The 1600: Trump Weighs U.S. Options
The Insider's Track
Good morning,
I have an addendum to my presidential platform of adding more three-day weekends to the calendar.
Juneteenth, which is tomorrow, is almost exactly two weeks from July 4. Rather than get a random Thursday off and then another day or two for the Fourth, we call the whole 16-day period "American Freedom Weeks." An extended federal holiday meant to celebrate all of our victories of independence, from the end of slavery to our split from the British. I'm talking a real, European-style holiday. Think Italy in August, everything shuts down. Just two weeks of cookouts, parades, concerts and hanging out to kick off summer. I really think I could win 400 electoral votes strictly on my "more days off" platform.
OK, so it's certainly looking like we're about to white-knuckle it through another military adventure in the Mideast. Yeehaw! My thinking is based mostly on my belief that Trump knows he badly needs a W on the board, and he sees bombing Iran as the path of least resistance to get one. His foreign policy is a hot mess, he's not getting any wins in Ukraine or Gaza anytime soon. He gave up on the Houthis. Iran is his chance for a big show of force, and Americans love war. I honestly don't know if there's more to it than that. But you can sort of tell the way the wind is blowing by looking at how JD Vance is twisting himself in knots trying to justify our involvement in precisely the kind of conflict he made a name for himself denouncing.... like spending yesterday replying to randos on Twitter to split hairs about how uranium enrichment works.
I consumed an unhealthy amount of conservative media yesterday to try to understand this cleave within the party over our all-but-ordained involvement in this war, and I was actually shocked at how the hawks seem in control of the narrative. I would have thought for sure that the MAGA-isolationist wing of the GOP would be throwing its weight around a bit more in the court of public opinion. Tucker and Bannon, and even dare I say Marjorie Taylor Greene, seem to be the lone voices of caution.
There's something particularly grotesque about watching the Senate Warmonger Caucus of Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham take up residency on cable news to spout off about how Iran is a direct threat to Americans, and how in Graham's words, "we have a chance to take out the regime."
Who's we, kemosabe?! It ain't your nonexistent kids who are gonna be fighting if we get dragged into another hot war over there. And see how the narrative is shifting in real time? I thought this was about taking out Iran's nuclear program, and now all of a sudden we're talking regime change? So we're gonna decapitate the government of a country with 90 million people and just hope for the best? Did I hallucinate the Iraq War or something? The Bush "smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud" argument wasn't that long ago.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are nowhere to be found. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries—two men who've never passed a camera they wouldn't talk into—haven't made a peep. A smart opposition party would be out there trying to steal back the anti-war messaging that MAGA coopted and is now about to lose the moral high ground over. Or they could just continue with the "Taco Trump" taunts and see how far that gets them.
The Rundown
What seemed impossible just weeks ago—Tucker Carlson agreeing with Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez co-sponsoring a resolution with Thomas Massie—is now unfolding.
The recent escalation between Iran and Israel has upended traditional political alliances in Washington. Foreign policy hawks are teaming up with pro-Israel Democrats to support military action, while MAGA hardliners and progressive Democrats are unexpectedly aligned in opposing U.S. involvement in another Middle East conflict.
Read more from Newsweek's Jesus Mesa.
Also happening:
Israel-Iran conflict: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that any U.S. military intervention amid the ongoing Iran–Israel conflict would bring "irreversible repercussions," declaring that Iran "cannot surrender" under external pressure. Here's more from his televised address.
E. Jean Carroll: On the eve of her book release, E. Jean Carroll stepped into Newsweek's Manhattan office in a muted olive-green jumpsuit, shimmery brown blazer and cream lace-up combat boots. With her signature blond bob in place, she restated her mission: to make President Donald Trump "so mad" by spending the $83.3 million she's owed in the lawsuit settlements on causes he hates. Read the story.
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