Coffee Talk with Tiff

August 13, 2026 12:15 pm EDT Tiff Coffee Talk with Tiff 0
Image credit: AI-generated illustration created with ChatGPT

It’s Thursday…

Shitshow’s public schedule for…

It’s Thursday.

The California Valley heatwave has finally broke.

Big Bang Theory Hallelujah GIFfrom Big Bang Theory GIFs

Scattered Items Thursday…

Puddle announced that Propaganda Barbie would be leaving her role at the end of the month in order to “spend more time” with her family.

Propaganda Barbie posted her thank you Puddle for everything message via Twitter.

The text:

Serving as the White House Press Secretary over the past year and a half has been the honor and adventure of a lifetime. I am incredibly grateful to President Trump for granting me so many extraordinary opportunities, such as working in the West Wing and spending countless hours in the Oval Office, flying around the world and meeting foreign leaders, and traveling across our beautiful country and meeting Americans from all walks of life.

Most of all, I am thankful to the President for entrusting me with the distinct privilege of speaking on his behalf at the White House podium. I have spoken with great pride about the many historic accomplishments of this Administration, and I have relished holding the liberal media accountable and ensuring the American people hear the truth about President Trump’s successes.

Being a mother and welcoming a new baby while working in one of the most demanding jobs in the world has been the most rewarding yet challenging season of my life, to say the least. The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life.

President Trump has asked me to continue serving as a top advisor to him on the outside, and I will always remain a vocal advocate for MAGA and the Republican Party.

Our country is facing an existential threat from an increasingly extremist Democrat Party that seeks to destroy everything great about America, and I believe it is incumbent upon all of us who care about this country to fight back against that threat. My fight is entering a new phase, but it is far from over.

Thank you again to the President, the First Lady, and the entire Trump family for your kindness and generosity over the years. Thank you to our amazing Chief of Staff Susie Wiles for empowering me since the day she hired me on the campaign, and to the President’s cabinet, my staff, colleagues, and friends at the White House who work so hard on behalf of our nation. It has been a privilege to serve alongside so many accomplished and impressive people, and I look forward to cheering them on over the next two and a half years.

And of course, thank you most especially to my loving and supportive husband and family for the sacrifices they made for me to serve in this role. ❤️ 🇺🇸

🙄

The images she shared…

July 2025.

Happy Birthday to her message August 2025…

Puddle started his Executive Time this morning by posting someone else’s post to celebrate Karolina Leavitt.

The rumor mill is churning out the “frontrunners” to replace Propaganda Barbie.

The New York Post (08/12/2026) reported:

Sources within and close to the administration told The Post that early front-runners for the role are believed to include Alina Habba, the former acting US attorney for New Jersey, and Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.

[snip]

Other contenders could include former White House deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel Taylor Budowich, who departed that role last September to return to the private sector, and current White House communications director Steven Cheung.

[snip]

Also subject to heavy speculation are Katie Miller, a former aide to Elon Musk at DOGE and the wife of deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, as well as principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly and US chief of protocol Monica Crowley, a former journalist who regularly interacts with the president.

[snip]

The Kalshi betting market featured wild swings as gamblers digested the news.

Longtime Trump adviser Jason Miller at one point placed second to Habba, before fading as major bets were placed, vaulting Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s wife, Fox News personality Rachel Campos-Duffy to 65% likelihood, before failed Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt took the lead.

[snip]

Other names bandied about include pro-Trump commentator Scott Jennings and former Arizona political candidate Kari Lake, who presided over last year’s attempted dismantling of Voice of America while leading the federal agency that oversees the US-funded media outlet.

New York Post (08/12/2026).

Who knows maybe we will get a Propaganda Ken.

Things I saw while doom scrolling on Twitter

The cost of remaking D.C., in Puddle’s image…

The Trump administration plans to spend at least $900 million for constructionprojects on the White House grounds, a significantly larger price tag than has been previously reported and one that would be covered primarily by taxpayers, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.

Instead of securing money directly from Congress, the records show, the administration has pieced together funding from other agencies and private donors and directed it to a little-known account that typically holds a few million dollars for routine maintenance of the executive mansion.

Confidential contracts and related planning documents indicate that the administration plans to use money in that account for White House “modernization projects” — the administration’s term for President Donald Trump’s planned overhaul of the property, at the center of which is a gilded East Wing ballroom

[snip]

The Trump administration has not disclosed the total cost of all planned White House construction or shared details about the sources or original intended purposes of most of the money it has assembled. Trump has repeatedly said that the East Wing ballroom project would be covered by private donations.

The Post previously reported that the projected cost of the East Wing construction alone was $600 million, with half coming from taxpayers. The confidential contracting documents include the costs of upgrades to nearby Lafayette Square, construction of a helipad, a new visitor screening center and other previously reported projects that would drive the total cost of work on the grounds to at least $927 million.

The contracts reviewed by The Post leave open the possibility that the work will not move forward as planned and that the money will not be spent. As of the end of June, administration officials had issued orders for over $100 million of work to be paid from the White House maintenance account, budget office records show.

The White House did not answer questions from The Post about the source of all the funding or the total cost of the planned work, but said the money is being spent in a “manner consistent with” Congress’s original intent.

“President Trump continues to implement long-overdue and necessary renovations to beautify the People’s House as we celebrate our great Nation’s 250th anniversary of independence,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “Thanks to the Builder-in-Chief, the White House will be properly glorified and remain in excellent condition for generations to come.”

Washington Post. 08/12/2026.

Zoom in: While critics demand more specifics on the costs and sources of funding, one thing is clear: 18 months in, Trump’s construction itch hasn’t eased, and the price tag keeps on growing with it.

Zoom out: While the East Wing’s demolition might be the most head-turning change, an unclear cascade of cash is being poured into other projects, as well, including:

AXIOS. 08/13/2026.
  • A helipad for the new Marine One model, with Lockheed Martin covering up to $6 million.
  • The Rose Garden re-do, which reportedly cost around $2 million, covered by private donations.
  • A granite pathway to the Oval Office that Trump said he was paying for — though an investigation by The Atlantic said otherwise.

Zoom in: The stalled ballroom project’s price tag has risen rapidly after it was initially pitched at roughly $200 million last year.

AXIOS. 08/13/2026.
  • Trump then told reporters earlier this year the cost could be between $300 million or $400 million, “depending on finishes,” like “very expensive marble.”
  • He defended the price hike in May, writing on Truth Social the estimate doubled because “it is approximately twice the size, and a far higher quality, than the original proposal.”

As I was reading the insane amount of money the Puddle is spending trashing the White House. I saw this…

And this…

And of course this…

New calculations from the Joint Economic Committee, Minority, show a staggering gap between how President Trump fared financially in 2025 and how ordinary American families fared. Trump reported at least $2.2 billion in income last year, more than triple what he earned in 2024, while the average American family lost roughly $1,625 to inflation over the same period. Multiplied across the country, that works out to $219 billion in losses for American families in a single year.

[snip]

The contrast the Joint Economic Committee Minority lays out is stark. A president who tripled his personal income in a single year, largely through ventures tied directly to his office and his public platform, while the country he leads absorbed $219 billion in added costs over that same stretch. As the report puts it in its own headline framing, the president gains while average Americans lose. With inflation related costs already topping $3,500 per family through the first half of 2026, the gap the report highlights shows no sign of closing anytime soon.

Meidas Touch. 08/13/2026.

Welcome to the golden age…

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About Tiff 3746 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.