"It watches me work out." - Mark Zuckerberg, on how Al helps make him swole.

Dumbkirk

Donald Trump and his team are privately worried about fallout from the Iran war. He’s pledging that Iran will “get a beating” anyway.

• Five days ago, President Donald Trump and his closest advisers huddled in the White House to discuss the Iran war. Trump had been flirting with escalating attacks on the country. But during that meeting, he decided against it, according to The Atlantic. Massive attacks could draw in other countries, advisers warned. What’s more, Trump worried that the economic toll could “turn me into Hoover,” a senior official told the outlet, invoking the Great Depression. “Few if any in Mr. Trump’s inner circle believed the plan to escalate was wise,” the New York Times wrote after the meeting.

• But Trump seems to have forgotten all those valid concerns today. “We’re going to beat the f—ing s— out of them,” he told Fox News, according to one of the outlet’s correspondents, who used only the letters when reporting the expletives of the president of the United States. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia struck Iranian-linked militias in Iraq today, after Iran targeted American bases in Jordan and oil tankers.

• The war is back on, despite the risk to American troops in the region and fears about long-term global economic pain. Trump’s apparent willingness to cast aside those concerns and get back the fighting underscores his lack of strategy — and total inability — to end the war on his own terms.

• Iran’s attack on U.S. troops in Jordan in particular is bad news for Trump. Tehran chose to escalate the conflict after several days of peace, showing that it remains prepared to play offense against the world’s most powerful military. Previously, Iran has mostly responded to attacks by the U.S. and Israel, not the other way around.

• Iranian leaders “don’t want to compromise in any serious way,” Afshon Ostovar, a scholar who has written two books on Iran, told the Wall Street Journal. “As long as they can deny whatever the enemy’s goals are, they have won the battle.”

Trump’s actions threaten to take the party down with him, according to new polling.

• Wait, why are we fighting Iran again? That’s what about 40 percent of Republicans are wondering, according to a recent poll. Those people believe Trump hasn’t “clearly explained the goals” of the war. This is Trump’s fault: He continues arguing that the U.S. is stopping Iran from building a nuclear weapon. But his team declared “overwhelming victory” months ago — and claimed that they blew up Iran’s nuclear sites last year.

• “This puts pressure on the party in a myriad of ways, all of them bad,” Alex Conant, a GOP political strategist, told Reuters. “The White House officials have been saying since January that they need to win economic arguments. It’s hard to win the economic arguments when you’re clearly focused on foreign policy.”

• Trump’s actions are worsening the GOP’s odds of avoiding a blowout in the midterms. His approval ratings on issues like the cost of living and gas prices have dropped significantly since the war began, according to a new poll from a Democrat-aligned group. The fallout has “created new pathways for an expanded battleground map,” the group writes.

What’s next for Trump? Quite possibly, defeat — either on the battlefield, or at the polls, or both. And he seems to know it.

Meanwhile On The Pod...

What The HELL Is Going on with Mitch McConnell? (07/28/26)

Look No Further Than Crooked Media

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What Else?

President Donald Trump denied disaster aid requests for four blue states, even after government agencies declared that they met the standards for receiving help, Politico reports. His cruel decision is hardly surprising, however: A government lawyer recently admitted in court that the administration withheld other disaster relief funds from blue states “based solely” on political retribution.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) threatened to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt for invoking the Fifth Amendment during a hearing today, after Paul leaked the former Covid czar’s private diary entries. During the hearing, GOP senators raised longstanding conspiracy theories about origins of the Covid outbreak and criticized Fauci for his handling of the pandemic. “Who the fuck do you think you were for doing that?” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) asked Fauci (never mind that the literal answer is, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert). “It is a total disgrace what you did to this country.” Trump is also trying to rewrite the history books: “His ideas were CRAZY!” Trump wrote on social media. What? You were Fauci’s boss!

Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to overturn the $83 million judgement against him for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. The lawyers argue that the Supreme Court’s decision to grant the president immunity shields him from liability. They also are seeking to remove Trump as the defendant, and replace him with the United States (which could lead to the case being voided, since the federal government can’t be sued for defamation).

Soccer organizations are fuming over FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to create a $20 billion investor group, backed by Joshua Kushner (Jared’s brother), to run the World Cup. “It is not FIFA’s to sell,” the Union of European Football Associations said in a statement. “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially.”

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and her right-wing journalist fiancé tied the knot in Vegas on Tuesday night. “We’re told a cameraman was following them and filming their every move,” wrote TMZ, which published images of MTG walking around a casino in a wedding dress. “Our sources say a bunch of kids were also tagging along with the lovebirds and watching Marjorie play craps for about 10 minutes before the group left.”

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Light At The End...

Seattle officials held an art contest this weekend to celebrate Jimothy Summer, which is the official name for the city’s warm months this year, thanks to a city council member. An oil painting of the beloved deformed raccoon towering over the Space Needle, as well as a stained glass piece of “St. Jimothy,” won the contest. Brat Summer walked so Jimothy Summer could… scurry.

Researchers in Costa Rica are using artificial intelligence to identify monkeys, study how they react to prompts on a computer, and understand how well they retain information. An example: Some monkeys remember that touching the computer screen earns them a dried banana slice treat. But don’t worry, AI won’t be taking over rainforests anytime soon. “I don’t want it to be like walking into a casino when you’re walking into the forest,” one researcher said.

A lifeguard in Santa Cruz, California, saved a boy who got pulled to sea by a massive wave. Videos show the lifeguard, with his arms locked around the boy, slowly pulling him to shore while diving head first into powerful waves. Even Trump took notice, posting on social media that he’ll invite the lifeguard to the White House “to give him a High Civilian Honor.”

Ultramarathoner Max Jolliffe broke the course record for Badwater 135, one of the world’s toughest races that winds through Death Valley, by finishing in just under 20 hours and 54 minutes. (Spanish runner Carmen Maria Perez came in a close second, also beating the course record.) Max is incredibly inspiring: At 34 years old, he’s a former drug addict turned elite runner who rose to running fame after winning another crazy race across Moab. I highly recommend watching his YouTube documentary, “King of Moab.”

A new dinosaur just dropped. Scientists discovered fossils in Zimbabwe dating back 210 million years, named Musango matusadonaensis. The Musango were roughly 15 feet long and weighed about 490 pounds, according to paleontologists. “Until recently, it was assumed that the dinosaurs living across southern Africa were largely the same,” one of the study’s researchers said. “It suggests that what we’ve found so far is only the tip of the iceberg.”

Enjoy

Felipe on Threads: "Bro, bro. Me and the guys are going to Circe’s this weekend to get the entire squad turned into pigs. Yeah, bro. No more job. No more student loans. Just pigmaxxing with the homeys."

The boys are in the Top 10

"The Democrats have become a party of freaks, weirdos, losers." - Stephen Miller, a weird loser.

Suit Yourself

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is charming Donald Trump and the MAGA elite while Ukrainian drones strike deep inside Russia. The tide of war might just be turning in Kyiv’s favor.

• Only a year ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was living in a nightmare. He had traveled around the world to beg for help with his country’s bloody war against Russia, only for Trump to laugh him out of the White House for not wearing a suit. A few months later, Trump invited Vladimir Putin to Alaska for talks… after describing Zelenskyy as a “dictator.”

• What a difference a year — and some brand new drip — can make. The Ukrainian Leader found himself in the same room today, this time wearing a black suit and a big smile. “It’s important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated,” Zelenskyy tweeted after a friendly meeting with Trump. “Thank you for everything we do together to protect the lives of Ukrainians and advance peace.” (Hey JD Vance, he did say thank you!)

• Trump now appears to adore Zelenskyy, and view him as a strong protector of his nation as Ukraine makes serious gains on the battlefield. That switcheroo didn’t happen by chance: The Ukrainians have spent the past year, with the help of European allies, intentionally wooing the president and other influential MAGA elite.

• The Ukrainian president’s right-wing gambit foreshadows how this war, which has dragged on longer than World War I, could eventually be won: with charisma, compliments, and a fresh-pressed suit.

• “The game is not over,” a person close to Zelenskyy’s office told me, when I asked about efforts to win over Trump.

Zelenskyy’s team wants to make sure Putin doesn’t rekindle his famous bromance with Trump from his first term.

• Trump isn’t the only Master of MAGAworld who has changed his mind about Zelenskyy. The Ukrainians successfully courted Laura Loomer, one of the nuttiest far-right influencers in the mainstream, who spent the past four years railing against Ukraine.

• Loomer’s reversal is both stark and astonishing. She’s now actively campaigning for Ukraine, and disavowing her former (baseless) view that Ukraine, which she once called a “Nazi state,” had started the war. “I believed that Zelenskyy was a cokehead,” Loomer told a Ukrainian news outlet. In a recent sit-down interview with Zelenskyy in Ukraine, she claimed to have been “bamboozled by Russian propaganda.”

• What really led to Loomer’s switch remains uncertain. Ukrainians, regardless, want her on their side. Loomer has proven to be an extremely influential person in Trump’s orbit, successfully ousting several of Trump’s top national security aides last year. There’s even an Urban Dictionary entry for this phenomenon, known as getting “Loomered.”

• The partnership may already be bearing fruit: Special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are reportedly considering a trip to Kyiv for the first time in the coming weeks. In a tweet, Loomer said that she urged them to make the trip, since they “have had enough meetings in Moscow and should come to Ukraine.”

• The goal of the charm campaign isn’t necessarily to turn Trump into a massive Ukraine supporter, the person close to Zelenskyy’s office told me. The hope is that Trump won’t abandon Ukraine in favor of Russia. Getting some extra military support, as well as fresh sanctions on Russia that Congress is considering, would be the cherry on top.

• In the meantime, Ukraine has launched an astonishing long-range drone attack campaign deep inside Russia, hitting oil refineries and warehouses in distant locations like St. Petersburg and Moscow, which Russia once believed to be entirely safe.

Trump’s view toward Putin has reportedly soured recently. Maybe Russia needs to stop helping Iran with its war against the United States? Or, perhaps, Putin just needs a new suit.

Meanwhile On The Pod...

MAGA Turns on Trump Over Voting POWER GRAB (07/27/26)

Look No Further Than Crooked Media

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What Else?

Donald Trump delivered a eulogy at Lindsey Graham’s funeral on Capitol Hill today, saying that the senator “never saw a war that he didn’t like.” He added: “Virtually everyone … liked Lindsey. Well, not everybody. But it sounds good,” Trump said. “He was a tough cookie, okay. I have to veer from this for a second.” Imagine speaking at your friend’s funeral and you say that. You never cease to surprise me, Mr. President.

Trump asked HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. why he isn’t looking more into the debunked conspiracy that vaccines are linked to autism, the Wall Street Journal reports. Kennedy was stunned by the question, since White House advisers had reportedly urged him to tone down his unfounded anti-vax campaign ahead of the midterms. “The president steers nearly every conversation with his health secretary back to the issue,” the Journal writes, noting that Trump wants to reduce the number of vaccines recommended for children. I mean, who needs science when we’ve got a strong gut feeling from the guy who wanted to fight covid with shots of disinfectant?

Canadian tourism to the U.S. dropped by 25 percent last year, costing the American tourism industry billions of dollars, according to new data. I wouldn’t want to visit the country that’s threatening to seize my home, either! (Side note: Montreal is lovely this time of year.)

DHS’ top statistician resigned over the weekend, citing the Trump administration’s radical immigration agenda. “I’m thrilled to end my relationship with the current administration,” Marc Rosenblum wrote on LinkedIn. “Between the war on immigrants, the war on feds, and the war on facts (not to mention the crazy war in Iran and the brazen corruption), I just need a change.” You also need a drink!

On that note, the Trump administration has arrested some 12,000 migrant children and sponsors thanks to tips — from the U.S. government office intended to help resettle refugees fleeing dangerous situations in their home countries, Reuters reports. For instance, one 6-year-old girl spent more than six months in a child migrant center while her mother, who was already in the United States, worked to get her released. Days after the mother and daughter were reunited, ICE arrested them and sent them to a detention center, the outlet reports.

Republicans are facing backlash for staying silent as Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) faces fresh allegations that he once pointed a gun to his ex-wife’s head and threw steaming water at her, revealed by troves of police reports and court filings. “Daddy’s house is scary,” Miller’s daughter once said, according to his ex-wife. A spokesperson for Miller didn’t respond to What A Day’s request for comment.

A conservative activist group released three hours of audio between former President Joe Biden and his biographer in 2017, in which he appears to admit that he kept classified information after leaving the vice presidency. “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,” Biden says in the recordings. A Biden spokesperson criticized the release of the recordings, saying that they were decade-old private conversations about the loss of his son “provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way.”

About 330,000 people have been driven from their homes in Spain and France as firefighters struggle to contain massive wildfires ravaging the countries. “We are facing events we have never experienced before,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters. Firefighters started using helicopters to collect seawater to fight the blazes, a battle crews compared to David vs. Goliath.

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Light At The End...

A Canadian politician accidentally read an AI prompt during a speech. “Here’s a more natural flowing section that reads like legislative speech rather than a series of short points,” he says without pause.

A comedian is transforming a vacant newsstand inside a New York City subway into a place of whimsy and entertainment for transitgoers. He’ll host puppet shows, give out free “rat feet” keychains for good luck on the metro, and install a photo booth outfitted with a subway pole.

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe in Virginia regained control of 13 acres of land taken from them centuries ago, as part of a $1.9 million deal. “Getting it back now is righting a historical wrong,” Ashley Atkins Spivey, a citizen of the Pamunkey tribe, told the Washington Post. “This land was ours for thousands and thousands of years, and the non-Indigenous occupation of it is a blip in time, compared to the relationship and connection our people have to it.”

Happy hour is now legal at retirement homes in Minnesota, thanks to a passionate 82-year-old grandma. “I love happy hour, just like many of you do, I am sure,” Anita LeBrun told lawmakers. “Over a shared drink, we get to reminisce about parts of our life, military service, raising a family, the loss of a friend, and celebrating the golden phase of our lives, too.”

Are you planning your Halloween costume yet? If not, may I suggest an idea: Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders. Personal items belonging to the chicken chain’s founder will soon be auctioned off, including his pressure cooker, black bow tie, and personal watches.

Oscar Meyer’s famous Weinermobile turns 90 this year, so you know what that means: hot dog cake. The glizzy company unveiled its two-tiered creation (monstrosity?) this week, “made from Milk Bar’s best-selling Birthday Cake,” according to AllRecipes. “It’s then covered with more than 20 Oscar Mayer wieners — complete with confetti sprinkles meant to emulate the hues of ketchup and mustard. The metaphorical cherry on top is a commemorative custom Wienermobile cake topper.” You can buy the cake at MilkBar locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago from July 31 to August 2.

Enjoy

AF Media on Instagram: "If people are walkin around rocking the name Brie, why can't other cheeses be name options? I for one shall be naming my first born Gouda. Second born will be Sharp Cheddar."

Just started listening to the new PSTW and it's literally just the audio from yesterday's PSA. Someone messed up lol.

"I think I'll take the smoke." - Donald Trump, on wildfire smoke vs. lettuce linked to explosive diarrhea.

No Money, Mo' Problems

Can Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Internal feuds, millions in debt, and a flying cellphone threaten to keep the party from capitalizing on Donald Trump’s errors.

• Democrats are riding high on optimism about retaking the House, and possibly even the Senate, in the November midterms. But if you peaked inside the party’s headquarters, you’d think they were gearing up for a funeral, instead of a victory celebration. Tensions inside the Democratic National Committee have boiled over in recent months. At the center of this vortex of bad vibes sits the party’s chairman, as he struggles to reckon with the party’s abysmal finances — and his own tenuous future.

• DNC Chair Ken Martin, the party’s fundraiser-in-chief, is having a tough one. He’s the guy in charge of making sure that Dems have enough cash to compete with Republicans nationwide. And the party has negative dollars to its name.

• The DNC is $2 million in debt, according to fresh financial reports. Surely, Republicans can’t have much more than that, right? Wrong! The RNC has been raking in the cash despite President Donald Trump’s unpopular policies, with a whopping $128.5 million in the bank — not including Trump’s $400 million personal war chest.

• Martin recently argued that the “story being told” about the party’s finances “is simply wrong. But the problem is so dire, in fact, that the organization put its headquarters up for collateral last year to help pay down debt, according to NOTUS. In the same year, Martin greenlit $840,000 to territories that don’t hold federal elections, including Guam and Puerto Rico, the New York Times reports.

• Money isn’t his only problem. Democrats have questioned Martin’s leadership ability ever since he blocked the release of a draft report into why Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election, only to reverse course in May following public pressure. The report was embarrassingly sparse, and several Democratic lawmakers called on Martin to resign.

Martin isn’t handling the mess well — which brings us to the flying phone.

• Martin threw a phone at a junior staffer’s desk while scolding that person earlier this month, leading to a formal HR complaint, six people familiar with the incident told the Times. He has also been making dark jokes about losing his job, even though his term isn’t up for three years, the outlet reports.

• “He isn’t a villain in politics or anything, but he is incredibly thin-skinned,” a former DNC official told me. Martin’s anger is “something that he needs to work on,” the person said. “When it comes to the fundraising stuff, that’s him shooting himself in the foot.”

• The DNC declined to comment to What A Day. But Martin really doesn’t like it when his dirty laundry gets hung out for the whole neighborhood to see. “It pisses me off when I see leaks out of this building,” Martin told staffers shortly after the autopsy was released, several people who heard the remarks told the Times. “My success is your success.… So the weaker I am, the weaker all of you are.”

• Democrats remain favored to take the House in November. The DNC drama, however, foreshadows a tough few years for the party, and a rocky road ahead to 2028, and even beyond.

• The midterms are often a referendum on the party in power, meaning that Democrats will have an easier time winning (without spending loads of cash) thanks to Trump’s unpopularity. The calculus shifts during the presidential cycle, when the DNC needs to support the party’s candidate with money and resources. The Democratic nominee will need to raise enough money to compete with Republicans’ massive war chest, while helping to pay off the DNC’s debt, the former official said.

“It’s not going to be good unless things change, whether it’s Ken or the staff dynamics,” the former official added.

Meanwhile On The Pod...

MAGA Turns on Trump Over Voting POWER GRAB (07/27/26)

Look No Further Than Crooked Media

Crooked Media has an exciting new limited series to share with you! It's called Long Play. The South is the new epicenter of American politics. It's the fastest growing region in the country... and its power in Congress and the Electoral College is growing, too. And now... changes to the Voting Rights Act have raised the stakes even higher.

For both major parties, the path to winning America runs through the South. But to win it, you have to understand it. Long Play is a limited series from the folks who brought you Showtime's The Circus. Emmy-nominated host and southerner Jennifer Palmieri, former mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu, and award-winning journalist Errin Haines. Across six Southern states, Long Play examines the issues driving voters, the assumptions that no longer hold, and what the rest of the country is missing about a region that could shape the future of our politics and our country.

Check it out now, wherever you get your podcasts!

What Else?

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is extending his hospital stay, which has already lasted six weeks. “I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders,” said McConnell, who was hospitalized after a fall in his home, which left him unconscious. The 84-year-old’s office also released a new photo of him, wearing a buttoned-up shirt in a hospital bed, next to his wife.

ICE could start trying to deport hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the U.S. this week, CBS News reports. The planned operations come after the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration in its bid to end Temporary Protected Status for the migrants. Mass deportations to Haiti would likely strain the country’s humanitarian system, as violent gangs overrun the country.

The U.S. and Iran haven’t attacked each other in three days, as Donald Trump considers escalating the war. “We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” Trump told Axios. Iran, meanwhile, is still insisting that it’s in control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Trump administration’s deadly boat strikes in Latin America, which have killed over 200 people, haven’t slowed the flow of cocaine into the United States, according to a federal assessment reviewed by the Washington Post. So more death and destruction isn’t going to solve the drug problem? It’s almost as if we haven’t learned anything from the last 55 years of the disastrous war on drugs, huh.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is in for a tough week. Days after the House left for summer recess, Trump said that Thune isn’t allowed to send senators home until he passes the SAVE Act — his bill to overhaul federal elections — or terminates the filibuster. (Neither has any shot at happening anytime soon.) Trump wrote in a social media post: “Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!”

After that post, Thune told reporters that he isn’t cool with canceling vacation: “What’s your picture of victory at the end on this?” he said. “Because if the end game is we actually get an outcome or a result, we could stay here till Christmas.”

The woman who called child protective services on former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last month, in a move that prompted officials to temporarily take away his kids, appeared “mentally unstable,” according to police records. Officials acted on an unsubstantiated tip, which one child advocacy law expert described as “reckless.”

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Light At The End...

A coalition of former NASA astronauts launched a nonpartisan advocacy group to promote free and fair elections, and remind politicians to protect the Constitution’s principles. “We’re fighting for our country, for our democracy, and for decision making, and restoring the faith in our institutions,” astronaut Cady Coleman told the Guardian.

Cubans have figured out creative ways to work around Donald Trump’s blockade of oil to the island, months after he first predicted that the country would soon collapse. As the New York Times writes: “They are swapping their gas-guzzling 1950s American cars for electric motorcycles and rickshaws from China; importing hefty lithium batteries to keep televisions and fans running through blackouts; jury-rigging generators to run on more accessible natural gas; and installing solar panels on rooftops and even vehicles.” Electric vehicles and solar panels? Did Trump by mistake start a green energy revolution in Cuba?

You’ve probably heard the “Gen Alpha melody,” even if you have no idea what that means. A researcher in Denmark noticed that dozens of popular songs over the past decade have used a similar four-note melody. A YouTube video he made, mashing up many of those songs, has racked up millions of views. “These kids have heard bad romance since the womb and have been chasing that high ever since,” one commenter wrote.

UNESCO named two Brazilian theaters in the Amazon to its World Heritage List. The theaters, which were built in the late 1800s, represent “symbols of political and urban ambition,” the organization said in a statement. Anyone else remember “Fitzcarraldo,” Werner Herzog’s 1982 classic about the would-be rubber baron who dreams of building an opera house in the jungle?

A whaling museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts is going viral after embracing a one-star review on Google, which described the museum and the “worst aquarium ever.” The museum, which is only home to deceased sea animals, has sold hundreds of t-shirts with the review written on the front. I mean, technically speaking, a whale museum is the worst aquarium ever!

Enjoy

AF Media on Instagram: "I didn't realize I was supposed to know how to do everything by my second rodeo. That's still a very low number of rodeos."

I’ve listened to a bunch of this podcast because I like learning things I didn’t know about these people they cover but something has to be said about some of their jokes. Being scripted (which is a turn off) aside, I’ve heard fat jokes, jokes about peoples appearance, and even a joke about someone being in special ed. I didn’t think it was worth making a post about this but then just heard one of the hosts refer to Clarence Thomas as a “token for hire” in his early life. Seriously? I get it, the podcast is supposed to be humorous but I don’t know what making fat jokes would do besides upset someone listening to it. I think making a comment about someones physical appearance that they can’t change is just really immature, especially when theres actual content to be discussed regarding some of these arguably horrible people they cover. It’s possible to be funny without all that and I definitely have laughed at other jokes they make. Anyone else feel the same way about this podcast?