Trump lives and dies by ratings and reviews. Well, the reviews are in on today’s BradCast for his sleepy, low-energy, hour-plus long campaign style remarks to the nation’s top military brass at Tuesday’s bizarre, in-person convocation of the nation’s highest-ranking military generals. The unusual gathering was called at the U.S. Marine base at Quantico by his Defense Secretary. The reviews were not good. [ Audio link to full story follows this summary. ] Before we get to today’s weird military gathering, a few thoughts as the government is now all but certain to begin a partial shutdown as of midnight tonight. It is the first such federal shutdown since the last time Donald Trump was in the White House and Republicans held majority control of both chambers of Congress. He has been remarkably sanguine about it this time. He refused to even meet with Democratic leaders until yesterday, after which he went on to post an obnoxious, racist, AI-generated video mocking both House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer . Democrats refuse to sign on to a Republican bill that continues spending at current levels unless Republicans restore hundreds of billion
