Beltway Insider: Trump/Iran Deal, DNC Post-Mortem, Memorial Day, Rep. Barney Frank, Mark Fuhrman

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Category: Beltway Insider

Published on Saturday, 23 May 2026 16:23

Written by Janet Walker

President Trump has announced that a peace deal with Iran is imminent and even has Israel has continued to pummel Lebanon with airstrikes, the U.S. involvement in the monthslong war may be coming to a peaceful ending.

The President's job approval rating, according to The New York Times for the period ending May 23, 2026, of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President remained consistent at 38% and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as president has decreased by 1% to 58%. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated weekly.

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Trump Announces Iran Peace Deal Imminent

President Trump has announced that a peace deal with Iran is imminent, and even has Israel has continued to attack Lebanon, the U.S. involvement in the monthslong war, may be coming to a peaceful ending.

The president made the announcement via Truth Social, his social media channel, and strongly inferred that peace negotiations with Iran have nearly concluded and a deal is imminent, and includes the reopening of the Hormuz Strait, which is critical to the world's oil supply.

"US and Iranian officials suggested that they may be closer to reaching a framework agreement to end the war after mediators from Qatar and Pakistan held talks in Tehran on Saturday. One regional source said the US and Iran were moving closer to an agreement to work toward a more detailed deal in the future," CNN.com reported.

Operation Epic Fury, which is costing the United States upwards of $1billion per day, primarily to upgrade and replenish munitions, has also cost 13 servicemen their lives and more than 380 U.S. troops have been wounded, eight of whom sustained severe injuries.

Additionally, the trickle down of Operation Epic Fury, and the subsequent closure of the Hormuz Strait, increased the price of gas at the pump for millions of Americans creating a downward cost of $50 million in disruptions to the economy, higher gas prices, and an increase in goods and services.

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Democratic National Convention Post-Mortem on 2024 Election

The DNC, the Democratic National Convention issued a post-mortem on the Harris-Walz campaign and why it failed to secure a 2024 victory, this week outlining five elements which made voters less likely to vote for Harris and more likely to vote for Trump.

While Trump's popularity has plummeted since the election, the DNC appears to be plucking points from a stunted campaign without examining a larger two-fold picture: the mid-season switch and the overarching 2020 stolen campaign strategy.

Biden's decision to step back from the ticket, passing the torch to Ms. Harris, seemed honorable enough, and for the American people it was simple an opportunity to hoodwink the voters into electing an African American female president, believing that the majority of voters would see her as their only choice against the Trump campaign.

Forcing American's to do anything will generally result in blowback and it did in this case also.

The 192 page report, traces this century of Democratic wins and losses over the past twenty-six years before it doubles-down on the Harris-Walz 2024 campaign.

"The campaign erred, the report said, by assuming that the American public's views of Mr. Trump were "baked in," calling it a "major failure of analysis and reality — given how his favorability has cratered" since his return to office to serve a second term," The Washington Post reported.

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A post-mortem, essentially a Monday morning quarterback, proceeds to microscopically analyze the campaign without actually pointing to certain other possible reasons or motivations.

Trump began his 2024 campaign marred by a 32 felony count conviction, and still his base which is predominately white and middle class or economically challenged, and disenfranchised, with a belief that government is giving away the bank to immigrants and fringe groups and augmenting the Constitution's Bill of Rights.

The Harris campaign attempted to secure the votes of the LGBTQ population, which seems like an unwise use of campaign ad spend as the LGBTQ community is more likely to vote democrat than not. The ad, in which Harris explained her support of using taxpayer funded support for transgender inmate sex surgeries ended with "Harris is for They/Them Trump is for You." The ad risked alienating more moderates Democrats and potential moderate republicans and caused many to back away from the candidate.

The report also indicated that Harris did not take sufficient steps to distance herself from former President Biden, who was presented as old, frail, and senile. Hoping to ride his good will, Biden energized the audience at the Democratic National Convention, and his last words rang of ageism, which alienated the senior voters, who saw the pressure to remove him from the ticket as ageism.  

While she presented herself as "For the People," the real truth is she wasn't for all the people. She believed the fringe voters, and traditionally marginalized groups, including blacks and other races, could carry her. The reality is she lost sight of those who vote; she lost sight of the war within the races; and while her own blended family works, for many it is seen as the fast track to assimilation.

When all the words are sifted through, and each of the thoughts are analyzed, the truth is simple: The American people saw through the attempt to be hoodwinked, a fast sleight of hand trick to secure a long aspired to goal and they said no.

In the end, of course, the DNC placed the blame squarely on the Biden White House, saying, ""The White House did not position or prepare the vice president," the document said. "Had the White House explored and evaluated ways to leverage Kamala Harris earlier in the administration, perhaps it would have improved the president's standing, and it certainly could have helped prepare her to lead the ticket," The Washington Post reported.

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Tulsi Gabbard Resigns

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has submitted her resignation to the president after 15 moths with the administration due to her husband's bone cancer diagnosis.

"Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026. My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer," she wrote in a letter to Trump. "At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle," The Washington Post reported.

Memorial Day

As Memorial Day is often seen as the start of the summer season, the holiday is a time to honor the nation's fallen heroes, remembering those men and women who died in service to their nation.

For travelers, Memorial Day 2026 is met with higher gasoline prices, as the war in Iran, and the barricaded Strait of Hormuz, is disrupting the holiday travel plans.

Most communities will be hosting traditional holiday parades, and the National Memorial Day Parade will begin on Monday, May 25 at 10:00 AM in Washington DC. Paying homage to the American spirit and honoring those who paid the ultimate price to ensure this experiment which began 250 years again, would continue unabated for generations.

The Parade is streamed live online, then televised to more than 100 million homes across the United States on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and CW stations, along with worldwide to every military installation and Navy ship at sea on American Forces Network.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday and with it on Monday, May 25, all banks and federal institutions, including the U.S. Post Office and any federal, city or state governmental offices will be closed.

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Coronavirus Total

At the order of the President of the United States, the U.S. no longer recognizes the value of The World Health Organization. The CDC has recommended every person from age six months, including senior citizens should receive at least one shot of an updated COVID-19 vaccine, annually.  The death toll from Covid-19 has dramatically decreased, as has transmission of the virus. Even as confirmed new cases continue each week, fewer are dying from each new variants.

For the 7 days ending May 23, 2026, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases reported by the World Health Organization increased by 3,269 to 779,216,887. The total worldwide death toll did not increase over the past seven days increased by 138 to 7,114,938 deaths. The United States has stopped providing Covid data to the World Health Organization. (Data updated May 3, 2026, from the World Health Organization).

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Barney Frank, First Openly Gay Congressman, Dies

"Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who brought his sharp intellect and irrepressible wit to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he led a sweeping overhaul of the financial industry after the Great Recession and advanced gay rights as one of the first openly gay congressmen in history, died May 19 at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86," The Washington Post reported.

Frank championed a wide sweeping overhaul of the Wall Street financial industry which resulted in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Mark Fuhrman, O.J. Simpson Detective, Dies

Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles Police Detective, crime novelist, and expert commentator died this week in Idaho. He was 74.

Fuhrman was one of the first detectives on the scene in June 1995, when Nicole Brown Simpson, and a friend, Ronald L. Goldman, were found brutally stabbed to death. Brown-Simpson was nearly decapitated. She had also made numerous police reports regarding Simpson's, a former pro-football player, physical abuse and that she feared for her life.

Fuhrman became the star witness in the 1995 O.J. Simpson double murder trial, where it was revealed that he had used a racial epithet, and as Simpson, who was black, the overtone of the word usage was an indication of a deeper psychological flaw that resulted in behavior that was bias toward African-Americans.

Once it was revealed that he used the word multiple times, the entire dream team defense became centered on proving any evidence collected by the LAPD, was tainted due to Mr. Fuhrman's overwhelming hatred of Blacks.

The prosecution made multiple mistakes including moving the case from Brentwood, with a mixed race and more affluent jury pool to downtown Los Angeles, where the jury pool was predominately middle-class or economically challenged African-Americans.

While the jury found Mr. Simpson not guilty. Fuhrman was convicted on perjury. Simpson was later found civilly libel for the murders and ordered to pay $33.5 million dollars. He died before he could make full restitution.

Fuhrman retired from the LAPD in 1995 after 20 years of service. He turned to writing and to appearing as a Fox News commentator on prominent criminal cases. [. . .] His first book, "Murder in Brentwood" (1997), was followed by other true-crime books, among them examinations of the John F. Kennedy assassination, the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Conn., and a serial killer's spree in Spokane. His "Murder in Greenwich" was made into a 2002 television movie that he wrote with Dave Erickson," The Washington Post reported.

Fuhrman is survived by his daughter and wife.

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For more information on President Donald Trump: Whitehouse.gov.

Sources: Various © Articles covered by Copyright protection.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five award-winning screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," a non-fiction narrative, "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," and "Songs of Freedom: A Collection of Biblical Teachings," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.