The Soft Power of Buc-ee's
Life During Trumptime - 6/8/26 - 6/14/26
It’s a summer of sports in America. The New York Nicks faced off against the San Antonio Spurs in a historic NBA championship. The World Cup brought thousands of tourists to the US to enjoy Buc-ee’s, Texas Road House, and our enormous high school football stadiums. And the President is hosting a UFC match on the South Lawn of the White House.
Dreaming of the World Cup, some tourists discovered an entirely different kind of divine glory: an enormous beaver themed gas station called Buc-ee’s. The golden beaver statue is a common sight on many a Texas road trip and he did not fail to enchant tourists from around the world. A flood of videos from World Cup fans taken in Texas warmed my heart this week. It was a nice break in a bleak year, and a good reminder that there is much to love about this big, beautiful, and sometimes stupid, country.
As our erstwhile producer Kevin Knodell is fond of saying: “America was always great.”
6/8/26
For Trump, the week began with boos and ended in cheers.
He attended a Nicks game at Madison Square Garden on Monday, the first time a sitting president has attended an NBA Finals game. The crowd did not treat him kindly. Trump stood and saluted during the national anthem and the crowd booed him. Footage of the incident spread online.
“I thought it was amazing. You mean when they had the camera on me? I thought it was very good, yeah. It was certainly amazing. It was, I think, mostly cheers. It was loud and it was very enthusiastic,” Trump told reporters later.
6/9/26
An Apache helicopter crashed in the Gulf of Oman after colliding with a Shahed drone. Iran said this was an accident and that the Apache was simply caught in a crossfire. According to CENTCOM, both pilots onboard survived the crash uninjured. In retaliation, Trump ordered a series of strikes on Iran.
“CENTCOM forces struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets. The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM said in a post on X.
6/10/26
Fallout from the Apache crash and subsequent US strikes on Iranian targets continued today. Trump used the strikes to push for an overall deal with Iran. According to Trey Yingst at Fox News, the US fired 49 Tomahawk missiles as part of the retaliatory strikes and Trump said he would “bomb the shit out of them” if Iran didn’t sit down and sign a deal.
The White House promoted the president’s birthday cage match with AI-generated images of swole Uncle Sam.
6/11/26
Representatives of the United Arab Emirates and Iran met in an attempt to de-escalate the Iran War. In the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that the Strait of Hormuz would be open soon. “We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,” he said. “The strait will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon, very soon, maybe over the weekend in Europe.”
No one likes Bill Pulte, Trump’s nominee to replace Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. Congress is so upset it actually exercised its political power. The GOP controlled house voted down the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Democrats said they would not support the renewal of the spying powers unless Trump pulled Pulte’s nomination and 19 House Republicans joined them.
Trump appeared to concede. “I am pleased to announce the Nomination of very Highly Respected Jay Clayton, former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the former Head of Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the most prominent and successful Law Firms anywhere in the World, and the current United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be the next Director of National Intelligence and, importantly, to serve in my Cabinet. Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay. I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
The White House posted yet another AI-generated image swole Uncle Sam.
6/12/26
Outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard had one final gift for Americans and she released it today accompanied with an announcement video on X. “Today, I’m releasing never before seen intelligence revealing new evidence of past US government funding for more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries, including Ukraine,” Gabbard said in the video.
The disclosed info was four slides that outlined the basic facts of American-supported biological research labs across the world. This was, for the current administration, all about Joe Biden. “Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth,” Gabbard said in a statement on the ODNI’s website.
Following a long and complicated legal battle, a work crew arrived at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC to remove Trump’s name from the building. Various news outlets set up livestreams to monitor the work. The MS Now video is almost 12 hours long and garnered 44,000 live viewers. As of this writing, it’s been viewed 5.3 million times.
The Department of War released a third tranche of documents related to UFOs. Like previous releases, the new files are a mix of redacted documents from the previous century and FBI interviews with cranks.
The Wall Street Journal published an adaptation of a book about the bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline.
“Seven-foot waves tossed the boat in a howling gale. The crew, drenched and pale with seasickness, voted one by one to abort the mission. It seemed suicidal to dive 80 meters into the Baltic Sea to rig bombs onto pipelines in this kind of storm.
“Then, among the ashen-faced men, a diminutive figure rose.
“A civilian diving instructor, she was the sole woman on the team—and perhaps the reason that one of the greatest acts of sabotage in modern history was carried out successfully, according to individuals involved in its planning and German police who investigated it.
“Shouting over the wind, she volunteered to dive alone.”
6/13/26
On Saturday, just ahead of the President’s birthday, we got the first rumblings of a possible end to the Iran War. It came in the form of a shitpost on Truth Social.
“Barack Hussein Obama’s Deal with Iran, the JCPOA, was an easy, beautiful, smooth road to a Nuclear Weapon, which Iran would have had six years ago, and would have used long before now. My Agreement with Iran is the exact opposite, A WALL TO NO NUCLEAR WEAPON! In fact, they no longer want a Nuclear Weapon, nor will they have one, either through purchase, development, or any other form of procurement. The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL. Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had. Unlike Obama’s Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in payments to them, including 1.7 Billion Dollars in green, cold cash, no money will exchange hands,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
When the so-called memorandum of understanding was revealed a few days later it included $300 billion in US payments to Iran for post-war reconstruction.
Obama was on Trump’s brain this weekend. He later posted an AI-generated photo depicting the Obama presidential library in Chicago as a trash can surrounded by a tent city.
6/14/26
It was fight night in America on Sunday as a nation’s eyes turned towards the South Lawn of the White House and wondered if storms would dash Trump’s hopes of watching grown men beat the shit out of each other in a cage. It was touch and go there for a bit, but in the fights went down, and men walked away bloody and battered.
The whole thing was steamed on Paramount Plus and included a list of sponsors like Dodge, Crypto.com, Polymarket, and Bud Light. According to a court filing, the whole affair cost $60 million to produce. A VIP seat cost $1.5 million. Jets flew overhead. Marines guarded tents advertising Black Rifle Coffee. BMX bikes soared through the air. Fighter Justin Gaethje beat opponent Ilia Topuria so badly he’s unrecognizable. The White House achieved its spectacle in honor of the boss’s birthday. All the while, negotiations continued with Iran to end the war.
“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region. Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me. The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace. With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!” He said in a follow up post.