Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Most Say Trump's Decision To Go To War With Iran Was Wrong
The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between April 17th and 20th of a nationwide sample of 1,707 adults (including 1,553 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.3 points for adults and 3.1 points for registered voters.
Will Patel Be The Next Sycophant To Be Fired By Trump?
Donald Trump has fired his head of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Labor Department. Who will be the next to go? Robert Reich thinks it will be Kash Patel. He writes:
You can be Secretary of Defense (War) and cause the mightiest military in the world to be brought to its knees, and still keep your job in the Trump regime.
You can be in charge of public health and cause measles to reemerge as a major hazard to Americans, and still keep your job.
You can be illegally enriching yourself and your family as Commerce Secretary, and still keep your job.
But you’ll be fired for actively and unnecessarily getting bad press.
A few days ago, a senior White House official told Politico that FBI director Kash Patel’s bad press was “not a good look for a cabinet secretary” and had frustrated Trump. “It’s only a matter of time,” they said, before Patel is canned.
Like Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Patel has been his own worse press agent.
He filed a $250 million defamation claim against The Atlantic magazine over its April 17 report claiming that his FBI colleagues were alarmed by his excessive drinking and unexplained absences. The report included claims that his security detail struggled to rouse him due to intoxication several times in the past year and that he drank heavily at a private club in Washington. Bureau employees expressed concerns that his behavior posed a threat to public safety.
I doubt it’s Patel’s excessive drinking and absences that are making Trump upset; it’s that they’re being reported, and that Patel has made them even bigger stories by suing The Atlantic over them.
Last week, Patel added to the drinking story when he erupted at NBC’s Ryan Reilly who asked Patel at a press conference whether, as The Atlantic also reported, he feared he had been fired when he was unable to log into his government computer.
“The problem with you and your baseless reporting is that is an absolute lie,” Patel shot back. “It was never said. It never happened. And I will serve in this administration as long as the president and the attorney general want me to do so.” Patel added, “you are off topic,” and “the answer to your question is you are lying.”
Worse yet, from Trump’s viewpoint, is that some of Patel’s drinking has been in the public eye. One video showed him drinking a beer, banging his fist on a table and celebrating with the US men’s hockey team at this year’s Winter Olympics in Italy.
Nothing gets Trump angrier than when one of his underlings is caught doing something stupid on videotape. After the video of Patel spread on social media, Trump called Patel to convey his discontent, Politico reported.
Soon after Patel sued the Atlantic, the New York Times reported that the FBI had been investigating Elizabeth Williamson. Williamson was the New York Times journalist who revealed that Patel had used a swat team to protect his country singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, when she was invited to sing the national anthem at the annual convention of the National Rifle Association. And that Patel had “ripped into” the swat team’s commander when the team left after it became apparent there was no threat to her.
It’s not that Patel misused government funds on his girlfriend. Or that Patel exploded at the FBI swat team’s commander. Or even that Patel ordered an investigation of the journalist who reported this. No, it’s that all of this became a national story — twice.Such self-generated negative press infuriates Trump.
The same day that the Times reported on the FBI’s investigation of Elizabeth Williamson, NBC reported that a federal judge in Texas had tossed out a defamation case brought by Patel against former FBI assistant director-turned-MSNBC contributor Frank Figliuzzi.
Patel had brought the case over Figliuzzi’s remark on “Morning Joe” that Patel had been “been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building.”
More self-generated negative press: Not that Patel has been doing the nightclub circuit and disregarding his job, but that he invited a story about it by suing Figliuzzi.
Similarly, it’s not that Patel has repeatedly wrongly accused people of federal crimes (announcing someone had been arrested for the murder of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk when the real murderer hadn’t yet turned himself in, and that a person of interest had been detained in the Brown University shooting, only for that individual to be released hours later).
It’s that Patel’s wrong accusations were widely reported, making Patel — and, indirectly, Trump — look dumber than dirt.
Patel simply doesn’t know how to keep a low profile. Like so many others in the Trump regime, he made his name by promoting himself. As a frequent guest on right-wing programs before Trump appointed him FBI director, he pushed conspiracy theories about the “deep state,” the 2020 presidential election, and the January 6 Capitol attack.
But the occupant of the Oval Office doesn’t want his underlings engaging in self-promotion and vindictive lawsuits. If anyone’s going to be self-promotional and vindictive, Trump wants it to be himself.
Patel has been trying to win back Trump’s favor by escalating FBI investigations into Trump enemies. But so far, the investigations haven’t yielded adequate evidence to indict, another mark against him in Trump’s book.
A week ago Sunday, Patel promised that the Justice Department would soon make arrests related to the 2020 election, stating on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that “We’ve got all the information we need, we’re working with our prosecutors at the Department of Justice under [acting] Attorney General Todd Blanche, and we are going to be making arrests, and it’s coming, and I promise you, it’s coming soon.”
Patel’s plea was obviously directed at Trump.
I doubt it will work. Patel will soon be locked out of his computer for good.
Sometimes A Cigar Is Just A Cigar
Well, sometimes a failed assassin is just a failed assassin - and not the object of a grand conspiracy.
Just a day after the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, I viewed post after post on my Facebook page claiming the shooting was part of a conspiracy, orchestrated by Trump to either distract from the war and unreleased files, or to get his big ballroom built.
I found this very disappointing. While the right-wingers love to engage in their many conspiracy theories, most Democrats and left-wingers tend to stick with the facts.
Many jumped on Karoline Leavitt's pre-dinner statement, "It will be funny. It will be entertaining. There will be some shots fired tonight in the room." Come on people! She was obviously just referring to the "shots" Trump would take in his speech at the media and his political enemies.
Others found it mysterious that the shooting happened at the only WHCD that Trump has attended. But the others had comedians hosting that would take jabs at Trump - and Trump is notoriously thin-skinned. This time he was able to make sure no comedian would host (instead it was a mentalist), and he would be the one giving the verbal jabs.
It may make some feel good to engage in the conspiracy theory of a staged shooting, but there are no real facts to support it.
As Democrats and left-wingers, let's stick to the facts. Leave the conspiracy theories to the right-wingers.
Monday, April 27, 2026
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Reuters/Ipsos Poll Shows Many Are Starting To believe Some Of Trump's Election Lies
Fox News Poll Shows The Public Trusts Democrats More With The Economy
The chart reflects the results of the Fox News Poll -- done between April 17th and 20th of a nationwide sample of 1,001 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.
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