Mike Johnson shamed by MAGA lawmaker over leadership failures: ‘Fix the problem’

Trump has made the SAVE Act his top priority in recent months, going as far as to derail the Senate GOP’s entire agenda with a surprise cancellation of a Senate confirmation hearing, and caused further chaos by refusing to sign a bi-partisan bill on affordable housing.

And on Sunday, Trump promoted an op-ed published last week by the Daily Signal, an op-ed in which columnist and Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock torched Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) for lacking “true grit.”

“The GOP Senate needs such true grit. Alas, John Thune offers talcum powder,” Murdock wrote in the op-ed promoted by Trump. “Thune is like a regional sales manager who moans to headquarters, ‘I don’t have any sales.’ Well, kid, go close some sales! If SAVE lacks the votes, get the votes!”

According to a recent analysis from New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, Senate Republicans may only now be “coming to understand” the threat Trump poses to their agenda. According to Bouie, however, that realization may already have come “a bit too late” to save the GOP from a sizable loss in the upcoming midterm elections.

“Best fireworks show, EVER!” he posted on Truth Social about 12:30 a.m.

That was not the Daily Beast’s take, which noted extreme weather spurred a mass evacuation into emergency shelters and sent thousands spilling into the nearby streets.

MAGA influencer Emily Miller reportedly remained locked out even as some crowds were allowed to return.

“It’s horrible scenes out here,” Miller reportedly said. “I am so done.”

Another MAGA fan to complain was Jan. 6 rioter Timothy Hale, the Daily Beast reported.

“I love Trump,” he said, “but this sounds like boomer slop meant to placate disappointed crowds.”

When Trump finally took the stage at 11.15 p.m., more than an hour later than planned, he delivered a rambling speech against “communists” and misquoted the Declaration of Independence.

The 850,000 shell-firework display began about midnight and was marred by dense smoke, according to the Daily Beast.

As hot and tired crowds squinted through the haze for the 40-minute display, Trump sat in a private, sheltered chamber, the Daily Beast reported.

“Television cameras appeared to catch Trump sitting motionless,” the Daily Beast reported, “as though he had fallen asleep.”

Code Purple is one of six categories used by the Environmental Protection Agency to measure air quality, and is the second-most severe of the six, just behind Code Maroon, which is issued only in “emergency conditions.”

The impact of Trump’s fireworks show on air quality was predicted well in advance, with the National Park Service assessing that nearby residents should “wear an N95 mask when outdoors,” and “remain indoors as much as possible during and after the show,” according to internal National Park documents obtained by The Washington Post.

“Poisoning the air to own the libs after napalming our Capitol to ‘prove’ how ‘patriotic’ you are,” quipped Joanne Carducci, a prominent liberal commentator, in a social media post to her more than 1 million followers.

Joyce Carol Oates, an author and former Ivy League professor, issued a more solemn condemnation of what she characterized as Trump’s disregard for D.C. residents.

“Fireworks, like much in life, loses its aesthetic value the more there is of it; beyond a point, even the eye becomes bored,” Oates wrote Sunday in a social media post on X to her nearly 285,000 followers. “Presumably [Trump] wanted the ‘biggest, best’ fireworks in all of D.C. history without regard for air quality or anyone with respiratory problems.”