Donald Trump is a failed president

At exactly 2:30 this afternoon, the President of the United States stopped to share an important message with the world from his private golf course in New Jersey. He had spent the entire weekend there, isolated from the press, but this moment was important enough to break his silence. Donald Trump proudly announced on Truth Social that he had made “The Winning Shot in the Bedminster Club Championship!” He won his own tournament on his own course and needed everyone to know. He went into more detail on this historic win, writing, “Unlike the rest of the field, I’m given very little time to practice, because I’m focused on many other things. It’s called TALENT, and I have it, and they don’t! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Just four hours later, at 6:05 pm, the President walked into the press cabin on Air Force One on his way back to the White House and finally spoke to the reporters who had traveled with him all weekend. When asked why the US is intervening to support the Japanese Yen, he gripped the wall to stay upright and explained that “Japan’s been very good to us, with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor.” A reference no modern American president other than Trump has made because Japan is now one of America’s closest allies, and Pearl Harbor is sacred ground, not something to use when telling a joke.

When talking about what America gets in return for propping up Japan’s currency, he went off on a strange tangent, saying “I make good deals. Intel, I made 75 billion dollars.” He quickly caught himself and added, “For the country, I didn’t make for me, I made it for the country.”

Possibly one of the most callous and deeply disheartening comments made by the president was when he was asked by a reporter, “On Canada. Have you decided on a punishment yet for the wildfire smoke?” He instantly answered, “I have, yeah. You’ll find out about it soon.” Then he smirked, and the reporter laughed.

When a reporter turned the questioning back to Iran, wanting to know if Trump was prepared to hit energy targets in the country, Trump replied, “I don’t want to say that. It was going to be a massive attack. It was going to be an attack that would have been by far the biggest attack since World War II.” He said this twice while talking to the reporters. The biggest attack since World War II. A war that killed over 400,000 Americans and more than 70 million people worldwide. A war that required the full mobilization of nations across two oceans, years of sacrifice, and the coordination of millions of troops just to survive it. Did he forget D-Day, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, the Battle of the Bulge, Midway, the Blitz, and the atomic bombs that ended it? There were entire cities flattened, and generations lost. That is the scale of destruction that Donald Trump casually threatened on his way back to Washington, D.C., on his way back from a weekend playing golf.

He had told the reporters the deal with Iran was “imminent” and that negotiations would begin Monday afternoon. But he could not say when a deal would actually happen, nor could he offer a single specific. When pressed on whether Iran had a deadline to come to an agreement, the President of the United States said, “We’ll just see.” By my quick calculation, this may very well be close to the 39th time he has claimed victory in the Iran war or that a deal with Iran was close. CNN documented back in June that he had made the claim at least 38 times since the ceasefire in April. And each time he said peace was within reach, it eventually collapsed. Each time strikes resumed, more people died. Iranian state media mocked this latest announcement. As reported by CNBC, Iran’s Fars International state news agency said on its Telegram channel that Trump’s demands are a “wish list.” Iran’s foreign minister said the only ongoing talks are between Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, not with the United States. Nearly every time Trump makes a claim about an imminent peace deal, Iran releases a statement to the opposite: “We currently have no negotiations with the United States.”

An Israeli official told the Associated Press that Israel has shared “serious security concerns” with the White House about the proposed framework. This war is now five months old. He started it on February 28. He said it would last four or five weeks. American service members remain deployed in harm’s way tonight. And on the day he is claiming once again that a resolution is just around the corner, his priority was making sure the world knew he won his own golf tournament.

Sportswriter Rick Reilly, who wrote an entire book called Commander in Cheat after interviewing more than 100 golf pros, amateurs, and caddies, has said Trump has never won a championship at a course he does not own and operate. The one time he entered an outside tournament with independent rules, judges, and cameras, the celebrity tournament at Lake Tahoe in 2006, he finished near dead last. That is the talent that supposedly won at golf today and is telling us he is winning his war in Iran.

The reality that we can’t lose track of is that the overwhelming majority of Americans, and people around the world alike, want this war to end. We never wanted it started in the first place. Trump’s own advisors couldn’t substantiate his claims either. Tulsi Gabbard’s own written testimony confirmed Iran had made no effort to rebuild its nuclear program, and her top counterterrorism official and right-hand man, Joe Kent, resigned in protest, writing that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation.” But Donald Trump does not care about this inconvenient truth because the story he keeps telling serves his authoritarian ambitions more than his actual role as the elected president of the United States. What Trump really wants in this moment is to convince the public that we are under constant threat to justify extraordinary powers, silence our dissent, and to demand our unquestioning loyalty. Fear has always been one of the most effective tools of authoritarian leaders. It keeps people divided, distracted, and willing to accept actions they might otherwise reject. That is why the facts matter. They are the one thing that stands between a free society and one built on manufactured fear. This may also be the reason he isn’t rushing to end this war. Having a stalemate war like this, with us so far removed from the actual fighting, might be Trump’s insurance policy for November. Something he can reach to in many ways to interrupt and interfere with our free and fair election.

At 8:07 PM, now back at the White House, he posted one more thing. An AI-generated image of himself sitting shoulder to shoulder with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the three of them in leather chairs, gathered around a desk, etching the borders of a map and signing a historic document together. Washington, who led a freezing army through Valley Forge and turned down wearing a crown, opting for a republic because he believed in democracy more than he believed in his ego. Lincoln, who held the Union together during the bloodiest war in American history and was assassinated for it. And then Donald Trump, who spent his weekend winning a trophy he practically gave himself at a tournament run by his employees, against members who pay him dues, while a war he started five months ago has untold numbers of our military in harm’s way and the entire world paying the price in higher costs and instability.

There is no version of history where Donald Trump belongs beside those two men. He could not and never will earn that comparison honestly, so he keeps creating fake moments to give it to himself anyway because he desperately wants to feel that level of historical significance, one that he will never achieve in real life. And that is not to say that either Washington or Lincoln were perfect people, but even this is a stretch for Trump. It shows not just his insecurities, but also the delusions he grapples with daily. The mere fact that he had this image created, or approved it to be posted for the world to see, is dangerous and reveals the limitations of Trump's judgment and state of mind.

Authoritarian leaders have always needed this kind of made-up cult of personality. Mussolini staged athletic exhibitions to project dominance. Stalin had photographs doctored to erase rivals and enlarge his own image. North Korea's state media once claimed Kim Jong Il shot 38 under par the first time he played golf, with 11 holes in one.

Trump does not have official state media to fabricate his achievements. He has Truth Social and AI-generated images, videos, and other propaganda that he posts or has someone else post for him. And next week, he will also have the Patriot Games, a nationally televised competition where “one boy and one girl” from every state will compete in military-like physical challenges, as a celebration of American strength.

As soon as this was announced, many immediately compared it to the Hunger Games. Not because the children are necessarily in danger, but because it shared the same undertones and spectacle from so many past authoritarian regimes. They follow the same set of rules: when the truth catches up to you, you distract and create new ones. And then there is the other aspect that can’t be glossed over. When a government begins organizing youth into nationally televised displays of physical strength and patriotic loyalty, complete with military aesthetics and branded with nationalist overtones, we are stepping into very old territory.

The Hitler Youth began as a way to channel young people’s energy into service to the state and to make loyalty feel like honor and strength. It started with athletics, pride, and the idea that the nation’s young people were a reflection of the nation’s power. This does not mean we are at the point where these children are being trained for war. But the selection, spectacle, and the staging of these young bodies being presented as symbols of national greatness has a history that we can’t overlook. We should not wait until the comparison becomes undeniable to name exactly what we are seeing.

But the reality is that nothing he has done to hide the truth of where our country is, and where it is heading, has worked. The American people are seeing through all of it. And the numbers prove it. Donald Trump is now the most unpopular he has ever been, and it is only going to get worse for him. The AP-NORC poll released this week showed just one-third of voters approving of his job performance, the lowest since he returned to office. Nearly half the voters in the latest Quinnipiac survey said they are worse off financially than they were one year ago, and 88 percent said inflation is a very serious or somewhat serious problem. But maybe the most revealing number is that among his own 2024 voters, the people who put him back in the White House, his net approval has dropped 15 points in just three weeks. His war, the affordability crisis, and the endless chaos he creates are costing him the people who believed in him the most. Among independents, his approval has dropped to 34 percent, which is below the 36 percent level during the 2018 election cycle when Democrats flipped 41 House seats. Only 27 percent of Americans say this country is headed in the right direction. He is weaker right now than he was before the last midterms he faced, and the next one is only 93 days away.

We need to think of every single day until November 3rd as a new opportunity to save our country. I might have hesitated to use the word save in the past, but that is the reality we are facing right now. It has never been more important than it is right now that people know that their vote matters. Every single one of them. We are not helpless passengers on Trump’s sinking ship. We still have the power to change course. We need to focus on registering voters and making sure that those who might have sat out previous elections have a plan to vote this time. Because if we show up the way we are capable of, his unchecked grip on this country finally comes to an end.

The American people know the difference between a leader who earns the weight of the office and a man who plays dress-up in it. Washington earned his place in history. So did Lincoln. Donald Trump spent his weekend earning a golf trophy from his own employees, posting pictures of himself next to an alien, and sitting with the men who actually built this country, pretending he was one of them. Ninety-three days from now, the American people will remind him that history is earned, not created with fake images and empty words. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.

Picture of the day: She REALLY wanted a treat when I was writing tonight.

Sources:

President Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One En Route Joint Base Andrews, Aug. 2, 2026: Video

CNN live updates: Trump says talks with Iran to resume Monday

ABC News: Trump says new Iran deal is “imminent”

CBS News: U.S.-Iran negotiations set to begin Monday

CNN analysis: How many times has Trump claimed an Iran deal is around the corner?

CNBC: Iran says no current negotiations with the United States

Al Jazeera: Trump says Iran war projected to last 4 to 5 weeks

NBC News: Gabbard declines to say if Iran posed an imminent threat

NBC News: Trump threatens to revive anti-weaponization fund

Yahoo Sports: Trump’s winning score at his own club championship questioned

Newsweek: Trump’s unwanted approval rating lows in 2026