Misfit was here!

Glitter

“All journeys end when we reach our destination but the journeying remains a thing apart, unique unto itself. Most of us make life’s journeys without understanding that the journeying is a separate thing.”

June 16, 2026

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 17

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A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that even before a fighter launched a slur at former First Lady Michelle Obama, and even before the sight of the corporate branding at the event, only 16% of Americans thought it was appropriate to hold an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight at the White House.

Today, Federal Bureau of Investigation director Kash Patel, who has been in trouble with Trump over stories of his drinking, said the FBI discovered and foiled a plot to attack the UFC fight. The FBI alleged in an affidavit that nineteen attackers planned to target the fight with drones laden with explosives and then to shoot at the fleeing crowd.

Jude Joffe-Block, Lisa Hagen, and Audrey Nguyen of NPR noted in 2024 that Patel often peddled in conspiracy theories and, since taking on the directorship of the FBI, has tripped himself up in the past by announcing things that he later has to walk back. That history meant that social media users greeted the announcement with skepticism.

Tonight the Justice Department announced the arrest of five people in four states. Mark Berman, Amy B. Wang, and Victoria Craw of the Washington Post reported that Matthew C. Quinn, deputy director of the Secret Service, told reporters that the Secret Service had led the investigation and that the UFC fight “was never at risk due to the great investigative work.” In what appeared to be a reference to Patel, he added: “In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.”

Meanwhile, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee today issued a press release announcing they are launching an investigation into Patel’s alleged misuse of FBI funds. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee, says they have received information that Patel had directed more than $1 million in bonuses to agents close to himself. “These payments raise serious concerns that FBI funds are being used to reward political loyalty rather than merit and professionalism,” the Democrats wrote.

The FBI is part of the Department of Justice, and it, too, is undergoing a crisis of confidence in its work.

In Chicago, a case against six protesters for interfering with a federal agent and conspiring to interfere with a federal agent at a detention facility protest fell apart in May when the judge discovered that prosecutors had talked to individual grand jurors outside the courtroom and removed those jurors who refused to indict, as well as apparently overstating the strength of the evidence against the defendants. Then the prosecutors tried to hide evidence of their misconduct by redacting the transcripts from the grand jury.

As Julie Bosman of the New York Times reported, U.S. District Judge April Perry dismissed the case against the “Broadview Six,” saying: “I have read hundreds—if not thousands—of grand jury transcripts involving prosecutors who are the most junior of prosecutors to several U.S. attorneys who appeared before the grand jury. I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.”

Today U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen announced his office was charging fifteen people with conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers over their behavior during the federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis last year that led to the deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Rosen alleges that the defendants are part of two “antifa” groups that “violently oppose immigration law enforcement.”

At the press conference about the charges, prosecutors introduced a Facebook post from one of the accused that said: “We need to become ungovernable.” Journalist Aaron Rupar noted: “Oh, so they have NOTHING nothing.” It’s actually even more embarrassing than that: Trump attended the Libertarian National Convention in 2024 when its theme was “Become Ungovernable,” and stood in front of the banner bearing that slogan, so the idea that the phrase is part of a criminal conspiracy will be awkward to argue.

From Minneapolis, Matt Sepic of MPR News reported that Rosen said the people were “charged not for what they said but what they did.” But Rosen did not answer questions about whether any law enforcement officers were injured and said evidence would come out later. Sepic notes that federal prosecutors charged thirty-six people with assaulting or impeding immigration agents in December and January, but have now dropped eighteen of the cases entirely and eleven more through nonprosecution agreements. Sepic notes that Magistrate Judge David Schultz in April called one of the prosecutors’ charging documents a “false affidavit.”

At the time of the Good and Pretti killings, Open Measures, which tracks the spread of harmful social media activity, noted that right-wing social media personalities tried to redirect public outrage by claiming that community organizers using group chats on Signal were threatening the safety of federal officers. As those claims spread, right-wing media amplified old stories that those opposing ICE agents were “antifa” or part of a “radical left.” They demanded such chats be investigated. Today’s charges cited messages sent in Signal chats.

Reporter Christopher Mathias of MS NOW noted that while the Department of Justice is going after Minneapolis protesters, Greg Bovino, the commander-at-large of the Border Patrol during the Minneapolis crackdown that cost Good and Pretti their lives, has appeared on a white nationalist podcast as he teases a bid for the presidency.

Journalist Kat Abughazaleh, who is one of the Broadview Six, commented: “As the government raids “antifa groups” in Minneapolis with the SAME charges levied against myself and the rest of the Broadview Six, we need to be asking how they got this indictment. And as charges (hopefully) get dropped, we must remember the process is the punishment.”

But today’s charges have redirected at least some media energy from the details emerging about Trump’s “deal” with Iran. While the U.S. has declined to publish details of what appears to be a memorandum of understanding that participants hope will lead to a final agreement, Dov Lieber, Summer Said, Alexander Ward, and Rebecca Feng of the Wall Street Journal report that the agreement says the U.S. will waive sanctions to allow Iran immediately to sell oil and to access the banking, transportation, and insurance systems it will need to do so.

Alayna Treene and Kevin Liptak of CNN report that U.S. negotiators are downplaying the significance of the language in the memorandum of understanding, claiming that language that seems to favor Iran is designed to give cover to Iranian officials back home.

But Philip Wegmann and Lindsay Wise of the Wall Street Journal report that the vagueness of the language of the agreement is not fooling Republican war hawks who stood behind Trump in his attacks on Iran. They are calling early reports about the deal “disturbing” and “utterly disastrous.”

There is other news the administration would likely prefer to cover up, as well.

Sarah Blaskey and Jonathan O’Connell of the Washington Post reported today that even as Trump was assuring the American public that private donors would pay for his ballroom, the White House had already approved tens of millions of taxpayer money for the contractor building the addition.

With access to project summaries, the journalists were able to show that “internal cost estimates have been significantly higher than administration officials have acknowledged in public comments or court filings. They also show that the work was projected to rely heavily on taxpayer dollars from the moment it was announced.” 

And Trump’s renovation of the Reflecting Pool by the Lincoln Memorial is having the effect experts warned of. Because of the dark paint on the floor of the pool, the sun heats the water up even faster than it did before, and the resulting algae bloom has turned the pool bright green. Today, workers poured hydrogen peroxide into the pool to try to kill the algae.

June 15, 2026

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 16

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President Donald J. Trump’s remaking of Washington, D.C., to reflect his personalized approach to power rather than the American people and their government has become a little too on-the-nose over the past week.

After weeks of hyping the idea that he would restore the Reflecting Pool by the Lincoln Memorial to “SPECTACULAR” condition after it had been “destroyed by Barack Hussein Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump today reposted an article from the right-wing site Breitbart, titled: “‘Thank You President Trump’: Reflecting Pool in D.C. Wows After Trump Renovations.”

In fact, as Kinnia Cheuk of Politico reported today, the renovations Trump said would cost $1.5 million appear from federal contracting records to have cost almost $16 million, and the pool is now fouled with green algae.

But Trump and his cronies are simply telling the American people it’s a win. “President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the reflecting pool for good unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden,” a spokesperson for the Interior Department told Cheuk.

The alleged compliance of the board of the Kennedy Center with a court order requiring it to remove Trump’s name from the center illustrates yet another of Trump’s hallmarks: cheating the system. Trump packed the board with loyalists who made him chair and then changed the name of the building despite specific language from Congress that “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas” of the Kennedy Center.

The board missed the court deadline by twelve hours. Then Charles M. Floca, whom Trump installed at the head of the Kennedy Center, certified to the court that “the Center and its Board have complied with the Court’s order.” In a statement, Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi said that the center was “fully compliant with the court’s directive” and that the board was evaluating “legal options.”

Their conclusion seems to have been that the court ordered them only to take down Trump’s name; it did not order them to show that his name was down, or to keep Kennedy’s name visible. Currently, the Kennedy Center portico facade is covered with a giant tarp through which workers have created passageways to make the center’s doors accessible while keeping the portico covered.

Trump has made his career on the idea that there is always a way to cheat the system if you operate in bad faith, and he has carried that idea into the government. Famously, in 2016, when Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said Trump was hiding his tax returns because he had paid no federal taxes in years, Trump answered: “That makes me smart.”

Now, after voters reelected him in 2024, Trump’s hand-picked acting attorney general Todd Blanche has agreed that the Department of Justice will not prosecute Trump, his oldest sons, or the Trump Organization for tax evasion.

Both system-cheating and spectacle were on display in last night’s Ultimate Fighting Championship matches on the South Lawn of the White House. Trump got around restrictions on using the White House grounds for such an event by claiming it was in honor of the nation’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, for which Congress has suspended normal regulations.

Then at 9:30 Friday night, as Aram Roston and Joseph Gedeon of The Guardian reported, the UFC issued a press release saying that the cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, which emerged on Wednesday as an official sponsor of the event, would be the “Presenting Partner of a new $250,000 Performance of the Night bonus pool.”

World Liberty Financial is the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, overseen by Zach Witkoff, the son of billionaire Steve Witkoff. The elder Witkoff is Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East and for peace missions, including to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin (apparently at Putin’s request).

Zach Everson of Public Citizen explained what this arrangement means. In addition to connecting World Liberty Financial directly to the White House, UFC is giving cash to World Liberty Financial. World Liberty Financial gives its crypto to the fighters. World Liberty Financial then invests the cash in U.S. Treasury bonds and keeps the interest.

The UFC fight on the White House lawn was also about spectacle, and not just about appealing to Trump’s base as fighter Josh Hokit did by echoing a right-wing conspiracy theory that smeared former First Lady Michelle Obama. MAGA influencers and administration officials hyped the event as representing the United States, but on June 11, Reuters reported that only 16% of Americans thought it was appropriate to hold UFC cage matches at the White House. Forty-six percent said it was inappropriate. Even among Republicans, only 31% thought it was appropriate.

We are about to see if Trump’s focus on cheating the system for his own ends and distracting from his actions with spectacle will work over something as huge as the Iran war and Americans’ constitutional rights.

Shortly before he appeared at his birthday fight, Trump posted on social media: “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”

About an hour later, he posted: “This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region. Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me. The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace. With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!”

It appears that Trump badly wanted to sign an agreement with Iran yesterday on his birthday before taking off today for Europe to attend the G7, an informal forum made up of leading industrialized democracies—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and including the European Union (EU). Rumors about what was included in negotiations swirled all weekend.

While Trump is boasting that the agreement is a triumph, no one has yet seen any terms, and the agreement that is scheduled to be signed in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday appears to be a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a 60-day ceasefire for continued negotiations, not a final agreement.

Zack Stanton of MS NOW notes the ways in which Trump’s version of the MOU and what Iranian officials say about it are quite different. Trump says the Strait of Hormuz will be “permanently toll-free” while Iranian officials say they will regulate the strait along with Oman.

Trump is trying to cover over the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets by saying “no money will exchange hands.” But this morning, Vice President J.D. Vance told CBS that in addition to that $24 billion, Iran will also have access to $300 billion in funds for reconstruction.

Discussion of Iran’s nuclear ambitions will be put off for later.

In his remarks about the MOU yesterday, Trump thanked Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and China’s leader Xi Jinping for their help.

In The Atlantic, national security scholar Tom Nichols noted that even without the details, “it is clear that Trump has failed to achieve every one of the goals he put forward for this war of choice, and now he is determined to sign, seal, and deliver America’s capitulation as quickly as possible.”

Iran’s government is intact and now under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Strait of Hormuz is under Iran’s control, Iran has significant drone and missile stocks, Iran can continue to sponsor terrorism, and money will flow to Iran. Nichols points out that Iran leaves the conflict stronger than before. Any claims that Trump managed to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions is “silly,” Nichols notes: the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was working to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment before Trump tore the agreement up in 2018, and when Trump chose to start bombing in February 2026, Iran was “nowhere near getting a bomb.”

Nichols notes that Trump’s declaration that the strait is open is “terrific, but such a statement has about as much effect as I or my wife or my cat declaring the strait open; only Iran can make that decision.” He concludes: “The war leaves Iran battered, but more powerful and with more cash at its disposal, while it leaves America weaker, with important stocks of weapons depleted, and with its consumers paying the price for the war at the gas pump.”

That the terms of the MOU are unlikely to favor the U.S. showed perhaps even more clearly when Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has been a staunch advocate for using even more force against Iran, appeared to tee up blaming Vance for the terms of the agreement. He also suddenly fell back on the need for Congress to put its stamp on what seems likely to be an inglorious end to a war Trump and loyalists like Graham have insisted Congress had no role in approving.

“Under our law, any nuclear deal with Iran will be sent to Congress for review and a vote,” he wrote on social media. “I look forward to reviewing the final product and I believe it is imperative that the architect of the deal, Vice President Vance and his negotiating partners, be part of the process in presenting the final deal to Congress.”

But Trump will try to sell this as a win.

After their recent reporting that the Trump administration went into panic mode to cover up the Epstein files last summer, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported in the New York Times today that the Trump administration came much closer to trying to get rid of the writ of habeas corpus than was previously known. That right prevents the government from locking people up arbitrarily; authorities must charge a prisoner with a crime and take the case into the legal system. The Constitution spells out: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

Last spring, when the Supreme Court said undocumented immigrants had the right to challenge their deportations, according to Swan and Haberman, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller proposed simply suspending the writ of habeas corpus and throwing them out.

Warned away from the idea because of the outcry it would spark, the administration found a way to cheat the system: it changed longstanding policy concerning immigrants who had been in the U.S. for a long time. In the past, those caught on the border could be detained without a hearing, while those who had been here for a long time could request to be released on bond. The administration simply treated those who had been here for years as if they had just arrived, throwing them into detention without a bond hearing.

Judges have ruled against this new interpretation, but having found a way to cheat the system, the administration is simply ignoring them. As legal commentator Joyce White Vance put it: “The question inside Trump’s White House wasn’t whether they could suspend rights—it was whether they could get away with it.”

And then there was the idea of using spectacle to sell the Insurrection Act. Haberman and Swan report that Miller and, especially, Vice President Vance pushed the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to put down protests of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. They did so even after federal agents had shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. According to the reporters, Vance said the use of troops to put down Americans in the streets would be painful in the short term, but it would send a message that what he insisted were paid protesters—there is no evidence that either Good or Pretti was a paid protester—would never again disrupt ICE operations.

While the White House did not invoke the act at the time, the reporters conclude that for the proponents of invoking it, the Insurrection Act “would remain a loaded weapon in a West Wing eager to test the limits of presidential power.”

Early this morning, Trump posted on social media: “On July 4th, at The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, in beautiful and safe Washington D.C., we are going to host the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA.’”