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A Ruse By Any Other Name: Presidential Primer on How to Slip Away

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Reports published this week described an unusual security operation surrounding President Trump’s departure from Ankara, Turkey, after last month’s NATO summit. The public-facing story began normally: cameras saw Trump enter an older Air Force One (AF-1) aircraft, and journalists and some staff members believed they were traveling on the same plane as the president. Behind that familiar departure ritual, however, officials reportedly carried out a carefully staged diversion that moved him onto a third aircraft before the flight left Turkey.

The reported ruse, which one outlet dubbed “Three Plane Monty, centered on misdirection. Trump had arrived in Turkey on a newer, Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8 that had been adapted for presidential use. But before leaving Ankara he announced that he would use an older AF-1 aircraft instead, describing the choice as being “for old time’s sake.” That explanation implied the switch was sentimental or logistical rather than urgent. 

The older jet then became the visible stage for the deception: it was positioned for departure. Press and staff were aboard, and Trump entered it in full view of cameras.

According to reporting, the key move happened only after Trump boarded the decoy aircraft. A catering truck, the kind normally used to load meals and supplies onto planes, was positioned on the far side of the jet, away from the cameras’ main view. Through that ordinary-looking service vehicle, the president was reportedly moved out of sight and transported to a different aircraft, later identified in reports as an Air Force C-32A, a military version of the Boeing 757. That third plane—not the older AF-1 that the public and press believed he was using—carried him from Ankara to Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom.

That visible performance mattered because the ruse depended on more than moving the president from one aircraft to another. It required everyone watching to believe the ordinary sequence of presidential travel was unfolding exactly as expected.

The reason for the deception, according to news reports, was a credible threat tied to Iran and allied proxies. U.S. officials were said to have been concerned that adversaries might deploy a Surface-to-Air (SAM) to target the aircraft believed to be carrying the president as it left Turkey. 

By allowing observers to believe Trump was aboard the older AF-1 while placing him on a separate military jet, security planners reduced the risk that any hostile actor could confidently identify his actual location. In that sense, the ruse was less about secrecy for its own sake than about creating uncertainty at a moment when certainty could have been dangerous.

The operation also reportedly left some people on the decoy aircraft unaware of the switch. Journalists and certain White House staff members traveled on the older AF-1 believing Trump was onboard. Reports said press cabin window shades were kept closed, reinforcing the controlled environment around the movement. 

The deception allegedly continued even after the separate aircraft landed. Before deplaning, Trump was returned to AF-1, allowing passengers on the decoy flight to remain unaware that he had not actually traveled with them. That final step made the operation more complete: the ruse did not end once the third plane was airborne but continued until the normal appearance of presidential travel could be restored. If accurate, that detail illustrates how presidential security can rely not only on armored vehicles, secure communications, and military aircraft, but also on ordinary-looking objects and routine airport procedures.

Some aboard the decoy flight reportedly did not realize that the president was absent, because the transfer had been concealed. Once the details emerged, the reaction was a mix of surprise, curiosity, and recognition that the secrecy had been deliberate rather than accidental. 

For journalists in particular, the episode underscored how limited a view even the traveling press corps may have during sensitive security movements: they can witness the visible ceremony of departure while remaining unaware of the operational decisions taking place just out of sight.

Public discussion of the episode has focused on both the seriousness of the threat and the sensitivity of revealing such protective methods. Officials quoted in news reports expressed frustration that classified tactics had entered public view, warning that disclosure could make similar operations harder in the future. That reaction echoed concerns expressed after initial reports emerged that security concerns has caused ditching the Qatari-gifted plane in favor of a previous AF-1. The Trump Administration DOJ issued and subsequently rescinded subpoenas targeting The New York Times reporters for security leaks. The current response was more of the same.

The incident offered a rare glimpse into the layered nature of presidential travel security. The visible aircraft, the stated explanation, the press arrangements, the service truck, the third plane, and the return to Air Force One all formed parts of a single deception plan. The result was a departure that appeared routine from one angle but, according to the reporting, was designed to conceal the president’s true route until the illusion was no longer needed.

At the highest level, the operation was a success. The President was unscathed, and protecting POTUS is always critical at all costs. The press corps and anyone else traveling in a Presidential Party does so with full knowledge that they may be subject to heightened danger. Most, however, do not expect to be used as a decoy, and/or placed in that position unknowingly. One could certainly make the case that by traveling on AF-1, an aircraft designed with a plethora of defensive and offensive capabilities, the journalists and staff members were best positioned to survive an enemy assault, should one have come. Still, to place the working press, and even administration staff (presuming they didn’t know either) in that position unknowingly, is in a word, unseemly. Of course, considering Trump sees much of the media as the enemy of the people, it doesn’t exactly land as a surprise. “A Ruse By Any Other Name: Presidential Primer on How to Slip Away!”

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A Ruse By Any Other Name: Presidential Primer on How to Slip Away

The GOP’s Max Miller Dilemma: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

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The controversy surrounding Rep. Max Miller has become a revealing dilemma for Republicans: how to balance loyalty, political survival, and the hard limits of Trump-era defiance. Miller, an Ohio Republican and former aide to Donald Trump, is facing intense pressure over allegations made by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno. Miller has denied wrongdoing, but the accusations have triggered calls for him to leave Congress and abandon his reelection campaign. The dispute has also drawn in Trump himself, whose public sympathy and private political realism point in different directions.

Publicly, Trump has avoided an outright break with Miller. Asked about the allegations, he described Miller as a good person and framed the matter as a painful family dispute. Privately, however, multiple reports said Trump phoned Miller and warned that his political position had deteriorated. According to accounts of the call, Trump told Miller that the race would be difficult and that he was not sure Miller would be able to pull it out. That warning sharpened the dilemma: Trump could stand by a loyal ally and risk a damaged seat or acknowledge that loyalty does not always translate into electability.

Miller’s response deepened the dilemma rather than resolving it. In a CNN interview, Miller said he reminded Trump of the resilience Trump showed in 2016, when many political observers believed his campaign could collapse after the release of the Access Hollywood tape. Trump refused to quit, weathered the scandal, and went on to win the presidency as the 45th president of the United States. Miller’s point was clear: if Trump could survive a moment that seemed politically fatal, Miller argued, then he too should not be expected to retreat simply because party leaders feared the consequences.

The comparison is politically useful for Miller, but it is also risky. Trump’s 2016 survival became a central myth of his movement: never apologize, never retreat, and trust that supporters will filter scandal through partisan loyalty. By invoking that example, Miller is trying to cast his own refusal to step aside as strength rather than stubbornness. He has insisted that his constituents know him better than national commentators do, and he has argued that the race will be decided locally rather than by pressure from Washington, cable news, or the extended Moreno family feud.

Still, Miller’s situation is not simply a matter of campaign grit. Republicans reportedly fear that keeping him on the ballot could place an otherwise winnable Ohio seat at risk. The deadline for replacing him has added urgency to the pressure campaign. If Miller withdraws in time, party leaders could seek another nominee; if he stays, the party may be forced to defend a candidate under a harsh spotlight. That explains why Trump’s private warning carried such significance. It suggested not a moral judgment, but a hard political calculation: Miller might be loyal, but loyalty does not guarantee electability.

The episode captures a familiar tension in Republican politics. Trump’s brand rewards defiance, yet Republican strategists still worry about swing voters, suburban discomfort, and the down-ballot consequences of scandal. Miller is betting that the Trump model of endurance remains transferable. His critics are betting that this case is different, and that allegations involving family violence cannot be absorbed through partisan messaging alone. Whether Miller’s invocation of 2016 proves shrewd or self-defeating will depend on whether voters see him as resilient, reckless, or simply too damaged to continue.

For now, the imbroglio has turned Miller’s campaign into more than one Ohio House race. It has become a dilemma about how far the Trump model of political survival can be stretched. When Trump told Miller winning would be difficult, Miller answered with Trump’s own biography: the Access Hollywood tape, the calls to quit, the refusal to leave, and the eventual victory. It was in effect, the ultimate “Be like Trump retort. 

Miller’s repeated refrain is, he is not leaving the race; he is confident he will win. Regardless of whether he is that confident, or he has picked the ironic moment to be a poseur and engage in classic Trumpian bluster, that answer forces members of the Grand Old Party to choose between two lessons from the Trump era: never surrender under pressure or recognize when damage to a candidate may damage the party as well. “The GOP’s Max Miller Dilemma: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery!”

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The GOP’s Max Miller Dilemma: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

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Appeals Exhausted: Trump Pays E. Jean Carroll $5.625 Million

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Donald Trump’s payment of $5.625 million to writer E. Jean Carroll marks a significant moment in one of the most closely watched civil cases involving the former and current president. The payout stems from a 2023 federal jury verdict in Manhattan that found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and for defaming her after she publicly accused him. The original award was $5 million, but the amount grew to $5,625,005.48 because of post-judgment interest that accumulated while Trump pursued appeals and the money remained in a court-controlled account.

The case began after Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and author, alleged that Trump assaulted her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. Trump denied the accusation, said he did not know Carroll, and accused her of fabricating the story. Carroll sued, arguing that Trump’s public denials damaged her reputation. A jury later found that Carroll had proved her civil claims by a preponderance of the evidence, the standard used in civil cases. The verdict did not find Trump criminally guilty, but it did impose civil liability and monetary damages.

The payout became possible only after a long appeals process. Trump had deposited money into the court’s registry investment system while challenging the verdict. That arrangement effectively held the judgment in escrow, protecting Carroll’s ability to collect if Trump lost his appeals. In June 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Trump’s appeal, leaving the lower-court judgment intact. Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan then ordered the funds released, noting that Trump had delayed payment for years. A federal appeals court rejected Trump’s last-minute effort to block the transfer.

The issues surrounding the case go beyond the dollar amount. First, it highlights the power of civil litigation to address allegations that may be too old for criminal prosecution. Carroll’s lawsuit was aided by New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily allowed survivors of sexual abuse to bring civil claims even after the usual statute of limitations had expired. Second, the case underscores the legal risks of public denials that go beyond rejecting an accusation and instead attack the accuser’s honesty, motives, or character. Defamation law allows plaintiffs to seek damages when false statements harm reputation.

The case also raises questions about accountability for powerful public figures. Trump has continued to deny wrongdoing and has described the litigation as politically motivated. Carroll and her attorneys have framed the verdict as a vindication of her credibility and a broader victory for survivors who speak publicly about alleged abuse. Because the case involved a former president, and later a sitting president, it also tested the boundary between political speech, personal conduct, and legal responsibility.

Another major issue remains unresolved: Carroll also won a separate $83.3 million defamation verdict related to additional statements Trump made about her. That larger judgment is still subject to further appeals. The $5.625 million payment therefore represents not the end of the broader dispute, but the first completed financial recovery from Carroll’s legal victories. It shows how jury verdicts, appeals, interest, and escrow arrangements can shape the practical outcome of high-profile civil litigation. More importantly, it demonstrates that even politically charged cases ultimately turn on evidence, legal standards, and the ability of courts to enforce judgments. Moreover, for those who supported Mr. Trump’s position that Ms. Carroll’s claims were bogus, the people have spoken, the courts have upheld the people’s decision, and the defendant has paid the plaintiff. Enough said; what else ya got? “Appeals Exhausted: Trump Pays E. Jean Carroll $5.625 million!”

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https://www.npr.org/2026/07/14/nx-s1-5893598/e-jean-carroll-trump-sexual-abuse-defamation

Appeals Exhausted: Trump Pays E. Jean Carroll $5.625 Million

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The Color of Free Speech in America

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On July 4, 250 members of the Patriot Front marched through the streets of Washington, D.C. One poignant photo captured by Reuters photographer Cheney Orr featured a young (unidentified) Black woman in a DC train car, loaded with masked members of the White Supremist group. She did not avert her eyes. Rather she sat in solemnity amid the cowards who refused to reveal their faces…ostensibly because they may be your neighbor, your relative, your boss, or perhaps, even your subordinate. The Trump administration has not condemned this act, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called the march an expression of free speech.

Considering that Trump and the GOP have promoted recent efforts to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, weaken the Voting Rights Act, and challenge majority-Black voting districts, characterizing a White Supremacist march as free speech is, well, special. 

The strategies, if you want to call the march a strategy, may appear to belong to different worlds. One is a street demonstration by an openly white nationalist organization; the others involve formal politics, litigation, legislation, and administrative policy. Yet comparing them reveals an important tension in American public life: extremist movements often express racial hierarchy in blunt symbolic terms, while mainstream political actors can pursue race-conscious outcomes through the language of colorblindness, institutional neutrality, or anti-discrimination.

Patriot Front’s march was explicit theater. Reports described masked members carrying Confederate flags, chanting “Reclaim America,” and presenting themselves as defenders of a supposedly endangered national identity. The group has been identified by civil rights monitors and news organizations as white supremacist and anti-immigrant. Its message depends on spectacle: uniforms, flags, synchronized movement, and the occupation of symbolic space on Independence Day. The point is not merely to argue policy but to project intimidation and belonging—who counts as “real” America and who does not.

By contrast, Republican opposition to DEI, race-conscious voting protections, and Black-majority districts is usually framed in institutional and legal terms. DEI programs are criticized as unfair preferences or ideological bureaucracy. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is challenged as an improper use of race in districting. Majority-Black districts are described by opponents as racial gerrymanders rather than remedies for vote dilution. This position presents itself as a defense of equal treatment: government, schools, and employers should not classify people by race, even for remedial purposes.

The contrast, then, is one of style, legitimacy, and mechanism, but January 6, 2021, complicates the boundary between symbolic politics and political violence. Patriot Front operates outside the mainstream and uses openly exclusionary symbolism. GOP policy arguments operate through courts, state legislatures, school boards, executive orders, and agency rules. Yet the attack on the U.S. Capitol showed how claims about a stolen election, when amplified by political leaders and accepted by organized supporters, can move from speech into coercive action. The First Amendment protects protest, assembly, petitioning government, and even harsh or offensive political expression; it does not protect violence, true threats, or incitement directed toward imminent lawless action. That is of course, unless the President of the United States opts to grant clemency to roughly 1600 convicted January 6th defendants, which Trump did by signing Presidential Proclamation 10887, on his first day in office, January 20, 2025. The vast majority received full pardons, while there were 14 commutations, and several hundred dismissals of pending prosecutions.  

This First Amendment distinction is essential to the comparison. Patriot Front members have a constitutional right to march and express hateful views so long as they do not engage in violence, targeted intimidation, or unlawful conduct. Likewise, Republicans have a constitutional right to argue that DEI programs are unfair, that race-conscious districting is unconstitutional, or that voting-rights law has gone too far. But constitutional protection for speech does not settle the moral or democratic consequences of that speech. The question is not simply whether a march, slogan, lawsuit, or campaign message is legally permitted. It is whether the protected expression is being used to expand democratic participation or to normalize the exclusion of disfavored groups from equal citizenship.

Moreover, the comparison becomes sharper when one looks at consequences rather than language. Eliminating DEI can reduce institutional efforts to address racial exclusion in hiring, education, contracting, and workplace culture. Weakening the Voting Rights Act makes it harder for Black voters to challenge maps that dilute their political power. Eliminating majority-Black districts can reduce Black representation, especially in Southern states where racially polarized voting remains significant. Even if the stated rationale is colorblindness, the practical effect likely results in preserving or restore existing racial disparities.

While that does not mean the GOP position and Patriot Front’s ideology are identical…it does demonstrate how they may achieve similar ends. It is important to distinguish a political party’s legal arguments from a white supremacist movement’s open racial nationalism. Many conservatives say they sincerely believe DEI programs are divisive and that race-based districting conflicts with equal protection principles. A democratic society must allow debate over how best to remedy discrimination. But the distinction in motive does not erase the overlap in effect when both approaches weaken tools designed to counter racial hierarchy.

The central difference is that Patriot Front dramatizes white grievance as an identity movement, while anti-DEI and anti-Voting Rights Act politics translate similar anxieties into policy. The central similarity is that both can narrow the meaning of equal citizenship. 

January 6 adds another warning: democratic speech becomes dangerous when it is used not to persuade voters, but to delegitimize votes, intimidate public officials, or overturn lawful political outcomes. One form of exclusion marches through the capital under white nationalist symbols; another dismantles institutions created to expand participation and representation; still another attacks the peaceful transfer of power while invoking constitutional freedom. In that sense, the issue is not only whether racism is shouted in the streets, argued in court, or defended as free expression. The deeper question is whether American democracy will protect the First Amendment while also defending the voting rights, representative districts, and civic remedies necessary to make equality real. The answer will go a long way in determining “The Color of Free Speech in America!”

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The Color of Free Speech in America

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America at 250: Celebration, Memory, and Debate

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The famed O’Jays released a song in 1975 entitled Livin’ For The Weekend. It was arguably one of the R&B anthems for the Bicentennial, spending two weeks atop the Charts in 1976. As is the case this year, the holiday landed on the weekend (Sunday). This Saturday July 4, 2026,  United States will mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a milestone often called the semi-quincentennial. Like the centennial in 1876 and the bicentennial in 1976, the anniversary invites Americans to celebrate endurance: a republic that has survived civil war, economic depression, global conflict, social upheaval, and repeated tests of democratic institutions. The occasion naturally calls for fireworks, parades, public ceremonies, museum exhibits, and renewed attention to the founding ideals of liberty, equality, and self-government. Yet America’s 250th birthday is not only a party. It is also a national argument about memory, identity, and the meaning of patriotism.

The central promise of the anniversary is civic reflection. The Declaration’s claim that “all men are created equal” remains one of the most powerful statements in world history, even though the nation that adopted it tolerated slavery, excluded women from political rights, displaced Native peoples, and restricted citizenship for many groups. Over 250 years, Americans have repeatedly used the founding language to demand a fuller democracy. Abolitionists, suffragists, civil rights leaders, labor organizers, immigrants, veterans, and ordinary citizens have all appealed to the nation’s founding principles while insisting that those principles be made real. In that sense, the anniversary should honor both the founders’ achievement and the generations who challenged the country to live up to it.

That balance is where many controversies begin. Some Americans want the semi-quincentennial to emphasize unity, military strength, national pride, and gratitude for the country’s accomplishments. Others worry that a purely celebratory approach not only promotes selective history, but actually endeavors to re-write history, minimizing slavery, Indigenous dispossession, racial segregation, immigration struggles, and conflicts over civil liberties. Critics of official commemorations have argued that some events risk replacing historical complexity with patriotic spectacle, aka, in some circles, performative patriotism. Supporters answer that national anniversaries should inspire confidence rather than deepen division, and that excessive criticism can obscure the country’s extraordinary experiment in constitutional government. Odd that those supporters have no problem contesting the celebration of some of the elements that have clearly contributed to making America…America. Elements such as those highlighted in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which the current administration has pushed to be scrubbed, DEI, which the administration has forcefully worked to roll back, the Voting Rights Act, which has been reduced to only a shell of its former iteration, don’t forget the indignities foisted upon Black Americans during the episode we now know as Juneteenth, and finally, one of the storylines of this week, Birthright Citizenship, which President Trump attempted to eliminate by Executive Order, but which was at least temporarily spared by virtue of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling.  

Another controversy involves politics. Although national birthday celebrations are usually presented as nonpartisan, the 250th anniversary has unfolded during a sharply polarized era. Disputes have arisen over who controls the official narrative, how public and private money is raised and spent, and whether major events are being used to promote a particular political leader or movement rather than the nation as a whole. Debates over competing organizations, donor transparency, and the tone of large public gatherings show that commemoration is never neutral. The way a country tells its story reveals what it values, what it fears, and whom it chooses to include.

A useful anniversary should do more than praise or condemn. It should create space for honest patriotism: love of country strong enough to celebrate achievement and mature enough to see failure. America’s 250th anniversary can be meaningful if it resists two temptations–the temptation to turn history into propaganda and the temptation to treat the nation’s flaws as its whole story. The United States has always been unfinished. Its founding ideals were imperfectly applied, but they also gave later generations a language for reform. To commemorate 250 years well is to recognize that democracy depends on memory, argument, participation, and renewal. The best birthday gift Americans can give their country is not unquestioning applause, but a renewed commitment to making its promises truer. Ready or not, Saturday is coming. “America at 250: Celebration, Memory, and Debate!”

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America at 250: Celebration, Memory, and Debate

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Obama’s JCPOA vs. Trump’s Iran Deal: To Win or Not To Win

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The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement reached by the Obama Administration in 2015, and President Donald Trump’s more recent deal or negotiating framework with Iran share a central aim: preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. In that sense, both approaches are built around deterrence, nonproliferation, and the belief that Iran’s nuclear program must be constrained in some way. Both also rely on the same broad logic of exchange—Iran accepts limits, while the United States and its partners offer some form of economic or political benefit. Yet the similarities become thinner once the structure, diplomacy, and strategic assumptions of each are examined.

The biggest difference is that the JCPOA was a detailed multilateral agreement, while Trump’s approach has been more unilateral, coercive, and politically personalized. The JCPOA was negotiated by Iran and the P5+1—China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—with the European Union playing a major coordinating role. It imposed precise, technical limits on Iran’s uranium enrichment, centrifuge numbers, stockpile size, and plutonium pathway, while giving the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) a central role in monitoring and verification. 

In exchange, Iran received phased sanctions relief. By contrast, Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, arguing that it was too weak, too temporary, and too narrow because it did not permanently end enrichment, fully address ballistic missiles, or curb Iran’s regional proxy activity. His “maximum pressure” campaign relied on sanctions and leverage first, with diplomacy coming later and on terms more explicitly shaped by U.S. demands.

Another major difference lies in how each side understood the purpose of a deal. The JCPOA was designed as a managed arms-control arrangement: it did not attempt to transform Iran’s regime or eliminate every source of tension, but rather to lengthen Iran’s “breakout time” and create transparency through inspections. Trump’s preferred deal, by contrast, has typically been framed as a broader strategic reset—one that would not only stop nuclear weapons development but also produce a tougher and more durable outcome than the Obama-era agreement. 

Supporters of Trump’s view argue that the JCPOA’s sunset clauses and narrow scope made it insufficient. Critics respond that any realistic new deal often ends up looking similar to the JCPOA because inspections, enrichment limits, and sanctions relief remain the basic building blocks of any workable bargain.

Still, there are important continuities. Both frameworks assume Iran will not simply abandon its nuclear capacity without reciprocal incentives. Both depend, at least in principle, on outside verification and on some negotiated balance between pressure and compromise. And both reflect the same long-standing American dilemma: whether the better path is an imperfect diplomatic agreement or a riskier strategy built on escalation and possible military confrontation.

The JCPOA and Trump’s Iran deal are similar in objective but different in method, tone, and ambition. The JCPOA emphasized multilateral diplomacy, technical limits, and inspection-based confidence building. Trump’s approach emphasized pressure, tougher bargaining, and a promise of a “better” agreement that would go beyond the original deal. Whether the newer framework proves genuinely different in substance or simply a rebranded version of earlier diplomacy remains the key question. 

It will take time to know with certitude just how to distinguish between the two plans. However, there are visible, measurable, and fundamentally distinct items to consider as you reach your ultimate judgment.

As of this moment in time, The Trump administration does not have a plan. It has a framework for a plan. The principals have agreed in principle to take the next 60 days to work on devising a plan. What a neat trick. Happy Birthday Mr. President. 

As noted above, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA in 2018, during his prior term in office. So, after 109 days of planning to plan for a plan, the Trump administration proposes to take two more months to come up with said plan…that it has been saying for weeks, if not months is already done. Or will be done soon. Or in the next few days. Or the next few weeks. Or…at any time now.

it’s important to reflect on the fact the JCPOA was an actual plan, complete with multiple nation-state participants. The agreement, which took 20 months to negotiate, created mechanisms to measure Iran’s compliance. According to not just the United States, but also to the other nations involved in the agreement (China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom), along with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran was complying; the agreement was working. This plan was crafted, formalized, adopted, and executed through diplomacy.

That last note makes it imperative to reflect on several points. In the lead up to the coming plan, Mr. Trump, allegedly based on the advice and counsel of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, launched, along with Israel, a joint preemptive strike against Iran, known as Operation Epic Fury. In some spaces, that strike has come to be known as Trump’s War of Choice. We are told that with choices, come consequences. One immediate, likely unintended consequence of the attack was that most of Iran’s political leadership was killed. Their demise, by most accounts, eliminated the most moderate faction of Iranian leadership. That results in any ongoing negotiations being dependent upon working with more hard-core extremists, including Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the strike. Reports say Mojtaba, the new Supreme Leader, was also seriously injured during the attack. One can imagine his negotiating mind set.

Several specific delineated consequences to consider include:

The war

The loss of American blood and treasure, aka lives and military equipment

Fostering military attacks on our allies and assets in the region

Facilitating, if not expediting, Iran’s move to block or hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage

The mining of the Strait of Hormuz

Emboldening Israel to escalate attacks in the region under the cover of U.S. protection 

Providing the blueprint for future blockading of the Strait of Hormuz/de facto Iranian control

Dwarfing the pallets of money from the JCPOA that Trump & friends obsessed over. Oh my! 

Consider, if you will, “Obama’s JCPOA vs. Trump’s Iran Deal: To Win or Not To Win!”

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Obama’s JCPOA vs. Trump’s Iran Deal: To Win or Not To Win

This post was augmented by the use of AI.

It’s Time to Talk Straight on Hormuz

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The conundrum of the Strait of Hormuz lies in the fact that the world depends on a waterway that is both indispensable and persistently vulnerable. This narrow passage between Iran and Oman connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. 

Yet despite its modest width, it carries an enormous share of the world’s energy trade. Recent estimates indicate that around 20 million barrels of oil and oil products move through the strait each day, along with a substantial portion of global liquefied natural gas exports, when the Strait is open and operable. 

For major Gulf producers such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, the strait remains the main route to international markets. That makes it not just a regional corridor, but a global economic pressure point.

The core problem is strategic as much as geographic. The Strait of Hormuz is a classic chokepoint: narrow enough to be threatened, but important enough that even a brief disruption can unsettle world markets. Iran’s position on the northern side of the strait gives it leverage. It has long viewed that leverage as part of a broader deterrence strategy against regional rivals and outside powers, especially the United States. 

At the same time, the United States and its partners see freedom of navigation through the strait as essential to global commerce and regional stability. This creates a recurring security dilemma. Measures taken by one side to deter conflict, such as military patrols, naval escorts, missile deployments, or maritime warnings, are often interpreted by the other side as preparation for confrontation. As a result, actions intended to stabilize the strait can actually promote a more tense environment.

The economic stakes intensify the puzzle. There are some alternatives to Hormuz, including pipelines that can bypass part of the route, but they do not fully replace the volume that normally passes through the strait. That means markets react sharply even to partial disruptions, insurance spikes, or shipping delays. Asian economies are especially exposed because a large share of the oil transiting Hormuz is destined for countries such as China, India, Japan, and South Korea. 

In that sense, the conundrum is global: a local conflict or miscalculation can trigger inflation, supply shocks, and financial volatility far beyond the Gulf. Even when the strait is not formally closed, the mere perception of danger can alter shipping patterns and raise costs.

Ultimately, the Strait of Hormuz illustrates a larger geopolitical paradox: the more vital a route becomes, the more attractive it is as a source of leverage, and the harder it is to secure without escalating tensions. No major actor truly benefits from a prolonged closure, including Iran, because disruption would also damage regional economies and global demand. Yet the threat of disruption remains powerful precisely because the world has not found a reliable substitute for the strait. That is why Hormuz remains a conundrum rather than merely a shipping lane. It is a place where geography, energy dependence, military signaling, and global finance converge, making stability essential, but never guaranteed.

All of the above reflects the theoretical framework of what makes the Strait of Hormuz critical to both U.S. and global interests. Then, the United States and Israel initiated coordinated strikes against Iran on February 28, 2026. In retaliation, Iran enforced the effective closure of the Strait by attacking and threatening vessels attempting to navigate the crucial waterway and by boobytrapping said waterway with mines. That’s when, for lack of a better adjective, things got…interesting.

The President of the United States aligned with Israel in an effort to cow Iran into submission. Quickly. Interestingly, while Iran was always capable of launching such a blockage, which this administration frequently mentions, it’s simply essential to note, for the record, that it had never done so. Not under Clinton, not under Obama, not under Biden, not even in Trump’s first term. 

Let’s be clear, it did not happen until Trump was deluded into launching a strike to preclude Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The rub here, and there is one, is that Mr. Trump boasted loud, long, and often, that he had launched an assault that obliterated Iran’s nuclear capacity, Moreover, he contended it would take years, not a year, but years to reassemble the apparatus necessary to become a nuclear nation. And yet, here we are a few months later without even a hint of “I was wrong,” claiming it was necessary to initiate a preemptive strike to solve a problem he previously claimed to have definitively solved. Talk about Fake News.   

Mr. Netanyahu allegedly persuaded the American Stable Genius that a collective U.S.-Israeli show of force would render Iran feckless and defeated in short order. Since March 1, Mr. Trump has assured Americans that Iran would fold, in a matter of days, then in a matter of weeks. Claims he has reiterated, with a straight face and a faux confident tone. Over, and over, and over again…38 times and counting.

I am not prepared to say, we are engaged in the next forever war. I absolutely pray we are not. But if there is one thing that is true, and readily visible to even those of us who possess what jokesters often refer to as lying eyes, it is that Trump “may not” have lied…but he sure as hades was wrong. We are engaged in a new war, and no amount of fanciful wordsmithing, and contorting the language can transpose this into another imaginary war ended by the MAGA-in-Chief. “It’s Time to Talk Straight on Hormuz!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

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It’s Time to Talk Straight on Hormuz

This post was augmented by the use of AI.

If It’s Not In Writing, Is It Really A Deal?

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“BREAK IT DOWN!”

A couple of weeks ago, I penned a post entitled, “It’s A Great Deal…If You Can Get It”(https://thesphinxofcharlotte.com/2026/05/20/its-a-great-deal-if-you-can-get-it/). Yesterday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made an announcement that suggests it may not be possible to get it. At least, not all of it.

The decision to abandon the Justice Department’s proposed “anti-weaponization” fund while preserving the separate ban on audits of President Donald Trump’s past tax returns underscores a familiar pattern in Washington: when a controversial package becomes politically toxic, officials often jettison the most visible liability while trying to preserve the quieter but more consequential benefit. Recent reporting indicates that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers the administration would no longer proceed with the roughly $1.776 billion fund after backlash from Republican senators as well as broader criticism that it could become a vehicle for politically sympathetic claimants, including people tied to January 6. At the same time, Blanche said the agreement shielding Trump and his family from future audits of previously filed returns would stay in place.

That split matters. The fund was always the easier target because it was public, expensive, and symbolically explosive. The Department of Justice had framed it as a mechanism to compensate victims of alleged government “lawfare,” but critics across the political spectrum saw it as a slush fund in waiting. The strongest objections were not just legal but political: lawmakers worried about taxpayer money being used to reward allies of the president or individuals who would become instant symbols of partisan grievance.

Once that perception hardened, the fund became a burden on the administration’s broader agenda, especially as Republican legislators signaled it could complicate unrelated negotiations over immigration and spending. In short, the fund generated immediate heat and limited upside. Dropping it was a way to defuse the loudest controversy.

The audit ban, however, appears to be the provision the administration most wanted to preserve. Unlike the fund, it does not require creating a new bureaucracy, distributing money, or defending visible payouts. Yet it may be far more significant in practical terms. Reporting on the settlement indicates that the IRS is barred from auditing returns filed before May 18, 2026, covering Trump, certain family members, trusts, and businesses. 

Legal and tax experts have described that kind of prospective immunity from examination as extraordinary and difficult to reverse. Because the provision is embedded in a settlement agreement rather than a headline-grabbing public program, its political profile is lower—even though its long-term implications may be greater. It diminishes scrutiny, if not controversy.

Seen that way, dropping the anti-weaponization fund while keeping the tax-audit shield is less a retreat than a recalibration. The administration appears to have concluded that it could sacrifice the most combustible piece of the arrangement while retaining the part that most directly benefits Trump and his family. Politically, that may blunt some immediate criticism, because the discarded provision was easier to explain in one shocking number: nearly $1.8 billion. But substantively, the surviving clause may prove more important, because it narrows the government’s ability to examine past tax matters involving the sitting president. If the fund was the flashpoint, the audit ban is the legacy provision. And that is why the real story is not only what was dropped, but what remains. But not so fast. Mr. Blanche was asked whether he would provide a written memo detailing the decision to forego the nearly $2 billion settlement? He declined. No disrespect to the Acting AG, but this non-legal scholar’s inquiring mind wonders, “If It’s Not In Writing, Is It Really A Deal?”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

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If It’s Not In Writing, Is It Really A Deal?

This post was augmented by the use of AI.

It’s A Great Deal…If You Can Get It

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BREAK IT DOWN!

This has been another eventful week for government in the United States…and it’s only Wednesday. Another GOP Congressman targeted by DJ Trump lost his re-election bid. Down goes Thomas Massie. The Kentucky solon, who lost last night, joined the five Indiana Senators who lost a couple of weeks ago, after also having been targeted by Trump. 

As an aside, Senator John Cornyn of Texas saw Trump throw his endorsement to his opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Most observers now cede next week’s runoff to Paxton, aided by Trump’s backing. While Paxton may win, his candidacy is not without concerns. He has previously overcome several controversies, including, impeachment, felony securities fraud allegations, which he ultimately settled, election integrity (attempt to overturn the 2020 Election) issues, and a marital/divorce scandal. These issues are not expected to derail his GOP runoff chances.  

Believe it or not, actual election matters are not the top line. Earlier this week, it was reported that Trump was dropping his $10 billion, that’s billion with a b, suit against his own Department of Justice. Instead of $10B, a $1.776 billion dollar settlement was reached, which will provide payouts to Trump allies, and others who have been impacted by “so-called” Biden law fare. 

Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal criminal attorney, and current Acting Attorney General negotiated the settlement, and will select a 5-person panel to oversee the “1776 Fund.” While it remains unclear who will get money from what some are referring to as a self-dealing slush fund, Neither Trump, JD Vance, nor Blanche have ruled out the prospect that individuals who committed violent acts against law enforcement at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and who on January 20, 2025 were granted a blanket pardon for their actions by Trump on the first day of his second term, will receive money from the settlement. 

That sounded like the top line. But then this happened. The Justice Department added an  addendum to its settlement with President Donald Trump. It immediately ignited controversy because it reportedly says the government is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing certain tax examinations or claims against Donald Trump, his family, and his companies, involving returns filed before the settlement’s effective date. 

According to recent reporting by ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News, the addendum expands a broader agreement resolving Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his confidential tax information. That reporting suggests the deal reaches far beyond an ordinary settlement term because it appears to shut down not just currently pending matters, but also any claims that could have been raised concerning older Trump tax returns. Even with the Justice Department later saying the addendum applies only to existing audits and not future ones, the language has landed like a political and legal earthquake, especially because it concerns the sitting president and a tax agency meant to apply the law uniformly.

The backstory matters. Trump sued after an IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, admitted leaking tax return information belonging to Trump and other wealthy Americans to the press. It should be noted that Littlejohn is current serving a jail sentence related to the matter.

That breach created a serious privacy and accountability issue for the government. But critics argue that redressing an unlawful leak is not the same thing as granting a president sweeping protection from tax scrutiny. The question is not whether Trump had grounds to complain about the disclosure of his returns; plainly he did. The question is whether a settlement negotiated by a Justice Department led by his own administration can lawfully or appropriately insulate him, his family, and associated businesses from tax enforcement on prior filings. That is where the matter becomes far more significant than a simple damages dispute.

This is the nexus where both the broader settlement, and especially the addendum appears to earn the label self-dealing. The benefits do not inure just to Trump, but also to his family members and businesses. As one analyst noted, he sued himself, settled with himself, and is now paying himself. Trump supporters are quick to counter; Trump is not getting any of the money. 

Seriously? Stop playing! The addendum itself is undoubtedly worth millions. Think of all the past returns that will now not be reviewed. Don’t be ridiculous. Trump’s taxes have long drawn attention and at least one long-running audit could have carried a very substantial financial consequence. In that light, the addendum is not a symbolic gesture. It could amount to a durable shield against significant liability, which is why opponents see it as a direct challenge to principles of equal treatment under the law. “It’s A Great Deal…If You Can Get It!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

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It’s A Great Deal…If You Can Get It

This post was augmented by the use of AI.

Don’t Call It Incompetence: More Like A Diabolical Plot

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BREAK IT DOWN!

It is tempting, in moments of chaos, to dismiss an administration as merely incompetent. That interpretation can feel comforting because incompetence suggests limits: mistakes can be corrected, confusion can be clarified, and disorder can eventually give way to normalcy. 

But there is a more unsettling possibility. What looks like ineptitude may in fact be strategy. When leaders consistently undermine institutions, inflame division, exhaust the public, and weaken long-standing norms, it becomes harder to call the outcome accidental. At some point, the pattern is too coherent to ignore. 

The better description is not failure but success on its own terms. To say an administration is incompetent assumes it is trying and failing to preserve stability, fairness, and democratic order. Yet if its real objective is to break those things—if it aims to disorient the public, discredit expertise, erode trust, and replace shared rules with raw power—then the apparent disorder is evidence not of weakness but of achievement. 

The disruption is the point. Every norm shattered, every agency hollowed out, every conflict manufactured becomes proof that the project is proceeding as intended. This is why the language of incompetence can be so misleading. It frames the damage as unintended side effects rather than as central goals. A common to describe this state of affairs is, “It’s a feature, not a bug.”

The incompetence theory encourages observers to keep waiting for a correction, for adults in the room, for a return to ordinary governance. Meanwhile, the administration continues reshaping public life through attrition. People grow numb. Outrage becomes routine. Standards fall seemingly sequentially at first, then suddenly, all at once. 

We have devolved into an environment in which success is measured not by effective administration in the traditional sense but by the ability to make the unacceptable seem inevitable. None of this means every action is coordinated with perfect discipline. Political movements are often messy, contradictory, and driven by ego as much as ideology. That’s how the metaphor of government as sausage-making came into common parlance. 

Messiness does not cancel intent. In fact, confusion itself can be politically useful. Prior to the 2024 Election, the detractors frequently and forcefully warned of the impending Project 2025. The GOP nominee for President repeated denied having even read it, and further claimed to have no knowledge of it, whatsoever. That he had not read it…sounds plausible. Reading may be fundamental, but if one doesn’t read daily briefs…Conversely, it seems likely he was aware of the document and its intent.

It is fair to say it is incomprehensible that a regime could be both incompetent, and simultaneously capable of so swiftly and with such precision, undoing affirmative action, DEI, and the Voting Rights Act. All that has happened, literally, in a matter of months; less than 16. 

When reality feels unstable, accountability becomes harder to enforce. When citizens are constantly reacting to the latest outrage, they have less energy to defend the deeper principles being dismantled underneath. Calling this dynamic incompetence therefore understates both the intelligence and the danger we face.

It mistakes destruction for clumsiness. If we want to understand what is happening, we need to judge it by outcomes, not excuses. And if the outcome is a weaker civic culture, a more cynical public, and a more fragile democratic system, then we should stop assuming the architects have failed. Rather, they are succeeding exactly as planned.

You can call them a lot of things, but by all means, scratch incompetent from the list. I shudder to contemplate our collective circumstance, by the end of this hellscape of an administration term has ended. “Don’t Call It Incompetence: More Like A Diabolical Plot!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

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Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects related to this post, consult search engines for more information on the subject.

This post was augmented by the use of AI.

Don’t Call It Incompetence: More Like A Diabolical Plot