MIKEY SMITH: 10 unhinged Donald Trump moments as JD Vance faces fishing trip question
JD Vance's holiday to the Cotswolds looks less and less like a holiday by the day.
After spending most of the weekend (illegally) fishing and talking about Ukraine with David Lammy at Chevening, the Vice President had breakfast with Nigel Farage this morning, is having a zoom call with Starmer and European leaders about Ukraine right now, and he's speaking to US troops at a UK airbase in a couple of hours.
If I were him I'd fire my travel agent.
Meanwhile., the President has been moaning about media coverage of his meeting with Putin - which looks more and more like an objectively bad idea by the minute.
Oh, and Ghislaine Maxwell might have been approved for work release...which seems like a great idea all round.
Here's everything that's happened in Trump World over the last 24 hours that you need to know about. Strap in.
READ MORE: Liz Truss slams beloved UK event claiming it was made by people who 'hate Britain'
1. Trump moans about media coverage of his summit with Putin
Because what else would he be doing at 8am on a Wednesday?
The President complained on Truth Social that the coverage of his forthcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska was "very unfair."
He wrote: :Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, "Putin has already won." What's that all about? We are winning on EVERYTHING. The Fake News is working overtime (No tax on overtime!)."
He added: If I got Moscow and Leningrad free, as part of the deal with Russia, the Fake News would say that I made a bad deal!"
It would certainly be a weird deal.
2. David Lammy makes a rod for his own back...and for JD too?
In undoubtedly the funniest story of the week, probably the year, David Lammy has reported himself to environmental authorities for fishing without a rod licence, during his angling adventure with JD Vance on Friday.
Lammy could face a fine for the infraction...but questions remain over whether he also failed to secure the correct paperwork for the VP and his family, who also cast lines at Chevening. Does diplomatic immunity cover environmental regulations infractions? Does it matter that everyone involved caught a fish except for Lammy himself?
More as we get it.
3. JD Vance rallies the troops in the UK...
Vice President JD Vance will give a speech to US military personnel stationed in the UK this afternoon at RAF Fairford, and we'll be in the room as he does it.
The VP will deliver remarks in front of a Lockheed U-2, a high altitude recon aircraft currently in use over Ukraine - and undeniably a badass piece of equipment. Seriously, I'm looking at it right now and I'm pretty intimidated.
Ahead of Vance's speech we're being treated to a playlist of songs so camp macho I can only assume it was drawn up by Pete Hegseth himself. We've had Macho Man by the Village People, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting by Elton John and, I swear, Bad Boys - the theme tune from COPS.
Vance's speech will come almost immediately after he sits in on a group video call with Trump, Keir Starmer and Ukrainian and European leaders ahead of the US President's Alaskan chinwag with Vladimir Putin on Friday.
4. ...as US report blasts "human rights" slide
Meanwhile, a State Department report has been published complaining that human rights are on the slide in the UK, and curiously making many of the same criticisms Vance has made in recent months.
The annual assessment, which analyses human rights conditions worldwide, flagged what it described as "serious restrictions" on freedom of expression in the UK.
"The government sometimes took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, but prosecution and punishment for such abuses was inconsistent," the report read.
The report specifically said laws limiting speech around abortion clinics, pointing to "safe access zones" curbed expression, including silent protests and prayer.
"These restrictions on freedom of speech could include prohibitions on efforts to influence others when inside a restricted area, even through prayer or silent protests," the report read.
In the wake of the 2024 Southport attack, the report said government officials "repeatedly intervened to chill speech".
All of which is awkward timing for JD Vance's Cotswolds holiday, given it's exactly what he's been moaning about for months.
5. Trump's Fox Host DC District Attorney abruptly stopped press conference after being asked proper questions
DC's Trump appointed District Attorney, former Fox News personality Jeannine Pirro suffered a bit of a malfunction during a presentation to try and explain the plan to clean up the godforsaken heap of crime and filth we know as Washington.
We're going to skip over the moment where she answered a question about hiring by saying: "im not going to bore you with the facts..." then realised what she'd said and joked "dont quote me on that...that was off the record." (The briefing was televised)
No, we're talking about this moment, where she responds to a perfectly reasonable question about whether the administration plans to do anything on crime prevention as part of this crackdown.
"Oh stop it," she complained, looking for all the world like an ageing stand up comic doing a set at the Flamingo.
She then abruptly ended the press conference.
6. The Department of Homeland Security keeps posting white suprematist-coded content
Can't really believe I'm typing this, but it's happened too many times to ignore.
Last night, the Department of Homeland Security posted this image:
The post, which reads "Which way, American man?" is a pretty clear reference to Which Way, Western Man, a 1978 book by William Gayley Simpson.
In the book, most recently published by National Vanguard, a neo-Nazi organisation, contains passages arguing Hitler was right, and calling for violence against Jews in order to "break their grip" on "the White man's world".
Charming.
Last month, they posted a painting of a family of white homesteaders during the Westward expansion of the US. There's a black woman, presumably a servant, in the background.
The tweet read: "Remember your heritage."
And a couple of weeks ago they posted a painting on Instagram, also depicting the Westward expansion, and featuring a painting by John Gast called "American Progress" which depicts Native Americans being driven out of their homes by a caravan of white people. Above the homesteaders there appears an angelic figure in a white robe, suggesting their "manifest destiny" over North America.
The post reads: "A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending."
7. JD Vance parties with former Apprentice contestant
The Vice President of the United States appears to have spent last night boozing with bosh gorblimey I'm just a normal bloke saying it like I sees it former Apprentice contestant Thomas Skinner last night.
Apparently they got to know each other on social media. We're certain they had a lot to talk about.
And how did he recover from the festivities this morning? Well, as regular readers already know, he had breakfast with Nigel Farage.
8. Trump's new labour stats chief has a painting of a Nazi ship behind his desk
Donald Trump has picked EJ Antoni, an economist who most recently worked for Project 2025 authors the Heritage Foundation, to be his new head of employment statistics.
You'll recall the other week Trump unceremoniously fired the previous head after the Bureau of Labour Statistics delivered a monthly jobs report he didn't like, accusing her and the body of faking the numbers to make him look bad.
Two things are interesting about EJ. First of all, he's previously suggested it might be a good idea to scrap the publication of monthly jobs figures. Funny that.
And second...he appears to have a painting of the Bismarck, a Nazi World War II warship, behind the desk in his office.
9. Plot to make a "quick reaction force" to crack down on protests
The Washington Post today reports the Trump Administration is reviewing plans to create a "Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force".
According to internal Pentagon documents seen by the post it would be a standing squad of 600 troops able to deploy to crack down on protests within an hour.
It's not clear who ordered the plans to be drawn up, or whether they've been seen by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth yet.
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10. Ghislaine Maxwell 'approved for work release'
Podcaster Allison Gill claims to have obtained some of Ghislaine Maxwell's prison records - which appear to show she's cleared to leave her minimum security prison camp for work assignments.
In a post on the blog muellershewrote.com, she goes on to show screenshots suggesting Maxwell has a security points score of 27 - which would normally bar an offender from serving time in a minimum security facility.
The screenshots also show a mark on the file noting she has a "public safety factor" of "SEX OFFN" - sex offender - but that there is a "PSF WAV" - public safety factor waver in place.
There's no suggestion that she has in fact worked outside the prison camp.
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