We’ve always been very cautious about doing any reporting from war zones. But here’s a report from TPM Reader TB …

I am assuming (or hoping) that TPM has received reports from others here in Portland regarding the huge gulf between the way the Administration is describing things and what is happening in reality. Either way, I feel compelled to share my observations because I am completely flabbergasted that the Administration continues to so blatantly manufacture this “warzone” imagery. I’m used to the hyperbole they use, but this goes so far beyond hyperbole, I can barely find the words.

Kate and Josh analyze the oddly muted shutdown, as well as the alarming escalation of state violence in Chicago.

Has Trump brought peace to Gaza? Ended the war and cycle of killing that has now been going on for two years? I’ve had a number of TPM Readers ask me different versions of this. And in those questions is a lurking undercurrent, sometimes more or less explicit, of “does this malevolent clown actually get credit for this?” I wanted to address this question. And my answer is that this is perhaps the first time when Trump’s frequent and degenerate boast — I alone can do it — has a very real element of truth.

I don’t think Trump expended any great amount of energy over this and I don’t think he really cares greatly about any of the people on either side of the conflict. Let’s remember that a few months ago he backed a plan to “voluntarily” depopulate Gaza and remake it as a series of mediterranean resorts, sort of Monaco only 150 times the size.

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