The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Belly Laugh of the Day

“Because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? … Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” —President Donald Trump when asked by a Japanese reporter, “Why didn’t you tell U.S. allies … like Japan about the war before attacking Iran?”

Fact-Check: Unneeded

“FWIW Prime Minister Takaichi was born 20 years after Pearl Harbor.” —CNN’s Jake Tapper (“Trump was also not alive yet on Pearl Harbor Day, Jake. This was a joke about the importance of keeping surprises in war. As everyone with a functional brain recognized.” —Clay Travis)

Braying Jenny

“The Secretary of Defense tells the American public to pray for our troops on bended knee and invoke Jesus’ name….” —CBS News’s Margaret Brennan (“I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.” —President Franklin D. Roosevelt, June 1944)

Re: The Leftmedia

“A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing … to downplay progress, amplify every cost, and call into question every step. Sadly, TDS is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail. But you, the American people, know better.” —Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

“This media here — not all of it, but much of it — wants you to think, just 19 days into this conflict, that we are somehow spinning toward an endless abyss, or a ‘forever war,’ or a quagmire. Nothing could be further from the truth.” —Pete Hegseth

Touché

“We’ve decided to share the ocean with Iran. We’ve given them the bottom half.” —Pete Hegseth

Cleanup on Aisle 46

“There have been repeated concerns about the supply of U.S. weapons during the current conflict with Iran. Why would the United States be at risk of running out of missile interceptors and other weapons? Because the Biden/Harris administration drained our stockpiles, providing weapons to Ukraine at the expense of our own military.” —Gary Bauer

The Bottom Line

“Don’t fall for the propaganda. Iran is not holding its own in this conflict. It is being systematically dismantled. One by one, the senior figures of the Islamic Republic have been eliminated: generals, security chiefs and regime power brokers. The country’s leadership has been decapitated at the highest levels, leaving behind a hollowed-out command structure struggling to function.” —Ben Shapiro

For the Record

“Trump and Vance promise not only Democrat states will be investigated, but also Republican states, if there is evidence of fraud. It’s a worthy goal and one taxpayers should favor, but eliminating fraud is something like eliminating sin, or Dracula’s lust for blood. Once the initial announcement has been eclipsed by other events, let’s hope the effort doesn’t fade with it.” —Cal Thomas