by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Iran, Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, News, Politics, World
After months of reporting about Russia taking deliberate steps to assist Iran during the U.S. war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators during a congressional hearing last week that Russia is, in fact, “enabling some of the things Iran is doing.”
Evidently, Donald Trump isn’t sure whether to believe his own Pentagon chief or not.
Six weeks ago, as the Group of Seven summit in France was wrapping up, the American president offered some curious praise to his friend in Moscow. “I want to thank Vladimir Putin, he was very neutral,” the Republican said, referring to the Russian president’s role in the war with Iran. Even at the time, the comment was bizarre, given the overwhelming evidence that Putin hasn’t been neutral at all.
Late last week, on the heels of Hegseth’s testimony, Trump reiterated his belief that Russia, in his “opinion,” is “not participating” in the war. In a statement published to his social media platform, he added that his beliefs were based on private assurances he said he received from Putin.
Hours later, asked about the contradiction between Hegseth’s line and the Kremlin’s, the American president again said he “trusts” what he’s been told by the Russian leader.
One day later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced new plans to share intelligence about Russia’s latest assistance to Iran — the latest in a series of such declarations. Zelenskyy previously said his country’s government had “irrefutable” evidence Russia had provided intelligence to the Iranian regime during the war, but he simply couldn’t get the White House to take an interest in it.
So when Trump fielded questions from reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday afternoon,
by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
The first step was taken roughly 10 months ago, when Donald Trump ordered a deadly military strike against a civilian boat in international waters, and according to the White House, the operation killed 11 people. Two weeks later, there was another, followed by a third strike four days later.
Week after week, month after month, the operations kept going, as the administration continued to target these boats and kill much of their crews. Different news organizations have competing tallies on the precise number of strikes, but there’s a consensus that there have been dozens of operations that have killed hundreds of people.
The underlying questions that emerged last fall haven’t changed. They also haven’t been answered. We don’t know whether there have been other strikes that haven’t been disclosed. We don’t know who has been killed. We don’t know if Team Trump is telling the truth about whether the targets were actually narco-terrorists.
We also don’t know whether any of these extrajudicial killings have been legal, though a great many legal experts have argued that they are not. Indeed, NBC News reported in November that the senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing the lethal strikes reached the same conclusion.
There will likely be some who will argue that the ends justify the means and that if these military strikes curtail the drug trade in the United States, then it will be worth it.
Except that’s wrong, too. The Washington Post reported:
The Trump administration’s deadly military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats have not reduced the amount of cocaine entering the United States, but they’re prompting criminal organizations to develop new strategies and tactics
by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Iran, Maddowblog, World
During his latest appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana acknowledged the fact that the Iran war is broadly unpopular with the American mainstream. It led the senator to offer the Trump administration some unsolicited advice.
Sen. John Kennedy: “I support the president in Iran. We all have to do a better job messaging.”— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-07-26T15:13:32.583Z
“I support the president in Iran,” Kennedy said. “We all need to do a better job messaging. I may end up with a sombrero on my head by saying this, but we all know the president. He exists loudly. He grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought. He’s not always disciplined in his messaging. I’m not saying he should stop talking. He’s the president, and I’m not.
“But I would put [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio and [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan] Caine and [CIA Director John] Ratcliffe and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth out there, either in a speech or in a long press conference, to explain what’s going on in Iran. Why we went in, why we’re still there.”
It’s a pitch rooted in a simple idea: The unpopular war would enjoy greater public support if the White House had better “messaging” and spokespeople who could simply “explain what’s going on.”
If this sounds at all familiar, it’s because it has become a go-to stance for Republicans in response to all kinds of challenges. Vice President JD Vance, for example, said earlier this month that the administration should have done a better job on “the communications” of the Epstein scandal.
Earlier this year, the president acknowledged his weak public
by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Health, Health science, Maddowblog, News, Politics
Over the past year or so, leading Trump administration officials from the Pentagon to the Department of Transportation have sparked controversies by making unfortunate and unnecessary changes to online public resources.
But arguably the most important website change happened last fall when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. personally intervened and directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its website, which used to reflect the scientific consensus, alerting the public to the fact that vaccines do not cause autism.
The revised online resource told the public, “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” This was a ridiculous assertion at odds with basic logic — by this reasoning, the claim “saxophones do not cause autism” is also not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that saxophones cause autism — and it was certainly unbecoming of the CDC, which used to represent the international gold standard in its field.
Roughly nine months later, this issue returned to the fore when Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, endorsed Erica Schwartz’s nomination to lead the CDC after it agreed to change the centers’ website on vaccines and autism.
Cassidy was apparently impressed by what he characterized as a constructive move. “I am confident that [Schwartz] knows what she is doing and will stand against those who don’t,” the senator told The Washington Post. He added that “as a sign of good faith, HHS modified the CDC’s autism and
by Steve Benen | Jul 27, 2026 | Health, Maddowblog, News, Politics
For Americans concerned about public-health challenges, Friday afternoon brought a series of discouraging headlines. For example, we learned late last week that the United States has recorded more cases of measles in 2026 than in any other year since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000 — and this year isn’t yet over. Around the same time, roughly 1.5 million dozen white and brown cage-free eggs were recalled due to potential salmonella contamination.
And then, of course, there’s the cyclospora problem: Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that they’ve linked cases of a diarrhea-causing parasite tied to shredded lettuce to additional states, bringing the new total to nine states.
As Friday came to an end, Frank Yiannas, who served as the Food and Drug Administration’s deputy commissioner for food policy and response under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, called for an independent review of the federal government’s response to the cyclospora outbreak.
“This one deserves a lot of questions, and it is starting to approach a catastrophic level in terms of how mismanaged it’s been on multiple fronts,” Yiannas told Politico. Pointing to the outbreak’s magnitude and widespread consumer confusion, he went on to criticize the “lack of strong federal leadership.”
It was against this backdrop that the incumbent president fielded some questions from reporters on Friday during an unrelated event in the Oval Office. “There’s this nasty parasite that is giving people in nine states explosive diarrhea,” Fox News’ Peter Doocy said. “When is it going to be safe to eat lettuce again?”
Doocy: “There’s this nasty parasite that is giving people in nine states explosive diarrhea. When is
by Steve Benen | Jul 25, 2026 | Maddowblog
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* That the year isn’t even over yet makes this news noticeably worse: “The United States has now recorded more cases of measles in 2026 than in any other year since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000, a grim sign that the country may be headed toward a new era in which the disease regularly sickens thousands every year.”
* An intensifying cyclospora problem: “Federal health officials on Friday said they have linked cases of a diarrhea-causing parasite tied to shredded lettuce to an additional four states, expanding the scope of the largest U.S. outbreak of cyclospora. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak first tied to Taco Bell restaurants now includes Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. Previously the agency’s investigation included five states: Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.”
* Meanwhile: “Approximately 1.5 million dozen white and brown cage-free eggs have been recalled due to potential salmonella contamination.”
* A lawsuit worth watching: “Two small businesses sued the Trump administration on Friday over the latest tariffs it has imposed around the world, touching off another legal battle that could redefine President Trump’s powers to wage a global trade war.”
* No rush: “Paramount said on Friday that it had agreed to halt its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until next June at the latest while a judge considers a lawsuit from state attorneys general who sued to block the deal. The delay throws into doubt the future of a deal that would remake Hollywood.”
* In related news: “The former ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent Cecilia Vega on Thursday described pressure from executives at CBS News to
