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President Donald Trump went on a rant Wednesday over the helipad construction, grass, his ballroom project, the Iran war and his relationship status with Kim Jong Un. Trump was outside the White House for a helipad press tour on the South Lawn when he gave a rambling update."It's very close to being finished, the hard work is done," Trump said, talking about the material and building process. "This is for many presidents, they will have it for a long time."He praised the construction crew, and talked about how it would be important for foreign leaders and White House events."Right now they're not impressed," he said. He also spoke in detail about the grass — and made an admission."It's in shock," Trump added. "But you come back in two or three weeks, this has all been redone. It's all been topsoiled. If you remember, it had big sunken areas in here, and was pretty bad. It was in bad shape, but this grass was the highest quality. It was given free of charge by ScottsMiracle-Gro. Scotts is a great company. They actually contributed to my campaign, I must be honest."Independent journalist Aaron Rupar captured Trump's comments, compiling a series of clips shared on social media."Here's a supercut of Trump just now ranting and raving like a complete lunatic outside the White House on topics including his military ballroom, warm relationship with Kim Jong Un, and how great things are going in Iran," Rupar wrote on X.Other media and political commentators weighed in on Trump's remarks.Reporter James Fallows raised a question."Challenge: Is there anyone who has worked in a non-Trump White House—as I did, eons ago, under Carter—who views this rant as other than *insane sundowner perseveration* fit for a Florida nursing home? To me, this is insane sundowner obsession. Anyone with first-hand WH experience who disagrees?" Fallows wrote on Bluesky.Max Berger, co-founder of Momentum Training Institute, an organization that trains progressive activists, argued Trump's focus on Kim Jong Un — and the president's claim he planned to meet with him — were revealing."The ultimate irony of Trump, like all fascists, is that he’s a weak person’s idea of a strong man. Trump is a pathetic simp for anyone who strokes his incredibly fragile ego because he can’t take an ounce of objective reality. Of course he gets along with another fat delusional nepo-baby," Berger wrote on Bluesky.

President Donald Trump was lashed with insults Wednesday by two Floridians who voted for him in the past.In a clip shared by MS NOW host Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday morning, one self-identified Trump voter let his annoyance with the Iran war grow into an angry rant about gas prices.Asked by MS NOW’s Alex Tabet about the war the Trump voter gave the MS NOW reporter an earful.“I think what Trump's doing now, I'm kind of having a about-face,” he admitted."You know, we started a war over there in Iran we can't possibly finish,” he continued. “You should know more about history — I know you're not going to sort these people out over there.”“Are you benefiting from this war?” Tabet pressed.“No!” the Florida man exclaimed. “Who's benefiting from it? Look at fuel prices! We went to Costco yesterday and it was ridiculous. And everything's expensive! Where does it end, right?”A woman then told Tabet, “Gas shouldn't be that high, but everything, groceries, everything.”“We're just suffering right now,” she lamented. - YouTubeyoutu.be

Questions are being raised about Secretary of State Marco Rubio being sent to the sidelines while President Donald Trump's Iran war drags the administration down.According to a column from MSNBC's Julia Jester, as the nation's supposedly top diplomat, Rubio would normally be the face of efforts to bring the quagmire that Iran has become to a close.As the Iran war persists, the Israel-Hamas has "hit a sizable snag" and the Ukraine-Russia war continues, Rubio has appeared to step back from his role in addressing the most pressing international crises facing the United States.Instead, Rubio has focused his diplomatic efforts on the Western Hemisphere, leading negotiations on Venezuela and Cuba. His work on Cuba is personally significant, given his background as the son of Cuban immigrants.According to the report, "Over the past year, Rubio has waged a maximum pressure campaign on the communist island, crippling its economy with sanctions and publishing a 100-page department report outlining espionage and influence efforts that threaten U.S. national security."Rubio has publicly attached his name to most Cuba-related State Department actions and stood alongside Trump at a press conference following a military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, but was notably absent from major public appearances after the joint U.S.-Israel operation against Iran.According to his public schedule, Rubio "attends meetings and briefings at the White House, where he has Trump’s ear. But he’s not always deployed to conduct diplomacy in person on behalf of the U.S. in its most critical quagmires."Former State Department negotiator Aaron David Miller expressed concern about Rubio's apparent absence from the administration's most significant foreign policy challenges."I worked for half a dozen secretaries of state," Miller said. "None of them would ever have agreed, in the face of the gravest and greatest crisis of the Trump administration's foreign policy presidency, to basically be sitting this one out or perceived to be M.I.A."Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called the decision to have special envoys report directly to Trump rather than through the secretary of state "extraordinary," telling MS NOW, "I think it’s a testament to how dysfunctional this is that the president saw fit to deploy his best friend and his son-in-law to navigate and negotiate three of the most difficult conflicts in the international system, and the results I think are pretty predictable.”

President Donald Trump backtracked in his strange tariff war with a late-night social media post in which he vowed a controversial project could be "awoken from the grave!"Trump, 80, announced on Truth Social he had paused 50 percent tariffs for Canada, slated to begin Wednesday morning, for three days. "Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!" Trump wrote.Trump provided no detail of any deal, but suggested it was linked to the "great" Keystone XL Pipeline, a 875-mile project to channel oil from Alberta, Canada directly to Steele City, Nebraska that was quashed by President Joe Biden in 2021."The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!" Trump declared. "Thank you for your attention to this matter."The U.S. Trade Representative's office provided more detail with, of course, praise for the president. "Congratulations Mr. President," the office stated on X. "The deal will include comprehensive market access for all American goods, economic security commitments, digital trade alignment, and many important provisions that will continue to protect our market and American workers, along with our Canadian partners."In a statement to NBC, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “Substantial progress has been made, although there is important work still to be done.The 50 percent tariffs would have impacted about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, according to NBC News. "The import taxes would have hit products ranging from hockey sticks to some building materials, liquors and certain kinds of clothing," according to the report.

President Donald Trump's Iran war has spiraled so far off the rails that he's now turning his fire on America's own friends, and analysts warn the fallout could be catastrophic, according to a new analysis.The latest target: Oman, a venerable regional ally that had quietly stepped in to broker peace, opening talks with Iran over a toll system for ships stranded by the Strait of Hormuz standoff. Trump's response wasn't gratitude. It was a threat to bomb them."If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s--- out of them," he told Fox News — a stunning vow to attack a partner that was trying to clean up his mess.David Graham, a staff writer for The Atlantic, argued in a new article that Trump's about-face against a U.S. ally was "understandable," but no less "shocking.""Throughout Trump’s two terms, many analysts have sought to discern some sort of guiding doctrine to his foreign policy," Graham wrote. "The incoherence of his actions in the past week alone should provide further evidence that looking for a framework is futile. Earlier this year, my colleagues Missy Ryan and Ashley Parker reported that the White House’s foreign-affairs philosophy was 'F--- around and find out.' Administration officials meant this as a warning to the leaders of other countries. But as the current crisis festers, they, too, are finding out."The outburst is the product of a foreign policy that no longer holds together, Graham added. One day the war's mission is stopping Iran's bomb. The next, it's cheaper gas at the pump. Trump insisted this weekend that the "number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon" — even as his own vice president reportedly countered that lowering fuel prices is now "goal No. 1."The whiplash keeps coming. Trump vowed to declare the Strait of Hormuz "a territory of the United States," contradicting his own Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Tehran mocked the claim, scoffing that the waterway "cannot be seized with a tweet."Meanwhile, he snubbed South Korea while gushing over North Korea's Kim Jong Un — a dictator whose nuclear program has never slowed.Analysts have hunted for years for a Trump doctrine. A single week of contradictions suggests there's nothing there to find.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright took to Fox News Monday to boast about the amount of vessels currently transiting the Strait of Hormuz, but quickly pivoted to attacking the Biden administration and blaming Democrats after being issued a blunt reality check.Wright boasted that 30 vessels had transited the Strait of Hormuz Sunday amid the ongoing U.S. war against Iran that’s caused severe disruptions to the critical waterway, and bragged that the United States was “continuing to get oil and gas and other critical products” out of the channel.“So even if the numbers were 30 ships per day, that's still down from a pre-war high of about 130 ships per day,” noted Fox News host John Roberts. “When can we expect to see the traffic increase back up to pre-war levels?”Wright dodged Roberts’ question by informing him that he didn’t “know the future.” He also insisted a generous amount of oil was, in fact, being transited through the Strait of Hormuz, and dismissed the need for oil coming out of the strait, citing the United States’ own oil production.“Oil is still $83 a barrel, up from I think low $60s back in early February,” Roberts said. “Why is the price of oil so high if almost all the oil that was getting out before the war is getting out now?”Wright was forced to admit that “we’re not fully back to the full flow” and that there was a “disruption” before pivoting to attack the Biden administration and Democrats.“I've got to point out: oil prices were far higher during the Biden administration when there wasn't disruption of flows in the Middle East, and another huge thing for energy prices in the United States is Democratic policies!” Wright said. “Foolish green energy policies, they're at least as responsible for high energy prices as the conflict with Iran.”"Foolish green energy policies, they're at least as responsible for high energy prices as the conflict with Iran!"- Energy Secretary Chris Wright pic.twitter.com/ivRUDSxl57— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) August 17, 2026

Another fiasco has struck a Navy warship as a guided-missile destroyer lost power for four days in the middle of one of the most tense maritime zones on Earth while President Donald Trump has downplayed worrisome conditions for sailors serving at sea, according to reports on Monday.Military service members aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold spent four grueling days without working toilets, potable water, hot meals and air conditioning as the ship baked in the brutal South China Sea heat after a total power failure, The Daily Beast reported. The warship, which was built 30 years ago to shoot down enemy aircraft, sink enemy ships and hit targets on land, was in the middle of standard patrols in the Indo-Pacific when its generators gave out, Navy Cdr. Matthew Comer, a spokesperson for the 7th Fleet, told CNN."There were no injuries to the crew, who demonstrated resilience, grit, professionalism, and unwavering steadiness in their response," Comer said.The power outage has remained under investigation.Former Navy captain Carl Schuster told CNN about his experience on a destroyer that lost power near Puerto Rico, which went dead in the water for about four hours. He explained what conditions would have been like for the crew on the USS Benfold."It would have been quite stressed. Operations officers were worried about crew morale and operational concerns, the engineers were focused on how to solve it, and the navigator was worried about the direction they were drifting and what weather was coming," Schuster said."I can assure you four hours in the waters southeast of Puerto Rico is not nearly as stressful as four days in the South China Sea," Schuster explained.Beijing claims vast stretches of those waters as its own — a claim Washington rejects.The Navy reportedly scrambled to keep its crew fed, sending the guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls to deliver hot meals while other vessels from the Japan-based USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group pitched in to help, according to The Beast. Eventually, the crippled destroyer had to be towed to the Philippines, where repairs weren't finished until Aug. 8.This isn't the only disaster to hit a Navy warship. It's the second Pacific Command destroyer this year to go dark. In May, the USS Higgins lost power and propulsion for hours in the Indo-Pacific after what the Navy vaguely described as an "engineering casualty" in its electrical system.

President Donald Trump’s Sunday decision to side with North Korea over South Korea and then threaten another ally appears to have been the last straw for a contributor to the conservative National Review.Trump rattled two allies within days of each other this week, threatening to bomb Oman while ordering the Pentagon to pull back from decades-old military drills with South Korea.On Monday, as the U.S.-Iran ceasefire expired amid disputes over the Strait of Hormuz, Trump told Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst: "If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s--t out of them,” leading critics to wonder why the president would threaten to bomb a nation widely seen as a neutral U.S. ally.Sunday night, the president ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "substantially reduce" joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises that have run since the 1970s to deter North Korea.According to the president, the exercises are "totally inappropriate and hostile" to North Korea, as he described strongman Kim Jong Un's regime as "unthreatening and respectful."On X, radiologist and National Review writer Dr. Pradheep Shanker was more than stunned.“So in the last couple days: 1. Trump threatened to bomb ally Oman. 2. Applauded a defense pact between the Saudis and Pakistan. 3. Claimed North Korea is more peaceful than South Korea,” he wrote.He then added, “ If this keeps going on, we may have to question his sanity. Seriously.”He later noted, to his dismay, that the president is kicking the Iran War can down the road again.Reacting to a report stating: “The US and Iran have reportedly agreed to extend their 60-day ceasefire which was set to expire today,” he responded, “This is truly pathetic. I'm almost getting to the point where random Democrats would be handling this better than Trump is.”