May 24, 2026

From the pinned item on the New York Times liveblog of Iran war developments (also linked below) @ 4:00 pm ET Sunday: “The United States and Iran have agreed in principle to a deal that would wind down the war in the Middle East by reopening the Strait of Hormuz and by committing Iran to dispose of its highly enriched uranium, a senior U.S. official told reporters on Sunday. Iran’s leaders or official state media have not publicly commented on what is in any potential agreement or what is being discussed. The U.S. official said a deal had not yet been signed and was still subject to final approval from ... [Donald] Trump and Iran’s supreme leader, which could take days.... Three Iranian officials said on Saturday that a potential deal would stipulate only that nuclear matters would be negotiated within 30 to 60 days.... U.S. and Iranian officials have said any agreement would be an initial framework that would lead to further negotiations, rather than the last word.” MB: IOW, it's “a concept of a deal.” ~~~

~~~ Sean James of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump went on a mini-rant against the 'losers’ who are criticizing him for reported details of his negotiations with Iran, with the president saying they need to keep their yaps shut for now because the deal 'isn’t even fully negotiated yet.' Trump slammed his detractors in a post on Truth Social on Sunday afternoon.... Trump also jabbed ex-President Barack Obama for his agreement with Iran.... 'I don’t make bad deals!' Trump said at the end of his post.” MB: To be clear, I don't think Trump understands the JCPOA agreement at all. For one thing, according to FactCheck.org, “The nuclear agreement included China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, so Obama didn’t carry out any part of it on his own. The deal did lift some sanctions, which lifted a freeze on Iran’s assets that were held largely in foreign, not U.S., banks.”

Katie Benner of the New York Times: “The [adult male] bystander who was struck when Secret Service agents exchanged fire with a gunman near the White House grounds ... underwent surgery and was in stable condition [on Sunday], according to the Secret Service and Metropolitan Police.”

Cheyanne Daniels of Politico: “In an interview with CNN’s 'State of the Union,” the retiring North Carolina Republican [Sen. Thom Tillis] called the [DOJ's slush] fund, which allocates money toward 'anti-weaponization' efforts, 'stupid on stilts.' 'I call it a payout pot for punks,' Tillis said. 'It makes no sense. So it’s politically tone deaf. Whoever did it should be fired. Let’s figure out a way to help people who are victims of warfare, not people who are convicted by a jury of their peers or pled guilty to assaulting a police officer. Please.'”

California. Charlotte Dulany & Shawn Hubler of the New York Times: “An industrial tank containing about 7,000 gallons of a highly flammable toxic chemical appears to have cracked, Southern California officials reported on Sunday. The development was interpreted as a possible sign that a catastrophic explosion or rupture might yet be averted.... TJ McGovern, the interim fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, said in an update that firefighters conducted a 'successful operation' on Saturday night to inspect the tank at a plant in Garden Grove that belongs to GKN Aerospace, a company based in the United Kingdom that manufactures aircraft components. The container became increasingly pressurized on Thursday, heating the chemicals inside and releasing gas that could trigger an explosion. Firefighters responded, dousing the tank with copious amounts of water in an attempt to cool it. But GKN Aerospace’s team was unable to inject a neutralizing agent to reduce the chemical’s instability because of several failed valves.... Gov. Gavin Newsom of California declared a state of emergency in Orange County on Saturday. More than 40,000 residents in the surrounding areas are under evacuation orders, and officials have become increasingly concerned that some may be prematurely attempting to return home.” MB: Garden Grove is just south of Anaheim.

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Maegan Vazquez, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States was in the final stages of negotiations to extend a ceasefire in the U.S. war against Iran and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 'An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries,' Trump wrote on Truth Social late Saturday afternoon. 'Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,' he added.” * A Politico story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Iran war negotiations. From the pinned item at 8:00 am ET: “The United States and Iran signaled on Sunday that they were close to reaching a deal to wind down the war in the Middle East, even as many of the details of the proposal remained murky.” ~~~

~~~ * All official statements, social media posts and casual remarks made by Mr. Trump are subject to verification analysis by the Trump Truthometer, which is both very reliable and has been stuck on "Pants on Fire" since 1949. ~~~

~~~ Marie: It's possible my official disclaimer is a big of an exaggeration. Nevertheless, analyses like the next one linked here make my point: ~~~

     ~~~ Daniel Dale of CNN: “There is so much going on in the news that it can be easy to overlook the fact that the president continues to tell a whole lot of lies.... Donald Trump delivered a dizzying variety of false claims in his public remarks over the past week. They included inaccurately rosy assertions about the US economy and the war with Iran, baseless attacks against Democrats, and his familiar egregious lies about American elections. Below is a fact check of 28 separate false claims Trump uttered between Monday and Friday. This is not intended as a comprehensive list, and it doesn’t include multiple Trump claims that are unproven but not definitively debunkable.”

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: “One key element of the proposed agreement between Iran and the United States is an apparent commitment by Tehran to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, according to two U.S. officials.... U.S. officials said that the proposal did not settle the issue of precisely how Iran would give up its stockpile, putting off the details for a coming round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program.”

Darlene Superville, et al., of the AP: “A man who opened fire Saturday near a White House security checkpoint is dead after being shot by officers who returned fire, the U.S. Secret Service said. It was the third incidence of gunfire in the vicinity of ... Donald Trump in the past month. The law enforcement agency said in a statement posted on X that the man was in the area of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue when he “pulled a weapon from his bag” shortly after 6 p.m. EDT and began firing. Secret Service officers returned fire and hit the suspect, who died at a hospital, the agency said. The suspect was identified as 21-year-old Nasire Best.... According to District of Columbia court records, Best was arrested in July 2025 after he attempted to enter a different White House checkpoint without authorization, didn’t heed officers’ commands to stop, 'claimed he was Jesus Christ' and said he wanted to be arrested.” ~~~

     ~~~ Campbell Robertson, et al., of the New York Times: “A man who was already known to the U.S. Secret Service approached the White House complex on Saturday evening, took a gun out of a bag and opened fire before being shot and fatally wounded by Secret Service police officers. A bystander was also struck by gunfire, the Secret Service said in a statement, though it did not give details on the nature or severity of the injuries. It was unclear who fired the shot that struck the bystander.” (An earlier version of this story was linked yesterday under a different byline.) A Washington Post story, also linked yesterday, is here.

Tammy LaGorce of the New York Times: “Guests gathered on a small private island in the Bahamas on Saturday for an intimate wedding celebration for Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, and his wife, Bettina Anderson, a Palm Beach socialite and influencer, according to a spokesman for the couple. The couple had been officially married in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Thursday. The groom’s siblings, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, were expected to attend the celebration on Saturday with their spouses.... Christine Schott, a source familiar with the couple..., said the events this weekend would serve as a prelude to a larger celebration at the White House.... 'They are going to have a bigger celebration in the fall at the White House, or sometime, whenever it’s appropriate,' Schott said.... 'It’ll be when the president can hopefully attend,' she said.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This sort of updates a story I linked yesterday. See also yesterday's Comments. Today's story answers some oddities that popped up in yesterday's story (especially in view of concurrent news that Trump again thinks he's negotiating some kind of Iran war deal). However, Schott's misplacement of the adverb "hopefully," while commonplace, is also kind of funny; it sure adds to the impression that Junior can't count on the old man for anything -- even something as important as showing up for a big family event being held in his own house. I expect that is something Junior has learned over a lifetime. It's easy to make fun of Junior because he's such an ass, but incidents like this shed light on why that is.

They Really Don't Know What They're Doing. Lena Sun & Lauren Weber of the Washington Post: “In 2014, when Ebola tore through West Africa and threatened to become a global catastrophe, the White House installed an 'Ebola czar' to coordinate a massive U.S. response across agencies and governments. The effort, encompassing the Pentagon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USAID, the Department of Homeland Security, state officials, hospitals, foreign governments and aid groups overseas, prompted the United States to deploy military assets, build treatment centers and organize airport screening. Afterward, federal officials developed a detailed playbook for responding to future disease outbreaks. But as the U.S. confronts another Ebola outbreak that may prove even more difficult to contain, it is relying largely on fragmented agency conference calls rather than government-wide coordination.... Two people ... said no formal interagency coordinating structure currently exists for the Ebola crisis.... Signs of confusion have already surfaced. ” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Great American tragedy is not the clown show itself, but that millions of Americans are so dumb or distracted or bigoted or whatever that they voted for this clown show. This is what you get in a kleptocracy partly paid for and designed by the richest man in the world and operated by a crazy old man. For anyone who thought billionaires were brainy and should be the people designing and running the government, have you learned your lesson yet? ~~~

~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli & Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: “Trump administration officials, confronted by overlapping outbreaks of Ebola and the hantavirus, have taken a more aggressive approach to locking down potentially exposed people than in past outbreaks, surprising many public health experts. The instructions from ... [Donald] Trump’s top health appointees, some of whom were vocal opponents of Covid-era public health restrictions, go well beyond tactics that were used to successfully contain previous outbreaks of the diseases. They include instructing more than a dozen people to remain in home confinement with twice-daily checks; quarantining 18 passengers from a hantavirus-infected cruise ship at a federal facility in Nebraska for 21 days; and keeping American doctors exposed to Ebola at foreign hospitals, rather than repatriating them to specially designed U.S. treatment centers. 'I am utterly stunned by that,' said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the pandemic center at Brown University’s School of Public Health.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The link is a gift link. Do read on for gems like this: “... the decision to keep the passengers in Omaha had come from the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation.” Let's try to guess who at “the highest levels of government” might retaliate against people familiar.

Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: “When the comedian Stephen Colbert hosted the final episode of 'The Late Show' on CBS on Thursday, he told his viewers that the next place they would most likely see him was on public-access television in Michigan. Turns out, that was no joke. On Friday night, Colbert hosted an episode of 'Only in Monroe,' which covers the happenings of Monroe, Mich., a town of about 20,000 people roughly 40 miles southwest of Detroit. 'It’s been an excruciating 23 hours without being on TV,' Colbert said near the beginning of the hourlong program, 'so I am grateful to be able to be here on Monroe Community Media before they also get acquired by Paramount.'...” Read on for bits like this: “The actor Steve Buscemi made a cameo in what he called a public service announcement for a local restaurant: Buscemi’s Pizza & Subs (no relation).” MB: The “Only in Monroe” crew couldn't stop laughing. So unprofessional. (Update: In fairness, the crew are all volunteers, so not in fact professionals.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: I have seen reporting that the White House posted Trump's violent AI slop -- in which Trump is seen throwing Stephen Colbert into a dumpster -- on its official Website. This matters because we taxpayers are paying for the maintenance and updating of that site. It's disgusting. the volunteers at "Only in Monroe" are far more professional than the POTUS*, who has no effing idea how to do the job he volunteered for.

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