Donald Trump

New Republic -  Donald Trump is preparing to offer Iran a $300 billion bribe to back out of a war he never should have waded into—and it’s all thanks to Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.  The United States is considering creating a massive investment fund for Iran as part of a peace deal, after Tehran demanded reparations for the destruction, The New York Times reported Thursday. An Iranian official put the amount for the “reconstruction program” at $300 billion.

The fund seemed to be spurred by an idea from Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, both of whom are real estate investors. Some mediators said that the duo had pitched promoting real estate projects and an investment fund for Tehran in the event that a deal was reached.

It seems pretty clear that this investment fund is a thinly veiled strategy for them to make money from the destruction Trump leaves in his wake. Kushner is currently being investigated for cashing in on foreign investment funds.

This move also reeks of irony, considering the right-wing criticism of former President Barack Obama’s previous nuclear deal with Iran that unfroze a now meager-looking $1.7 billion. Now Trump wants to write Tehran a bigger check.

Alternet -  President Donald Trump spent six hours on late Saturday seemingly doing nothing but posting on his Truth Social account — and many of those posts seemed to reinforce the notion his priorities are out of whack with those of the American public.

“President Donald Trump spent much of Saturday flooding Truth Social with a torrent of memes, AI slop, political attacks, and fan-made tributes,” reported The Daily Beast’s Olivia Ralph on Sunday. “The six-hour posting marathon unfolded on a day when the only item listed on the president’s public schedule was ‘Executive Time.’” The more than 50 posts were described by Ralph as “ranging from patriotic fantasy art and self-congratulatory graphics to crime memes, military imagery, celebrity tributes, and attacks on political rivals.”

The journalist added that “among the more unusual posts were separate images showing Trump riding horseback beside George Washington on a dirt road next to a NASCAR race.” Ironically experts have noted that Washington opposed having his face on currency during his own lifetime because it was perceived as monarchical, insisted all electorally defeated presidents had a moral obligation to peacefully give up power and only sought two terms to avoid concentrating power in his hands. By contrast, Trump is trying to put his face on a new $250 bill, was the first president to attempt a coup when he lost an election and has argued (incorrectly) that the 22nd amendment does not bar him from seeking a third term.

Alternet -   President Donald Trump now “owns” the Republican Party, according to conservative commentator Margaret Hoover — and it is clear that the party does not know what will happen after he is gone. “I don't know what's going to happen with the future of the Republican Party,” PBS’ Margaret Hoover told her husband, The Bulwark’s John Avlon, during a Bulwark appearance on Sunday. “What I do know is Donald Trump completely owns the primary process and owns the party. There's been a complete and total co-opting, but that's also not new — we absolutely knew that.”