The wit and wisdom of the superstar ex-US president make him the best candidate – too bad he can’t run
“Virginia, here’s the good news. If you can’t visit a doctor, don’t worry, he will save you a dance. And if you don’t get an invitation to the next White House shindig, you can always watch the festivities and all the beautiful people on Truth Social.”
The crowd lapped it up. Obama was on a roll. He lambasted Republicans for putting on “a big show of deporting people and targeting transgender folks. They never miss a chance to scapegoat minorities and DEI for every problem under the sun.
“You got a flat tire? DEI.
“Wife mad at you?”
The audience rejoined: “DEI!”
It was a reminder that humour is a potent political weapon. That is why Trump’s allies tried to oust TV host Jimmy Kimmel and why California governor Gavin Newsom gets under their skin.
Obama turned to the artificial intelligence videos that Trump posts on his Truth Social account, including one showing himself wearing a crown, flying a fighter jet and dumping brown liquid on No Kings protesters.
“All the nonsense we see on the news every day, the over-the-top rhetoric, the fabricated conspiracies, the weird videos of a US president with a crown on his head flying a fighter jet and dumping poop on protesting citizens, all of that is designed to distract you from the fact that your situation has not gotten better,” he said.
There it was: the man who had inspired with his words – yes, we can; hope and change; there is not a liberal America and a conservative America, there is the United States of America – had been reduced to uttering the word “poop” from the stage. When they go low …
Obama dutifully heaped praise on Spanberger and urged Virginians to vote for her. It was a performance of wit and wisdom that reminded America what it has lost – and Democrats what they have never been able to recreate. The party needs someone who will take the fight to Trump. But its best candidate for 2028 is the one who cannot run.
Trump pitches working with Democrats on ObamaCare alternative
President Trump floated working with Democrats on an alternative to ObamaCare on Wednesday, saying the two parties could come up with a “much better” option.
“We have to fix health care, because ObamaCare is a disaster,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route to South Korea.
“When you see the increases in ObamaCare, it never worked. It never will work, and we can do something with the Democrats much better than ObamaCare,” he continued. “Less money and better health care. And I think that’s something that could come out of this with the Democrats. We work with the Democrats.”
The president went on to bemoan increased premiums under the health care plan, also known as the Affordable Care Act, saying insurance companies “are making a fortune.”
“I think it’s a great time for the Republicans and Democrats to get together and make something that will work, and let the insurance companies make money — they’re entitled to that, but not the kind of money that they’re making,” Trump said.
The president’s comments come as Republicans grapple with how to handle expiring enhanced ObamaCare subsidies amid the government shutdown. Republicans have long criticized the law and the need for subsidies, but so far have not put forth a plan to lower premiums with the subsidies set to expire.
Democrats maintain they will not vote for any spending bill unless Republicans agree to an extension of the enhanced tax credits that help tens of millions of Americans purchase cheaper health plans.
Obama slams Trump while stumping for Spanberger, Sherrill
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Former President Obama hit the campaign trail on Saturday, rallying supporters for Democratic gubernatorial candidates Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill at separate events in Virginia and New Jersey — while throwing some jabs at President Trump in the process.
“Every day, this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and recklessness and mean-spiritedness and just plain craziness,” Obama said at both rallies.
The former president appeared alongside Spanberger, a former House Democrat, at an early afternoon rally in Norfolk, Va., before traveling to Newark, N.J., to join Sherrill, a representative serving the 11th Congressional District. He sought to contrast the president’s actions with the records of the two candidates, adding that constituents in their states deserve “leaders who will tackle hard problems and bring people together instead of dividing them.”
Obama took many opportunities to throw shade at Trump, accusing him of using the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute his political opponents, slamming the $300 million ballroom project at the White House and noting the “weird” AI-generated videos like the one the president shared on Truth Social weeks ago depicting him dropping feces on New York City “No Kings” protesters from a fighter jet while wearing a crown.
“All of that is designed to distract you from the fact that your situation has not gotten better,” Obama told the crowd in Norfolk.
Responding to boos from the audience at both rallies, the former president brought back a trademark line from 2016: “Don’t boo, vote.”
“They don’t hear boos. They hear votes,” he said in Norfolk, though in Newark later on Saturday, he said Trump’s “No Kings Day” AI video is “not even worth booing about.”
“Let’s face it: Our country and our politics are in a pretty dark place right now,” Obama said in Newark.
At both rallies, he said Spanberger and Sherrill are the types of candidates America needs in the moment because they are “in it for the right reasons.”
“Now, her opponent? Not so much,” the former president said at both rallies, referring to Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) while in Norfolk and former state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli (R) while in Newark.
Spanberger and Sherrill have both generally been polling ahead of their respective opponents, but the two campaigns have different points of intrigue heading into Election Day on Tuesday. Spanberger has built a strong lead over Earle-Sears, but Democrats are bracing for the possibility of split-ticket results because of the scandal surrounding the unearthed violent texts sent by Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, some high-profile Democrats like Obama are racing to boost Sherrill amid signs the race against Ciattarelli is tightening even more than expected. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is scheduled to speak in New Jersey on Sherrill’s behalf on Sunday.
At both Saturday rallies, Obama urged audience members to cast their ballots on Tuesday if they haven’t done so already through early voting.
“And then you’ve got to get all your friends, and your family, and that cousin who’s lying on the couch,” Obama said in Newark. “Just go, ‘Come on.’ Grab him off the couch.”
White House discloses details of China trade truce
A fact sheet outlines Beijing’s pledges to address key irritants in the U.S.-China relationship.
The Chinese government will lift export restrictions on critical minerals, cease exports of chemicals to North America required to produce fentanyl and resume the flow of key auto semiconductors, the White House said in a fact sheet Saturday.
The document is the most detailed public summary of the accord reached between U.S. and Chinese negotiators and signed off by President Donald Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the two countries could sign the agreement, which deescalates tensions between the two countries and essentially implements a one-year truce, as soon as this coming week.
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The fact sheet — which describes the concessions from China as “a massive victory that safeguards U.S. economic strength and national security” — is the latest installment in the White House’s media victory lap touting the results of Trump’s meeting with Xi. That publicity blitz frames the results of their encounter as a decisive win for Trump’s aggressive tariff policy despite the fact that it resulted in compromises and a fragile truce rather than a long-term trade agreement.
Still, China hawks remain worried that there is nothing stopping Beijing from pulling out of the agreement if they find it no longer suits its purpose.
The White House and China’s Commerce Ministry had both stated that Beijing would lift its export restrictions on rare earths — elements essential to U.S. civilian manufacturing and defense industries — as well as take steps to address China’s role in fueling the U.S. opioid overdose epidemic. The fact sheet provides some specifics about those agreements.
“China will issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony, and graphite for the benefit of U.S. end users and their suppliers around the world,” the statement said.
That clarification is good news for U.S. civilian and defense industry manufacturers who rely on those elements for their manufacturing processes. Germanium is used in fiber optics, semiconductors and solar panels, while gallium is used to produce chipsets used in computers, mobile phones, as well as 5G base stations.
Both countries had previously said that Beijing would roll back new and sweeping export controls on any goods containing Chinese rare earths. But the general licenses mean “the de facto removal” of previous export controls China put in place in April 2025 and October 2022, the White House said.
The White House also said that Beijing will take long-anticipated steps to reduce the flow of precursor chemicals that Chinese exporters ship to Mexico, where cartels process it into fentanyl-like synthetic opioids.
“China will take significant measures to end the flow of fentanyl to the United States,” the fact sheet said. “China will stop the shipment of certain designated chemicals to North America and strictly control exports of certain other chemicals to all destinations in the world.”
The statement didn’t specify which chemicals Beijing will ban from export to North America or what measures the Chinese government will take to restrict their shipment to other markets.
The Chinese embassy didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Chinese government also agreed to reverse recent moves by Chinese-owned semiconductor company Wingtech Technology to block exports of key components to Nexperia, its Dutch subsidiary. That triggered a chip supply crisis that is now hitting global automakers and prompted the Dutch government to intervene and take control of the firm in September.
Beijing will “take appropriate measures to ensure the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, allowing production of critical legacy chips to flow to the rest of the world,” the statement said.
Beijing, however, has issued more ambiguous comments about Nexperia suggesting that the two sides may not be fully aligned on resolving the chip supply issue.
“I wish to emphasize that the Dutch government’s improper interference in corporate affairs has disrupted global production and supply chains,” a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said in a statement Saturday.
Foreign Journalists Asked Kamala the Questions Americans Wouldn’t
Last month, former Vice President Kamala Harris made the rounds of supportive liberal networks to promote her campaign book “107 Days.” The title implied it was impossible for her to beat that allegedly despised dictator Donald Trump with so little time.
No one expected much of the interviewers, starting with ABC’s “The View,” which could have titled the interview “You Had Me at Hello.” They put a six-pack of suck-ups on the set. The “conservative” Alyssa Farah Griffin could only ask if Harris missed any warning signs.
The biggest event in that interview was co-host Sunny Hostin confessing to the Mom-ala that she felt she’d hurt her chances by asking an obvious question: Where do you differ from Joe Biden? Harris said she couldn’t think of anything.
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That shouldn’t be a destructive question. It’s an obvious question, even if the answer was exploitable.
ABC’s “Good Morning America” was no better. Co-host Michael Strahan tiptoed in with Democrat concerns: “There’s some Democrats who said that you don’t take enough responsibility for the loss. How do you respond to that?”
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow gushed over Harris as the “patron saint of ‘I Told You So,’” and let her subject compare Trump to a communist dictator. We won’t even get into her interviews with Don Lemon and Joy Reid.
All these Americans looked dreadful when the Harris book tour went international. BBC interviewer Laura Kuenssberg noticed Harris said, “I’m not done,” suggesting another presidential run. She warned: “But when you look at the bookies’ odds, they put you, as an outsider, even behind Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.” Harris claimed she’s never “listened to polls.”
That seems obvious, since she dropped out of her first presidential campaign before the primaries even began.
Kuenssberg also went after Biden’s cognitive decline: “You write that President Biden didn’t raise his frailty with you, and you write that you didn’t really raise it with him. That’s extraordinary to read in your account.” Harris claimed she didn’t doubt his capacity to serve as president, but he lacked the capacity to run for reelection.
The BBC anchor was gobsmacked: “Isn’t it a strange message to the public to say, you know, what you need to be tougher and more able to run a political campaign than actually to be the person behind the desk in the Oval Office?” Harris stuck to her line.
Then came Australia’s ABC. Interviewer Sarah Ferguson also pressed on the decline question: “Didn’t you also have a responsibility? You were one of the people in the room. … Didn’t you have a responsibility as an American to step up and say something at that point?”
Harris insisted: “I did not question Joe Biden’s capacity to be president at all.”
Ferguson blamed Biden: “Wasn’t his refusal to recognize his own frailties the reason that you faced a nearly impossible task?”
When Harris shifted to saying Trump was the real challenge, Ferguson called her out: “I want to interrupt you because that is a world-class pivot, but it is not the question that I asked you, which is about Joe Biden’s failure to recognize his own frailties and what that did to you. The question is about Joe Biden. Are you still reluctant to criticize the former president?”
Harris answered: “In what regard, please?” Ferguson restated her thesis that Biden damaged her chances. Harris repeated: “He was not frail as president of the United States.”
This was about as accurate as comparing Trump to a communist dictator. It’s a colossal shame that American journalists can’t ask the questions that foreigners can.
