TUESDAY: Sitting president spots the scum...

TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 2025

...then continues from there: The Daily Beast is reporting a poll. For ourselves, we probably wouldn't call its results "devastating" or a "bombshell," but the Beast's report starts like this:

Devastating Poll Shows Trump What Americans Think of His Bombings

A bombshell CNN poll found that a clear majority of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s decision to launch airstrikes in Iran.

The poll found that 56 percent of Americans disapproved of [Saturday's] military action in Iran, while only 44 percent were in favor. It also found that 58 percent of those surveyed believe Trump’s actions will make Iran a bigger threat to the U.S.

The vast majority of Democrats (88 percent) and most independents (60 percent) said they opposed the strikes, while most Republicans (82 percent) broadly approved. But just 44 percent of Republicans said they strongly approved of Trump’s actions—a much smaller cohort than the 60 percent of Democrats who strongly disapproved.

Just to be clear, the featured question was this:

What is your view of the US decision to take military action in Iran?

Plainly, the question seemed to refer to Saturday's military strike, not to possible "military action" in general.

For our money, we'd generally prefer to see polling numbers cut against President Trump by a larger margin than 56-44. This second question did produce a larger negative split:

Do you think this US military action will make Iran [more of a threat / less of a threat] to the US?

Responses there broke in favor of "more of a threat" by 58-25. Opinion on that could change, of course, depending on what does or doesn't come next.

CNN asked another question—a question we think is instructive. That question went like this:

How much do you trust Donald Trump to make the right decisions about US use of force in Iran?

We regard that as a very good question. Rightly or wrongly, for better or worse, respondents broke down like this:

How much do you trust Donald Trump to make the right decisions about US use of force in Iran?
Great deal / moderately: 45%
Not much / not at all: 55%

More simplistically, 45% basically trust his decision making; 55% basically don't. Given where the Daily Beast report went next, we'd call that a bit of a win for the selling of President Trump.

Here's the way the Daily Beast report continued:

The poll results were featured in a segment on CNN at 6:40 a.m. ET on Tuesday. Within 20 minutes, Trump furiously lashed out at the network while speaking to reporters on the White House lawn as part of an explicit tirade, slamming CNN as “scum.”

Ranting about reports from CNN and MSNBC that his airstrikes may not have completely destroyed Iran’s nuclear stockpiles, Trump fumed: “CNN is scum. And so is MSDNC ... It’s all fake news. They should not have done that. Those pilots hit their targets, those targets were obliterated, and the pilots should be given credit. They’re not after the pilots, they’re after me.”

Obviously, no one is "going after the pilots." But so said President Trump.

Over and over, again and again, everyone seems to be going after President Trump if you let him tell it. We can't help wondering what a (carefully selected) medical specialist would say about this endless pattern of behavior, but we do know this:

Given prevailing rules of the game, no news org is going to ask.

To a remarkable degree, large elements of Red America's current elites are driven by fury and rage. Of course, if western literature began with the Iliad, it began with a lengthy profile of fury and rage as expressed by a furious, rage-filled group of extremely angry men.

For ourselves, we don't have a lot of confidence in President Trump's future decision making. In what we would regard as a tragedy, his erratic behavior routinely spills with rage, as happened again today. 

We refer to this Truth Social post. It concerns three Democratic House members, with a certain "Palestinian" senator thrown in:

Truth Details

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Stupid AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the "dumbest" people in Congress, is now calling for my Impeachment, despite the fact that the Crooked and Corrupt Democrats have already done that twice before. The reason for her "rantings" is all of the Victories that the U.S.A. has had under the Trump Administration. The Democrats aren’t used to WINNING, and she can’t stand the concept of our Country being successful again. When we examine her Test Scores, we will find out that she is NOT qualified for office but, nevertheless, far more qualified than Crockett, who is a seriously Low IQ individual, or Ilhan Omar, who does nothing but complain about our Country, yet the Failed Country that she comes from doesn’t have a Government, is drenched in Crime and Poverty, and is rated one of the WORST in the World, if it’s even rated at all. How dare "The Mouse" tells us how to run the United States of America! We’re just now coming back from that Radical Left experiment with Sleepy Joe, Kamala, and "THE AUTOPEN," in charge. What a disaster it was! AOC should be forced to take the Cognitive Test that I just completed at Walter Reed Medical Center, as part of my Physical. As the Doctor in charge said, "President Trump ACED it," meaning, I got every answer right. Instead of her constant complaining, Alexandria should go back home to Queens, where I was also brought up, and straighten out her filthy, disgusting, crime ridden streets, in the District she "represents," and which she never goes to anymore. She better start worrying about her own Primary, before she starts thinking about our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin' Chuck Schumer, whose career is definitely on very thin ice! She and her Democrat friends have just hit the Lowest Poll Numbers in Congressional History, so go ahead and try impeaching me, again, MAKE MY DAY!

Yes, that's what he posted. 

At this site, we regard that apparently uncontrollable anger as a human tragedy—as a tragic loss of human potential. We also regard it as a reason to be concerned about President Trump's future decision-making.

Sadly, he keeps going back to that cognitive test, apparently not knowing how dumb the reference is. 

For ourselves, we think AOC's call for a third impeachment didn't exactly make sense. That said:

Forty-five percent of respondents told CNN that they expect that the man who keeps churning "Truths" of that type will make decent future decisions. Somewhere within that number, we almost suspect, our own tribe has failed to connect.

Our literature begins with a portrait of rage. It leads onward toward the fall of Troy—to a vicious and violent outcome.

In the present instance, our sitting president spotted the scum, then continued along from there. We regard this as a human tragedy. Many others trust this man.