Today in Politics, Bulletin 442. 8/17/26
OOPS! ALMOST MISSED RON FILIPKOWSKI!
… Trump took questions from the press today in the Oval Office where he was asked about Natalie Harp, conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the WH ballroom, North Korea, among other topics.
… The first question was based on a report early this morning on Fox from Trey Yingst: “I just got off the phone with Trump. The president told Fox that Iran should raise the white flag of surrender. The president said that if Oman gets in the way, ‘we’ll bomb the shit out of them’.”
Q - “You said you would ‘bomb the shit out of Oman’ if they got in the way of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Would you say you're out of patience with Oman, a strategic partner? Trump: I don't think they behaved very well, but we'll handled them very easily just like we do other things.”
Q - “Jon Ossoff said you'd rather travel with your aide Natalie Harp and build the ballroom than do your job as president. What is your response? Trump: Who said that? You mean the Pee-Wee Herman look-alike?”
Q - What about conditions on the USS Lincoln? Trump: You’re fake news. Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet. You are a fake reporter and you report fake news.”
… It was a female reporter, of course. He then called on another reporter who asked him the same question, so he answered it this time.
“It was a fake report. A retired Admiral came up to me over the weekend and said that he knows people on the Lincoln and they say it’s beautifully maintained and taken care of.”
… With tears in his eyes.
Q - “You said you would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz to be a territory of the US. Could you elaborate? Trump: I think it’s a great idea. We control it with a blockade. I like the idea of declaring it a territory. We have total control over the strait.”
“People who oppose the ballroom are disloyal to the country. When I was in China, we went to the Great Hall of China. It was this big, beautiful building, and we don’t have anything like that.”
… Make America China.
Q - “How do you respond to folks who say you are prioritizing the interest of our adversaries in N. Korea over our ally S. Korea? Trump: Kim Jong Un has always treated me with great respect. I understand him, he understands me. He didn’t like Biden or Obama or anybody but he likes me.”
“S. Korea has been protected by us for many, many years. I called the president of S. Korea recently and I said, ‘Would you like to give us a little hand?’ We don’t need help with Iran, but if you’d like, give us a hand with Iran. He said, ‘No, thanks.’ We can't go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they're not there to help us.”
… Meaghan Mobbs, Director of the Center for American Safety & Security: “N. Korea may be behaving respectfully toward Trump personally, but it is not behaving like an unthreatening state. Pyongyang is actively helping Russia wage war in Europe by providing ballistic missiles, ammunition and troops and gaining battlefield experience and potentially military technology in return. It also has a long history of missile cooperation with Iran.”
… “My concern is that personal rapport with Kim cannot become a substitute for assessing N. Korea by its behavior. Diplomacy with N. Korea is appropriate, but reducing military readiness without getting something meaningful in return is just giving away leverage. These exercises are how we maintain deterrence and our ability to fight alongside one of our most important Indo-Pacific allies.”
… “If scaling them back produces meaningful concessions from Pyongyang, that can be smart leverage. However, as our adversaries are increasingly helping one another, weakening exercises with one of our most important Indo-Pacific allies sends a very worrying message.”
… Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): “S. Korea has been a solid military ally for over 70 years that possesses exquisite military capabilities. Reducing joint exercises with S. Korea does nothing more than free up thousands of N. Korea’s troops to support Putin’s systematic kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder of innocent Ukrainian citizens.”
… Daily Mail: “Trump is facing ridicule about his close relationship with his personal aide Natalie Harp, while Melania Trump has shrunk away from the public eye. Harp was among the handful of aides chosen to accompany the president as he secretly fled Air Force One amid an Iranian assassination threat in Turkey back in July.”
… “Sources have told the Daily Mail that Harp is Trump’s closest aide, often dubbing her his ‘connective tissue’ with some pointing out that she has more access to the president than even his chief of staff Susie Wiles. Natalie is also known as his ‘human printer’ for her habit of sharing printed copies of articles and social media posts that the president wants to read. There’s rarely an event or trip where she’s not glued closely to his side.”
… “Now Harp’s close relationship with the president is being mocked, as her stardom is back in the spotlight. Sen. Jon Ossoff ridiculed Trump during a rally in GA over his relationship with the young aide. Scrutiny over Harp's closeness to Trump comes as Melania has done about half as many events in Trump's second term compared to his first. She did not attend Lindsey Graham’s funeral, the WH Correspondents’ dinner, or the July 22 dignified transfer of four fallen US service members.”
… “Harp, meanwhile, was spotted at Trump’s side this weekend as the duo shook hands with supporters at the president’s Bedminster golf club in NJ. Harp was one of only a handful of aides Trump kept beside him last month when he slipped off Air Force One in Turkey and boarded a decoy military jet.”
… “Harp’s grip on the president was laid bare in June by NYT reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in their book Regime Change. The authors reported that Harp left private notes for Trump in his personal spaces, one of which read: ‘You are all that matters to me.’ Swan said the letters were strange enough to draw the attention of the Secret Service, and the disclosure reportedly stunned Susie Wiles. They also quote Trump telling staff that Harp loved him as much as his wife and children did.”
… My favorite posts right now are snowflake Trump supporters, of all people, crying about Ossoff’s line about Natalie Harp. Here’s a couple:
WH Comms Director Steve Cheung: “Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics. Instead of denigrating hard working people serving their country, Jon should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he’s a miserable person who hates this country. It’s because he’s a radical, extremist Dumocrat.”
Scott Jennings: “This is quite a message for the Democratic Party to send to young women working in politics. Party of women? Pretty ugly stuff.”
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… CNN: “Democrats have struggled for years to land disqualifying arguments against Trump. Their past warnings that US democracy was in peril often seemed rather esoteric to people struggling to afford gas and groceries. Jon Ossoff is providing something that the party has lacked: abrasive, robust language and framing that can be borrowed by other candidates to weave Trump’s vulnerabilities into a positive case for their own campaigns.”
… “This is one reason a senator with a strong record of winning in the conservative South and among Black voters — a critical Democratic constituency — is drawing talk of a possible 2028 run for president. First, however, he must try to win reelection.”
… Ossoff is also showing how Democrats can pin down their individual opponents by linking them to Trump’s record. He slammed his opponent, Rep. Mike Collins, whom Trump jammed onto the ballot despite the objections of state leaders: “GA deserves better — better than pro-war, pro-tariff, pro-cutting your healthcare Trump puppet Mike Collins, and America deserves better than Trump.”
… Politico: “Sen. Mark Kelly is no stranger to launches, and now the former astronaut is all but plotting one for a 2028 presidential bid. Kelly is showering the Democratic Party apparatus with money to the tune of $10 million raised or contributed, leveraging his status as an enemy of Trump and Pete Hegseth with $25 million in the bank to build a wealth of political capital.”
… “Now, he’s touching down on campaign ground today in GA alongside his wife and former Rep. Gabby Giffords for a 3-day swing to stump for Ossoff, to whom he’s already contributed over $400,000. The duo will head to the Columbus area for a meet-and-greet and discussion with voters about affordability, and a canvass kickoff with volunteers.”
… Kelly was asked if this could be a preview of an Ossoff-Kelly 2028 Democratic ticket. Kelly responded: “Hey, why’d you put it in that order?”
… There, he headlined the annual Wing Ding to a sellout crowd of 750 - the biggest attendance since 2019 - and hooped with Senate candidate Josh Turek at the State Fair, where he also flipped pork chops and ate a pork chop on a stick, a lobster roll and an apple egg roll.”
… Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) was asked on MS NOW about conditions for sailors on the Lincoln: “I think it’s important not to Monday morning quarterback on one story or another. If you look at our military, you have to recognize the damage that was caused by the previous admin. Host: Obviously the president has been in office for nearly two years. Some could argue these should be his responsibilities at this point.”
… Sen. Mark Kelly: “The president has spent a good portion of his adult life sitting on gold toilets and doesn’t know what hardship is, and doesn’t understand our service members. In fact, it’s insulting what he said - that the deployment wasn’t long enough. He doesn’t know sacrifice.”
… Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) was asked on Fox about conditions aboard the Lincoln: “These ‘reports’ are just that. I haven’t heard anything personally. I trust the Navy. I don’t make much of it, to be honest.”
… CNN pollster Harry Enten: “Hispanic men on Trump - in 2024 he won by 10 points. Look now where his net approval is - minus 41 points! That is a 51 point switcheroo against the president - these numbers are bonkers!”
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The Ask the Editor podcast should be out later tonight. A bunch of really great questions this week that made it difficult to choose just 5. These were the 5 that I answered on the show:
What are the implications of Trump’s new S. Korea policy and what could be some of the reasons for his hostility?
Talk about the Republican reactions to Ossoff’s comment about Natalie Harp.
What are the implications of Trump’s crypto company getting govt approval to operate as bank and what can be done to stop it?
Who do you think will be the next WH press secretary?
What happens to the money left in Trump’s Super PAC if he doesn’t spend it on the midterms?
If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.
… The New Republic: “Left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker appears to be gearing up to sue conservative commentator Scott Jennings for defamation. Jennings went viral last week after posting a heavily edited, intentionally misleading video of what looked like Piker expressing extreme hostility towards Black voters and calling for lynchings. With the full context, it is obvious that Piker was being sarcastic.”
… Jennings on his podcast: “Black voters have been voting against the socialists, only to be ruled in many cases by privileged white commies. Did you ever notice, by the way, how violent these people are? Now El-Sayed’s best friend is out there calling for Black voters to be lynched. Beneath all the smiles and dancing videos, there’s nothing but hate and violence in the heart of these Communists.”
… As Snopes reported, Jennings lied when he claimed that Piker wanted to bringing back lynchings, as “Piker’s remarks on lynchings were sarcastic reactions to a user’s chat comment and opinions expressed by someone else in a separate video.”
… Jennings’s video was widely panned, with many calling for Piker to sue. The streamer called Jennings’s video “the worst instance of defamation” he’d seen. On Sunday, Piker confirmed that his team is preparing a defamation lawsuit, saying it seemed “unavoidable.”
… Piker to Status: “This kind of defamation is completely unacceptable. It’s exactly how normal people perceive mainstream media to operate, and it’s a real crisis of credibility. I think someone has to push back against it at some point. In Trump 2.0, we now traffic in lies all the time. Just because the Republicans are trafficking in lies with regular frequency doesn’t mean that you can’t uphold some kind of editorial standard.”
… “CNN can put whoever they want to on a panel at the end of the day, but it just signals to me, and I think a lot of other people, that some of their panelists are just going to be liars.”
… WSJ: “Arab intelligence officials have picked up evidence - including communications between Iran and militia allies in countries such as Yemen and Iraq -of a strategic shift inside the country’s hard-line leadership to get their forces ready to widen the war and raise the costs for the US. Alarming weaker Gulf countries like Kuwait, Iran’s leaders are increasingly talking about offensive operations on enemy territory.”
… Axios: “Yields on US govt bonds - known as Treasuries - continue to climb, thanks to groaning federal deficits, bonkers corporate borrowing and uncertainty about monetary policy under Fed Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh. Virtually all borrowing costs - for mortgages, business loans, auto financing, etc. - are based in part on bond yields produced by trading in the Treasury market each day.”
… “When the US govt has to pay higher interest rates to borrow - yields are effectively those interest rates - it raises the floor for almost everyone else too, increasing borrowing costs across the economy. If yields go too high, these rising rates discourage economic activity, boost unemployment and can even lead to a recession. Last week, investors required the highest yields in roughly two decades to buy some $67 billion in long-term US govt bonds.”
… WaPo: “Talking about Jesus is pretty routine for Texans running for office. But usually not Democrats. State Rep. James Talarico is changing the script, leaning into his background in a progressive Presbyterian seminary. It’s a playbook that has helped propel his political career. Before he was the Democrats’ hope to flip a Republican Senate seat in TX, the state lawmaker often invoked the Bible to justify progressive policy positions in the TX Capitol.”
… “Past floor speeches and sermons on abortion, gender equity and religious pluralism helped give him the online platform that launched his Senate run. He is now making his faith a central part of his Senate campaign, telling voters ‘it’s time to start flipping tables’ and take back faith from the religious right - a reference to the biblical story of Jesus flipping over tables in the Temple of Jerusalem to purge merchants profiting off a house of worship.”
… “Talarico boils down his core message to two commandments from the Bible: Love God and love your neighbor.”
… “Rep. Christian Menefee (D-TX), who grew up in Baptist churches, said an appeal to faith could be a key ingredient to break the Democrats’ drought in TX. Talarico’s openness about faith could attract Christian voters who have voted Republican in the past because they never saw Democrats address their faith publicly before.”
… Menefee: “When James came onto the scene, and this was before this race, when he worked in the teachings of the Bible into some of his opposition to bills while he’s at the state legislature, people immediately took notice. Anybody who thinks that it won’t play a role in this election has not spent much time in Texas.”
… NBC: “Ken Paxton says he’s probing widespread noncitizen voting, claiming that tens of thousands voted illegally in a single Texas election. 3 have been prosecuted. Of 53 cases referred for investigation, at least 5 are US citizens.”
… NOTUS: “James Talarico keeps raising too much money. The TX Democrat has already raised more than $70 million in his bid to defeat state AG Ken Paxton for US Senate - more than any other non-incumbent candidate has raised this cycle nationwide and millions more than his Republican rival has amassed.”
… “But scores of Talarico donors are exceeding federal donation limits, with regulators at the FEC identifying 143 such donors who exceeded the legal limit. The campaign, in turn, has to date reported 534 refunds totaling $844,347. Another quarter-million dollars or so worth of refunds or reattributions are expected after the FEC’s latest letter.”
… “The Paxton campaign, fresh from a bruising and expensive primary election in which Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn, has taken every opportunity to highlight his own fundraising struggles in emails to potential donors with subject lines that underscore the severity of his shortfall: “Outraised by over 300%.” “We just saw Talarico’s May numbers. This is bad.” “I won’t lie to you… This is bad.” “This is bad. Very bad!”
… “In his own fundraising pitches, Talarico largely overlooks Paxton’s dismal numbers - the Republican has fewer than $2 million on hand in his campaign account - instead focusing on the hundreds of millions of dollars amassed by Paxton-aligned super PACs Senate Leadership Fund and MAGA Inc.”
… But Trump controls MAGA Inc and may not spend any of that on Paxton. And the SLF has to help many other Republican candidates all over the country. Then there’s this impressive chart which Paxton can’t come close to matching:
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… WSJ: “As Iowa’s 11-day extravaganza State Fair started late last week, the state’s Republicans found themselves in an unfamiliar position: trailing Democrats in a top race and facing serious challenges in several others. Some GOP candidates didn’t even mention Trump—viewed more unfavorably than favorably in a recent Fox poll of IA voters—during their highest-profile fair appearances.”
… “Democrats, meanwhile, are pouring millions into the state’s races, as rural economic pain from Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran erodes GOP support amid stagnant grain prices and higher fuel and fertilizer costs. IA, which backed Trump by 13 percentage points in 2024, is now an unexpected battleground despite years of GOP dominance.”
… “Just 3 years ago, Trump dominated the fair as a presidential candidate. This year, IA’s Republican nominee for governor Zach Lahn didn’t mention the president in his appearance on the Des Moines Register’s political soapbox, where candidates speak to fairgoers and a throng of media. Joe Mitchell, the GOP nominee for a northeast Iowa congressional race, also didn’t mention Trump during his soapbox appearance.”
… “Lahn has trailed his Democratic opponent, state Auditor Rob Sand, in every public poll this summer. In the US Senate race, Josh Turek, a state rep. and former Paralympic wheelchair basketball medalist, led in one poll this summer, and Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson was narrowly ahead in the rest.”
… Stars and Stripes: “A guided-missile destroyer that’s part of the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group was adrift 4 days without power in the South China Sea following an equipment failure last month, according to 7th Fleet. The USS Benfold on July 24 suffered an ‘engineering casualty’ involving its generators, which caused a power loss. The power outage affected the ship’s potable water, air conditioning, toilets and galley services.”
… The Hill: “Questions are growing about Sen. Chuck Schumer’s future as an increasing number of Democratic candidates say they will not support his bid for another term as Senate Democratic leader. Progressive critics of the Democratic establishment are calling for a leadership shake-up in DC as their candidates win Senate Democratic primaries in IL, ME, MI and MN.”
… “These candidates have the backing of progressive Democratic senators in Schumer’s caucus. They say the party has become too aligned with corporate interests and is not fighting hard enough to increase taxes on the wealthy and expand the social safety net. Progressive candidates Abdul El-Sayed in MI, Peggy Flanagan in MN and Troy Jackson in ME, say they will not vote for Schumer as leader.”
… IL Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who won the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, said she won’t vote for Schumer to serve another term because “voters all across the state of Illinois” are “fed up with what’s happening in Washington.”
… “Schumer’s allies note that he scored impressive recruiting wins in NC, OH, IA and AK. Schumer played a key role in convincing candidates such as former NC Gov. Roy Cooper, former 3-term OH Sen. Sherrod Brown, IA state Rep. Josh Turek and former AK Rep. Mary Peltola to run for the Senate.”
… “A Democratic senator who requested anonymity to talk about Schumer’s future said there doesn’t appear to be a challenger in the caucus gearing up, though the lawmaker warned that could change if Senate Democrats underperform in the November elections.”
… Wired: When Jim Allen, the elections director for Delaware County, PA who oversees 383 precincts, recently ran a training session for poll workers, he began a conversation about a topic he’d never previously had to address during training: prediction markets. “There was one person who stood up, and they said, ‘Well, what if we just want to make a minor bet on what turnout will be, that’ll keep things interesting?’ And we said: ‘No, this is all bad’.”
… As a result, Allen and the board of elections in Delaware County amended the oaths signed by people involved in elections to include “an affirmation that the workers have no direct or indirect interests in any bets, wagers, or prediction markets. Some 2,500 people, including everyone from full-time staff in the elections office to temporary employees helping process ballots on Election Day, have signed the oath.”
… Allen: “The rapid growth of prediction markets, and their plans to prey on elections, are direct threats to undermining trust in electoral outcomes. The overriding concern is that prediction markets have the potential to monetize a reward for manipulating results and, equally concerning, capitalizing on the anger and frustration by those who lose in these prediction markets.”
… “Election officials see risk in the type of scenario where people place too much confidence in the probabilities shown by the markets and make wagers expecting guaranteed money. There’s also concern over whether prediction markets could fuel aggression against poll workers and other people involved in elections, something that some officials say they’ve already witnessed.”
… Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) was asked on Fox about the war depleting missiles: "This has gone on and it does deplete US stockpiles, but those stockpiles exist for us to use to eliminate our enemies who have been attacking us. In the last 30 months before the war, Iran attacked us over 350 times - flying ballistic missiles and drones at us. This is simply the first time we said we’re not going to take this any more.”
… You may have seen Mast wear an Israeli Defense Force uniform on Capitol Hill, which has stirred up controversy. He previously served as a civilian volunteer for the IDF but is not a dual citizen.
… NBC’s Sahil Kapur: “Sobering Fox poll for Dems in MI: Mike Rogers (R) 51%
Abdul El-Sayed (D) 47%. El-Sayed is underperforming Jocelyn Benson (D) all over: among men, women, white and nonwhite voters, indys, even voters under 30. 14% of Rogers supporters are backing Benson for governor. El-Sayed's most glaring under-performance relative to Benson is among MI independents. She's winning them 56-38% (+18), he's losing them 43-48 (-5).”
… Politico: “There’s a slate of races to watch Tuesday night across WY, AK and FL. In FL, GOP Rep. Byron Donalds is the leader of the pack to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis — but there’s a pileup of 10 Republicans vying to take Donalds’ seat in FL’s 19th District, where Catalina Lauf recently secured Trump’s backing. Plus, the must-watch Democratic primary in FL’s safely blue 20th District, where Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is running for reelection.
… “There’s also a crop of DSA candidates who’ve popped up in both FL’s Senate race and a primary against Rep. Jared Moskowitz. But the left is navigating tricky terrain in FL, with its large swath of Latino voters who fled left-wing dictatorships and fear similar ideologies taking hold in the US. FL Republicans are eager to brand all Democrats as ‘socialists,’ hoping to inject fear into a base that may otherwise be unmotivated to show up.”
… Legendary Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly came out of retirement to address Trump’s golf game in WaPo: “Trump says he ‘won’ both the senior (over 50) and super senior (over 60) titles by shooting 10 strokes below his age - which is like kicking a 120-yard field goal in snowshoes.”
… “I’ve been tracking Trump’s golf game for 26 years. It isn’t about his golf skills. It’s about his calculator-melting math skills.”
… “He and I were playing at Trump National outside NYC. Somewhere between his 6th and 7th mulligan, he declared, ‘You know I’ve won 12 club championships, right?’ I blinked at him. I was looking at a guy who couldn’t get out of a bunker if he had a ladder. I figured him for a 7 handicap, which was pretty good for a 56-year-old, but wins you a fistful of nothing in club championships.”
… “Besides, whenever he’d played on TV - like the Pebble Beach tournament and the Lake Tahoe celebrity thing - he never finished in the top half. ‘No chance, Donald,’ I countered. Then he explained it: Every time he buys or builds a new golf course, he plays the first round by himself and declares that the club championship.”
… “This was the number he was trotting out by 2013: ‘I’ve won 18 Club Championships including this weekend,’ he posted. 18? I looked into it and could find no evidence he’d won any of the 6 new titles. One time, he’d played a different course and called in the winning score. Another time, he walked in the clubhouse, saw the winner’s name on the wall, and apparently decided, ‘I always beat that guy,’ and declared himself the champ.”
… “Hey, he owns the courses. It’s not like he needs to write a letter to management.”
… “Fast forward to 2024, and by my unofficial Trump Brag count, he had 26. That’s 8 championships in 11 years. Which is Tiger Woods-like, except no objective witness would call me back to vouch that any of them were legit. Not the head pro, not the guys he played with, not any of his hardworking caddies, who drop balls for him the way the Easter Bunny drops eggs for toddlers.”
… He ‘won’ one title - a two-day event - in FL even though he spent the first day at a funeral in NC. He ‘won’ another that apparently was held while he was in Singapore with N. Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.”
… “Here is where Trump set himself apart from any baloney blowhard braggart you’ve ever met. On Aug. 6, 2025, he suddenly posted on Truth Social about having ‘36 Club Championships!’ Trump had jumped up 10 championships in a single year! Maybe he’d built a putt-putt course in the WH basement and was holding secret tourneys? I’m telling you, this man could find a trophy in the 50% off box at Circle K.”
… “Which brings us to the recent outing when the World’s Most Self-Decorated Golfer turned in another spectacular performance: the 2-under 70 at Bedminster, which I couldn’t get anybody to vouch for, since it’s a score that would satisfy any scratch golfer of any age. ‘It’s called TALENT, and I have it,’ he posted afterward, ‘and they don’t!’”
… “Well, actually, what Trump has is caddies waiting out ahead on the course, fluffing up his lies, throwing his balls out of bunkers and picking up 8-foot putts they’ve decided he doesn’t need to make. I talked to an ex-caddy of his, who said, ‘Everybody knows the deal. He has to win the tournament and shoot the lowest score. It’s your job to make sure.’”
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