Trump defended Vivek Ramaswamy's ad on Friday and called the NBC reporter who asked about Amy Acton's childhood abuse "a horrible little reporter." The ad is Acton's estranged mother calling her a liar. Trump's answer to the abuse question: "Why shouldn't somebody use that?" Dean Blundell's read: the mother stayed with the husband indicted for abusing Acton, so the ad is the abuse continuing. Zev Shalev's: a president telling Ohio to trust that mother has never told the truth about his own years beside Jeffrey Epstein.
Oil hit $115 after Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had put seven tankers out of action near the Strait of Hormuz, and Trump's ambassador to the United Nations would not rule out another year of war. Trump, asked about gridlock in Congress, answered about Iran: "We could, if we wanted to, just take all of the oil. We could take the whole country." Blundell: you do not lose seven tankers in a day in a strait you own. Shalev is watching Saudi Arabia, where the Houthis are hitting Riyadh and American bases have emptied.
Trump called Matthew Cole's book "a false story." Princes and Thieves, in Vanity Fair, says the rulers of the Emirates and Saudi Arabia put about $2 billion within Jared Kushner's reach, about $1 billion of it at Israel's central bank with Benjamin Netanyahu overseeing the account. Kushner says none of it happened and will sue. Blundell: the Dutch watched the Russians read Kushner's phone. Shalev: the last man who kept that kind of money under Israeli intelligence's protection was Robert Maxwell, and the question is who Kushner works for.
The Justice Department sued Alaska on Friday to stop the state certifying its Senate race if Dan Sullivan loses, over a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot. Blundell: Trump fought the second Sullivan's name before and lost, Democrat Mary Peltola is ahead, and suing over a result before the vote is admitting you expect to lose. Shalev: Todd Blanche said Thursday the department can block a state's count, and every race they lose will now go to a judge.
Trump said Friday he has not spoken to Elon Musk about Ukraine's Starlink. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported he phoned Musk on Wednesday to ask him to lift the cap, and Ukraine says the cap is still on: the military terminals have dropped out at 161 kilometers an hour. Asked who ordered it, Trump said, "I wouldn't tell you if I did know." Shalev: both answer to Vladimir Putin, and the $400 million Musk has put into Republican races is the same money. Blundell: the blame game buys Russia time, and the cap stays until Congress can stop it.
Shalev closed on three men: Kushner on the Gulf's payroll, Musk and Trump on Putin's, none of them working for Americans, and eleven days left to vote. On Narativ this weekend, the Grift Clock. On Dean's Substack, the GRU's hack of Kushner's phone.