Harv's Corner

Let's take a quick look at Lt. Col. Theresa Long.  
​
​Lack of Specialized Expertise: Major medical organizations and virologists point out that while she is trained in occupational/aerospace medicine, she lacks specialized training in immunology, virology, or vaccinology.
Disputed Data & Claims: Her claims—such as alleging high rates of myocarditis in pilots or describing mRNA vaccines as "bioweapons"—were rejected by the Department of Defense (DoD), CDC, and major public health agencies. The DoD clarified that initial data spikes she cited from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) were caused by a database coding error rather than a sudden wave of vaccine injuries. Judicial & Institutional Response: Courts and military leadership largely declined to act on her affidavits, citing a lack of epidemiological proof directly linking the reported issues to the vaccines on the scale she described. While supporters view her as a courageous whistleblower who raised early safety concerns for flight crews, mainstream medical consensus and military health authorities consider her specific claims about COVID-19 vaccines scientifically unsupported.

Kennedy taps Army doctor to review military death claims
COVID vaccine skeptic Long will study dubious reports regarding shots.
By APOORVA MANDAVILLI and JAN HOFFMAN The New York Times

The Department of Health and Human Services has hired an Army doctor with a history of questioning the safety of COVID vaccines to investigate unsubstantiated claims that over 2,500 U.S. service members died after receiving the shots.
​
The hiring of Lt. Col. Theresa Long, who has no specialized training in vaccines or viruses, is part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s intense campaign to explore long-held and baseless theories about the hazards of vaccines.

Little evidence supports this latest investigation.

More than 96% of service members were vaccinated against COVID before a mandate requiring the shots was rescinded. A March report from the Pentagon and one in July 2025 found no deaths from the vaccines.

Long said in an Aug. 14 legal deposition obtained by the New York Times that she is a senior medical military adviser to Kennedy but also reports to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

She said in the deposition that she had been appointed to investigate 55,000 reports of adverse effects and 2,544 deaths among service members who received COVID vaccines, in the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Experts have noted that while this database is the largest, it is also the least reliable: Anyone can submit reports of side effects, and they are not vetted, so they may be subject to bias or manipulation.

Politico reported Long's role earlier. She and HHS did not respond to requests for comment or clarification on the project.

Billions worldwide have received COVID vaccines. The vast majority have experienced no serious side effects, and research has found deaths from the vaccines to be exceedingly rare.

"I have not seen any convincing reports that large numbers of people have died due to the vaccine," said Dr. Ofer Levy, the director of the precision vaccines program at Boston Children's Hospital.

Long testified that she had personal knowledge of the deaths of 28 service members as a result of COVID vaccines. She also said that she knew of several service members who lost pregnancies after receiving COVID shots, and that the vaccines had caused pregnancy loss at a rate of about 82%. Studies in hundreds of thousands of women have shown that COVID vaccination is not linked to an increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, or preterm birth.

Long also echoed inaccurate comments from Kennedy suggesting that vaccines may cause autism and contending that autism is "extraordinarily rare" in some groups like the Amish who often do not immunize their children. Dozens of studies have explored and dismissed those theories.

Two weeks ago, Pennsylvania announced two deaths from measles, both in infants from the Amish community.

The 2026 Pentagon report concluded that COVID vaccinations caused a short-term rise in heart inflammation within 21 days — a known side effect — but that the inflammation did not persist, and COVID itself carried a larger risk of the complication.

The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The report also found that COVID vaccines decreased the incidence of eight conditions, including life-threatening ones such as acute kidney failure and hemorrhagic stroke.

Long told lawyers in the deposition that the Pentagon report cherry-picked data and that she had been appointed specifically to investigate "inaccuracies" in defense databases.

She said she hoped to complete her investigation within a year.

Levy said given the military includes many young men — the group at highest risk of myocarditis, or heart inflammation, from COVID vaccines — he supported research into the safety of the shots in that population.

But many infections, including COVID and flu, can cause myocarditis, he noted, and proving the exact cause of death can be exceedingly difficult.

HARV'S CORNER 

A federal rule scheduled to take effect in January would have required Taco Bell to send those records within 24 hours. But last year, the Trump administration delayed implementing that rule until mid 2028, saying companies needed more time to prepare.

Food safety experts say the postponement has hindered the response to the outbreak, the largest cluster in a record number of cyclospora cases in the United States this year.

Cyclospora spread as food safety was slashed
Oversight shortcomings revealed amid outbreak.
By CHRISTINA JEWETT and JULIE CRESWELL The New York Times

​Cases of cyclosporiasis were mounting rapidly in Michigan, and state health officials were homing in on a common thread: Many of those who had fallen ill had eaten at Taco Bell.

On July 1, they asked the company for its supply chain records, crucial information in tracing ingredients that may have caused the outbreak.

On July 3, they wrote and asked for the records again.

On July 6, they wrote a third time.
"With the rapid nature of this outbreak and the number of people affected, we need to ensure we are completing traceback in a timely manner to preserve public health,"

Lauren Edwards, a public health researcher on the state's rapid response team, said in an email to executives at Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell. (The New York Times obtained the correspondence under Michigan's open records law.) Later that day, Taco Bell provided some records to the state, which by then was working with the federal Food and Drug Administration. The FDA asked for additional records two days later. Finally, on July 13, the agency received all the records it needed to pinpoint lettuce from a Taylor Farms plant in Mexico as a source of the outbreak.

A federal rule that had been scheduled to take effect in January would have required Taco Bell to send those records within 24 hours. But last year, the Trump administration delayed the implementation of that rule until mid 2028, saying companies needed more time to prepare.

Food safety experts say the postponement has hindered the response to the outbreak, the largest cluster in a record number of cyclospora cases in the United States this year.

"Time translates into illnesses and lives," said Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, who reviewed the emails from Michigan. He added: "We would have had a much better response to this outbreak if they hadn't delayed that rule."

Cyclospora, which can cause explosive diarrhea, cramps and other severe symptoms, has been a recognized driver of foodborne illness for nearly 30 years. But this year's massive toll — totaling more than 24,500 confirmed or suspected cases so far and two deaths — reveals shortcomings in the U.S. food safety system that may leave Americans more vulnerable to future pathogens, public health experts say.

Many point to an erosion of food safety oversight during the Trump administration, stemming in part from its aggressive efforts to roll back regulations and shrink the federal government.

Last year, the FDA laid off many of the staff who supported food inspectors' travel planning and who coordinate with foreign governments on food safety. (An FDA spokesperson said Friday that "travel support staff and staff that coordinated with foreign governments have been reinstated.") The administration eliminated a committee tasked with studying problems that led to outbreaks. It also cut a program focused on cyclospora tracking.

"So far this administration has made our food less safe, not safer," said Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group. "By firing food safety experts, by reducing the number of inspections, by tracking fewer pathogens, and by failing to set up a traceability system that makes sure that we're able to clear the shelves quickly."

Donald Prater, the FDA's acting deputy commissioner for food, said the agency responded swiftly with the information it had on hand. He added that even if the 24-hour rule had been in effect, it would not have made a major impact on managing this outbreak response.

An FDA spokesperson said that protecting the nation's food supply remains a core responsibility, and the agency has the personnel and resources to respond to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses.

Taco Bell said it responded to requests from Michigan and federal officials in a timely manner.

"We acted immediately, voluntarily and proactively to protect our guests and support health officials," the company said in a statement.
On July 15, federal authorities tied the outbreak to iceberg lettuce that had been supplied to Taco Bell from a plant in Mexico owned by Taylor Farms, a large U.S.-based producer of fresh vegetables, fruits and greens.

The next day, Taylor Farms began a recall of its products containing iceberg lettuce that had been shipped to 27 states.

A spokesperson for Taylor Farms said it promptly responded to requests for information and is cooperating with health officials in the U.S. and Mexico. On July 19, it sent independent third-party experts to conduct a "top-tobottom review" of food safety processes there.

Yet efforts by authorities to figure out how the iceberg lettuce in Mexico became contaminated by cyclospora, a single-cell parasite that infects the small intestine and spreads through feces, continue to move slowly. Although Taylor Farms temporarily shut down the plant July 18, FDA inspectors did not arrive in Mexico to inspect it until this past week, nearly a month later.
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The investigators from the FDA were delayed in traveling partly because of clearances needed to work in an area deemed unsafe for Americans, according to a person familiar with the effort, who was not authorized to speak about it.

They also needed to coordinate with the Mexican government and gather enough testing supplies to do a thorough investigation, the person said.

The slow start could make it difficult to discover a root cause of the contamination, said Sandra Eskin, CEO of Stop Foodborne Illness, a nonprofit working to protect against foodborne pathogens.

Declining inspections Some of the problems that have hampered the response to this outbreak developed over decades: Scientists who study cyclospora said they have lacked the funding to better understand the parasite, including how it spreads and how to detect it. Food safety advocates say the goals of a landmark food safety law enacted in 2011 have not been met amid weak regulations and falling numbers of foreign food facility inspections.

The federal rule requiring companies to swiftly produce records in an outbreak investigation was drafted under that law, the Food Safety Modernization Act, which gave the FDA new powers to keep food free of parasites and pathogens, to rapidly trace produce through the supply chain and to aggressively expand inspections.

The law set a goal of 19,200 annual foreign inspections by 2016. But foreign inspections have fallen markedly even as the foreign food supply has surged.

In 2025, the agency made about 1,100 visits to foreign food plants and cited significant lapses in about 80 of them. Its last visit to the Taylor Farms facility in Mexico was in 2019, records show.

Even though finding the tiny cyclospora parasites during a site visit is challenging, such visits could reveal indicators such as irrigation water with high levels of fecal matter.

A spokesperson for Taylor Farms said that it has a "robust fecal indicator testing program that includes cyclospora for all of our water sources. All of those tests have been negative."

With the exception of the pandemic years, the FDA's foreign food inspections in 2025 were at a 15-year low, agency data show.

Currently, the FDA has about 440 staff charged with inspecting more than 300,000 registered animal and human food facilities — domestically and abroad.

"Other things help ensure the safety of the food supply, but inspection is the classic consumer protection when it's done correctly," Eskin said.
Another major safeguard outlined in the law was meant to add visibility into the food supply chain, particularly for public health officials and regulators charged with limiting harm during an outbreak.
The rule that the FDA ended up delaying last year was meant to "limit foodborne illness and death." It required food sellers, including restaurants and grocers, to provide the agency or an authorized representative with a spreadsheet detailing their suppliers within 24 hours of an outbreak, or a reasonable amount of time the agency agrees to.

The FDA's decision to delay the rule was followed by action from the Republican-controlled Congress, which took additional steps to bar the FDA from using its funding to enforce the rule and urged a revision favoring greater flexibility.

In Michigan, cyclospora has now sickened more than 12,000 people and contributed to two deaths. Officials said in the internal emails, which were first obtained by Bloomberg News, that they had to contend with an antiquated disease surveillance system and analyze the information from interviews with 700 people who fell ill.

Once Taco Bell emerged as a common thread the interviews, getting the company's supplier list was crucial, said Susan Mayne, a former FDA official who remains active in food policy. In such a large outbreak, she said, it's important to determine if one ingredient came from a central source, in contrast to those from an array of farms.

"The faster you can get back to the records, the faster you can identify the source of the outbreak and remove those products from the market and prevent further exposures," she said. "So speed is everything."

Searching for solutions This past week is not the first time FDA officials flew to Taylor Farms' Mexican processing plant to investigate a cyclospora outbreak.

In 2013, in the wake of an outbreak that sickened more than 600 people who ate salad at Olive Garden and Red Lobster, federal inspectors descended on the facility and examined more than 1,000 samples of lettuce, irrigation water and the feces of the farmworkers, a main harbor for the cyclospora parasite.

They found virtually nothing, an inspection report shows. Every result was negative, except for one considered inconclusive.

The FDA noted that the facility's practice of washing the salad mix with recycled water had the potential to spread cyclospora, if it was present.

But ultimately the agency could not "determine how or at what point in the supply chain" the cyclospora was introduced.

Taylor Farms said it then began a new process for testing water and produce.

Jim Gorny, a produce safety expert who retired in 2024 from the FDA, said cyclospora wasn't viewed inside the agency as high-risk like E. coli or listeria.

Yet, some scientists were growing increasingly worried as cyclospora outbreaks grew in size and scope. Originally found in berries and basil, by the 2000s, it was affecting larger numbers of people after eating salad.

Cyclospora is a uniquely difficult parasite to detect, monitor and eliminate. Testing for it in the environment — especially in agricultural water — is extraordinarily challenging, and, as a result, rarely done.

The USDA said its peer reviewers had selected projects viewed as "most impactful" for growers and that it had supported some cyclospora research last year.

Gorny noted that he helped develop an FDA action plan for cyclospora that was released in 2023. The plan called for increased and improved education, testing for cyclospora and rapid root-cause analysis of outbreaks. Recently, officials working on the plan held an educational session in a region of Mexico that had been tied to prior cyclospora outbreaks.

But progress toward solutions has been slow. FDA guidance on produce safety released this past week acknowledged that the agency does not know of any treatment that would prevent the spread of cyclospora "and be suitable for use on fresh-cut produce."

As a result, there may be more summers of cyclospora.

"Until we get down to the hard work of better research, getting tools for better and faster detection and better root cause analysis," Gorny said, "this is going to happen again.

Harv's Corner

Our system of government was intended to be "by the people and for the people"—so where are we in the current conversation? What about Medicare, Medicaid, and the very programs designed to protect and support this country's citizens? Where exactly do they sit on the President's agenda?
Harv

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Soccer, NATO, and Mount Rushmore
Dan Rather and Team Steady
Jul 6

Donald Trump will attempt to direct the news in ways that benefit not the country, but him. The latest example involves the president interfering in the world’s biggest sporting event, soccer’s World Cup.

Trump put his thumb on the scale in favor of the reinstatement of an American soccer star who had been disqualified from playing an upcoming match. While the outrage over that move reverberates around the world, giving people more reasons to hate the American president and lose respect for our country, another story involving international maneuvering warrants your attention. It may not get as many headlines or internet clicks, but its potential for long-ranging consequences is far greater.

On Monday in Ankara, Turkey, the head of the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) said what would have been unthinkable ten years ago. Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters that the current alliance between Europe and the United States is no longer sustainable.

This is a major development and comes just hours before the annual NATO summit, which could mark the beginning of the end of the 77-year partnership.

For decades, European security has also meant American security. NATO, a group of 32 nations, has long been the bulwark between Russian aggression and the rest of Europe. The alliance was founded at the end of World War II to guard against a similar war from ever happening again. In the decades since, the United States has been the foundation holding NATO’s defense strategy together.

Trump claims the U.S. does not get “any benefit” from membership and consistently complains that most countries do not give their fair share, while the United States pays too much.

He is obviously oversimplifying a complex international alliance that clearly benefits the U.S., given the importance of European security to this country and the world.

Using “flattery diplomacy,” Rutte attempted to keep the president in the fold. Last June, he handed Trump a huge win, with an agreement that member nations would increase their contributions from 2% to 5% of GDP by 2035. Reportedly, Rutte and others told reluctant leaders not to worry; no one is going to hold them to such a large increase. Even so, the ensuing year has seen a 20% increase in NATO’s coffers. Rutte fawned over the American president and his initiative, calling the windfall “Trump Trillions.”

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently announced a six-month review of U.S. forces in Europe, while reducing its troops “to pre-2022 levels,” on top of a “reduction of 5,000 forces earlier this year.” All the while, the war in Ukraine continues into its fifth year, with Kyiv holding its own against its bigger, richer neighbor, Russia.

Any argument for the U.S.’s continued membership in NATO runs through this war. If Putin wins, the consequences for European and global security are an open and chilling question. With this as the backdrop, Trump is begrudgingly attending this week’s summit as many European leaders are quietly discussing NATO without the U.S.

According to The Wall Street Journal, French President Emmanuel Macron believes Europe’s overreliance on the U.S. is a grave risk to European security. He said, “There is no going back,” that the rupture between Europe and America is insurmountable, and NATO needs to become strategically independent.

Leaders of the U.K., Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands have also voiced concerns. Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, historically a Trump supporter, admitted in March that Trump “is not reasonable.”

While international leaders are pondering the existential threat to the most successful peacekeeping alliance ever, the rest of the country and the world is tugging its collective hair out over Trump’s soccer moves.

Last week, the top scorer on the U.S. team, Folarin Balogun, was shown a red card after fouling an opposing player during the American victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina. A record 33 million Americans watched.

​A red card means an automatic one-game suspension. FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, has no official means of appealing such a call. That didn’t stop Trump from phoning his good friend Gianni Infantino, the head of FIFA, to urge him to review the suspension. Four days later, Balogun’s suspension was lifted, allowing him to play in the round of 16 against Belgium on Monday night. Belgium’s appeal was lodged and quickly denied. Rather than downplay his involvement, Trump thanked FIFA “for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!”

Trump and Infantino’s relationship is no secret. FIFA rents office space for its U.S. headquarters at Trump Tower in Manhattan. And remember when Trump was kicking the dirt because he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize? It was FIFA who rode to the rescue, creating its own peace prize and awarding it to none other than Donald J. Trump, trophy and medal included.

Trump is happy to interfere in an international incident that might mean the difference between America winning or losing a game. But he does not want to be involved in an alliance that might mean the difference between the world winning or losing its security.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, an American president was considered the leader of the free world. That title has been eroded as we watch walls go up and relationships shatter.

Instead, Trump is hunkering down in his isolationism, closing borders and ending alliances, with no strategic endgame.

​ And let us pause to note that this is the same president who wants to be carved into immortality alongside some of America’s greatest presidents on Mount Rushmore. He’s promoting the idea again, as if his odds increase the more times he talks about it. Those leaders made a positive difference. They didn’t continually find new paths to degrade and endanger the nation.

Harv's Corner

Up until now, I thought OLED was the "BEST" picture you could get.  Well, I guess I was wrong!  RBG is now taking center stage as the very best color on the market.  Take a look at this article and see what you think.

​BEST BUY BETS BIG ON NEXT-GEN TV BOOM
It’s the exclusive retailer for new tech, and a long-awaited upgrade cycle is expected soon.
Story by CARSON HARTZOG • Photo by LEILA NAVIDI • The Minnesota Star Tribune

How much better does a TV have to work before shoppers are willing to spend upward of $1,500 to replace the one already hanging on their walls?

That's the question facing Richfield-based Best Buy as it becomes the exclusive national retailer for a new generation of premium TVs that promise brighter colors, deeper contrast, and less glare than today's models.

After several sluggish years for consumer electronics following the pandemic buying boom, executives and Wall Street analysts believe the TV market may finally be on the verge of a long-awaited replacement cycle.

Best Buy is betting that improved picture quality — combined with millions of aging TVs purchased during COVID-19 — will finally persuade shoppers it's time to upgrade.

Incoming CEO Jason Bonfig has said Best Buy is "not just a retailer anymore," but its stores remain central to the company's strategy and generate most of its revenue. Expanding into categories such as Lego and trading cards is part of that evolution, but the electronics chain still relies on new phone and TV releases to drive store traffic.

"For us, it's always been about making sure we serve customers across every price point," Bonfig said in an interview at the Richfield store. "When new technology comes in, that absolutely helps our business. But at the same time, it's our job, with our vendors, to tell them what customers want. That's really when our model works best."

A long-awaited upgrade cycle
Best Buy is the national retailer with exclusive rights for one year to sell RGB LED televisions from leading manufacturers, including Samsung, Sony, LG, TCL, and Hisense.

The sets are positioned above conventional LED models and compete with OLED televisions, with prices ranging from about $1,000 to more than $30,000 for a 115-inch screen.

The challenge is convincing shoppers that the technology is worth the premium. Bonfig believes that seeing the TVs in person will make the difference — a tagline that Best Buy has embraced in its "Believing Is Seeing" marketing campaign.

"There is really something very powerful about when people get an opportunity to see it," he said. "Or some people say, 'Oh, it's amazing, but I actually need something in this price range.' We have that covered as well."

Unlike traditional LED televisions, which use a white backlight, RGB LED sets use separate red, green, and blue LEDs, producing brighter colors, stronger contrast, and less glare in sunlit rooms.

Bonfig said innovation also has returned to a more "normal" pace since the pandemic, when companies were focused on producing "as much product as possible," a shift he said has helped improve sales trends across categories, including TVs.

Best Buy has struck similar deals before. In 2023, it became the exclusive retailer for Roku-made TVs. A few years before that, it partnered with Amazon on a multiyear agreement to sell Toshiba and Insignia TVs.

But that wasn't the case when OLED TVs entered the market. In 2013, Best Buy became the first U.S. retailer to sell LG OLED TVs, but it didn't have the kind of market exclusivity this deal provides.

"It's not about just asking for an exclusive," Bonfig said. "The exclusive means that we're going to represent the products in a way the vendors want. We're going to show the technology like nobody else can. We're going to train our employees [and] have the digital resources."

Analysts say the technology arrives at an important moment for Best Buy.
Millions of televisions purchased during the pandemic are now nearing the industry's typical five- to seven-year replacement cycle. D.A. Davidson estimates roughly 49 million TVs were sold during the COVID buying surge and says RGB technology could give consumers the extra push to replace them, much as OLED did more than a decade ago.

"Consumers are re-engaging with the category," D.A. Davidson analyst Michael Baker wrote after meeting with Best Buy executives this month.

The firm estimates that new display technologies historically grow to account for about 20% of television sales and believes RGB could follow a similar path.

Jefferies analysts reached a similar conclusion in a June research note, saying RGB televisions could appeal to Best Buy's higher-income customers who are willing to pay more for premium technology.

Can Best Buy regain momentum?
When Bonfig takes over in November, he will be tasked with proving Best Buy can remain relevant in a rapidly evolving consumer electronics market.

In its most recent quarter, Best Buy's sales growth slightly lagged the broader electronics market, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. In a post-earnings note, he wrote the retailer was becoming a "less relevant player in the electronics landscape."

The company has shown signs of improvement, posting positive comparable sales in two consecutive quarters last year and again in the February-to-April period. But demand remains uneven, and the most recent holiday shopping season was disappointing.

Best Buy's home theater business, which includes televisions, has struggled in recent years as consumer spending shifted to phones, computing, and gaming consoles. Sales were down in the most recent quarter, though the company reported improvements in TVs specifically.

Best Buy also faces growing competition from Amazon, Costco, and Home Depot, which have been gaining market share in big-ticket categories such as appliances and televisions.

Jefferies analyst Jonathan Matuszewski estimates Best Buy has historically accounted for about one-third of television sales, giving the retailer an "enviable position" despite growing competition.

Bonfig said the retailer has eliminated one of the "pain points" by connecting a delivery team with every purchase of an RGB TV. That includes installing the new television, taking down the old one, and recycling it.

"One of the biggest things with TVs right now is people want to upgrade, but in some cases, the TV they have in their home still works," he said. "So there's a bit of, 'well, this is still working. Should I wait until it's not working anymore?' What we've done is use all of our capabilities to say, 'let's just make it really simple.' "

Whether RGB catches on as quickly as OLED did remains an open question, analysts say.
OLED televisions spent years as a niche product for home theater enthusiasts before prices fell enough to reach a broader audience. RGB televisions are launching at similarly premium prices, meaning early buyers are likely to be technology enthusiasts, gamers, and movie fans.

"These TVs are materially more expensive than what is traditionally available, so like every adoption cycle, it may take some time for the technology to gain significant traction," Truist Securities analyst Scot Ciccarelli wrote in a May research note.

Bonfig acknowledged that adoption will take time but said he believes the technology will appeal to more than early adopters, allowing Best Buy to benefit long after its one-year exclusivity period ends.

"I think RGB will be a technology that continues to become more and more popular with customers," he said. "The interesting thing about this ... is we're seeing a lot of interest from a lot of different customers."
[email protected]

Harv's Corner

What's new!  Trump has already said he does not consider the public's affordability concerns.

Housing Act Nixed by Trump!

The bill signing was suddenly canceled!
Trump backs out on the Housing Act until voting restrictions are passed.
By MICHAEL GOLD, TONY ROMM, TYLER PAGER and RONDA KAYSEN • The New York Times

​
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump abruptly canceled his plans Wednesday to sign a bipartisan bill aimed at improving housing affordability, upending a celebratory moment for both Democrats and Republicans who had been eager to promote the measure as evidence they were trying to bring down costs.

Just hours before a scheduled victory lap with lawmakers at the Capitol, Trump said in a social media post that he would not sign the legislation until Congress passed an unrelated law to impose new restrictions on voter identification and mail-in voting.

That bill, known as the SAVE America Act, has been stalled in the Senate, where solid Democratic opposition has prevented it from advancing past the 60-vote threshold required to overcome the filibuster.

That dynamic appeared little changed in the hours after the president issued his new ultimatum, which came with just over four months until the midterm elections.

The demand nonetheless generated fierce blowback from congressional Democrats and puzzlement from a handful of Republicans, on a day when Trump joined GOP senators for a private lunch. And it angered those who had worked most closely on the housing package, the byproduct of more than a year of fierce debate and compromise after decades of inaction on one of the most pressing financial issues facing families.

By Wednesday afternoon, much remained uncertain about the president's exact plans for the housing package. Trump did not say whether he intended to cancel only the signing ceremony or to take the added step of vetoing a bill his aides had previously said he would enact.

If the president chooses only to forgo the signing, however, the measure could still become law. When Congress is in session, legislation can generally become law 10 days after a bill is enrolled and presented to the president. It was not immediately clear if the bill had been presented to the White House.

Still, Trump's decision threatened to deprive Republicans, in particular, of an opportunity to showcase a legislative success in a year with very few of them — one that spoke directly to voters' economic concerns. The timing of his threat only added to the awkwardness, with it arriving just as House Republican leaders were championing the housing bill during a weekly news conference.

"House Republicans are going to be the party that governs and delivers," said Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No 3. House Republicans, seemingly unaware of Trump's social media post.

The White House had similarly promoted the bill — the first major piece of housing legislation to be adopted in more than 30 years — and had shared an equally supportive statement about its components Tuesday night.

But on Wednesday, Trump said the bill was "of minor importance" and that it "pales in comparison" to his preferred elections legislation. He once again urged Republicans to eliminate the filibuster to pass the elections bill, even as Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the majority leader, has said it does not have enough support among his conference to do so.

Trump also said the housing bill was not as crucial as "lower interest rates" and called it "Warren-centric," along with a racial slur to refer to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the ranking member on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

While Trump focused on Warren's involvement in the bill, the measure cleared both chambers with overwhelming support this week, a rarity in hyperpartisan Washington. It was the culmination of a long negotiation involving Warren and others, including Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the Banking Committee chair, and Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., who chairs a similar panel in the House.

The measure aims to lower housing costs by making it easier and cheaper to construct new homes. Spanning roughly 380 pages, the 21st Century Road to Housing Act reduces a bevy of federal regulations and seeks to incentivize more development at the local level, adopting an approach that generally won broad support among economists and housing experts.

The measure even includes some of Trump's own priorities, such as a new prohibition on large investors that snap up single-family homes, which the president tried to tackle in a limited executive order earlier this year.

Both parties had celebrated the bill as a way to make housing more affordable. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, accused Trump on Wednesday morning of "running away from one of the very few accomplishments that could actually help the American people."

Some Republicans also seemed uncomfortable with the move. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is among the most vulnerable Republicans running for re-election this year, later called Trump's announcement a "complete surprise." The bill, she said, "has strong bipartisan, bicameral support."

Yet Trump had at times been dismissive of the housing package, telling the Washington Examiner in April that he was "looking at other things very strongly."

Then and now, Trump argued that the most important force to lower housing costs would be a reduction in interest rates, which could ultimately help push down mortgage bills. Rates on a 30-year mortgage have hovered around 6.5%, which has deterred some families from buying new homes and priced many out of the market altogether.

Reacting to the news, Warren sharply criticized Trump in an appearance on CNBC, saying the decision to cancel the signing "made clear that he isn't worried about families' rising expenses." 

"This just doesn't make any sense, other than whatever it is he wants to do is a complete indifference to the cost squeeze on American families, and to genuine efforts to do something about it," she added. "You know, he could be over here trying to claim a victory lap, and instead he's saying no, no, he doesn't want anything to do with it."

Harv's Corner

Mosquitoes!
Are they bugging you?  Here's why

By Chris DeWeese 

Lead Editor The Weather Channel

Good Morning. It’s late June, and I just found myself wondering if I’m actually … a mosquito. Let me explain. Like many of you, I’ve always had a vague understanding that the little bloodsuckers love warm, muggy weather. But after an otherwise lovely family dinner out on the deck was blighted by the frequent appearances of a swarm that was also ready to feast, I decided it was time to dig into the data to try to understand when we can avoid being dinner while eating dinner.

What I found was not encouraging, because it turns out that mosquitoes have basically the same temperature preferences I do. Hence, my brief wondering if I might, in fact, be a mosquito. Basically, between 50 and 94 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s game on for mosquitoes, while if the mercury hits 95, they won’t bother flying. And I have to say: Same here. 95 degrees and higher, and I’m canceling any and all outdoor plans.

Here’s the good news: There actually are two other weather triggers that have the advantage of being generally tolerable to humans yet repellent to mosquitoes: wind speed and dew point. Because mosquitoes weigh almost nothing, a steady breeze is the aerodynamic equivalent of a hurricane to them, so if your forecast shows sustained winds of just 10 mph or higher, they won't even attempt to fly. The other thing to watch for is the dew point. If you see a day where it drops below 60 degrees, it means the air is crisp and dry, which poses an existential threat to mosquitoes, which dehydrate very, very quickly. You can find your dew point in our hourly forecast.

​Good luck, and here’s to all of us finding a few extra itch-free outdoor hours this summer, all thanks to knowing a little bit more about mosquitoes.

Harv's Corner

This says more about our current President than Cornyn.  Can you see it?

Cornyn tried to avoid Trump’s ire — to no avail
Four-term GOP senator lost primary runoff race by double digits.
By THOMAS BEAUMONT and JESSE BEDAYN The Associated Press
PLANO, TEXAS -

As it turned out, it would never be enough.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn tried for more than a year to show Donald Trump and Texas Republicans that he and the president were on the same team.

Cornyn posted a photo of himself reading Trump's "The Art of the Deal." He proposed legislation to rename a stretch of interstate in Trump's honor. Perhaps most glaringly, the Senate institutionalist who long supported the filibuster reversed his position in a failed effort to advance voting restrictions that are a priority for the president.
None of it worked.

On Tuesday, Cornyn became the latest in a line of Republicans who lost their primaries after falling out of favor with a president with little tolerance for dissent and a seemingly insatiable appetite for retribution. The four-term senator lost by double digits to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Trump endorsed last week as "a true MAGA Warrior."

Cornyn, on the other hand, "was VERY disloyal to me," Trump wrote on social media.

Trump's intervention in the Texas runoff came after weeks of successfully backing primary challengers in Indiana, Louisiana, and Kentucky as revenge against incumbents who broke with his agenda.
Cornyn's attempt to avoid the same fate made even some of his supporters wince.

"You look at the positions he took to please the president and the groveling and whatever," said former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a Trump critic who didn't seek reelection during the president's first midterm in 2018.

Trump took an uncommonly equanimous approach to Tuesday's results: "Congratulations to Ken Paxton on such a tremendous win, and to John Cornyn for having run a strong and powerful race but, more importantly, having had a truly great career," he wrote on social media. "John will remain my friend for a long time to come, as we both watch Ken become a fantastic, common-sense Senator, one who is respected by all."

Cornyn's loss wasn't due to a lack of political gymnastics and astronomical campaign spending.

His campaign began running an advertisement last summer — part of an astounding nearly $ 100 million air war by the senator and allied groups — with Cornyn looking into the camera and saying, "I voted with President Trump 99% of the time."

On Cornyn's campaign homepage, Trump and Cornyn stand side by side with their thumbs pointed upward in an image intended to project solidarity.

Deeper in the website, the category titled "The Trump-Cornyn Record" notes the senator's role in securing votes for Trump's signature 2017 tax cut bill.

Cornyn has also been championing provisions in Trump's signature tax-and-spending legislation to finance work on the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Cornyn dismissed the project as "naive" during Trump's 2016 campaign. But in January, he stood by a section of the completed wall in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, touting the measure's $11 billion for Texas contractors' work at "the direction of the president of the United States, to whom I am very grateful."

Cornyn's praise for his party's leader and president was not unusual, but they clashed with a statement Cornyn made in May 2023, when Trump was mounting his presidential comeback campaign.
"Trump's time has passed him by," he said then. "I don't think President Trump understands that when you run in a general election, you have to appeal to voters beyond your base."

Trump would go on to easily win the nomination and carry every battleground state in the general election.

Cornyn would hew closely to the president for the first 16 months of his second administration, hoping at the outside chance of his endorsement or to keeping him from weighing in at all.

But Trump did not forget the past slights.
"John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough," he wrote on social media while endorsing Paxton.

Cornyn has playfully worked to promote Trump fandom, posting a picture on social media last year of himself peering into the pages of Trump's 1987 book, "The Art of the Deal."

In a more obvious gesture, he proposed designating a section of a U.S. highway from the Texas Gulf Coast to Montana as "Interstate 47," to honor a 47th president with a well-documented love of naming things after himself.

In a news release about the proposal, filed just over two weeks before Tuesday's runoff, Cornyn said it would be known as the "Trump Interstate."

The more tectonic shift occurred in March, after Trump had teased a possible endorsement of either Cornyn or Paxton in the runoff.
Paxton swiftly said he would consider dropping his candidacy if the Republican-controlled Senate lifted the filibuster and passed the SAVE America Act, a series of voting restrictions that Trump has described as an essential part of his agenda.

The following week, Cornyn wrote an op-ed in the New York Post — Trump's favorite hometown newspaper — backing away from his previous support of the filibuster. He vowed to "support whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary" to get the bill "through the Senate and on the president's desk for his signature."

Former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. watched with unease.
"I know John and his long-held positions on the filibuster and the Senate's institutions," he said. "No office is worth that."

Harv's Corner

Transforming the White House front lawn into a gladiatorial arena for a presidential "Cage Match" is a profound degradation of the dignity, history, and global standing of the United States. The executive mansion is not a reality television set; it is a symbol of democratic governance, constitutional order, and the sober responsibility of leadership. Reducing the presidency to a spectacle of physical violence and sensationalized entertainment cheapens the office, makes a mockery of democratic institutions, and projects a message of volatility and cheap theatricality to the rest of the world. True leadership unites and elevates a nation through reason, diplomacy, and strength of character, whereas staging a physical brawl on the doorstep of democracy reduces the highest office in the land to a circus side-show.

Birthday Bash:
Celebrating with cage fighting is right on brand for the president
Dan Rather and Team Steady
May 28, 2026

If you were to drive down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., today, expecting to catch a glimpse of the White House, too bad. Blocking your view is a temporary (we hope) television production set. One of America’s most revered architectural treasures is becoming unrecognizable and, for the time being, unobservable.

The People’s House — inside and out — has become all about Donald Trump. If anyone thinks this president is working full-time to help average Americans, the above photo is evidence to the contrary.

Trump’s decision to host a mixed martial arts (MMA) cage fight on the South Lawn of the White House is a conspicuous reminder of his priorities.

For those who don’t follow MMA, it is a brutal, full-contact combat sport where two people are locked in a cage and fight until someone wins. This is not old-school Ali vs. Frazier boxing, but full-on, brutal fighting where combatants can punch, kick, elbow, and knee their opponents, even drawing blood.

​It’s being held on the president’s 80th birthday and as a part of the celebration of America’s 250th. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a for-profit enterprise erecting an arena complete with an octagonal stage, a wire cage, and seating for 4,300 people, all surrounded by a giant, stars-and-stripes-spangled claw that dwarfs the White House. This is just the latest example of Trump’s narcissistic desecration of the nation’s Capitol.

Gold-plating the Oval Office wasn’t enough, nor was adding his name to the Kennedy Center, or paving over the Rose Garden, and tearing down the East Wing. Hanging banners of his scowling face from federal office buildings and erecting a massive arch in his honor also weren’t sufficient to stroke his gigantic ego.

A spectacle celebrating brutality might do the trick. Oh, and the participants’ weigh-in will take place at the Lincoln Memorial. The fights will be broadcast by CBS and Paramount+, which have been working overtime to please the president by decimating CBS News and dumping Stephen Colbert.

The price tag for this veneration of violence is reportedly $60 million paid for by the UFC, which says it is “an investment for the long term.” They won’t have to wait that long.

You can’t buy the kind of publicity the president is providing. He is personally deciding who gets tickets, many of which will go to members of the military.

​But don’t worry, Trump sycophants will be able to kiss the ring by purchasing “high roller” VIP packages costing $1.5 million each.

If you’re not lucky enough to garner a ring-side seat, you and 85,000 of your closest friends might be able to nab free access to the live simulcast on the Ellipse across the street from the main event.

The president’s penchant for showmanship rather than leadership is coming in handy. Like a carnival barker, he is calling the fight the “biggest event” the UFC has ever staged, and he is hawking seats.

“I have never seen anybody want anything so much as people want those tickets,” Trump enthused. I am not disparaging MMA fighting nor its fans; however, the White House’s celebration of America’s semiquincentennial is not an appropriate venue for a violent commercial enterprise peddled by the president. The South Lawn is usually home to family-friendly fare like the Easter Egg roll and the Christmas tree lighting. Past presidents have held events there, too, but none have supported a for-profit organization. Instead, they championed American arts and ingenuity.

President Jimmy Carter threw a jazz concert. President Barack Obama hosted South by South Lawn, a technology and music festival.

Like Roman gladiators fighting in the Colosseum, Trump’s state-sponsored combat show advances the idea of the “warrior ethos” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is so fond of blustering about.

Being entertained by grown men beating each other to a pulp is the president’s version of projecting strength. As is usually the case, Trump has an ulterior motive for insisting on and promoting a White House cage match: playing to his base, or perhaps better put, shoring up his slipping base.

Young, white, non-college-educated men are the backbone of the MAGA movement. They propelled Trump to office twice. But his vice grip on this group has loosened. Since returning to the Oval Office, Trump’s popularity among non-college-educated whites has dropped from 63% to 49%, according to a new CNN poll. Guess who makes up the vast majority of the MMA fandom? Young, white men. And the sport’s popularity among that group is increasing.

Trump and the UFC have a symbiotic relationship built on bloodsport. He is using the organization to wrangle his core demographic, while the UFC is galvanizing MAGA to grow its popularity.

The White House event is a politicized, openly partisan production meant to bring the boys back into the tent. It is also a recruiting ground for new blood. Far-right extremist groups enlist at MMA and boxing gyms and on online “fascist fitness” chat groups. As reported in The Guardian, these groups emphasize transforming their members into combatants who might be asked to commit acts of violence for the cause. “These fitness groups frame individual self-improvement as a part of a wider political struggle, creating fresh motivation and a sense of purpose for people who believe that physical confrontation and violence are legitimate and necessary. They have become a space for far-right activists to mobilize,” said Patrik Hermansson, senior researcher at the anti-fascist group, Hope Not Hate.

Trump is not just celebrating the American Revolution with this UFC event; he is trying to foment a new one of his own. If that sounds alarmist, remember that he has done it before, on January 6, 2021.
​

Harv's Corner

"What a setup. The public support system gets choked off, the U.S. Treasury gets looted, and the cost of basic necessities like gas and groceries continues to soar. Meanwhile, the President, in addition to everything else he is doing, makes millions by grifting the stock market. How much longer are we going to stay asleep to this?"

All The President’s Thefts
Trump reinforces the fact that he is the most corrupt president in American history
Dan Rather and Team Steady
May 18

Credit: Getty Images

Donald Trump’s grift of the American people is no secret. Actually, there is absolutely nothing secret about it.

He is looting the country in plain sight,
with nary a concern that he will be called out for it.  Why should he worry when he holds such sway over enough Republican members of Congress to give him a free pass? It’s not even a Get Out of Jail Free card. It’s a Do Whatever You Want While We Look the Other Way card.

The news on Monday of his latest swindle may take a moment to sink in. But it details one of Trump’s most audacious steals yet, and that is obviously saying a lot.
Among the many schemes to benefit himself, this ranks among the most harebrained, and calls renewed attention to the fact that he is the most corrupt American president ever.

You may remember that Trump sued the Internal Revenue Service, an agency he controls, for $10 billion. The suit alleged that the IRS failed to take sufficient steps to prevent a contractor from downloading Trump’s tax records and releasing them to the media.

Because of the disclosure, the suit claims, Trump and his family have suffered “reputational and financial harm,” as well as “public embarrassment.” Apparently, they got over it.

Early Monday morning, Trump’s lawyers surprised Judge Kathleen M. Williams of Florida’s Southern District by telling her the president was dropping the case.

Some thought he was doing so because of intense pushback on what may be the most galling lawsuit ever, or because of an outright con to create a fund of taxpayer money to compensate those who claim they were victims of President Biden’s justice department.

Not two hours later, the Trump Department of Justice announced the creation of that exact fund, worth
$1.776 billion. Get it? 1776?

Nothing like forking over nearly 2 billion taxpayer dollars to help us celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday.
Happy birthday, America! Now, open your wallets. The money is nothing more than a slush fund to pay Trump’s allies and acolytes, including the 1,600 people convicted of participating in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, or anyone else deemed to have a qualifying complaint against Biden, and “to provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”
So, those who attacked the Capitol can now be paid for doing so.

Here’s the administration’s rationale:
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” said Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, with no apparent irony.

The fund, part of an interconnected web of corruption, will be overseen by a five-person commission appointed by the attorney general, which will have broad authority to funnel taxpayer dollars to Trump's friends. The commission will have virtually no oversight, except that Trump can remove members.

We may never fully know who receives payments or how much they get.
Trump’s personal lawyers effectively performed an end run around the American justice system. By dropping the suit, they keep Judge Williams from dismissing the case outright, which she was reportedly considering, or approving (or not approving) a formal settlement.

In their filing, the lawyers said the dismissal meant that “no judicial analysis is appropriate” for the suit. In other words, no oversight.
Minutes after the fund announcement, 93 Democratic lawmakers filed court papers accusing the Department of Justice of colluding with Trump.

“Never in the history of the United States has a sitting president sought a monetary settlement from the government he leads — let alone sought many billions of dollars in taxpayer funds,” the lawmakers wrote in court documents.
The filing is moot now that the suit has been dropped. In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called the fund “unconstitutional.” “This, of course, is a political grievance fund that Donald Trump can use to pay off his friends. If these people have a valid cause of action, they should bring it to court as every other American does, use the system of due process, and prove it by clear and convincing evidence or a preponderance of the evidence. But the idea that Donald Trump can just pass it out like a pardon is absurd,” Raskin said.

As is so often the case, this is not Trump’s only egregious transgression of the past few days.

On Friday, the president disclosed a flurry of personal stock trades made during the first quarter of 2026.
His legally required financial filings revealed a whopping 3,700 trades totaling between $220 and $750 million. That’s more than 40 trades a day during the first three months of the year. “This is an insane amount of trades,” Matthew Tuttle, chief executive officer of Tuttle Capital Management, told Bloomberg News. Tuttle said it looks more like the trading history of a hedge fund that buys and shorts stocks rather than a personal account.

The 2012 STOCK Act requires the president and members of Congress to disclose all commodity transactions.
Because every other president who held securities since 2012 has put them in a blind trust, Trump is the first to trigger the requirement.

The reason presidents, other than Trump, put their holdings in a blind trust is that many public companies do business with the federal government. Most public officials, other than Trump, want to avoid conflicts of interest. Trump seems to embrace them, regularly mixing presidential duties with personal business. Trump bought and sold stocks in dozens of companies he directly did business with as president, including Nvidia, Microsoft, Oracle, eBay, Uber, Meta, and Amazon. Just last week, the Boeing CEO joined Trump on his trip to China, where President Xi Jinping agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets. His filings show Trump traded Boeing stock during the first quarter. The disclosure forms showed six trades involving Intel, while the administration was working on an agreement to acquire a 10% stake in the company for $9 billion. Trump bought and sold Netflix, Paramount, Skydance, and Warner Bros. Discovery stock as his Federal Communications Commission considered the two media giants' proposed purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Once upon a time, a president would get in trouble for insider trading. Trump’s capacity to misuse his office for personal gain is astounding, and it is blatantly wrong. But it is not without consequences. The New York Times released a new poll Monday that shows the president is vastly unpopular and losing support, even from his base. His approval rating has shrunk to a second-term low of 37%, with 59% disapproval. Almost two-thirds of respondents believe he was wrong to attack Iran. And that number jumps to 75% among crucial independents. He is down on all metrics including his handling of the economy and the cost of living. This is not the kind of poll Republicans want to see less than six months before the midterms. And Trump’s continued grifting doesn’t figure to help their cause, no matter how often they redraw the maps.

Harv's Corner

When a leader openly says, "I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody," it changes the conversation. It’s no longer a debate over whether they care; it’s a flat-out admission that they don't. Critics argue that adding "not even a little bit" is proof of total apathy, breaking the basic promise that leaders should care about their citizens' economic survival.

His Monuments, Your Money
The president’s vanity projects trump everything else
​Dan Rather and Team Steady
May 14

Trying to understand a political leader whose behavior is anathema to the American ideal of a president is a challenge none of us want. As is trying to understand why he denigrates those who trusted him. With gas prices inching toward $5 a gallon and inflation higher than it has been in years, much of it because of the president’s war with Iran, Donald Trump simply doesn’t care. You might have heard him say as much on Tuesday.

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody,” he told reporters. “Not even a little bit,” he couldn’t help adding.

In case you are under the delusion that he was kidding, as the adage goes, ‘actions speak louder than words,’ and Trump’s actions are deafening.

Rather than finding solutions to the affordability crisis, he is finding stunning new ways to aggrandize himself. If Trump had a personal aphorism, it might well be, ‘It’s easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.’ This notion is evident in so many things Trump has done to put his stamp on the nation’s capital, all without asking and often under the cover of darkness.

He renamed and overhauled the Kennedy Center, embellished the White House with gold-plated everything, razed and paved over Jackie Kennedy’s rose garden, took control of a public golf course, and is painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue, making it, quite literally, less reflective.

​​The Arc de Trump

Trump must be aware that his latest, multimillion-dollar vanity project is unwanted — only 21% of the public supports the 250-foot arch beside the Potomac River. Because of the arch’s unpopularity, the White House is trying to skirt construction rules, a well-trodden strategy for them, to avoid scrutiny of its unwelcome projects. With no fanfare or notice (and while the president’s trip to China dominated the media), engineers and surveyors suddenly appeared at the proposed site this week.

Chain-link fencing was installed around the traffic circle, where the monument may soon block the sun. Were permits secured? Public hearings? Environmental impact assessments? No, just Trump saying that he wants it.

Instead of following the legal process for hiring contractors, Team Trump is trying to piggyback on an existing and unrelated contract for work at the White House, according to the Washington Post. The administration claims the workaround is a cost-saving measure.

Actually, it is to keep the project from having to go through a lengthy, public bidding process. Speaking of costs, the estimate for the arch is $100 million.

However, the White House included a $10 billion “Presidential Capital Stewardship Program” in the proposed fiscal 2027 budget.

Several senators have voiced concern that this would be nothing but a slush fund to pay for things like the arch. During a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum argued that 68 foreign capitals boast arches, so why shouldn’t Washington?

Trump was not quite as thoughtful. When asked who the arch was being built for, he simply said, “Me.”

That’s all child’s play compared to what he is trying to build, to the chagrin of almost everyone.

 The Ballroom

​Trump’s ballroom enjoys about as much public support as his arch. Multiple entities have filed suit to stop construction. In March, a judge ordered a halt to the project, but an appeals court stayed that order. Oral arguments in the case are set for June 5.

While the lawyers argue, the building continues to outpace funding fights and legal wranglings over the 90,000-square-foot monstrosity, which will dwarf the White House itself.

Construction of the ground floor was visible for the first time this week. After the stealthy demolition of the East Wing, part of a national landmark, construction had been kept on the down-low, focusing on the massive, underground military complex added to the plans.

Trump promised that he and his billionaire buddies would fund the project. The original price tag was $250 million, ballooning to $400 million in just a few months. Now, the White House is asking Congress for $1 billion to fund the “East Wing Modernization Project,” arguing that it is a national security imperative.

Appetite for such an expenditure is waning on Capitol Hill. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, included language in the current reconciliation bill that funds could not be used for “non-security elements” of the project. His spokesperson further clarified. “This bill does not fund ballroom construction,” she said.

Compulsory Appreciation
Last week, new banners began appearing around Washington that read “Thank you, President Trump,” complete with a photo of Trump in a hard hat, according to the Washington Post.

Trump’s Department of the Interior is putting up banners in D.C. parks being renovated ahead of America’s 250th birthday celebrations, which are estimated to cost $100 million.

The banners are not going over well in a city that voted for the last Democratic presidential ticket by more than 90%.

“I assume this is what North Korea looks like,” quipped a piece on The Globalist website.

Many of the banners have been defaced by graffiti. Trump is well known not only for seeking credit but for insisting on gratitude. Apparently, any project, no matter the size, is an opportunity to be fawned over.

Can you imagine if President Franklin Roosevelt demanded thanks for every New Deal project or program?

Trump has been transparent about his priorities, and they don’t include the American people. He seems incapable of doing anything about the fact that more Americans are hungry, fewer have health care, wages have stagnated, and groceries cost more since he took office. When it comes to things he does care about, like building edifices in his honor, he can get things done quickly and quietly.