Politics
How Trump’s Cabinet Speaks to Him: Praise, Accolades and Lots of Criticizing Opponents
The cabinet has historically advised the president on a variety of matters, but in President Trump’s second term, it appears to have taken on a new mandate: flattery.
Marathon cabinet meetings, lasting one to three hours, have become a hallmark of Mr. Trump’s second presidency. Often televised, they provide an opportunity for cabinet officials to credit him for their department’s accomplishments while still trying to claim some of the spotlight for themselves.
“He is willing to take a bullet for all of you tuning in at home because he believes in this flag, our freedom, our liberties and to save the greatest country in the history of the world.”
“The country owes you a great debt of gratitude — and the world, really — because I mean, you’re the only leader in the planet that can bring the two sides together to bring an end to this conflict.”
“What you have assembled in your vision is a turning point and an inflection point in American history.”
“I’ve gone across the country this month, 10 different states, and we saw it when we were together in Iowa: hard-working families, farmers, small businesses expressing gratitude, lined up to thank you.” “What happened in Afghanistan, what happened in Ukraine — a war that never would have occurred — what happened on Oct. 7 in Israel, never would have happened under President Trump.”
“A year ago today, I was working on transition with President Trump, to build the greatest cabinet ever for the greatest president ever. And I, as I sit here today, I can’t be more proud of how you did it, sir.”
Cabinet members flatter Trump
The New York Times reviewed over a dozen hours of cabinet meeting footage to analyze how his administration spoke to him. On average, at least one of every six sentences either flattered Mr. Trump, gave him credit or criticized his political opponents.
Allison Schuster, a White House spokeswoman, said in an email that Mr. Trump’s cabinet used these meetings to “highlight the exhaustive list of accomplishments they have delivered on behalf of the American people.”
Some, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, packed their speaking time with praise, while others, like Vice President JD Vance, focused on attacking Democrats. Many of these statements are exaggerated or not factually accurate.
Flatters him Criticizes opponents Gives him credit
Mr. Rubio both spoke and flattered the president the most.
Mr. Bessent said Mr. Trump “saved this country by making it the best place in the world to do business again.”
Mr. Hegseth said three times that Mr. Trump would have prevented conflicts from occurring.
Mr. Vance insulted political opponents the most. On average, one of six sentences was an insult.
Ms. Loeffler emphasized five times how people she has met across the country are grateful for President Trump. Mr. Lutnick said Mr. Trump achieved what nobody believed was possible five times.
Mr. Zeldin repeatedly said Mr. Trump was “willing to take a bullet for this country.”
Mr. Ratcliffe frequently credited department accomplishments to Mr. Trump’s leadership.
Mr. Greer referred to Labor Day as “Trump Trade Policy Day.”
How each cabinet member speaks to Trump
Compared with his first term, when some of his top aides pushed back against the president’s impulses, Mr. Trump has emphasized the importance of loyalty this time around. Administration officials have complimented the president far more in cabinet meetings than in his first term, according to The Times’s review of footage.
One of the most striking features of Mr. Trump’s cabinet meetings this term is the extent to which his leadership has been praised as unparalleled.
Officials have declared on camera that he is singlehandedly ending global conflicts, winning the race for artificial intelligence, motivating troops to enlist and lowering gas prices, among a number of other claimed accomplishments.
Russia-Ukraine war Rubio: And there’s only one leader in the world that’s capable of bringing the two sides to a table, and that’s our president, the president of the United States, President Trump.Russia-Ukraine war Rubio: And — and I think that the country owes you a great debt of gratitude and the world, really, because I mean you’re the only leader in the planet that can bring the two sides together to bring an end to this conflict, and that’s what you’ve done, and you’ve done it despite, you know, impediments from other countries and others who maybe have different opinions about how this should go.
But ultimately, I think that the only chance we have for peace is through the president’s leadership, and you’ve shown that.Cambodia-Thailand conflict Rubio: The president just picks up the phone and tells them to stop fighting. And within 72 hours, the fighting had stopped. There’s no other leader in the world that could have done it.Israel-Gaza conflict Rubio: But suffice it to say, it’s not an exaggeration that none of it would have been possible without the president of the United States being involved.Israel-Gaza conflict Rubio: And because of the work you put in — and honestly there is no — not only is there no other leader in the world that could have put this together, Mr. President.Israel-Gaza conflict Rubio: No other leader in the world could have pulled off what happened in Gaza. But this war is going on, and the president is trying to end it not because — listen, we’ve got a million things to focus on in the world as a country, but he’s the only leader in the world that can help end it.Sudan civil war Rubio: The president’s taken on this issue of Sudan personally, not send out deputies to do it. Again, far away from the United States because he’s the only leader in the world that can bring it about to an end.Leadership Burgum: And it’s your fearlessness to take on the issues that other presidents would not touch, whether it’s the work that we’re doing with successfully streamlining and right-sizing government or whether it’s taking on the issues at the border or whether it’s embracing the power we need to win the arms race, you’re fearlessly doing that.Energy Burgum: You’re perhaps one of the only leaders in the world that understood the connection between peace abroad and prosperity at home was directly connected to energy policy.Israel-Gaza conflict Burgum: It’s such a remarkable accomplishment — agree that no other president could have done this.Immigration Hegseth: It only happens with President Trump leading, and we’re proud to be a part of what’s going on at the border, sir, with now a fourth national defense area where we’re helping get to that number zero in securing the border.Military recruitment Hegseth: In fact, re-enlistment is already met its yearlong goal in the Marine Corps in 2026. You can’t — there’s no other way to create that kind of love and enthusiasm than with your leadership, sir.Venezuela operation Hegseth: No other president would have been willing to empower those warriors that way to be that effective.Healthcare Kennedy: M.F.N. is one of our greatest accomplishments. It would not have happened without you.Job creation Lutnick: And this is all driven by your tariff policies. No chance this’d be happening without you.Trade deals Lutnick: We invented the lightbulb, the transistor, the G.P.U., so they keep buying us. And the only president to ever to understand it, and you understood it in the ’80s and the ’90s.Job creation Lutnick: We’ve got $165 billion for TSMC, but you’re going to watch the whole ecosystem come home because Donald Trump is the only president who understands.Artificial Intelligence Wright: If you had not won the election, we would not have won the A.I. race.Energy Wright: There are a number of stations in the heartland of America with $1.99 signs flying today. That’s simply impossible without the leadership and changes you’ve brought.War Zeldin: And we have never had a president so deeply committed towards ending foreign wars instead of starting new ones.Economy Zeldin: What we are accomplishing now, again, wouldn’t be possible if not for your leadership.Trade deals Greer: That’s who’s coming in to talk to you and to your advisers about how to have reciprocal trade, how to have fair trade. It wouldn’t have happened without you.Trade deals Greer: Now we have the tariffs, and they have lowered their nontariff barriers. We couldn’t have done it without you and the leverage you’ve created.
Notably, some of these talking points are traceable to Mr. Trump himself.
For instance, he has repeatedly claimed that Russia’s war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Gaza “would not have happened” if he had been president. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Mr. Rubio have echoed this in cabinet meetings.
In a meeting on Jan. 26, Kelly Loeffler, the small business administrator, said Mr. Trump had “ended at least eight wars,” and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Mr. Trump’s tariffs were bringing in “tens of trillions of investments.” Mr. Trump has also espoused some version of both claims, even though they are misleading.
Officials have also frequently criticized former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democratic Party, copying Mr. Trump’s pattern of assigning blame to Mr. Biden.
Flattery of Mr. Trump is not enough to keep the job, however. Four of Mr. Trump’s cabinet officials have been fired or resigned this year, and he may be considering removing more.
Below, explore other things cabinet officials have said to Mr. Trump during their meetings.
Americans are grateful for Trump
Bessent: In the diner, the staff there was thanking you for the no tax on tips, and they’re expecting big refunds from that.Burgum: Everybody I’ve met, whether it’s in a coal mine or at the border, law enforcement, the one thing they say on those trips is please thank President Trump from all of us, the change that you’re making.Burgum: They all wanted to say thank you to you.Burgum: But on behalf of all law enforcement, we say thank you.Loeffler: I’m out on a made-in-America manufacturing tour and, as I go across the country, people are grateful to have a president who’s not just fighting on the tariff fronts, but to get inflation down, to create jobs.Loeffler: So, the American worker is grateful.Loeffler: Main Street is grateful for you and, at the agency level, we’re making sure that manufacturers have access to the capital they need.Loeffler: And then finally, I have walked factory floors from Alaska to Maine, and the workers, the small businesses — most manufacturers in this country are small businesses, 600,000 of them — they are so grateful to your fair-trade, low-inflation, deregulation agenda that is creating national security and economic security in this country like never before.Loeffler: Hard-working families, farmers, small businesses expressing gratitude, lined up to thank you.Loeffler: And as I walk through the factory floors, they all ask me to thank you for fighting for their jobs, for these industries and for the people who are creating things from pharmaceuticals to aerospace to food and all these essentials that this nation needs to be independent and strong.Hegseth: So, from the troops directly, which they ask me to say all the time, thank you for your leadership, for your boldness, for your clarity, for common sense, for providing a shield for the rest of us to put America first and to apply peace through strength.Rollins: And I think they are really, really excited and so grateful for your leadership. Everything possible under his leadership
Rubio: And again, it’s under your leadership, it’s actually under your executive order.Rubio: But you think about it, under your leadership, we prevented an end to the war between India and Pakistan.Rubio: And obviously, it’s under your leadership.Bessent: We are — America under your leadership is on the verge of becoming an A.I. superpower that our economy had become barbelled.Bessent: Trade, taxes and deregulation, the One Big Beautiful Bill under your leadership, Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune have done a great job.Burgum: So, we have an opportunity under your leadership to come back.Loeffler: I have to tell you, under your leadership, Main Street is open for business again.Loeffler: And we’ve already seen under your leadership, the jobs economy is back, manufacturing jobs are back.Loeffler: And so I want to also finally thank you for bringing faith back to the White House, to this administration. I want to thank Brooke for hosting the cabinet Bible study and invite everyone tomorrow to Bible study and making this country something that we can be so proud of under your leadership.Kennedy: Two weeks ago, we ended, under your leadership, a 20-year war on women by removing the black box warnings from hormone replacement therapy.Rollins: At U.S. Department of Agriculture, the people’s department — Abraham Lincoln launched this department in 1862. But under your leadership we have finally again put farmers and ranchers and rural America first.Wright: Under your leadership, what we’ve seen in the United States is just a steady drop in the price of gasoline, a huge consumer cost for Americans.Wright: We hope the blue states will come along with us, but your policies are going to start the decline of electricity prices nationwide under your leadership, by just bringing back common sense.Duffy: And so under your leadership and direction, we are making those investments.Turner: And I believe that we are, under your leadership, sir, changing that conversation in America to where working is an honorable thing.Ratcliffe: But under your leadership and your direction, we have been focused back on the core mission of what C.I.A. is supposed to be doing, which is to provide you and this entire incredible team around the table with a decisive, strategic advantage in accomplishing your goals.
Attacks on Biden
Rubio: For some of us who served in Congress, recognize that about a year and a half ago, we had a meltdown under Biden.Bessent: The average budget deficit during this term is 26 percent less than the last 12 months under Biden.Bessent: Sir, when we came in, the Biden administration had destroyed the American people with the three I’s: immigration, inflation and interest rates.Burgum: There’s 500 million acres of surface, 700 million acres of subsurface and 2.5 billion acres of offshore, and the Biden administration was trying to restrict this so that you couldn’t get a timber lease, you couldn’t cut a tree, you couldn’t graze a cow.Burgum: And this was essential because it was the signal that we’re going to go 180 degrees from the disastrous and dangerous Biden policies that were based on a climate ideology that was the root cause of the inflation in this country.Burgum: This is a plant that would have been in a mining operation that would have been shut down under the Biden administration.Burgum: The Biden administration put us in a real predicament right now, the whole trade team, the whole cabinet.Burgum: Biden wasn’t enforcing the border laws.Loeffler: After Biden destroyed 110,000 manufacturing jobs in just his last year, you’ve already brought back thousands and thousands of manufacturing jobs.Loeffler: So, we’ve modified our loan applications to have citizenship verification, to make sure we have birth dates, common-sense principles around lending that the Biden administration had waived.Loeffler: So on Main Street, the economy is coming back, thanks to your leadership, thanks to getting Biden inflation under control.Loeffler: But probably the most important and underreported war that this president ended was Joe Biden and the Democrats’ war on Main Street and hard-working families.Hegseth: You saw the debacle of what Biden allowed to happen in Afghanistan and what that did to our image.Hegseth: If you look at what happened, we deal with every day the outcome of what happened in Afghanistan, the debacle under Joe Biden.Hegseth: And Joe Biden tried to approach it with kid gloves and allowed them to come across the border, cartels take over community, 20 million people, hundreds of thousands of Americans poisoned.Kennedy: And during the Biden administration, H.H.S. became a collaborator in child trafficking and for sex and for — for slavery.Kennedy: That’s 300,000 children that were lost by the Biden administration.Kennedy: It never got implemented because the Biden administration never enforced it.Rollins: I think the first thing that’s really remarkable to note is that the prices of eggs under the four years of Joe Biden increased 237 percent.Rollins: Under the four years of Joe Biden, we had the cost of input go up 30 percent for all of our agriculture products.Rollins: And then under Joe Biden, we sold $49 billion less of our ag products around the world.Rollins: Under the Joe Biden administration, there was a 30 percent increase in the cost of inputs.Rollins: After four years of Biden, that hit $ 50 billion because they just didn’t make an effort.Rollins: This family was indicted, prosecuted, threatened with jail time, told to find guardians for their children over a fence line dispute that the Biden D.O.J. pushed forward.Rollins: All of this came about under Joe Biden, a 47 percent increase in the cost of labor that now Secretary Chavez-DeRemer and Noem and I are working on.Rollins: But under the Biden administration and the destruction of our economy and the cost of inflation, interest rates for farmers and ranchers went up 73 percent, labor went up 47 percent, fertilizer went up 36 percent, fuel went up 28 percent.Rollins: As Joe Biden was working to buy an election a year ago, he increased food stamp program funding by 40 percent.Rollins: Having said that, we do have a bridge payment we’ll be announcing with you next week as we’re still trying to recover from the Biden years.Vance: Just on that topic, if you think about what happened with the Abraham Accords, one of the great diplomatic breakthroughs under the first Trump administration really in the last 30 or 40 years of American history in the Middle East, and the Biden administration did absolutely nothing with it.Vance: Purely out of political spite, the Biden administration, I think, hurt the United States and really hurt the project of world peace.Vance: You heard, I think, Kristi talk about this, that all of the net job growth under the Biden administration had gone to the foreign-born.Vance: And of course, Mr. President, you yourself talked about the inflation mess that we inherited under the Biden administration.Vance: Maybe the most striking and even shocking statistic of the Biden administration is that housing costs have gone up by 100 percent over the four years of the Biden administration, literally doubled, making the American dream of homeownership unaffordable.Vance: I think the most important statistic for the American people is that under the Biden administration, the average American family lost over $3,000 of household income and under the first 10 months of this Trump administration, they have gained over $1,000 of household income.Vance: What that says very clearly is that we are fixing the problem that Joe Biden and the Democrats created in the last administration.Vance: If you look at every affordability crisis that’s confronting the American people today, it is traceable directly to a problem caused by Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.Vance: I think that we’ve done incredibly good, but what I see over the next year, and you heard Brooke talk about joy and gratitude, what I really think this season represents for me and I think for the entire administration, is that we have now done incredible work to fix what Joe Biden broke, and I think the next year in American growth and American prosperity could be the best year that we’ve had in the United States of America.Lutnick: The Biden CHIPS Act was a $60 billion giveaway, right?Wright: The Biden administration grew my department, the Department of Energy, by 20 percent and expenditure much more than that, all in an effort to reduce the production of energy in the United States and to make energy more expensive.Wright: Under your leadership, we’re unleashing consumer products that Americans wanted to buy that Biden was making illegal.Wright: Unfortunately, Biden brought all of us a lot of inflation.Wright: Secretary Burgum at the Interior Department has taken in more money on oil and gas lease sales in the first year of this administration than the entire four years of the Biden administration.Wright: Over 200 people died in a smaller cold snap during the Biden administration.Wright: If we’d continued the Biden era policies for one more year, continued to shut down coal plants, continued these crazy climate restrictions that wouldn’t even let power plants run at maximum — at maximum demand time.Wright: We would have had significant blackouts at these peak cold times and, extrapolating from the last storm during the Biden administration, I think at least hundreds of deaths.Zeldin: They received only $100 in 2023, and then the Biden administration gave them $2 billion.Zeldin: Mr. President, at the Biden E.P.A., the Green New Deal was raging. At the Biden E.P.A., we saw billions of tax dollars burning. At the Biden E.P.A., we saw industries suffocating.Zeldin: We’re going to be giving our director of the O.M.B. a whole lot of work because we inherited a big mess from the Biden E.P.A.Zeldin: The Biden E.P.A. gave $50 million to a group that says climate justice runs through a free Palestine.Zeldin: We consolidated real estate, canceled expensive media subscriptions and closed the Biden E.P.A. museum that none of you knew even existed. I’m sure none of you actually visited.Zeldin: To put it another way, in 2024, the Biden E.P.A. obligated and spent over $60 billion in one year, an agency with an operational budget of about $10 billion a year.Zeldin: In their own words, caught on camera, they were tossing gold bars off the Titanic, wasting precious tax dollars to pay off well-connected Obama and Biden officials.Zeldin: The Biden E.P.A., in fact, was amending grant agreements just days before you came into office to reduce agency oversight.Greer: You came into an emergency situation where President Biden left us with a $1.2 trillion trade deficit.Greer: When you look at President Biden, in the last quarter of 2024, median weekly earnings fell 2.1 percent.Duffy: Biden had the social cost of credit when we build infrastructure, roads and bridges, adding 3 to 5 percent on infrastructure costs.Duffy: By the way, we shouldn’t have dealt with this because Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg had moved the center from New York to Philadelphia.Turner: And at HUD, we want to make sure that the resources that we have now, which is American taxpayer dollars and the Biden administration, they prioritize illegal aliens over the American people.Vought: When you came into office, you basically stopped $200 billion in cost to American families just by stopping the Biden regulatory agenda.
Trump deserves credit Rubio: Mr. President, you deserve tremendous credit for that.Rubio: And frankly, I think countries around the world, even those that are out there complaining about this a little bit, should actually be grateful that the United States has a president that’s willing to confront a threat like this and not allow it to continue to persist, because these people will kill as many Americans as they have a chance to do.Rubio: Mr. President, I think you deserve a lot of credit for two things.Rubio: And so, on all these things, Mr. President, I think you deserve tremendous credit for the transformational aspect of our foreign policy.Rubio: First of all, this is a very talented team, as you’ve seen and as you know because you picked every single one that’s on. You deserve tremendous credit for doing that.Kennedy: You should also get bipartisan accolades on the M.F.N. agreement.Kennedy: It will affect every American for 100 years, and you should be getting bipartisan accolades on that.Vance: Completely aside from the fact that I think it’s a good thing or I think that President Trump deserves political credit for it, why did we go from a military where people didn’t want to serve to now all of a sudden they do want to serve?Greer: And I think you should be commended for it, and we look forward to seeing what comes in the next few years.
Politics
Expert who fled Cuba warns of ‘vicious cycle’ that will lead to ‘communists in double digits’ in Congress
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A national security expert who fled to the U.S. from Cuba is warning that one “vicious cycle” currently dominating American politics could lead to “communists in double digits” serving in Congress.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation who fled communist Cuba in the 1970s, said in an interview with Fox News Digital that the socialist “threat is real now.”
Gonzalez likened this trend to a “takeover of a host body, the Democratic Party,” saying, “It’s being taken over by body snatchers and they’re not able to mount any defense of it whatsoever even if they wanted to.”
Under the current political environment, Gonzalez predicted, “We’re going to get communists in double digits in the House of Representatives at least, there’s no doubt of that.”
BILL MAHER’S DIRE MIDTERM ELECTION WARNING TO DEMS AFTER ‘REALLY CRAZY’ SOCIALISTS WIN PRIMARIES
Members of the Democratic Socialists of America gather outside of a Trump owned building during a May Day rally in New York City in 2019. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Over the course of a year, New York City elected a socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, while three of his endorsed socialist congressional candidates — Brad Lander, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier — defeated establishment Democrats, including two incumbents. On the other side of the country, Seattle elected a socialist mayor, Katie Wilson. Just this week, Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros defeated 15-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette, further illustrating socialists’ ability to topple entrenched party figures.
While these politicians identify as socialist, Gonzalez pointed out that to the authors of the communist manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “there was no difference between socialism and communism, they were interchangeable.”
“These people are communists, and when you catch them unawares, they actually say, ‘Oh, yeah, I know we want communism,’” he said.
According to Gonzalez, the widespread success of socialist candidates in races across the U.S. is due to several factors, including the breakdown of immigrants assimilating to American culture, increased hatred of the U.S. and even White guilt combined with a real affordability crisis in cities like New York.
“A very important component of this and one that conservatives sometimes forget is that a lot of these votes are White votes, White young kids who have come in from the suburbs, who feel guilty about a number of things,” he explained.
SOCIALISM GOES WEST AS DSA-BACKED CHALLENGER OUSTS LONGTIME DEMOCRAT
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a primary-night watch party for NYC Congressional candidate Claire Valdez at 99 Scott Studio on June 23, 2026 in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“They have gone to very expensive Ivy League schools and they’re trying to make a living in New York City without being a banker. And you can’t make a living in New York City if you’re not a banker, sorry, you’re going to have an affordability crisis.”
This, Gonzalez said, makes socialist promises of handouts, such as free tuition, free bus fares and public-run grocery stores, an easy sell.
“So, they end up voting for this. This is a very bad vicious cycle that is taking place and that is going to produce communism in this country if we’re not careful.”
Meanwhile, Neetu Arnold, a young immigrant to the U.S. who now works as a policy analyst for the Manhattan Institute, emphasized that the socialist trend is not just isolated to cities like New York but becoming increasingly prevalent in cities across the U.S.
“The rise in the socialism in America, it’s going to shape our politics. I think it’s going to make things more extreme,” Arnold said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
DSA CO-CHAIR PUSHES BACK ON SOVIET UNION COMPARISONS, WANTS PRISONS TO BE ‘LESS NECESSARY’
Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation filmed children supporting the regime in Iran, during a protest on Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Asra Q. Nomani/Fox News Digital)
“What the socialist candidates have tapped into are real frustrations and grievances, but the solutions that they’re offering is essentially more government involvement rather than trying to address the underlying problems,” she explained. “What a lot of younger people are finding out is that it’s not that easy to get housing. They’re in student debt, they are struggling to find stable jobs, and so the things that they were promised are not necessarily coming true.”
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As a naturalized U.S. citizen, Arnold said she hopes both sides of the political aisle recognize that “socialist policies are a threat to the American way of life.”
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“In this country we value merit, we value wealth, and the ability to move upward in this society,” she said. “I’ve seen my life change before my eyes by being here in this county, by having the opportunities that I did, and that I saw for my family, and I think that was only possible because of free markets and the opportunities that we had in this country.”
“Socialist policies essentially restrict what we are able to do,” Arnold continued. “So, I do take it seriously and I hope that Democrats, Republicans, they all take the rise of socialism seriously.”
Politics
Commentary: Happy Birthday, America! You’ve weathered another rough year
Happy Birthday, America!
You turned 250 on Saturday and, honestly, you don’t look a day over 249. (Ha ha.)
Seriously, it’s perfectly understandable why there’s more gray on your scalp and deeper worry lines on your face. This last year has been another challenging one, to say the least. (And we thought the one cataloged 12 months ago in this space was rough.)
The country is caught up in an unpopular, on-again, off-again war with Iran that was recklessly launched by President Trump with far more swagger than foresight. In an utterly predictable move, Iran choked off the the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for the world’s oil, sending gasoline prices skyrocketing. Though they’ve fallen since the announcement of a shaky ceasefire agreement, the cost of filling up is still significantly higher than a year ago.
Of course, costlier oil means virtually everything else has become more expensive. Trump was reelected in good part because he vowed to tame inflation on his very first day in office. Instead, it’s reached a three-year high.
The ground beef served up at many July 4 cookouts costs 75 cents a pound more than it did a year ago. A package of hamburger buns is up 15 cents. The price of hot dogs and other picnic staples have also increased, along with just about every other item at the grocery store.
Chew that over with your corn on the cob. (Up roughly 2.5% from July 2025.)
Meanwhile, Trump enriched himself to the tune of $2.2 billion during his first year in office alone. Treating the U.S. treasury like his personal cash cow, the president has lavished hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on vanity projects such as a personally kitted out Air Force One — a “gift” from Qatar that Trump plans to keep after retirement — and a gilded White House ballroom, rising where the demolished East Wing used to stand. Plans are underway for a grand, marble arch in Washington celebrating, well, you know who.
At the same time, Trump has squandered money and resources pursuing political vendettas, persecution of his enemies and fruitless investigations like the one probing “theft” of the 2020 election and “vandalism” at the algae-clogged Reflecting Pool he promised and failed to rehab.
All this while millions of Americans have lost healthcare coverage and/or federal food assistance, all thanks to the One Big Billionaire Bounty bill that Trump signed into law a year ago.
It’s all a bit unnerving isn’t it, America? You’re on edge in a way you haven’t been in at least a generation.
In Minnesota, in the dead of winter, two of your citizens were gunned down by federal officers as they engaged in that most American of exercises, registering dissent against the policies of their government. From sea to shining sea, innocent Americans have been arrested — and sometimes shipped abroad — and immigrant communities cower in fear of federal agents who often seem bent more on meeting deportation quotas than meting out justice.
You’re divided, America, in ways no one alive has ever seen.
It starts at the very top. Trump acts as though he’s president of a favored rump group — his political supporters — rather than the nation as a whole. He’s used your 250th birthday not to celebrate those many grand and glorious things that hold us together as Americans but to bask in the tanning-bed glow of his immeasurable self-regard.
But, heck, if it’s any consolation on this star-spangled holiday weekend, the country has been through worse. Much worse. And you, America, have not only survived but in many ways grown stronger by surmounting obstacles, facing down your flaws and overcoming some knee-buckling, soul-crushing challenges.
Slavery. Civil war. Racist exclusionary laws. Genocide against indigenous peoples. Two worldwide conflicts. Depression. Financial crises. And too many deadly natural disasters — fire, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes — to enumerate.
Your treatment of some Americans, it should be said, hasn’t always been fair and just. It still isn’t.
People are despairing over the Supreme Court and its genuflecting deference to the president. The justices of its conservative majority have done just about everything short of handing Trump a crown and scepter to reign as a virtually untouchable, imperial president.
But it’s worth noting that earlier court majorities held that Black Americans — “beings of an inferior order,” in the words of the wretched Dred Scott decision — could be denied citizenship, that racial segregation was constitutional and that compulsory sterilization based on eugenics was perfectly fine from a legal standpoint.
That ugly, sordid history won’t necessarily make anyone feel better about the current state of affairs, nor should it. But it does offer some perspective and, with it, hope.
This weekend is best celebrated honoring the country’s many good things and the bright, shining place that America aspires to be, with liberty and justice for all. So chin up! Have another slice of birthday cake, America, and don’t worry about the calories — you really do look terrific for 250!
Going forward it’s up to us, your citizens, to keep working toward that more perfect union mentioned in the preamble to the Constitution. Whatever ails you, America, the remedy resides with we the people and the power we hold, particularly at the ballot box.
Unhappy with the wrecking crew that’s heedlessly chain-sawed federal programs and allowed Trump to money-grub with both fists, defile the White House and undermine our rule of law? Send a message and vote ‘em out, starting in November’s midterm election. And bear in mind the damage that’s been wrought come the 2028 presidential race.
Don’t stop believing that, as dark and difficult as things may seem right now, better days lie ahead.
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Politics
Trump set to deliver ‘historic’ speech celebrating America’s 250th anniversary
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President Donald Trump is set to deliver what the White House is calling a “historic” speech Saturday night before a massive fireworks display celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.
Trump is still expected to take the stage at 10 p.m. at the conclusion of the Salute to America celebration on the National Mall, though timing of events may fluctuate due to adverse weather, per a senior White House official.
The president’s address is expected to look back on America’s history since its founding 250 years ago, a senior White House official told Fox News.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 3, 2026 in Keystone, South Dakota. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trump will deliver a “unique” speech featuring the stories of American heroes.
“It will be a unique speech unlike any other he’s given before,” the official added.
Earlier Saturday, Trump celebrated what he described as a “stronger than ever” America in a Truth Social post, praising the “incredible” crowds gathered in Washington despite the heat and storms.
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The grand finale lasted over two minutes to cap a 23-minute light and fireworks display over Mount Rushmore after President Donald Trump’s 28-minute speech, brief by his lengthy standards. (Matt Gade)
The president also highlighted the air shows over the nation’s capital, saying the pilots and aircraft were “at a level never seen before.”
Trump also addressed recent vandalism at the Reflecting Pool, calling those responsible “Vandal Thugs” and promising the pool would be drained and repaired after the holiday weekend.
The president’s remarks come one day after he delivered a patriotic speech at Mount Rushmore, where he called the United States the “most exceptional nation ever to exist” and warned that communism posed the nation’s greatest threat.
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The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform a flyover during “Salute to America 250” Fourth of July celebrations on the National Mall on July 4, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Finn Gomez/Getty Images)
“Communism is the exact opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — it is death, tyranny and the pursuit of evil.
A severe thunderstorm swept through Washington on Saturday evening, prompting emergency officials to urge people on the National Mall to seek shelter.
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Freedom 250, the event organizer, said it would provide updates on the evening’s schedule as weather conditions developed.
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