Donald Trump doesn’t seem to have much interest in the war he started – here’s more on that and all the other bizarre moments from the Trump administration in the last 24 hours
When Donald Trump gets bored, he returns to what he knows. Or at least, what he thinks he knows.
From the focus of his attention in recent days, you wouldn’t think there was a war on – even if a tentative ceasefire is still theoretically ongoing. The King’s coming to town next week, you see, and Trump is eager for Washington DC to look as much like a cheap casino resort as possible before his arrival.
So apparently disinterested is he in the war he started that he’s apparently benched his negotiators and banned them from flying to Pakistan for talks.
Meanwhile, in Trumpworld
- Iran talks are off (again)
- Trump is entirely uninterested in reports of insider trading
- He wanted his new path laid quickly so he could show it off to the King
- More pictures of Trump vandalising a beloved landmark
- He’s slowly turning the White House into a gaudy casino resort
- Huge backlash over Trump speech at White House Correspondents Dinner
- Pete Hegseth seems preoccupied
Here’s what you need to know
1. Iran peace talks are off again…
Trump has pulled the plug on (another) planned trip to Pakistan by that dynamic duo Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for talks with Iran.
“I’ve told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18 hour flight to go there. We have all the cards,'” Trump said in a statement. “They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”
He added on Truth Social: “I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians. Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their “leadership.” Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Iran ’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Pakistan on Saturday evening. Araghchi had met with Pakistani Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif about what he called Iran’s red lines for negotiations, and said Tehran would engage with Pakistan’s mediation efforts “until a result is achieved.” Iran had said talks would be indirect.
An open-ended ceasefire has paused most fighting, but the economic fallout grows with global shipments of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer and other supplies disrupted by the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian officials have openly asked how they can trust the US after talks last year and early this year over Tehran’s nuclear program ended with it being attacked by the US and Israel.
2. Trump seems entirely unconcerned with people making money by placing insider trading bets on the Iran war
There is increasing concern in Washington that often when something major happens , the kind of thing Washington insiders might know about ahead of time, someone has placed a bet on it happening on one of the newly sprouted “prediction markets.”
The Department of Justice announced earlier this week that a Special Forces soldier who took part in the invasion of Venezuela had allegedly made $400,000 by betting more than $30,000 on Nicolas Madura’s removal on the website Polymarket.
Trump was asked about it last night and seemed entirely unconcerned.
“Well, you know, the whole world unfortunately has become somewhat of a casino. You look at what’s going on all over the world and in Europe and every place and doing these betting things. I was never much in favour, I don’t like it conceptually. But it is what it is.”
3. Trump wanted his new path laid quickly so he could show it off to the King
Trump is reportedly eager to show off one of his many ugly changes to Washington’s most iconic landmarks to the King when he visits DC next week.
Not satisfied with creating a “Presidential walk of fame”, with pictures and plaques that insult his predecessors in the most crass and vile way possible, nor with writing “THE WEST WING”, and “THE OVAL OFFICE” on the wall in big gold painted letters, like a run-down Bournemouth hotel, he’s ripped up the path along the world-famous colonnade and replaced it with black granite, which could not look more out of place. Additionally, it’s not even American stone. He admitted in the Oval the other day that the Tennessee flagstone is being replaced with Afrian granite, crafted in Italy.
The New York Times notes that the rush to get the job done was entirely because he wanted to show it off to King Charles.
But their article also includes this wonderful quote from Grayson Carter, the former editor of Vanity Fair and Spy Magazine, who coined the epithet “short-fingered vulgarian” to describe Trump in the 1980s.
“Labelling the West Wing with lettering calling it ‘The West Wing’ is simply tragic. As are so many of Trump’s signature gilded flourishes,” he wrote.
“We already have a Las Vegas. We don’t need another one on the Potomac.”
4. More pictures of Trump vandalising a beloved landmark – and it gets worse
More pictures are emerging of the botch job Trump has ordered of “refurbishing” the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
And when I say “refurbishing” I mean “swimming pool conversion.” The images of a deep blue substance being apparently spraypainted onto the granite of the beloved landmark has prompted widespread alarm.
Trump, of course, loves it – and posted on Truth Social comparing two photos of the reflecting pool. The left one, with brown-tinged water is labelled “HUSSEIN OBAMA” and one with deep blue water in it is labelled “TRUMP”. Because a decade on, he still hasn’t let that go.
Of course, neither of the images is real. They’re AI edit of the picture of the reflecting pool from Wikipedia. It’s been altered to look dirty in one picture and, well, blue in the second. Also, the original was taken in 2005, while George W Bush was president.
5. Welcome to The Trump White House Casino and Grill
While everyone’s been paying attention to the gaudy gold wall adornments in the White House, the aircraft hanger of a ballroom he’s putting up where the East Wing used to be…and now the blue paint at the bottom of the reflecting pool, few have been paying attention to what Trump’s doing to Lafayette Park, just outside the White House grounds.
At first glance it looks like a fairly normal refurbishment, with the park’s fountains repaired and working for the first time in about a decade. All good right?
Well, that’s until they turn on the disco lights, and suddenly you’re transported to Blackpool in the mid-00s.
6. Huge backlash and boycott over Trump being made guest of honour at White House Correspondents Dinner
The White House Correspondents Association has invited Trump to appear at its annual dinner, which takes place tonight in Washington DC – and for the first time as President, he’s agreed.
This has prompted something of a backlash, for reasons including but not limited to, his administration’s repeated lies, his berating of reporters – particularly female ones, the Pentagon’s restrictions on press freedom, his banning the Associated Press from some events because they wouldn’t call it the “Gulf of America” and his repeated, baseless bully lawsuits against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News and the BBC.
On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the association “to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
“The White House Correspondents’ dinner reinforces the importance of the First Amendment in our democracy,” said the WHCA president, Weijia Jiang, a CBS News reporter. “As we mark America’s 250th birthday, our choice to gather as journalists, newsmakers and the president in the same room is a reminder of what a free press means to this country and why it must endure. Not for the media or the president, but for the people who depend on it.”
A number of news organisations have made a point of not attending the event – not as guests, anyway. The New York Times has disapproved of the event for years and just sends a couple of reporters to lurk.
Another irksome move by the WHCA is to break with the tradition of hiring a comedian to host the event – usually “roasting” the President with edgy jokes. This year it will be MC’d by a guy called “Oz The Mentalist”, who is kind of America’s equivalent of Derren Brown.
“What was once (a fairly long time ago) a well-intended night of fundraising and camaraderie among professional adversaries is now simply a bad look,” wrote Kelly McBride, ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.
7. Pete Hegseth seems preoccupied
We missed this yesterday, but please enjoy this video of “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth accidentally telling everyone exactly what was on his mind at 8am.