by Steve Benen | May 8, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
During a recent briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declared categorically that Donald Trump “does not bluff.” This was certainly in line with the image the president and his team have long been eager to convey to the nation and the world: When the Republican makes threats and issues ultimatums, everyone should fully expect him to follow through.
Those who follow Trump’s actual approach to governance clearly know better — there’s a reason the “TACO” meme caught on — and one of the more embarrassing examples is coming into focus.
Exactly two months ago, the president used his social media platform to promote a far-right legislative proposal that he called the Save America Act, which would make it harder for voters to register to vote, make it harder for voters to cast ballots and, for some reason, would also impose new discriminatory measures targeting transgender Americans. His March 8 missive was one of several online items related to the bill, except this one included a unique vow.
“I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed,” Trump wrote.
In other words, as far as the president was concerned, he would refuse to sign every bill that cleared the Republican-led Congress, indefinitely, until his anti-voting, anti-transgender package reached his desk.
Except, two months later, we now know that he didn’t mean a word of it. In the days and weeks that followed his online declaration, Trump signed one bill into law, then another, then another. He proceeded to sign four more bills into law without any mention of the March 8 pledge.
In other words, the president who “does not bluff” was clearly
by Steve Benen | May 8, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
During an unexpected Q&A with reporters on Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump was asked about whether he was prepared to shift his tactics in the Middle East “now that gas prices are more than $4.50” per gallon. The president challenged the premise of the question.
Q: Are you considering going back to Project Freedom now that gas prices are more than $4.50?TRUMP: No. Gas prices have come down today. Have you looked? They came down very substantially today. The stock market is way up.— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-05-08T00:51:24.481Z
Gas prices, he claimed, fell “very substantially” on Thursday, adding, “Gas prices are way down.”
In this reality, the evidence shows otherwise. According to AAA’s latest tally, gas prices actually inched higher on Thursday, reaching $4.56 a gallon, before easing by one penny, to $4.55, as Friday got underway.
A week ago, the average was $4.39 a gallon. A month ago, it was $4.16 a gallon. There’s been no “very substantial” drop, and gas prices are by no means “way down.” Energy policy can be complex, but this is pretty simple stuff.
Stepping back, it’s genuinely bizarre to see so many prominent Republicans peddle such brazen falsehoods. Last week, it was House Majority Leader Steve Scalise declaring on CNBC that consumers are paying $3 per gallon, which wasn’t even close to being true. Around the same time, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina appeared on Fox Business and told viewers, “Gas prices continue to come down,” even as gas prices continued to go up.
This week, it was Trump trying his hand at gaslighting on gas prices.
But while prominent GOP leaders’ casual indifference to the truth might seem
by Anthea Butler | May 8, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
On the eve of his one-year anniversary as head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV received Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican. The meeting was not the result of an invitation extended by the pope, but followed a request made by the United States. In an exchange of gifts after the meeting, the Catholic Rubio gifted the first U.S.-born pope with a glass football etched with the logo of the secretary of state. Pope Leo reciprocated by giving the Rubio a pen of cedarwood, which is a symbol of peace.
Pope Leo’s response to what amounted to a glass football paperweight from Rubio? “Wow. OK.”
A glass football isn’t the most thoughtful gift for a native Chicagoan who is a fan of baseball’s White Sox.
I’m sure Rubio got the hint. A glass football isn’t the most thoughtful gift for a native Chicagoan who is such a fan of baseball’s White Sox that he even wore the team’s black cap with white lettering at the Vatican. But Rubio’s gift is emblematic of the fragile, fumbling relationship President Donald Trump and his administration have with Pope Leo and the Holy See.
The Holy See put out a brief communique about the meeting with Rubio, stating that “cordial talks renewed the shared commitment to fostering sound bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America.”
According to Christopher Hale, publisher of Letters From Leo, this is the Vatican’s polite way of saying we agree to disagree.
Rubio’s visit came on the heels of derogatory remarks about the pope from Trump, who continues to tell the lie that Pope Leo wants Iran to have nuclear weapons. In an
by Julio Ricardo Varela | May 8, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
President Donald Trump and his Justice Department have spent the last two years hunting for consequential election fraud that does not exist. Everything Trump has done after losing the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden serves as sufficient proof that he cares little about election integrity, but a drugs-for-votes scandal in Puerto Rico is the latest proof of just how phony those claims are.
Federal prosecutors had been building an election fraud case on the island, ProPublica reported Tuesday. And even though the scheme reportedly involved both fraud and drug trafficking, which the president also has claimed to hate, the investigation was squashed. Sources suspect that was a move to protect Puerto Rico’s Republican governor, Jenniffer González-Colón, people familiar with the investigation told ProPublica. The pro-statehood Republican publicly supported Trump during her 2024 gubernatorial campaign and during the 2020 presidential race, she was a visible member of “Latinos for Trump.”
The pro-statehood Republican was a visible member of “Latinos for Trump.”
As ProPublica reported, prosecutors filed “an indictment charging 34 inmates and associates with crimes including drug distribution resulting in at least four overdose deaths, money laundering and possessing a firearm,” but the outlet found that none of the voting-related counts were included.
“Before the election, it was definitely full steam ahead,” one person close to the case told ProPublica about the DOJ’s investigation into the drugs-for-votes allegations. “After the election, that all changed.”
The Biden administration was still in charge then, but those familiar with the investigation told ProPublica they suspect that politics drove the decision to drop the fraud charges.
According to ProPublica, those prosecutors had built a case against a prison gang known as
by Steve Benen | May 7, 2026 | Economy, Maddowblog, News, Politics
Recent polling has made it abundantly clear that Americans have soured on Donald Trump’s handling of the economy. In fact, some recent surveys have shown the president’s numbers dropping to a career low amid weak economic growth, rising inflation and the weakest job market in years.
In general, Trump’s response to the conditions has been to pretend everything is awesome. At a White House event on Wednesday afternoon, for example, the president said the current economy is “blowing away” the “best economic numbers” the United States has ever had. A week earlier, the president similarly said the economy is “roaring,” adding that the status quo is “the greatest economy we’ve ever had.”
None of this was even remotely true — and given Americans’ attitudes, Trump is taking a political risk by responding to discontent with absurd happy talk. Just as notably, the president tends to avoid specific details or reference to actual economic metrics, preferring instead to argue that the economy just seems great to him.
On Wednesday morning, however, the top economist in Trump’s White House approached the issue in a different kind of way. NBC News reported:
Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said in an interview on Fox’s “Mornings with Maria” that Americans were spending more money on credit cards, framing it as a positive sign for the economy. […]
Hassett said that he met with the head of a bank yesterday [Tuesday] and that the two reviewed credit card data. “Just as Secretary Bessent said, credit card spending is through the roof,” he said, referring to a quote from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Fox played
by Steve Benen | May 7, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory marked the beginning of the end of then-special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal cases. Almost immediately after Election Day, the prosecutor and his team grudgingly wrapped up their work — not because they wanted to or because they lacked compelling evidence, but because of Justice Department guidelines related to prosecuting a sitting president.
Left without options, Smith resigned and his criminal indictments against the president effectively evaporated.
As the prosecutor exited the stage, he did so with relative silence. In fact, even many of those who followed his cases closely didn’t even know what his voice sounded like, because Smith said so little, allowing his work to do the talking.
But nearly a year and a half later, the former special counsel has made the transition from a lawyer who preferred silence to one who has quite a bit to say. The New York Times reported:
Jack Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted President Trump, accused the Justice Department of having been “corrupted” by Trump loyalists he claimed were demolishing its credibility and seeking to undermine the rule of law.
Mr. Smith’s remarks, made last month in a private discussion at the Cosmos Club in Washington, represented his sharpest criticism of the department since leaving his post early last year.
“We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them,” Smith said in the hourlong discussion on April 20, according to a video obtained by the Times. He added, “We have a department that fails to move on cases because they might uncover facts that are inconvenient to narratives the president
