The President did an interview with a TV news channel – we’ll let you guess which one – while he was out there, during which he said money given to Ukraine was “p****d away”
Donald Trump arrived back in the US last night after a lucrative and eventful tour of the Middle East.
He’s (probably) sleeping off the jet lag, so has no public engagements planned for today.
But that doesn’t mean the MAGA machine has slowed down.
The President did an interview with a TV news channel – we’ll let you guess which one – while he was out there, during which he said money given to Ukraine was “p****d away”.
The confected outrage about James Comey’s Instagram rumbles on unabated.
And Trump ramped up his feuds with both Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift.
Here’s a roundup of all the most unhinged things that happened in Trump World overnight that you need to know about. And a couple of things you probably don’t.
READ MORE: MIKEY SMITH: How Americans can remove Donald Trump from office if he keeps getting more unhinged
1. Trump doesn’t believe what the secret service tell him about the attempt on his life
In a weird moment during his interview with (who else?) Fox News’ Brett Baier, Trump seemed to suggest he doesn’t entirely trust his own secret service agents.
He said he’d been briefed by officials on the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania – where a bullet grazed his ear during a campaign speech – but that he still has questions.
Investigators found unusual activity on the assailant’s phone, he told Baier.
“Three apps. Very unusual apps. And two of them were foreign apps,” he said.
Trump told Baier he still doesn’t have all the information about the incident.
“But you’re the President,” Baier asked.
“I know, I know,” Trump mused. “I’m relying on my people to tell me what it is. You know we have deep-seated craziness in this country. And I’m relying on my people and so far…” He paused, before adding: “…and they’re good.”
He went on: “So far – and in this case the Secret Service, they tell me it’s…fine. But it’s a little hard to believe to be honest, OK?
“It’s a little bit hard to believe as I get that throbbing feeling.”
Trump laughed and touched the ear that was grazed in the near-miss incident.
“I get a throbbing feeling every once in a while… It’s a little bit strange.”
2. He said the money America gave to Ukraine was “p****d away”
Trump is still clearly a little bit irked at having to help Ukraine defend itself from an illegal invasion by a foreign dictator – branding Volodymyr Zelensky the “greatest salesman in the world.”
“What bothered me, I hated to see the way it was – excuse me – pissed away.
“I hated to see that cheques were sent for $60 million. I think Zelensky is the greatest salesman in the world. Far better than me.
“Zelensky, he comes to Washington, he walks away with $100 million every time he came.
“Now his abilities were shrinking because he only got $60 million.”
3. He still thinks he can use the Trojan Horse plane straight away
“I made a good deal,” he told Baier of the free luxury jet Qatar has offered him.
“We need a plane for a couple of years.”
Trump insisted the plane would be gifted to the US Air Force “for whoever is President”, and would only transfer to his foundation when it was “decommissioned.”
But he then noted the plane is already 11 years old, and the actual new Air Force Ones being built by Boeing will be delivered pretty soon anyway.
He’s apparently starting to grasp that the reason the new AF1 models are taking so long is that it’s not just a plane – it’s an “incredibly complex” flying White House.
But he hasn’t followed that thought to its natural conclusion – which is that any plane he flies on has to be secured to the same level.
In reality, it would take years – and cost tens of millions of dollars – to ensure the Qatari plane isn’t bugged, booby trapped or filled with angry Greeks ready to invade the city of Troy.
READ MORE: How Donald Trump turned the White House into a tacky gold palace full of trinkets in 100 days
4. Liberation Day 2: This time it’s postal
During a meeting with business leaders in the United Arab Emirates yesterday, Trump teased what is being called a “re-run” of Liberation Day – where he listed the wildly arbitrary tariffs he planned to impose on America’s trading partners.
You see, the reason the US has only struck one deal so far – with the UK – isn’t that nobody is lining up to negotiate. No, no. It’s that there’s so many countries dying to negotiate that it’s “not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us”.
“We have, at the same time, 150 countries that want to make a deal, but you’re not able to see that many countries,” he said.
(There are a total of 195 countries in the world.)
He didn’t explain why that was stopping him making a deal with, you know, some of them.
But anyway, the solution is easy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will be sending out some letters.
“At a certain point over the next two or three weeks, I think Scott and Howard will be sending letters out essentially telling people – it will be very fair – but we’ll be telling people what they’ll be paying to do business in the United States,” he said.
It’s unclear whether these will be new tariffs, extra tariffs or whether they’ll be tweaked at all from the ones set out on “Liberation Day”.
It’s also unclear how the penguins are going to write back, lacking as they do, thumbs.
5. America got downgraded
The US last night lost its last perfect credit rating.
Moody’s, the lone holdout maintaining a AAA rating for the States, downgraded the country one notch down to Aa1 – the level already set by Fitch and S&P.
Moody’s said in a statement the downgrade was influenced by “the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns.”
So not all Trump’s fault – although he was in power for quite a lot of the last decade.
6. Never mind that, look how old Joe Biden is…
In an apparent bid to distract from the unwelcome Moody’s announcement, the White House apparently leaked tapes of Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur during an investigation into his keeping classified documents at his home and former office.
In his report, Hur concluded Biden was a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.
The transcripts were published last year, but the Biden administration refused to release the tape, saying Republicans wanted to “manipulate it” for “potential political gain.”
Can’t imagine what would give them that impression.
7. Comey Shell-gate somehow rumbles on
The MAGAsphere is still screaming about a picture ex-FBI director James Comey posted, of some shells on a beach spelling out “86 47”.
Now, a bit of code breaking for you. Trump is the 47th President of the United States.
For non-Americans, ’86’ is a casual term for removing, getting rid of or – very occasionally – killing something or someone.
It’s kind of a rhyming slang for “nix”, although some have claimed it has a different etymology referring to the average size of a grave.
What it’s probably not is a suggestion that the President should be assassinated. Nevertheless, many performative MAGA types have chosen to interpret it that way and have accused the former FBI director of ordering a “hit” on the sitting President.
Kentucky Republican Congressman went on (where else?) Fox News last night, accusing Comey of trying to “jizz up some kind of coup, some kind of insurrection.” Which is funny, both because of the choice of words, but also because Comer visited people who took part in an actual attempted coup on January 6th in prison, and has branded the investigation into the violent incident as a “sham.”
Comey has deleted the Insta snap that sparked the furore – saying he had no idea the number 86 could have violent connotations.
Nevertheless, Mr Comey – and also apparently his wife for some reason – have been questioned by the secret service.
Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence has called for Comey to be jailed for “calling a hit” on the President while he was in the Middle East.
And Trump himself has now weighed in, telling (who else?) Fox News: “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”
One wonders whether the President saw this even louder and clearer message his own FBI director Kash Patel posted online earlier this year, where he was shown in an AI video chopping up members of congress with a chainsaw.
8. Donald Trump does not like Bruce Springsteen
Turns out the Donald is not a fan of the Boss.
Especially, as it turns out, after the Greatest Living American branded the Trump White House “a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration” during a gig in Manchester.
Trump, as you might expect did not take kindly to Springsteen’s words.
“I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States,” he posted on Truth Social.
“Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy – Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country.”
He went on to criticise Springsteen’s skincare regime.
“This dried out “prune” of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just “standard fare.” Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Bruce Springsteen, for the record, is 75 – three years younger than Trump. His concerts are legendary for their length – often lasting 3-4 hours and performing 25-30 songs – and his superhuman energy levels.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, struggled to stay awake through a brief event in Saudi Arabia the other day.
9. Neither does he like Taylor Swift
The President of the United States wrote on his Truth Social account yesterday: “Has anyone noticed that, since I said “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” she’s no longer “HOT?”
Again, Donald Trump is 78 years old.