WEDNESDAY: The president keeps pouring it on!

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2025

Delusional, dangerous conduct: Yesterday, we returned late in the day from our all-day medical outing. We hadn't had the chance to review President Trump's entire press event when we offered this report.

Yesterday's cabinet meeting / press event was truly one for the ages. Eventually, we came upon an additional report in Mediaite about one of the many peculiar things President Trump had said.

Headline included, Ahmed Austin Jr.'s report starts as shown below. In our view, Austin is reporting some delusional, highly dangerous behavior on the part of President Trump:

‘I Like to Watch the Enemy’: Trump Drops Wild Attack On CNN Reporter During Cabinet Meeting

President Donald Trump on Tuesday used his cabinet meeting to launch into another attack on CNN for its reporting on the strikes in Iran.

Following the U.S. military’s strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities in June, CNN reported that early intelligence indicated that the damage was not total. Sources also told CNN that the strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. The goal of the mission was to wipe out the program entirely.

Since then, there have been conflicting reports on the severity of the attacks. The Trump administration has insisted that Iran’s nuclear program was destroyed, but after a briefing with top Trump cabinet officials, multiple members of Congress walked away with the belief that the damage was indeed minimal.

As all of this went on, Trump continued going after CNN—threatening to sue both CNN and the New York Times. He primarily took aim at [NAME WITHHELD], one of the reporters behind the initial story.

Yesterday, the president continued to assail that CNN reporter. In the wake of the Minnesota murders, it's amazing to see a sitting president continue to behave in such a reckless and dangerous way.

(For Rev's full transcript of the cabinet meeting / press event, you can just click here. Thank God for the invaluable Rev!)

In the passage from the Mediaite report, we've omitted the reporter's name. Here's some of what the sitting president said during yesterday's event. In the interest of cogency, we're omitting one misleading statement:

PRESIDENT TRUMP (7/8/25): [The attack on Iran] was a perfect military performance...I mean, those machines flew for 37 straight hours. They didn't stop. They went skedaddle. 

You know the word skedaddle? That means skedaddle. They dropped the bombs and somebody said, "Skedaddle, let's get the hell out of here." And every bomb hit its mark and hit it incredibly....

We had a lot of fake reporting. mostly from CNN, where the scammer writer, a writer for CNN—who should be fired, by the way. She was involved with the 51 fake intelligence agents, if you remember that. She did that story, created a story out of it. She created a story out of the “laptop from hell,” saying it came from Russia, but it actually came from Hunter Biden’s bedroom or worse.

Just a scammer and she’s still at CNN, which is pretty amazing—but we’ll ask you a question about her. But they came up with this concept that maybe the attack wasn’t that good. And I saw it happen right after the attack. I saw this person on CNN. I actually watch. I like to watch the enemy. You learn from the enemy. And I watch because you have to know where they’re coming from. 

The president went on from there. We're going to stop with his incredible statement that the CNN reporter is, and we quote, "the enemy."

Minnesota was only a few weeks ago, Already, we're back to that.

For the record, there was nothing wrong with the CNN journalist's report about the DIA's initial assessment of the bombing strike on Iran. Also, there was nothing wrong with her report for Politicoway back in October 2020, about the 51 intelligence agents who had signed a letter stating their tentative view about the Hunter Biden laptop.

In each instance, the CNN journalist was simply reporting an actual set of actual facts which had actually happened in the real world. The president continues to rant about these reports in a delusional, dangerous manner.

Is President Trump "lying" when he insists on angrily repeating his various bollixed tales? We know of no way to be certain.

As an alternative, is it possible that he actually is "delusional" in some diagnosable way? We don't know how to evaluate that possibility, but when delusional people believe crazy things, in theory they aren't "lying." Tragically, such people are stating a delusional, crazy belief. 

Last night, Lawrence O'Donnell continued to assail the president as "the stupidest president in American history," largely with reference to the president's endless misstatements about the way tariffs work.

It's always possible that O'Donnell's assertion is accurate. On the other hand, O'Donnell also refers to the president's statements as "lies."

Alas! The L-bomb implies that the president knows his statements are false. The S-bomb may seem to imply that he's so dumb that he may think his statements are actually true. 

Is something wrong with President Trump? In our view, O'Donnell's anger tends to keep him from making well-reasoned assessments.

For ourselves, we can't help wondering what a (carefully selected) medical specialist might say about this president's endless supply of ridiculous, repetitive statements—statements which are tied to his endless sense of persecution and to his endless supply of self-pity.

That said, the president's savaging of the CNN reporter is a deeply dangerous act. Yesterday, he actually called her "the enemy"—astoundingly, even that!

Minnesota was only a few weeks ago. That quickly, we're now back to that.

This is deeply disordered behavior. In our view, O'Donnell's simmering anger has him over his skis, and no one else seems to want to discuss the president's astonishing conduct.

AMERICAN DISCOURSE: When the last of the co-hosts finally spoke...

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2025

...she focused on Cali's "illegals:" Discourse, don't fail us now!

In the face of such pleas, the Fox News Channel had ordered up a special edition of its "cable news" program, The Five.

The Five is the most-watched show in "cable news." For better or worse, its viewership dwarfs that of any show on MSNBC or on CNN.

On it best days, The Five acquires its frisson from the way its panel is constructed, with four (4) MAGA adherents arrayed against one (1) nominal Democrat. On most days, the Democratic slot is filled by Harold Ford, a former congressman, or by Jessica Tarlov, a substantially feistier "American political strategist."

Especially since last November, Ford has sometimes seemed to be more pro-Trump than his four supposed MAGA-friendly antagonists. The frisson arrives when Tarlov starts injecting a relevant point into some pseudo-discussion, triggering an array of interruptions from her four pro-Trump co-hosts.

In these latter days of what was once the American discourse, four against one is where the Fox News Channel's original dream of "fair and balanced" seems to have drifted. But as we noted in Monday's report, last Wednesday was a special day, with no Democrat present:

The Five: Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Emily Compagno: co-host, Outnumbered
Lawrence Jones: co-host, Fox & Friends
Johnny Joey Jones: Fox News contributor
Dana Perino: regular co-host, The Five
Greg Gutfeld: regular co-host, The Five

That's the way The Mudville Five ran out on the field that day. 

On loan from God and from Fox & Friends, reliable blowhard Lawrence Jones was stationed in the "liberal" chair on this unusual day. When the gang began pretending to discuss the pending GOP megabill, their discussion of Medicaid coverage started off like this:

GUTFELD (7/2/25): [The Democrats] are the human version of hysterical tweets...They say, "Oh my God, you're cutting Medicaid! You're throwing, you're throwing the poor and needy"—

No, no, no! These are young, able-bodied people, and illegals. You know, this isn't a free buffet for people who could afford to pay for it. So enough with that.

[...]

PERINO: So on the health car front, Joey—every time a Democrat goes on TV, they add two to three million more to how many people are going to lose their health care. It's 7.8 million people that would be required to do these work requirements, and it's illegal immigrants. 

Perino had started the pseudo-discussion with mocking remarks about the way the bill was being critiqued by Dems. It then came time for Gutfeld to swear that no one would lose their Medicaid coverage except for able-bodied fraudsters—and illegal immigrants.

In the type of embarrassment not unknown to this program, Johnny Joey Jones seemed to think that the group was discussing coverage under the Medicare program. That said, he too seemed to agree: 

No one was going to lose his coverage under whatever program was being discussed unless the person in question was unable to prove that he or she deserved it.

Tarlov wasn't there to djspute this claim, triggering a bout of interruption and overtalking. Eventually, it came time for Emily Compagno to speak.

Compagno is the speed-talking co-host of the mid-day Outnumbered program. On The Five, Fox may be auditioning Compagno for the newly abandoned Judge Jeanine Pirro chair. 

No one will ever fill Judge Jeanine's shoes, but Compagno now started to speak. After more happy talk from Perino, Compagno started like this:

PERINO: Once you havet this bill, and people have the confidence that their taxes aren't going to go up. maybe that fuels some economic growth.

COMPAGNO: And this goes to show that— Why can't Democrats celebrate a win? Why can't they join together to celebrate and propel a vehicle that really would lift all boats?

According to the puzzled Compagno, the megabill was a vehicle which would lift all boats! Except for what you  see below, she seemed to have no idea why Dems might oppose such a bill:

COMPAGNO (continuing directly): And I hope that for all of them stunting for their re-election purposes, and clearly just to their echo chamber constituents, that they would remember what would happen if this didn't pass.

Why were Democrats opposing the bill? According to Compagno, they were just "stunting" their constituents off in the echo chamber.

She seemed to know of no other possible reason. On the merits, Compagno said the megabill was going to be a win for everyone!

So it goes on this program's pseudo-discussions each day at 5 p.m. Eventually, Compagno turned to the question of health care coverage, presumably under Medicaid.

She discussed her native California. We were struck by what she said:

COMPAGNO: Hearing Democrats on their TikTok and saying these sort of slogans, you know—Sandy Ocasio saying it's a betrayal of working families...or worthless Governor Gavin talking about the Americans that will lose health care—why don't you back up to the two million illegal immigrants on health care in your state, which everyone pays for, which is why they're fleeing?

[...]

I wish that there was thought behind it. I wish that they were actually human for a second, because they go— They show that anything that Trump eclipses any type of analysis that would actually help their constituents.

For the record, "Sandy" is the name they drop on Rep. Ocasio-Cortez as a means of diminishment. Then too, she spoke about "Governor Gavin."

In the larger sense, Compagno wished that Democrats were willing to be human. The bill would actually help their constituents, but they were refusing to get on board because the bill, which would lift all boats, had come from President Trump.

Compagno seemed to know of no possible serious reason for opposition to this bill. Upon what meat doth Red America feed? Whatever you think of the megabill, day after day after day after day, Red America feeds upon this type of messaging gruel!

That said, we were struck by what Compagno said about her native California. The panel had seemed to be discussing the bill's possible effect upon Medicaid coverage. Is it true, we wondered, that two million illegal immigrants are currently receiving Medicaid coverage in the Golden State?

Indeed, is it legal for any illegal / undocumented / unauthorized immigrant to receive Medicaid coverage? We'd tried to google that topic before, and we'd found it wasn't easy.

Fellow citizens, how about it? Can an "illegal immigrant" receive Medicaid coverage? Can several million such people be found in California alone?

As of last Wednesday, we still didn't know the answer to those questions. Tomorrow, as the discourse continues to die all around us, we'll show you what happened when we tried to find out.

"Illegals" will lose their Medicaid coverage, Gutfeld seemed to say. Everyone else seemed to agree—and Compagno delivered the final blow.

We've shown you what the savants said. Ladies and gentlemen, riddle us this:

Do you—indeed, does anyone else—know what's actually true?

Tomorrow: The complexification rules


TUESDAY: Something is wrong with a famous man...

TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2025

...and with one entire group: Returning from the medical shop, we learn that President trump has now said this about CNN and the New York Times and the air strikes on Iran:

PRESIDENT TRUMP (7/8/25): That mission was a work of art.

[...]

[The pilots] landed, and they were cheered. But the sad thing was, they were cheered and one of the pilots said:

“You know, we were a little concerned, because when we got out, we were told that, on television, they were reporting that we may have missed our targets. Sir, we hit every target. That’s what I do for a living. We hit every target.

“In fact, when I saw—when we dropped, when the bombs hit—a yellow haze came over the horizon that I’ve never seen before. It just lit up the whole horizon, brighter than the sun. It was like looking into the sun.” 

He goes, “We hit our target, because you know what that was that was exploding.”.

And—but they were a little downbeat because they listened to that fake CNN reporting, and the fake New York Times—they worked together to try and say that it wasn’t perfect.

They couldn’t say they missed. All they could say is, "Maybe it wasn’t perfect."

And you ought to fire that reporter immediately. You should fire her. A real fake. 

And so I just want to congratulate those pilots. And a lot of people don’t like bringing things like that up. I always like confronting, because otherwise the public doesn’t know that you’re a bunch of crooked people.

To review the videotape, see the Mediaite report. Concerning the statement, we'll say two things:

First, something is wrong with that person. We regard that as a human tragedy—as a tragic loss of human potential.

We regard that as a human tragedy. But also, something is wrong with an elite mainstream press corps which has agreed to disappear that fact and to avoid that topic.

For better or worse, the entire press corps has taken a dive—except, perhaps, for George Conway. Everyone we Blues are told to admire has agreed to take this dive.

AMERICAN DISCOURSE: Regarding Medicaid, we'll start tomorrow...

TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2025

...with what Compagno said: After two or three years, depending on where you start to count, The Surgical Wounds Which Would Not Heal have suddenly started healing. 

That has the look of good news. On the other hand, today's medical mission went on way too long, robbing us of the chance to continue yesterday's offering.

Yesterday, when we left off, the gang at The Five were completely sure that no one has anything to worry about, Medicaid coverage-wise.

According to Perino, Gutfeld and (Johnny Joey) Jones, only two groups could lose their coverage under terms of the GOP megabill. As you may recall, Gutfeld and Perino started the messaging like this:

GUTFELD (7/2/25): [The Democrats] are the human version of hysterical tweets...They say, "Oh my God, you're cutting Medicaid! You're throwing, you're throwing the poor and needy"

No, no, no! These are young, able-bodied people, and illegals. You know, this isn't a free buffet for people who could afford to pay for it. So enough with that.

[...]

PERINO: So on the health car front, Joey—every time a Democrat goes on TV, they add two to three million more to how many people are going to lose their health care. It's 7.8 million people that would be required to do these work requirements, and it's illegal immigrants.

Everybody seemed to agree about those hysterical Democrats. Young slackers might lose their Medicaid coverage—young slackers, plus illegal immigrants.

As we showed you yesterday, Perino, Gutfeld and Jones all completely agreed. And then, it was time for Emily Compagno to speak. 

Tomorrow morning, we'll start by showing you what she said—and we'll continue to float this question:

With respect to this vital topic, Red Americans hear one thing, we Blues hear something different. The messaging is totally different:

How do you know what's right? 

BREAKING: Posting delayed till this afternoon!

TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2025

Medicaid meets The Five: Every fourth Tuesday, we lose the bulk of the day to our ongoing medical mission.

This is that fourth Tuesday! For that reason, we won't be posting until late this afternoon. Meanwhile, our question is this:

Now that the GOP megabill has passed into law, what's going to happen with respect to Medicaid coverage?

In yesterday's report, we showed you some—though not yet all—of what was said last Wednesday on The Five. What else was said on that high profile show? And how can anyone actually know what the actual truth might be?

Our American discourse is a shambles, a Babel—a mess. We'll profile that problem all this week. In our view, this endemic, existential problem is vastly underreported, vastly underdiscussed.

MONDAY: Maybe two years, the Pentagon says!

MONDAY, JULY 7, 2025

One person's ranting persists: We're so old that we can remember the bombing attacks on Iran.

Operation Midnight Hammer took place on Saturday, June 21, Eastern time. President Trump offered his initial assessment that night:

Trump Speaks on Iran Bombing

PRESIDENT TRUMP (6/21/25): A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. 

Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.

"Completely and totally obliterated" became an instant watchword. In the strictest literal sense, President Trump had only applied that formulation to Iran's "key nuclear enrichment facilities"—but the next morning, Secretary Hegseth may have seemed to take things farther:

Hegseth Press Briefing after US Strikes Iran

SECRETARY HEGSETH (6/22/25): Last night, on President Trump's orders, U.S. Central Command conducted a precision strike in the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in Iran: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan in order to destroy or severely degrade Iran's nuclear program...We devastated the Iranian nuclear program.

[...]

Many presidents have dreamed of delivering the blow to Iran's nuclear program and none could until President Trump. The operation President Trump planned was bold and it was brilliant.

In Hegseth's formulation, the bombing strikes had severely degraded (or perhaps had "destroyed") Iran's "nuclear program" writ large. 

Soon thereafter, an accurate report by CNN—and then by the New York Times and the Washington Post—touched off a local version of tribal World War III:

In an accurate report, CNN accurately reported an accurate fact—an early assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency said that Iran's nuclear program had been damaged less severely than that. The Associated Press also reported the contents of that early assessment:

New U.S. intelligence report suggests Iran’s nuclear program only set back by months after strikes

A new U.S. intelligence report found that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months after a U.S. strike and was not “completely and fully obliterated” as President Donald Trump has said, according to two people familiar with the early assessment.

The intelligence report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran’s nuclear facilities. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to the people, the report found that while the Saturday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, they were not totally destroyed.

The assessment found that at least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was moved out of multiple sites before the U.S. strikes and survived, according to the people, and it also found that Iran’s centrifuges are largely intact.

How accurate was this early assessment? We have no idea! That said, the news orgs in question had accurately reported the contents of this DIA assessment. 

CNN and the other orgs had filed accurate news reports about an early assessment. Inevitably, the president was still fulminating about this bit of "fake news" as recently as July 3, at the angry "Salute to America" rally where he said that he hated all Democrats.

Concerning CNN and the others, here's what he angrily said:

Salute to America Celebration

PRESIDENT TRUMP (7/3/25):  Complete obliteration. It turned out that was complete obliteration. Think of these guys flying way up in the air in a dark night. No moon, no nothing, and they hit every single target. 

[...]

Iran's nuclear enrichment has been obliterated. Remember when CNN said it wasn't obliterated, it was maybe damaged or damaged badly, but obliterated is too strong a word? No, it was obliterated, that's now been proven. The Atomic Energy Commission said everything it's been obliterated. And they were trying to demean me by saying that, but they were really demeaning those great pilots, and people, and mechanics that got those planes over there and were able to shoot from high up in the air, going very, very fast with potentially a lot of things being shot at them and hit every single one, every single.

They're trying to demean me, but to me, they were demeaning them. And they got out of the plane and they said, "What the hell? We hit every single target." They know better than anybody, but now that's been proven. It's CNN fake news and scammers that work for them, scam writers that work for them. But we understand it and we fight it back, and a lot of people said, "Sir, don't criticize it because they're beneath you." 

No, they're not beneath me, nobody's beneath. You got to put it, otherwise people don't understand. If you don't say something about, you got to say it. These people did one of the greatest military hits and maneuvers in the history of our country, and I want them to be appreciated for it.

Thus spake President Trump, as part of his Salute to America event. 

That's what the president said on July 3. Just to establish the record, here's what Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell had said the day before, in a formal press conference:

Pentagon Press Briefing for 7/02/25

PARNELL (7/2/25): Our assessment of the battle damage around Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan remains unchanged. We believe, and certainly all of the intelligence that we've seen, have led us to believe that Iran's—those facilities, especially, have been completely obliterated. And the interesting side point about this, Tara, is that all of the conversations that we've had since Operation Midnight Hammer, with our allies all around the world, but certainly also in the region, they say a couple of things. They share our sentiments about the degradation of Iran's nuclear program and the fact that we have degraded their program by one to two years. At least intel assessments inside the department assess that, and I think their intelligence shares that conclusion.

REPORTER: Does current assessments by this department think it's been degraded or delayed by one to two years?

PARNELL: I think we're thinking probably closer to two years, like degraded their program by two years.

According to Parnell, Iran's program has been degraded or delayed by something approaching two years. 

We don't know if that really is the current assessment. If that really is the current assessment, we don't know if it's accurate.

But that's what Parnell said, in a formal Pentagon press event on July 2. The next night, the president was fulminating in the heartland again—and his fulminations found no room for this formal assessment.

Initially, the DIA had said Iran's program had been set back by maybe just a few months. CNN and other agencies accurately reported that initial assessment.

As of July 2, Parnell was formally saying that the Iranian program had been set back by something approaching two years. Inevitably, his formal statement has come and gone with very little notice. In its place, we get the ranting of the president—ranting the press corps has thoroughly normalized. 

As the ancient saying goes, "[Little] beside remains."

Also this: We wanted to establish the record about this significant matter. At present, the formal assessment seems to say something approaching two years.

Parnell said Iran has been set back maybe two years—but evaluation continues! In the July 2 presser, this exchange also occurred:

REPORTER: Is that a final assessment that you're citing there, or is there still more information coming in?

PARNELL:  The assessments are ongoing. And every day that goes by, the intelligence picture that we have gets clearer and clearer. And as we get those updates, Courtney, we'll keep you updated.

Parnell says the assessments are ongoing. But within the dying American discourse, all that's left is the shouting—the shouting, and the absurd self-pity, and the declarations of hate.

Could something be wrong with the person in question? If so, that's a human tragedy, but our journalists aren't going to ask!

AMERICAN DISCOURSE: As Perino reassured Red America...

MONDAY, JULY 7, 2025

...Blue America heard something quite different: As of last Wednesday afternoon, the House of Representatives still hadn't passed the GOP megabill.

The House would pass the bill the next day. On the Fourth of July, as originally planned, President Trump would sign the bill into law.

For now, it was 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 2. On a major Fox News Channel program, a panel of five like-minded performers were mocking Democratic claims about the contents of the bill.

The program was The Five. For better or worse—quite often, for worse—The Five is the most-watched program in the American "cable news" firmament.

For whatever reason, there was no liberal, progressive or nominal Democrat on the five-member panel this day. Lawrence Jones, the all-knowing co-host of Fox & Friends, sat in the (nominal) liberal chair. 

That meant that all five panelists would be giving voice to various Fox News Channel talking points. This was last Wednesday's lineup:

The Five: Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Emily Compagno: co-host, Outnumbered
Lawrence Jones: co-host, Fox & Friends
Johnny Joey Jones: Fox News contributor
Dana Perino: regular co-host, The Five
Greg Gutfeld: regular co-host, The Five

For better or worse, those were the players on the Mudville Five that day.

The program's first segment was devoted to UPenn's official statement that it had erred in allowing Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, to take part in female college swimming competition. The segment ran above this (accurate) chyron:

UPENN TO BAN TRANS ATHLETES FROM WOMEN'S SPORTS

That was the opening segment. In the program's second segment, all five panelists mocked Democratic complaints about the contents of the megabill. 

When it came time to describe the bill's contents, here's part of what was said:

GUTFELD (7/2/25): [The Democrats] are the human version of hysterical tweets...They say, "Oh my God, you're cutting Medicaid! You're throwing, you're throwing the poor and needy"—

No, no, no! These are young, able-bodied people, and illegals. You know, this isn't a free buffet for people who could afford to pay for it. So enough with that.

[...]

PERINO: So on the health car front, Joey—every time a Democrat goes on TV, they add two to three million more to how many people are going to lose their health care. It's 7.8 million people that would be required to do these work requirements, and it's illegal immigrants. 

"No. no, no," Gutfeld said, rejecting the claim that truly needy people could end up losing their Medicaid coverage under terms of the GOP bill. 

As she introduced the segment, Perino had ridiculed the way major Dems were all posting "the same Bat-signal talking points on X, blaming [the Senate bill] for allegedly taking health care away from Americans."

According to Gutfeld and Perino, it seemed that the only Medicaid recipients who could lose their coverage were young, able-bodied people who were refusing to work. People like that would lose their coverage, and so would illegal immigrants.

As the segment continued, Perino continued her throw to Joey Johnny Jones. He began by describing the widespread fraud committed by recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance in his native Dalton, Georgia.

(The widespread fraud within that program had long been committed by "the people I love and that raised me," Jones now sadly said.)

So said Jones, painting a picture of widespread fraud within that federal program. As he continued, he then seemed to discuss President Trump's pledge concerning Medicaid coverage—except he seemed to think that the panel was discussing coverage under Medicare, a different federal program:

JONES: ...The sentence was, "I'm not going to cut Medicare—Medicaid. Medicare! 
The sentence should have been, "I'm not going to cut Medicare to people who prove, who can prove that they deserve it."

According to Jones, that's what President Trump should have said. More specifically, Jones seemed to think that that was the actual policy found in the megabill.

(To assess what Jones said, you'll have to watch the videotape yourself. To our ear, he seemed to think the panel was talking about Medicare coverage. Such cluelessness is not uncommon within the pseudo-discussions which form the bulk of this influential program.)

At any rate, so it went as Red America's viewers were reassured about the "Bat-signal talking-points" the Democrats had all been posting—about the stupid claims the Dems had been making about this part of the GOP bill. 

No one was going to lose Medicaid coverage except able-bodied adults who refused to work, along with illegal immigrants. Or at least, so it seemed as Gutfeld, Perino and Jones discussed this part of the GOP bill.

For the record, the messaging about illegal immigrants had been common in Red America for months by this time. Almost surely, that explains calls to C-Span's Washington Journal like the one we transcribed as part of our June 30 report.

The previous caller had voiced concern about people losing their Medicaid coverage. This next caller instantly said that there was nothing to worry about. 

The GOP bill was going to dump "illegals" from the program. this caller said. he bill was going to dump "illegals" and no one else:

MODERATOR (6/29/25): Kelly, in Clemmons, North Carolina, on the line for Republicans. Good morning, Kelly!

KELLY IN NORTH CAROLINA: Hi, Tammy! Well, I want to tell that man right there that his prayers have already been answered. Because they're not cutting Social Security, they're not cutting Medicare, and they're not cutting Medicaid. 

They are reforming Medicaid, and the way the cuts would be are not real "cuts." They are no more illegals being able to use them. That's where the cuts are coming from, OK? All you people who are American citizens, you will still be getting everything you were getting...

I just want you all to know there's nothing to worry about. You are listening to propaganda, and it's all propaganda from the left. Stop listening to it, you're hurting yourselves. They are trying to make you in fear. Have faith, not fear, and God bless you all.

MODERATOR: That was Kelly in North Carolina...

"All you people who are American citizens, you will still be getting everything you were getting," this C-Span caller said. In line with standard C-Span practice, the moderator made no attempt to question or critique the caller's presentation.

As of today, the megabill has been passed by the Senate and the House, and it's been signed into law. We will now see, or will perhaps fail to see, what its effects will be.

The field of play is this:

We American citizens now live in two separate nations. As we inhabit our separate domains, we hear vastly different accounts of major policy issues.

Last Wednesday afternoon, the five players on our nation's most-watched "cable news" show were mocking the bogus talking points which were comically being churned by the ridiculous Democrats. But as this messaging went out to Red America, people living in Blue America were hearing a vastly different set of claims about the likely effects of the bill.

People in the two Americas were hearing vastly different sets of claims about this high-profile bill. We think of Lincoln' portrait of an earlier pair of Americas as the Civil War approached:

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. 

At that time, the two Americas were drawing vastly different conclusions even from the words of the Bible! Today, a different pair of Americas are emitting vastly different claims about this major bill.

Dana Perino is saying one thing. Major voices in Blue America are making claims which are vastly different.

As we launch a week in which we'll explore the shape of the broken American discourse, we leave you today with a question which may seem peculiar:

Vastly different claims are being made. How do you know who's right?

Tomorrow: What Compagno said