Donald Trump ranted and raved during a speech to Kennedy Center trustees Monday night, complaining about the 2020 election.

At the White House event, Trump bragged about bringing the upcoming Olympics and World Cup to the United States before segueing into the 2020 election.

“We got the Olympics, and then we got, through [FIFA head Gianni Infantino], he’s the boss, he’s a friend of mine, we got the World Cup,” Trump said. “I got them both, and I said, ‘Man, I won’t be president and they’re gonna forget that I got them. Nobody’s gonna mention it.’”

Then he went into his pet subject how the 2020 election was stolen from him.

“And then they rigged the election, and then I said, ‘You know what I’ll do? I’ll run again and I’ll shove it up their ass,’” Trump told the audience.

“If they would’ve left us alone, and wouldn’t have cheated on the election, and wouldn’t have rigged it, I would’ve been retired right now. I would’ve been happily doing something else, and instead they have me for four more years, can you believe that?” Trump continued.

Trump also complained about the Kennedy Center’s programming, which he promised would change.

“The programming was out of control with rampant political propaganda, DEI, and inappropriate shows,” Trump said. “They had dance parties for quote ‘queer and trans youth.’ And I guess that’s all right for certain people.… But that wasn’t working out too well.”

The speech Monday night was another example of Trump’s bitterness and cognitive decline. He’s fixated on perceived slights and wants to take revenge against his enemies. The president also wants to remake Washington in his own image, dictating everything he can, including a nonprofit arts center. Now that Republicans control Congress, there’s little that can stop him except the courts.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa plans to grant billionaire Elon Musk a deal with his Starlink internet network in an effort to smooth over their rocky relationship before Ramaphosa meets with Trump and friends on Wednesday. 

Ramaphosa is circumventing the country’s Black Economic Empowerment laws to bring Musk’s Starlink to rural regions, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news. Musk has lumped the BEE initiative in with his false narrative of white genocide in South Africa, stating that “Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I’m not black.” 

Even Musk’s own Grok AI took issue with this claim, writing in March that “Elon Musk’s claim about race based restrictions lacks evidence; the issue is regulatory compliance, not racial discrimination. Similar challenges have delayed Starlink in other African Countries like Cameroon.” This was before Musk forced Grok to reply to everything with claims that there is a white genocide happening in South Africa.

This deal comes before what is expected to be a tense meeting, as Ramaphosa has vehemently denied Trump’s claims of “white genocide,” which caused the administration to bring in 59 Afrikaner “refugees” to the U.S. this month. He may also challenge the Trump administration on its support for Israel’s actual genocide. “[It is] laughable that you can use the genocide word on South Africa, while on the other hand you’re looking the other way where the actual genocide is being committed,” a spokesman for Ramaphosa told The New York Times on Monday.   

Only time will tell if this Starlink deal—made on the tail end of another successful deal-making trip for Trump and Musk in the Middle East—will be enough to soften the blow. 

First there were “concepts of a plan,” then there were tariff trade “subdeals,” and now, per National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, there are trade deals “in principle.”

The Trump administration is running out of time on its self-imposed 90-day deadline to craft 90 trade agreements in the wake of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff pitch. By mid-April, the administration claimed it had more than a dozen potential deals in the works with nations eager to sort out their trade arrangements with the United States. But since then, the White House has had practically nothing positive to show for its drastic economic overhaul.

“You told us even before ‘Liberation Day’ that you had 15 countries that were on the brink of making a deal. It’s been nearly two months and you’ve had one deal, so what is the holdup?” asked a reporter.

“There’ve been a whole bunch of deals,” Hassett laughed.

“I’m sorry, with what country?” the reporter pressed.

“So you don’t think the deal with China counts as a deal? The deal with the U.K.? We’ve got an agreement in principle with India,” Hassett said.

“Everybody—you could talk to Jamison Greer, Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick—everybody has seen awesome deals that are on the table,” Hassett continued, shrugging, as he referred to the U.S. trade representative, the treasury secretary, and the commerce secretary, respectively. “Last week we were in the Middle East cutting trillions of dollars in deals with our Middle Eastern friends.… Now we’re closing the trade deals because the president is back in the country.”

REPORTER: You told us before "liberation day" that you had 15 countries that were on the brink of making a deal. It's been two months and you have one deal.

HASSETT: No. There have been a whole bunch of deals. So you don't think the deal with China counts as a deal? We have an… pic.twitter.com/H3hmBArSrX

Meanwhile, “governments from Seoul to Brussels” have taken notice of China’s turtle-pace winning strategy against Trump’s punishing tariffs and are seemingly deciding to slow down their own trade negotiations with U.S. officials,

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