise as my pharmaceuticals and medical equipment are imported. On average insurance companies cited that tariffs would add an additional 3 percentage points to premium costs.

Household Appliances

Trump also mentioned the price of household appliances in his executive order. Since the prices of applies vary widely there’s not an easy way to swings in this specific industry. FRED only included data for manufacturers of household appliances.

According to the Producer Price Index for household appliances manufacturing showed a dramatic increase then slight decrease since the last month of the Biden administration until last month.

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By Tuesday the network had moved on. Fox News executives are known for obsessively tracking audience reaction. I suspect that even the most diehard Fox News fans were just not that excited over an enormous columned building their glorious leader cannot stop talking about.

The network switched its focus to the third attempt on the president’s life along with King Charles’ visit and the White House state dinner.

Blurry surveillance video footage of Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect in the shooting, attempting to rush past a throng of armed security personnel was far more compelling than discussions about giant event spaces and drone-proof roofs.

By mid-week the network made a pivot to scolding ‘Liberal lunatics’ for promoting conspiracy theories about the latest attempt on the president’s life.

Since I started this project in February 2022, I’ve seen Fox News hosts promote conspiracy theories such as cultural Marxism, the great replacement, the great reset, birtherism, various false stories about Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden along with secret plots to promote insects as a main source of protein.

Meanwhile the conflict with Iran was relegated to a minor story. At least twice last week Jesse Watters declared that the war was over only to start cheerleading for a swift victory the next day.

Fox News hosts were also downright gleeful about the recent Supreme Court ruling that severely weakened The Voting Rights Act.

By Tuesday the network had moved on. Fox News executives are known for obsessively tracking audience reaction. I suspect that even the most diehard Fox News fans were just not that excited over an enormous columned building their glorious leader cannot stop talking about.

The network switched its focus to the third attempt on the president’s life along with King Charles’ visit and the White House state dinner.

Blurry surveillance video footage of Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect in the shooting, attempting to rush past a throng of armed security personnel was far more compelling than discussions about giant event spaces and drone-proof roofs.

By mid-week the network made a pivot to scolding ‘Liberal lunatics’ for promoting conspiracy theories about the latest attempt on the president’s life.

Since I started this project in February 2022, I’ve seen Fox News hosts promote conspiracy theories such as cultural Marxism, the great replacement, the great reset, birtherism, various false stories about Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden along with secret plots to promote insects as a main source of protein.

Meanwhile the conflict with Iran was relegated to a minor story. At least twice last week Jesse Watters declared that the war was over only to start cheerleading for a swift victory the next day.

Fox News hosts were also downright gleeful about the recent Supreme Court ruling that severely weakened The Voting Rights Act.

Shows I covered on Fox News last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• Jesse Watters Primetime

• Several Trump press appearances

Fox News Clutches its Pearls Over Assassination Conspiracy Theories

On Wednesday on The Five producers dedicated an extended segment about what they called leftwing conspiracy theories surrounding the latest attempt on the president’s life.

Multiple media outlets have reported that many right-wing influencers and pundits have also promoted conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Liberal lunatics are now claiming that the third assassination attempt on President Trump was staged, that the shooting was a false flag operation set up by Trump himself,” said Kayleigh McEnany.

Dana Perino brought up why conspiracy theories were so harmful.

“He’s talking about a crazy conspiracy theory and that’s what got him to ruin his life, to basically put himself in jail, possibly for the rest of his life . . . So the conspiracy theory angle is really getting to be very concerning to me. And people who are smarter and know better are doing it for their own clicks. To me, that’s so disgusting,” said Perino.

Brian Kilmeade blamed greed.

“I used to be optimistic that things coming out first is going to be extreme left and extreme right and will be in the middle. But if more and more podcasts and Instagram accounts make revenue from clicks and subscribers, you don’t get that for being pragmatic and cerebral. You get that from saying Donald Trump is making up assassination attempts,” said Kilmeade.

The former professional wrestler known as Tyrus saw the tragedy in the shooter viewing himself as a hero.

“In their mind, it is their side of the story is there’s this evil thing coming. So when they go to do what they’re doing, this isn’t someone who is an obsession or a stalker. They think they’re a patriot. They think they’re saving the country,” said Tyrus.

“And then they drop it. If there’s a lawsuit,” said McEnany.

Kilmeade lamented how conspiracy theories affected his job as a journalist.

“It affects all lives. We spend all day trying to knock down conspiracy theories where we used to talk. I used to talk about to people about the news. Now I’m saying, you know, no, we did land on the moon. 9/11 was not an inside job. So, this is crazy. I just hope people understand where you go to get the facts. We give you the facts, and then we give you an opinion. Other people get behind a microphone and they just make stuff up because they need clicks in order to make a living.”

Everything Kilmeade, Perino, Tyrus and McEnany brought up could be thrown back in their faces.

According to court documents in the defamation lawsuit filed against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems the network knowingly promoted false stories and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election to boost ratings and increase profits.

Fox News hosts and executives were worried if they told the truth about the 2020 election they would lose viewers to Newsmax, One America News Network and far right influencers.

The Fox News fact checking department knew the conspiracy theories promoted on Fox by various Trump allies were 100% false. At one point Rupert Murdoch tried to get all three prime-time hosts to commit to stop promoting the myth that the election was stolen.

While Fox News brazenly lied to its audience Dominion Voting Systems sent them more than 3600 emails correcting false information promoted on Fox.

Some Trump supporters who bought into the false narrative surrounding the 2020 election were part of the riot on the Capitol on January 6th. Many said under oath during their criminal trials that they thought they were protecting democracy and doing the will of who they believed was the duly elected president - Donald J. Trump.

Since Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million in April 2023 some hosts on the network continue to promote the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. I have countless examples in my archives of Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld casting doubt on the validity of the 2020 election even as their employer still faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic over similar false stories.

The president and his wife both promoted the false narrative that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and ineligible to be president of the United States. During his last campaign for president Trump would openly signal to supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theories during his rallies and on social media.

How an Actual Expert Explained Some of the Skepticism

On Friday the PBS News Hour invited Juliette Kayyem, former assistant DHS Secretary, to talk about footage from the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ dinner.

Geoff Bennett asked Kayyem about how Trump was handling the incident.

Bennett: You mentioned the president talking up his ballroom. His desired ballroom. Do you think the administration is treating this primarily as a security failure to fix, or as a political moment to message around?

Kayyem: I mean, I was thinking about the past week. I take presidential assassination seriously, as we all should. And I sort of think about the, the, the line of the story since last Saturday, which is, you know, it’s very scary for a democracy to have people and people with whatever motives. But in this case, you know, you know, left wing motives to go after a president. So you have discussion of a ballroom, you have going after Comey, the FBI director, and then you have going after a late night host for what he said about the president. None of those are related to the president’s safety and security. And I think, I think the White House might make all of us take, security more seriously if they did not politicize it within hours of an assassination attempt against the president of the United States.

Kayyem’s brief statement about Trump’s reaction summed up why so many Americans on both the left and right remain skeptical about the official narrative behind all three assassination attempts against the president.

The Trump administration turns every event into a vehicle to attack the president’s enemies while promoting his pet projects. It’s hard for Americans to take these events seriously when the president and his close advisors exploit and twist them immediately after they occur.

As soon as the president had access to a microphone and television camera he was promoting his planned ballroom as the solution to all of his security problems. It was extremely odd for the leader of the country to make a pitch for an expensive event space when he and nearly every cabinet member could have been shot and killed that night.

The American public is suffering from narcissistic abuse from a deranged man who insists on creating his own reality at all times. The president is a bottomless pit of need who will not rest until he re-writes history of the 2020 election, the January 6th riot, the Biden administration and his first term in office.

Trump demands that we accept his warped reality where he is the ultimate victim who did nothing wrong even as he blocks the release of millions of documents related to his once close friend Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual crimes against children and young women.

The president attacks his enemies with invented crimes about seashells on a beach, non-existent mortgage fraud, and cost overruns on the Federal Reserve building. He threatens Iran with total destruction one day and the next declares victory in a war he started seemingly on whim.

It’s no wonder that so many Americans don’t know what is truth and fiction anymore. The side effect of Trump’s nonstop assault on reality is that this last assassination attempt didn’t get much of a reaction outside of the MAGA cult.

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More Short Term Pain - Long Term Gain and the War in Iran

On Thursday on Jesse Watters Primetime Fox Business host, Larry Kudlow, repeated the same sad theme Trump has pushed since he started promoting his reckless tariff policies.

“Well, so there’s some more work to be done. One other point. Yeah. We’re all gasoline. I understand that, but it is just a small price to pay in order to extinguish this gruesome government which is so threatening nuclear power and, terrorist power. It has to be done right.”

Watters repeated a version of the same concept the next night.

“The president knows war isn’t cheap, and high gas prices are painful. But the thinking is no pain, no gain.”

He said it again on Friday night.

“Gas prices are high. There’s no doubt about it. But he’s promising relief right around the corner. You just have to trust him to keep his word.”

Watters then boasted that things could change once Trump took a break at his resort in Palm Beach.

“Well, could be an interesting weekend. The president is down at Mar-A-Lago. You never know what could happen when he’s down there.”

Nothing happened in Florida except some golf.

Jesse Watters Treats the War in Iran like a 13-Year-old Bragging About a Video Game

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night last week Jesse Watters opened Jesse Watters Primetime with segments about the war in Iran.

He provided little substance or specifics. At some points he listed weapons systems that the U.S. military might use in the future. His monologues filled with tough talk and cliches would go on for 10-15 minutes.

I’ve reduced over 40 minutes of drivel down to catch phrases Watters uses often in his war coverage.

“No more Mr. Nice Guy . . . The Commander in chief says, quote, Iran can’t get their act together and they better get smart soon . . . The mullahs only listen to bombs. Trump says. Are you crazy? What do we look like, John Kerry? . . . They’re choking like a stuffed pig. . . . Uncle in Iran is ‘amoo’ in case the ayatollah gets cable.. . .Well, Scottie B’s (Scott Bessent) liquidating their golden parachutes and better work is magic on the money front fast because American hawks have an itchy trigger finger.

Now we’re turning into the world’s cheapest, safest gas station. You know, the clean one and the nice neighborhood that’ll squeegee down your windshield with a smile. That’s us . . . Globalism is toast. . .Warning every man for himself. Situation 47. Showing a little bit of mercy. He’s trying to give peace a chance. . . But Democrats think the Pentagon stuck in the muck about what could be the final blow in case the Iranians needed a little nudge. . . The tough talk from a guy with no lips. Friday is the deadline to get on board. We’ll see if we have any takers. The whole Indo-Pacific is swimming with American sailors. But if the times can’t define what a woman is, I’m not surprised they can’t see victory.

All Iran has is the gay ayatollah, and he has no legs, lips and missiles that can’t shoot straight. . . . So double tap some coke boats. . . .But it would knock the snot out of the enemy for one final blow. . . Keeping his cards close to his vest. The cease fire has already terminated the war. . .It’s time to finish the job. . .Iran starting to buckle under the blockade. . . No. Lips says our bases are paper tigers. Kamikaze dolphins. This is basically already over. . . Squeezing them like an anaconda. They’re playing cat and mouse with the seventh fleet. . . and Venezuela was a home run. America is making mucho dinero. Once Trump sticks the landing in Iran. But he’s promising relief right around the corner.”

Watters’ kamikaze dolphins reference was about a rumor that Iran was hoping to strap bombs on dolphins and use them to target ships.

During his extended monologues Watters contradicted himself calling the war over while also saying it was time to ‘finish the job.'

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Rich White Folks Claimed Racism Didn’t Exist

Last week after the Supreme Court struck down a congressional map in Louisiana that was meant to create a second majority Black voting district in the state.

The Supreme Court ruling essentially nullifies a provision called Section 2 in The Voting Rights Act which required states to draw electoral maps that represented minority voters in their state.

Under the Voting Rights Act voting districts were supposed to reflect the racial demographics of any given state.

On Thursday the cast of The Five could hardly contain their excitement about the ruling that essentially gutted The Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“This district in Louisiana was carved out to create a Black district, which I think should be offensive to people,” said Martha MacCallum.

Kayleigh McEnany seemed to think racism wasn’t a problem.

“I think the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. That should be the guiding philosophy on any single matter. We don’t discriminate against anyone in this country because of their skin color.”

Jesse Watters called Democrats racist.

“I just like listening to the Supreme Court called Democrats racists, and Democrats are like, yeah, we are. We do want to discriminate on race. All people should be treated equally under the law. It should be a colorblind society. So, well, now that we don’t need it, because now we’re going to treat everybody fairly under the law.”

Later that night on Jesse Watters Primetime he went even further.

“We just found out the Democrats have been manufacturing racism because the race card is all they have. But the Trump Justice Department just exposed it. Ever since the golden escalator, the Trump administration, along with the High Court, have been systematically dismantling the corrupt pillars that keep Democrats in power. The deep state, DEI, unchecked immigration, USAID, welfare fraud, censorship, and lawfare. The Democrats are running out of moves. The race card is basically illegal. Doesn’t work. They know it. We know it. So if they can’t play that card anymore, they’re just going to rig the game.”

Watters said this the same week that he and his co-hosts complained about conspiracy theories.

What is likely to happen in Louisiana and other southern states is maps will be redrawn to dilute the influence of Black residents. Without the Voting Rights Act congressional and local districts will favor the white majority.

Trump Was Caught Lying Directly to a Reporter on Camera

On Saturday a journalist asked the president a question outside of Air Force One as he was leaving Palm Beach.

Journalist (off camera): Last night you said we might be better off not making a deal with Iran.

Trump: Well, I wouldn’t have to. I didn’t say that. I said that if we left right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild. But we’re not leaving right now. We’re going to do it. So nobody has to go back in two years or five years.

Here’s what Trump actually said the night before at the The Forum Club of the Palm Beaches Dinner.

Trump: And yesterday somebody came up and said, sir, the tournament is great. I said, what tournament are you talking about? I’m so busy with the Iranians calling, trying to make a good deal or we’re not going to let that happen. But we got to make a bet. They’ve got to make a bad deal. But if they make a deal, though, because, frankly, maybe we’re better off not making a deal at all. You want to know the truth? Because we can’t let this thing go on. It’s been going on too long.

Trump also made a statement similar to the one he claimed he said to the reporter about Iran needed 20 years to rebuild. It’s unclear if the president lied to the reporter or couldn’t recall what he said.

He’s made contradictory statements about Iran in the same speech since the conflict began.

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Jesse Watters is a Hypocrite and Fraud Over His Claims Around - ‘86’

On Thursday on Jesse Watters Primetime Watters played up the ridiculous criminal indictment former FBI James Comey faces over a photograph of seashells he posted on social media.

“Sorting through James Comey seashells. The former FBI director is now facing federal charges for posting 8647 on Insta. Today, he turned himself in. America’s top lawman put a message out ‘86 Trump’ and Democrat donors keep trying to. We’re not just talking shells. Ribs,” said Watters.

His producers cut to a media clip of President Trump talking about the indictment during a press conference in the White House.

“86 you know, at 86, a mob down for kill him. You know you ever see the movies? 86 him. The mobster says to one of his wonderful associates. 86 him. That means kill him,”

“Vegas mobsters use the term. If you needed someone gone. You drive eight miles out and dig six feet deep. You think the FBI director doesn’t know that?” said Watters.

If a mobster was trying to hide a body they would most likely drive much further than eight miles from a crime scene to dispose of it. A person could easily walk eight miles in a day.

I found an old clip of Watters from July 18, 2025 where he used the term ‘86’ in a completely innocuous way.

“Liberal, late night TV’s unfunny and unprofitable, and celebrities can promote their movies and shows on other platforms white, black men, women, gay and straight. Everyone’s getting ‘86’ed’ by the mainstream media, and it has nothing to do with identity politics,” said Watters.

According to Merriam-Webster - Eighty-six is slang meaning "to throw out," "to get rid of," or "to refuse service to." It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out. There is varying anecdotal evidence about why the term eighty-six was used, but the most common theory is that it is rhyming slang for nix.

Dictionary.com included multiple definitions

• Noun - Slang. a customer considered undesirable or unwelcome and refused service at a bar or restaurant.

• Adjective - out of stock

• Verb (slang) - sold out, out of stock

• Verb (used with object) - 1. to refuse to serve (an undesirable or unwelcome customer) at a bar or restaurant, 2. to reject

History.com - included a detailed breakdown on the origin of ‘86’ as a slang term.

1. Slang. a customer considered undesirable or unwelcome and refused service at a bar or restaurant.

None of the sources included anything about mob hits or assassinations. The term also means AWOL or Absent Without Leave in military code.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list includes stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This list has been truncated due to space. Source - The PBS News Hour transcripts.

• Ukraine and Russia traded strikes last Monday, with a Russian official saying two people were killed in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Kherson region. Meantime, firefighters battled blazes in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa after Russian attacks there injured at least 14 people, including two children. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia fired over 1,900 drone attacks across Ukraine in the past week, along with aerial bombs and missiles. The port city of Odesa itself has been a frequent Russian target since the start of the war more than four years ago. (PBS News Hour)

• The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could reshape a years-long legal fight over Roundup, the most widely used weedkiller. The chemical has been a critical tool for industrial agriculture across the world, but thousands of lawsuits allege a key ingredient is linked to cancer. Justice correspondent Ali Rogin discussed the debate with Helena Bottemiller Evich of the Food Fix newsletter. (PBS News Hour)

• Last year, Health Secretary Kennedy thrust autism into the national spotlight, calling it an epidemic and vowing to investigate what he characterized as its environmental causes. It struck a nerve in the autism community and reignited debates about whether the autism spectrum is too broad. PBS produced a segment about the ongoing debate in the autism community about breaking up the diagnosis into different categories of impairment. (PBS News Hour)

• The U.S. State Department is rolling out a new limited-edition passport that includes a picture of President Trump. The State Department posted what it called a sneak peek on social media. It shows the president’s image on the inside cover with his signature and gold lettering at the bottom. The back cover shows a more traditional scene of the Declaration of Independence. The release is part of the commemorations marking the 250th anniversary of American independence. It’s also the latest effort to put Mr. Trump’s mark on the nation, which includes his images on government buildings, his name on what was the Kennedy Center, and a planned arch in Washington, among others. (PBS News Hour)

• Ukraine says it shot down more than 33,000 Russian drones in March. That’s the most in a single month since Russia’s invasion more than four years ago. Ukraine has been ramping up its drone capabilities in response to Russia’s relentless aerial attacks and increasingly taking the fight back across the border.

  Officials said last week that Ukrainian forces can now strike much deeper inside Russia than they could at the start of the war. (PBS News Hour)

• Earlier this month, Moscow accused European nations of expanding drone support to Kyiv, prompting a warning last week from Russia’s defense minister. Just yesterday, Poland's prime minister announced that his country will partner with Ukraine to manufacture what he described as a drone armada. Poland and Russia share a border. And Russia has violated Polish airspace on a number of occasions since the Ukraine war started. (PBS News Hour)

• Military families are sounding the alarm about the presence of toxic mold in military housing. It’s an issue that has long been making service members and their families sick. Stephanie Sy reported on the ongoing problem and what is and isn’t being done to address it. (PBS News Hour)

• The U.S. economy grew 2% in the first quarter of the year when compared to 2025. Economists say business investment and government spending helped drive growth, though the impact of the war with Iran is likely to weigh on the economy moving forward. Also last week, a closely watched reading on inflation hit its highest level in almost three years last month, as gas prices soared. (PBS News Hour)

• In Florida, a former Miami congressman with ties to Secretary of State Marco Rubio was convicted last week of secretly lobbying for Venezuela. A jury found David Rivera guilty on all counts, including failure to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The case centered on a $50 million lobbying campaign to convince the first Trump administration to ease sanctions on then-President Nicolas Maduro’s government. Rubio himself testified, though he’s not been accused of any wrongdoing. Rivera was taken into custody and faces around 10 years in prison. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers

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I’ve removed the video to make this incredibly easy. I want as many people as possible to read this. Thank you for your support.

On Sunday April 26 President Donald J. Trump sat down with Norah O’Donnell for a CBS “60 Minutes” interview the day after a shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

That evening a 13-minute edit of the interview aired on CBS. The network also published the full 40-minute version on “60 Minutes Overtime.”

I went through both and made a transcript of exactly what was included and what was cut from the shorter version that aired on network television. The final 13-minute edit that CBS broadcast on Sunday was a bit of a Frankenstein monster as the president was sometimes cut off mid-sentence while other sections were cut and moved around to give the conversation a better flow.

Throughout the longer un-edited interview the president gave disorganized rambling answers that were filled with false statements about foreign investment in the U.S., immigration, and the 2020 election. He also brought up transgender athletes more than once and trashed the Democratic Party and the members of the press.

The president also boasted that he won a $38 million settlement from CBS over his lawsuit regarding the network’s “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, agreed to pay Trump $16 million, not $38 million, the funds going to his future presidential library.

By excessively editing Trump’s answers the network made the president seem far more reasonable and controlled.

How to follow along with this transcript

• The ‘60 Minutes’ introduction and transitions are in italics.

• Portions that aired on CBS are labeled BROADCAST.

• Parts of the interview that were removed are labeled as NOT INCLUDED then presented in a block quote with a blue line on the left of the text.

Instead of moving sections around which would be extremely difficult to follow I kept the 40-minute interview intact while indicating passages that didn’t make the cut for broadcast television.

For my paid subscribers I’ve included a video of the entire interview with the cut portions in black & white along with additional transitions added for the “60 Minutes”broadcast.

The following transcript is free for anyone to read - I placed the paywall at the very bottom of the article. This took me hour to put together so if you can afford to become a paid subscriber your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

60 Minutes - Intro (Voice-over by O’Donnell)

Last night in the nation’s capital, a gunman stormed the security perimeter at the white House Correspondents Dinner. The president, the first lady, the vice president, cabinet members and more than 2500 guests were gathered to celebrate the First Amendment and freedom of the press. But after shots were fired, the president was evacuated. It was at the same hotel where President Ronald Reagan was nearly assassinated by John Hinckley 45 years ago.

Tonight, federal investigators are looking into the motive of the alleged gunman, a 31-year-old teacher from Torrance, California. He emailed what a senior official called a manifesto to his family. Minutes before the attack, he wrote he was targeting members of the Trump administration. We spoke with President Trump this afternoon at the White House about what happened.

NOT INCLUDED

O’Donnell: Mr. president, thank you for doing this. Thank you. I’m glad you are safe. I am glad that everyone is safe. How are you doing?

Trump: I’m doing well. It was quite an evening. It was a very difficult thing to watch, frankly, but, doing very well.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: Mr. president, do you know if you were the target of the gunman?

Trump: I don’t know. It sounded to me. I read a manifesto that says he’s radicalized. He was a Christian, a believer, and then he became an anti-Christian. And he had a lot of change. He’s been going through a lot based on what he wrote. His brother complained about him, and I think we reported him to the police. And his sister likewise complained about him. His family was very concerned. He was probably a pretty sick guy.

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O’Donnell: I want to get to all of those details and also walk through this. What happened last night. But first this appears to be the third attempted assassination on your life, the first in Butler. The second, of course, on the golf course in Florida. Why do you think so many people may be trying to kill you?

Trump: So, I’ve said it and I’ve said it numerous times, and I actually, because of the position I’m in, I’ve done quite a bit of research into the word assassination. Terrible word. And they go after consequential presidents. They go after presidents that, do things. If you look at what I’ve done, we’ve turned this country around. We’ve taken a country that was actually a dead country. It was dying very rapidly, and it’s the hottest country anywhere in the world. We had a skirmish, a war, whatever you want to call it. With Venezuela, we won that very decisively. And we now have a great relationship with Venezuela. And it’s been a very profitable relationship. And we’re in Iran right now. Other presidents should have done it, but they never chose to do it. They should have. They made a terrible mistake by not doing it. It’s tougher now than it would have been ten years ago or even five years ago because, you know, thousands and thousands of missiles and everything else. And we didn’t do the B-2 bomber attack. That alone was a big deal. The killing of Soleimani, which I did in my first term, was a big deal. But when you’re a consequential when you do things, a lot of things and things that work out very well for our country. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, McKinley was assassinated. McKinley made the country very rich. People don’t realize it. Then Teddy Roosevelt went out and spent the money that was made by McKinley. But it was very consequential, actually. But he was assassinated. So,

O’Donnell: You mentioned, Mr. President, consequential. And your policies are also controversial. Is that part of it?

Trump: Well, I don’t think that way. I don’t think in terms of what they are. I just think of what they are for the country. For instance, I inherited the worst border we’ve ever had in the history of a country where 25 million people came in, 25 million people at least, and many of them were from hardcore criminals, and they were drug dealers, and they were from prisons. They emptied our prisons into our country. They have, mental institutions, insane asylums into our country. And I don’t know if that’s controversial to say we have to move those people out, but we have and but it is from the standpoint you’re doing something and you’re doing something that’s good. Things like, men playing in women’s sports, I’m against it. Things like transgender for everyone. I’m against that. There’s so many things that I’m against. I don’t think they’re controversial. I think the other side is controversial, but I do a lot of things and I get things done. And, you know, we’re respected now as a country all over the world. And some people love that, but some people probably don’t.

O’Donnell: Mr. president, I’m sure you’ve now had the opportunity to see some of the pictures of what happened last night, and I want to walk through that. It was just around 8:30 p.m..

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: You are sitting there next to the first lady. The entertainer named Oz Pearlman is talking to you is known as The Mentalist. When did you know something was wrong?

Trump: Right around that point, in fact, you can see the expression on the first lady’s face and your president of the evening, chairman or president or both, who is doing a great job.

O’Donnell: Weijia Jiang, CBS News.

Trump: Yeah, who’s a terrific person. And she was, you know, she had this big smile. I mean, they were, you know, they were talking. They were asking the name of Karoline’s child that he, didn’t know, I guess he.

O’Donnell: Your press secretary’s expecting, and he was trying to guess the baby’s name.

Trump: That’s right.

NOT INCLUDED

Trump: And that was the question. That was what? He. And he was actually able to get it. I’m not sure I’m a believer in this, but he was able to get it. And, the, first lady and your associate were amazed you could see the

O’Donnell: Shock on their faces.

Trump: It wasn’t the shock about something outside, but right after that, we heard a big bang, and it was either a gunshot or it was a, tray of dishes, which happens a lot in ballrooms. And I was hoping it was a tray, but it wasn’t.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: You mentioned the first lady. Her face. She looked very alarmed. Was she scared?

Trump: Well, I don’t want to say. And people don’t like having it said that they were scared. But certainly. I mean, who wouldn’t be when you have a situation like that? By that time, I think she realized ahead of time that that was more of a bullet than it was a tray. And she was, I looked at her face just a little while ago, before I came. I saw the scene. They played it for me and, you know, pretty good close up and she looked very upset about what just took place. Yeah. Why not?

O’Donnell: You see the security moving quickly within seconds, grabbing the vice president by his coat, lifting him up, bringing him out. Then the counter assault comes in. Took 10 seconds for them to flank you, Mr. President, and then 20 seconds to get you out. It looked chaotic. At one point you were down. What was happening?

Trump: Well, what happened is it was a little bit me. I wanted to see what was happening and I wasn’t making it that easy for him. I wanted to see what was going on. And by that time, we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem, different kind of a problem. Bad one and different than what would be normal noise from a ballroom, which you hear all the time. And, I was surrounded by great people, and I probably made them act a little bit more slowly. I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me see. Wait a minute. So, you know, I’m telling.

O’Donnell: Just at that moment where it looks like you go sort of down with your telling him to wait.

Trump: No, you know what happened is then I started walking with him. I turned, I started walking and that’s it. Please go down. Please go down on the floor. So, I went down and First lady went down also. But we were asked to go down by the agents as I was walking. In other words.

O’Donnell: They wanted you almost to crawl out.

Trump: I was standing up. Pretty much. I was standing up and then turn around the opposite direction and started pretty much walking out pretty tall, a little bent over. Because, you know, I’m not looking to be standing too tall. And, but I was walking out pretty about halfway there and they said, please go down to the floor, please go down to the floor. So, I dropped to the floor. So did the first lady.

O’Donnell: What was your thought at that moment? What did the First lady say?

Trump: Well, my thought was, you know, I’ve been through this before a couple of times, and, she has not to this extent. She handled it great. I mean, she was she’s a very strong, smart. She got it. She knew what was happening. She listened. I did too, but.

O’Donnell: Because this was the first time when.

Trump: They said, you know, when they said drop down, that meant a trouble. And obviously, I’m the president and I listen to what they said. Please drop down, sir. Please drop down. So, I was walking halfway and then I dropped down at the final because we had a little ways to go. When you’re exposed to the ballroom surroundings. And, then I got up and we went to a hold room for a while, and I tried to get them to continue the event, if possible.

O’Donnell: You wanted to go back in?

Trump: I did, I really did.

NOT INCLUDED

Trump: because I don’t like to have a criminal or sick person or somebody. Whoever he is, you’ll figure it out. I mean, I think we’re already figuring out he’s a man with a lot of problems, but you don’t want to have somebody like this, you know, essentially attacking our constitution, attacking our country, changing events that are, you know, it’s an important event.

O’Donnell: It was a very a night celebrating the First Amendment and the freedom of the press.

Trump: Exactly. And, and this was a big this is a record setter, and this was a very big and that dinner had some problems for the last nine years and now and I didn’t help them. And this time I went and I felt really good being that there was a great camaraderie, I wasn’t sure what the response was. You know, a lot of press, a lot of media. And when I walked in, I got a very nice applause. I wasn’t sure. I said, you know, I told my wife, I said, you know, I may walk in and they may give me a hard time, or I may walk and let’s see what happens. And I walked in and got very nice. Very I think they were happy to see me there, actually. And I can tell you there there’s the biggest impact that I saw in the entire evening was, and I say this being somebody that’s had a lot of, well, let’s say we’ve argued a little bit to get things that I want done. I fight for a border, and they fight for an open border. And, you know, we have a lot of a lot of differences.

O’Donnell: You’ve got some tough words for the press in the back.

Trump: That was tremendous. By this time the event had taken place. People were starting to feel safe. There was tremendous camaraderie. And saw Democrats, I saw senators, I saw congressmen and women. I saw people that weren’t necessarily on my side from the other party. Mostly. Pretty much the Republicans are on my side. So, I’m not that surprised you know, and they were going way to go. There was spirit in that room. I mean, it was like the whole country was together. It was pretty amazing. It made a big impression. It was very nice to see.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: Do you think this will change your relationship with the press?

Trump: Well, look, for whatever reason, we disagree on a lot of subjects. We talk about crime. I’m very strong on crime. It seems like the press isn’t, It’s not so much the press it’s the press plus the Democrats, because they’re almost one and the same. It’s like the craziest thing. I have the strongest border we’ve ever had in the country, where, as you know, it’s said zero people for nine months came into our country, to our southern border. We have a very tough border.

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Trump: Before me, 25 million people came in. I mean, whether it’s 20 or 25 or 30, but they say 25 million people came in zero people. We have people coming in legally.

O’Donnell: Can I ask you something? You said…

Trump: The other side doesn’t like that. There are things that I like that I think are very standard. I want a women to be able to play women. I don’t want men in women sports. And for whatever reason, the other side likes men and women sports. So, when you say get along.

O’Donnell: But that’s the other side it’s not the press.

Trump: I don’t think I could change, but I don’t think I could ever change my feelings on certain policies. I want strong borders. They want open borders. There’s such a difference.

O’Donnell: Can I ask you Mr..

Trump: I will say this, though, after the event, meaning it looked like things were good. They we knew he was caught. I was given the information immediately. There was a camaraderie that you just have not seen in a while. It’s very nice to see.

O’Donnell: The president. You, Mr. President, the vice president, the speaker of the House, the secretary of State, Secretary Hegseth almost the entire line of presidential succession, you know, was in that ballroom. Who was the designated survivor?

Trump: Well, first of all, I have to say it’s not a safe ballroom. I’m building a safe ballroom. And one of the reasons I’m building it is exactly what happened last night. We’re building a room right there. If you walk out and move 20 yards to the left, you’ll be right at the entrance to the ballroom. And that was being built on the safest piece of property in this country. Probably one of the safest pieces of land in the world. We have.

O’Donnell: But that’s owned. That’s the White House, the White House Correspondents Dinner can’t use White House property.

Trump: It’s able to be used by certainly the White House. It says the White House correspondents. Well, that’s the White House press. I’m sure that it’s available. You know, it’s up to the president. But that would be a made available. And this has bulletproof glass. This has you know, this is the highest level of security. Also, very importantly, I could have built suites on top. I could have done a lot of things. I said, no, no, we have this has to be pure. This has to be where people stay off property and they go through one very impactful, very strong entrance, one very powerful entrance. There’s no games with this. This is the best, highest. This has all sorts of, security equipment at levels that you could never have in a regular ballroom. And we’re ahead of schedule. We’re right on budget, ahead of schedule. I wish it could be even sooner, but we’re, you know, months ahead of schedule, but it doesn’t open till 2028. So, you know, that means you have another season and a half to go.

O’Donnell: Right?

Trump: But, this is exactly why the military, and this is exactly why Secret Service and all law enforcement want it. Because you have maybe a thousand hotel rooms above the ballroom we were in last night, and I’m not knocking it. I’m just saying in terms of maximum security, it’s not the best thing you can do it, but you can have problems like this. They have an elevator that comes down from the rooms. It’s very close to the ballroom. Yeah. Which makes sense.

O’Donnell: Yes.

Trump: So I want. To know we’re doing something that’s going to have a tremendous impact on solving this problem.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: In that video you can see the gunman running through the metal detectors, and he fired off 1 or 2 rounds.

Trump: The speed was rather incredible, actually. It was it was like a blur.

O’Donnell: How did he get that close with the place swarming with security?

Trump: I will say I say it because I’m a big fan of the people of law enforcement. And, you know, some of these people, they may be crazy, but they’re not stupid and they figure things out. He ran 45 yards, they say, and he just went to it and then boom, he popped through it.

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Trump: A thing like that could happen. I would say this having the equipment on the outside of the building maybe is better than having it on the inside of the building. Sometimes that’s tough, sometimes it’s horrendous weather, sometimes it’s pouring, it’s raining and lots of things happen, but maybe last night was actually quite nice. The weather was beautiful, so maybe something like that has to take place. I can only say that from the moment they realized that he was,

BROADCAST

Trump: I mean, he ran like, I think the NFL should sign him up. He was fast. When you look at it and it’s almost like a blur, right? But it was amazing because as soon as they saw that, you could see them draw their guns. They were so professional, aim their guns, and then they took them down immediately.

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Trump: The doors were sealed, the room was sealed, the ballroom itself, where the people were. And, they really, they really. I think they did a great job.

60 Minutes Transition (Voiceover O’Donnell)

O’Donnell: Two hours later, the president was back at the white House to brief reporters.

Media Clip from press conference at White House

Trump: I saw a room that was totally unified. It was in one way very beautiful.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: I was in the room not far from you. Mr. president could hear what sounded like gunshots or commotion. People nearby could smell the gunpowder. Everybody hit the floor. There were a number of people who were very, very scared. Yeah. How worried were you that there were going to be injuries?

Trump: I wasn’t worried, I understand life, we live in a crazy world.

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Trump: You can really enhance your chances of having a perfect situation, but sometimes things will happen. I did want to see what was happening, because, as you know, the president, in one way, I guess I should be hiding in another way. I want to see if I can be helpful. But I did watch because I could see what was going on at the door. I also saw a lot of very strong, physically strong, really attractive law enforcement people come through those doors. And frankly, it made me feel very safe. Very, very safe. Was nobody going to get by them? And this was at the very back of the ballroom looking at the back of the room.

O’Donnell: The counter assault team that comes in.

Trump: In, they were very impressive. I think they were very impressive. I think the whole operation was very impressive. The only thing you could say is maybe they could move that counter point out deeper. In other words, move it to the outside of the building.

O’Donnell: Let’s talk about that. Mr. president, I wonder how much has the Secret Service and the FBI briefed you about this suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, have you read what a senior U.S. official is describing to us as a manifesto?

Trump: Yeah.

O’Donnell: Did you know that he emailed it to family members?

Trump: We found all of that out this morning.

O’Donnell: Right before the attack?

Trump: Yeah, we found that out this morning. And the family members were concerned. I think the brother called up the police. I think the sister may have called the police. The parents were rather devastated. He lived with the parents. I saw the parents last night on television opening the door. I assume that was his parents. Look, you have sick people, and you have to mitigate the risk. But some of these sick people, it’s amazing. Some of the. They’re very sick, but they’re also, in some cases, very, very smart. He went to grade school, I can tell you, the person in Butler, I don’t know if you ever looked at his academic credentials. He had almost 1600 on his College Board’s 1600. Nobody has. I mean, it’s the upper 99.9 percentile or something. And he was a crazy person, but a smart, crazy person, I think the law enforcement did a great job last night.

O’Donnell: Let me ask you this.

Trump: I guess if they didn’t, I wouldn’t be here. But I think they really did a great job. Now, can you make adjustments? And we’re also learning. Can you make adjustments? I think the only adjustment would be you move your security equipment further away. But it was it was about 50 yards away, 50 yards, a lot of yards. Now when a guy is running at that speed, he was a very fast person. And he got him by a little bit by surprise. But that didn’t matter because he was totally subdued very shortly after he passed that one point.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive in it. He writes this quote, administration officials, they are targets. And he also wrote this. I’m no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What’s your reaction to that?

Trump: Well, I was waiting for you to read that? Because I knew you would. Because you’re you’re you’re horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that, I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.

O’Donnell: Oh, do you think He was referring to you?

Trump: Excuse me. I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person. I got associated with, well, stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate, the ones that were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things. But I said to myself, you know, I’ll do this interview and they’ll probably. I read the manifesto, you know, as a sick person, but you should be ashamed of yourself reading that, because I’m not any of those things,

O’Donnell: Mr. President, these were the gunman’s words.

Trump: I was never again excuse me. You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace. But go ahead, let’s finish the interview.

O’Donnell: The other thing that he wrote.

Trump: You’re disgraceful.

O’Donnell: The other thing in the manifesto that I think is worth looking at in terms of determining his motive, is he had been staying at the hotel since Friday. He checked and he said he had cased the place and he wrote, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? And he wrote this quote, I expected security cameras at every been bugged, hotel rooms, armed agents every ten feet, metal detectors out the wazoo.What I got is nothing, he wrote. Like this level of incompetence is insane. Sir, you have already had two attempted.

Trump: Well, he was pretty incompetent too because he got caught and he got caught pretty easily, so I’d say he was pretty incompetent, too. You know, I can take any event having to do with security or anything else. I can always find fault

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Trump: No matter what. I can take a baseball team that won the game 18 to nothing and say they should have played better.

BROADCAST

Trump: Those guys did a good job last night. They did a really good job.

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Trump: Now do they make adjustments? They do. They learn. They make adjustments. We’re living in a different world with the internet than we had, years ago. But even years ago, it was very dangerous. I mean, just ask honest Abe Lincoln pretty dangerous. And, but we are living a very, you know, the internet, I think maybe more than anything else, it’s radicalized some people, it’s made people mentally sick. It’s also a great thing. It’s a phenomenal thing with a leader in it. We had with a leader in AI it’s a great thing, but you’ll always find problems. But it’s a different, it’s a different age. It’s a very different. It’s a very different time.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: I mention that because again, as his motive, you brought this up, he had social media accounts that had anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric.

Trump: You should read. Why don’t you read all the anti-Trump? Why don’t you read it. You just did so why don’t you read it?

O’Donnell: Well, he had a lot of anti-Christian rhetoric. He had he was part of a group called the Wide Awakes. He had attended a No Kings protest in California in

Trump: No Kings.

O’Donnell: What did security tell you about what may have been his motive?

Trump: Well the you see the reason you have people like that is you have people doing ‘No Kings’. I’m not a king. What am I, if I was a king, I wouldn’t be dealing with you.

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Trump: You know I’m not a king, I get it, I don’t laugh, I don’t, I, I see these No Kings which are funded just like the southern law was funded. You all that southern laws, financing the KKK and lots of other radical, terrible groups. And then they go out and they say, oh, we’ve got to stop the KKK. And yet they give them hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. They work. It’s a total scam run by the Democrats. It shows you that, like Charlottesville, Charlottesville was all funded by the southern law. That was a southern law deal, too. And it was done to make me look bad. And it turned out to be a total fake. It basically was, a rigged election. This was a part of the rigging of the election. And that’s what you really should be doing. I mean, I hope one of your ‘60 Minute’ episodes, which really hasn’t changed very much for the last few years, I’m surprised. But one of those episodes should be on southern law, and the fact that they spent millions and millions of dollars on absolute far right and just bad, bad groups, and then they’d use those groups and they’d say, these are Republican groups, and we’re coming to your rescue, and they’re the ones that have funded it, and they’re the ones that kept them, keep them going. Pretty sad. Do you think it’s pretty sad Norah?

O’Donnell: The allegations and the indictment.

Trump: There’re not just allegations.

O’Donnell: But it’s an indictment.

Trump: These facts okay. These are facts. I mean, they have checks to the two Klux Klan and many others, and then they’re saying how bad they are and blaming the Republican Party and Republicans. These are not just allegations, but go ahead.

O’Donnell: Well as you know sir, you’ve been accused of things and were able to go to a court of law and adjudicate them.

Trump: So yeah, it’s after five years. It’s it’s it takes you about five years.

O’Donnell: I do want to talk about that also.

Trump: I’ve also won a lot of money from fake news media where they write falsely about me. And not that I want to sue people because I don’t. But I bring lawsuits against the fake news and brought lawsuits against your network, and you paid me $38 million because you did something that was so horrible with Kamala. You put an answer down that wasn’t responsive to the question because her answer, her real answer was so bad, it was election threatening. And you paid me a lot of money, and you tried to pull one off. It was terrible. It was a terrible thing that you did. And you know, when you say, can we all get along? You can. But when people do things like that, or how about the BBC where the BBC has me? Actually, AI, they had me saying a horrible statement and I said, I never said that. It turned out they gave me AI and little AI treatment where they have my lips speaking words of hate. Tremendous hate that I never said they don’t know what to do. They’ve admitted they’re wrong. They just don’t know what to do. They actually have me making a major statement. And it wasn’t me. It was my face. It was my lips. My lips were perfectly in sync with the words I said. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. So

O’Donnell: I hear you Mr. President.

Trump: So then when you say, can you get along? I can get along with anybody. But if people are going to cheat, if people are going to be fake, you sort of don’t want to get along.

O’Donnell: On that. What do you say to people who are encouraging political violence or even cheering it on?

Trump: Well, I think the ones that are doing that are much more far left than far right, much more. When you see again, southern law, when you see some of the statements that are made there. So even when you say No Kings, that’s, that’s encouraging. You’re saying one of the things this guy said in his manifesto, what you didn’t read, you should have, is that he attended a No Kings rally along with not too many people, and probably it had an impact. You know, they get up and they say whatever they want. No, I’m against it. I think it’s terrible.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: Also at the dinner last night was your secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. His sister Kerry Kennedy was there. They’ve both witnessed their father and their uncle be assassinated.

Trump: Right.

O’Donnell: Erica Kirk was there. The House majority leader, Steve Scalise was there. Yeah. Political violence has touched so many people in that room. Is there something that you as president can do? What can be done to change the trajectory?

Trump: Well, you know. You go back 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, 200 years, 500 years. It’s always been there. People are assassinated, people are injured, people are hurt. And I’m not sure that any more now than there was. I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats, much more so is is very dangerous. I really think it’s very dangerous for the country.

60 Minutes Transition (Voiceover O’Donnell)

O’Donnell: President Trump told us he hopes to move events like last night’s press gala to the new East Wing ballroom that he says is ahead of schedule although it won’t be ready until 2028. But he wants last night dinner to be rescheduled much sooner than that.

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Trump: I think the fact that I’ve accomplished so much, I’ve made our country great again. I made this country was dead. Our country was dead a year and a half ago. Sleepy Joe Biden had no idea what he was doing. I don’t think it was him either. I think it was the people that surround the surround him in the Oval Office at the beautiful Resolute Desk. I don’t think he knew what he was doing. He didn’t sign anything. He used the autopen to sign 90% of the things. I think that they engendered. I mean, they really created a tremendous amount of anger and hate. Our country was dead, and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Nope. Not even close.

O’Donnell: Last night,

Trump: As an example, investments in our country for four years, less than $1 trillion under Biden in 11 months. $18 trillion under Trump. Now, most people are happy about that. But some people are really angry about it. You know why? Because it means we should be around for a long time, and they don’t want that to happen.

O’Donnell: Last night you had a very much a tone of of unity when you were in the White House press briefing room.

Trump: I think so, yeah. I think, I really felt very calm. I feel very calm, and I feel very calm right now, other than a couple of your questions, which are meant to antagonize and totally inappropriate, but I feel very calm. I thought last night was a very important thing to do. And, people have said it was I did it wll not an easy thing to do. You know, you leave a scene like that, and then you’re supposed to let our country and even the world know that it’s going to be okay.

O’Donnell: And what about when we talking about the division in this country, the political violence? Now, many of your cabinet secretaries live on military bases. Yeah. In order to because of the potential threats against them.

Trump: Well, they choose to I’m not sure that, they need to they also have nice places. You know, Democrats did the same thing. Some of the housing on the military bases is very nice. I’m not sure they do it necessarily for violence, but probably this it’s not the worst thing in the world. Look, they’re they’re doing we are consequential. This is a consequential presidency. I have a great Cabinet, and they do things that are very good. But some people, you know, if they’re good for us and not good for other people, like, as an example, Iran, when they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, they will not have they’re not going to blow up the world. They’re crazy. They’re not going to blow up the world, and therefore they’re not happy. And when they’re not happy, people do things that are violent. Now, I’m not tracing anything back to them, but certainly if they had a shot, they’d probably take it. So, when you’re a consequential president or if you have a consequential administration, things happen. That wouldn’t happen if you’re sleepy Joe Biden. Everyone was happy with Biden. The world was happy with Biden. They were happy because they were taking advantage of us, because they treated the United States like we were stupid people, and they made a lot of money. But they don’t do that anymore.

O’Donnell: Last night was going to be your first attendance at the white House Correspondents Dinner as president.

Trump: That’s right. And I was looking forward to making a speech. And would have been a lot different had I gone up and had I stayed. It was very interesting because I said, I can’t make this wish I was going to do it pretty.

O’Donnell: Tell me.

Trump: Rip roaring. I won’t go into the total details, but no, I was going to hit people really hard with humor. No, it’s really hard with humor. And I thought it was good when this happened and I wanted it to go forward because I just didn’t want it canceled by a crazy person. Our country’s too good for that. Our country’s too important for that and too powerful for that. I didn’t want that to happen, but I said, and I thought it would go up. I was expecting until the last moment when the military came and Secret Service and law enforcement.

O’Donnell: Why did they say you couldn’t go back? When you were saying, I want to go back.

Trump: Because we had a very sealed room. It’s very airtight. Once the doors opened and the Secret Service, military, others came in, the police came into law enforcement. They came in a lot of them. We had a lot of law enforcement, and it was a wall, but the doors were open. It was breached by them. If somebody happened to slip in and when they said that, I said, you’re right. But I did want to go. But it would have been a much different speech. I would have had to just get up and say, I love you all. And there was love in the room. It was amazing. There was love in the room.

O’Donnell: And why do you think that is? Why do you think that the tone changed?

Trump: People came together, Democrats did. The Democrats that truly can’t stand me were saying, sir, could I just shake your hand? I mean, I’m, I’m leaving and I’m seeing people, you know, high level people. And they’re saying, sir, great job, sir. Could one of them I don’t he probably have it on tape someplace. One of them, could I hug you? A big politician on the other side, there was love. It just all came together. It was very amazing to see. It was a very beautiful thing and a non-beautiful moment really. But it was a very beautiful thing that was happening.

O’Donnell: I hesitate to ask you about this, but as you know, these conspiracy theories out there on the left and the right, that the event was staged or that it didn’t happen.

Trump: What last night, didn’t.

O’Donnell: That, yeah, that it was because it was your first time there or that Butler didn’t happen. These conspiracy theories that are gaining traction on the internet.

Trump: And October 7th didn’t happen, and World War Two didn’t happen, and the Holocaust didn’t happen and many things didn’t happen. Yeah. No, I hear it. I don’t know, I think they’re more sick than they are con people. But it is a lot of con in it too. I haven’t heard that last night didn’t happen. What usually takes a little bit longer.

O’Donnell: Yeah.

Trump: Usually, they wait about two or three months to start saying that.

O’Donnell: I think that it was. I think that and forgive me, I’m not I don’t peddle in that stuff or certainly look at it because I was there. But the idea I’m wondering where this is coming from?

Trump: I think this is going to be a tough, I think, going to be a tough sell.

O’Donnell: Yeah. Secret Service now is currently meeting as they always do, to discuss your security footprint. The king is coming here. King of England.

Trump: I think it’s great. He’ll be very safe.

O’Donnell: Yeah, yeah. And you know, you’re going to be able to go go forward. You’re no no concerns of security going forward.

Trump: The White House grounds are really safe. This area of not very many acres. It’s really safe. And he’ll be staying here now. I believe he’s going to a couple of other locations because he’s here for a few days and he’s a great guy. Oh, they called and they are so looking forward to being here. We spoke this morning.

O’Donnell: So, he the the king is fine. He’s still coming the week your your events are still going forward.

Trump: He’s a good he’s a good person.

O’Donnell: There’s no indication from the Secret Service or the FBI that there’s an additional threat to you or other administration officials?

Trump: This was a lone wolf, in my opinion. We may find out something else. This is a sick lone wolf. He’s a sicko. And, very disturbed person. You can see it with his, journey through life in the news. And Christian, he was a, a member of the Christian club at his college, Caltech, which is a good college. I’m sure they’re very embarrassed by this because, you know, it’s a great college. So, I mean, he’s pretty smart to be in and get it. Got to get pretty good marks. Going to get pretty good board scores to hard school to get into. So, he’s a smart guy, but he’s a sick guy. Yeah. That’s the problem. I mean it would be a lot easier if they weren’t smart. Some of them are very smart. And they go around and all they want to do is kill people. They’re sick, and they have to be put away.

O’Donnell: I understand today’s the first lady’s birthday. Is that right?

Trump: Today’s her birthday that’s right. Happy birthday. Happy birthday Melania. It’s. It is.

O’Donnell: How do you deal with that witnessed after what happened last night?

Trump: Yeah. By the time we get back here, it’s like around 12:00. And I said, happy birthday, darling.

O’Donnell: And you were back here in the White House. I understand in five minutes.

Trump: Well, they they move fast.

O’Donnell: Yeah.

Trump: Yeah. I mean, look, it’s a pretty quick drive. It’s not very far away. But think of it. The security of having this really perfect facility built at the highest, highest security levels on the grounds where you’re not taking. I’m talking about any president, by the way. Other presidents would use the ballroom a lot more than me. I’m going to have 4 or 5 months left, but other presidents will be having having the the you know, that tremendous asset is going to be so great. But outside of that is dangerous. You know, you need tremendous then you could never build. You can’t have thousands of rooms on top of a ballroom and have security, real security. Now with that being said, I hope they do this event again and I hope they do it again soon.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: And you are committed to doing this event with the White House correspondents Dinner. It’s about freedom of the press.

Trump: I want them because I don’t want to see it be canceled. I don’t want to have a crazy person. I think it’s really bad for a crazy person to be able to cancel something like this.

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Trump: You know, I remember with a certain event that took place, I don’t even like mentioning it where they had sports games going on and it was a big decision. Do we cancel the games or do we not? And when you cancel, you’re sort of playing right into the hands of these nutjobs and they are the really sick people I don’t want to have, an event like that. It was a great event. That was an event. So, I refused to do it the first four years because I felt the press treated me very unfairly. I had a right not to do it. I didn’t do it. And the thing died. It was dying. And I even though the press treated me pretty badly, it’s hard to treat me. Look, I won the election, you know, people are fighting me. Everybody. Not everybody. That’s. I have

BROADCAST

Trump: a there are great people in the press, too. I can name, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to embarrass you your show we have some great people in the press, some very fair people and people that are just on my side. But for the most part, it’s a very liberal, a very progressive. Let’s use the word Lou, a liberal press. But I was just really, I was really happy to see the, the I don’t know how long it last, the relationship, the friendship, the spirit after a very bad event took place. Now the event turned out to be much less bad because nobody was killed, nobody was hurt. The Secret Service agent, I spoke to him. He had a bulletproof vest on. Unbelievable.

O’Donnell: He’s okay.

Trump: He’s 100%. Yeah. No, he was 100%. He didn’t want to go to the hospital. He really didn’t. They asked him to go, and he didn’t want to go. He said, I don’t need to go to the hospital. But he went because they asked him to go.

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Trump: I would have said to tell him that if he doesn’t want to go, what do you force him to go for? Because then the press will say, oh, he was badly hurt. No, he didn’t want to go to the hospital, and they forced him to go. And I’m not saying they’re wrong, but I would have said, if he doesn’t want to go, don’t make him go.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: Well, I know the White House Correspondents Association very much appreciate you going last night and honoring a commitment to do it.

Trump: I hope we’re. Going to do it again, Norah. Tell them to get it going, and we should do it within 30 days, and they’ll have even more security, and they’ll have bigger perimeter security. It’ll be fine. But tell him to do it again. We can’t let something. It’s not that I want to go. It’s. I am very busy. I don’t need that. I think it’s very important that they do it again.

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Well, thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very Much.

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The defiant parent stares back in scorn at an underpaid and overworked school administrator explaining. while sipping instant Maxwell House from a Styrofoam cup, how little Donny set fire to another teacher’s desk then faked an asthma attack to get out of detention. At the emergency room he threatened to fight the triage nurse after she determined his breathing was perfectly normal.

President Donald J. Trump is the bratty monster who was never told no or given a boundary. As prices increase across the country and his poll numbers drop Fox News cannot face reality - the network helped raise this destructive beast.

The pathological narcissist that they propped up and worshipped, and paid hundreds of millions in a defamation lawsuit to cover for has turned out to be a mad wannabe king hellbent on enriching himself and sticking his name and image on everything near him.

As the president repeatedly makes false claims about the war with Iran the network dutifully repeats them only to correct itself hours later. The corporate heads as Fox News don’t seem to care as long as their ratings remain high and the profits keep rolling in.

Little Donny might even burn his family’s McMansion to the ground before he’s finished. Hopefully we won’t all be burned to cinders along with him.

Rupert Murdoch must be happy to have a lower tax rate.

Last week the network also heavily promoted stories surrounding the criminal indictment issued against the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center). While the PBS News Hour dedicated slightly over one minute to the story it was the third most talked about topic on Fox News last week taking up 11% of the airtime on the shows I covered.

If you are a new subscriber to Decoding Fox News: Every week I publish this newsletter with an accompanying podcast with the same title is published around the same time. The two work together as any hyperlinks to sources can be found here. Some folks only consume the newsletter while others only listen to the podcast.

Thank you for your support

At this point in the second Trump administration Fox News has become the parent of a spoiled child sitting in the principal’s office of an expensive private school insisting their kid did absolutely nothing wrong.

The defiant parent stares back in scorn at an underpaid and overworked school administrator explaining. while sipping instant Maxwell House from a Styrofoam cup, how little Donny set fire to another teacher’s desk then faked an asthma attack to get out of detention. At the emergency room he threatened to fight the triage nurse after she determined his breathing was perfectly normal.

President Donald J. Trump is the bratty monster who was never told no or given a boundary. As prices increase across the country and his poll numbers drop Fox News cannot face reality - the network helped raise this destructive beast.

The pathological narcissist that they propped up and worshipped, and paid hundreds of millions in a defamation lawsuit to cover for has turned out to be a mad wannabe king hellbent on enriching himself and sticking his name and image on everything near him.

As the president repeatedly makes false claims about the war with Iran the network dutifully repeats them only to correct itself hours later. The corporate heads as Fox News don’t seem to care as long as their ratings remain high and the profits keep rolling in.

Little Donny might even burn his family’s McMansion to the ground before he’s finished. Hopefully we won’t all be burned to cinders along with him.

Rupert Murdoch must be happy to have a lower tax rate.

Last week the network also heavily promoted stories surrounding the criminal indictment issued against the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center). While the PBS News Hour dedicated slightly over one minute to the story it was the third most talked about topic on Fox News last week taking up 11% of the airtime on the shows I covered.

Shows I covered last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• The Ingraham Angle

• Jesse Watters Primetime

• Trump press events

Short Term Pain for Long Term Gain - The Mantra of Trump 2.0

On Tuesday on Fox & Friends, Lawrence Jones brought up energy prices.

“As I continue to make the point on this couch, the energy prices point. And I’m not saying you can’t criticize it and say, hey, there are American people that are suffering, but just know as the runners that stray has said in his report that the Iranians go to drive the price of the energy price so high that the American president will be forced to leave this conflict,” said Jones.

“We moved yesterday. Yeah, only 4 or $5. Oil is still around $90 or $92,” said Kilmeade.

On Tuesday on Jesse Watters Primetime Jim Hanson a Chief Strategist for the Middle East Forum and former U.S. Army Special Forces officer repeated a dominant theme pushed on Fox News since before Trump was elected in 2024.

“Defeat mongers thought they were going to convince the world that President Trump had to stop this because of the pressure. We can absorb some short-term oil price jumps, and the political pressure at home is not going to change President Trump’s calculation.”

Later in the same program Cliff May of The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a pro-Israel, neoconservative think tank, went even further.

“They will say we can tough it out. We’ll see if Americans can last for three months, if that’s what it takes. Paying $4.25 a gallon for gasoline. Californians have to pay that for a long time and haven’t complained that maybe Californians are tougher than the rest of us.”

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A Fox Guest Goes Rogue

Normally when Fox News invites someone on to talk about the war in Iran the network makes 100% sure that that pundit or expert will praise Donald J. Trump and the Pentagon at length.

On Wednesday Fox & Friends invited Dennis Ross, former U.S. envoy to the Middle East ,to talk about the war in Iran. Ross has worked with several U.S. presidents from both parties including Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama along with Hillary Clinton when she served as Secretary of State.

Ross has been criticized by some for showing too much deference towards Israel when he participated in peace negotiations with Palestinians and Arab countries. He is also known for his hard stance towards Iran.

Experts on the Middle East from both political parties have criticized Ross for being ineffective in terms of peace negotiations.

Ross is currently a Distinguished Fellow with The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think tank.

Fox News reduced his complicated history to simply - former U.S. envoy to the Middle East.

Kilmeade: So, ambassador, who’s. Who has time on their side?

Ross: Well, a lot depends upon how much we can absorb. How much we can absorb the pain. You know, Brian, from the beginning, I thought we had to have the blockade because that was the best way to put real pressure on them. The blockade, however, does impose a real price on the rest of the world. If this is going to be resolved at some point, it has to be understood the point that way, the leverage we have on them is the blockade, the leverage they have, which they they didn’t exercise before. Is being able to keep the blockade. Maybe being able to keep the straits closed. However, this ends the one thing that the Iranians will have to understand, including the Revolutionary Guard. If they ever try to reestablish control over the over the Straits again. There will be a blockade. That’s the only way to deny them the revenues. They ultimately they can’t function without the revenues. That’s the key counterpoint that we have on them at this point.

Kilmeade: And the one thing you said about the president is the, the language that shows anger. They look as, as weakness. Is that how you see it?

Ross: I see they see it as desperation. So the more, the more he threatens civilization. They see that as a sign of desperation that he needs to have it over. We need to understand at this point, they’re the ones who believe that time is on their side. We have to be able to prove to them that it’s not

Kilmeade: Right. And, we’ve killed so many of their leaders. It’s hard to really know if, who’s jockeying for position and who’s actually trying to get to a deal and who wants to fight again. Ambassador Dennis Ross, thanks so much.

Jesse Watters and the Bro Take on the Iran War

On Wednesday I made an edit of Jesse Watters’ extended opening monologue about the war in Iran from Jesse Watters Primetime.

“Fox News alert. The commander in chief says you can’t cave to crazy people and Iran is a madhouse. . . The Iranians went from the most feared military in the Middle East to a crusty crew of Persian swashbucklers. . . Didn’t seem like a real emergency. Trump will just tell Home Depot; you know those lawnmowers make them into drones. . . Politicians shouldn’t lie to the country about a war on either side. . . We’ll be blackmailed if we walk away now without a deal and leave the uranium in place. We’ll have to go back in later and clean it up all over again. And that’s how you get into a forever war. And that’s how you lose American prestige and money.”

Just a quick note that Trump didn’t seem to have a plan to retrieve enriched uranium after Operation Midnight Hammer where he destroyed Iran’s nuclear sites.

Brian Kilmeade Mildly Criticized a Former Fox News Employee

On Thursday on Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade questioned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s decision to fire U.S. Navy Secretary John Phelan.

“It’s also an odd time to get rid of the Navy secretary. He got fired yesterday. It looks like, you know, the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, just got rid of him. He seemed to be a surprise. He gave a major speech the day before. He’s very tight with Don Jr. I guess shipbuilding was behind. That could be it. But now we lost the secretary. We have the secretary of the army in place, but he was the, the chief of staff, and that we lost. Now we lost the Secretary of Navy. I hope it doesn’t disrupt operations over there,” said Kilmeade.

Kilmeade’s statement might be seen as an act of rebellion but his statement was really a sign devotion towards Donald J. Trump. It seemed to Kilmeade that Hegseth, a former Fox News employee and co-host is expendable, Trump is not.

According to reporting by The New York Times Trump wanted Phelan fired because he wasn’t moving fast enough on Trump’s plan for a ‘golden fleet’ of massive ‘Trump class’ battleships that many experts have criticized for being outdated and obsolete.

Phelan was a billionaire investor, and large Trump donor, with no military experience when President Donald J. Trump nominated him for Secretary of the Navy, a largely administrative role.

The battleships could cost as much as $17 billion each and are part of the proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027. The Navy hasn’t built a new battleship since 1944.

Trump apparently got the idea for a new line of battleships after watching “Victory at Sea” a television documentary series that aired from 1952-1953.

Nearly everything in modern warfare is moving towards smaller, faster and cheaper weapons such as drones and un-crewed ships. A massive battleship just becomes an huge expensive target for an inexpensive drone.

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How Two Networks Covered the Resignation of the Sec. of Labor

Fox News - Quick Segment with no details

On Monday producers at The Five awkwardly shoved the news about the resignation of Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Secretary of Labor right before a commercial break.

“Fox News alert Lori Chavez-DeRemer has resigned as labor secretary for taking a job in the private sector. Keith E. Sonderling will take the role of acting secretary of labor. Pretty exciting stuff there,” said Greg Gutfeld.

The PBS New Hour - Quick Segment with unflattering details.

This is how The PBS News Hour covered the same story.

“Coming up next day’s other headlines, the White House says Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving her post. Communications Director Steven Chung announced her departure on social media, saying she’s done, quote, a phenomenal job and that she’s taking a position in the private sector. Chung added that her deputy, Keith E. Sonderling, will take over as acting secretary. Chavez dreamer had been under fire for months amid allegations that she abused her position. That included allegations of an affair involving a subordinate and drinking alcohol on the job. She’s denied any wrongdoing. Chavez-DeRemer is the third Trump cabinet member to leave after he fired homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March and ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month,” said Amna Nawaz.

How Fox & Friends Screwed up Big Time on Sunday

On Saturday evening around 8:00 p.m. during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, an armed man, Cole Tomas Allen, charged past a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton.

Although shots were fired Allen never discharged a weapon. He was taken down by Secret Service agents who tackled him before he got to a staircase that lead to the floor where the event was held.

An officer was shot but the bullet lodged in his protective vest and was not seriously injured. He was most likely shot by another officer on the scene.

Initial reports falsely indicated that Allen was killed by law enforcement but that was corrected shortly after the incident. Within a few hours authorities released photographs of an uninjured Allen face down on the hotel floor with his arms handcuffed behind his back.

At 6:00 a.m. the next morning “Fox & Friends Sunday” opened with the story. Amazingly Rachel Campos-Duffy didn’t get a major detail right even though the chyron on the screen read ‘Now Suspect in Custody After Shots Fired at White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”

Approximately nine minutes into the broadcast, after showing a clip of President Trump speaking about the incident at a press conference after the event Rachel Campos-Duffy made a huge mistake.

Campos-Duffy: We saw a shooter outside of the, venue outside of the ballroom doors. He was trying to get through the magnetrometers (mis-pronounced magenetometers) and he was shot and killed as he was trying to rush into the ballroom. The ballroom where the president, the vice president, members of the cabinet and so many, guests were about 1000 over 1000 people were at that dinner. Very dramatic, events indeed. We all were there. Charlie and I, it was a completely surreal event. Charlie, why don’t you tell us what you thought?

I expected an immediate correction but neither Charlie Hurt or Griff Jenkins, her co-hosts, said anything.

Twenty-two minutes into the broadcast

Campos-Duffy: Peter earlier I said that the suspect was killed. I should have said he was taken into custody. But when we were laying on the floor, we were informed that the suspect had been killed. And of course, that had been, corrected. He was taken into custody.

Amazingly even though all three of the hosts of Fox & Friends Sunday were at the shooting event none of them seemed to know basic facts about the case.

It’s also astonishing that a producer did not immediately correct Campos-Duffy as she and her co-hosts wear ear prompter devices (IFB Interruptible Foldback) earpieces while on set. Someone from the control room could have altered them at any time that Campos-Duffy misspoke.

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Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This list has been truncated due to space. Source - The PBS News Hour transcripts.

• Last Monday was the first day the businesses can submit refund requests for tariffs paid before the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional two months ago. The website run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection allows the more than 330,000 importers who paid about $166 billion in tariffs to file for refunds with interest. Approved refunds will take 60 to 90 days to be issued. But individual consumers who paid higher prices because of tariffs do not qualify to get their money back. (PBS News Hour)

• The Pentagon unveiled details last week about its $1.5 trillion budget request for the coming fiscal year. About $750 billion would go to what officials are calling presidential priorities, including a Golden Dome missile defense system, A.I. infrastructure and drones. Service members would also get a pay raise, with junior enlisted troops getting a 7% bump. The Pentagon also hopes to grow its force by around 44,000 troops. If approved by Congress, the budget would be the largest in U.S. history when adjusted for inflation. (PBS News Hour)

• The U.S. Supreme Court found that an Army veteran who was injured by a suicide bomb in Afghanistan 10 years ago can sue the government contractor that hired the attacker. Former Army Specialist Winston Hencely was wounded when an Afghan employee blew himself up at Bagram Airfield in 2016, killing five people.

  The decision overturns a lower court ruling that had blocked his lawsuit due to a federal government protection during wartime. (PBS News Hour)

• The Trump administration is reportedly in talks to send hundreds of Afghans who worked with U.S. forces to the Democratic Republic of Congo, rather than bring them to the U.S., as promised. That's according to an advocacy group that says it's been briefed by U.S. officials. These Afghans have been stuck for more than a year on a former U.S. Army base in Qatar after their visa processing was effectively halted. (PBS News Hour)

• A new report highlights the troubling state of the nation's air quality. According to a study from the American Lung Association, more than 150 million people live in areas affected by harmful levels of pollution. That's about one in four Americans. That includes roughly 33 million children who live in areas that failed at least one measure of air pollution. (PBS News Hour)

• In 2025, the Trump administration dissolved the $40 billion U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. Days later, an exemption for "life-saving humanitarian assistance" was issued. But what that included was not specified and aid for health programs has been drastically reduced. PBS included a two-part series that explored how the cuts are negatively affecting the lives of Africans and could help spread HIV across the continent. (PBS News Hour)

• After Democrats won an election in Virginia to redraw congressional maps in their favor, President Trump called it, without evidence, a “rigged election” and “travesty of justice.” It’s the latest example of Trump casting doubt on the U.S. election process. Liz Landers reported on political interference concerns from local election officials as the midterm election season is well underway. (PBS News Hour)

• In 2025, national parks recorded more than 323 million visits, and 26 parks set attendance records. But as the parks gain popularity, the Trump administration has proposed slashing $1 billion from the National Park Service, likely eliminating thousands of jobs from an already understaffed workforce. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Jeff Reinbold of the National Park Foundation. (PBS News Hour)

• The European Union formally approved a loan package for Ukraine last week valued at more than $100 billion. The much-needed funds were announced during a meeting in Cyprus attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

  The loan comes as Russian oil began flowing again to Hungary and Slovakia through a pipeline in Ukraine that had been damaged during the fighting. Hungary had previously blocked the loan. The money will help Ukraine meet its economic and military needs for the next two years. Without it, economists had warned the country would start running out of cash in June. (PBS News Hour)

• The Department of Homeland Security says it has deported more than 675,000 immigrants in the first year of Trump’s second term. Although the administration claims to be targeting violent criminals, others continue to be caught in the crackdown, including some who are protected from deportation. Liz Landers spoke with a woman who was detained, deported, and then allowed to come back to the U.S. (PBS News Hour)

• A federal appeals court ruled last week that President Trump’s executive order banning asylum claims at the U.S. southern border is illegal. The three-judge panel found that immigration law gives people the right to apply for asylum and the president cannot override those procedures. It marks the latest setback to Mr. Trump’s broader immigration crackdown. The administration can now either ask the full appeals court to reconsider the ruling or take its case to the Supreme Court. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers

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That evening a 13-minute edit of the interview aired on CBS. The network also published the full 40-minute version on “60 Minutes Overtime.”

I went through both and made a transcript of exactly what was included and what was cut from the shorter version that aired on network television. The final 13-minute edit that CBS broadcast on Sunday was a bit of a Frankenstein monster as the president was sometimes cut off mid-sentence while other sections were cut and moved around to give the conversation a better flow.

Throughout the longer un-edited interview the president gave disorganized rambling answers that were filled with false statements about foreign investment in the U.S., immigration, and the 2020 election. He also brought up transgender athletes more than once and trashed the Democratic Party and the members of the press.

The president also boasted that he won a $38 million settlement from CBS over his lawsuit regarding the network’s “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, agreed to pay Trump $16 million, not $38 million, the funds going to his future presidential library.

By excessively editing Trump’s answers the network made the president seem far more reasonable and controlled.

How to follow along with this transcript

• The ‘60 Minutes’ introduction and transitions are in italics.

• Portions that aired on CBS are labeled BROADCAST.

• Parts of the interview that were removed are labeled as NOT INCLUDED then presented in a block quote with a blue line on the left of the text.

Instead of moving sections around which would be extremely difficult to follow I kept the 40-minute interview intact while indicating passages that didn’t make the cut for broadcast television.

For my paid subscribers I’ve included a video of the entire interview with the cut portions in black & white along with additional transitions added for the “60 Minutes”broadcast.

The following transcript is free for anyone to read - I placed the paywall at the very bottom of the article. This took me hour to put together so if you can afford to become a paid subscriber your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

60 Minutes - Intro (Voice-over by O’Donnell)

Last night in the nation’s capital, a gunman stormed the security perimeter at the white House Correspondents Dinner. The president, the first lady, the vice president, cabinet members and more than 2500 guests were gathered to celebrate the First Amendment and freedom of the press. But after shots were fired, the president was evacuated. It was at the same hotel where President Ronald Reagan was nearly assassinated by John Hinckley 45 years ago.

Tonight, federal investigators are looking into the motive of the alleged gunman, a 31-year-old teacher from Torrance, California. He emailed what a senior official called a manifesto to his family. Minutes before the attack, he wrote he was targeting members of the Trump administration. We spoke with President Trump this afternoon at the White House about what happened.

NOT INCLUDED

O’Donnell: Mr. president, thank you for doing this. Thank you. I’m glad you are safe. I am glad that everyone is safe. How are you doing?

Trump: I’m doing well. It was quite an evening. It was a very difficult thing to watch, frankly, but, doing very well.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: Mr. president, do you know if you were the target of the gunman?

Trump: I don’t know. It sounded to me. I read a manifesto that says he’s radicalized. He was a Christian, a believer, and then he became an anti-Christian. And he had a lot of change. He’s been going through a lot based on what he wrote. His brother complained about him, and I think we reported him to the police. And his sister likewise complained about him. His family was very concerned. He was probably a pretty sick guy.

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NOT INCLUDED

O’Donnell: I want to get to all of those details and also walk through this. What happened last night. But first this appears to be the third attempted assassination on your life, the first in Butler. The second, of course, on the golf course in Florida. Why do you think so many people may be trying to kill you?

Trump: So, I’ve said it and I’ve said it numerous times, and I actually, because of the position I’m in, I’ve done quite a bit of research into the word assassination. Terrible word. And they go after consequential presidents. They go after presidents that, do things. If you look at what I’ve done, we’ve turned this country around. We’ve taken a country that was actually a dead country. It was dying very rapidly, and it’s the hottest country anywhere in the world. We had a skirmish, a war, whatever you want to call it. With Venezuela, we won that very decisively. And we now have a great relationship with Venezuela. And it’s been a very profitable relationship. And we’re in Iran right now. Other presidents should have done it, but they never chose to do it. They should have. They made a terrible mistake by not doing it. It’s tougher now than it would have been ten years ago or even five years ago because, you know, thousands and thousands of missiles and everything else. And we didn’t do the B-2 bomber attack. That alone was a big deal. The killing of Soleimani, which I did in my first term, was a big deal. But when you’re a consequential when you do things, a lot of things and things that work out very well for our country. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, McKinley was assassinated. McKinley made the country very rich. People don’t realize it. Then Teddy Roosevelt went out and spent the money that was made by McKinley. But it was very consequential, actually. But he was assassinated. So,

O’Donnell: You mentioned, Mr. President, consequential. And your policies are also controversial. Is that part of it?

Trump: Well, I don’t think that way. I don’t think in terms of what they are. I just think of what they are for the country. For instance, I inherited the worst border we’ve ever had in the history of a country where 25 million people came in, 25 million people at least, and many of them were from hardcore criminals, and they were drug dealers, and they were from prisons. They emptied our prisons into our country. They have, mental institutions, insane asylums into our country. And I don’t know if that’s controversial to say we have to move those people out, but we have and but it is from the standpoint you’re doing something and you’re doing something that’s good. Things like, men playing in women’s sports, I’m against it. Things like transgender for everyone. I’m against that. There’s so many things that I’m against. I don’t think they’re controversial. I think the other side is controversial, but I do a lot of things and I get things done. And, you know, we’re respected now as a country all over the world. And some people love that, but some people probably don’t.

O’Donnell: Mr. president, I’m sure you’ve now had the opportunity to see some of the pictures of what happened last night, and I want to walk through that. It was just around 8:30 p.m..

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: You are sitting there next to the first lady. The entertainer named Oz Pearlman is talking to you is known as The Mentalist. When did you know something was wrong?

Trump: Right around that point, in fact, you can see the expression on the first lady’s face and your president of the evening, chairman or president or both, who is doing a great job.

O’Donnell: Weijia Jiang, CBS News.

Trump: Yeah, who’s a terrific person. And she was, you know, she had this big smile. I mean, they were, you know, they were talking. They were asking the name of Karoline’s child that he, didn’t know, I guess he.

O’Donnell: Your press secretary’s expecting, and he was trying to guess the baby’s name.

Trump: That’s right.

NOT INCLUDED

Trump: And that was the question. That was what? He. And he was actually able to get it. I’m not sure I’m a believer in this, but he was able to get it. And, the, first lady and your associate were amazed you could see the

O’Donnell: Shock on their faces.

Trump: It wasn’t the shock about something outside, but right after that, we heard a big bang, and it was either a gunshot or it was a, tray of dishes, which happens a lot in ballrooms. And I was hoping it was a tray, but it wasn’t.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: You mentioned the first lady. Her face. She looked very alarmed. Was she scared?

Trump: Well, I don’t want to say. And people don’t like having it said that they were scared. But certainly. I mean, who wouldn’t be when you have a situation like that? By that time, I think she realized ahead of time that that was more of a bullet than it was a tray. And she was, I looked at her face just a little while ago, before I came. I saw the scene. They played it for me and, you know, pretty good close up and she looked very upset about what just took place. Yeah. Why not?

O’Donnell: You see the security moving quickly within seconds, grabbing the vice president by his coat, lifting him up, bringing him out. Then the counter assault comes in. Took 10 seconds for them to flank you, Mr. President, and then 20 seconds to get you out. It looked chaotic. At one point you were down. What was happening?

Trump: Well, what happened is it was a little bit me. I wanted to see what was happening and I wasn’t making it that easy for him. I wanted to see what was going on. And by that time, we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem, different kind of a problem. Bad one and different than what would be normal noise from a ballroom, which you hear all the time. And, I was surrounded by great people, and I probably made them act a little bit more slowly. I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me see. Wait a minute. So, you know, I’m telling.

O’Donnell: Just at that moment where it looks like you go sort of down with your telling him to wait.

Trump: No, you know what happened is then I started walking with him. I turned, I started walking and that’s it. Please go down. Please go down on the floor. So, I went down and First lady went down also. But we were asked to go down by the agents as I was walking. In other words.

O’Donnell: They wanted you almost to crawl out.

Trump: I was standing up. Pretty much. I was standing up and then turn around the opposite direction and started pretty much walking out pretty tall, a little bent over. Because, you know, I’m not looking to be standing too tall. And, but I was walking out pretty about halfway there and they said, please go down to the floor, please go down to the floor. So, I dropped to the floor. So did the first lady.

O’Donnell: What was your thought at that moment? What did the First lady say?

Trump: Well, my thought was, you know, I’ve been through this before a couple of times, and, she has not to this extent. She handled it great. I mean, she was she’s a very strong, smart. She got it. She knew what was happening. She listened. I did too, but.

O’Donnell: Because this was the first time when.

Trump: They said, you know, when they said drop down, that meant a trouble. And obviously, I’m the president and I listen to what they said. Please drop down, sir. Please drop down. So, I was walking halfway and then I dropped down at the final because we had a little ways to go. When you’re exposed to the ballroom surroundings. And, then I got up and we went to a hold room for a while, and I tried to get them to continue the event, if possible.

O’Donnell: You wanted to go back in?

Trump: I did, I really did.

NOT INCLUDED

Trump: because I don’t like to have a criminal or sick person or somebody. Whoever he is, you’ll figure it out. I mean, I think we’re already figuring out he’s a man with a lot of problems, but you don’t want to have somebody like this, you know, essentially attacking our constitution, attacking our country, changing events that are, you know, it’s an important event.

O’Donnell: It was a very a night celebrating the First Amendment and the freedom of the press.

Trump: Exactly. And, and this was a big this is a record setter, and this was a very big and that dinner had some problems for the last nine years and now and I didn’t help them. And this time I went and I felt really good being that there was a great camaraderie, I wasn’t sure what the response was. You know, a lot of press, a lot of media. And when I walked in, I got a very nice applause. I wasn’t sure. I said, you know, I told my wife, I said, you know, I may walk in and they may give me a hard time, or I may walk and let’s see what happens. And I walked in and got very nice. Very I think they were happy to see me there, actually. And I can tell you there there’s the biggest impact that I saw in the entire evening was, and I say this being somebody that’s had a lot of, well, let’s say we’ve argued a little bit to get things that I want done. I fight for a border, and they fight for an open border. And, you know, we have a lot of a lot of differences.

O’Donnell: You’ve got some tough words for the press in the back.

Trump: That was tremendous. By this time the event had taken place. People were starting to feel safe. There was tremendous camaraderie. And saw Democrats, I saw senators, I saw congressmen and women. I saw people that weren’t necessarily on my side from the other party. Mostly. Pretty much the Republicans are on my side. So, I’m not that surprised you know, and they were going way to go. There was spirit in that room. I mean, it was like the whole country was together. It was pretty amazing. It made a big impression. It was very nice to see.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: Do you think this will change your relationship with the press?

Trump: Well, look, for whatever reason, we disagree on a lot of subjects. We talk about crime. I’m very strong on crime. It seems like the press isn’t, It’s not so much the press it’s the press plus the Democrats, because they’re almost one and the same. It’s like the craziest thing. I have the strongest border we’ve ever had in the country, where, as you know, it’s said zero people for nine months came into our country, to our southern border. We have a very tough border.

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NOT INCLUDED

Trump: Before me, 25 million people came in. I mean, whether it’s 20 or 25 or 30, but they say 25 million people came in zero people. We have people coming in legally.

O’Donnell: Can I ask you something? You said…

Trump: The other side doesn’t like that. There are things that I like that I think are very standard. I want a women to be able to play women. I don’t want men in women sports. And for whatever reason, the other side likes men and women sports. So, when you say get along.

O’Donnell: But that’s the other side it’s not the press.

Trump: I don’t think I could change, but I don’t think I could ever change my feelings on certain policies. I want strong borders. They want open borders. There’s such a difference.

O’Donnell: Can I ask you Mr..

Trump: I will say this, though, after the event, meaning it looked like things were good. They we knew he was caught. I was given the information immediately. There was a camaraderie that you just have not seen in a while. It’s very nice to see.

O’Donnell: The president. You, Mr. President, the vice president, the speaker of the House, the secretary of State, Secretary Hegseth almost the entire line of presidential succession, you know, was in that ballroom. Who was the designated survivor?

Trump: Well, first of all, I have to say it’s not a safe ballroom. I’m building a safe ballroom. And one of the reasons I’m building it is exactly what happened last night. We’re building a room right there. If you walk out and move 20 yards to the left, you’ll be right at the entrance to the ballroom. And that was being built on the safest piece of property in this country. Probably one of the safest pieces of land in the world. We have.

O’Donnell: But that’s owned. That’s the White House, the White House Correspondents Dinner can’t use White House property.

Trump: It’s able to be used by certainly the White House. It says the White House correspondents. Well, that’s the White House press. I’m sure that it’s available. You know, it’s up to the president. But that would be a made available. And this has bulletproof glass. This has you know, this is the highest level of security. Also, very importantly, I could have built suites on top. I could have done a lot of things. I said, no, no, we have this has to be pure. This has to be where people stay off property and they go through one very impactful, very strong entrance, one very powerful entrance. There’s no games with this. This is the best, highest. This has all sorts of, security equipment at levels that you could never have in a regular ballroom. And we’re ahead of schedule. We’re right on budget, ahead of schedule. I wish it could be even sooner, but we’re, you know, months ahead of schedule, but it doesn’t open till 2028. So, you know, that means you have another season and a half to go.

O’Donnell: Right?

Trump: But, this is exactly why the military, and this is exactly why Secret Service and all law enforcement want it. Because you have maybe a thousand hotel rooms above the ballroom we were in last night, and I’m not knocking it. I’m just saying in terms of maximum security, it’s not the best thing you can do it, but you can have problems like this. They have an elevator that comes down from the rooms. It’s very close to the ballroom. Yeah. Which makes sense.

O’Donnell: Yes.

Trump: So I want. To know we’re doing something that’s going to have a tremendous impact on solving this problem.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: In that video you can see the gunman running through the metal detectors, and he fired off 1 or 2 rounds.

Trump: The speed was rather incredible, actually. It was it was like a blur.

O’Donnell: How did he get that close with the place swarming with security?

Trump: I will say I say it because I’m a big fan of the people of law enforcement. And, you know, some of these people, they may be crazy, but they’re not stupid and they figure things out. He ran 45 yards, they say, and he just went to it and then boom, he popped through it.

NOT INCLUDED

Trump: A thing like that could happen. I would say this having the equipment on the outside of the building maybe is better than having it on the inside of the building. Sometimes that’s tough, sometimes it’s horrendous weather, sometimes it’s pouring, it’s raining and lots of things happen, but maybe last night was actually quite nice. The weather was beautiful, so maybe something like that has to take place. I can only say that from the moment they realized that he was,

BROADCAST

Trump: I mean, he ran like, I think the NFL should sign him up. He was fast. When you look at it and it’s almost like a blur, right? But it was amazing because as soon as they saw that, you could see them draw their guns. They were so professional, aim their guns, and then they took them down immediately.

NOT INCLUDED

Trump: The doors were sealed, the room was sealed, the ballroom itself, where the people were. And, they really, they really. I think they did a great job.

60 Minutes Transition (Voiceover O’Donnell)

O’Donnell: Two hours later, the president was back at the white House to brief reporters.

Media Clip from press conference at White House

Trump: I saw a room that was totally unified. It was in one way very beautiful.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: I was in the room not far from you. Mr. president could hear what sounded like gunshots or commotion. People nearby could smell the gunpowder. Everybody hit the floor. There were a number of people who were very, very scared. Yeah. How worried were you that there were going to be injuries?

Trump: I wasn’t worried, I understand life, we live in a crazy world.

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NOT INCLUDED

Trump: You can really enhance your chances of having a perfect situation, but sometimes things will happen. I did want to see what was happening, because, as you know, the president, in one way, I guess I should be hiding in another way. I want to see if I can be helpful. But I did watch because I could see what was going on at the door. I also saw a lot of very strong, physically strong, really attractive law enforcement people come through those doors. And frankly, it made me feel very safe. Very, very safe. Was nobody going to get by them? And this was at the very back of the ballroom looking at the back of the room.

O’Donnell: The counter assault team that comes in.

Trump: In, they were very impressive. I think they were very impressive. I think the whole operation was very impressive. The only thing you could say is maybe they could move that counter point out deeper. In other words, move it to the outside of the building.

O’Donnell: Let’s talk about that. Mr. president, I wonder how much has the Secret Service and the FBI briefed you about this suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, have you read what a senior U.S. official is describing to us as a manifesto?

Trump: Yeah.

O’Donnell: Did you know that he emailed it to family members?

Trump: We found all of that out this morning.

O’Donnell: Right before the attack?

Trump: Yeah, we found that out this morning. And the family members were concerned. I think the brother called up the police. I think the sister may have called the police. The parents were rather devastated. He lived with the parents. I saw the parents last night on television opening the door. I assume that was his parents. Look, you have sick people, and you have to mitigate the risk. But some of these sick people, it’s amazing. Some of the. They’re very sick, but they’re also, in some cases, very, very smart. He went to grade school, I can tell you, the person in Butler, I don’t know if you ever looked at his academic credentials. He had almost 1600 on his College Board’s 1600. Nobody has. I mean, it’s the upper 99.9 percentile or something. And he was a crazy person, but a smart, crazy person, I think the law enforcement did a great job last night.

O’Donnell: Let me ask you this.

Trump: I guess if they didn’t, I wouldn’t be here. But I think they really did a great job. Now, can you make adjustments? And we’re also learning. Can you make adjustments? I think the only adjustment would be you move your security equipment further away. But it was it was about 50 yards away, 50 yards, a lot of yards. Now when a guy is running at that speed, he was a very fast person. And he got him by a little bit by surprise. But that didn’t matter because he was totally subdued very shortly after he passed that one point.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive in it. He writes this quote, administration officials, they are targets. And he also wrote this. I’m no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What’s your reaction to that?

Trump: Well, I was waiting for you to read that? Because I knew you would. Because you’re you’re you’re horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that, I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.

O’Donnell: Oh, do you think He was referring to you?

Trump: Excuse me. I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person. I got associated with, well, stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate, the ones that were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things. But I said to myself, you know, I’ll do this interview and they’ll probably. I read the manifesto, you know, as a sick person, but you should be ashamed of yourself reading that, because I’m not any of those things,

O’Donnell: Mr. President, these were the gunman’s words.

Trump: I was never again excuse me. You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace. But go ahead, let’s finish the interview.

O’Donnell: The other thing that he wrote.

Trump: You’re disgraceful.

O’Donnell: The other thing in the manifesto that I think is worth looking at in terms of determining his motive, is he had been staying at the hotel since Friday. He checked and he said he had cased the place and he wrote, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? And he wrote this quote, I expected security cameras at every been bugged, hotel rooms, armed agents every ten feet, metal detectors out the wazoo.What I got is nothing, he wrote. Like this level of incompetence is insane. Sir, you have already had two attempted.

Trump: Well, he was pretty incompetent too because he got caught and he got caught pretty easily, so I’d say he was pretty incompetent, too. You know, I can take any event having to do with security or anything else. I can always find fault

NOT INCLUDED

Trump: No matter what. I can take a baseball team that won the game 18 to nothing and say they should have played better.

BROADCAST

Trump: Those guys did a good job last night. They did a really good job.

NOT INCLUDED

Trump: Now do they make adjustments? They do. They learn. They make adjustments. We’re living in a different world with the internet than we had, years ago. But even years ago, it was very dangerous. I mean, just ask honest Abe Lincoln pretty dangerous. And, but we are living a very, you know, the internet, I think maybe more than anything else, it’s radicalized some people, it’s made people mentally sick. It’s also a great thing. It’s a phenomenal thing with a leader in it. We had with a leader in AI it’s a great thing, but you’ll always find problems. But it’s a different, it’s a different age. It’s a very different. It’s a very different time.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: I mention that because again, as his motive, you brought this up, he had social media accounts that had anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric.

Trump: You should read. Why don’t you read all the anti-Trump? Why don’t you read it. You just did so why don’t you read it?

O’Donnell: Well, he had a lot of anti-Christian rhetoric. He had he was part of a group called the Wide Awakes. He had attended a No Kings protest in California in

Trump: No Kings.

O’Donnell: What did security tell you about what may have been his motive?

Trump: Well the you see the reason you have people like that is you have people doing ‘No Kings’. I’m not a king. What am I, if I was a king, I wouldn’t be dealing with you.

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Trump: You know I’m not a king, I get it, I don’t laugh, I don’t, I, I see these No Kings which are funded just like the southern law was funded. You all that southern laws, financing the KKK and lots of other radical, terrible groups. And then they go out and they say, oh, we’ve got to stop the KKK. And yet they give them hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. They work. It’s a total scam run by the Democrats. It shows you that, like Charlottesville, Charlottesville was all funded by the southern law. That was a southern law deal, too. And it was done to make me look bad. And it turned out to be a total fake. It basically was, a rigged election. This was a part of the rigging of the election. And that’s what you really should be doing. I mean, I hope one of your ‘60 Minute’ episodes, which really hasn’t changed very much for the last few years, I’m surprised. But one of those episodes should be on southern law, and the fact that they spent millions and millions of dollars on absolute far right and just bad, bad groups, and then they’d use those groups and they’d say, these are Republican groups, and we’re coming to your rescue, and they’re the ones that have funded it, and they’re the ones that kept them, keep them going. Pretty sad. Do you think it’s pretty sad Norah?

O’Donnell: The allegations and the indictment.

Trump: There’re not just allegations.

O’Donnell: But it’s an indictment.

Trump: These facts okay. These are facts. I mean, they have checks to the two Klux Klan and many others, and then they’re saying how bad they are and blaming the Republican Party and Republicans. These are not just allegations, but go ahead.

O’Donnell: Well as you know sir, you’ve been accused of things and were able to go to a court of law and adjudicate them.

Trump: So yeah, it’s after five years. It’s it’s it takes you about five years.

O’Donnell: I do want to talk about that also.

Trump: I’ve also won a lot of money from fake news media where they write falsely about me. And not that I want to sue people because I don’t. But I bring lawsuits against the fake news and brought lawsuits against your network, and you paid me $38 million because you did something that was so horrible with Kamala. You put an answer down that wasn’t responsive to the question because her answer, her real answer was so bad, it was election threatening. And you paid me a lot of money, and you tried to pull one off. It was terrible. It was a terrible thing that you did. And you know, when you say, can we all get along? You can. But when people do things like that, or how about the BBC where the BBC has me? Actually, AI, they had me saying a horrible statement and I said, I never said that. It turned out they gave me AI and little AI treatment where they have my lips speaking words of hate. Tremendous hate that I never said they don’t know what to do. They’ve admitted they’re wrong. They just don’t know what to do. They actually have me making a major statement. And it wasn’t me. It was my face. It was my lips. My lips were perfectly in sync with the words I said. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. So

O’Donnell: I hear you Mr. President.

Trump: So then when you say, can you get along? I can get along with anybody. But if people are going to cheat, if people are going to be fake, you sort of don’t want to get along.

O’Donnell: On that. What do you say to people who are encouraging political violence or even cheering it on?

Trump: Well, I think the ones that are doing that are much more far left than far right, much more. When you see again, southern law, when you see some of the statements that are made there. So even when you say No Kings, that’s, that’s encouraging. You’re saying one of the things this guy said in his manifesto, what you didn’t read, you should have, is that he attended a No Kings rally along with not too many people, and probably it had an impact. You know, they get up and they say whatever they want. No, I’m against it. I think it’s terrible.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: Also at the dinner last night was your secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. His sister Kerry Kennedy was there. They’ve both witnessed their father and their uncle be assassinated.

Trump: Right.

O’Donnell: Erica Kirk was there. The House majority leader, Steve Scalise was there. Yeah. Political violence has touched so many people in that room. Is there something that you as president can do? What can be done to change the trajectory?

Trump: Well, you know. You go back 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, 200 years, 500 years. It’s always been there. People are assassinated, people are injured, people are hurt. And I’m not sure that any more now than there was. I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats, much more so is is very dangerous. I really think it’s very dangerous for the country.

60 Minutes Transition (Voiceover O’Donnell)

O’Donnell: President Trump told us he hopes to move events like last night’s press gala to the new East Wing ballroom that he says is ahead of schedule although it won’t be ready until 2028. But he wants last night dinner to be rescheduled much sooner than that.

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Trump: I think the fact that I’ve accomplished so much, I’ve made our country great again. I made this country was dead. Our country was dead a year and a half ago. Sleepy Joe Biden had no idea what he was doing. I don’t think it was him either. I think it was the people that surround the surround him in the Oval Office at the beautiful Resolute Desk. I don’t think he knew what he was doing. He didn’t sign anything. He used the autopen to sign 90% of the things. I think that they engendered. I mean, they really created a tremendous amount of anger and hate. Our country was dead, and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Nope. Not even close.

O’Donnell: Last night,

Trump: As an example, investments in our country for four years, less than $1 trillion under Biden in 11 months. $18 trillion under Trump. Now, most people are happy about that. But some people are really angry about it. You know why? Because it means we should be around for a long time, and they don’t want that to happen.

O’Donnell: Last night you had a very much a tone of of unity when you were in the White House press briefing room.

Trump: I think so, yeah. I think, I really felt very calm. I feel very calm, and I feel very calm right now, other than a couple of your questions, which are meant to antagonize and totally inappropriate, but I feel very calm. I thought last night was a very important thing to do. And, people have said it was I did it wll not an easy thing to do. You know, you leave a scene like that, and then you’re supposed to let our country and even the world know that it’s going to be okay.

O’Donnell: And what about when we talking about the division in this country, the political violence? Now, many of your cabinet secretaries live on military bases. Yeah. In order to because of the potential threats against them.

Trump: Well, they choose to I’m not sure that, they need to they also have nice places. You know, Democrats did the same thing. Some of the housing on the military bases is very nice. I’m not sure they do it necessarily for violence, but probably this it’s not the worst thing in the world. Look, they’re they’re doing we are consequential. This is a consequential presidency. I have a great Cabinet, and they do things that are very good. But some people, you know, if they’re good for us and not good for other people, like, as an example, Iran, when they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, they will not have they’re not going to blow up the world. They’re crazy. They’re not going to blow up the world, and therefore they’re not happy. And when they’re not happy, people do things that are violent. Now, I’m not tracing anything back to them, but certainly if they had a shot, they’d probably take it. So, when you’re a consequential president or if you have a consequential administration, things happen. That wouldn’t happen if you’re sleepy Joe Biden. Everyone was happy with Biden. The world was happy with Biden. They were happy because they were taking advantage of us, because they treated the United States like we were stupid people, and they made a lot of money. But they don’t do that anymore.

O’Donnell: Last night was going to be your first attendance at the white House Correspondents Dinner as president.

Trump: That’s right. And I was looking forward to making a speech. And would have been a lot different had I gone up and had I stayed. It was very interesting because I said, I can’t make this wish I was going to do it pretty.

O’Donnell: Tell me.

Trump: Rip roaring. I won’t go into the total details, but no, I was going to hit people really hard with humor. No, it’s really hard with humor. And I thought it was good when this happened and I wanted it to go forward because I just didn’t want it canceled by a crazy person. Our country’s too good for that. Our country’s too important for that and too powerful for that. I didn’t want that to happen, but I said, and I thought it would go up. I was expecting until the last moment when the military came and Secret Service and law enforcement.

O’Donnell: Why did they say you couldn’t go back? When you were saying, I want to go back.

Trump: Because we had a very sealed room. It’s very airtight. Once the doors opened and the Secret Service, military, others came in, the police came into law enforcement. They came in a lot of them. We had a lot of law enforcement, and it was a wall, but the doors were open. It was breached by them. If somebody happened to slip in and when they said that, I said, you’re right. But I did want to go. But it would have been a much different speech. I would have had to just get up and say, I love you all. And there was love in the room. It was amazing. There was love in the room.

O’Donnell: And why do you think that is? Why do you think that the tone changed?

Trump: People came together, Democrats did. The Democrats that truly can’t stand me were saying, sir, could I just shake your hand? I mean, I’m, I’m leaving and I’m seeing people, you know, high level people. And they’re saying, sir, great job, sir. Could one of them I don’t he probably have it on tape someplace. One of them, could I hug you? A big politician on the other side, there was love. It just all came together. It was very amazing to see. It was a very beautiful thing and a non-beautiful moment really. But it was a very beautiful thing that was happening.

O’Donnell: I hesitate to ask you about this, but as you know, these conspiracy theories out there on the left and the right, that the event was staged or that it didn’t happen.

Trump: What last night, didn’t.

O’Donnell: That, yeah, that it was because it was your first time there or that Butler didn’t happen. These conspiracy theories that are gaining traction on the internet.

Trump: And October 7th didn’t happen, and World War Two didn’t happen, and the Holocaust didn’t happen and many things didn’t happen. Yeah. No, I hear it. I don’t know, I think they’re more sick than they are con people. But it is a lot of con in it too. I haven’t heard that last night didn’t happen. What usually takes a little bit longer.

O’Donnell: Yeah.

Trump: Usually, they wait about two or three months to start saying that.

O’Donnell: I think that it was. I think that and forgive me, I’m not I don’t peddle in that stuff or certainly look at it because I was there. But the idea I’m wondering where this is coming from?

Trump: I think this is going to be a tough, I think, going to be a tough sell.

O’Donnell: Yeah. Secret Service now is currently meeting as they always do, to discuss your security footprint. The king is coming here. King of England.

Trump: I think it’s great. He’ll be very safe.

O’Donnell: Yeah, yeah. And you know, you’re going to be able to go go forward. You’re no no concerns of security going forward.

Trump: The White House grounds are really safe. This area of not very many acres. It’s really safe. And he’ll be staying here now. I believe he’s going to a couple of other locations because he’s here for a few days and he’s a great guy. Oh, they called and they are so looking forward to being here. We spoke this morning.

O’Donnell: So, he the the king is fine. He’s still coming the week your your events are still going forward.

Trump: He’s a good he’s a good person.

O’Donnell: There’s no indication from the Secret Service or the FBI that there’s an additional threat to you or other administration officials?

Trump: This was a lone wolf, in my opinion. We may find out something else. This is a sick lone wolf. He’s a sicko. And, very disturbed person. You can see it with his, journey through life in the news. And Christian, he was a, a member of the Christian club at his college, Caltech, which is a good college. I’m sure they’re very embarrassed by this because, you know, it’s a great college. So, I mean, he’s pretty smart to be in and get it. Got to get pretty good marks. Going to get pretty good board scores to hard school to get into. So, he’s a smart guy, but he’s a sick guy. Yeah. That’s the problem. I mean it would be a lot easier if they weren’t smart. Some of them are very smart. And they go around and all they want to do is kill people. They’re sick, and they have to be put away.

O’Donnell: I understand today’s the first lady’s birthday. Is that right?

Trump: Today’s her birthday that’s right. Happy birthday. Happy birthday Melania. It’s. It is.

O’Donnell: How do you deal with that witnessed after what happened last night?

Trump: Yeah. By the time we get back here, it’s like around 12:00. And I said, happy birthday, darling.

O’Donnell: And you were back here in the White House. I understand in five minutes.

Trump: Well, they they move fast.

O’Donnell: Yeah.

Trump: Yeah. I mean, look, it’s a pretty quick drive. It’s not very far away. But think of it. The security of having this really perfect facility built at the highest, highest security levels on the grounds where you’re not taking. I’m talking about any president, by the way. Other presidents would use the ballroom a lot more than me. I’m going to have 4 or 5 months left, but other presidents will be having having the the you know, that tremendous asset is going to be so great. But outside of that is dangerous. You know, you need tremendous then you could never build. You can’t have thousands of rooms on top of a ballroom and have security, real security. Now with that being said, I hope they do this event again and I hope they do it again soon.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: And you are committed to doing this event with the White House correspondents Dinner. It’s about freedom of the press.

Trump: I want them because I don’t want to see it be canceled. I don’t want to have a crazy person. I think it’s really bad for a crazy person to be able to cancel something like this.

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Trump: You know, I remember with a certain event that took place, I don’t even like mentioning it where they had sports games going on and it was a big decision. Do we cancel the games or do we not? And when you cancel, you’re sort of playing right into the hands of these nutjobs and they are the really sick people I don’t want to have, an event like that. It was a great event. That was an event. So, I refused to do it the first four years because I felt the press treated me very unfairly. I had a right not to do it. I didn’t do it. And the thing died. It was dying. And I even though the press treated me pretty badly, it’s hard to treat me. Look, I won the election, you know, people are fighting me. Everybody. Not everybody. That’s. I have

BROADCAST

Trump: a there are great people in the press, too. I can name, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to embarrass you your show we have some great people in the press, some very fair people and people that are just on my side. But for the most part, it’s a very liberal, a very progressive. Let’s use the word Lou, a liberal press. But I was just really, I was really happy to see the, the I don’t know how long it last, the relationship, the friendship, the spirit after a very bad event took place. Now the event turned out to be much less bad because nobody was killed, nobody was hurt. The Secret Service agent, I spoke to him. He had a bulletproof vest on. Unbelievable.

O’Donnell: He’s okay.

Trump: He’s 100%. Yeah. No, he was 100%. He didn’t want to go to the hospital. He really didn’t. They asked him to go, and he didn’t want to go. He said, I don’t need to go to the hospital. But he went because they asked him to go.

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Trump: I would have said to tell him that if he doesn’t want to go, what do you force him to go for? Because then the press will say, oh, he was badly hurt. No, he didn’t want to go to the hospital, and they forced him to go. And I’m not saying they’re wrong, but I would have said, if he doesn’t want to go, don’t make him go.

BROADCAST

O’Donnell: Well, I know the White House Correspondents Association very much appreciate you going last night and honoring a commitment to do it.

Trump: I hope we’re. Going to do it again, Norah. Tell them to get it going, and we should do it within 30 days, and they’ll have even more security, and they’ll have bigger perimeter security. It’ll be fine. But tell him to do it again. We can’t let something. It’s not that I want to go. It’s. I am very busy. I don’t need that. I think it’s very important that they do it again.

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Well, thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very Much.

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As part of the tradition of Decoding Fox News I watched the entire hearing and broke it down so you don’t have to.

I’ve included select portions of the hearing and summarized longer sections to make this easier to consume.

List of witnesses:

• Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence

• John Ratcliffe, Director of the CIA

• Kash Patel, Director of the FBI

• William J. Hartman Acting Commander, U.S. Cyber Command; Performing Duties of Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service

• James H. Adams III Director, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) - Opening Statement (summary)

Cotton praised cabinet members and military leaders on the panel at length along with President Donald J. Trump. He also focused on reforming the intelligence community.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) - Opening Statement (summary)

Warner thanked members of the intelligence community for their important work. He also spoke about the integrity of elections and foreign interference. The Trump administration shutdown programs and departments meant to battle foreign influence in U.S. elections.

Warner also brought up the FBI raid of Fulton County over debunked conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election. The CIA is not supposed to be involved in domestic law enforcement. Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, was part of the FBI seizure of ballots from Fulton County, Georgia.

He also spoke about Trump’s war of choice with Iran along with corruption and misconduct by leaders appointed by Trump in the intelligence community.

Tulsi Gabbard Director of National Intelligence - Opening Statement (summary)

Gabbard praised Trump for his policies on the southern border and a reduction of overdose deaths from fentanyl. The decrease in overdose deaths started during the Biden administration. She also discussed various drug cartels in Central and South America.

Gabbard spoke about Islamist ideology and extremist groups. She then promoted the idea of sleeper cells and the threat of an attack by undocumented immigrants.

Gabbard’s Statement about the Nuclear Threat to the United States

Gabbard: The United States secure nuclear deterrent continues to ensure safety in the homeland against strategic threats. However, the intelligence community assesses that Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Pakistan have been researching and developing an array of novel, advanced or traditional missile delivery systems with nuclear and conventional payloads that put our homeland within range. The IC (Intelligence Community) assesses that threats to the homeland will expand collectively to more than 16,000 missiles by 2035. From the current assessed figure of more than 3000 missiles. The IC assesses excesses that China and Russia are developing advanced delivery systems meant to be capable of penetrating or bypassing U.S. missile defenses. North Korea’s ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) can already reach U.S. soil and the IC assesses that it is committed to expanding its nuclear arsenal. Pakistan’s long range ballistic missile development potentially could include ICBMs with a range capable of striking the homeland. The IC assesses that Iran has previously demonstrated, space launch, and other technology it could use to begin to develop a militarily viable ICBM before 2035. Should Tehran attempt to pursue that capability, however, these assessments will clearly be updated as the full impact of Operation Epic Fury’s devastating strikes on Iran’s missile production facilities, stockpiles and launch capabilities is determined. These nations collectively will likely seek to understand U.S. plans for advanced missile defense for the homeland, probably for the purpose of shaping their own missile development programs and assessing U.S. intentions regarding deterrence.

Gabbard just said that by her department’s assessment Iran wouldn’t have the capability to hit the U.S. with a nuclear weapon sometime before 2035. Her statement undermined the president’s claims about Iran’s threat to the U.S.

This is her exact language - The IC assesses that Iran has previously demonstrated, space launch, and other technology it could use to begin to develop a militarily viable ICBM before 2035.

Gabbard also spoke about cybersecurity and the threat of AI along with Russia and China’s ambitions to dominate the Arctic region. She also discussed potential problems with Central and South America as well as China’s threats to Taiwan. She also explored the ongoing threat North Korea poses to its neighbors and the U.S. along with the friendly relationship between Russia, Iran and North Korea.

I’ve included Gabbard’s statement about Russia since Trump seems to have an affection for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gabbard has also been a bit of a fan of Russia so this statement was somewhat surprising.

Gabbard: Russia retains the capability to selectively challenge U.S. interests globally by military and nonmilitary means. The IC assesses is that the most dangerous threat posed by Russia to the U.S. is the potential of an escalatory spiral in an ongoing conflict, such as Ukraine, or a new conflict that led to direct hostilities, including the potential deployment of nuclear weapons. The IC assesses that Putin continues to invest in Russia’s defense industrial base, as well as novel capabilities that may pose a greater threat to the U.S. homeland and forces abroad than conventional weapons. Russia has advanced systems, hypersonic missiles, and undersea capabilities designed to negate U.S. military advantage. Moscow also relies on other tools to exert pressure, using gray zone tactics to further its goals and compete below the level of armed conflict. Russia is also building an extensive counter space capabilities to contest U.S. space dominance. Its development of a nuclear counter space weapon poses the greatest single threat to the world’s space architecture. During the past year, the IC assesses that Russia has maintained the upper hand in the war against Ukraine, U.S. led negotiations between Moscow and Kiev are ongoing until such an agreement is met. Moscow is likely to continue fighting a slow war of attrition until they view their objectives have been achieved.

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As Trump manipulates the financial markets and lies about phantom agreements with the Iranian regime Fox News folds and twists itself into complex knots of fabricated nonsense to justify the incredibly unpopular conflict in the Middle East.

The man cost the network $787.5 million in a defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems after Fox News knowingly promoted false stories about the 2020 election. Despite the enormous payout it is still profitable to follow the mad king off a cliff.

Everything Trump says is taken on good faith. Every public relations fiasco he makes is embraced and celebrated.

If Trump attacks, the head of a church that includes at least one in five Americans, Fox will champion the president’s blunder. When the President seemingly invents peace agreements from thin air Fox News never questions it.

The corporate leadership at Fox News knows its job - back the president no matter what he says or does until the network starts losing money.

As Trump manipulates the financial markets and lies about phantom agreements with the Iranian regime Fox News folds and twists itself into complex knots of fabricated nonsense to justify the incredibly unpopular conflict in the Middle East.

The man cost the network $787.5 million in a defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems after Fox News knowingly promoted false stories about the 2020 election. Despite the enormous payout it is still profitable to follow the mad king off a cliff.

Everything Trump says is taken on good faith. Every public relations fiasco he makes is embraced and celebrated.

If Trump attacks, the head of a church that includes at least one in five Americans, Fox will champion the president’s blunder. When the President seemingly invents peace agreements from thin air Fox News never questions it.

The corporate leadership at Fox News knows its job - back the president no matter what he says or does until the network starts losing money.

Shows I covered on Fox News last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• Hannity

• Trump media appearances and press conferences

On Monday - Trump was a Brilliant Strategist

At the start of the week on Fox & Friends the president was portrayed as a master military strategist.

The president’s decision to attend sporting events were seen as an act of defiance not misplaced priorities.

“So it was a brilliant move to shut off the street. It’s like, no, you kid, you’re going to take extortion. The country’s going to pay you $2 million, a tanker. Now we’re going to decide nothing gets through. Guess who’s not getting through China. Guess it’s not Russia, too. Japan. Allies and enemies. You’re not getting through. So this will this is going to be a test of wills, and it’s going to be financial pain in the short term. But as the president went even said to Maria, Maria said to him yesterday, would you, do you what do you think prices are going to be down by Election Day? You said, I don’t know, let’s say maybe a little bit truth, but that’s also to Iran. You win. I’m not fudging. Oh, you guys are in talks 21 hours after my vice president took an 18 hour trip. I’m going to UFC fight. I’m going with the secretary of state. Well, we’re also going to. But we’re going to also circle the moon with Artemis II, we’re not stopping. Also, I’m going to note what’s happening at the Masters. We’re not stopping. We’re putting the strain on our allies who are sitting on the sideline and putting the strain on our enemies who are China, who seem to be somewhat benefiting from this.”

On Tuesday - Trump Tried Diplomacy! Trump Was a Genius

On Fox & Friends the president was again some type of genius for blocking the Strait of Hormuz after the Iranians decided to shut it down.

“So, it looks like this as a tactical move is a master stroke. I’m not saying it’s a cure all, but what he totally did is flip the script. No, you shut down the street. We told you to. For one of the things for the ceasefire was open up the strait. You didn’t get 5 or 9 boats in. Okay. While we’re in talks. I’m sending a minesweeper in to clean it up. And when you’re done with the talks. Well, J.D. is heading back. I’m blockading the place now. We gave you a shot,” said Brian Kilmeade.

“Not just that. If you all remember when we had, Chris Wright, the secretary of energy, the president had this option to do at first, but he was worried about the overall global market. He tried to work with the other nations because he thought they were going to get involved. They would do the right thing. They refused to get involved,” said Lawrence Jones.

“Still do,” said Kilmeade.

“Exactly. They still refuse to get involved. And so now the president’s like, okay, I tried to be diplomatic about this. Now no one gets anything. Until you guys come to negotiate,” said Jones.

“And as a result of this blockade, Iran cannot ship products into their country. So this is choking them out. And 100 oil supertankers are now redirecting to the Gulf of America to fill up, their, their ships in Texas now,” said Ainsley Earhardt

Harold Ford Jr. - Trump’s Deal Will Look Like Obama’s

On Tuesday on The Five Harold Ford Jr. conceded that a possible nuclear agreement with Iran might be similar to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“Finally, we are probably going to end up Jesse and everybody around the table with an agreement between us and the Iranians. That’s going to look a lot closer to what Obama negotiated several years ago than not. I don’t think the Obama deal was as bad as some people think. I won’t go as far as my friend, from the great senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine, who said it would be the worst is the worst thing ever. But I do think, if we’ll look back and wonder why we were to ourselves from that agreement, if indeed we have to agree to something very similar a few years later, I will say I’m not so sure. You’re right. Probably. I hope I’m not. Oh, I’m not, but if I am right, I hope you say I’m right. If you’re right, you’re getting a right.”

The JCPOA was negotiated with the U.S., U.K., France, China, Russia, and Germany over a period of 20 months.

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The Strait is Open! The Strait is Closed!

By Friday the folks at Fox News praised Trump for his excellent negotiating skills for meeting Iran’s bluff on the Strait of Hormuz.

On The Five Shannon Bream said that the Strait of Hormuz was open for all shipping.

“So, the president and Iran’s foreign minister both declaring the strait is, quote, completely open to all ships.”

“But President Trump has proven that he makes the impossible possible. He is the greatest dealmaker of all time,” said Kayleigh McEnany.

Jesse Watters has repeated the false claim that the war was over.

“The president said, we win the war in six weeks and it took seven. So I feel lied to. This basically is unconditional surrender. And that would make this war the most swift, decisive, surgical, effective, probably the greatest war in American history.”

Sean Hannity declared victory.

“The Iranian regime has crumbled under pressure and is now agreeing to all of the president’s demands. Now effective immediately, the Strait of Hormuz is fully open for business, according to President Trump. This is the example the embodiment of peace through strength.”

Fox News correspondent Greg Palkot assumed the president’s statement was accurate when he displayed his Truth Social post on the screen.

“President Trump posting yes, Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the world.”

The next morning the Iranian government declared that the Strait of Hormuz was closed.

According to reporting by the Washington Post Iranian officials disputed many of Trump’s claims about a deal to re-open the waterway to ship traffic.

“The President of the United States made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false,” chief Iranian negotiator Mohammad Ghalibaf wrote on X late Friday. “They did not win the war with these lies, and they will certainly not get anywhere in negotiations either.” He added, “media warfare and engineering public opinion are an important part of war, and the Iranian nation is not affected by these tricks,” adding: “With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open.”

A Foreign Ministry statement, posted by state broadcaster IRIB, said: “The Americans talk excessively and create noise around the situation. Do not be misled! There is no new agreement.”

Clay Travis Makes up Stories

On Wednesday on Hannity, Outkick founder, Clay Travis made an outrageous claim about former President Barack Obama.

“Trump is doing this, even though Sean, he’s not going to get most of the benefit. This is not a decision that’s being made for six months for now. It’s a decision that’s being made for the next 20 plus years, after Trump has been gone from the White House for a long time. You know who sees it? Bill Clinton, who has been calling President Trump and saying, you’re doing to Iran what I wish I had done to North Korea, the world would have been better if Clinton had done to North Korea what Trump is doing to Iran.”

Trump has made false claims that former presidents have reached out to him about his decision to attack Iran. Barack Obama, Joe Biden, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have all denied speaking to Trump about Iran.

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Sean Hannity Gets in a Fight with The Pope

On Thursday Sean Hannity declared he was leaving the Catholic Church.

“But as of today, I no longer consider myself a Catholic. And while I am a Christian, I left the Catholic Church in large part because of institutionalized corruption, and it was at the parish level to the bishop level cardinals all the way to Rome,” said Hannity.

Sean Hannity made the same announcement seven years prior on an episode of Ainsley’s Bible Study on Fox Nation, the network’s subscription streaming service.

According to reporting by The Christian Post that was given a pre-screening of the episode in 2019 Hannity left the Catholic Church due to “too much institutionalized corruption” that has not been “rectified.”

Hannity continued his criticism of the Pope and the Catholic Church.

“And, you know, the very top scandals, terrible behavior, frankly, went not only unchecked, but they never fully corrected it or dealt with it. And others at the Vatican have totally lost sight of the true meaning of the Bible and its teachings. I don’t know why. For the first 1200 years of the church, priests were allowed to marry. They changed that law. But right on cue, Pope Leo XIV is now seemingly more interested in spreading left wing politics and the actual teachings of Jesus Christ. As the AP put it. Quote. Pope Leo amplified his condemnation of America’s conflict with Iran, saying that God does not bless any conflict and certainly doesn’t side with those who drop bombs. Well, first, that is simply not biblically accurate. The Bible contains over 400 references to war, frequently depicting God as authorizing, commanding, intervening in battles like a one that we all know. The battle between David and Goliath,” said Hannity.

Hannity’s choice to cite the David versus Goliath story was odd since the story is about a young shepherd fighting a fierce giant who is described as a 9-foot-tall Philistine. Some Bible scholars argue that Goliath was actually closer to 6 feet 9 inches.

In the story the underdog David knocks down the heavily armored Goliath with stone from a sling then beheads Goliath with the giant’s own sword.

If anyone was using the story as an analogy to describe the current conflict in the Middle East the United States would likely be the giant as we have the largest economy, spend the most on our military of any country and have a full nuclear arsenal.

Iran is hardly a humble shepherd as its sponsored terrorist attacks across the region for decades, but Hannity probably should have used another Biblical example.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This list has been truncated due to space. Source - The PBS News Hour transcripts.

• A federal judge has dismissed President Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal for a story on the president’s ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. That article from last summer centered on a sexually suggestive letter written for Epstein’s 50th birthday that appears to bear Trump’s signature. The president denies writing it.Mr. Trump’s legal team said they would refile the suit. (PBS News Hour)

• A new study found that deadly antisemitic attacks around the world last year were the highest seen in more than three decades. In all, 20 people were killed across three continents; 15 of those people were killed in the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney, Australia’s Bondi Beach. Other deadly attacks were recorded in the U.S. and the U.K. The annual report from Tel Aviv University said the violence is part of a spike following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s war in Gaza that followed. (PBS News Hour)

• The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to throw out the seditious conspiracy convictions of a number of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes. They were convicted and sent to prison for their actions on January 6. The request was made in a filing signed by U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro. Trump commuted the sentences of several of the group’s leaders as part of his broad clemency from more than 1,500 defendants charged in the attack. This would go a step further, erasing the convictions. (PBS News Hour)

• In Gaza, health officials say Israeli strikes killed at least six people last Tuesday in separate attacks, including two children. In Gaza City, an Israeli missile struck a police vehicle, setting it ablaze. Emergency workers say an officer is among the dead, as well as a 3-year-old boy. Israel's military has yet to comment on the strikes. Health officials in Gaza say around 750 Palestinians have been killed since a fragile cease-fire took effect last October. Israel says Hamas militants have killed at least four Israeli soldiers during that same period. (PBS News Hour)

• The leaders of Ukraine and Germany say they’re working together on plans to develop drones and other defense systems, as Kyiv seeks support for its ongoing war with Russia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made the announcement during Zelenskyy’s visit to Berlin last week. Germany’s leader said the cooperation is, as he put it, a very clear signal to Russia of Berlin’s efforts to defend Ukraine. Merz also addressed the need for Europe to be involved in any peace process between Ukraine and Russia. (PBS News Hour)

• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will be able to continue publishing after a nonprofit journalism group stepped in to buy the newspaper. The Post-Gazette was due to shut down in May after more than two centuries in business. Its closure would have made Pittsburgh one of the largest metropolitan areas without a major newspaper. The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism said it will buy the paper and run it as a nonprofit. It’s a rare bit of good news for an industry that’s been marked by consolidation and closures. (PBS News Hour)

• Sudan entered its fourth year of war last week, with millions facing the threat of ongoing violence and famine. In Eastern Sudan, health workers are reporting a spike in malnourished children since the fighting started. A U.N.-backed group has warned that some 800,000 people will suffer from severe acute malnutrition across Sudan this year. Meantime, at an aid conference in Berlin, European countries pledged more than $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid. The war between Sudan's military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, or RSF, erupted in April of 2023. Since then, officials say around 59,000 people have been killed and at least 13 million have been displaced. (PBS News Hour)

• Major League Baseball is celebrating Jackie Robinson Day. The annual event marks the day back in 1947 when Robinson broke the sports color barrier. This year, the MLB rolled out a splashy campaign in his honor. And across the league, players, coaches, and umpires are wearing his iconic number 42 on their jerseys during games. (PBS News Hour)

• To discuss the global stakes of the impasse in the Strait of Hormuz and its impact on deepening humanitarian crises, Geoff Bennett spoke with Jorge Moreira da Silva, the executive director of the UN’s Office for Project Services and head of the UN task force on the strait. The increase prices for fertilizer caused by the war could worsen hunger across the world. (PBS News Hour)

• In his second administration, President Trump’s family members, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and sons Eric and Don Jr., are expanding their business ventures, earning hundreds of millions of dollars and prompting fresh concerns about influence peddling and conflicts of interest. PBS included an extended segment about the many problematic business relationships within the Trump admin. (PBS News Hour)

• Russia launched its deadliest attack on Ukraine last Thursday, killing at least 16 people. More than 100 people were injured. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it was in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on targets inside Russia. It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been visiting European nations seeking more air defense systems to block these attacks. (PBS News Hour)

• The Senate voted last week to lift a federal ban on mining upstream from Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Republican-led measure now goes to the president for his signature. It’s a major win for a Chilean company which wants to mine nickel and copper from forests near the U.S.-Canada border. Environmentalists warn it will contaminate the ecosystem of lakes and bogs, one beloved by Minnesotans and one Native American tribes rely on for fishing and rice harvesting. The mining project still needs state permits and could face court challenges before construction begins. (PBS News Hour)

• At a moment when there's a lot of political attention around questions of affordability, rising health care costs are a growing concern for many Americans. That's especially true for those who are worried about being able to afford insurance premiums after an expansion of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act expired. But they're not the only ones struggling with this. PBS spoke to several people around the country who are struggling to pay for their health insurance. The network also spoke with an expert on the insurance industry from the Kaiser Family Foundation. (PBS News Hour)

• French officials say an 85-year-old widow of an American military veteran has returned home after being held in U.S. immigration custody for more than two weeks. Marie-Therese Ross’ husband died unexpectedly after they were married last year, and she had overstayed her visa. France’s foreign minister announced her return, while also denouncing ICE’s approach. Her release comes a day after ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said he will step down at the end of May. During his tenure, Lyons played a key role in carrying out President Trump's immigration crackdown. That included a number of high-profile enforcement actions, as well as the deaths of Americans Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. His replacement has yet to be announced. (PBS News Hour)

By The Numbers

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