For younger Americans, homeownership increasingly resembles one of those luxury items displayed behind glass at a museum. You can look at it. You can read about it. You can even calculate how much it would cost. But actually acquiring one requires either a trust fund, a winning lottery ticket, or the ability to invent a new cryptocurrency before lunchtime. Meanwhile, wages continue their long-running tradition of jogging leisurely behind housing prices while pretending they’re still in the same race.

Inflation hasn’t helped. Neither have gas prices, which now function less as transportation costs and more as recurring emotional trauma. Americans once drove to clear their heads. Now they drive to the gas station and discover what fresh horrors await them on the digital price board. Every trip to the grocery store feels like a scavenger hunt in which the objective is to locate a product whose price hasn’t doubled since the previous administration.

Of course, not everyone is struggling. This remains America, where economic hardship is distributed with remarkable inefficiency. While ordinary families debate whether they can afford eggs, rent, and car insurance in the same month, the wealthy continue accumulating fortunes at a pace that suggests capitalism has evolved from an economic system into a UFC cage match, and you’ve got both hands tied behind your back. The top one percent keep setting records while everyone else receives inspirational speeches about resilience.

The Trump administration insists prosperity is right around the corner. Unfortunately, so is another military parade, another billion-dollar White House ballroom proposal, another taxpayer-funded celebration, another commemorative project bearing Trump’s image, and another opportunity for politically connected allies to benefit from government largesse. The American Dream, meanwhile, has been quietly relocated to a gated community somewhere beyond the reach of median income earners. Americans are still encouraged to chase it, of course. The only difference is that these days the dream has a security guard, a six-figure down payment, and a waiting list.

Clay Bennett - Tribune Content Agency

Ted Rall - Andrews McMeel

Michael de Adder - cagle.com/de-adder

David Horsey - Tribune Content Agency

Sean Delonas - cagle.com/delonas

Paul Lander and Dan McConnell

Joel Pett - Tribune Content Agency

Bill Bramhall - Tribune Content Agency

Harley Schwadron - cagle.com/schwadron

Blanche’s path to the nomination has been remarkably efficient. He represented Trump in multiple cri…

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Elsewhere, the slow-motion demolition of 60 Minutes continued as CBS fired Scott Pelley after he publicly accused management of “murdering” the legendary newsmagazine. New leadership insists the program is being modernized for the future. Veteran journalists insist it’s being dismantled for political convenience. The remaining correspondents have pledged to stay and fight, making 60 Minutes the only workplace in America where employees now describe continued employment as an act of resistance.

In other words, it was a perfectly normal week. The Justice Department may soon be run by Trump’s servile former lawyer, one of America’s most respected news programs is engaged in a public civil war, and a regional conflict in the Middle East remains unresolved. But on the bright side, we’re only a few weeks away from finding out whether the Freedom 250 concert tour can book enough replacement acts to fill a county fair stage. So let’s dive into this week’s winners, losers, and stories that would have sounded absurdly implausible just a few years ago.

Matt Wuerker - Andrews McMeel

Jimmy Margulies - King Features

KAL - Substack and Andrews McMeel

Pat Bagley - cagle.com/bagley

Steve Sack - cagle.com/sack

Bill Bramhall - Tribune Content Agency

Chris Britt - Creators

Sean Delonas - cagle.com/delonas

Joel Pett - Tribune Content Agency

Within days of the lineup being announced, a majority of the artists had dropped out…

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After publicly accusing Bari Weiss of dismantling 60 Minutes and suggesting CBS’s new owners were more interested in pleasing the Trump administration than protecting journalism, Pelley was promptly reminded that corporate America still believes in free speech: the freedom of executives to decide who gets to speak. The veteran correspondent’s offense wasn’t questioning authority; it was questioning the wrong authority.

The controversy arrives as Paramount Skydance seeks regulatory approval for a major merger, leading critics to wonder whether 60 Minutes is being transformed from a hard-hitting newsmagazine into a very expensive gift basket for Dear Leader. According to this theory, Trump didn’t need to censor journalists or shut down networks. He merely had to exist as a powerful figure whose goodwill might prove useful during a merger review. The rest, allegedly, happened on its own.

Meanwhile, Bari Weiss—whose career was built on warning that institutions suppress dissent and punish uncomfortable viewpoints—found herself accused of suppressing dissent and punishing an uncomfortable viewpoint. In a plot twist so ironic it should qualify for a Pulitzer, one of America’s most prominent critics of institutional conformity reportedly responded to criticism from a legendary journalist by showing him the door.

The whole affair follows a familiar media-industry script. New executives arrive. Veteran journalists depart. Management promises modernization. Institutional knowledge is replaced by consultants, strategists, and PowerPoint presentations explaining why everything that made the product successful must be changed immediately. The audience complains. Executives blame the audience. Then more layoffs follow.

In the end, Scott Pelley may have lost his job, but he helped answer a larger question: Do news organizations still value journalists who challenge powerful people? Maybe, as long as those powerful people aren’t sitting in the executive suite (or the Oval Office).

Pedro Molina - Tinyview and Tribune Content Agency

Nick Anderson - Tribune Content Agency and Substack

Adam Zyglis - cagle.com/zyglis

Rob Rogers - Tinyview Comics and Andrews McMeel

Joe Heller - Hellertoon.com

Dennis Goris

Bill Bramhall - Tribune Content Agency

Jimmy Margulies - King Features

Jeff Stahler - Andrew McMeel

The veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent allegedly crossed a line when he accused network leadership of trying to kill the legendary newsmagazine and questioned whether its new overs…

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The proposal reportedly involved administration officials urging the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to develop prototypes, complete with Trump’s image, signature, patriotic colors, and America250 branding. The artist behind the mock-up says Trump personally reviewed the design and offered suggestions. At this point, the president’s involvement in the nation’s currency appears to be approaching the level of a bride obsessing over wedding invitations.

Career officials attempted to explain that there were one or two obstacles. First, Congress has not authorized a $250 denomination. Second, Congress has not authorized Trump’s image on currency. Third, creating new banknotes normally takes years of testing, redesign, security reviews, and coordination with the Federal Reserve. These concerns reportedly earned the bureau’s director a reassignment. At least they weren’t “reassigned” out the nearest window, as they might have been in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

(For what it’s worth, the departing bureau director may have written the best punchline herself. Forced out after repeatedly explaining why the project wasn’t legally authorized, she signed off her farewell email with four perfect words: “The buck stopped here.”)

Rick McKee - cagle.com/mckee

Jimmy Margulies - King Features

Clay Jones - Substack and Claytoonz

KAL - Substack and Andrews McMeel

Dennis Goris

Matt Wuerker - Andrews McMeel

Steve Sack - cagle.com/sack

Rob Rogers - Tinyview Comics and Andrews McMeel

Drew Sheneman - Substack and Tribune Content Agency

For years, residents were told that data centers represented the future. Then they learned what “the fu…

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President Trump spent part of the week promoting his ever-expanding White House ballroom project, proving that while Americans worry about rising grocery bills, housing costs, and gas prices, leadership means focusing on what truly matters: whether the executive mansion has sufficient space for a chandelier large enough to be visible from low Earth orbit.

Historians once debated whether presidents should aspire to be Washington or Lincoln. The new benchmark appears to be Caesars Palace.

Meanwhile, the administration unveiled a $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which critics have described as a slush fund for January 6 participants and political allies. Somewhere, future generations are going to assume this was a rejected plotline from a political satire and not an actual federal program.

Overseas, the Iran conflict continued its strange evolution into a war that officials insist is simultaneously escalating, de-escalating, nearing peace, and requiring occasional military strikes. Markets spent the week ricocheting between panic and relief depending on whether the latest update came from diplomats, generals, intelligence officials, or Truth Social. At this point, the Strait of Hormuz has become the geopolitical equivalent of a smoke detector with a dying battery: constantly alarming, impossible to ignore, and somehow still unresolved.

Back home, Americans celebrated Memorial Day by paying elevated holiday gas prices, because nothing honors sacrifice quite like spending eighty dollars to drive somewhere and complain about spending eighty dollars. Families gathered around grills while economists assured them inflation was moderating, a claim that becomes increasingly difficult to appreciate while staring at a grocery receipt that looks like a luxury car payment.

And if all that wasn’t enough, communities across the country continued rebelling against giant AI data centers after learning that the future of technology apparently involves surrendering vast amounts of electricity and water so computers can generate increasingly realistic images of Abraham Lincoln skateboarding. Politicians who once threw tax incentives at these projects are now discovering that voters become surprisingly skeptical when told their utility bills may rise so a chatbot can answer questions about sourdough bread.

As always, thank you for joining us at Counterpoint, where we do our best to keep up with a political landscape that long ago abandoned any obligation to make sense.

Clay Bennett - Tribune Content Agency

Nick Anderson - Substack (and editor of Counterpoint)

Michael Ramirez - Creators

Bill Bramhall - Tribune Content Agency

Pedro Molina - Tinyview and Tribune Content Agency

Clay Jones - Substack and Claytoonz

KAL - Substack and Andrews McMeel

Lee Judge - King Features

Matt Wuerker - Andrews McMeel

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Politicians continue assuring Americans that the economy is actually doing quite well, which may technically be true if you happen to own seven rental properties, a defense contractor, or stock in a company that manufactures anxiety medications. For everyone else, the economic recovery feels suspiciously theoretical. Workers are told unemployment is low while simultaneously taking on second jobs driving for delivery apps just to afford the privilege of purchasing groceries that are now locked behind anti-theft glass like rare jewels in a museum exhibit.

Housing, meanwhile, has evolved from a basic necessity into a multiplayer strategy game. Young adults now speak about home ownership the way medieval peasants spoke about becoming king: technically possible, but probably requiring divine intervention. Entire generations have accepted that they may spend the rest of their lives paying luxury-apartment prices for the privilege of hearing their upstairs neighbor practice CrossFit at midnight. And every time the Federal Reserve hints at interest rates, Americans gather around financial news broadcasts like villagers awaiting weather reports during a famine.

Of course, corporations insist none of this is their fault. Grocery chains blame supply chains. Restaurants blame labor costs. Airlines blame fuel prices. Insurance companies blame weather. Tech companies blame innovation. At this point, the only thing not responsible for inflation appears to be the actual executives collecting bonuses large enough to purchase functioning starter homes outright. Americans are constantly reminded that sacrifice is necessary, though curiously the sacrifice always seems to involve regular people paying more while multinational corporations announce another quarter of “record-breaking growth.”

And yet, somehow, the public is expected to behave as though all of this is perfectly sustainable. We are told to budget better, brew coffee at home, skip avocado toast, and maybe cancel a streaming service if we’re struggling, as though the collapse of the American dream can be solved by resisting the urge to watch Netflix. The modern economy increasingly feels like a giant endurance test where citizens are asked to smile through rising bills, shrinking expectations, and the growing suspicion that the “middle class” is becoming less of a social category and more of a nostalgic historical reference.

Matt Davies - Andrews McMeel

Adam Zyglis - cagle.com/zyglis

Chris Britt - Creators

Lee Judge - King Features

Mike Luckovich - Creators

Michael Ramirez - Creators

Graeme MacKay - cagle.com/mackay

Clay Jones - Substack and Claytoonz

Nick Anderson - Tribune Content Agency and Substack

There’s a morality play on display in today’s Republican Party, and it’s becoming impossible to miss: no amount of groveling is ever enough. Senator John Cornyn spent the last year transforming himself from a longtime conservative senator into what can only be described as a human LinkedIn endorsement for Donald Trump. He voted with Trump nearly every time, abandoned previous positions with the flexibility of a Cirque du Soleil performer, posted photos of himself reading The Art of the Deal like a devotional text, and even proposed naming a highway after Trump, because apparently “Interstate 47” sounded less embarrassing than simply tattooing “please notice me” across his forehead.

And still, after all that public devotion, Trump endorsed Ken Paxton anyway. It turns out there is no amount of flattery sufficient to satisfy a political movement built entirely around personal loyalty tests. Cornyn discovered the hard way that the modern GOP isn’t a meritocracy or even an ideology. It’s a reality show where contestants compete for approval by humiliating themselves on increasingly national stages, only to be voted off the island anyway.

The funniest part may have been the highway proposal itself. A sitting U.S. senator seriously proposed honoring Trump with a giant stretch of asphalt during the middle of a primary campaign, as though the key to winning over Republican voters was recreating the Roman Empire, but tackier.

Meanwhile, Texas Democrats accidentally triggered a separate culture war by allowing state senator James Talarico to commit the unspeakable act of ordering a potato, egg, and cheese breakfast taco. Republicans immediately accused him of being a vegan, weak, anti-Texan, and possibly in league with kale. President Trump reportedly mocked Talarico for eating a “meatless taco,” proving once again that modern campaigns are less about inflation, war, or governance and more about investigating whether your breakfast order contains sufficient animal protein. The scandal became especially hilarious after actual Texans pointed out that potato, egg, and cheese is one of the most classic breakfast tacos in the state.

That contrast says everything. On one side, you have seasoned Republican politicians sacrificing every remaining shred of dignity in elaborate rituals of submission, only to discover they are still disposable. On the other, you have conservatives launching a statewide identity crisis over a breakfast taco. The entire spectacle feels less like politics now and more like a medieval royal court where survival depends on flattering the king loudly enough while also making sure your taco order projects sufficient masculinity.

And that’s the real lesson here: in a system built around loyalty to one man, there is no finish line. No amount of praise secures your standing permanently. Every act of submission simply becomes the baseline for the next demand. Cornyn learned it after proposing a Trump highway. Tomorrow someone else will learn it after renaming an airport, a naval vessel, or perhaps an entire ZIP code. The groveling escalates, the dignity evaporates, and the reward remains the same: temporary approval, followed inevitably by public humiliation anyway.

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President Trump, meanwhile, says a peace deal is close, provided it’s “great,” which remains the diplomatic equivalent of telling a waiter you’ll know the meal is good when you taste it. The proposed framework reportedly includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, easing sanctions, limiting uranium enrichment, expanding the Abraham Accords, and apparently solving several centuries of Middle Eastern instability before the weekend news cycle ends. Critics on the right are furious the deal may be too soft, critics on the left are furious there was a war in the first place, and oil traders are just staring at tanker maps like medieval peasants watching the skies for locusts.

Meanwhile, Middle Eastern rivals who spent years distrusting one another have apparently united around a shared realization that maybe setting the entire region on fire was not an optimal long-term economic strategy. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, and others are now pressuring Washington toward peace talks, largely because the war demonstrated that closing the Strait of Hormuz is a fantastic way to turn every gallon of gasoline into a luxury experience.

Meanwhile, oil markets bounced wildly between panic and relief depending on whether Trump posted about “historic peace” or CENTCOM announced fresh “defensive” explosions near Bandar Abbas. Traders now appear to spend their mornings asking the same question as everyone else: “Are we de-escalating today, or are we doing freedom again?”

Joel Pett - Tribune Content Agency

KAL - Substack and Andrews McMeel

Clay Bennett - Tribune Content Agency

Pat Bagley - cagle.com/bagley

Nick Anderson - Tribune Content Agency and Substack

RATT - cagle.com/ratt

Mike Luckovich - Creators

Sean Delonas - cagle.com/delonas

Jack Ohman - Substack and Tribune Content Agency

In a free society, patriotism is not measured by unquestioning loyalty to politicians or parties. It is measured by our willingness to defend the principles that allow citizens to challenge power, ridicule arrogance, and hold leaders accountable, whether they reside in Congress, the White House, corporate boardrooms, or cable news studios. The freedom to mock elected officials may not appear in marble monuments or soaring speeches, but it remains one of the clearest signs that liberty still lives.

So amid the cookouts, parades, and solemn ceremonies, Counterpoint remembers those who never came home, whose sacrifice made it possible for Americans to speak freely, dissent openly, and yes, occasionally laugh at the absurdities of modern politics. That freedom was purchased at a terrible cost. It should never be taken lightly, even when we use it to take our leaders a little less seriously.

Tim Campbell - Tribune Content Agency

Michael Ramirez - Creators

Ed Wexler - cagle.com/wexler

Joe Heller - Hellertoon.com

Dave Granlund - cagle.com/granlund

John Deering - Creators

Bruce Plante - cagle.com/plante

Bill Bramhall - Tribune Content Agency

Meanwhile, administration officials continue insisting the economy is booming, which may come as surprising news to families currently choosing between groceries and driving three hours through holiday traffic to eat hot dogs beside a lake. But at least Americans can take comfort knowing their tax dollars may soon help reimburse aspiring insurrectionists for the pain and suffering caused by having their selfies entered into evidence.

And looming over all of it is Trump’s beloved ballroom project, because every struggling republic eventually reaches the stage where the leader decides what the executive mansion really needs is a giant gold-plated event space worthy of a regional casino. Historians may someday debate the precise moment America crossed the Rubicon, but future archaeologists will probably identify it by uncovering a marble dance floor funded somewhere between cuts to public services and payouts to “victims” of law enforcement.

Welcome to Counterpoint’s Saturday roundup, where the grift is constant, the gas prices are vertical, and the national motto has quietly become: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask whether you qualify for compensation from the Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

Matt Davies - Andrews McMeel

Steve Sack - cagle.com/sack

Clay Bennett - Tribune Content Agency

Rob Rogers - Tinyview Comics and Andrews McMeel

David Horsey - Tribune Content Agency

Joel Pett - Tribune Content Agency

Drew Sheneman - Substack and Tribune Content Agency

John Cole - cagle.com/cole

Scott Stantis - Tribune Content Agency

The Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which is supposedly about fairness, but somehow manages to look exactly like a taxpayer-funded slush fund. The rules are unclear, the payouts are secret, and even allies are nervously ask…

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Republicans initially reacted to the January 6 pardons with what experts call the “sternly-worded shrug.” Senators described it as unfortunate, regrettable, and something America should stop discussing immediately so everyone could “move forward,” which in Washington translates roughly to “please stop showing the footage of people beating police officers with flagpoles.” Trump, however, refused to move on because rewriting January 6 into a tale of misunderstood tourists remains one of his administration’s core infrastructure projects.

The fund itself reportedly grew out of Trump suing the IRS over leaked tax returns, creating the wonderfully efficient legal arrangement of a sitting president suing the government he personally controls. Instead of enduring the awkward spectacle of explaining this in court, the administration simply transformed the whole thing into a taxpayer-funded compensation program for loyalists. It’s less a settlement than a government-operated GoFundMe for people whose crimes happened to align with presidential branding.

Critics once worried Trump would use public office to enrich himself financially. In retrospect, that concern was almost adorably old-fashioned. Why hoard the corruption when you can franchise it? According to the article, the fund will likely reward insurrectionists and political allies while being overseen by a committee entirely selected—and removable—by Trump himself. It’s essentially a “truth and reconciliation commission,” except the “truth” part has been replaced by grievance merchandising and the “reconciliation” part involves checks from the Treasury for criminals.

The broader message could not be clearer: loyalty pays. Literally. The administration appears determined to create a government where enemies are investigated, allies are reimbursed, and every constitutional crisis eventually comes with a commemorative gift basket.

Steve Sack - cagle.com/sack

Pedro Molina - Tinyview and Tribune Content Agency

Mike Luckovich - Creators

Nick Anderson - Tribune Content Agency and Substack

Bill Bramhall - Tribune Content Agency

Chris Britt - Creators

Joe Heller - Hellertoon.com

Harley Schwadron - cagle.com/schwadron

Rick McKee - cagle.com/mckee

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Naturally, Republican politicians responded to the spike in gas prices with the seriousness the moment demands, running from every reporter who asked how the war in Iran is affecting gas prices. Cable news panels then spent forty-eight straight hours interviewing experts standing in front of gas station signs as though the numbers had just appeared there through supernatural means, like crop circles or messages from the dead.

Energy companies insist they understand the burden on working families, which is why several CEOs will be bravely enduring the crisis from aboard slightly smaller yachts this summer. Investors celebrated the moment by pushing oil stocks higher, proving once again that in America, every national inconvenience is simply another exciting wealth-generation opportunity for the wealthy.

The real victims, however, are suburban dads, whose annual identity crisis has returned with full force. For years they insisted the giant lifted pickup truck was absolutely necessary for “hauling stuff,” only to discover that “stuff” now costs $140 to transport to a campground three hours away. Across the country, thousands of men are currently standing motionless beside Ford F-250s muttering phrases like, “Maybe we should’ve gotten the hybrid,” before quickly regaining consciousness and blaming the Federal Reserve instead.

Still, Americans will press onward, because nothing—not inflation, geopolitical instability, or a second mortgage-sized fuel bill—can stop the sacred tradition of sitting motionless on an interstate for six hours to eat a hamburger near a lake. Memorial Day has always been about sacrifice. This year, the sacrifice just happens to be the last remaining balance on everyone’s Visa card.

Dave Granlund - cagle.com/granlund

Rick McKee - cagle.com/mckee

Mike Smith - King Features

Mike Luckovich - Creators

John Deering - Creators

Matt Davies - Andrews McMeel

Jeff Stahler - Andrew McMeel

Steve Breen - Creators

Nick Anderson - Tribune Content Agency and Substack

For decades, the U.S. has maintained a delicate balance: support Taiwan, deter China, and avoid saying exactly what would happen if things go sideways. Trump has now refined that…

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