Republicans’ blank check for Trump’s war bounces. In Iowa’s Senate debate, Democrat Josh Turek took it to Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, who repeatedly voted to back Donald Trump’s disastrous Iran war. “Mr. Turek criticized her for those votes and spoke about his father’s exposure to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. As a result, Mr. Turek noted, he was born with spina bifida, a birth defect. ‘I’m an example of the generational consequences to these forever wars,’ said Mr. Turek, who uses a wheelchair. He also sought to tie the Mideast conflict to voters’ daily lives: ‘Iowans out there, when you’re struggling at the pump, that is because of Ashley Hinson,’ he said near the end.” Devastating.
Bessent is a mini-Trump. A deeply reported Wall Street Journal piece documented Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s bullying of subordinates, incompetence, restricting himself to a close coterie of suck-ups, retaliating against the press for negative coverage, and rotten economic results. (He also melted down in a restaurant in response to peaceful protestors, spitting in his own food!?!) Utterly unsurprising that Trump feels so close to him.
