The Daily Wrap Up

19 May, 2026

Donald Trump and his billion dollar white house plans- paid for by you. Photo Credit: BBC

[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]

As Donald’s illegal and unconstitutional war of choice in Iran continues unabated, gas prices are continuing to rise, placing even greater economic pressure on Americans already relying on credit cards to cover groceries, rent, and other basic necessities. At the same time, major public health concerns are looming as the Ebola virus spreads internationally.

The midterms are approaching quickly, and economic anxiety continues to grow across America. But this morning, instead of focusing on any of that, Donald once again reminded us where his priorities truly lie.

He brought reporters to the construction site of the White House ballroom to hold an impromptu press conference.

This is what Donald had to say:

So here’s a couple of things you can look at. There will never be another thing like this, I don’t believe, built from a cost standpoint. This is all my money and donor’s money. This is tax free. Everyone’s talking about they’re going to give money. The money they’re going to give is really for the security of that and the whole White House premises. We’ve done the fencing on the outside of the White House. It’s all titanium. You see the black fencing… A bulldozer cannot knock it over… As an example, what happened a couple of weeks ago at the White House Correspondence Center could not happen here.

Of course it could not happen there because the White House Correspondents’ Dinner would never be held there in the first place.

The White House is already one of the safest places on the planet, particularly when the President of the United States is on site. And Donald can insist that this project is being funded by his own money and donor money, but Republicans in Congress were actively trying to push through legislation allocating one billion dollars in taxpayer money for this ballroom.

The Senate parliamentarian rejected that proposal, ruling Republicans could not force it through reconciliation with a simple majority vote. That means they would need sixty votes instead of fifty one. But Republicans are still searching for loopholes, meaning taxpayers could still end up footing the bill for this monstrosity.

What should alarm everyone is that this appears to be the only thing Donald genuinely cares about right now. Meanwhile, people are struggling to afford gas. Grocery prices continue climbing. American military personnel and civilians in the Middle East remain at risk every single day because of a war that Donald barely seems interested in discussing.

This is what Donald had to say when reporters asked him about Iran.

I’m not doing this politically. Everyone tells me it’s unpopular, but I think it’s very popular. When they hear that it’s having to do with nuclear weapons, weapons that could take out Los Angeles, could take out major cities very quick…I don’t really have enough time to explain to people. I’m too busy getting it done. When they understand, I think it’s frankly very popular, but whether it’s popular or not popular, I have to do it because I’m not going to let the world be blown up on my watch.

Iran is nowhere near having nuclear capability, and even if it were, it does not have the capacity to launch a missile capable of reaching the United States.

Donald is trying desperately to convince himself that this war is popular because the reality is exactly the opposite. More than sixty percent of Americans oppose it.

And if he is supposedly too busy to explain his rationale for the war, why does he have time to stand around a construction site bragging about a ballroom that could ultimately cost taxpayers a billion dollars while millions of Americans are losing healthcare and struggling to afford basic necessities?

Donald was also asked about last week’s Christian nationalist prayer rally sponsored by the White House.

Well, I think that it was great. Thousands of people showed up and it was beautiful. I did scripture. You think it’s easy to read scripture? It’s not easy to read scripture. That’s a whole different ballgame. That’s not like reading a speech. But I did it proudly. We had tremendous crowds. I think religion’s very important for a country. This country was built largely on religion. And when you have strong religion, you have less crime. It’s just a fact.

Religion does not lower crime rates, especially considering that many of the financial crimes devastating this country are being committed by grifters, con artists, and self proclaimed pastors exploiting faith for profit and power.

In another example of Donald having absolutely no understanding of what Americans actually need, he promoted the Trump regime’s expanded so called Trump Rx prescription drug discount program. The White House claims the program lowers medication costs, but critics point out that it is essentially a government branded discount portal repackaging deals that already existed.

This is what Donald had to say:

We now pay the lowest price paid for anybody in any country. We went from the highest to the lowest and I think outside of maybe a cure itself, it’s the biggest thing to happen to healthcare. We went from the most expensive to the least expensive.

None of that is true.

This is also the same man who claims he has lowered prescription drug prices by seven hundred or fifteen hundred percent depending on the day, which is mathematically impossible.

At the center of what may become one of the largest corruption scandals in modern American history, the Trump regime is now creating a nearly $1.8 billion anti weaponization fund through the Department of Justice.

In reality, it is a slush fund.

The fund stems from Donald’s lawsuit against his own Internal Revenue Service over the alleged leaking of his tax returns. Donald originally demanded ten billion dollars from the IRS, which of course would have been paid for by taxpayers. Instead, the settlement now creates a nearly $1.8 billion fund designed to compensate Donald’s political allies, including January 6th insurrectionists who have already been pardoned.

The fund will be overseen largely by Donald’s allies and administered by a commission appointed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Donald was asked directly about the fund and here are the lies he posed as reality:

It’s been very well received. I know very little about it. I wasn’t involved in the whole creation… but this is reimbursing people that were horribly treated. They’ve been weaponized. They’ve been imprisoned wrongly. They paid legal fees. They’ve gone bankrupt. Their lives have been destroyed and they turn out to be right. They’re getting reimbursed for their legal fees and the other things they had to suffer.

The scale of this corruption is staggering.

Somebody within Donald’s orbit came up with the idea of suing the IRS for ten billion dollars and then leveraging that lawsuit into an almost two billion dollar taxpayer funded slush fund designed to reward Donald’s allies, including people who committed crimes against the United States government.

Donald was later asked whether violent January 6th defendants who assaulted police officers could also receive money from the fund.

This was his response,

It’ll all be dependent on a committee. A committee’s being set up of very talented people, very highly respected people. I think it’s a committee of five. I do believe there has to be compensation for people that were destroyed. You have families absolutely destroyed and it’s all going to be determined by a committee of four or five people that are respected and very brilliant at what they do.

Very brilliant at protecting Donald’s interests.

The reality is simple. The people who participated in the January 6th insurrection faced consequences because they attempted to overturn a free and fair election. Not only have those consequences now largely disappeared because of Donald’s blanket pardons, but many of those same people may now be rewarded with taxpayer money.

Todd Blanche later appeared before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee where Senator Chris Van Hollen questioned him directly about the fund.

Van Hollen: Mr. Attorney General, this is an outrageous unprecedented slush fund that you set up. Simple question, will individuals who assaulted Capitol Hill police officers be eligible for this one?

Blanche: Anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they’re a victim of weaponization.

Van Hollen: Are there going to be rules that say that if you’ve assaulted a Capitol Hill police officer or committed a violent crime, you will not be eligible?

Blanche: I expect that there will be rules.

Van Hollen: You’re appointing four of the five members, aren’t you?

Blanche: I am appointing all five of them.

There is absolutely no reason to believe a word Todd Blanche says. He is openly auditioning to become Donald’s permanent Attorney General, and in the process he is making it painfully obvious that the rule of law in America is no longer functioning as it should.

We are being governed by one of the most corrupt, reckless, and greed driven groups of people ever assembled in American government. It is another very dark day in America.