The Hostile Act of Telling the Truth

Trump is mocked abroad, overruled at home, and now abandoned by his own allies in the Epstein cover-up.

Good morning! Time to face another steaming pot of reality. Donald Trump has once again demonstrated his uncanny ability to turn both domestic policy and foreign affairs into a tragicomic opera where the only through-line is his own incompetence. Let’s start at home, where even the conservative Fifth Circuit Court has had enough of Trump’s pantomime as wartime Caesar. In a 2–1 ruling, judges told him flatly that using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants is not only unconstitutional but absurd. A gang of criminals, the court ruled, is not an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” on par with the War of 1812. To borrow from Judge Southwick’s opinion: you can’t just declare a group of people an “enemy army” because it fits your campaign narrative. Even George W. Bush’s appointee joined in swatting Trump down. That’s when you know you’ve jumped the shark.

While courts were busy drawing lines, the rest of the world was treated to a photo-op so potent it looked like Photoshop until you realized it was real life. Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un striding shoulder to shoulder into Tiananmen Square for an 80th anniversary “victory parade.” Troops, missiles, and laser weapons rolled past while Xi gave his speech about “peace or war, dialogue or confrontation,” which is the diplomatic equivalent of holding a machine gun in one hand while flashing a peace sign with the other. Trump, naturally, wasn’t invited. Instead, he dialed into the global stage from his bunker on Truth Social, sending Xi his “warmest regards” and accusing the trio of “conspiring against the United States.” Putin’s aide called it “ironic,” which is diplomatic code for “we’re laughing at you.”

And laugh they should. Trump’s habit of blowing up discussions with world leaders, then raging when they do business without him, has become his foreign policy signature. The Beijing photo was the crowning symbol of what analysts call the “axis of upheaval”, a redrawing of power lines with China as the nucleus, Russia as the junior partner, and North Korea supplying the fireworks. Yes, all three regimes have their own economic headaches, but in the image wars, optics trump reality, (pun intended). And right now the optics are of three autocrats looking united, while the American president sulks online about conspiracies.

In Ukraine, those optics translate into blood. Trump has now let yet another ceasefire deadline for Putin expire with zero consequence. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican who still clings to the notion of “moral clarity,” told the Kyiv Post that the time for Trump’s ultimatums has passed. Bacon wants weapons and sanctions, not another meaningless date circled on the White House calendar. He’s not alone, French President Emmanuel Macron says Putin is “playing” Trump, and Zelensky points out more missiles raining on Kyiv has followed that every “deadline”. Even former ambassador Steven Pifer put it plainly: after five missed ultimatums, no one believes Trump’s threats. But hey, Trump got a nice meeting in Alaska with Putin and some more photo ops. Meanwhile, Ukrainians are left counting corpses.

Back on Capitol Hill, Trump is also sweating another kind of deadline: the demand to release the Epstein files. Survivors appeared on NBC in a searing segment that put nine victims and family members in the same room, every hand raised when asked if they or a loved one had been abused by Epstein or Maxwell. Their message was devastatingly clear: they have been ignored by Congress, stonewalled by DOJ, blindsided by Maxwell’s cushy prison transfer, and retraumatized by Todd Blanche’s secret audio interview. “We’re not little girls anymore,” one survivor said. “There are 100,000 files sitting somewhere and nobody is doing anything.” Their one specific ask: for Trump to rule out a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell. Every hand went up again. He hasn’t done it.

And so the cover-up machine grinds on. Oversight Chair James Comer insists his committee is already “doing everything” the bipartisan Massie–Khanna discharge petition calls for. Except, of course, he won’t commit to transparency, won’t share redaction power with Democrats, and, most grotesquely, leans on Maxwell’s testimony to claim she “exonerated Trump.” Survivors called it retraumatizing. Democrats called it a charade. MeidasTouch called it exactly what it is: part of a summer plan hatched to dump 33,000 pages of mostly recycled documents, claim victory, and then point to Maxwell’s word as gospel. It’s not just weak oversight; it’s complicity.

Thomas Massie, for his part, seems unfazed by the White House labeling his petition a “hostile act.” He points out that if his resolution were redundant, Trump wouldn’t be whipping Republicans against it. Lauren Boebert, who signed on, admits Americans “deserve transparency” even as she hedges on whether it’s all a “hoax.” Nancy Mace, in a new twist, insists Trump was an FBI informant against Epstein, turning him from predator to whistleblower in one soundbite. And Dan Goldman summed it up: this isn’t just stonewalling, it’s a cover-up so sloppy it leaves fingerprints everywhere.

And just when you thought the House of Trump couldn’t get any wobblier, Marjorie Taylor Greene decided to toss a match into the haystack. Yes, that Marjorie, the one who once floated space lasers, has now turned her fire on Trump himself. After meeting with Epstein survivors on Capitol Hill, Greene announced she was signing the bipartisan Massie–Khanna discharge petition to force the release of the Epstein files. Trump’s White House had already declared such support a “hostile act” against the administration. Greene’s response? “View it as a hostile act. I’m signing the petition.” For once, the phrase “throwing someone under the bus” feels too polite, this was more like tossing Trump under his own golf cart.

It doesn’t stop there. Greene, who once could be relied on to parrot every MAGA line, is now openly calling out the cost-of-living crisis “under the Trump administration.” She’s blasting MAGA influencers for acting like foreign agents, accusing Israel’s government of waging genocide in Gaza, and declaring she “will not be silent” about America funding it. She even warned about a “cabal of rich and powerful elites” covering up Epstein’s crimes, and said her office has been flooded with calls about Epstein, more than any other issue. The woman once billed as Trump’s most loyal disciple now sounds like a very angry apostate.

Of course, when asked directly whether Trump himself is worried about being implicated, she stammered through an “I, I, I, I don’t think so,” which is political code for “oh God yes, but I’m not saying it on camera.” That awkward moment aside, the break is real. Trump’s base now has fissures running through it: Lauren Boebert signing on, Nancy Mace spinning tales of Trump as FBI informant, and Greene, Queen of MAGA herself, rejecting Trump’s ultimatums, mocking his affordability crisis, and telling him flatly she won’t help with the cover-up.

When Marjorie Taylor Greene is standing with Ro Khanna, and Trump is left standing with Laura Loomer, you know the MAGA circus has switched ringleaders.

So where does that leave us? At home, Trump is smacked down by his own courts for abusing 18th-century wartime laws. Abroad, he’s mocked by autocrats staging parades without him while his ultimatums dissolve into more Ukrainian funerals. And at the very center, the Epstein scandal continues to tighten, with survivors refusing to be silenced and lawmakers daring to call Trump’s bluff. The pattern is the same: deadlines that mean nothing, ultimatums that evaporate, “hostile acts” defined as telling the truth, and a president who can only rage at the shadows of a world that has learned to ignore him.

Moral clarity? The victims in Washington had it. The judges in New Orleans had it. Even Don Bacon, bless his Nebraska heart, had it. Trump? He has a Truth Social account and a calendar full of deadlines no one respects.