At 3:13 pm this afternoon, ten men and women stood behind the President of the United States as he sat slumped in his tall leather chair in the Oval Office. With his face sagging on one side, a lost look in his eyes, and fresh makeup covering the bruises on his hands, it was clear he did not want to be in that room, complaining he has to do this “every single day.” And it wasn’t just his words that showed it. He fell asleep only a quarter of the way through. The nearly hour-long event was supposed to be about health care affordability, but instead...
Heather you're my first port of call every morning and I like to read your post whilst I'm having breakfast. I actually saw the clip on Facebook where the Don fell asleep whilst RFK was trying, and failing, to justify the drug prices. It's about time this nearly 80 year old man was led away and indicted.
Thank you for your honest writing..I don’t watch main stream media anymore so I depend on people like you to hear what is really going on…keep up the great work..we just have to figure out how to get “his supporters” to see the truth…for the life of me I don’t understand the Republican Congress that is actually throwing their own power away on a daily basis..just to placate this “insane” administration…WE MUST VOTE THEM OUT ‼️
I am so grateful to have access to your thorough, impactful journalism each day. Your focus on the most fundamental issues and the way you distill the finer points is indispensable.
Heather is wonderful writer, so lucid and erudite using such a wide range of historic and current references. A huge difference to the many whose talking/writing so often is based on self anguish and repetition.
OK, I have two more questions I would like answers to: Who or what owns the property that Tramp wants to build his stupid, pointless, wasteful arch on? And is he personally paying for this monstrosity??? I personally don't want any of my tax dollars paying for it. Isn't there some approval process this structure would have to go through? JUST SAY NO.
"A man who was not perfect in many ways, but who was pivotal in the civil rights movement and who paid the ultimate price for standing on the right side of history."
These words are barely sufficient to describe a man who was "not perfect in many ways." What are those many ways? That he had affairs outside of his marriage? Who was "pivotal" in the Civil Rights Movement. Yes, there were important others who's stood with him and died for doing so but there is a reason the Civil Rights Movement ends on the day he dies. The head had been removed. MLK had recently received a letter from the FBI director demanding that he consider killing himself! His assassin, James Earl Ray, was a rabid "N-hater" who stalked MLK for years before building a snipers nest in a rooming house across from the Lorraine Hotel so he could get a clear shot and finally kill King.
Compare that to the killing of Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was living the life. Adored by his young fans, the head of his organization and growing his family. The president and vice president of the U.S. held Kirk up as a paragon of American righteousness. He was not hounded for decades for his views, no, he was lauded. His assassin is presumably under tight supervision at a maximum security prison. Kirk's organization now functions under the leadership of his Christian nationalist widow, Erika Kirk.
Typically, Charlie said, “Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.”
I remember segregation and I have seen the before and after of the Civil Rights Movement enough to know that Martin Luther King was, like Jesus Christ himself, a prophet who stood up for justice for all and did not flinch from the people who hated him and feared him for his message of love.
MLK was twice the man than any of those men in the photograph of the WH Oval today. His accomplishments are monuments to humanity. Those guys? They're footnotes.
King's legacy can be tarnished with words but to those who can imagine the strength it took to be Martin Luther King. What it took to say Enough to power, to stand as a hated man in that Black skin and say,
"Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you."*
King tells us the way is forward and Trump is saying go backwards, to reset to another time before Martin Luther King.
*MLK was shot and killed the day after this speech.
Let's hold up the real heroes in America and stop putting billionaires on pedestals.
MY ADVICE TO ALL: Get off of social media. You will have a clearer brain, independent thoughts, a better self esteem and, mostly importantly, you won't be lied to every fn day of your life. You like to be gaslighted? TikTok, Insta and FB are waiting for you.
I have deleted all three. I’ve had no social media since mid-February and I feel like I can breathe again. It was absolutely necessary for my continued sanity.
I saw it early on, it made me sick. I was on FB for a minute and deleted as Zuckerberg was building his machine. I have raised a child and never seen her Instagram, I wouldn't know a tik from a tok. Twitter confused me when I was made to create a membership in grad school. I spent one day, never went back.
I fully understand the power of Dr Evil Leon Musk and his machine without seeing it in person.
I thank the sobriety gods for revealing to me an addiction as it spread into our lives, insipid and complete, taking over the minds and attention of billions of people. It's beyond creepy. How the world ends, not with a bang but a tweet.
Agree 100%. I deleted X (Twitter) when Musk took over. I k ew nothing good would come of it. Now I follow a few independent journalists on YouTube and Substack…that’s the only new I trust these days.
Sorry Heather but this nearly 80 year old man deserves no grace or compassion. He punches down against defenseless people every single day. He falls asleep at his desk in the middle of the day because he is up at all hours of the night punching out pure meanness and hatred in his crappy app. His hands are likely bruised because he takes enough aspirin daily to cause a brain bleed and is infused with who knows what because his enablers refuse to come clean about his health. He lies every day and people die because of it. He cares about one thing-his monuments to himself-which if allowed to be built, will desecrate our beautiful Capital city. So fuck him and every single of his disgusting sycophants, who know what they are doing in covering up for him is wrong, yet they continue to do it because his presence in the WH is either making them money or giving them the illusion of power or both. But that too is temporary, as his buddy John Phelan, who raised millions of dollars for his campaign in 2024 learned today, when he was fired in the most cowardly way
Trump may fancy himself the reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte, but he fails to understand what happened to the French emperor *after* he built his triumphal arc. Perhaps history will repeat itself. Like Bonaparte, his phase two will lead to his downfall. Fingers crossed!
Regarding Trump’s approval rating…is my arithmetic correct?
Heather Delaney Reese wrote:
“Trump’s overall approval is at 37%, the lowest of his second term.”
Reportedly, Trump received 49.8% of the popular vote in November 2024.
[‘How Changes in Turnout and Vote Choice Powered Trump’s Victory in 2024’ by Hannah Hartig, Scott Keeter, Andrew Danielle, Nick Zanetti, Alissa Scheller, and Reem Nadeen, June 26, 2025, Pew]
Also from Pew Research, ‘Voter Turnout, 2020 - 2024’, by Hannah Hartig, Scott Keeter, Andrew Danielle, Ted Van Green, June 26, 2025:
“…2024’s rate of 64% was the second highest…”
which, I assume, means 36% of voters did not turnout. [I do not know if this refers to eligible voters or only registered voters.]
If those voters had shown up and voted for someone other than the two major presidential candidates (written in their own names, a cartoon character’s name, it doesn’t matter), I think Trump’s 49.8% would have been reduced to less than 35% of votes cast (he still would have won). If this 35% or less is true, it seems his current approval rating is very, very close to what it was in Nov 2024 (which, if true, stuns me).
and how can one American in three still actually approve of what Trump is doing after 15 months of incompetent but effective demolition of so much of what has been good about the country? Is that all down to Fox and its ilk, so they have no idea what's going on?
I keep wondering why everybody says his rating is the lowest of the low, when it looks like it’s stuck in the mid 30s for the last year and a half, certainly the last year.
“Living in the in-between time” — so true and well stated. Thank you for your detailed reporting.
So sad. So nuts. Lock him up. Impeach! Or else...
Heather you're my first port of call every morning and I like to read your post whilst I'm having breakfast. I actually saw the clip on Facebook where the Don fell asleep whilst RFK was trying, and failing, to justify the drug prices. It's about time this nearly 80 year old man was led away and indicted.
“Jeff Bezos killed a Washington Post endorsement.” Perhaps a more accurate statement is: Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post.
Thank you for your honest writing..I don’t watch main stream media anymore so I depend on people like you to hear what is really going on…keep up the great work..we just have to figure out how to get “his supporters” to see the truth…for the life of me I don’t understand the Republican Congress that is actually throwing their own power away on a daily basis..just to placate this “insane” administration…WE MUST VOTE THEM OUT ‼️
I am so grateful to have access to your thorough, impactful journalism each day. Your focus on the most fundamental issues and the way you distill the finer points is indispensable.
Thank you!
Thank you Heather! You are aiding me to keep my sanity in this day to day chaos!!
Heather is wonderful writer, so lucid and erudite using such a wide range of historic and current references. A huge difference to the many whose talking/writing so often is based on self anguish and repetition.
Howard Dunton (UK)
OK, I have two more questions I would like answers to: Who or what owns the property that Tramp wants to build his stupid, pointless, wasteful arch on? And is he personally paying for this monstrosity??? I personally don't want any of my tax dollars paying for it. Isn't there some approval process this structure would have to go through? JUST SAY NO.
This, how you described MLK:
"A man who was not perfect in many ways, but who was pivotal in the civil rights movement and who paid the ultimate price for standing on the right side of history."
These words are barely sufficient to describe a man who was "not perfect in many ways." What are those many ways? That he had affairs outside of his marriage? Who was "pivotal" in the Civil Rights Movement. Yes, there were important others who's stood with him and died for doing so but there is a reason the Civil Rights Movement ends on the day he dies. The head had been removed. MLK had recently received a letter from the FBI director demanding that he consider killing himself! His assassin, James Earl Ray, was a rabid "N-hater" who stalked MLK for years before building a snipers nest in a rooming house across from the Lorraine Hotel so he could get a clear shot and finally kill King.
Compare that to the killing of Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was living the life. Adored by his young fans, the head of his organization and growing his family. The president and vice president of the U.S. held Kirk up as a paragon of American righteousness. He was not hounded for decades for his views, no, he was lauded. His assassin is presumably under tight supervision at a maximum security prison. Kirk's organization now functions under the leadership of his Christian nationalist widow, Erika Kirk.
Typically, Charlie said, “Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.”
I remember segregation and I have seen the before and after of the Civil Rights Movement enough to know that Martin Luther King was, like Jesus Christ himself, a prophet who stood up for justice for all and did not flinch from the people who hated him and feared him for his message of love.
MLK was twice the man than any of those men in the photograph of the WH Oval today. His accomplishments are monuments to humanity. Those guys? They're footnotes.
King's legacy can be tarnished with words but to those who can imagine the strength it took to be Martin Luther King. What it took to say Enough to power, to stand as a hated man in that Black skin and say,
"Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you."*
King tells us the way is forward and Trump is saying go backwards, to reset to another time before Martin Luther King.
*MLK was shot and killed the day after this speech.
Thank You ☮️
I can hear Dr King’s great voice speaking those words as I’m reading them
Thank You 💟
His soul is our light 💫towards that moral arc to Justice
All our lives hang in the balance 🗽⚖️⏳
Let's hold up the real heroes in America and stop putting billionaires on pedestals.
MY ADVICE TO ALL: Get off of social media. You will have a clearer brain, independent thoughts, a better self esteem and, mostly importantly, you won't be lied to every fn day of your life. You like to be gaslighted? TikTok, Insta and FB are waiting for you.
I have deleted all three. I’ve had no social media since mid-February and I feel like I can breathe again. It was absolutely necessary for my continued sanity.
I saw it early on, it made me sick. I was on FB for a minute and deleted as Zuckerberg was building his machine. I have raised a child and never seen her Instagram, I wouldn't know a tik from a tok. Twitter confused me when I was made to create a membership in grad school. I spent one day, never went back.
I fully understand the power of Dr Evil Leon Musk and his machine without seeing it in person.
I thank the sobriety gods for revealing to me an addiction as it spread into our lives, insipid and complete, taking over the minds and attention of billions of people. It's beyond creepy. How the world ends, not with a bang but a tweet.
Agree 100%. I deleted X (Twitter) when Musk took over. I k ew nothing good would come of it. Now I follow a few independent journalists on YouTube and Substack…that’s the only new I trust these days.
There is an email that has landed with the UK government claiming the Falkland Islands to be ceded for USA because we did not go into the Iran fight.
Falklands is our Greenland. So hands off Trump.
Thank you, Heather! I start my day by reading your wonderful posts.
the world looks on, agog, in disbelief as the USA self-destructs ...
Sorry Heather but this nearly 80 year old man deserves no grace or compassion. He punches down against defenseless people every single day. He falls asleep at his desk in the middle of the day because he is up at all hours of the night punching out pure meanness and hatred in his crappy app. His hands are likely bruised because he takes enough aspirin daily to cause a brain bleed and is infused with who knows what because his enablers refuse to come clean about his health. He lies every day and people die because of it. He cares about one thing-his monuments to himself-which if allowed to be built, will desecrate our beautiful Capital city. So fuck him and every single of his disgusting sycophants, who know what they are doing in covering up for him is wrong, yet they continue to do it because his presence in the WH is either making them money or giving them the illusion of power or both. But that too is temporary, as his buddy John Phelan, who raised millions of dollars for his campaign in 2024 learned today, when he was fired in the most cowardly way
They aren't going to relinquish power.
Trump may fancy himself the reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte, but he fails to understand what happened to the French emperor *after* he built his triumphal arc. Perhaps history will repeat itself. Like Bonaparte, his phase two will lead to his downfall. Fingers crossed!
Oh goodness- fingers freaking crossed 🤞 ‼️
Regarding Trump’s approval rating…is my arithmetic correct?
Heather Delaney Reese wrote:
“Trump’s overall approval is at 37%, the lowest of his second term.”
Reportedly, Trump received 49.8% of the popular vote in November 2024.
[‘How Changes in Turnout and Vote Choice Powered Trump’s Victory in 2024’ by Hannah Hartig, Scott Keeter, Andrew Danielle, Nick Zanetti, Alissa Scheller, and Reem Nadeen, June 26, 2025, Pew]
Also from Pew Research, ‘Voter Turnout, 2020 - 2024’, by Hannah Hartig, Scott Keeter, Andrew Danielle, Ted Van Green, June 26, 2025:
“…2024’s rate of 64% was the second highest…”
which, I assume, means 36% of voters did not turnout. [I do not know if this refers to eligible voters or only registered voters.]
If those voters had shown up and voted for someone other than the two major presidential candidates (written in their own names, a cartoon character’s name, it doesn’t matter), I think Trump’s 49.8% would have been reduced to less than 35% of votes cast (he still would have won). If this 35% or less is true, it seems his current approval rating is very, very close to what it was in Nov 2024 (which, if true, stuns me).
Am I missing something here?
and how can one American in three still actually approve of what Trump is doing after 15 months of incompetent but effective demolition of so much of what has been good about the country? Is that all down to Fox and its ilk, so they have no idea what's going on?
I keep wondering why everybody says his rating is the lowest of the low, when it looks like it’s stuck in the mid 30s for the last year and a half, certainly the last year.