<![CDATA[War Notes]]>https://www.warnotes.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I4dN!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffbb1ec81-ab7d-4822-8b79-85132c75b451_1280x1280.pngWar Noteshttps://www.warnotes.comSubstackSun, 07 Jun 2026 17:54:45 GMT<![CDATA[Exponentially More Problems]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/exponentially-more-problemshttps://www.warnotes.com/p/exponentially-more-problemsFri, 05 Jun 2026 23:05:25 GMTAll weekend🗳️: They will count (and maybe find) ballots all weekend in California

  • Good news👍: Finally, the country is focused on a state (and Democratic Party) and figured out how to legalize cheating

    • Think about it💭: Google, Apple, self-driving cars all came out of California, but it takes them two weeks to count ballots

  • Legal cheating👀: Tonight, we will take you through the rules that guarantee Democrats will never lose power.

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Platner Problems‼️

😬Graham Platner creates so many problems for Democrats, it’s hard to know where to start

  • 🤦They thought they would win Maine easily — now it’s a disaster

  • ❗Every Democrat is having to answer for a Nazi tattoo-wearing, rape enthusiast, accused girlfriend beater, racist — oh, and it’s only June

  • Look forward ▶️: It’s only June — the above is a non-exhaustive list of Platner’s negative attributes –- more will come out, trust me.

📰The Washington Post writes, “As scandals follow Graham Platner, Democrats are losing patience”

  • Democrats are “frustrated” says The Washington Post — they have nobody to blame but themselves

  • Basic🤦: Anybody with a Nazi tattoo has more issues, but they refused to push him out when they could because winning was more important.

    • Look back🔙: The tweets and soundbites from Democrats saying all women must be believed during Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings who now support Planter despite The New York Times story with new damning revelations is politics at its best

  • Tonight: Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., rallies with Platner — here was his tweet in 2018 on Kavanaugh’s hearings:

    • “I believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. I believe Deborah Ramirez. I believe Anita Hill. Brett Kavanaugh should not be on the Supreme Court.”

  • ‼️Now, one of the accusers in The New York Times story says the Times downplayed her allegations and double-crossed her, writing:

    • “After the story went up I began to ask them … Why does it say “nobody could corroborate” when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate? Why did they include an out of context quote…Where were the screenshots they’d said they would use?...The editors said it was too much, they explained.

  • 🗳️Maine’s primary is Tuesday — Platner will almost certainly win, and Democrats are stuck with him.

Good read📰: The National Review headlines, “It Will Be Hard for Democrats to Replace Graham Platner”

  • Fair question❓: Will the party of protecting democracy push out someone duly elected in a primary?

  • 😬It’s so bad that Platner lost Politico’s playbook — that is a lagging indicator

Worst part🚨: All of the above isn’t the worst Platner problem for Democrats — Democrats only win this November if they make the election a referendum on Donald Trump.

  • 🤷Platner gives every Republican a foil to say you really want the party that supports a Nazi-tattooed, (accused) girlfriend beater

📱Our buddy Chris Cillizza writes: “I don’t know if Graham Platner’s candidacy survives these latest allegations in the New York Times. It may well do so. But I do find it the height of hypocrisy that the same Democrats who said that we need to believe all women are rushing to discredit the story because it quotes a GOP operative who dated Platner in the 2010s. I mean, how do they square that?

Watch tonight📺: Caroline Sunshine joins with a contrarian view.

  • Caroline defends Platner despite the new allegations, saying he “gets to stay”

    • Really Caroline? Call me cynical, but I think Republicans want Platner to stay because he will be easy to beat

  • Plus➕: We have Chris Cillizza and Democrat Madeline Summerville

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D-Day — The Heroes Are Gone‼️

🙏Saturday is the 82nd anniversary of D-Day – there is not much I can add to the awe we should all feel for those who landed in France that day to free a nation.

‼️An 18-year-old who stormed the beaches of Normandy in 1944 is around 100 years old today.

  • Why it matters❗: There are fewer and fewer people to teach us lessons in leadership and sacrifice from America’s greatest generation

  • Look back🔙: 82 years ago, then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed 160,000 allied troops as they prepared to take part in what we call today D-Day

    • Eisenhower: “Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the allied expeditionary force. You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you, the hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you.

  • 📝Eisenhower wrote an “in case of failure” message that he threw in the trash, writing:

    • Eisenhower: “My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”

Today📅: The Greatest Generation is almost gone — around 45,000 WWII veterans remain

  • We are losing their stories and lessons.

Must read📰: The National Review headlines, “A D-Day Model of Leadership America Should Seek to Follow,” writing:

  • “Let’s also take the occasion to ask something more of ourselves, to ask that, as citizens, we insist on leaders whose character might combine strength with humility, as exemplified by General Eisenhower as he prepared himself to acknowledge — and to take responsibility for — what would have become the war’s greatest failure. As we honor the anniversary of D-Day, we might also see in his example the model of leadership that might see us through the 250 years to come.”

Watch tonight📺: Historian Douglas Brinkley

Give Me a Break!

🗣️Former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the war in Iran “is very much turning into Trump’s Vietnam”

  • 🤦Really? The Vietnam War lasted 12 years — this conflict has only been a little over 12 weeks.

    • We are not in a ground war.

    • We aren’t even in a traditional war right now.

  • Be real‼️: For 10 years in Vietnam, we lost an average of 10 Americans a day, for nearly 59,000 total killed in action.

  • We’ve lost 13 American service members since the start of the war in Iran — and yes, it’s very tragic — but this is not Vietnam.

Warning⚠️: Allowing political hyperbole to get in the way of rational military thinking may be the last straw of danger in American politics.

  • This is the textbook definition of absurd hyperbole because it’s bad for Trump

Look back🔙: Listen to Walter Cronkite, former host of CBS Evening News, in 1968 on Vietnam

  • Cronkite: “For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate…But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could.”

Watch tonight2️⃣: Admiral Mike Hewitt on the strategic reality.

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Democrats Keep Giving Trump a Hand

🤷The best thing Donald Trump has going for him is Democrats.

✈️President Trump traveled to Wisconsin today to pitch the economy and his agricultural policies to farmers.

  • 💰He has economic problems that he’s trying to figure out what to do:

  • 🤦Yet Democrats may once again blow a chance by picking Francesca Hong an ultra-progressive, as the Democratic governor’s candidate in the state.

    • 👎Her policy proposals would make Fidel Castro proud

      • This is not where the American people are

      • America is not a far-left country — it’s a center, center-right country, especially values-wise.

  • Policy📃: Democrats’ plan is to tax the rich and have government programs give it to everybody else.

    • Socialism does not work

  • Quick history⌛: The progressive Democrats economic plan was the Build Back Better Act —

    • The Green New Deal

    • The Inflation Reduction Act

      • All these were disastrous

Flip side 🔄: The one problem that Republicans and Democrats both have with the economy is how unfair things are.

Can only dream💭: Imagine if there was a candidate who was talking about the economy in a way that made sense to traditional valued Americans, because most Americans don’t believe in

Tonight📺: Devin Remiker, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party

  • Plus➕: NewsNations Libbey Dean on the White House’s attempt to make this election a referendum on Democrats

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]]><![CDATA[Insane Amounts of News ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/insane-amounts-of-newshttps://www.warnotes.com/p/insane-amounts-of-newsFri, 05 Jun 2026 16:50:40 GMT

]]><![CDATA[Wait, There Is More X 2 ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/wait-there-is-more-x-2https://www.warnotes.com/p/wait-there-is-more-x-2Thu, 04 Jun 2026 23:06:08 GMTProgramming alert🚨: Tonight, you get double of me — I’m doing Cuomo’s show at 8 p.m ET then “On Balance” as usual at 9 p.m. ET

  • 2️⃣See you tonight starting at 8 p.m. ET

  • War Notes will be slightly abbreviated as we put together the longer show!

Knicks fan🏀: The San Antonio Spurs created a lot of New York Knicks fans with their star player shown arms crossed during last night’s national anthem

  • Be real👀: The NBA sold out to China — looking to them for moral guidance is like looking for your wife in a strip club.

Watch this👀: Karmelo Anthony, a black teenager, admits he stabbed Austin Metcalf, a white 17-year-old, and killed him — his trial in Texas will decide if justice really is colorblind

  • An all-white jury will look at Anthony’s claim of self-defense.

  • Look back🔙: Anthony’s family raised over $600,000 in a defense fund.

  • 🤷The self-defense claim is quite a stretch — Anthony stabbed Metcalf, who didn’t have a weapon.

  • Tonight📺: Maryann Martinez, the Daily Mail’s Texas bureau chief, is in the courtroom and joins us

June 4, 1944📅: Tonight, 82 years ago, American GIs were on their ships ready to sail for Normandy — military police with machine guns oversaw the loading with orders to shoot any man refusing to board.

  • 🌧️Bad weather would delay the invasion for a day — the new movie, “Pressure,” dramatizes Eisenhower’s critical decision

  • ‼️My grandfather worked in his headquarters company — part of America’s greatest generation.

    • ⚒️Men and women who saved the world — and then built America

  • 🤦Now we have Gen Z, who doesn’t want to work — much less go to war.

  • 📰Jason Riley headlines in The Wall Street Journal, “American Idle: The Work Ethic Goes Out of Style”

    • Literally, people do not want to work — Riley writes, “One in 3 working-age American men aren’t so much as looking for a job.”

    • Riley explains why:

      • “The more likely culprit is a social safety net full of generous government benefits that allow men who won’t work to subsist. Welfare and disability programs at the state and federal level are well-funded by the political left, are easily gamed by design, and have become a significant source of income for men with no job and no interest in finding one. Because these men often have no problem mooching off the women who take them in, they’re able to live on welfare payments sent to others in the same household.”

Be fair⚖️: It’s easy to dog Gen Z; just watch some of their social media clips.

  • 👀The fruits of the Greatest Generation created that welfare class.

  • 🤷Normally, even fair-minded people would stop there.

Actually, be fair⚖️: Right now there are thousands of Gen Z sailors, Marines, airmen and soldiers on duty around the world — protecting what the Greatest Generation created.

  • 👀Maybe America’s greatest generations are ahead of us.

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Blanche Betting📊

📈Let me start with a bold prediction — Todd Blanche will get confirmed as attorney general.

  • 🤷Again — I am not rooting for/or against him — it’s my job to tell you what’s going to happen and why.

  • The why❗: Trump wouldn’t have nominated him if he didn’t think he could get the votes.

    • Warning⚠️: As they say in TV — mark the tape — sure, I could be wrong

Go deeper🪏: Generally, when all of Washington media is obsessed with a story that’s negative for Trump, it works out pretty well for him.

  • Right now❗: Cable news is filled with vote counting for Blanche

    • Sen John Fetterman, D-Pa., is a no

    • Republican Senators Bill Cassidy, Thom Tillis, John Cornyn all hate Trump with good reason

    • Susan Collins is in the fight for her life.

The day after▶️: What happens the day after Blanche gets confirmed?

  • 🤷Is Trump now the man?

Watch tonight📺: NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich joins with her exclusive Todd Blanche interview.

  • Plus: Larry O’Connor, Donte Mills and Caroline Downey on whether it’s safe to bet against Trump this time?!

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Bolton Writes a Check 💲

‼️John Bolton will reportedly plead guilty in his own classified documents case

  • What happened❗: Bolton allegedly used his private email as a diary of sorts during his time as national security adviser

    • Be fair⚖️: Many NSAs wrote diaries. This is the first time allegations of classified information in an espionage act came from a diary.

  • Why❓: Trump hated Bolton’s book and wanted to get even, plus claw back the money Bolton made.

    • This was clearly personal to Trump. The Biden DOJ had looked into this and cleared Bolton.

Disclosure‼️: John Bolton is a friend — I know him to be a good and honorable man

  • You🫵: You, our viewers, love him — ratings go through the roof when he is on.

  • Balls and strikes🤷: We are the referees — we hold no favorites and must call the game even when our friends get hurt.

Behind the plea🤷: Bolton’s decision is a calculated risk

  • Fighting this would have cost multiple millions of dollars in legal fees.

    • There was no classified information in his book — he would have had to fight over each line of his diary.

  • We’ve told you this before — process is the penalty, but it goes deeper

  • Lawfare: When talking about these prosecutions by both Democrats and Republicans

Big money💰: Bolton will pay a $2.25 million fine.

  • What I am thinking💭: Trump got his blood money.

    • Plus➕: Who do you write a $2 million check to?

Yikes 😬: The government reserves the right to argue for jail time of up to five years.

  • The judge will decide.

Watch tonight📺: Tom Dupree on how to stop the true weaponization of the DOJ that is bad for the country.

Maine Warning⚠️

‼️Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner reportedly told Democratic Senators in D.C., “There are no credible allegations of sexual assault”

  • Reality👀: If he’s saying there are no “credible” allegations, then you better believe there are allegations of sexual assault.

  • Re-credible🤷: Given Platner’s Nazi tattoo, history of racism and justification of rape, sexting with multiple women while married (just to name a few foibles) — I’ll make my own decision about credibility, thank you.

  • But no🤦: Democrats lined up to defend Platner because they think he has a chance of beating Republican Susan Collins in the Senate race

  • Be America‼️: Can we forget politics for a second — is America really better served by the rape enthusiast than a centrist senator who voted to impeach Trump?

Good Read📰: The Wall Street Journal headlines, “The Real Problem With Graham Platner,” writing:

  • “To deflect from his character woes, he links Collins to the Jews.”

Watch tonight📺: Mark McKinnon in the 8 p.m. hour and Mike Nellis at 9 p.m on the danger for Democrats who refuse to get off a sinking ship

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California Counting🗳️

🚨Talk about a threat to democracy!

🤦California won’t announce its election results for another 10 days — in the meantime, the Democratic machine can make sure they are protected.

  • 📉Don’t believe me – look at the Kalshi betting markets

    • ‼️Reformer Spencer Pratt was allt guaranteed to make the runoff yesterday

    • ‼️But WAIT – LA found another 700,000 ballots, and now Kalshi predicts the runoff will be between Karen Bass and the (more) progressive candidate

  • No way the NGOs, labor unions and trade associations would let their funding run dry

Reality🤷: The delayed counting in LA is a feature, not a bug of the system —

  • Proof☑️: Why else wouldn’t Democrats who control with super majorities fix it?

How they do it📱: Benny Johnson reports there are 26 people registered to a location that is a porta-potty in Los Angeles — we can’t independently verify, but the court filings are pretty damning

Again — why would you have to sue California to protect its voter rolls?

Watch tonight📺: Rep. Kevin Kiley, who might become a victim of late ballots, and then Barbara Boxer on why California refuses

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]]><![CDATA[WAIT There Is More x2 ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/wait-there-is-more-x2https://www.warnotes.com/p/wait-there-is-more-x2Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:54:11 GMT

]]><![CDATA[Not What You Have Been Told‼️]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/not-what-you-have-been-toldhttps://www.warnotes.com/p/not-what-you-have-been-toldWed, 03 Jun 2026 23:06:25 GMTGreat Cause📚: “Born Lucky,” my book about growing up with autism, is a message of hope — Clearbrook in Chicago is delivering that hope every day to families.

  • 🙏They serve about 8,000 families around Chicago.

    • ‼️The stories are remarkable — click here to learn more

    • 🤝Ahead of Father’s Day, I’ve partnered with Clearbrook — for any donation over $100, we will send you a free copy of Born Lucky.

Reckoning‼️: The Henry Nowak case we told you about last night exploded with a Wall Street Journal article and The New York Times predictably blaming those angry that an 18-year-old kid bled to death in handcuffs.

How California Blew Up for Democrats

***Warning: All California results are subject to change — it takes them a week-plus to count ballots there ***

‼️We’ve been told Republicans are in trouble for the midterms — and that may be true — but the biggest message from last night is a complete repudiation of Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass’ liberalism.

  • 👀Democrats have enjoyed one-party rule for almost two decades — by any fair measure, they own California.

    • ‼️Yet, reality TV star Spencer Pratt came from nowhere to second in the Los Angeles mayor’s race by making it a referendum on the results of Karen Bass’ failed leadership

    • 1️⃣The No. 1 vote-getter in last night’s jungle primary for governor is a Republican — yes, he will have a hard time in the runoff, but he has a chance

    • 👀In one of Newsom’s new gerrymandered blue districts, an independent (Rep. Kevin Kiley) and a Republican are likely to advance.

      • CNN: “California’s 6th Congressional district right now, this is one of the districts that was redrawn because Democrats thought it would be a good pickup opportunity. Kevin Kiley is the incumbent. He’s an independent now, but he was a Republican, and he’s definitely not a Democrat. And the first two people in this race right now, and the top two advance, are the independent and the Republicans, NOT the Democrat.”

What I am thinking💭: The people who revolted the hardest against Democratic orthodoxy are the people who have been living under it for the past 16 years because they are angry at what it got them.

  • Response🗣️: Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wants to make America Venezuela

    • Sanders: “I will soon be introducing a bill to give the public a 50% ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America.”

Watch tonight📺: Jasmine Wright and Evan Barker on whether Democrats’ dream for a blue wave just ended in California

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MAGA OWNS GOP‼️

🔥The hot new story in Washington is that Republicans are abandoning Trump

  • “President Donald Trump, by endorsing challengers of GOP incumbents, is creating lame-duck senators who owe him nothing.”

  • 😬Senate Majority Leader John Thune poured cold water on Trump’s pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte

    • Thune: “We don’t need a weaponized DNI, we need professionals there”

      • Note✏️: Pulte is acting because Trump didn’t have enough Senate votes to get him through

    • Good read📰: Axios headlines “Thune hits breaking point with Trump”

  • 👀Former Vice President Mike Pence is out with a new book, “What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience,” talking about now is the time for Republicans to return to traditional conservative values

    • Read📖: The Wall Street Journal headline,s “‘What Conservatives Believe’ Review: Mike Pence’s Way” writing:

      • “The former vice president sees little conversation in President Trump’s second term, and is determined to bring it back”

    • What I’m thinking💭: What gives traditional conservatives a thought they have a chance of beating a MAGA Republican?

    • Reality🤷: It hasn’t happened — why do they think they are going to win this war?

  • ❌Senate Republicans removed funding for the ballroom from the immigration bill

  • ❌The pushback from Republicans on Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund”

🤷 There are all these Republicans standing up to Trump — which is fine, you’re supposed to stand on principle — but what’s the end goal?

  • 🤦Election after election has proven a Republican “standing up” to Trump does not win

👀Republicans standing up to Trump are not going to change his behavior — clearly.

Watch tonight📺: Marc Short joins tonight with the danger of non-MAGA Republicans becoming irrelevant to anybody but CNN.

Can Trump Wait Iran Out?👀

‼️The war in Iran has turned into a low-intensity war — both the U.S. and Iranians don’t want to return to a full war, and neither is willing to make peace.

  • 💣Iran attacked Kuwait’s airport last night — killing one person and injuring dozens

    • 🤦Somehow, I missed the outrage from BBC and The New York Times that a Middle East military attacked “civilian” targets

Zoom out🌍: Both sides are deciding if they can wait the other side out.

  • Be fair⚖️: Trump is enduring enormous pain to avoid making a bad deal.

Watch tonight📺: Liz Wheeler and Rear. Adm. Andy “Bucket” Loiselle on whether Iran made a bad bet thinking they could play Trump against the midterms.

Blowing Up💥

🤦Two jihadis and a Nazi walk into a bar —the joke is on us – the bar is actually the United States Congress.

  • 📱Nazi tattoo enthusiast Graham Platner in Maine — shockingly, he allegedly sexted with women while married

  • 📈A Michigan doctor who never practiced medicine and repeats Hezbollah and Hamas talking points is leading in the Democratic primary for Senate.

  • 🚨And Dr. Adam Hamawy — a New Jersey plastic surgeon who just won the primary in that state’s 12th Congressional District.

    • ‼️He was the Blind Sheikh’s translator and testified as a defense witness at this trial.

      • The Blind Sheikh masterminded the first World Trade Center attacks

      • 📰But wait, there’s more — from the Jewish Insider: “Leading N.J. Dem congressional candidate Adam Hamawy volunteered with Al-Qaida-tied group in Bosnia”

        • “But just one year before Hamawy took the witness stand to describe his travels with Abdel-Rahman, the now-Congressional candidate made a different journey with another party entangled in terrorist conspiracies: to Bosnia, with a group subsequently shut down for providing ‘logistical support’ to Al-Qaida.”

Watch tonight📺: Reporter for the Washington Free Beacon Jon Levine on Democrats’ shocking willingness to elect objectively horrible people and enemies of America.

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]]><![CDATA[Things ARE Changing ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/things-are-changinghttps://www.warnotes.com/p/things-are-changingWed, 03 Jun 2026 18:10:03 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[The Night of Nights‼️]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/the-night-of-nights-51ahttps://www.warnotes.com/p/the-night-of-nights-51aTue, 02 Jun 2026 23:05:07 GMTGeorge Floyd Moment‼️: In 2025, an 18-year-old in the United Kingdom died in police custody after being stabbed then put in handcuffs.

  • 🤦The person who stabbed him alleged that it was a racist attack — turns out that was a complete lie.

    • 🚓But cops in the U.K. are so scared of being called racist that they put the victim in handcuffs and he died.

    • ‼️These are the same U.K. cops that covered up grooming gangs and mass rapes of young women because they didn’t want to be culturally insensitive — aka racist.

      • Nigel Farage, member of Parliament: “The fear of being called racist was greater than dealing with Henry Nowak’s murder. We should respond to this pure cold rage. Britain’s historic way of life is being thrown away.”

Is It Real❓

💭Think of all the things we’ve been told are possible in 2026:

  • A Democrat will win Texas

  • A Republican reality TV star can become Los Angeles mayor

  • A Democrat will win Iowa’s governor’s race and Senate race

  • A terrorist-connected doctor will become a congressman

👀It’s quite the list, and tonight, we find out whether most of those are possible or only fantasy.

Moment of zen🤦: No matter what happens, each party (and pundits) could learn a lot, but most won’t.

  • 🫏“Angry Angelenos”: Democrat elites have zero interest in changing course because LA is a hellhole, so fed up with drug zombies they might elect a Republican

  • 🐘“Low-T Talarico”: Republican elites have zero interest in honest self-reflection to understand why a guy who believes there are six genders and is running a vegan campaign is ahead in Texas

Lots of corn🌽: Then there is Iowa, which I love and the national media loves to dog.

  • 👀Democrat Rob Sand might actually win the governor’s race

  • 🤷Tonight will tell us if electability matters to the Democratic Party

    • 🔵Team Blue could pick up an Iowa Senate seat if they nominate Josh Turek

      • 🏅He’s a two-time gold medalist in the Paralympics and has a background for the ages

LA dreams⭐: Los Angeles is the place of dreams, and nothing would say more about a backlash to woke than Spencer Pratt winning the LA mayor’s race

  • 🙏The night of hope — Pratt says he can get over 50% of the vote tonight and win outright

    • Pratt: “I’m winning…outright…there’s a tsunami of votes coming from all the people who are done with politics as usual.”

  • 📱Closing arguments from Spencer Pratt — you have to watch this

  • Reality🤷: Most likely, Pratt and Karen Bass enter into a runoff come November

  • Let’s go👀: Nothing would be better to cover than Karen Bass spending the next four months defending her abysmal record

In sight of 9/11‼️: New Jersey’s very blue 12th Congressional District will (likely) be represented by a congressman who once testified in defense of a notorious terrorist

  • Read more📰: The Wall Street Journal headlines, “The ‘Blind Sheikh’ and the Candidate” writing:

    • “Mr. Hamawy was more than a casual traveling companion of Abdel Rahman. He met the Blind Sheikh in 1991 after the cleric had already been charged with providing the spiritual authority for the 1981 assassination of Mubarak’s predecessor, Anwar Sadat, although an Egyptian court acquitted him of direct involvement in that crime. Mr. Hamawy attended several of Abdel Rahman’s sermons, visited the cleric in his home before his trial and provided him with translation services. Mr. Hamawy began his trial testimony with the greeting “salam alaykum” addressed to the defendant.”

  • Hamaway makes the Squad look centrist and joins Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan as Muslim men unapologetic about their terrorist sympathies.

Watch tonight📺: Mark Halperin, Kevin Walling and Larry O’Connor on the possibilities of a night that could change how we think about politics.

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Calling Dr. Jill… 🗣️

🤦Jill Biden finally did what her husband could not — bring the country together — everybody hates her.

  • 📺The media clips from her book tour are beyond tone deaf

    • 🗣️She says she thought her husband had a stroke during the first debate — but then took him to Waffle House

    • 🤔She then says she thinks the same man could have beat Trump

      • Maybe she and her husband are both delusional

    • 🤦She wants you to believe she is actually the victim of a marriage where she couldn’t speak up

    • 🤷Yet she engineered a 2024 campaign to stop any primary challenges

      • 👀Talk about a threat to democracy

  • ❓Here is my question — why is she doing this?

    • 💰Money? The Bidens have always enjoyed a lifestyle far far beyond their means.

  • What I am thinking💭: Hunter was an amateur — imagine how upset he is seeing how family can really use the office to make a few bucks

🤷For people on the Left who are so angry Trump got elected … few people you can blame more than Jill Biden, whose fault it is

Control🤦: Yet even the traditionally Democratic media gives her a pass — MS NOW started with questions about the ballroom — shouldn’t they be upset with her?

Watch tonight📺: Our buddy Mike Nellis on why Democrats won’t banish the Bidens.

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Who Controls Who: Bibi or Trump❓

🔒Every American president has wanted to control Bibi Netanyahu

  • ‼️At various points, he deeply angered Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden — only one ever brought him to heel — Donald Trump.

  • 🤷Nobody else will tell you that.

📰Now, Axios reports Trump and Netanyahu’s once-close friendship may be showing cracks —-

  • 🗣️Trump went off on Netanyahu after Israel’s escalation in Lebanon led Iran to threaten walking away from negotiations with the U.S.

    • Trump told Netanyahu he was “f**king crazy” and would be in prison if it weren’t for him.

      • Trump: “I’m saving your a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

    • Must read📰: Axios writes: “‘You’re f**king crazy’: Trump fumes at Netanyahu in call on Lebanon”

    • Be real🤷: The Iranians don’t care about Lebanon — they wanted a new way to play the victim … that is what they do.

  • State of play‼️: Now, Israel says they will pause the plan on striking Beirut.

    • Amazing

Cheap wins‼️: Trump knows the power of optics more than any other p resident we’ve had — but even his cheap wins aren’t winning.

  • He had to back down on the “Anti-Weaponization Fund”

  • Freedom 250 concerts are turning into a mess

  • Kennedy Center taking his name off the building

  • Gas prices continue to rise

  • No progress in Iran

    • 😬This is not a president who is racking up wins

    • Wag the dog🤦: Trump would rather talk about anything BUT gas prices and Iran — the issues Americans actually care about

Must listen🎧: Sarah Isgur’s podcast episode, “President Trump’s Losing Streak”

  • Look back🔙: I am old enough to remember everyone complaining that SCOTUS was rubber-stamping everything Trump did.

  • Miracle: Somehow, everybody isn’t angry with SCOTUS anymore — now it’s Trump who is angry with the court.

Tonight📺: Axios’ Marc Caputo

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]]><![CDATA[The Night of Nights!! ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/the-night-of-nightshttps://www.warnotes.com/p/the-night-of-nightsTue, 02 Jun 2026 17:17:50 GMT

]]><![CDATA[The ICE Protests Might Save Trump‼️]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/the-ice-protests-might-save-trumphttps://www.warnotes.com/p/the-ice-protests-might-save-trumpMon, 01 Jun 2026 23:06:00 GMTOrder now📕: Our friend Batya Ungar-Sargon’s new book “The Jews and the Left” comes out tomorrow — make sure you preorder on Amazon.

  • Her book explains the political contradiction of our time: the Jews who refuse to leave a Democratic Party that embraces antisemitism.

  • Beyond the Jews: Look at Democrats’ embrace of a Nazi tattoo-wearing, rape apologist for the Maine Senate race.

  • Must watch: Batya this weekend, warning Trump over the economy

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Out of Control🌀

‼️Trump is having a tough time between the prices, Iran, the midterms, revolting Republican senators — Axios reports he just gave up his “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

  • 📱But Democrats just might save him — the images out of Newark solve Trump’s problems and create new ones for Democrats

🚗The unmerry travelers go city by city to riot and fight with police — the playbook is obvious.

  • 🤦The New Jersey rioters came from Portland — shocker

  • ‼️Find a cause like George Floyd, anti-Israel, pro-Iran, anti-ICE — create a flash point and then fight with police while the media treats them like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Edmund Pettus Bridge

    • They aren’t the same and the world seems to agree.

  • 📱The images show well-funded, trained and organized groups that are far more interested in fighting than resolving legitimate grievances

    • Amazing🤦: The governor of New Jersey had to apologize and justify sending in the state police to stop riots —

      • Governor Sherrill: “My top priority is keeping New Jerseyans and our communities safe – and an increased ICE surge in the area outside of Delaney Hall is a threat to public safety… That is why last night, the New Jersey State Police Public Safety Response Team acted to secure the area outside of Delaney Hall. ”

    • Reality🤷: She sent in the riot squad knowing it would piss off the far left but not sending them carried far higher risks.

❌Americans don’t like riots — civilians getting shot in Minneapolis forced the Republicans to reevaluate. Images of people fighting ICE officers at their own buildings will have the same effect on Democrats.

Watch tonight📺: Bill O’Reilly warned Trump the Minneapolis shootings needed deescalation by ICE — why is this different?

  • Plus➕: Politics Editor for the Free Press Mene Ukueberuwa on who is exactly training and funding these groups.

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Will LA Go Pratt❓

🗣️Republicans say the rise of Spencer Pratt in Los Angeles is proof of a silent majority even in deep blue California — that may be, but it hasn’t happened yet.

  • 👀California is for Republicans like Texas is for Democrats.

  • Need help🆘: LA needs help. Decades of progressive utopia policies predictably left the city overrun by drugs and homelessness

  • Nicely played😂: The ultra progressive city councilwoman running for mayor said homeless encampments near schools aren’t a problem — then someone set up a fake homeless encampment near her house — she lost it —

  • Zoom out🤷: The California governor’s race is an embarrassment for Democrats — some honest ones admit it — that doesn’t mean they will lose

    • 🔒The possibility of a Republican lockout — with Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco finishing first and second, seems impossible at this point.

Watch tonight📺: Nikki Laurenzo, who moderated the governor debate, and Evan Barker on what to watch for tomorrow

Graham Cracked‼️

🤦This weekend, Democrats contorted themselves into circus-like creatures defending Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.

Awkward😬: He will be in DC tomorrow meeting with Democratic senators — think about all the female senators who trashed Pete Hegseth’s womanizing now championing Platner.

SAD👎: Democrats have decided that there is nothing disqualifying as long as they think you can win.

  • Look back🔙: The party ditched former Sen. Al Franken in like a day after a tawdry picture

  • Look farther back◀️: The family values party elected Donald Trump.

  • 🗣️Democrats spent the past years saying how dangerous fascism and Nazism are — now that’s their party.

    • Today📅: Graham Platner — who has a Nazi tattoo, sent sexually explicit messages to women who aren’t his wife and blamed rape victims — is leading in the polls in Maine.

  • A winner‼️: Democrats can’t imagine giving up a possible Senate flip

    • Example📱: Mike Nellis writing on X:

      • “Susan Collins has been in the United States Senate for my entire life. She has no major accomplishments, and it would be hard to argue that the people of Maine are materially better off because of her decades-long career in Washington.”

Must watch📺: Our buddy Chris Cillizza with how quickly everything changes

Danger⚠️: Some Democrats realize the danger of getting on a train that is literally crashing

Good read 📰: Erick Erickson with the sober view.

🚨There’s nothing disqualifying now in American politics — we are all flawed.

  • The Free Press says that’s why the public no longer cares about so-called “scandals.”

Watch tonight📺: Dan Turrentine and Alex Seitz-Wald on the lack of outrage over the clearly outrageous

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]]><![CDATA[Things Feel Out of Control ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/things-feel-out-of-control-313https://www.warnotes.com/p/things-feel-out-of-control-313Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:54:35 GMT

]]><![CDATA[Things Feel Out of Control]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/things-feel-out-of-controlhttps://www.warnotes.com/p/things-feel-out-of-controlMon, 01 Jun 2026 17:33:28 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[Start of Summer ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/start-of-summerhttps://www.warnotes.com/p/start-of-summerSun, 31 May 2026 21:27:20 GMTThank YOU for joining us on Substack – this email is exclusive to you!.

Things I Tell My Friends is exactly that — things I’ve talked about with my friends over the weekend.

Thanks for reading War Notes! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Disclaimer: WarNotes started as typo filled emails I sent to colleagues and friends.

Amanda doesn’t copy edit this so we are back where we started.

All mistakes and typos are mine and mine alone.

This email is meant to be decidedly less political/news based.

Ice Cream thoughts: I am in Michigan for the start of summer – as I look at Lake Michigan and eat my first soft serve ice cream of the season – choc/vanillia twist with Snickers – I am brought back to my favorite book so far this year – The Gales of November – detailing the sinking of the Edmond Fitzgerald.

Palace intrigue – the NYTimes piece embarrassing JD Vance (Gift link) feels like retribution for the piece a few weeks ago leaking Netanyahu’s situation room presentation and Vance’s arguments against the war – gift link here.

Be Smart: This is a proxy war for Vance/Rubio 2028

That is essentially a fight for the future of the republican party!

Related: Team Trump and the world missed a HUGE opportunity by withdrawing support for the Kurdish led attack at the start of the Iran war.

Sad: there is no single group more loyal and more screwed over by the United States than the Kurds.

Long Hot Summer – the ICE riots in New Jersey are a preview of coming violence from organized far left groups.

There is NOTHING “peaceful” about these groups – they are armed, organized and inspired to create violence and fight with police.

Amazing: the Gov of NJ had to apologize and justify sending in the state police to stop riots – https://x.com/GovSherrillNJ

Remember you to tell your friends about WarNotes if they sign up now they will get a complementary premium subscription thru summer!

See you tomorrow for First Dispatch at 1230 EST!

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]]><![CDATA[Violence Works🚨]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/violence-workshttps://www.warnotes.com/p/violence-worksFri, 29 May 2026 23:05:54 GMT

Swing and miss (again)🤷: We told you there’s no “there there” in the Epstein files, and it’s proving true — the House Oversight Committee is finding precious little, and it’s a political disaster

  • Amazing 🤦: Members of Congress who ran to every TV camera screaming Epstein cover-up now say they have moved on from the topic.

    • Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene got pushed out

    • Not because of a conspiracy but because nonstop screaming about Epstein is now second only to UFOs — and you start to sound like a crackpot.

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LONG Hot Summer ⌛

‼️The Newark ICE riots sadly work for the extremes of both parties.

  • 🤷For Team Trump, we are talking about something other than Iran and gas prices

  • 🤦For Team Anti-Trump, the last time they really won was in Minneapolis, so why not try it again

  • Prediction💭: It’s only May — things will get MUCH worse.

Bad look👎: Today, the governor of New Jersey backtracked and finally agreed to send in state troopers to stop the protesters rioters from trying to break into the ICE detention facility.

  • Over the line❌: In addition to violence, they shouted that Black ICE officers should “hang”

    • Watch

    • Be fair⚖️: What would happen if a well-organized group of Proud Boys had blocked the jail where J6ers were housed? Watch here

  • Look back🔙: Starting Monday, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill and Senator Andy Kim, D-N.J., led a group of fellow travelers to an ICE facility and demanded access — that sparked protests, so then the Antifa types showed up.

    • 🤦In any other situation, local law enforcement protects federal buildings, etc., as they are trained in crowd control, etc.

  • ❗But no — Democrats loved the pictures of ICE fighting with rioters — after all, it worked in Minneapolis, so local law enforcement refused to show up.

    • Be smart🧠: In January, the administration picked a fight — now the protestors picked a fight — thankfully, in both cases, those that picked the fight lost

      • There is a lesson there.

Impossible situation‼️: ICE has no choice but to protect its facility from people trying to break in and cars trying to get out

  • ⚠️Just like in Minneapolis, the rioters appeared well-supplied, armed and trained to create violence.

Escalation🗣️: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he might pull all Customs and Border Protection agents from airports in sanctuary cities to protect ICE facilities.

Confusing😵‍💫: The refusal by ICE to arrest everyone fighting and blocking them baffles me.

Reality⚖️: The American people broadly sit in the middle here

  • 📈They almost universally want illegal immigrants who have committed other crimes deported

  • 📈The numbers on deporting all illegal immigrants vary but are surprisingly high

Watch tonight📺: Newscaster Oliya Scootercaster on scene to show how easy it would have been to prevent the voice

  • Plus➕: Larry O’Connor and Madeline Summerville on the politics of not solving the immigration debate

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Underestimating Iran

‼️Trump is getting a lesson in negotiating with people who wear suicide vests — it’s different than even staring down the mob in New York City.

Weekend work: The memorandum of understanding to keep talking with Iran for 60 days about a deal Trump said was 95% done on Saturday is as thin as turnip soup.

  • Look back🔙: We told you Iran would keep playing Trump — they know he desperately doesn’t want to go back to war.

  • Hot take🔥: When Trump says he doesn’t care about the midterms — he’s generally telling the truth — he’s seen what a foreign policy disaster can do to a president’s legacy.

  • ‼️He understands a bad deal is better than no deal, but much of the “America First” crew does not agree

  • Hype team🔥: President Trump laid out his vision for a deal in a Truth Social post, and his supporters declared it the deal of the century, etc.

    • Yes – it would be if it happened — it won’t happen without significant U.S. military action or internal regime change brought by economic strangulation of the IRGC.

Tonight📺: Brig. Gen. John Teichert and Caroline Sunshine tonight on the push between military reality and President Trump’s vocal anti-war supporters.

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Democrats’ 2028 Identity Crisis 🫨

💣Rep. Ro Khanna has tossed the first grenade into the 2028 Democratic primary —

  • ‼️Khanna is laying down about the Laken Riley Act in terms of what is and isn’t disqualifying for Democratic candidates in 2028

    • Khanna: “No one who voted for the Laken Riley Act should have any role in the future leadership of the Democratic party in this country. . . . It’s disqualifying”

What I am thinking💭: Really, the Democrats’ answer is to be against the Laken Riley Act — illegal immigrants arrested for theft, shoplifting and assault on a law enforcement officer should be released back into the USA?

🛣️Democrats are split about which lane to head down in order to win in 2028.

  • Culturally progressive‼️: The above-mentioned Mr. Khanna and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu who put out a flyer celebrating “trans period pride”

    • For those of you unaware, “trans period pride” is the pride biological males have in having their period

  • Economically progressive💸: This is THE lane that will define 2028 — making America’s economy fair again.

  • Fact check☑️: Pete Buttigieg is now leading the polls for the Democrats in 2028

    • Why❓: Because he all but ignores culture’s issues, focuses on the economy and doesn’t focus everything on Trump.

      • Pete Buttigieg: 18%

      • Gavin Newsom: 16%

      • AOC: 11%

      • Josh Shapiro: 10%

      • Kamala Harris: 10%

Tonight📺: Caroline Sunshine and Ryan Cummings on whether a culturally sane, economically progressive Democrat could win the primary — I am fairly certain they would crush it in the general.

Elite Blinders 🫣

🗣️Spencer Pratt may or may not win the LA mayor’s race — far more telling is the reaction from the Democratic elite.

  • ❗Alex Wagner, the host of “Runaway Country,” was aghast that anyone could vote for Pratt.

    • Wagner: “The fact that Spencer Pratt has a legitimate shot at becoming mayor of Los Angeles on literally nothing but virality and bluster is I mean... I’m not hitting the panic button but my hand is moving towards that.”

  • ❗Then there is LA resident Jimmy Kimmel

    • Kimmel: “Spencer Pratt, who is running for mayor, another narcissist looking for attention, and I just — are we really going to risk repeating that mistake we made with Trump in LA, of all places? Mayor should not be your first job.”

  • Birds of a feather🤦: Kimmel and Wagner don’t face the effects of the policies they support.

    • Look back🔙: We used to call these people limousine liberals.

  • Look back🔙: Democrats did the same thing in 2016 — demonize anyone who doesn’t extoll the virtues of toxic empathy.

    • There’s this large section of the Democratic elite that are ridiculing anyone who is upset by the results of a failed Democratic leadership

Watch tonight📺: Julian Epstein and Shaniqua McClendon

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]]><![CDATA[Both Sides Thinks the Violence Helps Them ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/both-sides-thinks-the-violence-helpshttps://www.warnotes.com/p/both-sides-thinks-the-violence-helpsFri, 29 May 2026 17:33:07 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[America Might Be the Real Loser‼️]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/america-might-be-the-real-loserhttps://www.warnotes.com/p/america-might-be-the-real-loserThu, 28 May 2026 23:05:51 GMTJoin us🙏: War Notes is moving to Substack — you need to resubscribe here — WarNotes.com

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Decaying Power 🚨

‼️Today laid bare President Trump’s problem with Iran — every day, his hand gets weaker.

  • 🗳️Every day, we get closer to the midterms.

  • ⛽Every day, America strains under high gas prices that raise the price of everything else.

  • 💣Every day, Iran’s military rearms and rebuilds.

  • ❗Every day, the threat of resuming the war seems less real.

  • 💰Every day, under the new agreement and the Strait of Hormuz open, Iran gets stronger financially.

⚠️This isn’t a problem just for Trump — it’s a problem for America.

  • ❗Team Trump spinning an agreement to keep talking for 60 days is a win, shows how weak we are.

  • Look back🔙: Seven weeks ago, Vice President JD Vance celebrated America talking to the Iranians — now, we are supposed to celebrate it again.

  • 😬If opening the strait and agreeing to keep talking is a win for the president — that shows just how weak he is.

  • 👀When will Trump realize he’s getting played?

America first1️⃣: We should all want America to win — for our president to win.

  • ‼️Most importantly for the world — Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon.

Reality🤷: Now that we are here, the only way to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is force.

  • 💣BOTH military and economic force.

💸Every day Trump waits to use the full military and economic force of America to force Iran’s surrender, the price gets higher.

Watch tonight📺: Republican strategist Kristin Davison, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott and Jennifer Gavito on how Trump regains the upper hand.

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CIA Gold Bars 🪙

image.png

🚓A former CIA senior official with the highest secret-level clearance got caught stealing $40 million in gold bars from the government and keeping them in his house.

  • Why it matters‼️: One of the ways this guy got into the CIA is by lying —

    • Reports say he tried to apply three times

    • He kept inflating his resume

    • He said he was a Navy fighter pilot, but he never was

  • What I’m thinking💭: A serial con man conned the CIA — that’s pretty embarrassing.

    • Then again, the CIA missed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

👀Let’s put this into perspective —

  • ⚖️The 300 gold bars found in the ex-CIA official’s home weigh around 660 pounds.

  • ⬆️Since there’s no picture of what the FBI agents found, we asked our friends at Google Gemini what this might’ve looked like … look above

Watch tonight📺: Former CIA officer Tracy Walder on why there must be so much more to this story.

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Wall Street — We Have a Problem🚨

‼️By every available measure besides the stock market, we have problems.

  • 💳Credit card delinquency

  • 💲Lack of savings

  • ⛽Coming inflation from high gas prices

  • ❗Massive margin trading in the stock market

  • 👎Consumer sentiment

  • 📉Economic polling

  • 💲Early 401(k) withdrawls

  • 🤕The American people are hurting.

🤦Team Trump’s happy stock market talk is not helping the administration’s case — in fact, it’s making a lot of their voters downright angry.

  • 🤷Nobody wants to be reminded that the rich are getting richer while they tell their kids there won’t be a summer vacation.

  • Alarm bells🚨: This is why Trump’s Latino vote is disappearing — a group that helped him win in 2024

    • 😬Republican totals in Texas’s Starr County didn’t hit 100 in this week’s special election

      • Look back🔙: Trump flipped Starr County in 2024

    • ‼️It’s not because of his immigration policies but because of the economy

      • Look back🔙: Trump won 48% of Latino voters in 2024

      • Today📅: Recent polling shows 67% of Latino voters disapprove of Trump

        • 44% say it’s due to the cost of living and inflation

        • 33% say immigration enforcement

        • 26% say jobs and wages

        • 25% the war in Iran

Biggest problem‼️: There is very little the administration can do to affect prices and affordability — interest rates are high and gas prices are high — they don’t have a lot of options.

  • 📅Today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held the White House press briefing —

    • 🤦Having a billionaire try to show the American people that he understands their pain is a real problem for this administration

  • Look back🔙: Bessent advised parents to not buy their children as many gifts

Watch tonight📺: Steve Cortes, former Trump adviser and hardcore Republican populist who first warned of this last year.

Trump Derangement Diagnosis‼️

🗣️The riots outside ICE facilities.

📱The DNC’s official X account calling the deputy White House chief of staff an “ugly f*ck.”

🗣️Democratic Californian Katie Porter’s campaign built around yelling “f*ck Trump.”

  • ‼️Shows a near cult-like devotion to hating the man.

    • Be honest🤷: For many, it’s about money and power — Trump threatens their worldview in ways few do.

Fair question❓: What does the cult do when Trump is gone?

📈Funny you should ask — a new poll shows Pete Buttigieg, an objectively nonmember of the Trump derangement crew, leading the Democratic primary.

Watch tonight📺: Our friend Jonathan Alpert is out with a new book, “Therapy Nation”, and tells us why the vocal TDS types are not the path to victory inside the Democratic Party.

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Is Ebola the “Perfect Storm”? 🚨

⚠️The Ebola outbreak in the Congo is spreading faster than officials seem to be able to contain it.

  • 😬Does that mean it’s airborne? Easier to spread than past strains — yikes!

  • 📈So far, there have been 1,077 suspected cases in the DRC and 246 suspected deaths.

    • The outbreak is from the Bundibugyo strain — with a mortality rate of 25-50%

  • ❓The unanswered question about the outbreak this time around is: Is this strain different?

    • ❓Has this strain mutated and spread more easily?

    • Sound the alarms🚨: Health experts warn this outbreak may be tougher to control than past Ebola outbreaks.

    • 🤦The Trump administration plans to send Americans exposed to Ebola to Kenya — now you are creating an incentive for people to lie and cover up possible exposure to get back to America — that seems counterproductive

  • Look back🔙: In the past, the reason Ebola was not feared because it only spread through bodily fluids — and we don’t have that problem in America

    • Today📅: But we don’t know if this strain is different

  • Must read📰: The Hill headlines, “I just got back from Uganda. No one checked me for Ebola”

  • Tonight📺: Former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden, who says this is a “perfect storm”

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]]><![CDATA[Trump's version of a "win" with Iran]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/trumps-version-of-a-win-with-iranhttps://www.warnotes.com/p/trumps-version-of-a-win-with-iranThu, 28 May 2026 16:31:29 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[2016 Deja Vu 🌀 ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/2016-deja-vuhttps://www.warnotes.com/p/2016-deja-vuWed, 27 May 2026 23:05:34 GMT

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Hollywood’s Mayor’s Race🎞️: In one week, we’ll know if the buzz about former reality TV star Spencer Pratt is real or just a bunch of Twitter buzz.

  • 📊Recent polling shows Pratt trailing just behind current Mayor Karen Bass but rising

    • Bass: 25%

    • Pratt: 22%

      • Note: The top two candidates will go into a runoff if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote next Tuesday

  • 💰Pratt has outraised every other candidate in the race — raising about $2.72 million in the last month.

    • Good read📰: The Free Press “Caitlin Flanagan: Pratt Daddy’s Revenge” writing:

      • “... what does Bass have to show for herself? Almost nothing. This is the appeal of Pratt Daddy: He knows she’s screwed up the city, and he offers a set of simple recommendations to heal it.”

  • Tonight📺: Our friend and former California resident Jillian Michaels on what the ground truth is in California

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Have you heard‼️: CNN just spent more time on Joe Biden’s health than they did during his time as president

  • What happened😟: Jill Biden worried during the debate two years ago that he was having a stroke

  • What I am thinking💭: Gee, Mrs. Biden, that was the first time you thought something was wrong

  • Why it matters❗: Trump turns 80 next month and went to Walter Reed this week — he might be having big health problems according to the experts at MS NOW

  • What I am thinking💭: The health of the president is a topic of vital national importance … too bad we can’t trust the media to tell the truth about it

Nothing Else Matters 💸

🗣️Today, Donald Trump held a Cabinet meeting to tell us things are going great — for many Americans, that is like when Joe Biden said the border is secure.

  • Stop🛑: Read that sentence again

  • Be fair💰: For some Americans, things have never been better

    • 📈Their stocks keep going up

    • 🏢Their kids have good jobs with nice bonuses

    • 🤷That’s much of Trump’s Cabinet

Yikes😬: The rest of America feels poorer every day, and there are far more of them than those with enough money; it doesn’t matter.

Wake up‼️: Our buddy Steve Cortes told us last week that many Americans are sick of hearing about how great the stock market is because it only reminds them they are left behind.

Look back🔙: In 2016, Trump won by taking an “extreme” position on immigration — he promised to build a wall.

  • Immigration served as a proxy for so much

Look forward🔜: Affordability, economic inequality, being left behind and screwed over will be the immigration issue of 2026 and 2028.

  • Prediction👀: The aggressive populist Left lane is a path to the White House

    • Losing the signal🤦: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats confuse that with permission to embrace radical Islam — watch AOC don a hijab to profess solidarity with the Muslim faith

    • What I am thinking💭: The irony of “progressive” Democrats championing a religion that brutally subjugates women is pretty rich.

Reality👀: This is how you win elections in America — especially primaries

  • 🤷Building a wall hasn’t solved immigration — taking Jeff Bezos’ yacht won’t solve America’s affordability crisis — but that doesn’t really matter.

Pay attention‼️: People thinking you can’t win by going all the way to one extreme on an issue people care deeply about haven’t learned from history

Watch tonight📺: Mark McKinnon, Mike Nellis and Tiffany Smiley on what a winning message from the populist Left could look like — it’s not AOC.

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Asymmetric Warfare‼️

⚠️You think summer thunderstorms are bad for travel? Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin just threatened an air travel armageddon.

  • 🗣️Mullin said the DHS might stop processing international passengers at airports in sanctuary cities

    • 🤔Think about shutting down international flights at:

      • Seattle, San Francisco, LAX, Chicago, New York, Boston — just to name a few

    • Timing⌚: It comes just weeks before the World Cup

Zoom out🗺️: The Trump administration is flipping the script on the Left’s asymmetric warfare

What I am thinking💭: This is about process — Trump is a genius at pushing his opponents to negative situations.

Watch tonight📺: Chris Cillizza and Berit Berger on the politics and law of Republicans playing the Democrats’ game.

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Flipping the Script?🔄

📺I looked up at my TV to see President Trump had “flipped the script” on Iran’s stalling tactics — at least that is what Fox News was reporting

  • What happened❗: He said he was in no rush for a deal and didn’t care about Iran’s effect on the midterms.

    • Iran is “negotiating on fumes,” he told the Cabinet.

  • Look back🔙: This was the same guy doing negotiation play by play on Saturday — the deal is “95% done” he said.

Reality🤷: President Trump has no good options in Iran —

  • ❗Restarting the war is unpopular and far from a guarantee

  • ❗Waiting Iran out means the unpopular story stays in the news

Look back🔙: There was a newsletter that told you stopping the war was a mistake, both politically for Trump and more importantly for America.

Problems🚨: You can’t trust the Iranians even to be honest negotiators.

  • Strategy📃: Iranians say one thing, then take it back. Leak something else and then act like it didn’t happen.

    • 🏤It’s like going to buy a Persian rug

    • 💵You go to a massive Persian rug store sale.

      • You pay $2,500 for the rug that is 90% off — a GREAT deal

      • You tell your wife you bought a rug

      • She buys furniture

      • Then the rug store calls and says the delivery costs $35,000

Watch tonight📺: Jack Posobiec and Richard Goldberg on what will get Iran to stop playing games — plus why it seems Trump keeps falling for their empty promises.

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]]><![CDATA[Welcome to War Notes on Substack ]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/welcome-to-warnotes-on-substackhttps://www.warnotes.com/p/welcome-to-warnotes-on-substackWed, 27 May 2026 18:19:08 GMTFirst off — thank you for joining us on Substack…cool right?

As promised our exclusive look at our first thoughts of the day — sometimes this will be the stories we cover…other times it changes.

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]]><![CDATA[Republicans Running Democrat Playbook📖]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/republicans-running-democrat-playbookhttps://www.warnotes.com/p/republicans-running-democrat-playbookTue, 26 May 2026 23:05:52 GMT

BIG NEWS‼️: War Notes has a new home🏠 — and a free upgrade waiting for you.

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Look back🔙: War Notes started as an email to friends and family — full of typos but deeply rooted in facts.

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Look back🔙: The afternoon of the October 7 Hamas attacks, I sent an email to NewsNation executives and some of our anchors.

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Behind the curtain📺: Right after “Born Lucky” came out, I got an email from Steve Barrett — a reporter I worked with in the early part of my career

  • 🗣️Steve basically said “I wish I had known” about my diagnosis, as it would have explained a lot — he then did something nobody in this business does — apologize.

    • Steve was a gentleman 20 years ago when I first met him, and like most gentlemen, he hasn’t changed

  • 📱He left the TV news business and now has a GREAT podcast, YouTube and social media presence — no surprise he’s very successful.

  • 🎤Steve interviewed me here — it’s a lot of inside baseball and behind the scenes of local and cable news

  • Shameless plug📗: “Born Lucky” makes a great Father’s Day gift.

Breaking tonight📺: On Balance, 9 p.m. ET on NewsNation — live Texas Senate primary results will almost certainly show Trump-backed and morally compromised Attorney General Ken Paxton will beat longtime Republican Senator John Cornyn in the runoff.

In short‼️: Trump has won the battle, the GOP is relying on a Nazi tattoo and fears a terrorist sympathizer to keep them from losing control of the Senate — Polymarket says that is an even money bet

Last hope🙏: With Cornyn out, Republicans have fully adopted Democrats’ 2022 strategy to save the Senate — despite an unpopular president, just hope the other side picks really, really awful candidates.

  • And🤷: Democrats might just do that

    • ❗James Talarico’s belief in non-binary, trans-Jesus

    • ❗Graham Platner in Maine, who long sported a Nazi tattoo.

    • ❗Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, whose terrorist sympathies would make Yasser Arafat blush.

    • ❗Then there is Maureen Galindo, the sex therapist and Democratic congressional candidate who wants to put Israel supporters in camps.

Must read🗞️: George Will’s writing is always relevant — Will headlines: “Dumb and dumber, Republican-style”

  • What I am thinking💭: George Will with a dumb and dumber reference is pretty epic.

Math🔢: Trump’s mafia boss, bare-knuckle tactics that worked a year ago are failing him.

  • 📉As Trump’s popularity sinks, his demands become increasingly problematic

  • ⚠️Cornyn, Tillis and Cassidy all have reasons to hate him and actively vote against his pet projects — lose those three, and Trump needs Vance to break a tie

  • 🗳️Collins must answer for every vote on the campaign trail

    • Anti-weaponization slush funds and ballrooms aren’t popular with independent voters struggling — that is who she needs to win against the Nazi tattooed oysterman.

  • 🌪️Trump is meeting a perfect storm

    • 📉Declining popularity

    • 🤦An unwillingness to control his need for quick wins

    • 📉Daily decay of his relevance heading toward 2028

Tomorrow❗: The entire Trump camp will meet at the White House for a cabinet meeting.

  • TBD👀: Will Trump invite the “pool” to come watch the Cabinet go in order to praise Trump?

  • 👀If they do, who cares — if they don’t, it will tell us something a lot more interesting

    • ▶️The midterms are ahead

    • ‼️Trump must figure out who stays and goes before potentially losing the Senate and can’t confirm Cabinet members

Tonight📺: The 2Way Trio — Mark Halperin, Larry O’Connor and Kevin Walling

  • Plus➕: Scott Tranter from Decision Desk HQ

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What does Trump need for a win? 👀

‼️Trump’s negotiations strategy with Iran shows us a few things —

  • ✔️He wants to declare victory and move on

  • ✔️He will enforce his red line of preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon

  • ✔️He seems to have given up or is looking to return to the military option

🔼Based on the above, what does Trump need to declare victory in Iran

  1. 💥Enriched uranium, aka nuclear dust, was destroyed or taken out of Iran

  2. ✅The Strait of Hormuz fully reopened — and the media generally agrees it’s reopened without fees or tolls charged by Iran.

  • Without either one of those two things, he can’t declare or spin victory

👀Now that we have the framework, getting there is a little more difficult

  • Look back🔙: Saturday, he said we were 95% of the way there.

    • 🎤Today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said negotiations are entering the stage where disagreements come down to “a word” or “a sentence”

    • 💭Imagine buying a house

      • We have decided on the house, so we are 95% of the way.

      • Just need to decide on price and when we move in – words and commas!

Watch tonight📺: Vice Admiral John W. “Fozzie” Miller, USN (Ret) and Brig Gen John Teichert on whether Trump can force Iran’s hand militarily.

  • Bonus➕: Rep Adam Smith, D-Wash., on why Democrats can’t get their Iran messaging right.

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Long Hot Summer of Disorder⚠️

📈More Americans got shot this weekend in Chicago than died in our war to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons

☑️Trump and Republicans won in 2022 and 2024 because things felt out of control — the border, crime, culture, etc.

  • 🤷Democrats can’t afford things to feel out of control again.

Look back🔙: The 2020 “summer of love” aka riots didn’t help Trump or Republicans

Watch tonight📺: Yemisi Egbewole on why Democrats can’t give up the socialist soft on crime agenda.

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]]><![CDATA[Never Count Trump Out‼️]]>https://www.warnotes.com/p/never-count-trump-outhttps://www.warnotes.com/p/never-count-trump-outFri, 22 May 2026 23:05:55 GMT

Memorial Day 🎖️: On Memorial Day a few years ago, I asked a Gold Star family what their son would have thought about the “celebrations” (barbecues, trips, sales) that seem to totally miss the point of honoring and visiting our war dead.

  • He would have wanted to be remembered, they said, but then, everybody celebrates the freedoms he died for. That has always stuck with me.

    • Fitting‼️: On Memorial Day, flags fly at half staff till noon — then are raised.

What I am thinking💭: Memorial Day, we remember those who gave “the last full measure of devotion.” Just ask those who served — they are thinking about the buddies who didn’t come home.

  • ❗If you are a Gold Star family, it’s easy to get depressed watching and reading the news — there has never been a time to be more proud of America than right now.

  • ❗If you know a Gold Star family, never miss the opportunity to remember their loved one out loud.

    • Long after the 21-gun salute, families are left with empty bedrooms, a folded flag and old photos. Knowing their dearly departed are still alive in YOUR memory proves the sacrifice is worth it.

  • Look forward⏩: On this Memorial Day weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is overseas at the NATO meetings.

    • Today’s fight✊: NATO is based on shared values justifying shared sacrifices

      • Sad👎: Much of NATO no longer shares our values

        • Tough🤦: In today’s NATO, Americans will fight and die for countries where people are arrested for flying the British flag because it offends Muslims. Police also pay visits to veterans who post anti-Muslim memes on Facebook.

Watch tonight📺: Retired General Philip Breedlove on if the values we say we are fighting for are still alive in Europe

Watch Monday📺: “America’s Greatest Sailors” debuts Monday night — we reveal the men (and women) who turned America’s Navy from a bunch of patriotic seamen into the tip of America’s spear that controls the world’s oceans.

Personal note🎂: A very happy birthday to my dear wife.

  • 👋I am off Monday, but will be back with you Tuesday.

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BREAKING🚨: Tulsi Gabbard just resigned as director of national intelligence

  • ‼️It’s been a long time coming — she says it’s to take care of her husband, who is battling cancer.

    • 🙏We wish her husband well

  • Reality🤷: America is safer with Tulsi Gabbard FAR away from national security decisions

  • Zoom out 🌎: A new attorney general. A new director of national intelligence. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Funding for his ballroom. Possible Supreme Court vacancies. Any additional Cabinet shake-up.

    • 👀Those are just a few of the many things Trump needs a skeptical and razor-thin Republican majority to approve in the Senate before the midterms

    • Prediction 🤔: It’s going to be a LONG summer for the White House legislative affairs team and their boss.

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Unlimited Political Lives♾️

📉By every objective measure, Trump’s presidency is in what pilots call a death spiral — abysmal poll numbers, costs that keep going up and a leader badly out of touch with America.

  • 👀Trump has been here before in business and politics — just think about Trump after January 6.

    • 🤷He was finished — and came back to win the presidency.

    • Why❓: Trump is always willing to pivot — when it’s in his best interests.

📺We will leave all giggling over Trump’s failures to CNN and The New York Times.

Hypothesis🧠: Trump is forgetting what got him elected.

  • 🤔Remember the “Kamala is for they them and Donald Trump is for you” ad

  • 🤷That’s how Trump’s presidency started

    • ⚽Ending boys in girls sports

    • 🔐Securing the border

    • 💸Even tariffs were designed to help Americans

    • 🏭Supporting domestic energy production

    • ❌Cutting government waste and fraud

    • Theme: The call centered around the American people

  • Now📅: Trump is obsessed with himself

Split screen📺: Today, I looked up at the TVs in my office — Fox News and MS NOW both had reporters at airports highlighting high prices for airline tickets

  • ➗Normally, the split screen of cable news shows the divide in America; today, it shows the common gripe — things cost too damn much.

  • Truth☑️: No American family sits around unable to buy plane tickets, and one looks to the other and says — well, honey, it’s OK because Trump is building a ballroom.

Full circle 🔄: Trump came back from January 6 because he stopped claiming he won the election and started talking about what Americans care about.

  • Vacuum: President Biden and then Harris’ open border and near-Marxist social policies helped him

    • Present day📅: Democrats still have the same problems.

  • Opportunity👀: Can Trump pivot back to understanding and focusing on what Americans care about?

Watch tonight📺: Steve Cortes, who long ago warned of Trump’s economic vulnerability, plus Lauren Wright on where Trump needs to pivot.

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A Year Ago

We looked back at our show before Memorial Day last year — the sentiment is still true.

☀️ Memorial Day marks the start of summer; Labor Day, the end of summer; and the Christmas holidays mark the end of the year.

During those three times, we collectively take stock of where we are as a country and how we feel.

  • ⛱️ We are with family and friends, relaxed with extra days off.

  • ☀️ On Memorial Day specifically, we are excited about the summer ahead, the long days and the warm evenings.

    • 🎉 It’s the time of graduations, weddings, coming summer vacations and more.

It’s only fair we do the same thing this year.

So, where are we? 🗓️

  • ⛽️ Gas prices are higher than last year

  • 🛒 Prices of groceries rose 2.9% in April

  • 📈 The stock market is significantly higher, up 10% from 2024 to 2025 and 28.26% in the last year.

  • 🎤 Two years ago, former President Biden was one month away from his disastrous debate

  • Last year, the big Trump story was still how tariffs would tank your 401(k)

  • 🗳️ Today, Trump’s approval rating is minus-18

    • This time in 2024, Biden’s approval rating was minus -15%

  • 📉In 2024, only 24% of Americans said the country was on the right track

    • 📈 2025, it’s nearly doubled that: 43%

      • 📉Now it’s down to 34%

    • The percentage of Americans who said the country is on the wrong track is up from 50.9% last year to over 60% this year.

    • Looking at the “right track” versus “wrong track” perspective feels better to me than looking at the strictly political views in presidential approval ratings.

      • 📺 How much of that is because of the media coverage?

        • 💰 Last year, the media told us how great the economy was, but this year, they tell us President Trump is driving us off a fiscal cliff.

Watch tonight📺: Biden economics guru Ryan Cummings and Trump economic cheerleader Steve Moore on why both men are now plagued by the same problems.

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Pratt/Brat Energy‼️

👀Democrats need Spencer Pratt energy — someone to take on the sacred cows of their party.

‼️That said, the insurgent LA mayor candidate is starting to bring a little brat energy — it’s a fine line

  • Pratt: “Everyone’s missing who’s voting for me — the only people that aren’t are the socialists, the lunatics and the communists! Any normal functioning brain that doesn’t want to step in human poop when they get their matcha is voting for me, which is a lot of people. It’s a lot of people.”

  • Zoom out🗣️: Calling out the NGOs and grift machines is a fertile hunting ground for Republicans if they could get out of their own way.

Local politics🏚️: Pratt’s plans to deal with the homeless are impressive and deliver where Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom spent billions to make the problem worse

  • Pratt: “If that addict on your street were your own son, what would you do? That is the defining question that guides my 5 step plan to fix the homelessness problem in LA. We *must* end this evil racket of corrupt politicians and NGOs who profit off the misery of these poor souls. They launder money and feed them more drugs, so they can keep their customers locked in this hell on our streets. We have a moral obligation from God to help them and make our city safe and clean for everyone.”

Zoom out🌎: Democrats could learn a lot from Pratt — practical solutions to real problems

Tonight📺: Host of “The Morning Answer” on Salem Radio in L.A. Jennifer Horn and Former California Senate Candidate Christina Pascucci.

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