{"id":19688,"date":"2025-06-27T18:04:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T18:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/19688\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T18:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T18:04:15","slug":"trump-says-he-gave-iran-permission-to-bomb-u-s-base-in-qatar-andwell-mostly-crickets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/19688\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Says He Gave Iran Permission to Bomb U.S. Base in Qatar and\u2026Well, Mostly Crickets?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM\u2019s Morning Memo.\u00a0Sign up\u00a0for the email version<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alarming Verbal Diarrhea From the President<\/p>\n

When political scientist Seth Masket shared<\/a> this story on Bluesky yesterday, I couldn\u2019t believe it was real. The right-wing Washington Times reported<\/a> that at a press conference at the NATO Summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Trump revealed that he had given Iran permission to bomb the U.S.\u2019s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for the American bombing of their nuclear sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018We\u2019re going to shoot them. Is one o\u2019clock OK?\u2019 I said it\u2019s fine,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd everybody was emptied off the base so they couldn\u2019t get hurt, except for the gunners.\u201d<\/p>\n

I poked around for other major coverage of this extraordinary admission, and landed only on a transcript<\/a> of the press conference. And yes, amid a characteristically meandering monologue, Trump actually said that he let a foreign adversary bomb an American military installation. But this story has pretty much come and gone with virtually no attention and certainly none of the outrage commensurate with what Trump said.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s consider what Trump\u2019s verbal diarrhea here could mean. Suppose he is (for once) telling the truth. Wouldn\u2019t that represent the most shocking dereliction of duty one could imagine for the commander-in-chief? (A high crime or misdemeanor, perhaps?) Is he saying he let Iran get its retaliation out of its system with what he called \u201ca very weak response\u201d to bring an end to hostilities? Perhaps Trump simply was rambling incoherently as he basked in his new \u201cdaddy\u201d<\/a> glow at NATO.<\/p>\n

What would have happened if a Democratic president, particularly one named Joe Biden, had said he let a foreign adversary fire on an American military installation? As you consider that hypothetical, keep in mind that House Republicans are currently spending their precious oversight time investigating<\/a> the former president\u2019s mental acuity.<\/p>\n

Flailing Administration Attacks Press for \u201cLies\u201d About Iran Nuclear Intel<\/p>\n

Trump loyalists are taking up his charge to attack any journalist who reported on intelligence contradicting Trump\u2019s claim to have \u201cobliterated\u201d Iran\u2019s nuclear sites in last weekend\u2019s strikes. The tenor of this authoritarian campaign is that reporters are not permitted to contradict the president.<\/p>\n

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth came out swinging against his former Fox News colleague, national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, in an early morning press conference yesterday. In response to a question<\/a> from Griffin about whether the Pentagon was certain that Tehran had not moved highly enriched uranium from the Fordow site prior to the American strike, Hegseth lashed out, \u201cJennifer, you\u2019ve been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went after CNN\u2019s Natasha Bertrand, after Trump had demanded she be \u201cthrown out like a dog.\u201d Leavitt claimed<\/a> Bertrand is \u201cbeing used to push a fake narrative to try to undermine the President of the United States and more importantly the brave fighter pilots who conducted one of the most successful operations in United States history.\u201d CNN issued a statement standing by Bertrand\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Senate Democrats remain unconvinced<\/a> of Trump\u2019s obliteration claims following a classified intelligence briefing yesterday. Trump ally Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who also attended the briefing, struggled to save face for the president, telling reporters afterwards, \u201cThe real question is, have we obliterated their desire to have a nuclear weapon.\u201d Graham went on to tread lightly around Trump\u2019s feelings. \u201cI don\u2019t want people to think that the site wasn\u2019t severely damaged or obliterated,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was. But having said that, I don\u2019t want people to think the problem is over, because it\u2019s not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Republicans Incite Hostility at the Senate Parliamentarian<\/p>\n

Following a pattern of dangerous social media attacks on perceived political enemies, some Senate Republicans have begun to assail Elizabeth MacDonough, the nonpartisan Senate Parliamentarian who has struck<\/a> numerous provisions out of the GOP\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill. NBC reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe WOKE Senate Parliamentarian, who was appointed by Harry Reid and advised Al Gore, just STRUCK DOWN a provision BANNING illegals from stealing Medicaid from American citizens,\u201d Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., wrote on X. \u201cThis is a perfect example of why Americans hate THE SWAMP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTHE SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN SHOULD BE FIRED ASAP,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

MacDonough was appointed by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2012, and is well-respected by leaders on both sides of the aisle. But Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, also said MacDonough needs to go and called for term limits for parliamentarians.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been here since 2012; she has a lot of power,\u201d Marshall told reporters. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone should stay here that long and have power where she doesn\u2019t answer to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

While other Senate Republicans seem less eager<\/a> for such a fight, their failure to firmly and publicly tamp down these inflammatory statements in the current climate is disheartening, to say the least.<\/p>\n

Trump Has Cut Funding for Political Violence and Terrorism Prevention<\/p>\n

At Mother Jones, Mark Follman reports<\/a> on the dangers of Trump\u2019s dismantling of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), a Department of Homeland Security initiative tasked with developing evidence-based community programs to prevent political violence and terrorism. The administration has diverted resources from this and other programs to fund Trump\u2019s brutal deportation agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at real risk of normalizing political violence as a part of our democracy,\u201d CP3\u2019s former director William Braniff told Follman. \u201c[W]hen these norms are accepted at a societal level and encouraged at a political level, they become entrenched and really difficult to reverse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump Administration Continues to Turn Civil Rights Upside Down<\/p>\n

The Republican goal of eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion and \u201cgender ideology\u201d is aimed squarely at rolling back hard-won civil rights protections for people who aren\u2019t white, straight, or cisgender. The Trump administration is carrying out this agenda, in part, through\u00a0 investigations and pressure campaigns against educational institutions, threatening to cut their federal funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services announced<\/a> it is investigating the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League over trans girls playing sports, part of what it says is a \u201clarger initiative<\/a> to defend women and restore biological truth to the Federal government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In another arena, the New York Times reports<\/a> the Justice Department is pressuring the University of Virginia to fire its president, James Ryan, \u201cover what the department says is the school\u2019s disregard for civil rights law over its diversity practices.\u201d In other words, the Department of Justice, which historically has enforced civil rights laws protecting against race discrimination, is now strong-arming educational institutions it claims have discriminated against white people.<\/p>\n

The Tough-on-Crime President Wants More Guns on the Street<\/p>\n

The Washington Post reports<\/a> this morning that staffers from Elon Musk\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are setting up shop at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with a \u201cgoal of revising or eliminating dozens of rules and gun restrictions by July 4.\u201d DOGE might want to run roughshod over it, but there\u2019s a legal process for amending or ending federal regulations. You can count on litigation over any such efforts, not to mention public outcry.<\/p>\n

Put a Pin in This\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the Associated Press, in a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought committed<\/a> to restoring funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting if the Senate votes down a House-passed \u201crescissions\u201d package to make billions of dollars in DOGE-led cuts permanent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Actually, Big Balls Never Left<\/p>\n

Earlier this week I linked to a piece in Wired, reporting<\/a> that Edward Coristine, the 19 year-old Department of Government Efficiency staffer also known as Big Balls, no longer worked for the federal government. The New York Times had matched Wired\u2019s reporting, and then, yesterday, issued a correction<\/a>. Coristine, who before joining DOGE had been fired from a job at a data security firm for leaking company information, is now a \u201cspecial employee\u201d at the Social Security Administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

GOP\u2019s New Red Scare Is About Muslims, Particularly Zohran Mamdani\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) sent<\/a> a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking her to \u201cdenaturalize\u201d and deport New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, falsely claiming he failed to disclose material support for terrorism prior to becoming a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n

Religious Freedom Is Only for Trump\u2019s Supporters<\/p>\n

The House Homeland Security Committee has launched<\/a> an investigation into hundreds of religious organizations and even entire denominations, claiming they were \u201cinvolved in providing services or support to inadmissible aliens during the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s historic border crisis.\u201d Ominously, the letter the committee is sending religious organizations includes questions about their federal government funding through grants or contracts, their provision of services to immigrants, and whether they have ever sued the government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do you like Morning Memo?\u00a0<\/strong>Let us know!<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM\u2019s Morning Memo.\u00a0Sign up\u00a0for the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[413,327,16470,69,83,18462,18463,50,5620,18464,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-19688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-civil-rights","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-doge","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-islamophobia","14":"tag-morning-memo","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-republicans","17":"tag-russell-vought","18":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114756653072935755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}