The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board took stock of the latest dismal jobs report on Friday — and laid a key part of the blame for it at the feet of President Donald Trump.
"Friday’s monthly report for August confirms that job creation has stalled amid his tariff barrage," wrote the board, a frequent critic of Trump's trade policy. "Employers added a mere 22,000 jobs last month while the numbers were revised down for the previous two by a combined 21,000. This means only 107,000 new jobs were created in the last four months — an average of 27,000. Monthly job gains averaged 167,000 last year."
Even worse, the board noted, "Nearly all of the new jobs last month were in social assistance and healthcare (46,800), which rely on government spending," while manufacturing saw a loss of 38,000 jobs — meaning the public sector is propping up the Trump economy from total freefall.
It's not a mystery why any of this is happening, the board continued.
"The Occam’s razor explanation is the uncertainty and additional costs from Mr. Trump’s border taxes," they wrote. "Caterpillar estimates that tariffs will cost the equipment maker $1.8 billion this year. Deere projects a tariff hit of about $600 million, mainly from higher steel and aluminum costs. Deere is also hurting because soybean farmers have seen their market share in China shrink after its trade retaliation. Tariffs are slamming U.S. auto makers like Ford ($2 billion tariff cost this year)."
And even though Trump has done everything in his power to open up federal regulations for an oil drilling spree, "oil and gas producers say the tariffs have increased prices for materials and caused them to pull back on drilling."
"What Mr. Trump needs is a broad revival in business confidence of the kind that accompanied his November victory and appeared before his tax on imports and willy-nilly interventions in private business decisions," the board concluded. "Repeat after us: Tariffs are taxes, and taxes hurt economic growth."
After years of lobbying from US weapons makers, President Donald Trump is reportedly set to implement his first-term reinterpretation of a Cold War-era arms control treaty in order to sell heavy attack drones to countries including Saudi Arabia, according to a report published Friday.
In July 2020, Trumpannounced that his administration would reclassify unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with flight speeds under 500 miles per hour—including General Atomics' MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper and Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk—as exempt from certain restrictions under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).
Signed by the United States in 1987 during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, the 35-nation MTCR "seeks to limit the risks of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by controlling exports of goods and technologies that could make a contribution to delivery systems" for such weapons, as the US State Department website explains.
The end of Trump's first term limited his first administration's implementation of the MTCR policy shift, which was not continued under former President Joe Biden, who adopted a somewhat stricter stance on arms exports to some gross human violators, including Saudi Arabia, but not others—most notably Israel.
Now, a US official and four people familiar with the president's plan tellReuters that Trump is preparing to complete the MTCR revision, a move that "would unlock the sale of more than 100 MQ-9 drones to Saudi Arabia, which the kingdom requested in the spring of this year and could be part of a $142 billion arms deal announced in May."
As Reuters reported:
Under the current interpretation of the MTCR, the sale of many military drones is subject to a "strong presumption of denial" unless a compelling security reason is given and the buyer agrees to use the weapons in strict accordance with international law.
The new policy will allow General Atomics, Kratos, and Anduril, which manufacture large drones, to have their products treated as "Foreign Military Sales" by the State Department, allowing them to be easily sold internationally, according to a US official speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
This effort is the first part of a planned "major" review of the US Foreign Military Sales program, the official said.
The US State Department did not respond to Reuters' request for comment on the policy shift.
Trump's move comes as US arms makers face stiff competition from Chinese, Israeli, and Turkish drone manufacturers. Neither China nor Israel are signatory to the MTCR, and Turkey, which did sign the agreement, features lighter and shorter-range UAVs not subject to the same restrictions as the heavier Reaper.
The US official who spoke to Reuters said the new guidelines will allow the US "to become the premier drone provider instead of ceding that space to Turkey and China."
Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association—a longtime critic of MTCR revision—warned that Trump's planned reinterpretation "would be a mistake."
The Washington Post's editorial board earned fierce derision from critics Friday evening after it defended the Trump administration's bid to revert the Department of Defense back to its former name, Department of War.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday directing the Department of Defense to be known as the "Department of War" in official communications and government usage. The name had been used until the 1940s and is intended to signal a return to what Trump has dubbed a “warrior ethos” in the military. The legal name of the department can only be changed by an act of Congress.
"Perhaps it can be followed by clearer thinking about the military’s role at home and abroad," the board wrote.
The editors said it's "more delicate" to assert the Pentagon is dedicated to defense over war, "but the former depends on the latter."
"The extent to which the Pentagon can defend U.S. interests around the world is tied to the expectation that the United States can fight and win wars. That expectation is what shapes the calculations of rival states," the board said.
The editors argued that terms including "defense" and "security" have a tendency for "bureaucratic mission creep." They pointed to the Biden administration's defense strategy that mentioned climate nearly 20 times. By stripping out "defense," they said, people may realize National Guard troops aren't police officers who can be sent into cities — they're soldiers.
"Trump’s opponents complain about the aggressive connotations of the new name. But the United States is protected by the most lethal and vigilant fighting force ever assembled, no matter what it’s called. The new name could prompt more focused debate about how to use it," they concluded.
Critics laid into the Post, with many blaming the editorial on its owner, Jeff Bezos, who has cozied up to Trump in recent months.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) wrote on X, "It’s crazy how much Bezos and @washingtonpost are eager to just kiss Trumps A."
Film producer and writer David Grover added, "Exactly why I cancelled my sub last year. I feel sorry for the passionate journalists that work there and sometimes wish I could read their work, but i will never pay a cent to read a WaPo article."
Voting rights advocate and Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias wrote on Bluesky, "This one is just too easy. But here it is.... Washington Post's latest editorial vs my latest for Democracy Docket. Support the media outlets that share your values."
Brian P. McKeon wrote on X, "The Wash Post ed board naively thinks the name change to War Department will change behavior in Washington. LOL. 'The new name could prompt more focused debate about how to use it.'"
Journalist Bastian Brauns wrote in a translated X post, "Oh, the Washington Post Editorial Board defends the renaming to 'Department of War'. 'Defense' is a euphemism, that's the argument. Now we know why the opinion page editors left, after the owner, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, endorsed Trump."
President Donald Trump's Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte has emerged as an "attack dog" who has filed a series of complaints against various politicians and public servants Trump opposes, accusing them of mortgage fraud. His latest target is Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, whom he claims took "primary residence" status on two different properties at the same time — and Trump's Justice Department is now pursuing a criminal investigation of the matter.
A new investigation by Reuters reveals that Pulte's father and stepmother are doing the exact same thing.
"Mark and Julie Pulte, the father and stepmother of Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called 'homestead exemptions' for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the records," reported Marisa Taylor, Chris Prentice, and Mike Colias. "The exemption is meant to give a discount to homeowners on taxes for properties they use as their primary residence."
Furthermore, when Reuters started asking questions, the Pultes' tax breaks in Michigan were abruptly revoked.
"Local tax officials in both states told Reuters that claiming more than one home as a primary residence isn’t generally allowed in their jurisdictions and could be punishable by fines or back taxes," said the report. "After Reuters contacted tax officials in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, to inquire about the dual claims, Darrin Kraatz, director of assessing, on Thursday said the township 'as of today' would revoke the exemption on the Pultes’ residence there."
This isn't the first time Pulte, who has more broadly taken an aggressive stance against the Fed, has faced such scrutiny. Last month, reporting revealed Pulte's wife donated half a million dollars to a super PAC backing Trump, routed improperly through a Delaware shell company — although the Federal Election Commission did not find a criminal offense when it investigated.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) defended President Donald Trump's conduct throughout the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files controversy, going so far as to claim with no evidence that Trump was an "FBI informant" against Epstein, and saying that he banished Epstein from Mar-a-Lago upon realizing his abuse of young girls — which is contradicted by the public timeline.
"He's not saying that what Epstein did was a hoax, it's a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down. The president knows, and has great sympathy for the women who suffered these unspeakable harms. It's detestable to him. He and I have spoken about this as recently as 24 hours ago."
But former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), who previously assisted the House January 6 Committee investigation, cut through Johnson's obfuscations in a lengthy post to X.
"Ok. I’ve had enough," wrote Riggleman. "RELEASE THE SIGNED EPSTEIN FBI INFORMANT AND WITNESS DOCUMENTS. If our POTUS was an FBI informant or witness, then why did he call for the release of the Epstein list and run his campaign on it… and then block it?"
"Wouldn’t he know the contents and those that were 'innocent' or guilty?" Riggleman continued. "Why did he say democrats were in it and not have names he can prove? Did he know the 'globalists and deep state' participants? Was he a primary witness? Did he watch or participate in rape and then get immunity? Why didn’t he say that he was an FBI informant about Epstein in his first term or the first 8 months of this term? Why would he threaten GOP House members saying it was 'hostile' act if they voted for the Massie bill? Has he always been an FBI informant? Did he inform on the mob in NY? Were his casinos FBI fronts? When did he become an FBI informant? Are there documents available to release? Did he conspire with Ghislaine? Was he always aware of Epstein?"
"Facts and data," he added. "All of us need to be a million pound s---hammer of facts and data. I am. The media should be able to destroy this narrative and cook this liar."
Johnson bragged earlier this week that he had the votes to stop a bipartisan discharge petition compelling Congress to seek the release of all outstanding files on the Epstein case — even as it became clear he didn't.
"South Park" episodes mocking the Trump administration are doing more than enraging the president and his allies, former GOP strategist Tim Miller told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on "Deadline: White House" Friday — it's making the broader pop culture, even individuals with more right-leaning inclinations, permission to make Trump the butt of the joke in a way he hasn't been since being re-elected.
"Does any of it matter politically?" said Wallace.
"Well, I think there are two parts to this," said Miller, a frequent critic of the president. "One is can it give other people the backbone to get to speak out? And that's like the most frustrating part about all this, is you would think that 'South Park' would be showing the way, that there's not the risk here that all these people say there is that you can speak out against Trump, especially if you come from a place of power and privilege."
This, he said, is "the most frustrating thing about watching all these tech execs go there and slobber over him yesterday as if, you know, the richest people in the history of the world could not survive and keep their dignity intact at the same time. But hopefully, I don't — I'm not, you know, counting our chickens on that."
However, Miller added, there is one way in which "South Park's" war on Trump is breaking through the culture.
"You're seeing this trickle down into other more kind of comedians that appeal more to people on the MAGA right, particularly the kind of manosphere-type comedians," said Miller. "I'm thinking of Tim Dillon in particular, and Andrew Schulz. I don't — your viewers might not be familiar with them or they might, but I've been watching a lot of their shows lately and they are pretty — they're starting to get pretty skeptical of this administration and they want to be outsiders, they don't — you know, comedians don't want to be talking heads and mouthpieces for the administration like a Charlie Kirk might. They, you know, they want to be contrarian."
In that regard, he said, "Trump's given a lot to work with, whether it be, you know, the military stuff or whether it be, there's a lot of funny material out there about JD Vance I've been watching and how how and Peter Thiel and his four speeches on the Antichrist he's giving recent coming up and, and how maybe we should be a little bit concerned if one of the most influential people in MAGA is giving four speeches on the Antichrist in the next in the next month."
"So, I think that, like, the 'South Park' and the Tim Dillons, you know, starting to poke fun at these guys, I think could have a real political impact because it might pop the bubble of invincibility that Trump has had with some part of his base."
Carlson and senior political commentator Van Jones joined CNN's "OutFront" with host Erin Burnett on Friday afternoon to talk about he latest jobs report, which showed Black unemployment climbing to 7.5%, up from 7.2% last month, and is now at its highest level since October 2021, mid-pandemic.
Furthermore, the young adult unemployment rate soared to 10.5%, up from 10.0% the previous month.
Jones told the panel that Trump's "devastating" Department of Government Efficiency cuts helped propel the number for Black Americans.
"Smashing the backbone of the Black middle class. All those women who did the right thing, who paid their taxes, who went to school, who worked hard every day, getting wiped out. That is a big chunk here," he said.
"This is a real problem now," he added.
When asked if there could be political consequences to thrusting Americans out of work, Carlson delivered a stark warning.
"If you're asking if it's going to be a political problem, could be," Carlson replied. "Because Trump's biggest strength was the economy. I mean, that's how he got so many independents to vote for him the first time and the last time."
She warned people "aren't fond" of Trump's massive DOGE cuts, his so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill," his tariff increases, and the way his immigration crackdown has unfolded.
"You add in that they might not be happy with the economy? You have a big problem politically," she concluded, noting a Gallup survey that came out before the brutal jobs numbers found just 37 percent of Americans support Trump on the economy. That number was just 27 percent for independents.
President Donald Trump on Friday angrily lashed out after the European Commission slapped tech giant Google with a $3.45 billion fine for violating antitrust laws.
The European Commission ordered Google to end its anticompetitive practices, such as its payments to ensure its search engine receives preferential treatment on internet browsers and mobile phones. The commission also demanded that Google "implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain."
EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said that the decision demonstrated that "Google abused its dominant position in adtech harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers" and that it must "must now come forward with a serious remedy to address its conflicts of interest, and if it fails to do so, we will not hesitate to impose strong remedies."
Shortly after the ruling, Trump took to Truth Social to blast Europe for enforcing its antitrust laws.
"Europe today 'hit' another great American company, Google, with a $3.5 billion fine, effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American investments and jobs," Trump wrote. "Very unfair, and the American taxpayer will not stand for it! As I have said before, my administration will NOT allow these discriminatory actions to stand. Apple, as an example, was forced to pay $17 billion in a fine that, in my opinion, should not have been charged—they should get their money back!"
Trump added that "we cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American Ingenuity and, if it does, I will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these taxpaying American companies."
Max von Thun, Europe director for anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute, had a decidedly different take from the president, and praised the European Commission for taking an "important first step in breaking Google's chokehold over the underlying architecture not merely of the internet, but of the free press in the 21st century."
"It is only right that Google pays the price for its blatant and long-standing lawbreaking," he added. "More importantly however, the commission has given Google two months to end its illegal practices and resolve the profound conflicts of interest which arise from its control of every layer of the adtech stack."
The European Commission's decision stood in stark contrast to a decision issued earlier this week from Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, who declined to force Google to sell off its Chrome web browser or share all requested data with its competitors despite finding that the company had violated American antitrust laws.
President Donald Trump's tariff policies, imposing levies as high as 50% on the United States' trading partners, have not proven compatible with his campaign promise to turn the U.S. back into a "manufacturing powerhouse," as Friday's jobs report showed.
The overall analysis was grim, with the economy adding just 22,000 jobs last month, but manufacturing employment in particular has declined since Trump made his April 2 "Liberation Day" announcement of tariffs on countries including Canada and Mexico.
Since then, the president has introduced new rounds of tariffs on imports from countries he claims have treated the U.S. unfairly, and all the while, manufacturers have tightened their belts to cope with the higher cost of supplies and materials.
Overall manufacturing employment has plummeted by 42,000 jobs, while job openings and new hires have declined by 76,000 and 18,000, respectively, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP), which released a jobs report analysis titled "Trump's Trade War Squeezes Middle-Class Manufacturing Employment"on Friday.
"The manufacturing sector is struggling more than the rest of the labor market under Trump's tariffs, and manufacturing workers' wage growth is stagnating," said CAP.
Last month, the sector lost 12,000 jobs, while wages for manufacturing workers stagnated.
In line with other private employees, workers in the sector saw their wages go up just 10 cents from July, earning an average of $35.50 per hour.
"Despite Trump's claims that his policies will reignite the manufacturing industry in the United States, his policies have achieved the opposite," wrote policy analyst Kennedy Andara and economist Sara Estep at CAP.
The findings are in line with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Texas Manufacturing Survey, which was taken from August 12-20 and found that 72% of manufacturing firms say the tariffs have had a negative impact on their business.
"The argument is: We're all meant to sacrifice a bit, so that tariffs can help rebuild American manufacturing. Let's ask American manufacturers whether they're helping," said University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers on social media, sharing a graph that showed the survey's findings.
The argument is: We're all meant to sacrifice a bit, so that tariffs can help rebuild American manufacturing. Let's ask American manufacturers whether they're helping. pic.twitter.com/UWWmjKcWXe — Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) September 2, 2025
As Philip Luck, a former deputy chief economist with the US State Department, told the CBC last month, Trump has been promising "millions and millions of jobs" will result from his tariff regime, but those promises are out of step with the reality of manufacturing in 2025.
"We do [manufacturing] now with very few workers, we do it in a very automated way," Luck told the CBC. "Even if we do increase manufacturing I don't know that we're going to increase jobs along with it."
The outlet noted that while the number of Americans employed in manufacturing peaked in 1979, the value of manufacturing production has continuously trended up since then.
Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, told the CBC that "no treasure trove of jobs" is likely to come out of Trump's tariffs.
The president "walked into an economy that was seeing the largest manufacturing production in American history," Hicks said. "That is really a testament to how productive American workers are, the quality of the technology, and capital investment in manufacturing."
But the rate of hiring at manufacturing firms is far below its 2024 level, said CAP, revealing the negative impact of Trump's tariff regime.
US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed to nearly 800 workers who lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector this week, including 120 whose company's sawmill closed in Darlington, South Carolina; 101 who worked at an electronics assembly plant for Intervala in Manchester, New Hampshire; and 170 whose sawmill positions were eliminated in Estill, South Carolina.
The US Supreme Court is expected to soon review Trump's tariffs after the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled last week that many of them are illegal.
Donald Trump’s niece, the clinical psychologist and bestselling author Mary Trump, sees “similarities” between the 79-year-old president’s increasingly erratic behavior, which has stoked questions about his physical and mental health, and that of his father, the New York property magnate Fred Trump, who suffered from Alzheimer’s before dying in 1999 at the age of 93.
"I think the most important thing to know about Donald's health is that this is a person who has had very serious, severe psychiatric disorders that have gone undiagnosed and they have worsened because they've never been treated," Mary Trump said. "So much of what we're seeing is the result of those undiagnosed, untreated psychiatric disorders. On top of that … there are clearly some physical health issues, and often it seems that … it's not just that he's forgetting things. He doesn't seem to be oriented to space and time or place and time.
"And I'm not a neuropsychologist or neurologist of any kind. I used to do neuropsychological testing, but that aside, I think the best frame of reference is, as you said, my experience with my grandfather and I do see similarities again. That occasional confusion, ‘where am I, who's around me,’ the forgetting of people who were right in front of him.
"And that was one very interesting experience with my grandfather. The least important people in his life were the people he forgot first. So you could sort of gauge your importance to him by how quickly he forgot you or how long it took for him to forget you.
“He ended up forgetting my grandmother. He never forgot Donald. So that was always fascinating to me, and he’d been married for over 60 years.”
Mary Trump was speaking to the Court of History podcast, hosted by the Clinton aide turned Lincoln biographer Sidney Blumenthal and the Princeton historian Sean Wilentz.
An author herself, Mary Trump has published three books since her uncle became president: "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man" (2020), "The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal" (2021), and "Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir" (2024). All achieved bestseller status.
Continuing to ponder her uncle and his father — her grandfather — Mary Trump said: “I think that there are a few differences."
“My grandfather was a sociopath. He was a born sociopath. He was not made one. And Donald’s psychology is much more complex, and a lot of what we're seeing now isn't new. It's actually just previous conditions that are worsening and just becoming more obvious to people who haven't been paying attention.
“So I think that sort of complicates our sense of, ‘Is this the psychiatric disorders? Is this some kind of dementia? Does he have Alzheimer's?' Is it some physical ailment that is having an impact on his memory, etc, and we don't know, and I think it's likely we never will.
“I sort of believe that we're at the point it doesn't matter. We know it's very, very bad. It's only going to get worse, as everything does with him, whether it's his outrageous cruelty, incompetence, vindictiveness.
“What I say about Donald, and I think this is true whether we're talking about his psychological, emotional, physical health or his behavior, there's no such thing as worst. He will always get worse.”
Trump is the oldest man ever to take the presidential oath — in succession to the previous record holder, Joe Biden. As Biden was plagued by questions over his fitness for office, before withdrawing from last year’s election, so Trump’s rambling public pronouncements and erratic behavior stoked questions even before he recently exhibited signs of physical deterioration and spent a rare week out of public view.
The White House vehemently denies that anything is wrong with Trump, and he reappeared this week to dismiss social media speculation that he might be dead or dying.
In one appearance, Trump angrily dismissed questions about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal even as victims of the late financier and sex offender, a longtime Trump friend, spoke on Capitol Hill.
Mary Trump told the Court of History: “He's always been an angry person, or maybe I should put it this way: he's always been somebody who uses threats and performative rage to get his way.
“So how do you distinguish between what is performative and what is a sincere reaction to his inability to control the narrative, which is clearly what we're seeing, certainly in regards to the Epstein files most prominently right now?”
The United States, Mary Trump added, is “at a particularly dangerous inflection point” regarding the president’s health.
“Because the more he understands who he is, what's happening to him, the more scared he gets, and the more cruel he's going to become, the more desperate he's going to become.
“As with anybody, people who start having dementia, Alzheimer's, there are moments of insight. They recognize what's going on, and it's actually one of the cruelest things about that disease ….
“Like my grandfather, for example, he was fine. Once he stopped remembering who people were, and he thought that he was still running the world, he was fine. But it's those early-on moments of insight into what's happening to you, that really have a negative impact. And this is starting to happen to Donald with increasing frequency, and it is freaking him out.”
Asked if she saw signs of anger and lashing out, as exhibited by her grandfather, in her uncle, Mary Trump said: “It's so hard to say because Donald has always been paranoid and vindictive and angry.
“… There are looks of confusion on his face at times, which are very reminiscent of when we would be out in public with my grandfather, for example … and he would get this startled like a deer in the headlights look. Like, 'Where am I? Who are these people? I don't want to be here.’"
This week, President Donald Trump announced that he had killed 11 alleged drug cartel members in foreign waters, and one senator thinks the strike was just the beginning — and will serve as a justification for action on U.S. soil.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, fears that the next step is authorizing the use of military force against people in the United States.
When MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace asked if the bombing was legal, Duckworth said, "No."
"I also think that this is just the first step towards him potentially setting the groundwork to do something within U.S. territory," she warned. "So, he's doing it in international waters now. But, you know, what's next? An American in our territorial waters on U.S. soil? What exactly is next?"
She noted that the ongoing discussion about Trump is that he's making small steps that will ultimately justify unconstitutional actions.
"This president is setting the conditions so that he can actually unilaterally occupy the streets of our cities and interfere in the next election, do what he wants," she said.
Duckworth then shamed her GOP colleagues, who continue to do nothing to hold Trump accountable, while also confirming the likes of Pete Hegseth and Robert Kennedy Jr.
President Donald Trump triggered outrage on Friday during a signing of his executive order to rebrand the Department of Defense to the "Department of War," when he suggested the United States only loses wars due to "woke" cultural values.
"We should have won every war," said Trump. "We could have won every war, but we really chose to be a very politically correct—wokey. We never wanted to win."
Commenters on social media tore into the president, with many noting that he used a questionable medical diagnosis to get out of serving in Vietnam, one of the wars America did actually lose.
"This is, even for him, amazingly stupid and an insult to the thousands who died in Korea and Vietnam and the other conflicts we were too 'wokey' to win," wrote retired Naval War College professor Tom Nichols. "But then, can't expect any better from a man who thinks American war dead are 'suckers' and 'losers.'"
"Remember when he dodged the draft because of ... bone spurs?" wrote former MSNBC host and Zeteo News founder Mehdi Hasan.
"Yeah, Vietnam, a war famously lost because we were Too Woke," wrote American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
"President who avoided combat because of 'bone spurs' and calls those who served suckers and losers has thoughts about war," wrote Huffington Post political correspondent S.V. Dáte.
"He would have called ending slavery woke," wrote Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, city councilman Tony Heyl.
"Not only is this an asinine thing to say, it’s also insulting. Nothing like an armchair quarterback, eh?" wrote the official account for The Seneca Project.
"I would love to hear what was 'wokey' to Trump about the loss in the Vietnam War. Too few bone spurs?" wrote University of North Georgia rhetoric professor Matthew Boedy.
Former Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera told CNN's Kate Bolduan on Friday he doesn't think President Donald Trump's push to bury the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking files controversy, most recently calling it a "hoax" manufactured by Democrats, is going to move the needle much.
"It's a valid question to be asked as to why the Democrats didn't push more for any of this during President Biden's term or after, after Epstein's death," said Bolduan. "That being said, the president continues to try to tamp this down. Do you think that this sort of thing, calling it a hoax by the Democrats, is enough to tamp down the calls for transparency from within his own party on this issue?"
"Well, there is no doubt that Trump is done with Epstein; the question is whether Epstein is done with Trump," said Rivera. The issue for Trump, he continued, is "there is an intransigence among certain members of Congress, particularly Republican women, where they say, 'Hey, listen, we need to have justice for these victims, we need to find out all that happened.'"
"President Trump is right when he says — I love the quote, 'Democrats did nothing while he was alive except befriend him' — that is, Epstein — 'socialized with him, traveled to his island and take his money,'" said Rivera. "So I think they have, you know, the Democrats are relishing this moment. It's setting the president off his agenda. You know, it's — it's hard to get rid of. It's kind of a sticky thing you can't get off your fingers
"It's ... one of those impasses where I think the conspiracy theory industry will keep this alive," Rivera continued, likening it to the theories around the Kennedy assassination. "It's one of those things that will be enduring. It will stay forever. It will, the conspiracy theorists will bring it up a century from now, it seems to me. Epstein's island, who took his money, what did they do, who were the victims, what did, you know, people in power do to these poor young girls? You know, it's one of those things where as long as there is a driver in the House of Representatives, like Nancy Mace, for instance, of South Carolina, you're going to have this issue around."
"I think it's going to haunt Republicans," he added. "It's something that the president will be increasingly frustrated by, not that he can get much more frustrated than he is already. But it's, it's an issue that, you know — he calls it a hoax, the women in Congress say, 'Hey, yeah, let's — let's see who's involved, if anyone.'"
