Tag: donald trump
Karma Comes For Alex Jones, On The Verge Of Losing His Evil Media Empire

Karma Comes For Alex Jones, On The Verge Of Losing His Evil Media Empire

Still reeling from a verbal dressing-down from President Donald Trump that was heard around the world, conspiracy theorist and right-wing podcaster Alex Jones has reached a new level of public humiliation.

On Monday, The Onion announced that its deal to take over Jones’ infamous Infowars is near completion.

The Onion entered into an agreement with Gregory Milligan, who was appointed by a bankruptcy court to manage Infowars, to turn it into a satirical website and media property. Courts still have to approve the final deal, so it will remain in Jones’ hands until then.

The original deal was first announced in 2024 but has been in a state of limbo following objections from Jones and his allies.

“There is a moment in your life where you see a bunch of evil shit happening, and you have a chance to stop something that is particularly egregious. And if you walk away from it, I just don’t know why you’re alive,” The Onion CEO Ben Collins told podcaster Pablo Torre during a discussion of his decision to buy Infowars on Monday.

Jones lost control of his brand after the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting triumphed in a defamation case against him. Jones had pushed false theories about the shooting, including lies that it was a “false flag” operation. The families were awarded nearly $1 billion, and Jones’ company declared bankruptcy.

The Onion said it has hired comedian Tim Heidecker to serve as creative director for the new Infowars site. And in its first video teasing the new venture, the tone is clearly a satirical take on Jones’ absurdist conspiracy rantings.

https://www.theonion.info/

[image or embed]
— The Onion (@theonion.com) April 20, 2026 at 1:03 PM

“I just thought it would be just a beautiful joke if we could take this pretty toxic, negative, destructive force of Infowars and rebrand it as this beautiful place for our creativity,” Heidecker told The New York Times.

Jones first became a well-known figure by arguing that 9/11 was a plot by the federal government, and he went viral years ago for claiming that chemicals were added to drinking water to “turn frogs gay.”

Earlier this month, Trump referred to Jones as one of the “nut jobs” in the right-wing media world. Trump has been feuding with media figures—who were once loyal allies—after they criticized his war in Iran.

In the past, Jones has described Trump as a figure chosen by God to lead the United States, and he has consistently been among the biggest Trump apologists.
Jones has profited handsomely from his disinformation, raking in millions while promoting racism, sexism, and homophobia. But in the last few years, he’s paid a karmic price—and the hits just keep on coming.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos


Ranting On Truth Social, Trump Insists 'I'm Winning The War, By A LOT'

Ranting On Truth Social, Trump Insists 'I'm Winning The War, By A LOT'

President Donald Trump spent Monday afternoon contradicting his own claims about an Iran peace deal, declaring he is “winning” a war and faces no pressure — just one day after saying a deal would be signed by Monday night.

On Sunday, the president reportedly told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo that he expected a deal with Iran “will be signed” by Monday night. But on Monday, Trump lashed out at Democrats (“TRAITORS ALL“), and insisted that “If a Deal happens under ‘TRUMP,’ it will guarantee Peace, Security, and Safety, not only for Israel and the Middle East, but for Europe, America, and everywhere else.” No mention of a deal being signed imminently.

In fact, Trump appeared to suggest he was in no rush to sign a deal.

“I read the Fake News saying that I am under ‘pressure’ to make a Deal. THIS IS NOT TRUE! I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly!”

He also insisted that he is not going to let Democrats “rush the United States into making a Deal that is not as good as it could have been.”

Meanwhile, as CBS News reports, Iran “said Monday that it has no plans to attend peace talks in Pakistan with President Trump’s top three negotiators, including Vice President JD Vance, as Tehran balks at what it considers ‘unreasonable and unrealistic demands’ by the White House.”

In his posts, the president compared the length of his war in Iran with World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War, in an effort to suggest his war is being executed in a judicious manner and insisting that he is “winning.”

Trump claimed that his war is being “perfectly executed, on the scale of Venezuela, just a bigger, more complex operation.” And he claimed, “I am properly and judiciously using our Military to solve problems left to us by others of far less understanding or competence.”

“I’m winning a War, BY A LOT, things are going very well,” he insisted, stating that “our Military has been amazing,” while lashing out at “the Fake News, like The Failing New York Times, the absolutely horrendous and disgusting Wall Street Journal, or the now almost defunct, fortunately, Washington Post, you would actually think we are losing the War,” he said.

While claiming that the “enemy is confused, because they get these same Media ‘reports,'” Trump hailed what he claimed was successful “Regime Change.”

“The Anti-America Fake News Media is rooting for Iran to win, but it’s not going to happen, because I’m in charge! Just like these unpatriotic people used every ounce of their limited strength to fight me in the Election, they continue to do so with Iran. The result will be the same — It already is!”

Critics slammed the president’s comments.

“This is a war he started to: – distract from the Epstein files – make money from manipulating markets – boost profits for his oil donors – as an excuse to give his family lucrative military contracts,” wrote organizer and healthcare advocate Melanie D’Arrigo. “His tantrums always need context.”

Jonah Allon, deputy communications director for New York Governor Kathy Hochul, wrote, “amazing this whole counter-messaging effort is happening now.” He said, “there was never going to be a communications strategy that could have sold this hideously unpopular war, but one really is struck by the sloth and lack of coordination since trump announced the strikes in late february.”


No Deal: Why Trump's Negotiations With Iran Are So Unlikely To Succeed

No Deal: Why Trump's Negotiations With Iran Are So Unlikely To Succeed

With the Iran ceasefire scheduled to end in two days, Vice President JD Vance has returned to Islamabad with his sidekicks Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to resume the abortive peace negotiations that have so far failed. While everyone should wish for success, we have little reason to anticipate news of anything more than an extended truce from the Pakistani capital. We must hope that if and when these talks fail, the president will refrain from his hideous plan to obliterate Iranian civilization and stand warned against such war crimes.

The outlook remains dim, however. Even if Donald Trump had actually written The Art of the Deal (he didn’t write a word of that bestseller, his first big fraud), it would be foolish to expect that the president or his hapless envoys can deliver a viable agreement with the Iranians anytime soon. Taken together, they lack all of the qualities required to achieve the complex diplomatic resolution required in this crisis – like the agreement that Trump so cavalierly discarded in 2017.

During the days after he first won the presidency, I consoled my distraught family with a prediction that Trump’s combination of arrogance, ignorance, impatience and incompetence would likely blunt his impulses to ruin the country and the world. That insight – based on many years of observing him in New York – proved accurate in many ways, but in this second term we’re seeing the downside of the president’s personal weaknesses, and those of the figures around him. Having gotten us into another bloody and very costly mess in the Middle East, neither he nor his underlings have a clue how to get us out of it.

The problem isn’t only that Trump and his team of morons neglected to fashion any plan for their sudden urge to attack a faraway country with a million men under arms, a big weapons arsenal, and a long history of ideological resilience. That was a historic and particularly stupid mistake, characteristic of Trump’s shallow intellect – but now, after inflicting massive damage on Iran, the world and our own economy, he and his government are evidently stuck in the quagmire they created.

The manifest incompetence that has so often hindered Trump, often to our great benefit, is now on full display as he flounders in attempting to secure a negotiated peace. He is unable to firmly decide what terms he is seeking, what is up for discussion, and even who will be doing the talking. He berated our European allies, went to war without building a coalition, then demanded their assistance to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and finally said that nobody needed their help. That childish pout is his usual approach to all global issues, but is even more wrong now.

As his predecessor Barack Obama understood when his State Department began work on the first Iran nuclear agreement, an international coalition was vital to success. So it would be now if only Trump had the wit and the will to build one.

What Obama also had that Trump disdains is an experienced team of negotiators. The idea that Steve Witkoff, his real estate crony and crypto corruption partner, or Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and nepo billionaire, possess any of the requisite knowledge or skills to achieve a peace agreement is simply ludicrous. The same goes for Vance, whose brief stint in the Senate qualifies him for nothing, let alone a sensitive diplomatic mission. The sight of this gang spending a “marathon” 21 hours in Islamabad and then departing in pique when the talks broke down demonstrated how naïve and foolish they were. The final stage of Obama’s nuclear deal went on for months.

Of course, we know that Trump lacks the capacity to stay with the process long enough to achieve a worthwhile outcome. The Iranians, as our friend Lucian Truscott IV observes today, no doubt believe they can just wait him out.

Finally, Trump lacks the integrity to conclude a lasting peace agreement. He has proved more than once to the Iranians that he is untrustworthy, after ordering the bombing attacks that actually killed not only their Supreme Leader but his negotiators as well. They know that to him, a treaty that they signed after years of intense bargaining, with the force of law in the United States, meant nothing. Neither did the honor of our country.

The only deal that Trump or any of these men can be expected to uphold is one that enriches them personally. That is the “art of the deal” that this president has been pursuing since the day he returned to the Oval Office.

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism (St. Martin's Press, 2024). The paperback version, with a new Afterword, is now available wherever books are sold.

Trump Hosting Another 'Orgy Of Corruption' In Palm Beach To Push $Trump Memecoin

Trump Hosting Another 'Orgy Of Corruption' In Palm Beach To Push $Trump Memecoin

President Donald Trump claimed he would “drain the swamp” upon being elected, but a new report on a lavish party to be held at his Mar-a-Lago estate contradicts the promises of reform embedded in that claim: The top 297 investors in his meme coin $Trump will attend an April 25th “conference” at the swanky mansion.

“According to the invitation, the top 29 holders of $TRUMP will have a ‘VIP Reception with YOUR FAVORITE PRESIDENT, and other Superstar guests!’” reported The Daily Beast's Mary Papenfuss on Sunday. “Join the ‘most exclusive crypto and business finance conference in the world,’ the announcement gushes.”

Papenfuss added, “The last time the president mixed his crypto business with politics was at another highly controversial crypto fête a year ago at his Virginia golf club, where the top 220 $TRUMP investors gathered. Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren bashed the event as an ‘orgy of corruption.’ Guests spent an average of $1.37 million (in real dollars) purchasing $TRUMP, the Daily Beast reported at the time.”

Notably the earlier dinner, which netted an average investment of $1.37 million per guest, had among its guests the crypto billionaire Justin Sun who has been accused of SEC market manipulation — allegations that were quietly dropped by the Trump administration shortly before he attended. Furthering accusations that Trump is providing favors to those who pay him or his administration, he launched one billion $TRUMP coins three days before his inauguration, collecting a transaction fee on every trade as well as on the coins he directly sells.

“It is essential that Congress fully understand the extent to which President Trump and his family are profiting off of his cryptocurrency ventures," Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Adam Schiff of California.

Indeed, Trump’s generosity to the crypto community has even been at the expense of other crime victims. Earlier this month, The Trace released a report which revealed that the Crime Victims Fund, which was created by the 1984 Crime Victims Act to fund "state and local programs including domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers and child abuse treatment programs,” has been effectively defunded by Trump. This is because the program is funded primarily by “criminal fines and penalties from convictions in federal cases, typically white-collar prosecutions." Yet his pardons have removed $113 million that would have gone to the fund, with most of the lost money occurring due to a single crypto pardon.

"Most of that figure is from a single case," The Trace report explained. "Last year, Trump pardoned HDR Global Trading Limited, the owner and operator of the crypto exchange BitMEX, which had been ordered to pay $100m in fines for flouting anti-money laundering laws. Trump issued the pardon, the first for a corporation, just hours before the payment was due. Because the pardon calls for the 'remission of any and all fines, penalties, forfeitures, and restitution ordered by the Court,' that $100m will never make it to the Crime Victims Fund."

Steve Derene, a co-founder of the National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators who helped craft the original 1984 bill, told The Trace that “what really drives the fund are these very large, very few cases, which are all corporate cases. Just a couple settlements can really mean the difference in keeping this fund afloat.”


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