Progressive Patriots Movement

When it comes to cruelty and inhumane snobbishness, there is no match for the Lying King Trump and his fascist minions like Stephen Miller.

From the ProPublica website this morning:

More Than 770,000 Children Are No Longer Receiving SNAP Benefits After Trump Changes Federal Food Program [headline]

"As a House committee debated President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill last year, Republican backers repeatedly emphasized that its changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, wouldn’t affect vulnerable people."

"SNAP reforms would “restore integrity” to the program and ensure it works for the “most vulnerable among us, including children,” said Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican and chair of the House Agriculture Committee."

"But nearly a year after the measure was signed into law, the number of children receiving food assistance has plummeted by at least 776,000, according to a ProPublica analysis. At least 12 states break down program participation by age, and of the 1,670,011 people who are no longer receiving benefits in those states, 776,134, or 46%, were children."

"Another analysis reached the same conclusion: Just last month, the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found there were 700,000 fewer children receiving food assistance.

Arizona has seen the nation’s largest percentage decline in SNAP participants; 205,223 children are no longer receiving the benefit since July 2025, a 55% drop. Louisiana had the second largest percent decline among children, 22%."

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, hasn’t detailed the impact on children aided by the program, but initial figures show that compared to February 2025, 4.3 million fewer people received SNAP nationwide in February 2026, leaving 37.8 million participants."

***

Folks, the Project 2025 Plan is in high gear, and the targets are being hammered every day: Poor folks, low-income Americans, women with babies and young children, families with limited means, and Black, Latino, and Indigenous Americans are all suffering with food insecurity each day.

It is time for all Americans to come together to stop this inhumane cruelty. It is time to elect Democrats and Independents to the House and Senate in November so we can quickly move to impeach, convict and remove the Lying King Trump and his Cabinet officers and advisers. It is time to flush the toilet.

"The Art of the Deal" by the Lying King Trump was really a book about him and his own personal imaginings about his skills as a deal maker. What we are witnessing with the present negotiations with the Iranian military leaders, however, is a classic case of Trump being outmaneuvered at every turn by the Iranian negotiators.

Today, at some point, a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed, or so we are told, and it is essentially an outline of the items to be negotiated during the 60-day cease-fire that will take effect as soon as the MOU is signed. And the Lying King, of course, and his lying assistants, have been making all sorts of comments about their understandings of what is in the MOU. For example:

1. In Trump's interview with the New York Times on Sunday night, the New York Times explained, “The memorandum of understanding, for example, only suspends tolls in the strait for 60 days, and then promises a regional dialogue about the future. Iran had never charged tolls before the war, so Mr. Trump is essentially celebrating a return to the prewar status quo.” Reported by Jennifer Rubin in her Contrarian blog today.

2. When confronted over the weekend with reports that at least $20 billion in Iranian assets would be unfrozen, Vice President JD Vance insisted Iran would not be getting any cash. Was Vance giving us the full story? Well, Israeli and other sources reported that Iran will get at least $20 billion via the United Arab Emirates, which the UAE publicly denied. (Did Vance mean to exclude U.S. but not UAE cash pallets?) Separately, Iran also claimed $12 billion will be released before negotiations even start. By Monday morning, Vance added a new element — $300 billion in “reconstruction funds.” On CBS’s morning show he said, “[T]hat’s the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf coast coalition, so long as they honor their end of the obligation.” Again, reported by Jennifer Rubin.

But most concerning, is the failure of the Lying King and his assistants to openly acknowledge the full truth of the costs of his stupid war with Iran that will be paid for by the American people:

1. 13 Americans died in reckless, ill-prepared combat operations, and hundreds of our troops suffered serious injuries.

2. The last 30 days of war cost at least $100 billion, not counting the operational costs of our naval vessels, which were not budgeted in this years Defense Department annual budget.

3. It will take years and more $billions to rebuild and replenish our military weapons like Tomahawk missiles, Cruise missiles and drones, Precision Strike Missiles, Stealth Cruise missiles, and air-launched missiles from our fighter aircraft.

4. And the biggest expenses of all, namely the high costs of vital life necessities that the American people have paid for, and will continue to pay for for months to come: very high prices for gas, diesel fuel, jet fuel, fertilizer, electricity, child care, health care, transportation, and both home loans and business loans.

Note: all of the above were also reported by Jennifer Rubin.

***

The Lying King made up a big lie to start his stupid war with Iran (alleging that there was an imminent Iranian attack on the U.S., which, as we know, never happened) and he has lied every day during his stupid war, and when all is said and done, our nation will have gained nothing of any significance from Trump's stupid war.

And in the meantime, the Lying King has utterly failed to do the right things right to help the brave people and military forces of Ukraine. Just think where we would be if Trump had invested $100 billion in supporting Ukraine.

It is time for the Lying King and his Cabinet officers to go. His endless lies are too costly and they have left the American people with a broken economy and serious threats to our national security.

Well, now, at least, we have a chance to end the Lying King Trump's stupid war with Iran. We have a memorandum of understanding that outlines a framework for a full treaty to end the war that will be signed in Geneva, Switzerland. And when it is signed a 60-day cease-fire will take effect.

Soon thereafter Trump's naval blockade of Iranian sea ports will end and after some days of mine sweeping the Strait of Hormuz will reopen for oil tankers to depart, and no fees will be charged.

Also, after the MOU is signed, the U.S. will release $24 billion of Iran's frozen assets (funds that belong to Iran that were frozen during the war).

The bottom line to all of this is that we will essentially return to the conditions that were in place before Trump lied about "an imminent Iranian attack on the United States" and then launched his stupid war.

However, the U.S. taxpayers will have to pay for the costs of Trump's stupid war which now exceed $100 billion, and the very high prices we are all paying for gas, diesel fuel, jet fuel, electricity, food, rents, health care, child care, etc. will take many months to go down, and the taxpayers will also pay many more billions of dollars to rebuild our weapons inventory. Our available supply of certain rockets and missiles is very low and it will take up to six months or more to replace them, and Tomahawk missiles, for example, cost $20 million each. Note: If we were smart, we would invest $billions in drones rather than expensive missiles.

And there is an unknown kicker in all of this: PM Netanyahu has stated that the Israeli military forces will continue to attack the Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon, despite Iranian demands that the MOU agreement states that there will be a cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.

We must, therefore, continue our hard and rapid work to unite and build a huge tidal wave of voters to elect Democrats and Independents to the House and Senate in the November elections. Then we can quickly act to impeach, convict and remove the Lying King and all of his incompetent fascist Cabinet officers.

To gain more detailed insights into the disgusting levels of corruption with the regime of the Lying King, please read the following blog post by Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, historian, posted yesterday, June 12, 2026. It is a bit long, but well worth your time.

The following are quotes from the blog:

Today was the deadline set by Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for Donald Trump’s name to come off the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, more commonly known as the Kennedy Center.

In his ruling of May 29, Cooper noted that “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” and Congress stipulated that “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas” of the Kennedy Center.

As soon as he took office in early 2025, Trump replaced trustees on the Kennedy Center board and appointed himself a trustee as well. Now weighted with loyalists, the board elected Trump chair and then replaced the president of the Kennedy Center. Then the board voted to change the center’s bylaws to concentrate their own power. Then, in December, the board voted to rename the Kennedy Center the “Trump Kennedy Center,” and the name went up over the Kennedy Center portico the next day.

Representative Joyce Beatty (D-OH), who as an ex officio member of the center’s board had been sidelined, sued to stop the renaming and won. Cooper ordered Trump’s name to be taken off the building, all signage, stationery, merchandise, and so on, before midnight tonight.

At first, the Kennedy Center seemed willing to comply, removing Trump’s name from its website and YouTube page, but that cooperation changed yesterday, when the board voted to launch a last-minute appeal to the removal order. Hours later, the lawyers from the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal. They asked for a stay on the judge’s order to remove Trump’s name from the building, saying the board would be “forced to squander time and money” if the appeals court decides in its favor and that it “would be incredibly confusing for the public” if, in the end, Trump’s name went back up after coming down.

Cooper decided against them, saying they had not shown they would win their appeal on its merits. He said staying the order “would not be in the public interest, which is rarely served by the ‘perpetuation’ of ‘unlawful’ governmental action.”

Late this afternoon, the board of the Kennedy Center filed an emergency appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court, asking for a stay in the order to remove Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center. It was, perhaps, hasty work. Legal analyst Liz Dye called it “bonkity-bonkers, while lawyer Norm Eisen of The Contrarian went for “batsh** crazy” and noted that Trump “clearly wrote big pieces himself.”

For the first time, the board alleged that “The Bylaws of The Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Foundation state, unequivocally,” that the board must strip all funding from the Kennedy Center unless Trump’s name stays on it. Dye notes: “If the bylaws were amended, they were amended since Judge Cooper issued his order—prob[ably] yesterday. This is the Board choking off funds and saying ‘you have to let us break the law, or we’ll lose all the funds.’”

According to a lawsuit filed yesterday by the Washington National Opera, about $17 million of the money Trump appears to be claiming from the Kennedy Center belongs to the Washington National Opera. For fifteen years, the suit says, the opera and the Kennedy Center had a contractual relationship, in which the center managed donations to the Washington National Opera for the opera’s benefit.

“By the second half of 2025, the Kennedy Center stopped performing many of its obligations under the governing affiliation agreement, including marketing, fundraising, and administrative support, as well as timely reporting on the growth of WNO’s funds,” the suit says. “Despite repeated requests from WNO, the Kennedy Center did not remedy its non-performance. Instead, it proposed that the parties end their long-standing affiliation. That affiliation came to an end in January 2026.”

And then the Kennedy Center refused to return the WNO’s money, instead using it as collateral for its own line of credit.

Yesterday Toni Aguilar Rosenthal of the Revolving Door Project and Alan Zibel of Public Citizen did a deep dive into Trump’s determination to turn other people’s money to his own service.

They note that Trump and his allies seized the funds Congress appropriated for celebrations to honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and have “awarded nearly $103 million in federal contracts and grants…to politicized entities under the control of Trump administration officials and political allies”—nearly 80% of the $126 million of funding for the semiquincentenary celebrations. Private funding, including from corporations with issues in front of the administration, have also poured money into Trump’s events.

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the administration is hoping to complete Trump’s 250-foot-tall triumphal arch before he leaves office. To do so, they are anticipating keeping work going 20 hours a day. They say they do not need congressional approval. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has asked officials from the National Park Service to explain and to justify why they are ignoring normal rules for federal contracting and instead handing out no-bid contracts, saying the project is “urgent.”

Yesterday Ashleigh Fields of The Hill reported that federal agencies and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) are putting at least $60 million toward the White House cage fight on Trump’s 80th birthday Sunday. That money has paid for the fighting arena on the South Lawn of the White House, as well as paying up to 900 workers since May 20.

A political activist and military veteran from Virginia tried to stop the event from proceeding, calling it a “deeply corrupt” event that uses national monuments to shill for private businesses, in at least one of which—UFC’s parent company TKO Holding Group—Trump owns significant amounts of stock. They noted that although Trump used the 250th anniversary to justify ignoring environmental review and congressional approval, the event is clearly designed not for the nation’s birthday, but for his own.

Today Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the lawsuit, saying that the Virginians did not have standing to challenge the UFC fight and that the time and money invested in the event outweighed any temporary harm they suffered.

On social media today, Trump posted images of the horses statues behind the Lincoln Memorial being freshly gilded, and wrote: “Re-gilding of the massive Arts of War sculptures, located between The Lincoln Memorial and site of The Triumphal Arch, rapidly continues. The sculptures will be fully regilded by July 3. The photos were taken yesterday. The Gilders’ Studio has flown in Gilders from around the Country to perform this work!”

Yesterday Edwin Heathcote of the Financial Times reported on how former prime minister of Hungary Victor Orbán used architecture to reinforce the idea that his government was rebuilding former glories, while new prime minister, Péter Magyar is contrasting the palaces Orbán built to the crumbling hospitals and children’s homes around the country, where there was no money for toilet paper. The contrast between the gilded palaces of Orbán and his cronies and the poverty in which everyday Hungarians lived was key to the popular uprising that toppled Orbán’s government and put Magyar’s in place.

Today Elon Musk, who poured more than $290 million into the 2024 election to elect Trump and other Republicans, became the world’s first trillionaire—on paper, at least—when shares of his rocket company SpaceX were offered to the public.

Tonight the appeals court denied Trump’s emergency motion. Observers waiting at the Kennedy Center noted that a rainbow broke out over the building shortly after the decision. Although the letters for Trump’s name went up in hours, attached by workers on scissor lifts, taking them down involved so much scaffolding and so many hours that the United States government missed the court-imposed deadline.

The Department of Justice said the letters would come down “in the early hours of the morning of June 13,” presumably when there would not be the huge audience that has been watching the removal all day either in person or on livestream, and asked the court for twelve more hours to comply with the court order.