Leland Vittert’s Reporting on Conflict: Face-off in the Oval Office

Love in the air: Welcome to a travel-sized version of “War Notes.” 

• Rachel and I are on the road for wedding planning activities.    
• A few days ago, our line producer mentioned right before the show, “You are in double digits to your wedding.”
  • This statement confused me until she reminded me that she and her fiancé are getting married on the same day as us, June 7. 

WOW: President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s double-teaming of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office channeled an inner anger among common-sense Americans. 

• Watch one of the most stunning diplomatic exchanges since World War II here.
  • Zelensky turned Trump from neutral into an enemy – what an incredibly stupid unforced error. 
  • Duh: You don’t come to the Oval Office having taken hundreds of billions in American aid and lecture or threaten the president of the United States – you just don’t do it.
    • Evidently, Zelensky believed all the statements from crying Europeans at the Munich Security Conference.
• President Trump released a statement afterward:
  • “We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure. It’s amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
    • He then canceled a planned joint press conference between him and Zelensky. 
• Deja vu: Remember when Trump pulled the ejection handle and left his summit with Kim Jong Un? 

No doubt: Erick Erickson tweeted after the fiery exchange, “Regardless of who you blame, this was a very good day for Vladimir Putin.”

More importantly: Was this a good day for America?

• We will have a full analysis tonight, but we called out Zelensky in real time back in 2022 when we wrote:
  • “Ukraine’s president just went from war hero to zero – in about the time it took for a Vogue photoshoot.
  • “In the midst of war, Vogue magazine flew over famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for an artsy, high-fashioned shoot.
  • “It includes Zelensky’s wife, Olena Zelenska, posing amid bombed out planes and apartment buildings complete in gowns with Ukrainian Special Forces guarding her.”
    • The headline is “Portrait of Bravery.”
      • Evidently, “Portrait of Hubris” was taken.
• The Zelenskys just showed the world who they are – we would be wise to believe them. 

URGENT WARNING: Our buddy Chris Cillizza breaks down the only poll the White House should be paying attention to right now: a CBS poll that shows growing concern and discontent about the economy.

• Watch: As Frank Luntz told us a few days ago, 30% of Americans are paycheck-to-paycheck voters – they care a lot more about grocery prices than owning the liberals.
  • Today, Trump signed an executive order making English the official language of the United States.
    • Culture war executive orders are luxury issues.
      • 🟰 This is the MAGA equivalent of Democrats who focused on “climate justice” and defunding the police.
        • We all know how that worked out for the Democrats.

Fun read: “The Adolescent Style in American Politics,” headlines The Atlantic’s Jill Filipovic.

• “The version of manhood placed on display by Trump and his aides is the one imagined by teenage boys.”
  • Yes, it’s overly dismissive and condescending, but so were Obama and Harris, just in different ways. 
  • The author joins us tonight to discuss how the Left views MAGA and whether teenage boys are onto something. 

Robbing Banks!

Famed bank robber William Sutton famously told FBI agents he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is.” 

• Well, the DOGE team finally found the banks in D.C.: The contractors.
• “This Company Gets 98% of Its Money From the U.S. Government. DOGE Is Coming for Firms Like It,” Chip Cutter of The Wall Street Journal headlines.
  • “Memo calls for review of $65 billion in contracts that go to Booz Allen Hamilton and other big firms that do government work,” Cutter continues. 

Thought bubble 💭: Getting a reservation at D.C.’s fanciest restaurants is about to get a LOT easier. 

• The contractors are where the real money is.

Amateur Hour

When fringe conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer is pissed at MAGA, it’s a bad day for MAGA.

• She used to be the 4D chess explainer.
  • I never thought I would link to Loomer’s Twitter feed, but it is a pretty good indictment of what happened yesterday with the Epstein files. 

• Just a few weeks into the administration, Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi is effectively blaming the FBI director, Kash Patel, for an embarrassing publicity stunt that wildly backfired. 
• Look back: Earlier this week, Bondi and Trump lawyer Alina Habba went on TV promising huge explosive revelations in “declassified” Espstein files.
  • Rather than just release the documents online to everyone, Bondi reportedly printed up binders and handed them out at a conservative influencers event at the White House.
    • The documents turned out to be nothing new.
  • Bondi got torched – rightfully so – for the stunt.
  • She sent a letter claiming the FBI office in New York was “withholding documents” and demanded them by 8 a.m. this morning.
    • Wait – she promised bombshells earlier this week and delivered nothing – did she not LOOK at the binder she was releasing?
      • But now, somehow, Bondi is the victim of a deep state conspiracy to protect Epstein?

The whole thing is objectively embarrassing – not to mention we still don’t have the promised Epstein files. 

• Bondi promised to take politics out of the Department of Justice.
  • When you start handing out binders to conservative political activists on Twitter, it’s OBJECTIVELY political.
• Watch: Our buddy Erick Erickson with the best breakdown of this complete unforced error here. 

The Crying Do-Gooders

This picture in The Wall Street Journal of USAID workers cleaning out their offices caught my eye.

• Be fair: USAID workers aren’t in it for the glory or the money. They are mostly hard-working folks who get paid a fair, but not outlandish, salary to help poor folks around the world – often in personally dangerous situations.
  • Laughing at their tears, as many on the Right do, is goolish.
  • Zoom out: Many of their projects are absurd – we’ve all heard some of the crazier ones – click here. 
• No sympathy: The Left turned USAID from a force of goodwill for America with:
  • AIDS prevention projects
  • Food aid 
  • Meaningful public works assistance
• Into a pork barrel buffet of wokeness peddling.
  • Therein lies the problem – the Left destroyed their credibility.
    • When you spend two billion taxpayer dollars on environmental justice, nobody trusts you when complaining about cuts to some really important programs. 

Flip side: The above holds true for Elon Musk.

• He’s promising $2 trillion in DOGE savings without touching entitlements.
  • Read more from Axios’ Mike Allen with the facts here. 
• What I am thinking 💭: Musk is promising flying cars for everyone by next year – the DOGE stuff is continuing to nibble around the edges.
  • But wait, there is more: The nonstop DOGE infomercial says there will be the DOGE dividend coming – $5,000 to every net taxpayer.
    • And more:Musk will save the FAA because Starlink can replace Verizon.
      • Never mind the self-dealing accusations.
      • Musk will never get a fair shake from The Washington Post.
      • It all sounds way too fanciful.
• Musk risks wrecking his credibility on cutting spending just like liberals did by spending like drunken sailors.