Trump's Offensive
The prez is "rattled" by Iran leak.
Donald Trump is on the PR warpath today, pushing his so-far unsubstantiated claim that his bombing did, indeed, “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear capability.1 But Politico’s Playbook this morning describes Trump as unusually “rattled” by the yesterday’s buzz-kill leak that Trump’s war may have failed to destroy the Iranian threat.
It’s an all-chodes-on-deck moment. Trump is deploying Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Karoline Leavitt, and all the usual suspects of the MAGA media in a spittle-inflected attack on leakers, critics, and purveyors of contradictory evidence.
Trumpian rage rants are, of course, routine. But Playbook suggests that this time feels different. “The president posted 21 times on Truth Social yesterday about the supposed success of his military strikes. And at yesterday’s NATO summit — a moment specifically designed by the Western world for Trump to bask in the glory of a huge defense spending boost — he spent most of his public appearances repeating his assertions on Iran.”
To what do we attribute his latest indignant frenzy? Via Politico:
Critics see a president spooked by a bombshell leak that has undermined his authority. Supporters say Trump is genuinely outraged by what he claims is false reporting and wants the record corrected. Either way — he’s using every tool in his arsenal to push back hard: Witness the hammer-like repetition that sites were “obliterated”; the plentiful use of surrogates like Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio; the vindictive targeting of the journalists and media organizations involved; the barrage of statements from both U.S. and Israeli intelligence chiefs yesterday that the initial report was wrong.
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A few quick thoughts are in order:
Trump is now all-in on the claim that the mission succeeded in destroying the Iranian nuclear threat.
That claim may be exaggerated. Or false.
Iran may still be able to make a bomb.
But now Trump has put himself into a box, because he is stuck on denial.
How can he now admit that he was wrong and we have to bomb again? That his one-and-done attack failed to eliminate the threat?
His denialism, ironically enough, could be a gift to Iran if that evil regime is, in fact, continuing to go nuclear.
Happy Thursday.
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Susan Glasser: Basic Trumpology
On today’s “To the Contrary” Podcast, I’m joined by the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, one of our most knowledgeable Trumpologists.
We break down the chaos of the current moment—from Trump's strike on Iran to the media’s collective amnesia and the deepening crisis of credibility. We explore the dangerous implications of conducting war in a post-truth era, where the commander-in-chief is often the most unreliable narrator. Plus, a look at the Democratic meltdown in New York and why political performance is outpacing pragmatism across both parties.
Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed.
Among the highlights of our conversation, we talked about Trump as the Divider-in-Chief. Susan and her husband wrote the book after his first term:
I asked her if Trump is accelerating his campaign to divide Americans from one another:
Do we really want government-run grocery stores?
The inimitable Joe Klein on the left’s new heart-throb, Zohran Mamdani:
[Mamdani] a socialist who believes in “global intifada” and a host of silly programs, won the Democratic mayoral primary. Now, every single Democrat in the country will have to decide whether to support him or not…or weasel out—the worst option—by saying, “I don’t live in New York” or some such thing. Trump and his gang will be pleased as punch.
Let’s talk New York first: it was a metaphor for the current state of the Democratic Party, a choice between socialism and zombie-establishmentarianism. It will be said by profundity-seeking pundits that the left-wing of the Democratic Party has all the juice right now. Yes, yes, but compared to what? The moderate establishment offers polenta, as Mario Cuomo once suggested. In this case, stale polenta.
Klein gets into the specifics of Mamdani’s agenda.
Mamdani, aside from his vile and comprehensive anti-Zionism, offered a rent freeze, free bus transport and government-run grocery stores.
Let’s look at the latter: Historically, the most successful grocery stores in New York were family-run by new immigrants, first the Italians and more recently the Koreans. There was a reason for that: everybody in the family was willing to work 24/7 for whatever pittance of a profit they could snag, without the hindrance of wage or assorted workplace regulations. They worked for the future: the Balduccis, Gristedes, DeCiccos and others built supermarkets from fruit stands. There are Koreans in medical school now because their parents slaved for them and sold the very best quality stuff in their stores. The fruit and vegetable stands of New York are Exhibit A in the American Dream, achieved.
Mamdani’s thesis—ancient and wrong—is that if you cut out the middle-man, the wholesalers and such, groceries will be offered at cheaper prices. This is the socialist fallacy.
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Meanwhile, the Dem freak-out continues, with rumblings that what is left of the Democratic establishment will turn its lonely eyes to incumbent Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Meanwhile, via Axios:
Many Democratic lawmakers and officials either denounced Mamdani or notably declined to rally around him yesterday.
Republicans — including President Trump — crowed about Democrats embracing a democratic socialist who has called for reduced police funding and sided with Palestinians in the Gaza war
The top two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both New Yorkers, declined to endorse Mamdani even as they applauded his victory.
Major Democratic donors — who poured tens of millions into a super PAC for Cuomo — were having private discussions about whether to back an independent run by Cuomo in November's general election — or rally behind unpopular incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who's also running as an independent….
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"The full-on freakout by the establishment is entirely predictable — they do no introspection or soul searching, and instead just lash out," said Lis Smith, a longtime Democratic operative who used to work for Cuomo but has become a critic.
"This is an outcome of their own creation," Smith added. "If you don't want to lose to a socialist, don't run a fatally flawed candidate like Andrew Cuomo."
Nota Bene
Released in May 2024, AI Overviews joins ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Perplexity, and other AI-powered products that, combined, have replaced search for more than 25 percent of Americans, according to one study. Companies train chatbots on huge amounts of stolen books and articles, as my previous reporting has shown, and scrape news articles to generate responses with up-to-date information. Large language models also train on copious materials in the public domain—but much of what is most useful to these models, particularly as users seek real-time information from chatbots, is news that exists behind a paywall. Publishers are creating the value, but AI companies are intercepting their audiences, subscription fees, and ad revenue.
Thursday dogs
Eli is very much a water dog.
Because Trump is consistently inconsistent, he also seems to be admitting that the intelligence so far has been ‘inconclusive”. Via the Guardian:
Donald Trump and the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, have admitted to some doubt over the scale of the damage inflicted on Iran’s nuclear sites by the US bombing at the weekend, after a leaked Pentagon assessment said the Iranian programme had been set back by only a few months.
“The intelligence was very inconclusive,” Trump told journalists at a Nato summit in The Hague, introducing an element of uncertainty for the first time after several days of emphatic declarations that the destruction had been total.
“The intelligence says we don’t know. It could’ve been very severe. That’s what the intelligence suggests.”
The president then appeared to revert to his claim that “it was very severe. There was obliteration”. Later in the day, he claimed that was the conclusion from “collected intelligence”, and that the Iranian programme had been set back “decades”.
One of Trump’s problems is his lack of constraint. Biden would have said “ it appears that the bombing was successful, but we will need to assess upon further intelligence.” That is how most presidents speak. Not…” obliterated them!”
Too many aftermath reviews of Mamdani's win, including this one, seems to assume that he will have dictatorial powers over the City of New York and its denizens. But last I checked, NYC had a fairly active City Council. So much of the frantic arm-waving over socialism, anti-semetism, and anti-capitalism is likely wasted energy, as there is no indication that these purportedly "marquee" issues have widespread support among Council members.
Mamdani's win is not a vindication of his policy proposals. It's a victory of a dynamic, engaging campaign over a stale offering by a repugnant, aging pol. And an indictment of a Dem establishment that prioritizes mediocrity and staying the course when the public doesn't like that.
(I do not support most of Mamdani's policy proposals. Dems need to find attractive, innovative centrist proposals and sell them well. The public wants change, whether for good or bad. So let's work on good!)