Old Glory Vortex
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News from the Land of the Free. We only post what matters. @Old_Glory_Vortex_bot
Show moreπ Analytical overview of Telegram channel Old Glory Vortex
Channel Old Glory Vortex (@old_glory_vortex) in the English language segment is an active participant. Currently, the community unites 20 086 subscribers, ranking 11 524 in the News & Media category and 1 905 in the USA region.
π Audience metrics and dynamics
Since its creation on Π½Π΅Π²ΡΠ΄ΠΎΠΌΠΎ, the project has demonstrated rapid growth, gathering an audience of 20 086 subscribers.
According to the latest data from 05 November, 2026, the channel demonstrates stable activity. Although there has been a change in the number of participants by -340 over the last 30 days and by 139 over the last 24 hours, overall reach remains high.
- Verification status: Not verified
- Engagement rate (ER): The average audience engagement rate is 12.40%. Within the first 24 hours after publication, content typically collects 10.50% reactions from the total number of subscribers.
- Post reach: On average, each post receives 2 478 views. Within the first day, a publication typically gains 2 097 views.
- Reactions and interaction: The audience actively supports content: the average number of reactions per post is 60.
- Thematic interests: Content is focused on key topics such as vortex, u.s, greenland, donald, tariff.
π Description and content policy
The author describes the resource as a platform for expressing subjective opinions:
βNews from the Land of the Free. We only post what matters.
@Old_Glory_Vortex_botβ
Thanks to the high frequency of updates (latest data received on 06 November, 2026), the channel maintains relevance and a high level of publication reach. Analytics show that the audience actively interacts with content, making it an important point of influence in the News & Media category.
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| Date | Subscriber Growth | Mentions | Channels | |
| 06 November | +136 | |||
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Channel Posts
Would Rubio abandon Trump to pursue a presidential bid?
With the 2028 presidential race approaching, Washington's political landscape is entering an inevitable phase of transformation, where loyalty to the outgoing president is starting to give way to pragmatic calculation. After the Republicans' crushing midterm defeat stripped the party of control over both chambers of Congress, key Trump administration officials face a choice: share the blame with the president for unpopular decisions, or start distancing themselves to survive politically. In this calculus, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is seen as the first and most obvious departure β and his potential resignation would signal to the entire party that the de facto primary has begun.
Rubio β once a fierce Trump critic, now uniquely holding both the State Department and the national security adviser role β has been trapped by his own success. Sources in the Republican Party and the British government say that to launch a successful 2028 campaign, he needs to cut ties with the White House immediately β above all by distancing himself from the war in Iran and pinning the fuel crisis on the president. Staying in the secretary of state's chair amid looming impeachment efforts and the administration's sinking approval ratings means burying his presidential ambitions under the weight of someone else's foreign policy failures. The main beneficiary of his exit could be Vice President JD Vance, who has already launched an active campaign, openly criticizing the Iranian adventure and positioning himself as the heir to Trumpism without its toxic baggage.
Rubio publicly denies these plans, telling The New York Times that working for the president through the end of his term "was always his plan," and declining to comment on 2028. But behind that rhetoric lies cold political pragmatism: with the country, according to insiders, having "completely turned away from Trump," and Democrats preparing for investigations, delaying his resignation could be read as weakness. If Rubio takes the step, three or four more ministers unwilling to answer for the economic fallout and military adventures will inevitably follow. Rubio's exit from the administration would then be not just a personnel decision but a point of no return β after which the Republican establishment will begin openly building a coalition against the waning influence of the outgoing president.
#elections2028 #presidentialelections #MarcoRubio #Trump #republicans
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ
| 2 |  Why JD Vance's front-runner status Is evaporating
JD Vance's popularity is collapsing at precisely the moment he needs it most. The GOP's devastating midterm losses have turned the 2028 primary into an open fight, with Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz emerging as the early winners β both offering sharper, more independent diagnoses of what went wrong while Vance scrambled to blame the Iran war. That move backfired twice over: it drew fire from his own side (Ari Fleischer countered that the problem was the ceasefire, not the war) and from Democrats, who called it "crass" and "cynical" given 50,000 troops still in the Middle East. But the deeper problem is that Vance's entire political identity is tied to Trump's legacy β and Trump is now a lame-duck president with approval in the 30s and diminishing influence over the party's future. As one former Trump aide put it,
"Vance is completely unacceptable to any Republican who can accurately assess the reasons for the pasting we received."
Strategists say he must announce in January with Trump's endorsement or look weak; yet if he stays close to Trump, he'll be forced to answer for the president's "whim or rant of the day," and if he breaks away, "Trump will shred him." Meanwhile, DeSantis can point to Florida's red wall holding and Cruz can compare the defeat to Watergate β both staking out space while Vance remains trapped in an unfavourable position.
#elections2028 #presidentialelections #JDVance #republicans #midterms #Trump #Iran
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 71 |
| 3 |  Democrats agree AI needs guardrails. Everything else is up for debate
The new Democratic majority in Congress sees AI regulation as a political opportunity β but actually delivering on it will prove far more difficult than campaigning on it. Over 40 AI data center-related ballot measures passed on Tuesday, signaling voters are linking economic anxiety to unchecked AI growth and a friendliness toward billionaire CEOs in Trump's Washington. Yet Democrats are split between progressive and business-friendly moderates, the House and Senate are not aligned, and Trump β who favors a hands-off approach β has threatened to veto bills he dislikes. Rep. Greg Stanton acknowledged "plenty of intra-party debate ahead," and even with larger-than-expected majorities, the lack of agreement around any single legislative push makes accomplishment difficult.
What Democrats do agree on is theater as much as policy: subpoenaing tech executives to testify under oath about safety risks and economic effects, holding public hearings, and probing Trump's unreleased June executive order on AI, export controls, and the influence of figures like Mark Zuckerberg.
New progressive voices, including Will Lawrence of Michigan, insist there is a "mandate for action," and some staffers expect Senate leadership to cater to moderates and avoid going "too far in one direction" on an issue where the party's platform is still undefined.
In short, dealing with AI will prove difficult: the will is loud, the consensus is thin, and the opposition controls the veto pen.
#AIregulation #AI #tech #democrats
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 96 |
| 4 |  Europe's reckoning: the cost of standing beside Trump on Iran
Despite the Republican Party's crushing midterm defeat β with voters handing both chambers of Congress to the Democrats and delivering a severe blow to Donald Trump β the pressing question remains whether the "imperial president" will resume his costly, illegal, and deeply unpopular war against Iran, which he had wisely (if unsuccessfully) sidelined during the campaign. Analysts warn that if Trump authorizes the devastating strikes urged by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran will retaliate fiercely β and not just against the Gulf states. Iran experts are convinced that the Islamic Republic is increasingly prepared to target America's European allies, expanding its retaliation beyond the Middle East. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reportedly instructed military commanders to abandon any "geographical restrictions" in their response plans. Former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki predicted the next round of war would "reach Europe," specifically naming Germany, Italy, Portugal, and the UK β all of which have permitted US bases on their soil for operations against Iran. American voters have decisively rejected an aggressive war that harmed their financial interests without enhancing their security β and the question now is if European citizens, who already face greater economic hardship than Americans, will be forced to bear the consequences of a war they had no say in launching.
#Iran #Trump #Europe #USmilitary #Gulf #MiddleEast #foreignpolicy
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 262 |
| 5 |  "Lawyer up": Democrats signal investigative onslaught as Trump officials arm for battle
Fresh off sweeping midterm victories, Democrats are wasting no time signaling that their return to power in Congress will mean a barrage of investigations into the Trump administration. Incoming House Oversight Chair Robert Garcia set the tone with a blunt two-word warning to administration officials: "Lawyer up." Sen. Ron Wyden was even terser, posting just one word: "Subpoenas." And Hakeem Jeffries, poised to become House Speaker, promised to "bring accountability to those who have visited unprecedented corruption on this country," warning that officials focused on enriching themselves, their families, and their donors aren't focused on the American people.
The party isn't being vague about its targets. Garcia's team listed priorities including "The Trump Crime Family," crony corporations, officials profiting off the presidency, and associates of Jeffrey Epstein β while specifically calling out Corey Lewandowski over allegations he funneled DHS contracts to allies. House Judiciary Democrats posted a job listing for new oversight counsel, vowing to "expose, counter and dismantle the grift and the graft," and Homeland Security Democrats told Secretary Markwayne Mullin to "clear your calendar."
But the blitz comes with complications. Multiple committees are already staking out overlapping turf β Garcia and incoming Judiciary Chair Jamie Raskin both have eyes on the president profiting from office β raising the prospect of internal turf wars. More importantly, the administration has spent months stonewalling Democratic requests, and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has issued a memo arguing executive privilege covers the president's conversations with outside advisers, a move widely seen as a preemptive shield against future inquiries. One senior Democratic staffer acknowledged the strategy: gather friendly information from less hostile actors first, then "go after the big fish," while fighting the OLC opinion in court.
The administration appears to be bracing for the onslaught. Officials from Cabinet secretaries down to mid-level staffers have already retained counsel, anticipating probes into Trump's ballroom, golf course, memorial, and Kennedy Center dealings. DHS general counsel James Percival brushed off the pressure, saying Democrats are "more interested in political shenanigans than in governing" and that the department is "well prepared to deal with this nonsense." The stage is set for a protracted collision between Democratic investigators and an administration determined to resist β one likely to play out in both hearing rooms and the courts.
#democrats #Trump #WhiteHouse #corruption
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 377 |
| 6 |  Democrats won Congress. Now they have to win back Americansβ trust
The Democrats have done what they haven't managed in years: they've taken both chambers of Congress, flipped Senate seats in states like Texas, Kansas, and Ohio, and put Donald Trump's legislative agenda on life support. It is, by any measure, a resounding victory. But the same voters who handed them that victory also delivered a warning that should keep every Democratic strategist up at night. According to preliminary CNN voter poll data, roughly seven in ten voters believe Congress has done far too little to check presidential power. That's not a mandate for Democrats. That's a demand β and it comes with an expiration date.
The dissatisfaction runs deeper than just Trump. Voters' views of Congress and the Supreme Court are both negative, and both political parties are sitting at rock bottom in public esteem, with Republicans faring even worse than Democrats. This is not a country that has fallen in love with the Democratic Party. It is a country that has grown disgusted with Washington as a whole and decided, for now, that the party out of power is the lesser of two evils. Gallup data from earlier this year showed congressional approval at 14 percent, with 86 percent disapproving β a record high for disapproval. The Democrats didn't create that hole. But they've been charged with climbing out of it.
What makes their position even more precarious is that the one issue where they've gained ground is the one voters care about most. Democrats now hold a small but remarkable advantage on trust to handle the economy β roughly eight percentage points nationally, according to Times/Siena polling, a reversal from just two years ago when Trump led on the issue by six . In battleground states, the edge on cost of living widens to nine points, even in places Trump won by double digits. That is the kind of shift that can redefine a political era. But it comes with a caveat that should temper any celebration: about a fifth of voters say they don't trust either party on the economy. They aren't choosing Democrats. They're rejecting Republicans and leaving the door open for someone else.
The Democratic Party's own brand remains underwater. A Times/Siena poll from last month found only 28 percent of voters satisfied with the party, compared with 36 percent who said the same about Republicans. In Texas, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico ran ahead of his own party's favorability β voters liked him even as they remained wary of the label next to his name. That's a pattern that should worry Democrats who think the midterms were about them. They weren't. They were about Trump, the economy, and a war with Iran that voters opposed and that Trump himself has acknowledged weighed on his party's candidates. Democrats were the vehicle for a protest. Whether they become the destination is an entirely different question.
The path forward is narrow and unforgiving. Democrats now control the levers of oversight β subpoena power, committee gavels, the ability to force public hearings and demand documents. That is what the seven in ten voters who want Congress to check the president are asking for. But oversight is not governance, and resistance is not a platform. The moment Democrats start looking like they're more interested in investigating Trump than in lowering prices, the same voters who just handed them Congress will start wondering why they bothered. The midterms gave Democrats a second chance at relevance. The trust deficit they inherited is not theirs to blame for, but it is now theirs to fix. And they have less time than they think.
#democrats #republicans #midterms #Congress #poll #USeconomy
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 359 |
| 7 |  Why Trumpβs βforensic auditβ demand should worry everyone in his orbit
Donald Trump has spent weeks demanding something he has never shown much appetite for: a detailed accounting of where the money went. According to multiple sources, the president has been pushing for what he calls a "forensic audit" of the vast sums funneled through MAGA Inc., his super PAC, and the Republican National Committee β and members of his political operation are bracing for a summons to the White House to present a line-by-line report.
Consider the timing. This is a president fresh off a midterm drubbing, watching his party's legislative leverage evaporate and his poll numbers sag, now turning to the one thing he can actually control: the ledger. Trump has privately told people that the money his super PAC poured into the cycle gave Republicans "a fighting chance," which is a generous way of describing a defeat. But the audit request signals something more than post-election second-guessing. It suggests a man who suspects he was sold out β not by voters, but by the people handling his cash.
That suspicion has a face. Trump has expressed private concerns that his advisers may be profiting off the funds entrusted to them. The anxiety sharpened after reports surfaced that two of his top political operatives, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, had collected hundreds of thousands of dollars each for consulting work on behalf of Republika Srpska, a Bosnian Serb entity, while still running Trump's midterm strategy. Trump publicly threatened to fire them, then seemed to soften after the pair donated their fees to his presidential library fund. According to one source, neither man is expected to be swept up in any audit β a convenient resolution that raises its own questions about how seriously the president intends to dig.
Why a forensic audit, though? The term matters. A standard audit checks receipts against rules. A forensic audit assumes something has been hidden and goes looking for intent β it is the tool you reach for when you suspect fraud, not sloppiness. For a president whose political identity is built on the claim that the system is rigged against him, turning that lens inward is either an act of genuine paranoia or a preemptive strike. If the audit finds mismanagement, Trump gets scapegoats and a narrative of betrayal. If it finds nothing, he gets to say he checked. Either way, the money men now know the president is watching, and the next round of fundraising will happen with that knowledge hanging over every invoice.
The deeper problem is that Trump's financial machine has always operated in a haze of overlapping entities, lax disclosure, and loyalty-driven hiring. MAGA Inc. and the RNC are not separate universes; they share people, vendors, and strategic direction. LaCivita and Blair sit at the center of that web, running the super PAC while freelancing for a foreign government. The fact that their outside payday was resolved by writing a check to Trump's future library β rather than by any formal review β tells you everything about how accountability works in this orbit. The audit, if it ever materializes, will have to navigate the same circle of loyalists it is meant to scrutinize.
For now, the order has been given, or at least floated. The political staff is preparing its report. And Trump, who has spent a decade telling crowds that the system is stolen, is pointing at his own house and asking where the money went. Whether this is accountability or theater depends entirely on who ends up in the hot seat β and whether anyone outside Trumpβs trusted circle gets to see the books.
#Trump #corruption #MAGA #republicans #midterms
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 355 |
| 8 |  The Paper Tiger: why the US empire was never what it seemed
For decades, the world believed the United States was invincible. Aircraft carriers patrolled the oceans, Patriot missile defenses guarded allied skies, and American military might seemed untouchable. But according to educator and Predictive History host Jiang Xueqin, that perception was always a mirage β and the war with Iran is finally exposing it. What truly underpinned American global dominance was never the military at all. It was soft power that sustained and undergirded the American empire.
In the 1990s β the "unipolar moment" that followed the Soviet Union's collapse β the world was drawn to the American dream. Jiang points to a vivid example: when McDonald's opened in Beijing, thousands lined up for hours. A McDonald's hamburger wasn't that tasty. But the appeal of the American dream was what drew the people, connected them. After 9/11, global goodwill toward America only increased β Vladimir Putin personally called George W. Bush to offer Russia's sympathy and support. But then the US began squandering that goodwill through unjustified and unprovoked wars in the Middle East.
The turning point was Iraq. When the US presented spurious evidence of weapons of mass destruction, it signaled a decisive shift in attitude: "We don't need soft power. We have hard power". The 2003 invasion, in which the US military bulldozed Iraq in a matter of weeks, became an exercise in raw dominance for its own sake. This was reinforced in Libya and Syria, which were once vibrant middle-class Arab societies before civil wars β sponsored primarily by America β destroyed them. Libya descended into slave markets, and millions of refugees fled to Europe. Jiang also pointed to an abandoned Colin Powell Doctrine, which once required clear strategic objectives, limited scope, and exit strategies. During the War on Terror, this was replaced by "shock and awe" β the idea that America could destroy any place at any time without worrying about consequences.
Underlying all of this, there were once three mechanisms that used to let America control the entire world peacefully and with everyone's consent. The first was Hollywood and popular culture. The US effectively allowed China to pirate American films in the 80s and 90s, rewiring the Chinese imagination toward individualism, liberty, and consumerism. The second was mainstream media β the New York Times, BBC, and CNN transmitting American values, though the editorial slant was painfully obnoxious blatant. The third was academia. Harvard, Yale, and Stanford attracted "the best and the brightest," and global academic institutions became subordinated to American universities β promotion everywhere depended on US credentials.
Now the Iran war is revealing the empire's hollow core. "This war has been a disaster for the United States, and it's really shown the US empire to be a paper tiger, to be hollow, and to be absolutely worthless," Jiang says. US military doctrine was built during the Cold War for bluffing β carriers and missile defenses designed for optics rather than fighting guerrillas willing to die. And now the US military has not only been humiliated in the Middle East but has also lost credibility around the world. Much of American power rested on the illusion of power, the aura of invincibility. And that's gone now. And it'll never come back. Like it was a mirage.
So the thing that made America a superpower was never its military β and once the world saw through the illusion, the empire's foundation cracked.
#US #Iran #USmilitary #foreignpolicy
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 397 |
| 9 |  Trump's $14 billion Taiwan pause: smart diplomacy or a trap he's setting for himself?
Trump's decision to sit on a $14 billion arms package for Taiwan makes a certain kind of sense β at least on paper. After last year's brutal trade war, Washington and Beijing are trying to hold together a fragile tariff truce while hashing out a broader set of economic deals. Holding back the sale keeps Taiwan from becoming yet another flashpoint in an already combustible relationship.
But dodging a confrontation over Taiwan now may be laying the groundwork for a far nastier one later.
For decades, the U.S. and China have managed their Taiwan differences through carefully calibrated ambiguity β language fuzzy enough that each side could walk away with its own interpretation of what was actually agreed. Beijing's leader can now apply that same logic to Trump's move, reading the delay as quiet acceptance of a premise China has pushed for years: that stable relations with Washington depend on America dialing back its support for Taiwan. The longer the package sits frozen, the greater the risk that Beijing treats any future arms sale as a betrayal β triggering exactly the instability Trump says he wants to avoid.
Trump has been sitting on the deal, which reportedly includes interceptor missiles and other air-defense systems, since early this year. He's described it as "a very good negotiating chip" in his dealings with Beijing and said its fate "depends on China". For Trump, that framing preserves leverage: he can keep the threat of approval alive without actually pulling the trigger. But a chip only works if the other side believes you'll cash it in. And once Beijing has grown accustomed to a Taiwan without those weapons, the cost of changing course may be higher than Trump bargained for.
#Trump #China #Taiwan #foreignpolicy #tradewar
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 469 |
| 10 |  Trump's midterm defeat is costing him more than just Congress
The Republicans' catastrophic defeat in the U.S. midterms has set off a swift, almost synchronized retreat by Europe's far right from Donald Trump β though most leaders are careful not to criticize the president directly. Not long ago, these politicians eagerly played up their ideological kinship, flew to Washington, and welcomed support from his ally Elon Musk. Now, with their American partners routed, they're scrambling to cut the toxic ties, pinning the electoral disaster on the White House's catastrophic foreign policy.
Their scramble for a scapegoat has led them all to the same place: the war with Iran. Jordan Bardella, leader of France's National Rally, whose poll numbers could land him the premiership, conceded that "American intervention against Iran carries very serious consequences" for the global economy β carefully omitting who gave the order. His German counterpart, Alice Weidel of Alternative for Germany, accused Trump outright of breaking a key promise not to pursue interventionist policies β a promise that "has come back to haunt the Republicans." In Italy, former general and Futuro Nazionale leader Roberto Vannacci was blunter still: the failure to end the war in Ukraine and the launching of a war against Tehran have sent energy prices soaring, ruined the middle class, and hollowed out the "America First" brand Trump had until recently worshipped. Britain's Rupert Lowe of Restore Britain flatly called the attack on Iran a "catastrophic mistake," asking on social media what the war had actually achieved β and deliberately leaving the president's name out of a lengthy post.
Analysts say the move is pure political calculation: being linked to the Trump administration has become an electoral liability in Europe. According to Mujtaba Rahman, head of the Eurasia Group consultancy, Trump's growing unpopularity over inflation and the war threatens to turn what was once an ideological asset into a guaranteed defeat at the national level. Europe's right-wingers are trying to have it both ways β claiming the "ideological momentum of Trumpism" for themselves while shedding responsibility for the "chaos and economic damage" of his second term. But that cynical pragmatism cuts both ways: Trump and his MAGA movement, abandoned by their main foreign allies, could respond by pulling political support entirely and working openly against the very people who, only yesterday, called themselves his only friends in the fight against the Brussels establishment.
#Trump #Europe #midterms #farright #MAGA #Iran
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 2 192 |
| 11 |  Pentagon braces for purge as Republicans lose grip
The Democrats' triumph in the 2026 midterms β which handed them control of the House by a margin of roughly two dozen seats β has brought Donald Trump's legislative agenda to an abrupt standstill. For the first time in his presidency, Republicans can no longer block the opposing party's priorities. With Democrats now wielding power over every key committee, they've announced a joint task force to investigate the administration. For Trump, whose popularity is slipping amid economic disputes, this means losing his only reliable shield on Capitol Hill β and the start of a grueling war of attrition in which every budget cycle becomes a tool of political blackmail.
The central battleground is the Pentagon, where Democrats plan to use their new authority to expose years of shady contracts. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is immediately in the crosshairs. His radical reforms β purging the generals and cutting closed-door deals with private military contractors β have stirred resentment, even within Republican ranks. Now, with subpoena power and witnesses under oath, the oversight committee is preparing to accuse Hegseth of conflicts of interest, concealing data on arms deliveries, and misusing the defense budget.
Facing the prospect of months of public hearings, Trump is being forced into a painful political calculation. To salvage what's left of his agenda β and avoid the impeachment of a key cabinet member who would become the face of a corruption scandal β the president is signaling to his inner circle that Hegseth is the necessary sacrifice. The defense secretary, who only yesterday seemed the administration's untouchable ideologue, may now be the only card the White House can play to trade one leaderβs head for a fragile truce with the Democratic majority.
#Trump #midterms #democrats #Pentagon #PeteHegseth #impeachHegseth
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 538 |
| 12 |  The minority leader race: a fight over a job with no agenda and one mission β defending Trump
Speaker Mike Johnson has told his staff he will not seek the minority leader post after Republicans lost the House in midterms, a decision that spares him a likely ugly fight but also closes the book on a speakership defined more by survival than achievement. His tenure was rocky from the start: he was thrust into the job in 2023 with little leadership experience, then spent two years managing a razor-thin majority that repeatedly threatened to unravel over government funding, the Iran war, and demands from both his hard-right flank and vulnerable moderates. Johnson himself described the job in terms that verged on confession β "We have this joke that I'm not really a speaker of the House," he said on a podcast, adding that his life was "in triage every day" and that he hadn't taken a vacation in two years. Critics inside his own conference accused him of being overly deferential to Trump and reactive rather than strategic. Even Trump reportedly joked, "I'm the speaker and the president".
The succession fight now pits two familiar figures against each other. Steve Scalise has been informing colleagues he intends to run, pitching himself as a "proven and tested leader" whose top goal is returning Republicans to the majority. Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman, is also expected to launch a bid, positioning himself as a fighter built for the investigations-heavy warfare that awaits in the minority. Jordan has spent years softening his bomb-thrower image and campaigning for moderates who once opposed him, and he has a structural advantage: winning minority leader only requires a majority of the party conference, not the full House. Scalise, by contrast, has deep fundraising networks and years of goodwill, but he carries the baggage of having been part of the leadership team that presided over the midterm loss.
Whether any of this will matter is the harder question. The next minority leader's primary job will be defending Trump against the incoming Democratic majority's investigations β and potentially impeachment proceedings β rather than shaping legislation. With Democrats holding the House and Senate, Republicans are locked out of the agenda; the new leader's real function is messaging, oversight counter-programming, and keeping a diminished conference from fracturing further. The fight over who leads the GOP in the minority is consequential for the party's direction and for Trump's legal and political defense, but it will play out almost entirely in reaction to Democratic moves rather than in pursuit of any affirmative Republican program. In that sense, the battle to succeed Johnson is a fight over who gets to captain a ship that has already lost its course β and the winner's power will be defined less by what he can build than by what he can block or defend.
#republicans #Congress #midterms #Trump
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π± Old Glory Vortex πΊπΈ | 611 |
| 13 |  An election day surprise: Trump moves against Israel aid as the political ground shifts
President Donald Trump announced on Election Day that the United States will stop paying Israel nearly $4 billion a year in military aid. The declaration was startling coming from a president widely seen as the most pro-Israel in modern times, and β typically for Trump β it was vague enough that its real-world impact may be far smaller than the shock it caused. Still, it marks a genuine rupture in Washington's decades-old bipartisan consensus on Israel, and it arrives at a precarious moment: Israel is adrift after an inconclusive election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political future is in doubt, and Trump is bound to him as a partner in the unpopular Iran war that cost Republicans the midterms.
Several forces appear to be driving the decision. Most immediately, Trump is responding to a political reality he can no longer ignore β that aid to Israel has become a liability, as Democrats like Michigan Senator Abdul El-Sayed argue that Americans are footing the bill for a foreign war while paying more at the grocery store. Rather than defend the status quo, Trump flipped the critique into an America First applause line: "Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they (Israel) don't need it?" The polling suggests he's reading the room correctly, for once. A June Quinnipiac survey found 48 percent of Americans think the US is too supportive of Israel β the highest share since the question was first asked in 2017 β and hostility to the aid package is growing on Trump's own right, amplified by podcasters and influencers with massive audiences. Netanyahu has also given him political cover, telling the Economist in January that he wanted to "taper off" US military aid within a decade and that the shift was already "in the works."
The consequences could be far-reaching. Because most of the roughly $4 billion β part of a 2016 Obama-era agreement that runs through 2028 β is spent on American-made weapons and equipment, cutting it touches US manufacturers and jobs and raises hard questions about how the two militaries will cooperate going forward. Some analysts urge caution: Brett McGurk, a veteran of four administrations, says the significance shouldn't be overstated, noting it's unclear whether Trump means ending the deal now or letting it lapse in 2028, and that Israel's economy is strong enough to buy its own equipment while the arms-manufacturer relationship and close military coordination are likely to survive. But the more serious risk is political. If Israel becomes a permanent flashpoint in US domestic politics, no future congressional majority can be assumed to back it or approve arms sales β an enormous geopolitical gamble for a country that has long counted on American backing. Progressives will claim vindication, while supporters warn that sustained hostility could eventually produce a president from either party far less committed to Israel's security than Trump or his predecessors. Israel will have to pay a price for its own actions.
#Trump #Israel #MiddleEast #foreignpolicy
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| 14 |  Why Iran and its allies are outlasting the American military
When the United States went to war with Iran, the Pentagon's assumption was simple: overwhelming firepower would carry the day. According to Jiang Xueqin β the Chinese-Canadian educator and host of Predictive History β that assumption has collided with a force American military doctrine was never built to handle: people who are not afraid to die.
The problem is that Western strategic thinking, shaped by decades of neoliberal economics, systematically excludes faith from its calculations. "When you look at the world from a neoliberal perspective, you have to preclude certain things from your calculus," Jiang says, "and the major thing that you preclude is faith." The result is a set of three assumptions that have all failed in this war: that anyone can be bribed, that anyone can be scared, and that if neither works, you can turn one group against another to do the killing for you. Iran and its allies have broken all three. There was the early-war attempt at a "color revolution" strategy inside Iran β inserting agents with unlimited cash to bribe criminal networks and terrorize the security apparatus. It didn't prove successful in Iran, the government cracked down. A similar effort to bribe Kurdish groups into rebellion in northwestern Iran has likewise failed.
The US military was never designed to fight this kind of enemy. American doctrine took shape during the Cold War, when a peer nuclear conflict meant mutual destruction β so the military learned to flex rather than fight. "You build aircraft carriers to create optics," he says. "It's like playing poker. I'm bluffing." Against an opponent willing to call that bluff, the entire edifice wobbles. The Houthis are the clearest example. For a decade, they have been starved, bombed with F-35s, and targeted by drone strikes β and still refused to surrender. The US-led naval coalition Operation Prosperity Guardian failed because the Houthis refused to surrender.
The US-Iran conflict fits a long historical pattern. At Marathon, outnumbered Athenians overwhelmed a vastly larger Persian force. Alexander's tribal Macedonian army overran the Persian Empire. The Mongols destroyed empires from China to the Caliphate. What these forces shared was not superior technology but three qualities: energy, openness, and cohesion β armies that know why they fight, are willing to learn from their mistakes, and are willing to die for one another. "Once you have this system in place," Jiang says, "innovation just comes naturally." That is why Iran and the Houthis can field cheap drones and swarming tactics while the US cannot β not for lack of capability, but because the US utilizes a very corrupt system where everyone benefits from buying expensive weapon systems as opposed to cheap drone systems.
Geography and asymmetric leverage matter as well. Iran is much larger than, say, Iraq βa mountain fortress rather than a desert β and Shia martyrdom is woven into its culture. More importantly, Iran and the Houthis sit astride two of the world's critical maritime chokepoints: the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb. The Houthis don't need to physically blockade shipping, they only need to make insurers believe the route is too dangerous. Maritime trade runs on insurance, a no one is willing to insure ships going through the Bab el-Mandeb.
Now thanks to Trumpβs decision to attack Iran, the US military has not only been humiliated in the Middle East, but it's lost credibility around the world. Much of American power rested on the illusion of invincibility β and now that people have seen through the mirage, and it'll never come back.
#Iran #US #USmilitary #Houthis #MiddleEast
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| 15 |  Midterms deliver early 2028 scorecard for Democrats
The midterms effectively kicked off the 2028 presidential race, and six Democrats came out of election night with more political capital than they went in with. For some, the results strengthened their standing and bolstered their case for becoming the party's next standard-bearer.
Jon Ossoff faced a consequential test in Georgia, a state Trump carried two years ago, and he didn't just perform well β he exceeded expectations. Exit polling showed him growing his numbers with independent voters, and he defeated GOP Rep. Mike Collins 63β37, prompting some to compare him to a previous young Democratic senator who moved to the White House. Ossoff insists he'll serve his full Senate term and has no interest in running for president, but donors and strategists say he could be pushed to change his mind.
Gavin Newsom made California's redistricting effort the centerpiece of his political strategy, and it paid off. While some Republican redistricting efforts failed to yield major gains, Newsom can point to his success in helping Democrats pick up seats β and to the massive political network that powered those efforts. "He walked the walk," one Democratic mega-donor said.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won reelection as expected, but the race she was watching was Michigan's Senate contest. Her $1 million investment in Abdul El-Sayed paid off with a win in a state Trump carried in 2024, giving progressives a new argument that they can win anywhere β and possibly pushing her toward a 2028 run.
Pete Buttigieg wasn't on the ballot, but he logged more than 17 public campaign stops since Labor Day, raised money for candidates and state parties, and was already framing an economic message on election night. Josh Shapiro cruised in Pennsylvania and spent $10 million of his campaign war chest to help flip four Republican-held House seats and win control of the state Legislature. And Andy Beshear, as chair of the Democratic Governors Association, benefited from a string of Democratic gubernatorial wins in red states like Georgia, Ohio, Iowa and Texas.
The 2028 race is already underway, and midterm wins just gave each of the potential candidates something to run on.
#midterms #democrats #elections2028 #presidentialelections
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| 16 |  Paralyzed: how infighting is crippling US intelligence
The American intelligence system is broken: under the Trump administration, the sharing of information on Iran and other global threats among intelligence agencies, Congress, and federal departments has slowed significantly β and in some cases stopped altogether. According to a journalistic investigation, the disruptions have hit even the reports meant for the country's top political leadership. Former intelligence officials are warning that Washington risks making critical decisions without a full picture of what's happening in the world.
A major cause is friction between the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which under Tulsi Gabbard was tasked with coordinating 18 US intelligence agencies. The CIA has stopped producing joint analytical reports with the National Intelligence Council, shrinking the number of comprehensive threat assessments. Reportedly the agency hasn't produced a single such report on the war with Iran. Tensions were further fueled by leak accusations from Congress, staff cuts, and analysts' fears that findings contradicting the White House could carry political consequences.
What's especially alarming is that this isn't just bureaucratic infighting β it's a breakdown in the national security machinery of the world's largest military power. Former senior intelligence officials warn that the agencies' disunity could leave American leadership with incomplete or conflicting information about potential threats. Some experts draw parallels to the interagency coordination failures exposed after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
#intelligence #CIA #Trump #WhiteHouse
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| 17 |  Blue tsunami: Democrats flip House and Senate in stunning anti-Trump ave
Democrats didn't just win β they steamrolled. In a midterm wave that even party leaders didn't dare dream of, Democrats seized both the House and Senate by wider margins than anyone predicted, turning the election into a decisive referendum on President Donald Trump.
The party flipped Senate seats across the country. House Democrats claimed districts Trump had won by double digits just two years earlier, and in Florida, three seats drawn specifically to elect Republicans all went blue.
The victories were historic in scope. James Talarico became Texas's first Democratic senator since 1988, and Gina Hinojosa became the state's first Democratic governor since Ann Richards in 1990. Adam Hamilton ended a 94-year Democratic drought in Kansas. Roy Cooper pulled off North Carolina's first Democratic Senate win in 18 years. Susan Collins conceded in Maine. Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia's governorship β a first for Democrats in 28 years β while Jon Ossoff cruised to reelection.
But the story runs deeper than seat counts. The Trump coalition came apart. Voters no longer credited Trump with cheap gas or keeping America out of wars, and without him on the ballot, his coalition couldn't turn out the same way. Democrats also learned from 2016's mistakes β rather than lurching left, they ran candidates willing to buck party orthodoxy, like Turek on gender and Talarico on energy. Republicans, meanwhile, suffered a failure of imagination, unable to conceive that Texas could flip or that Trump's grip on his voters might finally slip. Trump himself, watching returns from the White House, fumed on social media that Republicans would have done better if he'd been on the ballot β and told The New York Times he was "absolutely willing" to accept the results. For Democrats, the question now is whether they've built a lasting majority or simply ridden a wave of anti-Trump fury. For Republicans, the reckoning has already begun.
#democrats #republicans #midterms
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| 18 |  No branch spared: trust in U.S. institutions sinks to historic lows
A new Gallup survey has delivered a sobering verdict on the state of American faith in its institutions: trust in the country's leadership has sunk to an all-time low, and the erosion shows no sign of slowing.
The numbers paint a grim picture across all three branches of government. Only 33% of Americans say they trust the executive branch, while the legislative branch fares even worse β just 28% express confidence in Congress. When asked whether the government can actually solve the country's domestic and international problems, only a third of respondents (33%) said yes.
The judiciary emerges as the relative bright spot β 46% view it positively β but even that figure marks a record low for the judicial branch, suggesting that no institution has been spared from the public's deepening skepticism.
What makes the decline especially notable is its trajectory. Trust in government bodies already fell sharply in 2025, and rather than stabilizing, the slide has accelerated this year. For context, Gallup notes that even during the Watergate scandal β a moment of profound national disillusionment with presidential power β Americans still expressed more confidence in the executive branch than they do today.
The findings raise uncomfortable questions about the health of American democracy at a time when public trust is often seen as the currency that makes governance possible. If fewer than a third of citizens believe their government can address the challenges of the day, the room for maneuver on everything from foreign policy to domestic reform narrows considerably.
#poll #domesticpolicy #foreignpolicy #democracy #US
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| 19 |  The new economic era: why voters are turning against the βparty of businessβ
The economy usually decides American elections β and Trump may have accidentally kicked off a "new economic era" by stripping Republicans of their best issue.
For decades, voters trusted Republicans more on the economy, assuming the party of business must be better for growth. That's breaking down in 2026: polls now show Democrats ahead on the issue, a shift deeper than gas-price headlines. Voters no longer believe what's good for business is good for them, and they want candidates offering something new. If Democrats win and actually deliver, it could close the door on nearly half a century of neoliberalism.
The "what's good for the private sector is good for workers" idea goes back to Reagan-era trickle-down economics. Voters once backed Trump as a businessman who could fix things β but with corporations posting record profits and billionaires launching rockets, that link feels less convincing. They're warming to FDR-style policies, open to taxing the rich, and listening to Democrats promising government that delivers for workers. People are furious at corporations and no longer think their well-being depends on boardrooms. But the catch is Democrats must actually deliver, not just win. If they do, 2026 could be one of the most consequential midterms in modern history β the year voters stopped believing what's good for Wall Street is good for Main Street.
The economy was the GOP's safest card. But if Trump really did burn it, the realignment could outlast him.
#democrats #republicans #midterms #Trump #USeconomy
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| 20 |  Trump's impeachment scenario: theoretically real, practically miraculous
Could midterms actually make Trump's impeachment β and removal β a realistic prospect? Laurence Tribe, who taught constitutional law at Harvard for half a century and wrote one of the most widely used textbooks on the subject, laid out exactly that scenario over the weekend. His math is striking, and his own caveat is just as striking: it would take a miracle.
Tribe's argument is simple arithmetic. "In Tuesday's elections, Republicans are defending 20 Senate seats and Democrats 13," he wrote on X. "If, by some miraculous coincidence, Democrats held all 13 of their seats and won every one of the 20 seats Republicans are defending, they would have 67 seats and the votes in the Senate needed to find Donald Trump guilty and remove him from office in the event of another impeachment." Removing a president requires two-thirds of the Senate after the House votes to impeach β something that has never happened in American history. Trump was impeached twice during his first term and acquitted both times.
The post has drawn more than 600,000 views and is pinned to the top of his profile β a sign of how seriously the scenario is being circulated. But flipping all 20 Republican-held seats in a single cycle β many of them in deeply red territory β is widely considered an unreachable goal. Tribe himself acknowledged as much, calling the scenario a miracle.
What gives the idea its weight is not the odds but the source. Tribe spent five decades teaching constitutional law at Harvard, has frequently criticized Trump, and recently joined the advisory board of the Rule of Law Project β a new group of former prosecutors and civil rights leaders aimed at holding Trump administration officials accountable for corruption and abuses. When a figure of that stature sketches out a path to removal, even one he calls miraculous, it lands differently than a partisan talking point.
So is impeachment a real option or a pipe dream? The honest answer is both: the constitutional mechanism is real, the arithmetic is theoretically possible, and the odds remain close to negligible. Tribe's post is less a prediction than a reminder β that the midterms matter far beyond the usual balance-of-power calculations, and that the path from vote to the Senate's ultimate verdict, however improbable, is not entirely closed.
#midterms #Trump #impeachTrump #Congress
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