Donald Trump and Elon Musk did their best impersonation of a couple whose marriage is on the rocks yesterday, while JD Vance went to scold Europe for not being MAGA enough.
Or maybe that should be MEGA.
Either way, it was another wild day both in and out of the Oval Office yesterday. Elon might have put America’s national security at risk from foreign spies. Some random kids turned up at a government office pretending to be DOGE. And Trump made Keir Starmer sound a wee bit needy.
Here’s everything you need to know about the last 24 hours in Donald Trump’s West Wing circus.
1. Hung a framed Trump mug shot by the door of the Oval Office
In case you needed a less subtle indication that the White House is currently being run like a criminal enterprise, they literally hung a copy of the New York Post front page with Trump’s mugshot on it on the wall. Right next to the door into the Oval Office, where people have to wait before going in.
2. Trump made Keir Starmer look a bit needy
Yesterday, as we know, Trump and Starmer spoke on the phone. It was not an arranged call – what apparently happened was Trump called his envoy, Mark Burnett, during a dinner with the PM and he passed his mobile phone over the table to him.
Inevitably, Trump’s version of the call was much less flattering than ours.
No10 said in a statement that Mr Starmer: “took a call from President Trump and discussed his forthcoming visit to the US”.
Trump on the other hand, said: “He asked for a meeting and I agreed to the meeting, we’re going to have a friendly meeting, very good.
“We have a lot of good things going on. But he asked to come and see me and I just accepted his asking.”
Asked what they’d talk about when they met, Trump added: “I don’t know, it was his request not mine.
“But you know, I’ve met him twice already. We get along very well – he’s a very nice guy.”
3. Elon Musk apparently posted classified data on the DOGE website
Not content with publishing the DOGE website with some pretty major security flaws that briefly allowed literally anyone to post information to it, Elon Musk appears to have published some classified information on it.
The database includes information gleaned from the National Reconnaissance office – which designs, builds and maintains U.S. intelligence satellites.
Their budgets and headcount are classified – not unreasonably, given it could allow hostile actors to judge how the US prioritises certain intelligence activities.
There have been debates in the intelligence community on whether they actually need to be classified, but it’s probably not a decision that should be left to a bunch of script kiddies in their 20s.
4. JD Vance lectured Europe about democracy
Vice President JD Vance visited the Munich Security Conference, where he decided to lecture the whole of Europe because they’re not as racist and corrupt as he’d like, or something.
The gist of his lengthy speech – which has been lauded by exactly the members of the UK’s political commentariat that you might expect – was that Europe’s biggest enemy is not Russia or China, it’s the “threat from within”.
Casually making an almost direct quote from Adolf Hitler, who is quite a big figure in German history, he complained free speech was under threat and democracy was being weakened across the continent.
This week, America banned the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One, because they decided not to call the Gulf of Mexico “The Gulf of America”.
And JD Vance himself has still refused to accept that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, claiming there were “serious problems” with the poll. The Trump administration pardoned thousands of people who stormed the US Capitol Building on January 6 2021, some of them violently attacking police officers, others threatening to put Vance’s predecessor to death in a bid to overturn the result of said election, and overthrow the legitimately elected President.
But please, JD, tell us more about how our democracy is being annihilated.
After his speech, Vance reportedly met with Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who praised his speech as “excellent.”
In the UK it has been praised or retweeted by (among others), Michael Gove, Nigel Farage, right-wing blowhard Matt Goodwin, Tory peer David Frost, Tory MP Neil O’Brien, Ex-Tory MPs Brandon Lewis, Bob Seely and Michael Fabricant.
5. Trump did a ‘both-sides’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Asked who he blamed for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the brutal, bloody conflict that has raged ever since, Trump said: “I think there are a lot of people to blame.”
Which, if you think about it, is a bit like saying there were a lot of “fine people” on each side of a race riot.
6. Seven prosecutors – including Trump supporters – quit rather than do what he tells them
Seven prosecutors in New York quit rather than agreeing to demands to ask a federal judge to drop the criminal corruption case against the city’s mayor, Eric Adams.
It’s worth giving the resignation of Assistant US Attorney Hagan Scotten a read – in which he claims Trump wants to drop the charges, but keep the possibility of bringing them back in future so he can have leverage against Adams.
Also, just because it’s a great piece of writing. Scotten is a conservative Republican.
7. Trump and Musk trailed a deeply weird joint interview
Get the popcorn in, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing a joint interview with (who else?) Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Looking almost exactly like a celebrity couple who are trying to salvage their marriage after one of them had an affair, the trailer sees the pair sit next to each other, telling Hannity about how the world is trying to “tear them apart.”
8. Oh, and this happened…and will almost certainly keep happening
Yesterday three men dressed in DOGE T-shirts and MAGA hats turned up at government offices in San Francisco, demanding employees turn over data about government spending. There’s no indication they were, in fact, DOGE employees.
