‘Nobody Trusts Anybody Now and We’re All Very Tired’
Life During Trumptime - 5/18/26 - 5/24/26
Like many others last week I watched rapt as retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward went on Fox News to talk about the War in Iran. To many, including myself, it appeared that Harward was wearing a hyper realistic silicone mask of himself on television.
The online crowd endlessly dissected, memed, and shared Harward’s clip. The neckline appeared to be the giveaway. Cloaked in shadow, it seemed as if the edge of the mask was visible, a bit of untucked silicone flapped as Harward talked. The harsh lighting of the set blasted away Harward’s wrinkles, making him appear much smoother than he had in other television appearances and seeming to bolster the mask theory.
But we must guard our hearts against what we want to believe. It would be deeply weird for a man who is frequently on TV to appear in a rubber mask or send someone to do so in his stead. There’s no motive. The more likely explanation, and one provided by Fox News, is that the lighting in the studio was bad and harsh and cast strange shadows around the retired admiral’s throat.
YouTuber, VFX artist, and serial debunker of odd claims Captain Disillusion explained what likely happened in a long thread on X.
“In a news studio (or a commentator’s living room), you’re gonna have some sort of basic top lights at ~45º, which on their own, no matter how soft, create some shadows. Note the one touching the collar. It’s cast by the jaw. So, lazy no-good news studio gaffers might stick a bottom fill light below the subject to counteract the top-heavy key. On its own, it’s doing something like this. (Note how the angle causes the slightly flared shirt collar to cast a shadow upward),” Captain Disillusion said.
“Added together, they end up as barely passable face lighting,” he said. “Except, in this case, on the neck. The shirt collar cuts the fill light, creating a little window of top-only light casting that chin shadow. The top edge moves with the collar, the bottom with the talking jaw.”
A sensible explanation for a paranoid age. A week later I’m more disturbed by my own willingness to believe the mask theory than I am the shadow under Harward’s neck. Lately I feel like MacReady at the end of The Thing.
“Nobody trusts anybody now and we’re all very tired.”
5/18/26
The Department of Justice established a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization” fund as part of a settlement between Trump and the IRS. The DOJ said this fund would payout claims to people who’d been harmed by the Biden White House.
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again. As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
The settlement stems from a lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS in January 2026. During his first term, a contractor for the IRS leaked Trump’s tax returns to ProPublica and The New York Times.
5/19/26
The New York Times had a story about a failed attempt by Israel and Iran to replace Iran’s leader during the early days of their war in Iran. Trump wanted regime change and Israel suggested an odd candidate: former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad was the President of Iran from 2005 to 2013 and was a frequent foil to president Bush.
According to the Times, the plan to install Ahmadinejad was hatched by Israeli intelligence. The plan was undercut in the early days of the war an Israeli airstrike destroyed Ahmadinejad’s home and injured him. The former president tried to run for office several times since 2013 but had been blocked by other political forces in Tehran after being critical of the regime. He’d been under house arrest for a few months and the air strike that injured him was designed to free him, according to The Times.
The destruction of his house, apparently, soured him on the regime change plan. He hasn’t been seen in public since the strike.
Retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward appeared on Fox News and looked very strange under the lights. It looked weird and conspiracy theories spread like wildfire online.
5/20/26
The United States officially indicted Raúl Castro over his alleged ties to the deaths of four people near the Cuban coastline in 1996. The Cuban Air Force shot down two Cessnas connected to Brothers to the Rescue, an activist group that aids Cuban dissidents.
“For nearly 30 years the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference announcing the charges. “My message today is clear: The United States and President Trump does not and will not forget its citizens.”
Two US Capitol police officers sued Trump, Blanch, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over the $1.776 slush fund today. “In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.
The plaintiffs are Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges, two police officers who defended the capitol during the riots on January 6, 2021. “As a consequence of that work, Officers Dunn and Hodges have been harassed by those who attacked the Capitol, and have received a series of credible death threats,” the lawsuit said.
“The Anti-Weaponization Fund will both compensate and empower the very people making those threats. Militias like the Proud Boys will use money from the Fund to arm and equip themselves. The Fund will grant their past acts of violence legal imprimatur. And, most chillingly, the Fund will signal to past and potential future perpetrators of violence against Dunn and Hodges that they need not fear prosecution; to the contrary, they should expect to be rewarded.”
5/21/26
Reporters in the Oval Office with Trump on Thursday asked if he would attend his son’s wedding in the Bahamas that weekend.
“Uh, he’d like me to go,” Trump said. “But it’s just gonna be a small little private affair and I’m gonna try and make it. I said, you know, this is not good timing for me. I’ve got a thing called Iran and other things. That’s one I can’t win on. If do attend, I get killed. If I don’t attend, I get killed. By the fake news, of course, I’m talking about.”
Trump posted a message to Truth Social about the wedding the next day. “While I very much wanted to be with my son, Don Jr., and the newest member of the Trump Family, his soon to be wife, Bettina, circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so. I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time. Congratulations to Don and Bettina!”
5/22/26
Tulsi Gabbard resigned her position as the Director of National Intelligence. (DNI) “My husband, Abraham, has been recently diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer,” she said in her resignation letter. “He faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months. At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle.”
Gabbard was always an odd choice for DNI. She was prone to conspiracy thinking, soft on dictators like Bashar Al-Assad, and often seemed uncomfortable in the role of America’s intel chief. She’ll be replaced by former CIA station chief Aaron Lukas.
5/23/26
Nasire Best fired a gun outside of the White House on Saturday, exchanged fire with the Secret Service, and was shot dead. Multiple reporters were on the scene filming various news segments when the shots rang out and their reactions were captured live, in the moment, and broadcast to the world.
Something about NBC’s Julie Tsirkin reaction to the shots caught the internet’s attention. As the shots rang out, Tsirkin turned toward the noise for a beat before looking just beyond the camera. “What is that?” She asked, her face uncomprehending. The moment was cut, remixed, and repurposed into hundreds of memes.
Tsirkin, a good sport, played along and shared her own.
Tsirkin’s reaction was even mixed with the other big meme of the week, Admiral Howard’s bizarre shadows.
5/24/26
Just ahead of Memorial Day, Trump shared a message from UFC CEO Dana White on Truth Social. White is hosting a UFC cage match on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14 as part of a festival honoring America’s 250th anniversary.