Flight Risk: Trump Flees, Lies Multiply, and Gaza Starves

From taxpayer-funded golf escapes to imaginary trade deals and a media merger forged in censorship, the world burns while the grifter-in-chief swings away.

Good morning! In what might be the most expensive game of golf ever played on the public dime, Donald Trump is once again fleeing the country, this time to Scotland, just as the Epstein cover-up scandal burns hotter than ever. Trump’s name, unsurprisingly, is sprinkled all over the Epstein files like rancid glitter, and instead of facing questions, he’s heading overseas for some taxpayer-funded bunker-hopping. But Scotland? Oh, Scotland is not having it.

Ahead of Trump’s arrival, Scots have made their feelings known. Signs popped up at his golf course referencing Epstein’s island and Trump’s “enigmatic” relationship with the convicted pedophile, just the kind of welcome mat that screams, “go home, ya disgrace.” The National, a Scottish newspaper, even ran the headline: “Convicted US Felon to Arrive in Scotland”, which, to be clear, is not editorializing. It’s a public service announcement.

But the real scandal isn’t just that he’s hiding in the rough, it’s that we’re paying for it. The largest police operation in Scotland since the Queen’s funeral is underway for what’s being called a “personal visit.” Personal, as in: he’s going to open a new golf course and maybe do a little light international corruption while he’s at it. Scots are understandably livid. “Send Trump the bill,” one protester said. Honestly, invoice the man in triplicate, he probably still owes for his last haggis.

Meanwhile, the Trump regime has banned The Wall Street Journal from covering the trip because the Journal dared to report, accurately, that Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday card calling him an “enigma” and signed a creepy love note in The Art of the Comeback. (“Enigmas never age”? Tell that to your polling numbers, Donald.)

Back in the States, his former criminal defense attorney turned Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has now met with Ghislaine Maxwell, skipping over victim testimony to get her “truth”, perhaps in exchange for a reduced sentence or a convenient memory lapse. Blanche, notably, has described Trump as, you guessed it, an enigma. Trump, of course, denies ever using that word. Except he has. Repeatedly. On camera.

And for those keeping track, Epstein did not invoke the Fifth on every question in his deposition. He freely admitted to socializing with Trump. He only clammed up when asked about being with Trump and girls under 18. It’s always the follow-up that gets you.

So to recap: Trump is running away, Scotland is fighting back, The Wall Street Journal is banned, Ghislaine is being courted by the DOJ, oh, and Alina Habba is refusing to leave her job like a squatter in a broken democracy. If this were fiction, you’d reject the manuscript for being too on-the-nose.

It’s official: the Federal Communications Commission has greenlit the $8.4 billion Skydance–Paramount merger, and all it took was a tidy $16 million payment to Donald Trump to make his 60 Minutes hurt feelings disappear. Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit over a 2023 interview with Kamala Harris, because when the president doesn’t like the news, he sues it into submission.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr insists the agency’s decision had nothing to do with the lawsuit. And if you believe that, I’ve got some Gawker Media stock to sell you. Even as Carr tried to draw a firewall, the FCC simultaneously celebrated the new owners’ promise to “embody a diversity of viewpoints”, translation: expect a lot more “both sides” journalism, one of which will now be wearing a MAGA hat.

Skydance, led by David Ellison (yes, that Ellison), will inject $1.5 billion into Paramount and appoint an ombudsman to address “editorial bias”, which feels about as reassuring as Ron DeSantis promising to read Ibram X. Kendi to kids. In an act of preemptive obedience, Paramount also eliminated its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs entirely, because nothing says “forward-thinking media” like embracing the personnel policies of 1954 Alabama.

Meanwhile, Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez dissented with both fire and precision. She accused the FCC of using its regulatory power to pressure a private company into settling with the president, imposing de facto editorial controls in flagrant violation of the First Amendment. Her warning: this merger didn’t just cost money, it cost American press freedom.

And as a kicker, who’s parachuting in to help run this “New Paramount”? None other than Jeff Shell, the former NBCUniversal CEO with his own history of scandal. Media consolidation, political interference, and corporate power, three great tastes that taste like fascism.

Donald Trump, once again, is congratulating himself for striking a “massive” trade deal with Japan. There’s just one problem: there’s no deal. Not on paper, not in writing, not even in Tokyo’s imagination.

According to Trump, Japan is going to hand over a staggering $550 billion, 90% of which he says the U.S. will pocket like a signing bonus in a video game. This magical investment, he claims, will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and flood American markets with rice, cars, and untold economic bliss. But like most things in Trumpworld, the only proof of this deal’s existence is a Truth Social post and some Fox News chatter.

Japanese officials, including trade negotiator Ryosi Akazawa and Prime Minister Ishiba, have made it embarrassingly clear: there is no signed agreement. In fact, signing anything “is not on the table,” per Ishiba himself. The $550 billion? It’s not a real transfer of money, but a loose framework of potential loans and investment incentives that may or may not materialize if private companies feel like it.

And while Trump brags about dropping tariffs from 25% to 15%, what he fails to mention is that before he blew up trade relations, the tariff rate was 2%. So what he’s really done is lock in a massive tax hike on American importers. Who pays for that? Consumers. Congratulations, you just got tariffed.

Meanwhile, American automakers are furious. General Motors, Ford, Stellantis, and the United Auto Workers are all livid that Trump negotiated what is essentially a sweetheart deal for Japanese car companies, while U.S. manufacturers are still stuck paying sky-high tariffs on the very steel and aluminum they need to make cars.

Even the Japanese Agriculture Ministry is calling BS. Trump claimed Japan would immediately boost American rice imports by 75%, but Japan says any such increase will be “at our discretion.” In other words: we’ll buy it when we feel like it, Donald.

And the “defense spending” Trump claims Japan agreed to? Japanese officials say that, too, is nothing new and can be covered by existing budgets. It’s not a deal. It’s a recycled press release with a bad haircut and a bigger lie.

Economist Justin Wolfers summed it up neatly: “Trump raised tariffs on Americans from 2% to 15%, called it a victory, and got nothing in return except headlines.” Japan doesn’t even have tariffs on American cars, they just don’t buy them because we build giant SUVs and they want compact city vehicles. No trade deal will fix that.

Trump calls this a signing bonus. The rest of us call it a scam. And if you’re wondering why U.S. allies and economists alike are looking increasingly embarrassed, it’s because they just watched a sitting president invent a trade deal on social media and call it historic.

It would be funny if it weren’t costing us billions and permanently damaging our credibility abroad.

The situation in Gaza has gone from catastrophic to biblical.

As images of skeletal infants and bombed-out breadlines sear themselves into the world’s conscience, airdrops of food and medicine are being coordinated by foreign countries, not Israel, to keep the population from slipping into full-scale famine. Jordan and the UAE will lead the effort, with other nations expected to join. After nearly ten months of siege, starvation, and relentless bombardment, the international community is finally admitting what has been obvious to everyone with a soul: Gaza is starving, and it’s not an accident.

The UK, France, Germany, and Italy will hold an emergency call Friday to address the deepening crisis. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer put it plainly: “The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible.” French President Emmanuel Macron, perhaps even more boldly, called for a ceasefire, recognition of a Palestinian state, and the demilitarization of both Gaza and Hamas. Macron will make the announcement official at the UN in September, assuming Netanyahu hasn’t accused the entire Security Council of being Hamas sympathizers by then.

Over 100 aid groups have warned that mass starvation is imminent. More than 1,000 people have reportedly been shot and killed near food distribution sites, most of them managed by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Trump-Rubio-backed outfit the U.S. insists is neutral, despite the UN, Red Crescent, and other groups refusing to work with it over transparency and partisanship concerns.

Deputy State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott insists the real culprit behind the hunger crisis is Hamas. Not the blockade. Not the bombed hospitals. Not the restricted aid convoys. Just Hamas. Meanwhile, those who try to collect food from GHF sites, or jump onto convoys to feed their families, have been gunned down in broad daylight.

The U.S. is still pushing its line: GHF has distributed “90 million meals.” What they don’t say is how many were intercepted, how many were shot over, or how many recipients are now buried in mass graves. But sure, let’s count the calories and ignore the corpses.

Israel’s line? There is no famine, just Hamas engineering a food shortage to embarrass the IDF. The kind of claim that collapses under even the most basic moral or visual scrutiny, assuming you’ve seen a photograph from Gaza in the last six months.

If there is any shred of humanity left in the global order, it must be summoned now.