26 posts from Friday, June 19, 2026

A news/event photograph showing a large evening event on the South Lawn of the White House. In the foreground, a chain-link octagon (MMA-style fighting cage) has been set up with several people standing inside it, surrounded by a large crowd of spectators seated in bleachers on both sides. Two large video screens flank the scene showing footage from inside the cage/stage area. In the background, the White House is illuminated at dusk, decorated with numerous American flags, with a formation of military jets (resembling the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels) flying overhead trailing smoke in a fan/star formation. The whole scene is framed by a large dark curved stage truss structure with blue lighting arching over the top of the image.

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Screenshot of a social media post (X/Twitter-style) by Senator Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC), timestamped 2:08 PM · Jun 19, 2026 with 64.7K views. His post responds to a quoted repost by "Rapid Response 47" (@RapidResponse47) of a Truth Social post from Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), rendered here as an embedded card with a stylized red-white-blue profile icon.

Text in image: Lindsey Graham @LindseyGrahamSC Completely agree with President Trump's analysis that Iran's capability to generate another October 7 or continue to be the largest state sponsor of terrorism on the planet has been massively degraded. To those who say Iran is stronger now than before, that is an insult to the American military and it is delusional thinking because the Iranian economy is in shambles. Mr. President, continue to try to find a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear ambitions and other issues that have plagued the world since 1979. The day diplomacy is off the table will present America and our allies with some very stark choices. In the meantime, as we pursue diplomacy, make it crystal clear that Israel will not have to tolerate being attacked by Iranian proxies who cause parts of Israel to be uninhabitable. Pray for peace. Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47 · 2h Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump The War has diminished Iran! It doesn't, any longer, have an Air Force, a Navy, Antiaircraft Equipment, Radar, or practically anything else, and yet the Dumocrats say that Iran is better off now than it was four months ago. Can you imagine getting away with that??? How stupid can some people be??? President DJT 2:08 PM · Jun 19, 2026 · 64.7K Views

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[MUSIC] One of the things that I love is the opportunity to pull off a one-of-one experience. If anybody had the opportunity to do something at the White House, why would you not do it? We always believed in the UFC and we always believed in the sport of MMA, but you can never dream of something like this. I tell everybody that we do business with, there isn't anything we can't do. So to have a fight on the White House lawn, on the 250th birthday of America, no other sport would make sense. The team is always willing to do whatever it takes to pull off impossible feats. >> Hello, ladies and gentlemen, you are about to see something that you have never seen before. >> The impossible stuff is the stuff that gets me up in the morning. You saw the first book, that was just sort of the idea of what we wanted to do. Now, this is the reality. >> Today we've assembled the group that's gonna pull us off. >> Appreciate everybody's support. This is gonna be a massive effort. >> How are you? >> Are you doing this right here, man? >> I am. >> Feels like we have a lot to do. >> The main event, Iliad Dopouria, one of the most sensational champions we've ever seen inside the octagon facing Justin Gage, which I think is the absolute perfect match up, and of course, Alex Ferreira, who has just been a freak of danger. Cyril Gaughan is an elite world class striker. He's a huge guy. He's got incredible movement and skill. >> This really is the most historic sporting event ever. Where it is, when it is, what it represents. Everything about this makes this the most historic sporting event of all time. [MUSIC]

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Fox News alert the Iran deal is now in immediate effect both sides have signed Trump did it over lobster and caviar at Versailles and the gay Ayatollah had his number two use an auto pen so one day in how's it looking? I think the president's peace plan in Iran is already bearing real fruits for the American people. Last night 12.5 million barrels of oil went through the Strait of Hormuz that is a high since the beginning of the conflict. On the military side the Iranians for the second night in a road did not shoot at any ships in the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM lifted the blockade and the first ships to set sail were three Saudi super tankers the price of oils now in the 70s same as it was before the war and gas just fell under four bucks a gallon POTUS said told you so. I just do want to say though the stock market just hit a new all-time high the 401ks just hit a new all-time high and oil is dropping like a rock other than that it's another day in paradise. It could be paradise for Iran too it's without the versions if they behave and follow through on the deal we'll open Iran for business. There is a great desire from the Arab world and from outside the Arab world to actually get involved in Iran if they behave properly. If you behave and if the Emiratis themselves want to build a power plant then we will do the sanctions relief necessary to make that possible. A world where the Gulf Coast coalition has greater leverage into the Iranian economy is a world where the Iranians are going to be heavily prevented from misbehaving. There's a big brouhaha brewing in Washington over Iran getting money remember we control the money they're like a kid if they screw around they don't get an allowance it's the exact opposite of the Obama deal where we paid them to build missiles and enrich. The Obama nuclear deal allowed enrichment ours will not the Obama deal allowed the accumulation of stockpiled weapons grade material ours is actually leading to the destruction of that stockpile of enriched material so there are many differences the Obama deal gave them over a billion dollars of American money the this seal gives them zero dollars of American money. The way the deal structured is if Iran holds up their end of the bargain they don't get American money they get Arab money and we decide what they can build with it and we can see what they're doing with it after they get it but they don't get anything until they blow up the dust and this just in Whitcoff just briefed Congress that Iran's inviting the International Atomic Energy Agency to come inspect its nuclear sites and uncover the enriched material this is big. The Iranians have also agreed that US nuclear inspectors would be allowed into the country that's huge on day one we're already getting somewhere hopefully these are good signs but it's not about words it's about action. I've seen skeptics of the deal people say the Iranians will never change their behavior well maybe that's true and if so they don't get any of the benefits of the bargain but isn't it worth trying isn't it worth seeing whether this incredibly weakened position that the President of the United States has put the Iranians under whether that motivates them to change their behavior. The Iranians are dealing with a trillion dollars of damage we sunk their navy air force and 50 liters and we wiped out thousands of factories and they are in a deep deep depression they have to rebuild their country before they can even think about rebuilding a new program and if they start rebuilding their new program they won't get any money to rebuild their country. If space force even sees a man on a camel wander anywhere near one of their three new sites sanctions back and a love tap. Let's say two years down the road they've done what we need to see on the nuclear program and we release the sanctions as the deal contemplates then they decide they're gonna start rebuilding the nuclear program then of course those sanctions are gonna come back on and that's why it's really kind of like a dial as they dial up their good behavior we can dial up the economic relief if they dial down their good behavior we can turn it off. People are all saying well what about the strain in 60 days the deal leaves it open for Iran to toll. JD says wrong again. When you say it leaves it open it doesn't really leave it open and except in the sense that of course the final negotiation is gonna set the terms of what comes afterwards the Omanis the Iranians and the Gulf Coast Coalition together will figure out a proper security framework for the straights in the future and what I mean by that is that we don't ever want this to happen again but that's not about tolling that's about ensuring that the straights are never used as a choke point for the global economy ever again. The deal won't allow tolls if some Persian swashbuckler shows up rattling a tin can the Navy rolls up and we close their banks. When the blockade opens fully we'll step back and allow commerce to flow but if Iran doesn't comply then we're more than able to re-impose an ironclad blockade. Remember Iran suffered a painful and humiliating defeat. They've been living underground and under a blockade. They don't want to go back to that. The only reason we didn't kill more of their leaders is because we needed someone to sign a deal. They know that. Trump knows where the gay Ayatollah sleeps. If they're stupid we're violent. Bottom line. They're already praising Allah that Trump's letting them sell oil again. The VP says that's not even a concession. They've been selling oil for decades. Even though it was sanctioned they were still making money but we couldn't see the whole shadow fleet or the black market trades. Now with the sanctions off the oil sales we can see exactly who's buying and what Iran's doing with the money. So if they're funding Hezbollah paying for centrifuges with the oil revenue boom economic fury. The deal requires Iran to put their proxies on a leash. That means Israel needs to chill. Vance thinks Netanyahu has been a little too trigger happy. We seem to be right on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the agreement and then all of a sudden there's a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives. That's not acceptable. Vance sent a warning to the Jews. He said watch out. Trump's your daddy too. You've seen people within BB's cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal and in some ways very personally attacked the president of the United States and I guess my message to them would be twofold. Number one Donald J Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. Two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars. The problem for Israel is not Donald J Trump. This isn't Israel's deal. They wanted regime change which I completely understand but hard to do without ground troops. Trump didn't want to use ground troops. A lot of people said he would but he didn't. They told us it'd be a quagmire. Wasn't. Said it would cause World War III. Didn't. They predicted oil would hit $200 a barrel. We'd be rocked by deadly domestic terror attacks. We had no strategy to open the strait. We'd be in a recession. The stock market would crash and the same people who said all these things are now saying the deal is dumb. Now we're not Nostradamus. We just covered it. Trump could have easily done nothing on Iran. Let him keep building missiles, drones, terrorizing the neighborhood, nuking up deeper and deeper underground. That might have been smarter politically to do nothing but Trump's not a politician. He's a leader and leaders have to do the hard things so that life can be easier in the long run. And if it pays off and so far so good he'll have fundamentally changed the Middle East. A place that sucked America dry for 50 years. The people in that desert who have the most to lose here's what they say. The Gulf Coast Coalition loves this deal because they think that it makes Iran weaker. They hated the Obama deal because they thought that it made Iran stronger. They know more about this and they have more to lose than anybody including the United States of America. So I trust their judgment. The only people saying America lost this war, Iran and the Democrats. Everybody else recognizes the reality. We buried their leaders, their military and their dust. Number one, their nuclear program has been completely destroyed. Their capacity for enrichment, the facilities at which they were using to develop enrichment and develop a potential nuclear weapon, those facilities are still destroyed. Their conventional military is still destroyed. We did in three months with no ground troops. Thirteen casualties. God bless their souls. Cracked open the strait, took over the world oil market and aren't sending the mullahs a dime. We blocked China's Belt and Road and made them think twice about taking Taiwan. Kicked Russia out of the region. They've been kicked out of Venezuela, Syria, Iraq, Iran and we brought the Jews and the Arab Muslims closer together. Even if the deal goes south, which it very well could, Iran is financially and militarily crippled and their new programs dead and buried. But if this thing holds and hopefully it does, Kushner, Wyckoff, Rubio, and Vance deserve a lot of credit. Now I have seen some progressive criticisms of me personally saying what experience does the vice president of the United States have with hostile high-stakes negotiations and I would point those progressive critics to the fact that just two days ago I spent over an hour on the view. I mean look, Joy Behar is way tougher than the Iranians and she and I are best friends now so we're going to get to a good place. Peter Schweitzer is the president of the Government Accountability Institute. Peter how do you think this deal is going down in DC? I think a lot of people on the left and on the right are being critical of it but I think they're lacking an imagination in what Trump is trying to do here. Look, everybody wants her to be a final solution to have the Iran problem solved. That's not in the cards. The question is where do you go from here? Iran is in an enormously weakened position. If you look at the estimates of just the economic damage they've faced, you talked about their military has basically been decimated. The estimates are that they have suffered economic costs of between 40 and 50 percent, Jesse, of their entire gross domestic product. That's massive. So the question is you know they are a fanatical regime but fanatics believe in self-preservation as well and so there's an opportunity to do a deal. Look at the way that this has been structured. What Trump is doing is saying Iran is going to commit to these things and by the way the money is going to flow when we sign off and when the people in the region that most hate the Iranians, the Gulf states, when they are prepared to write a check and by the way those checks are not going to go to banks in Iran. They are going to pay the contractors who are creating the economic projects in the country. So it's not a case where Obama handed them a bunch of cash. So look, it could all go south. It could all fall apart but I think it's a really good effort to try to bring some finality to what has been a problem for 47 years. You know that's a good point because we can still control what the money in Iran is spent on. If they're going to take the money and build missile factories that's not going to happen. It just won't ever get off the ground and in terms of what we're hearing now and I had my doubts about this thing obviously you can't trust these people but when you're hearing on day one that they've invited the IAEA and U.S. nuclear inspectors into the country already they promised it not yet but they promised that that seems like we're heading in the right direction. Yeah I mean there's some positive signs here again look Iran has a long record of leading the West on. The question is by the way that this deal is being structured again the funds are not being handled by the United Nations they're not being handled by the Iranian government they're being handled by the Gulf Cooperative Council states which is Saudi Arabia Kuwait the Emiratis etc they hate the Iranians and the idea is that if you have an American company or a Japanese or a Korean company going to build a project in Iran and if we sign off on it it's going to be paid for by the Gulf states they're not going to hand that cash off to the Iranians to run off and not pay their bills so I think it's a very genius approach if you ask me where we're going to be in a couple years I think it's very possible we're going to have more military strikes against Iran I think they can't help themselves in terms of violating this deal but it is worth the effort and again think about Trump's strategic position the time is moving along Iran has a possibility to kind of rebuild economically but as all of this is going on Jesse Ray Theon is producing missiles we're producing more bombs we are upgrading our military capabilities and we can bring those to bear again absolutely and who's to say the people going into Iran to rebuild aren't CIA agents be nice to put maybe a listening device in one of the steel beams just saying just just thinking all right Peter yeah hopefully this goes well thank you

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You're America's first offenders. You are America's first responders. You are the living standard bearers of America's first fleet. As your commander in chief, I could not be prouder of the great Class of 2026. Congratulations. Congratulations. Amazing. And I have no doubt to say, just like those Coast Guard legends who came before you, you will always put America first. We put America first now.

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While everyone has worked and studied hard, some may have spent a little bit too much time at a place called Mr. G's. I don't know what Mr. G's is. I don't know what it is, but I don't like the sound of this. I'm not. Where am I going with this one? But we want you all to have a clean slate as you begin your career, so therefore, Mr. Superintendent, I hereby absolve all cadets who are on restriction for minor conduct infractions and even somewhat major infractions effective immediately. Okay, you guys, you got away with murder. I was just in a good mood. I was in a very good mood to do that.

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[MUSIC]

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Not surprised. I wasn't surprised. I wasn't surprised at all, because the bottom line is this. Donald Trump is the general of the Republican Party, and the Republican primary voters are his soldiers. And if you look at Thomas Massie, you can see it very clearly. You look in 2020, 2022, 2024. He was getting 75%, upwards of 81% of the primary vote in 2020, and today he gets less than 50% of the vote. That's the story. That is incredible, because you look at it so consistent, time after time after time, and then wow. Boom. Look tonight.

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Here is the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump.

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UFC fans have traveled far and wide across the United States and around the globe all to witness history and be a part of this uniquely special mixed martial arts showcase that is UFC Freedom. - Freedom at the White House on Donald Trump's birthday. What an event. - Welcome to UFC Freedom 250. Here is the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump. - From the South Park of the White House, Diego Lopez was serving. - Now, that is a nickel on the White House. - What is your white house? - He's too sick. - On the feet of Josh Hookett. - All eyes, rock shot on Ali. - Give him a shot! - Ladies and gentlemen, this is the many men! - And look at where we are. - This is insane. - The only until 40 against the tried and true American. - Justin Gaetschy. - These dudes are going at it. - Justin Gaetschy with the ultimate career capstone at the loss. - One of the great upsets in the history of the sport. - On the 250th anniversary, Justin Gaetschy showed that American spirit that allowed them to become a world champion. - This is the greatest night in the history of combat sports.

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[Music]

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[MUSIC]

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♪ If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere ♪ ♪ It's up to you, New York, New York, New York ♪

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[water running]

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UFC fans have traveled far and wide across the United States and around the globe all to witness history and be a part of this uniquely special mixed martial arts showcase that is UFC Freedom. - Freedom at the White House on Donald Trump's birthday. What an event. - Welcome to UFC Freedom 250. Here is the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump. - From the South Park of the White House, Diego Lopez was serving. - Now, that is a nickel on the White House. - What is your white house? - He's too sick. - On the feet of Josh Hookett. - All eyes, rock shot on Ali. - Give him a shot! - Ladies and gentlemen, this is the many men! - And look at where we are. - This is insane. - The only until 40 against the tried and true American. - Justin Gaetschy. - These dudes are going at it. - Justin Gaetschy with the ultimate career capstone at the loss. - One of the great upsets in the history of the sport. - On the 250th anniversary, Justin Gaetschy showed that American spirit that allowed them to become a world champion. - This is the greatest night in the history of combat sports.

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doors all we could not have wrote a script better oh my god the fireworks of land oh oh tonight's fun

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Here is the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump.

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