If you haven’t felt it by now, you might have at least heard about it: President Donald Trump’s plan was always to “flood the zone,” in the words of former adviser Steve Bannon.
The president’s goal is to overload the media and its readers with executive orders, outlandish soundbites, and outright false statements so that the public feels exhausted and despondent. (And for that purpose, it is working.)
Here are some key events, underreported moments, and straight-up bonkers things coming from the White House’s past week to help you make sense of Trump’s onslaught.
One of Trump’s biggest media-grabbers this past week was during his press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The over-tanned blondie told reporters that he envisioned the U.S. taking control of the Gaza Strip.
At first, Trump played around with the idea of deploying U.S. troopsbut on Thursday, he told the press that the Gaza Strip would “be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”
Things have snowballed from there on the international front.
While Trump’s tariff war with Canada and Mexico has so far turned out to be a big fat break-even for the U.S., Trump is still butting heads with Chinawho basically told us to kick rocks.
On a weirder note back home, the convicted felon decided to gather as many young girls as he could to sign an executive order targeting transgender athletes—something those little girls likely didn’t know anything about.
But it wouldn’t be a week in the White House without a little conspiracy as well.
In Trump fashion, the 78-year-old flexed his inability to spell while incorrectly accusing the U.S. government of paying off the company that oversees Politico.
On Thursday, the president wrote on his Truth Social platform:
LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN [stolen] AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES, MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A “PAYOFF” FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS. THE LEFT WING “RAG,” KNOWN AS “POLITICO,” SEEMS TO HAVE RECEIVED $8,000,000. Did the New York Times receive money??? Who else did??? THIS COULD BE THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL, PERHAPS THE BIGGEST IN HISTORY! THE DEMOCRATS CAN’T HIDE FROM THIS ONE. TOO BIG, TOO DIRTY!
Of course, the president is actually looking at what the entire federal government spent on Politico Pro subscriptions—but you can read more from Daily Kos about his misunderstanding here.
As Trump moans about supposed left-wing media brainwashing the masses, he also took to the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday to instruct newly minted Attorney General Pam Bondi to start a task force to root out “anti-Christian bias.”
According to Trump, Bondi will “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”
And what’s the godliest thing of all that Trump can offer? Apparently, him running for a third term.
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