FBI Director Kash Patel's war on reporters has exposed a troubling pattern: his FBI has exclusively targeted female journalists who have reported damaging stories about his tenure with investigations — while ignoring similar exposés from male counterparts at major publications.

According to Salon columnist Sophia Tesfaye, three female journalists have been targeted by Patel's FBI despite male reporters from outlets like the Wall Street Journal publishing equally embarrassing details about the embattled director's conduct.

Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post had her home raided before dawn, with federal agents seizing her phone, laptops, and smartwatch without warning — all for covering federal workforce cuts under the Trump administration.

Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times was investigated for potential federal stalking charges after reporting that Patel allegedly used FBI agents to chauffeur his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins.

Sarah Fitzpatrick of The Atlantic became the subject of a criminal leak probe after she reported on Patel's alleged drinking and erratic management of the FBI.

Meanwhile, male journalists including the Wall Street Journal's Josh Dawsey and C. Ryan Barber have published damaging stories about Patel's antics with no federal retaliation. The selective targeting of only female reporters suggests a deliberate pattern of gender-based intimidation, Tesfaye suggested.

As she wrote, "These were not national security reporters" exposing operational secrets or covert agents. They were doing the hard work of "accountability journalism" — beat reporting, features writing, and investigative work.

Her analysis notes that no actual prosecutions of journalists have occurred as of yet, but as Tesfaye notes, authoritarian systems rarely begin with mass arrests. They start with selective intimidation and raids that lead nowhere — creating a chilling effect that discourages future reporting.

Patel made his intentions clear before taking office, openly announcing he planned to target the media. He was hired to destroy the FBI from within, and by every metric — broken morale among agents, mounting lawsuits, and targeted journalist harassment — he is succeeding, the Salon analyst added.

As was predicted by economists, Trump's war against Iran has sent oil prices surging and squeezed household budgets across the country, including in GOP strongholds like northeastern Colorado where one three-time Trump voter issued the president a particularly scathing nickname, Reuters reported on Saturday.

“He voted three times for Trump, but like many interviewed by Reuters, he considers himself a political independent, saying he distrusts the Republican Party nearly as much as their ⁠Democratic foes,” Reuters’ Brad Brooks wrote in the outlet’s report.

“Gas prices were hurting his industry, he said, and Trump was ‘naive’ to think he could quickly solve the issue. He expected prices would remain high into the fall, even if there was a breakthrough in stalled U.S.-Iran peace talks.”

Trump has admitted that Iran’s forceful response to the joint U.S.-Israeli attacks came as a surprise to him. Shortly after authorizing the initial attack on Iran in late February, Trump indicated that the military campaign would finish “within two to three weeks,” which, given the war has stretched into its 77th day as of Saturday, further demonstrated Trump’s inability to predict Iran’s response.

Trump’s allies have struggled to explain the administration’s failure to achieve its war objectives or to reach a deal with Tehran to end the conflict, with one former Trump official blaming said failures on the Trump administration being “too effective” at waging war.

For Brooks, Trump was “naive” in his thinking regarding the conflict. However, he told Reuters that despite the economic pain the president’s decision has inflicted on himself and his community, he still preferred the GOP over Democratic candidates, who he accused of moving toward “full-blown socialism.”

"I voted for Trump because the alternative is so bad,” Brooks told Reuters.

Donald Trump’s return from Beijing without any provable examples of successful negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping was yet another sign that, whatever lofty plans he had in store for the second year of his second term, they are easier to boast about than achieve.

According to analysis by the Washington Post’s Michael Birnbaum and Isaac Arnsdorf, the China summit didn’t include any measurable wins for a president who has had a rough year so far.

“President Donald Trump was riding the early high of his return to power last year when he took his first major foreign trip and declared that he would make a sharp break from years of U.S. nation-building around the world,” they wrote.

Exactly one year after his first major foreign trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — complete with golden swords and honor guards on Arabian steeds — Trump arrived in China at a vastly different moment, the Post is reporting. Inflation is spiraling, the Iran conflict has ensnared U.S. military forces, energy prices are soaring, and his approval ratings are cratering.

This time, there were no sweeping declarations about how Trump's America would manage the world, the Post is reporting. Instead, there was Chinese President Xi Jinping, described as being "respectful but businesslike, welcoming but unbending" on issues that are U.S. priorities.

Trump came to Beijing hoping to secure trade deals. Xi had other priorities, the report noted. The Chinese president made clear that Taiwan's fate, not investment opportunities, was China's top concern — yanking the spotlight from Trump's preferred focus to warn of "clashes and even conflicts" with the United States should disagreements over the disputed island be mismanaged.

Trump left Friday with a promise of Xi visiting the White House in September and trade deals that proved largely disappointing. Boeing's stock dropped 8 percent between Trump's arrival and departure — a stark measure of investor skepticism about the agreements reached.

The president has since claimed triumph that the trip enabled top U.S. business executives to meet the Chinese leader, but offered little evidence of actual transactions resulting from the meetings.

Most of Trump's signature foreign policy initiatives "have fallen by the wayside," according to the Post. The Ukraine war still rages despite his promises to end it swiftly. Many of his tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court. Iran diplomacy has been abandoned entirely in favor of military conflict.

The collapse reflects a far cry from Trump's more "expansive ambitions" for reshaping U.S.-China relations last year, when the two leaders agreed to meet four times in 2026. With Iran now preoccupying Trump and weighing down the global economy, there is little room for retrenchment.

With slumping approval ratings and a faltering economy, Trump now travels the world stage "significantly weakened" compared to a year ago, Birnbaum and Arnsdorf predicted.