Saturday Afternoon Updates: Deal or No Deal – 5/23/26
Trump is rage-posting on Truth Social, threatening to blow Iran "to a thousand hells," and his DOJ is scrubbing the records of a convicted child sex offender who stormed the Capitol
Hi all, Ben here. It’s Saturday, May 23rd. We’ve made it to Memorial Day weekend. I’m sure you have a lot to get to this weekend, so I’ll keep this update quick. First, the headlines.
Here are the stories we’re tracking today:
Trump tells Axios he’s “50/50” on bombing Iran or signing a deal
Iran has submitted what it’s calling a final offer through Pakistani mediators, and it is a dramatically worse deal than the one Trump torched in 2018
Trump is holding a call with leaders of Pakistan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey and Egypt as the ceasefire hangs in the balance
Pete Hegseth tells West Point graduates to “seek God” and quotes Charlie Kirk at their commencement
Consumer sentiment is at its lowest level since 1952, but MAGA congressman Mike Lawler says the stock market is doing great, so relax
The Trump DOJ is proudly deleting records about January 6th rioters from its website, including one man with an active child solicitation case
The DOJ moves to dismiss seditious conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and several others — with prejudice
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Let’s get into it.
Trump’s Truth Social Spree
While Iran’s final offer was being communicated through Pakistani mediators in Tehran, Donald Trump was posting unhinged content on Truth Social and calling reporters he likes to manipulate the news cycle.
This morning alone, Trump posted an image of himself in China with the caption “China Loves Trump,” a map of the Middle East with the American flag superimposed over Iran captioned “United States of the Middle East?”, and yet another one of his creepy Greenland leering images — the one where he’s looming over the island like a predator. He also reposted a photo of himself tenderly caressing Xi Jinping’s hand from their Beijing meeting.
But the most repugnant post of the morning was a viciously racist meme targeting Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna. It depicts Khanna’s face photoshopped onto a demonic sheep-wolf hybrid creature — horns, fangs, floppy ears, a dirty white fur coat, gold chains, the works — holding a small lamb with dollar bills stuffed in its mouth. Trump captioned it: “A Dumocrat! Don’t allow this lying sleazebag on FoxNews!”
Trump is clearly terrified of Ro Khanna and the fact that Khanna’s message is breaking through in right wing spaces. Trump’s attacks on people are the tell. When Trump goes this hard at someone, it means that person is getting to him.
The Iran Negotiations That Show How Masterful Obama’s Deal Truly Was
Here’s where things stand with Iran, and let me note up front that this is an incredibly volatile and fast-moving situation.
An Iranian official confirmed to Al Jazeera what Drop Site had reported the night before: Iran has reached a memorandum of understanding with Pakistan, the official mediator in these talks, and is now waiting on Washington’s response. The proposal is structured as a two-track negotiation.
Track one is ending the war first. Iran wants a formal declaration ending hostilities, an end to the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports, and the release of frozen Iranian assets before any nuclear talks even begin. In exchange, Iran would provisionally reopen the Strait of Hormuz, waive transit fees temporarily, and allow maritime traffic to resume while a new governance framework for the strait is worked out. Iran is also demanding a compensation mechanism, funded by the U.S. and its coalition partners, to pay for war damages inside Iran, and an end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
Track two is nuclear negotiations, which would only begin after the war is formally ended. Under that framework, Iran says it would suspend uranium enrichment above 3.67% for ten years, dilute its stockpile of uranium enriched above 20% under supervision inside Iran, and commit not to develop a nuclear weapon. In return, Iran wants recognition of its right to enrich, preserved limited enrichment rights under any future deal, and full sanctions relief.
Now compare that to the deal Trump walked away from in 2018. Under the Obama-era JCPOA, Iran had to physically remove its highly enriched uranium, ship it out of the country, and submit to intrusive international inspections. What’s on the table now? A commitment to discuss potentially diluting enriched uranium. Not remove it. Discuss diluting it. The Strait of Hormuz would reopen, which, by the way, was open before this war started. And the U.S. would unfreeze Iranian assets, which is exactly what Trump and Republicans spent years screaming about when Obama did it, except Obama was unfreezing a comparatively tiny sum that was actually Iran’s money to begin with. This would be that, on a scale that dwarfs anything the Obama administration ever contemplated.
That is the “art of the deal,” folks. That is what billions in bombs and weeks of war bought us.
Meanwhile, Trump called up Barak Ravid at Axios, who reliably functions as a megaphone for whatever the administration wants to float at any given moment, to say he’s “50/50” between making a deal or resuming the war. “Either we reach a good deal or I’ll blow them to a thousand hells,” Trump said. Axios then ran the headline: Trump says he’s 50/50 on Iran deal or bombs. Sounds more like another Trump threat of genocide to me.
Marco Rubio gave his two cents as well: “There may be news later today... there may not be. I hope there will be. I’m not sure yet.”
Appreciate the clarity.
Hegseth at West Point
While all of this was unfolding, Pete Hegseth was at West Point delivering a commencement address to our military’s newest graduates. He told them to “seek God” and take the advice of Charlie Kirk. He also felt it was important to inform future Army officers that you cannot, in fact, throw your pronouns at the enemy during combat.
Who says this stuff? Especially during a commencement speech at West Point. In the middle of an active war.
The Economy Nobody In MAGA Will Talk About Honestly
Over the last six years, the S&P 500 has risen 130% while U.S. consumer sentiment has collapsed by 55%, hitting its lowest point since the University of Michigan began tracking it in 1952.
When Biden left office at the end of 2024, consumer sentiment was riding high. It was tracking roughly in line with the stock market. Now, under Trump, the stock market keeps going up — and consumer sentiment is in complete freefall. Why? Because people cannot afford groceries. They cannot afford gas. They cannot afford rent. They are drowning in credit card debt. We are in a jobs recession, and the gap between what the market is doing and what actual human beings are experiencing is the largest wealth divide in modern American history.
When Fox News asked MAGA Congressman Mike Lawler how Trump plans to fix the economic pain Americans are feeling before November, Lawler pointed to record stock market highs. The market is up. What are you complaining about?
The DOJ Is Erasing January 6th Records, And They’re “Proud” of It
Washington Post reporter Meryl Kornfield uncovered that the Trump administration has been quietly deleting Department of Justice press releases related to the January 6th Capitol attack from the DOJ’s official website, as the administration simultaneously prepares to distribute funds to January 6th defendants. One of the deleted press releases concerned a man who came to the Capitol with bear spray and a metal whip and who has an ongoing child solicitation case. This individual had already pleaded guilty to child sex crimes in Houston and is a registered sex offender.
When Kornfield reported on this, the DOJ responded by saying there was nothing “quiet” about it. They said they are proud to reverse what they called the DOJ’s “weaponization” under Biden and will do “everything in their power” to make whole those who were “persecuted for political purposes,” including stripping the DOJ website of what they called “partisan propaganda.”
They are publicly bragging about scrubbing the record of a convicted child sex offender who assaulted law enforcement at the Capitol. They’re calling that record “partisan propaganda.” And then, the Trump DOJ has now moved to dismiss — with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot ever be brought again — the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III and seven other Oath Keepers who participated in the January 6th insurrection.
We’ll keep you updated on the Iran War as it develops.
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This situation make me very worried, as an Afghan veteran we see again big powers playing with war and deals but normal people always suffer. I feel like nobody really care about people who already lost everything in past conflicts.
I am truly sickened with Hegseth's commencement speech to West Point grads. Truly evil and unhinged. He is poison to our military.