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Joe Rogan thought he was making nervous small talk with the president of the United States about the possibility of a terrorist attack. Donald Trump, by Rogan's account, treated the prospect of their shared demise as no big deal.

On a recent episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience," the podcaster who endorsed Trump's campaign recounted a conversation he had with Trump while serving as master of ceremonies and fight commentator for the UFC event staged on the White House lawn, a spectacle tied to the president's 80th birthday and the nation's 250th anniversary celebration. Rogan, who had voiced security concerns about the gathering for months beforehand, said he raised those fears directly with Trump. "I said to Trump, 'I hope we don't die in a terrorist attack,'" Rogan recalled. "He goes, 'We gotta go somehow.' I go, 'What the f---, dude?'" Rogan said, cracking up at the memory.

Donald Trump's insistence that vandals carved up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool keeps colliding with one stubborn problem his critics will not let go of: if it really happened, where is the footage?

After the president announced on Truth Social that "many additional people have been arrested" over the "disgraceful Vandalism" of the pool, claiming saboteurs cut a 250-foot gash into the structure and poured corrosive chemicals into the water, a chorus of commentators responded with a simple challenge. "Release the video," wrote Brian Tyler Cohen, summing up the skepticism in three words.

James Carville has a survival strategy for anyone still working inside Donald Trump's White House, and it boils down to two words: start leaking.

On the latest episode of his Politics War Room podcast, the veteran Democratic strategist delivered a blunt appeal to administration staffers, urging them to protect their own reputations before the history of Trump's second term gets written. "Save Yourself! Save Yourself, now!" Carville declared, before adding his prescription: "Leak, leak, and more leaks."

Donald Trump posted a photograph of a blonde woman to Truth Social late on Saturday night, captioned "Great daughter. My Honor!!! President DJT," and set off an internet-wide guessing game over a simple problem: the woman in the picture does not appear to be any of his daughters.

The post showed a woman with blonde hair in a black outfit, lounging on a red sofa and talking on a phone in a room decorated with Americana, including a throw bearing what looks like a state seal. It was not Ivanka. It was not Tiffany. It was not a granddaughter or a wife. Independent journalist Aaron Rupar summed up the collective confusion with three words when he shared the image: "Who is this?"

Donald Trump returned to his favorite subject Saturday evening, and his account of the great Reflecting Pool conspiracy grew more elaborate with every sentence. In a lengthy Truth Social post, the president announced that "many additional people have been arrested" over what he called "the disgraceful Vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool," then offered a list of crimes that has expanded well beyond the algae and peeling paint that started the whole saga.

According to Trump, the vandals did not merely tamper with the water. They "took some form of knife or blade" and carved a "250 foot long gash into the beautiful facade," and they "poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool." He framed the alleged sabotage as an insult to history, writing that the damage was "a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and should be dealt with accordingly." He added that he met with contractors and may be "forced to release and drain much of the water" to complete repairs.

Anthony Scaramucci wants people to revisit a single answer Donald Trump once gave a journalist, because in his telling it explains the entire playbook the president has run ever since.

The former White House communications director, who lasted around 11 days in Trump's first administration before becoming one of his more relentless critics, resurfaced an exchange between Trump and "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl. As Scaramucci recounted it, Stahl asked Trump why he kept branding the press as fake news, and the answer was unusually candid. "I do it because I need to discredit you," Scaramucci quoted Trump as saying, "so that when you say negative things about me, nobody believes you."