Trump spent today pretending he isn't losing

At 3 p.m. this afternoon, inside the Indian Treaty Room of the White House, the President of the United States entered to full ceremonial fanfare. “Hail to the Chief” blared through the speakers. The crowd and the invited guests rose to their feet. He walked in slowly, deliberately, pausing to shake hands and soak in the applause. And scattered throughout the audience, like props on a set, were men in construction hardhats. Placed there to send us this message: Donald Trump, who has made $4 billion since taking office, who was surrounded by representatives of the wealthiest technology companies on the planet, is somehow just like us. Just a regular working American who knows what it’s like to sweat over an electric bill. Who is fighting for our rights and not the man who has spent the last thirteen months selling them to the highest bidder, mocking them, and stripping them bare.

And the reason for this supposedly historic roundtable? Tech companies are going to pay for their own electricity. That was it. That was the entire premise behind the ceremony. A voluntary pledge, from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Oracle, and Elon Musk’s xAI, that they would cover the energy costs of their own AI data centers instead of passing them on to consumers. Which, in theory, was always how it was supposed to work. But the real function of this staged event was simpler: it gave the president a chance to look powerful, surrounded by spokespeople from some of the most profitable and politically untouchable tech corporations on Earth. It gave him nearly an hour of his favorite pastime, people telling him how brilliant, strong, and how only he could have pulled off a “deal” this impressive. And it gave tech companies the perfect cover to rebrand themselves as responsible, measured, and careful stewards of the future. With Trump saying it himself, “They need some PR help because people think that if a data center goes in there, electricity prices are going to go up.”

Dina Powell McCormick, Trump’s former deputy national security advisor from his first term and now President and Vice Chairman of Meta gushed during her time to speak: “We are proud to say today that we want to fully cover the cost of the energy that we use in our data centers” and “Sir, we are really proud that we’re going to look back and have had the privilege to work with you... Thank you, Sir. Proud to be here with you.”

David Sacks, Trump’s AI Czar, former COO of PayPal, and more recently, the founder of Craft Ventures, a Venture Capital firm that manages $3.3 billion couldn’t help himself when he said: “Thank you, sir… This is a very important boom to sustain, and thanks to your leadership, Mr. President” and also added “I just want to vouch for the fact that in one of our very first meetings, you did say that you wanted to make our AI companies into energy companies. That was true, and I remember thinking that’s a really good idea. The president knows more about AI than I do, so this is thanks for your leadership.”

And Trump for his part, just soaked in the round robin of compliments. But not before his own opening remarks: “These are exciting times. I think you probably want to speak about war rather than this, but this is very important. We’re doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly, I would say. Somebody said, “On the scale of ten, where would you rate it?” I said about a 15. And ah, we’re going to continue to do what we have: the greatest military in the world, by far… I think we have great support, and if we didn’t do it first, they would’ve done it to Israel. And give us a shot, if that was possible.

And if we didn’t terminate the worst deal, one of the worst deals ever made: the Obama nuclear deal. Like all the Obama nuclear deal, where he gave everything to Iran, including a nuclear weapons. It was a roadmap to a nuclear weapon. Bad things would’ve happened four years ago because they would’ve had a weapon four years ago if I didn’t terminate that deal. So, we’re in a very strong position now, and their leadership is just rapidly going. Everybody that seems to wanna be a leader, they end up dead. And it’s an amazing, amazing thing that’s taking place before your eyes, for 47 years we were pushed around, and we shouldn’t have been.”

This was his opening. At a roundtable about our electricity bills. Six American service members have died so far in Operation Epic Fury, and all he did was try to convince us all how great he is.

And the performances to show how powerful our leader is didn’t end with Trump’s event today. Earlier in the day, Pete Hegseth held a news conference from the Pentagon, where his only job was to boost the image of the President. When speaking about our fallen military members, he said “When a few drones get through, or tragic things happen, it’s front page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step.” He was upset and tried to say that press coverage of our killed military members is not about these lost lives, but only about making the president look bad.

“Tragic things happen.” That’s what he called them. Tragic things. The kind of phrase you use when a flight gets delayed or a pipe bursts in the basement. Not when six Americans come home in flag-draped coffins from a war that was never authorized by Congress, never debated on the floor of the Senate, and never explained to the American people in any terms beyond Trump’s own boasting.

And then there was Karoline Leavitt’s press briefing earlier today, where CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked her directly: “is it the position of this administration that the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members?”

Leavitt’s answer was not yes. But it was not no either. “It’s the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across the country should accurately report on the success of Operation Epic Fury and the damage it is doing to the rogue Iranian regime that has threatened the lives of every single American in this room. If the Iranian Regime had their choice, they would kill every single person in this room.”

When Collins pressed further, Leavitt called the question “disingenuous” and said, “That’s not what the secretary meant.” Except it is exactly what he meant. We all heard it. “Tragic things happen” is not ambiguous. It was an administrative decision to treat the deaths of American service members as a messaging problem rather than a moral obligation. It is the press secretary and the Secretary of “War” of the United States, both standing in front of a room full of journalists and telling them their job is to promote the success of a war, not to report on the people dying in it.

These are all pieces of the same machine. Every piece of it is running the same program: build up the President’s image, protect his image, and punish anyone who dares speak the truth that may also tarnish this carefully manufactured image.

And here is why all of that performance matters. Because the walls continue to crack wide open, and they know it. Especially amongst the public, but also in his own party.

Today, a bipartisan majority on the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Epstein files, led by Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace. With Mace saying, “I move that the committee issue a subpoena to the Honorable Pamela Jo Bondi to appear before the committee for a deposition regarding the department’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates and compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.” The subpoena passed. Bondi will have to answer for what she has hidden, sanitized, and protected.

We already know Trump’s name appears in the documents. We already know Jeffrey Epstein ran not just a trafficking operation but most likely a blackmail network, recording the powerful and keeping their secrets as leverage. We already know that the people closest to this president, people now running our government, people confirmed to cabinet positions and handed the keys to our federal agencies, have ties to this network that have never been fully explained. And we know that every time the public gets close to a real answer, something happens. A new war, military action, more endless promises, and attacks on the press. But what this administration is starting to realize is that no distraction, no matter how big, destructive, or lethal, will stop the momentum already underway. We are not going to forget about the files, the survivors, or the perpetrators of such heinous crimes. Nor will we forget about everyone who has tried to bury the crimes and protect the predators.

And at the heart of all of this, everything this administration does, what Trump has done, and what he continues to do, is real suffering. We have people, including vulnerable children, locked in detention centers. We are at war, and our military bases are on high alert, even here in the States. We have already lost at least 6 members of our military. Our government has completely destabilized the entire world. Real Americans are facing financial hardships, and according to the WSJ, 6% of Vanguard participants are now taking hardship withdrawals from their 401(k) plans for emergency cash to cover medical bills, evictions/foreclosures, and other urgent financial needs.

So what do we do? We keep pushing back. We keep the pressure on through the midterms because that is where this changes. And we do it in two ways. We share the truth online. Every post, every article, every name of every service member they want us to forget. But we also take it offline. We have the hard conversations in real life. We show up visibly. We let people see that dissent is not dangerous. And we make sure the people around us know we are safe to talk to.

We support our military. Because this is not going to be a quick war. Even if it ended tomorrow, those men and women will not be coming home anytime soon. We already know what happens when this country sends people to fight and forgets about them when they get back. We cannot do that again.

We support independent media. The only reason any of us know what is actually happening right now is because independent voices and journalists are still doing the work regardless of the threats. So support them with paid memberships, share their posts. And not just mine. Find five voices you trust and support them however you can. Invite someone new to read their words. That is how we break through the algorithm.

And we look out for each other. Our neighbors are hurting. People are draining their retirement savings just to keep a roof over their heads. And desperate people are easier to control. That is exactly what this administration is counting on. We cannot let him pull more people into his darkness. We must show up for each other. That is how we hold the line.

And on days like this, when the weight of the collective pain he is inflicting on his fellow citizens and the people of the world feels so heavy it’s hard to breathe, I remind myself of something that helps: these are not the moves of people who are winning. These are the desperate acts of people managing a slow collapse and hoping we don’t notice. What they are doing now tells us how desperate they are becoming and just how close we are getting to breaking their hold. And 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: I stepped outside for just a few minutes today and saw this beautiful bird, just taking in the day. There is something about watching a creature completely unbothered by anything beyond the next moment that reminds you that slowing down, even for two minutes, even when you think you can't afford to, is one of the most important things you can do. The world will still be here when you look back up. And you'll see it more clearly for having looked away.