Trump's name removed from Kennedy Center after blowing past deadline

 

Protesters wave a US flag and hold a sign reading "you're no JFK" as workers build scaffolding near the signage for the "Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" in Washington, DC, on June 12, 2026.

 

Hundreds on hand during the balmy DC evening chant "take it down." 

 

Story by Joey Garrison, Susan Page, Michael Loria and Aysha Bagchi

June 13, 2026

USA TODAY

Workers in the early morning of June 13 took down the president's signage after blowing past a June 12 deadline to comply with a judge's order.

Construction crews first showed up at the iconic arts institution on the afternoon of June 12, mounted scaffolding and and geared up to take down the president's name ‒ letter by letter ‒ from the sign on the building's facade.

Yet for several hours, the scaffolding sat there with no action. The center's Trump-appointed leadership waited until after an end-of-day deadline for workers to remove Trump's name. 

Work to take down the letters finally got underway at 3:10 a.m. ET, lasting about 30 minutes. A tarp was placed on parts of the scaffolding, seemingly to block views of Trump's name disappearing from the venue.

A US federal judge on June 12 rejected a bid by the board of the Kennedy Center and the Justice Department to halt the removal of President Donald Trump's name from the performing arts venue. District Judge Christopher Cooper, in a ruling last month, ordered Trump's name taken off the iconic building in the nation's capital by Friday.

After losing multiple, last-ditch requests to be permitted to keep the name up, Trump and the Kennedy Center's board asked the judge late on June 12 for an additional 12 hours, saying thunderstorms caused delays.

The judge approved that request early June 13, after the original deadline had passed. The DOJ, which is representing Trump and the Board, confirmed in the late morning that the name has come down.

Hundreds of onlookers

Ahead of the drawn-out removal, the scene outside the Kennedy Center turned into a spectacle.

Hundreds of onlookers cheered and sang God Bless America as workers in hard hats with bungee lanyards clipped to their fluorescent yellow vests prepared to remove Trump's name. Many in the crowd were dressed as if for a performance at the stately Washington, DC, venue. Onlookers were festive and chatty amid thunderstorms that threatened to delay the work. Passersby honked their car horns in approval. 

The hundreds on hand during the balmy DC evening chanted "take it down."

Carolina Clarence, an area resident, came to watch with her dog, Ruffino. The retired kindergarten teacher called it "ridiculous" that Trump’s name was put up at all.

"We’re going to see this coming down," said Clarence, adding that Trump's name on the building hurt the storied institution as artists cancelled shows and donations fell. "They’re going to destroy the Kennedy Center."

Workers arrived on site shortly after the last-minute bids to keep the name up were rejected.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, in a May 29 ruling, said adding Trump's name to the center was illegal and ordered it be stripped from official materials and eliminated from signage within 14 days, by June 12.

In his June 12 denial of the Justice Department's request for a pause on his earlier ruling, Cooper said the defendants failed to prove their appeal would be successful and failed to show that the Kennedy Center would be "irreparably harmed" by following through with his order.

With the clock ticking toward an end-of-day deadline, the Trump administration later filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals, requesting that it intervene to pause Cooper's order before 7 p.m. ET, but the panel of judges denied the request, paving the way for the removal of Trump's name from the building.

Blow for Trump

Workers begin adjusting the name of the "John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted in what they say was a unanimous decision to rename the facility "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."

Earlier this week, the Kennedy Center's attorneys advised staff to adhere to the judge's order. Trump's name was quickly removed from the center's website and scrubbed from employees' email signatures. The center, however, waited until the judge reviewed a last-minute request to suspend the order before taking down the most visible display of Trump's attempted takeover of the center ‒ a large all-caps sign on the exterior of the building's marble facade that said, "THE DONALD J. TRUMP AND," above the old signage saying, "THE JOHN F. KENNEDY MEMORIAL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS."

The removal of the president's name from the center is a visibly striking blow to Trump's efforts to remake the center to his liking.

The Kennedy Center voted in December 2025 to rename the venue in honor of Trump, arguing he helped secure federal funding critical for the center's transformation. His name was added to the building's exterior sign less than 24 hours later.

Cooper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled that the Kennedy Center's board of trustees, made up of primarily Trump loyalists, violated the 1964 federal law that created the center to honor the late President John F. Kennedy when it voted to add Trump's name. The judge said the statute makes clear "the Kennedy Center must be named for, and is meant to honor, President Kennedy alone."

The judge's order came in a case brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex officio board member at the Kennedy Center, who sued to stop Trump's rebranding and attempted two-year closure for renovations.

Trump plans to close center blocked

In his ruling, Cooper also overturned Trump's plans to close the Kennedy Center for two years beginning in July to accommodate massive renovations to the building.

The closure was approved in a March vote by the Kennedy Center's board of trustees. In his 94-page opinion, Cooper questioned the credibility of the conclusion from Matt Floca, the center's executive director, that renovations couldn't be carried out without shutting down the center for the public.

The judge also said the center's board "lacked any meaningful say" in the matter when it voted for the closure on March 16. Trump already announced the closure plans on Truth Social on Feb. 1.

 

We can take his name off the Kennedy Center, but he always finds places to put the awards he gives himselfl 

Reuters contributed to this report. Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's name removed from Kennedy Center after blowing past deadline

She's baaaaack and calling the kettle black

 

AP - Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway speaks during the Republican National Convention on July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee.

Kellyanne Conway's 'alternative facts' on Graham Platner

by Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff 

Wednesday, June 10, 2026 at 11:30:00a PDT

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

 

Former Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway shared her thoughts on Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner to Fox News, and it was dripping with hypocrisy.

“Is there a magic number in the scandelabra that would make you stop?” Conway asked. “Would it have to do with Nazis or putting upon women, perhaps underage women, but definitely women, not your wife of two years?" 

"Would it be that you’re lying about that you’re insulting heroes that you’re not, he’s not even fit to lick their combat boots? So I’d ask the Democrats, is power really worth that to you? Because power for power’s sake is the definition of corruption.”

“Scandelabra” is admittedly a pretty fun word. But “corruption”? There’s so much of it in the Trump administration it’s hard to keep up.

The scale of Trump’s crypto grift alone is staggering. If you want to know how Trump has treated his spouses over the years, you might start by asking them about his various affairs, his sexual abuse liabilities, and his defamation of women he’s been accused of abusing. And while there are no allegations that Platner has been involved with “underage women,” as Conway suggests, Trump appears throughout the Epstein files which includes at least one very serious accusation of sexually abusing a minor.

As for Nazis? Trump reportedly kept a book of Adolf Hitler’s speeches on his nightstand.

It’s difficult to believe Conway is completely unaware of how hypocritical her criticism of Platner and Democratic voters sounds. But Republicans’ growing desperation at the prospect of a blue wave this November may have broken some people’s brains—or perhaps it’s simply a case of wanting power for power’s sake.

Time for a little nostalgia.  Remember those Alternate Facts from Trump's first term.  Oh yeah, they never really went away.  
 

No fatties or poors allowed near Trump at White House cage fight

 

AP - Construction continues at the White House to build a temporary structure for next month’s UFC fight as part of the America 250 celebrations, seen May 29 in Washington.

 

BUT HE'S ATTENDING: Blubber president pardons himself

by Lisa Needham

Daily Kos Staff 

Monday, June 8, 2026 at 6:30:00a PDT

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

Apparently worried that enough people won’t show up for President Donald Trump’s big UFC birthday bash on June 14, the Pentagon is moving in the troops.

Well, some troops. Only the buff ones. 

Remember how the big Ultimate Fighting Championship cage fight on the South Lawn of the White House grounds is supposed to be for the military somehow? And Trump pal and UFC head Dana White is such a good guy for setting aside free tix for the troops?

Drew Sheneman/Tribune Content Agency

It does not appear that troops have been beating down the door for the opportunity to spend Flag Day with the visibly crumbling commander in chief. Or perhaps it is that the wrong ones have asked? 

The Washington Post caught sight of an internal Air Force memo that explains who the right sort of troops are: To be eligible to attend, military personnel “MUST MEET CURRENT WAIST-HEIGHT RATIO,” and they must wear short-sleeve dress uniforms. 

Okay, so no fatties. Got it. What else?

We need a little geographic diversity, apparently.

“Commands are encouraged to identify and nominate personnel from installations and units outside the NCR (note: travel costs cannot be covered),” the memo said.

“NCR” is the national capital region—aka the Washington, D.C., area. So, commands need to identify only the height-weight proportionate types and make sure they come from all over to witness the spectacle—but they have to pay their own way. 

Yes,  the man who is currently blowing millions in taxpayer dollars to slather D.C. in gold and mismatched shades of blue, the man who is personally worth over $1 billion more than he was just one year ago, wants the troops to pay their own way to come watch his dumb UFC fight on the White House lawn.

Ok. So no fatties, no poors. Got it. Anything else?

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Related | Trump couldn’t care less about the troops

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Yep. Trump wants the young folks. Per the Post, “officials are seeking junior enlisted personnel and junior officers specifically.”

So … independently wealthy junior troops? They’ll need to be, since annual base pay for junior enlisted troops comes in around $30,000 before housing stipends and incentives. 

Now, we don’t know anymore how much the government really spends on anything thanks to the most “transparent” administration in history, but the UFC is throwing down $60 million for this tacky event and expects another $30 million from “corporate partners” ponying up for VIP packages. But somehow the troops have to open their own wallets if they want to witness the ass-whooping.

APJoe Rogan laughs as President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House o April 18.

Presumably if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has his way, it won’t be just no fatties, but also no Blacks and no ladies and especially no Black ladies. Dude is basically a professional racist. 

 

Human 

steroid Joe Rogan is mad that the fight will be outside because UFC fighters will be exposed to heat and bugs, but it isn’t like these are gonna be the bestest UFC fighters anyway.

 

To be fair, at least the UFC card still exists, which may not be the case much longer for the Freedom 250 concert lineup. By the time you read this, it might just be Vanilla Ice on repeat at the Great American State Fair.

Well, unless someone hits up Kid Rock. Couldn’t Mr. Rock, full of largesse in giving troops who were born years after his last hit some free tickets in order to prop up his failing tour, maybe pick up the tab for some of them to come to D.C.?

Here’s hoping this year’s birthday shindig will be as riveting as last year’s was for Dear Leader. Who can forget the rain-soaked, out-of-step marching and the squeaky tanks?

Trump loves military trappings, but he hates the troops. This sort of shabby treatment is really no surprise. Fingers crossed that the hot young rich Army guys just stay home.

No "fatties" allowed at this blubber butt's rasslin' match on the desecrated White House lawn.  Our president is a real class act.

 

'His mind is stuck in the 1950s': Trump looked into the camera with a straight face and told Black America exactly what he thinks their place is

Saying and doing dumb sh-t to keep the MAGA crowd hyped

Story by Atlanta Black Star News

Atlanta Black Star News

Posted By Shelby Erdman | Published on: June 6, 2026

President Donald Trump is facing a furious backlash over racist remarks he made when describing so-called “Black jobs” a day before the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a better-than-expected monthly jobs report.

It happened Thursday during an Oval Office event where Trump announced a new $700 million investment in the coal industry.

A reporter asked the president about the disparity in job numbers for Black Americans. While the average unemployment rate is 4.3 percent, and it remained steady last month, too, the unemployment rate for African Americans is nearly double that at 7.3 percent.

U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions after signing an executive order to limit mail-in voting in the Oval Office of the White House on March 31, 2026 in Washington, DC. President Trump has sought to restrict mail-in voting after claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him due to fraud. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Trump then launched into a tangent about “Black jobs,” a term he first used during an anti-immigration rant at the June 2024 presidential debate. Trump accused immigrants then of taking “Black jobs,” but he never specified then what those jobs entailed.

“Well, we’re doing very well with ah the Black jobs, African American jobs. We’re doing, I saw some numbers, we’re doing really well,” Trump insisted Thursday. He added, “But where we’re really going to do well is when all these plants are open. You know we’re building many car plants.”

But he doubled down, describing a “Black job” as factory work and suggesting Black people belong on assembly lines.

‘He’s a Total Fool’: Trump Thought He Finally Found the Perfect Scapegoat for His Latest ‘Art of the Deal’ Disaster — Then a 60-Second Video Came Out of Nowhere and Blew It All to Pieces

‘Crooked’: Todd Blanche Told Congress the $1.8 Billion Fund Was Finished — Then Critics Read the Fine Print and Found the Loophole He and Trump Were Counting On Nobody Finding

“We’re bringing cars back from Germany. You know we lost the car industry years ago. Fifty-four percent of the industry went to Germany, Japan, Canada, Mexico. It’s all coming back. It’s amazing. And where your Black worker is really going to do well is when those factories open. So, I think they’re going to be great. We’ve been, it’s been a big focus for me,” he claimed after blatantly stereotyping Black people into manufacturing roles.

Social media exploded after Trump’s comments, calling out the president for his tone-deaf remarks and overall efforts to take African-Americans back to the “Jim Crow” era.

“Trump says Black workers are gonna do well with the factory jobs that are coming. The racism, degradation, Jim Crow politics all on full display,’ Threads user and NAACP general counsel Kristen Clarke noted.

Others chimed in.

“Kick us out of corporate America and government jobs and put us in factories lmao. Get rid of DEI and Affirmative action and give us Walmart and Amazon lol. The American Dream ladies and gentlemen,” this Threads poster stated.

“This man’s mind is stuck in the 50’s. I swear he’s just a mascot out there saying and doing dumb sh-t to keep the MAGA crowd hyped. And he can stick his imaginary factory jobs up his loose bowel a–!” another angry poster proclaimed.

This professional worker was confused by Trump’s assertions. “MF I’m a data analyst. TF is he even talking about. Someone please turn his mic OFF. Permanently.”

Another user pointed out, “This is exactly where they want us. Hard labor for low wages. That’s also why they reclassified what they consider professional.”

The commenter is referring there to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed Congress last summer and caps student loans for some graduate programs, including nursing, although the Education Department is denying it will affect undergraduate borrowing.

Critics contend the caps will prevent lower- and middle-class students from attending better colleges and universities.

Putin Is a Cornered Animal

Dachne, Ukraine: A woman sits amid the ruins of her home destroyed by Russian strikes.  (photo: Tyler Hicks/NYT)

 As Ukraine gains traction on the battlefield Putin becomes more desperate

 Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

04 June 26

The reports are increasing seemingly on a daily basis, Russia Launches a Large-Scale Attack on Ukraine, Russia Attacks Ukraine With One of the Largest Aerial Assaults of the War, Russia Warns 'Get Out of Kyiv' as Putin Threatens 'Nuclear-Scale' Strike on City. The pace and the intensity of the attacks are clearly accelerating. What’s behind the surge?

To understand why the attacks are ramping up in this moment it’s important to look at what and who is being targeted. The targets are civilians and civilian infrastructure. Apartment buildings, residential houses, hospitals, schools. Not the battlefield, not the supply lines, not the ammunition depots. The primary targets are unarmed civilians. It’s not a one-off or an isolated incident. It’s a strategy repeated day after day, night after night with purpose and intent.

Again it’s very important to recognize the significant increase in the recent tempo and brutality of the attacks. It’s been bad since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion on 24 March 2022, but over the past two months the magnitude and volume of the barrages is far greater and increasing.

Once more the headlines tell the story: Ukraine Scores Major Battlefield Gains, Russia Stalls, Ukraine Pushed Russia Back in May for Second Month Running, Russia Bets on Air War as It Stumbles on the Battlefield. Direct cause and effect, as Ukraine gains traction on the battlefield Putin and Russia become more desperate and resort increasingly to intensifying their efforts to kill and maim Ukrainian civilians.

It was not the first time. Bob Woodward in his book War revealed the communications between the Putin and Biden governments as a major Ukrainian offensive in Kherson Oblast seemed poised to hurl the Russians back across the Dnipro River and liberate the city of Kherson. Putin and his entourage in private communications implied that continued advancements by Ukrainian forces could lead to use of Nuclear weapons. Correctly or incorrectly Biden, CIA director Bill Burns and Chief National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan were very worried that the threat could materialize. Ukraine pushed to the river but no further.

On 25 May Russia warned foreigners and diplomats to leave Kyiv and its “decision making centers” as those would be the targets of upcoming strikes. It bears noting that thus far an exodus of such personnel does not appear to be underway.

In the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine Putin had convinced himself that conquering Russia’s neighbor to the West was of existential importance. With Ukraine resurgent and Putin’s empire now threatened, existentialism takes on a new meaning for the Russian leader. He now displays the characteristics of a cornered animal.

The latest round of deadly strikes on Ukrainian civilians now are carried out with the passion of a jealous spouse intent on teaching a lesson to a disobedient former partner. The rage is visceral, palpable. Putin has now reached his weakest and most dangerous state. To Ukraine, Europe and Russia itself. No one on earth knows Russia better than the Ukrainians. They have the best chance of understanding what to do.

Ukraine troops are on the move.

How does Trump keep losing? Let's count the ways.

Attribution: AP - A woman walks outside The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, Monday, Feb. 2, in Washington. Looks like Trump is going to have to take his name off the wall.

 

Judges tell Trump to get bent in not one, not two, not three, but four different cases

 

by Lisa Needham

Daily Kos Staff 

June 3, 2026 at 12:03:00p PDT

Last week did not really end on a high note for President Donald Trump. No, we’re not talking about his Freedom 250 concert falling to pieces, though that is indeed hilarious to watch. 

Instead, it’s that as the rest of the country was gearing up for the weekend, lower court judges spent Friday telling Trump to get bent in not one, not two, not three, but four different cases. 

In the space of just a few hours, Trump was told that he couldn’t start funding his $1.7 billion slush fund for cronies and treason enthusiasts. Then, a different judge ruled he had to explain exactly how the deal for that little slush fund came about in the first place. 

Attribution: Drew Sheneman/Tribune Content Agency

Cartoon by Drew Sheneman

Another judge said the administration couldn’t just waive a magic wand and drop pending criminal charges against some of his most seditious followers who helped with his Jan. 6 insurrection without any justification as to why. Finally, yet another judge told him his name was coming off the Kennedy Center, and he didn’t get to close and renovate it either. 

You get exactly one guess as to which of these Trump is angriest about.

No, it wasn’t the ruling by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema enjoining the administration from transferring any taxpayer money to set up Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” considering any claims for money from the fund, or disbursing any money. That one came in a case filed by plaintiffs who actually were victims of weaponization by the Justice Department—Trump’s Justice Department, that is. 

A former federal prosecutor fired because he had worked on Jan. 6 cases, a law professor prosecuted for protesting ICE, the city of New Haven, the National Abortion Federation, and watchdog group Common Cause all sued to block the fund. Judge Brinkema’s decision freezes everything until after a hearing on June 12 and orders the administration to respond to the plaintiffs’ veritable laundry list of ways in which this thing is completely illegal. 

---

Related | Show us the tariff money, and 35 judges can’t be wrong

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It also isn’t the ruling by Judge Kathleen Williams on a motion from 35 retired federal judges that took the longest of shots and asked the court to reopen the case that led to the collusive $1.7 billion weaponization fund settlement. Williams, who had overseen Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS demanding $10 billion for his tax returns being leaked during his own previous administration, had ordered the parties to explain how, exactly, this was a real lawsuit when Trump was on both sides. 

Knowing that was impossible, Trump then dropped his fake lawsuit while simultaneously negotiating the fake settlement for the treason slush fund, a settlement that the parties made sure Judge Williams never saw before closing the case. 

Williams’ order requires the plaintiffs—that’s Trump and the Trump Organization run by his large adult sons—to respond to the motion. Now, they get to explain how they are actually adverse and didn’t just collude on a fake lawsuit to get a fake settlement and then deceive the court when dismissing the case, all of which adds up to perpetrating fraud on the court. 

It’s a neat trick that the order applies only to the plaintiffs—Trump and his family business as ostensible private parties. The DOJ can’t swoop in and save this and insist to the court that it is the prerogative of the president to set up slush funds for treason buddies, because that would just underscore how the whole thing was a sham from the start. Have fun with that, Trump and family. 

Trump also doesn’t seem visibly bothered by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s order that requires the government to say something more than just that it is in the “public interest” to drop Jan. 6-related charges against Stewart Rhodes and some Oath Keeper pals. Can’t wait to find out how we are all benefiting from violent insurrectionists walking free, as the founders intended. 

No, what Trump spent the weekend howling about was U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s decision saying his name had to come off the Kennedy Center and that he couldn’t take it over as another one of his horrible construction projects. According to his Truth Social screeds, Judge Cooper’s wife was somehow responsible for his loss here, and also the Kennedy Center is “rusted, rotted, and rat and bug-infested” and too unsafe to be inside unless Trump could close it down and add marble armrests. 

Attribution: AP - Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is happy to shill for Trump.

Trump even sent ]feckless Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to do the Sunday shows to talk about the Kennedy Center, with Burgum saying that no, they are not going to take Trump’s name off the building despite the court order because they might appeal and also because “I think, you know, there’s controversy on both sides of this about that ruling.” 

That is kind of how court cases work? Real court cases, we mean. Not ones where the president takes both sides just to give taxpayer money to his rabid followers. 

IRAN WAR: “Trump's"Art of the Deal” is, in this case, an “Art of the Retreat”

Opinion by Anne McElvoy

The Independent

 

'Epic Fury' has turned into 'Epic Debacle'

Donald Trump’s war in Iran began with a bang – literally, in the case of an all-out assault in February in tandem with Israeli intelligence, which hit its first target by killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It has, however, puttered out into what looks like an imminent deal for extending the current uneasy truce into a normal 60-day cessation of hostilities.

But it hasn’t pleased US defence hawks, who hoped that the mission would destroy the mullahs’ grip on the regime, along with the country’s efforts at nuclear enrichment and its illicit missile-development programme. Nor does it guarantee a durable solution to the dispute over the economically vital Strait of Hormuz, which has highlighted Tehran’s ability to threaten global shipping routes.

Neither the White House nor Tehran wants to appear in a hurry to sign up, though both have good reason to. Iran has signaled a readiness to extend the ceasefire because lifting the blockade on its ports and allowing sanctions waivers relieves an economic chokepoint on the regime, allowing it to export oil and improve its budget deficit.

The mutual benefit is that it eases pressure on the international energy market (to the relief of governments like the UK’s, desperate to constrain future price increases). Yet it also means the US is now bargaining with Tehran to stop the war it started. That is a long way from the “Epic Fury” promises of curtailing the regional hegemon’s power.

The famous “art of the deal” is, in this case, an “art of the retreat” proposition.

Trump will never say publicly that it has not worked out as the degradation of Iranian offensive power he intended. But as his former national security adviser John Bolton told me a couple of weeks ago, Trump “wholly lacked a strategy” to get out of the war. The result of opening the Strait of Hormuz on the extended truce terms is that “They [Iran] will believe they can turn the strait on and off like a light switch.”

Looking at it from Trump’s perspective, the fact that the war aims and exit strategy were so nebulous has enabled him to make a single-handed pivot, and possibly a deal that Tehran can accept – for now. Hostilities have cost (by Pentagon assessments) $29bn (£22bn), and, with a hefty knock-on cost to consumers in the rise in petrol prices, and only five months until midterm elections in November, the president has been looking for an off-ramp for some weeks.

Around 60 per cent of Americans now oppose continuing the fighting, which shows a weakening of the president’s ability to bring the Maga base behind him in this conflict (Getty)

Around 60 per cent of Americans now oppose continuing the fighting, which shows a weakening of the president’s ability to bring the Maga base behind him in this conflict. That is a weakness he needs to close before the midterm test. Divisions between traditional Republicans and Maga weaken his chances of fending off Democrat hopes that they can retake both the House and, more significantly, the Senate, tying Trump’s hands in many legislative areas.

One other aggrieved party to note is Israel: the proposed “memorandum of understanding” appears to have excluded it – with the right-leaning Times of Israel reporting today that there are “fears that threats Netanyahu has long described as ‘existential’ will not be adequately addressed”. It constrains Israel from carrying out operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is welcome from a humanitarian aspect, but highlights that the aim of disabling the Iranian proxy militia has been sidelined.

So the president has essentially chosen US interests over Israeli ones – possibly because he bristles at the idea that he was talked into the war in great part by Benjamin Netanyahu, but also because “America First”, the neat encapsulation of his worldview, means that the effects of crises at home are always far more important to him than maintaining a consistent foreign and security policy.

On the upside, a truce, once observed for a set amount of time, can be indefinitely extended, and that brings peace at a price of US pride. A less rosy scenario is that Iran has seen that pressuring shipping routes has brought its mighty assailant back to a deal, with the backing of most Gulf states. Most of the problems remain unresolved: a deal here is a long way indeed from a victory.

 

Anne McElvoy is an executive editor at Politico and host of the podcast ‘Politics at Sam and Anne’s’

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