At last, after months of wrangling and, some would argue, being nicer than we strictly speaking wanted to be to the US administration, there’s enough of a deal on the table for the President to post on Truth Social about it
Today is a big, important day in the calendar. One for the history books.
Of course it’s the 80th Anniversary of VE Day – something the US has now decided it’s going to join in with.
We’d also like to wish a happy Motörhead day to those who celebrate.
And a late addition to the calendar – it’s US trade deal day. At last, after months of wrangling and, some would argue, being nicer than we strictly speaking wanted to be to the US administration, there’s enough of a deal on the table for the President to post on Truth Social about it.
Here’s what we know about how that happened – plus a roundup of some of the other unhinged things that happened in Trump World overnight.
1. Trump bounced the UK into announcing a trade deal, possibly
While there had been talk about a US trade deal being announced soon – possibly even this week – it landing today wasn’t on anyone’s radar.
It’s odd timing from a UK perspective – with Starmer taking part in VE Day commemorations and some other things on the agenda.
And yet, an item entitled “Trade announcement” appeared on the President’s daily schedule, which dropped around 3am. The President then started teasing the announcement with late-night truth social posts.
First it was a “major trade deal” with a “highly respected nation – one of the best”. Then later he was even more specific – saying it would be a “very big and exciting day for the United States of America and the United Kingdom.”
If anyone was still in any doubt, he then posted to say the trade deal to be announced would be “full and comprehensive” and would “cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.”
He added: “Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honour to have the United Kingdom as our FIRST announcement.”
Now, it’s possible this was all planned this way. And No10 insists it wasn’t caught on the hop.
But it’s also possible that Trump desperately needed something to announce before he heads off to the Middle East later in the week.
He’d already teased a “big announcement” to come – but said it wasn’t anything to do with tariffs. Most people assumed it was the bonkers Gaza thing, more of which later.
It’s also true that Trump is under enormous pressure to announce a trade deal with literally anyone. A month into his 90 day pause after “Liberation Day”, there was no sign of a deal being inked with any of the countries targeted for tariffs – until the middle of last night.
It’s unclear what will be in the deal, or indeed, how much of it will actually be revealed today.
But Liz Truss responded positively to the news on Twitter, saying she was… “pumped.”
2. Israel pointed out the hostages Trump said were dead are not, in fact, dead
On Tuesday Trump told reporters three more hostages held by Hamas had died.
This was a matter of some alarm to their families, who had not been told of their deaths.
Then last night, Israel corrected the President, with Gal Hirsch, the country’s coordinator for hostage issues, saying there were still 24 hostages alive – a number that had not changed since before Trump’s comments.
“All families of the kidnapped are always updated with the information we have about their loved ones,” he said.
3. Gaza to become 51st state?
It was reported last night that Trump’s White House is in talks to take over the administration of Gaza after the war.
A leak of discussions was light on detail – but it’s apparently proposed that America would take over the strip until a viable Palestinian administration emerges.
It was compared to the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq – just in case Trump’s non-interventionist base needed another reason to hate it.
It’s unclear whether this was supposed to be the “big announcement” Trump teased the other night.
And it’s also unclear whether this has any hope of getting the backing of the region, beyond Israel, which is already announcing plans to “conquer” the strip if a hostage deal isn’t struck by the end of next week.
4. An extra day, but no day off, to mark World War II
Trump officially announced the apparent breakup of Veterans Day, a public holiday, into two “Victory Days” – one in November commemorating World War I, and today commemorating World War II.
“The United States has never joined in with the proper celebration” of VE Day, Trump said in the Oval Office, adding that it was “mostly accomplished because of us, whether you like it or not.”
But while he said it would be a “major celebration” on each day, he added: “We’re not going to have days off, because we don’t have enough days. We have too many celebrations already.”
5. You gotta hand it to the Houthis
Trump last night praised the “bravery” of Houthi rebels, who the US (and UK) have been bombing quite a lot recently.
“You know, we hit them very hard,” he said. “They had great capacity to withstand punishment. They took tremendous punishment. You can say there’s a lot of bravery there. It was amazing what they took.”
For the avoidance of doubt, you absolutely do not gotta hand it to the Houthis.
6. Cut a deal to pump Trump propaganda out through America’s ‘world service’
Since World War II, the US government has run an arms-length-ish news organisation called “Voice of America” – which provides broadcast news and cultural programming to countries without access to a free press. Think of it as America’s equivalent of the BBC World Service, kind of.
In March, Kari Lake, Trump’s “senior advisor on global media” took an axe to the agency, putting almost the entire workforce on indefinite leave.
Like many of the Trump administration’s bids to dismantle the bits of the state Republicans don’t like, the move is being challenged in the courts. And in the meantime, they still have to put something on the air.
Luckily, Lake has come up with a wizard wheeze. She’s arranged for bonkers pro-Trump propaganda channel One America News (OAN) to put its “news programming” out through Voice of America at no cost to the taxpayer.
OAN, for those who haven’t had the pleasure, distinguishes itself through its unwavering, unquestioning support for Donald Trump – no matter what mental gymnastics it has to perform to support their guy.
They were, for example, forced to settle defamation lawsuits filed by several manufacturers of voting machines as well as two Georgia election workers, for sticking by Trump’s election fraud conspiracies in 2020.
Just the kind of straight down the line news coverage you want to send out into to the world.
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7. Trump picked a conspiracy theorist with no medical license to replace a Fox News contributor as Surgeon General
Casey means, a ‘Make America Healthy Again’ influencer and practitioner of so-called “functional medicine” is Trump’s new pick for Surgeon General, it has been reported.
It comes after Trump withdrew his nomination of Dr Janette Nesheiwat, his original choice, just days before a congressional confirmation hearing.
As well as being a former Fox News contributor, Dr Nesheiwat is also the sister-in-law of ousted National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
On the other hand, she did have a license to practice medicine.
Dr Casey, on the other hand, completed her primary medical training at Stanford, but dropped out of a residency programme at the University of Oregon, according to the Independent.
She currently has no active medical licence, but is expected to “work closely” with RFK Jr on chronic diseases.