Today's Liberal News

Watch Trump’s dumbest adviser fail at basic math

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick served a heaping bowl of rationalization during an appearance on Fox News while attempting to explain President Donald Trump’s ongoing insistence that he single-handedly brought pharmaceutical drug prices down by mathematically impossible amounts.

During his nationally televised screaming address Wednesday night, Trump insisted he had cut drug prices by “400, 500, and even 600 percent.”

Even Fox News host John Roberts wasn’t buying it.

When One Honest Politician Isn’t Enough

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here.
After his death, James Garfield got the full Horatio Alger treatment. As well he should have. Garfield, who died in September 1881 from an assassin’s bullet and his own doctors’ staggeringly inept care, really did rise, as Alger’s book phrased it, From Canal Boy to President.

Guess the Real Trump ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ Plaque

Donald Trump has now installed descriptive plaques under all the portraits that line his “Presidential Walk of Fame” in the White House. If you wonder whether they are petty, but also deeply strange and erratically capitalized, the answer is: Yes! Of course!
Surely they cannot really be that bad, you say. All right. See if you can guess the real ones! Then scroll to the bottom for the answer key.
25.

The Recap: Trump rewrites presidential history, and Hegseth tries making religion manly

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know.

For Pete’s sake! Hegseth wants to make spirituality manly again?

We certainly wouldn’t want it to nourish the body and soul, now would we?

Trump screams at America that everything is fine

Sometimes if you say the lies louder it makes them come true.

Cartoon: Doesn’t fit

It’s hard to make a victim out of a monster.

Meet Tania Nemer, Fired Immigration Judge Suing Trump Admin Amid Purge of Immigration Court System

Former immigration judge Tania Nemer, who was fired in February, is now suing the Trump administration, alleging that she was discriminated against despite strong performance reviews. Nemer is one of about 100 immigration judges who have been fired or reassigned since Trump took office. The system is notoriously backlogged, with more than 3 million cases pending. “I was pulled away in the middle of the hearing,” she says.

“Divorced from Reality”: Economist Dean Baker Fact-Checks Trump’s Primetime Speech

President Trump praised the state of the U.S. economy in a primetime address Wednesday evening, even though new government statistics show the nation’s unemployment rate is at a new four-year high of 4.6%. Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says Trump’s aides should be “wondering about the man’s sanity” after Wednesday’s speech. “This is utterly divorced from reality.

From “Alligator Alcatraz” to Gaza: U.S. Companies Line Up for Lucrative Gaza Contracts Under Trump

At least a dozen people have died in Gaza as winter storms batter displaced Palestinians forced to shelter in makeshift tents among the rubble of collapsing buildings severely damaged by Israeli bombing. That rubble is being eyed by U.S.-based contractors, who are already vying for lucrative contracts to rebuild Gaza under the Trump-backed ceasefire deal.

This Is What Presidential Panic Looks Like

The president of the United States just barged into America’s living rooms like an angry, confused grandfather to tell us all that we are ungrateful whelps.
When a president asks for network time, it’s usually to announce something important. But tonight, Donald Trump did not give anything like a normal speech or address.

Trump’s ‘Peace President’ Claim Isn’t Holding Up

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Last week, the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado made a daring escape from her home country to Norway, where she was honored as winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

$1,776 Checks for the Military

This story was updated on December 17 at 9:39 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump’s prime-time address tonight included an Oprah-style You get a car! And you get a car! reveal for members of the U.S. military. Specifically, he said that he was giving troops a “war dividend,” a onetime bonus check pegged to a sum with deep patriotic significance: $1,776.
“The checks are already on the way,” Trump said during his address, promising them to more than 1.4 million troops.