Today in Politics, Bulletin 155. 6/20/25

… Deranged Trump called for a Special Prosecutor to be appointed to investigate the 2020 election: “Crooked Joe Biden, a man who lost the 2020 Presidential Election by a “LANDSLIDE!” Biden was grossly incompetent, and the 2020 election was a total FRAUD! The evidence is MASSIVE and OVERWHELMING. A Special Prosecutor must be appointed. This cannot be allowed to happen again in the USA! Let the work begin!”

… Trump also told the media today that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize: “They should give me the Nobel prize for Rwanda and have you looked at the Congo? You could say Serbia. You could say a lot of them. The big one is India and Pakistan. I should have gotten it 4-5 times. They won't give it because they only give it to liberals.”

… This is especially insane considering that India’s Foreign Minister just felt compelled make a public statement that Trump had absolutely nothing to do with brokering their peace agreement with Pakistan. As for the other places - he couldn’t find them on a map.

… Author Stephen King weighed in today with his analysis: “Deep down in his heart, I believe Trump knows he’s an incompetent asshole.”

… Mob Boss Trump was asked about Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Sec of State Mike Pompeo making statements critical of his policy on Russia-Ukraine: "People have to be very careful with what they say. They got to be very careful with their mouth. Because their mouth could get them into a lot of trouble."

… Ukrainian journalist Igor Sushko following up on the NY Post story about Director of WH personnel Sergio Gor’s failure to complete and turn in background check forms like other appointees: “While working for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, ‘Sergio Gor’ and Senator Paul took a week-long trip to Russia in August of 2018. Shortly after this trip, Senator Paul promoted him to the position of Deputy Chief of Staff in January 2019.”

… Elon Musk, who hates Gor and clashed with him repeatedly during his time in the WH, replied to story: “The plot thickens.”

… Musk later posted about Gor: “He deliberately lied about where he was born on federal forms. That’s a serious crime.”

… Trump was asked today about his latest TACO move - pausing US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities: “I’m giving Iran a period of time. I would say 2 weeks would be the maximum.”

… Two weeks.

… The Times (UK): “President Trump has stepped back from bombing Iran, giving Tehran up to two weeks to negotiate an end to the conflict with Israel. Trump is looking for an ‘off-ramp’ after advisers became concerned at Iran’s ability to hit US bases across the Middle East and kill American troops in retaliation for any military intervention, such as the targeting of nuclear facilities with bunker-busting bombs. On Wed, Tehran wreaked considerable damage against targets in Israel, including by using hypersonic missiles to evade Israel’s Arrow interceptor system.”

… UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has jumped into fray to attempt to negotiate a deal: “Tomorrow, I will be heading to Geneva to meet with the Iranian foreign minister alongside my French, German and EU counterparts. Now is the time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one.”

… “Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has raised another stumbling block, telling Steve Witkoff that Iran wants a third party at the negotiating table and suggesting this could be China. Iran has indicated that it does not trust the nations presenting themselves as interlocutors for talks — the US, Britain and Germany — because of their hostile language about the regime in Tehran.”

… Trump was asked about Europe getting involved in the negotiations: “No. Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help with this one.”

… Reporter: Your intelligence community said they have no evidence that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Trump: “My intelligence community is wrong. Who said that?” Reporter: Your DNI Tulsi Gabbard. Trump: “She is wrong.”

… Gabbard then posted this on social media right after Trump spoke: “The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division. America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly.”

… Sure, it’s the media.

… MAGA podcaster Laura Loomer: “There’s a new op running inside MAGA, led by the same RFK Jr. supporters who tried to sabotage Trump’s campaign with a contingent election scheme. Their new schtick is to falsely accuse Trump of being PRO WAR. Now Tulsi Gabbard is pushing rogue, provocative and inflammatory foreign policy videos featuring nuclear explosions without approval from Trump, his advisors, or US national security officials amid a conflict that surrounds Iran’s nuclear capabilities and threats. According to my sources, the WH was furious about the nuclear war video she posted and summoned her to the Oval Office.”

… Former NATO Commander Gen. Wesley Clark on whether a strike on the underground Fordow nuke site would be successful: “We’ve obviously done testing on what the bomb is, but unless we’ve got the exact plans and know the composition of the earth that’s over that bunker, you can’t be positive of anything. You hear stories that it’s 200’ underground, other stories it’s 300’ underground, that it’s got reinforced concrete. You don’t know what’s actually in it, you’re not positive of anything.”

… Clark: “If you really want to get rid of this Iran nuclear program, you’ve got to clean up these sites. It’s not just this Fordow site, but it’s the Natanz site - and there’s probably a dozen or two dozen other sites where material, centrifuges have been made, bomb parts have been fabricated. There may be unenriched uranium. All that stuff’s got to be policed up, some of it very carefully handled. It’s got to be extricated and that’s after the bombing, because otherwise the regime, if it stays in power, could go back and reconstitute.”

… This is not what I have been hearing on Fox, where this is being sold as a quick and easy “one-bomb strike and it’s over” proposition.

… Steve Bannon, who had lunch with Trump yesterday to talk to him about backlash from the MAGA base over war plans: “Last week’s strike felt rushed. It wasn’t just about nukes; it was a decapitation move. If regime change is the goal, be honest. Don’t upsell America into another war.”

… Bannon also took another shot at Fox after Kayleigh McEnany said on her show that it would be easy to take out Iran’s nuke capabilities with one surgical strike: “Kayleigh McEnany is infantile, let’s be blunt. That is dangerous and that is on Fox all day long. Why would you not think they aren’t representing a foreign government - Hannity, Levin, the whole crowd. There should be an investigation.”

… Fox reports that we are moving forces from Asia to the Middle East: “The USS Nimitz carrier strike group will arrive in the Middle East this weekend. The Nimitz left the South China Sea on Monday. The US will now have two aircraft carriers in the Middle East at the same time.”

… Norwegian nuclear and missile analyst Fabian Hoffmann: “It's incredible how bad Trump is at foreign policy. He first dismantled the JCPOA, an imperfect but highly effective agreement that imposed unprecedented oversight on Iran’s nuclear program and significantly constrained its capabilities. Now, when there’s an opportunity to finish off that infrastructure, he refuses to act, all but ensuring that Iran will eventually become a nuclear power.

… “I’m a deterrence optimist, I don’t believe a nuclear Iran will necessarily lead to catastrophe. But as a European, I don't need a nuclear-armed, personalist, theocratic regime in Europe's periphery. Trump dealt the cards, and he dealt them badly. Now he’s walking away from the table.”

… Not to worry though, Trump’s former NSA John Bolton gives us some words of encouragement: “The National Security Council provides structure for methodical and thorough decision making in the Situation Room. As it stands, Trump’s chaotic approach has depleted the NSC staff, and broken the NSC process, leaving decision makers in the Situation Room at severe risk of making poor decisions.”

… He’s got Hegseth though. What could go wrong?

… Politico: “The WH recently nixed the Pentagon’s pick to head the country’s top spy agency and command its elite hacking force. The decision not to move forward with the DOD’s recommendation to nominate Army Lt. Gen. Richard Angle as NSA Director will extend a leadership vacuum atop one of the most powerful US spy agencies. Angle had the support of Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard.”

… “It is not clear why the WH opted not to move forward with Angle’s nomination. Angle’s name being withdrawn from consideration comes after POLITICO reported that both Hegseth and Gabbard have dwindling influence over the WH’s Iran policy.”

… Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO): “Trump as a candidate promised to end US involvement in foreign wars. Now Trump is on the brink of pulling us into another Middle East conflict. I served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I know where this leads. The American people don’t want another war.”

… Sean Davis from the right-wing news site The Federalist: “The behavior of Tom Tillis and Mitch McConnell over the last week certainly raises a lot of questions about whether the Senate GOP is trying to blackmail Trump into war with Iran by refusing to pass his Big Beautiful Bill until he starts another war.”

After a long winter and then 12 consecutive Saturdays of rain here in Maine, we finally have great weather in store for tomorrow on my day off for the first time! We are going kayaking in a beautiful salt marsh and then a new Italian restaurant in town for dinner. Next Bulletin will recap the weekend on Sunday night.

Thanks again for supporting my work. Obviously without you I would still be in a courtroom doing jury trials, which I don’t especially miss. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… Reuters: “At the end of last year, the economy was at full employment and steadily growing above trend, inflation was on track to fall to the Fed's 2% target, and the central bank expected to steadily ease borrowing costs. ‘The US economy is just performing very, very well,’ Jerome Powell said after the Fed's Dec 17-18 meeting. ‘The outlook is pretty bright.’”

… “It has dimmed since then. In projections issued this week, Fed policymakers' median outlook for gross domestic product growth had fallen to 1.4%, well below trend, from the 2.1% projected in Dec, with the unemployment rate projected to rise