Trump Demands Netanyahu Pardon, Blasts Prince William, and Hosts Soccer's GOAT — All Before Dinner

And it didn't stop there.

Trump also reportedly weighed in on Britain's royal family — describing Prince William as "just a troublemaker" who has "an anger management problem" and is no longer focused on his royal duties.

**Buckingham Palace has not responded publicly.**

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, meanwhile, had his own sharp words — suggesting Trump has "plunged the Middle East into chaos" and that Britain "will not come under pressure."

That comment was quickly amplified across social media, with one user on X calling it "absolute cinema."

The backdrop to all of this is a Middle East that genuinely is on edge.

Russia's Vladimir Putin had just issued a warning that he could cut off oil supplies to European markets — a move that would send energy prices surging across the continent.

And on the war front, the 60-day clock started by last week's Senate vote authorizing continued military operations is now ticking.

Democratic veterans in Congress are pushing back hard, arguing that **only Congress has the constitutional power to declare war** — and that the current situation tests that boundary.

On the domestic front, the crypto regulatory machinery that Trump set in motion is still grinding forward.

Trump's pick to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — Michael Selig, an SEC crypto-task-force insider — is being read as a major signal about where U.S. digital asset regulation is headed.

The CFTC and SEC have launched what they're calling a joint "crypto sprint" to fast-track Trump's digital asset roadmap, with the stated goal of making America the "crypto capital of the world."

**Your wallet could feel this** — if the CFTC becomes the primary regulator for digital assets, the rules governing how you buy, sell, and hold crypto are about to change significantly.

Meanwhile, the tariff debate is churning through Congress with no resolution in sight.

Seventeen Republican House members broke with their party to vote in favor of extending ACA tax credits — a move that's made Republican leadership visibly nervous about holding the coalition together for bigger legislative fights ahead.

"I don't know how you do anything real when 17 members think their political careers are in jeopardy if they don't vote for the Democrats' top priority," one unnamed member told reporters.

On the international stage, reports surfaced that the Trump administration is planning a large military base in Gaza to house up to **5,000 international troops** from Indonesia, Morocco, Albania, Kosovo, and Kazakhstan.

Questions are swirling about whether U.S. troops will be part of that deployment — and whether the plan has any buy-in from the people of Gaza themselves.

And then, at 4 p.m. ET, Inter Miami arrived at the White House.

**Messi shook Trump's hand** — the first time the two had met — in what the White House confirmed was a planned visit.

It was the kind of surreal, only-in-this-era moment that makes you wonder what the history books will say about this particular stretch of American political life.

A sitting president demanding a foreign head of state pardon his ally, calling a British prince a troublemaker, mapping out troop deployments in the Middle East, reshaping global crypto regulation — and then posing for photos with the greatest soccer player who ever lived.

All on the same Thursday.

**The pace isn't slowing down.** And tomorrow is already shaping up to be just as busy.

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