DL Open Thread: Friday, June 12, 2026
The city of Wilmington said Thursday that homeless residents of Christina Park must be gone by sunset Monday. Then, officials said they will erect a perimeter fence to block anyone from entering the site.
Wilmington officials issued eviction notices last month to park inhabitants about a month after requiring them to use city tents. The first tents were flimsy and failed during their first night in use after an overnight downpour, prompting the city to purchase sturdier replacements for residents.
When asked at a news conference whether park residents have been informed about the sunset deadline for leaving, Daniel Walker, Mayor John Carney’s deputy chief of staff, said they told the park’s site manager, the Friendship House, a local nonprofit.
Walker said out of 85 park residents, it has placed, or is trying to place, about 52 people in some kind of temporary housing or treatment program. City and Friendship House staff say park residents have been connected to beds at the New Castle Hope Center, a New Castle motel, as well as other shelters and treatment programs. A few people have also found permanent housing or plan to stay with family or friends.
Walker said that leaves 31 residents, with 12 of those interested in supportive services. But that still leaves 19 people who he said don’t want to leave the park.
Carney said they are trying to convince them to leave by the deadline.
“What we have to offer is better than a tent in Christina Park, and so getting people to make that choice, to take that step, is a big deal,” he said.
Those who fail to leave the park could face arrest. But Carney and other city officials would not spell out how they will get people who don’t want to leave to depart without the use of force.
A tense calm gripped the Persian Gulf on Friday after President Trump said he had called off more U.S. strikes on Iran and claimed that a peace deal was “in pretty final shape.” Iran offered no public confirmation of such progress, with its foreign ministry spokesman saying that “nothing has been finalized,” according to the state broadcaster.
The conflicting statements capped a dizzying day in the war that began with another exchange of U.S.-Iranian strikes, followed by Mr. Trump warning that he would hit Iran again “VERY HARD,” only to walk that back hours later. The president has alternated between bellicose threats and unfulfilled promises of a deal as he grasps for an end to a war that is in its fourth month and increasingly unpopular among his supporters.
After a week of tit-for-tat U.S.-Iran attacks, it was unclear whether Mr. Trump’s latest comments were a pressure tactic or reflected real diplomatic progress. He said on Thursday afternoon that a deal could be signed “maybe over the weekend, in Europe,” and that, if so, Vice President JD Vance would take part. The president said it included an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping lane that Tehran has all but closed in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli strikes that began the war on Feb. 28.
The nuclear threat that allegedly precipitated this war?
Mr. Trump said that the nuclear issues that have been a major sticking point in the talks were still being discussed “conceptually.”
How Trump Lost Control In Wisconsin:
If you watched Sunday’s Meet the Press, you saw a president walk off a set. But if you know how the White House communications machine works, you saw something far more revealing: a strategy that unraveled in real time, in the rain, on a farm in Wisconsin.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Kristen Welker mentioned it herself at the top of the interview— the White House had invited her to conduct the interview. That detail is easy to gloss over, but it matters enormously.
When the White House “invites” a journalist, they intend to be in the driver’s seat. They choose the location, the timing, the backdrop, and the framing. This is not meant to be an adversarial ambush — it is a choreographed opportunity. The administration selects every variable it can control, because the interview is not journalism from their perspective. It is a communication tool.
The trip to Wisconsin had a specific purpose: speak directly to farmers, project strength on trade and agriculture, and reassure a voter base that has been watching the numbers with growing unease. Presidential visits like this — roundtable with farmers, remarks in a barn, American flag in the background — follow a familiar playbook. And the interview is typically the final piece of that puzzle. It is how you take the message from the room in Chippewa Falls and push it into 10 million living rooms on a Sunday morning.
The decision to invite a Meet the Press anchor makes sense on paper. Welker has one of the largest audiences in Sunday morning news. She is respected, credentialed, and carries institutional weight. On the surface, this looks like smart access journalism — the White House opens the door, gets wide coverage, controls the narrative.
But here is where the strategy showed its first crack.
Meet the Press is not a daily show. It is a week in review. It is, by design and by tradition, a program that follows the headlines wherever they lead — Iran, January 6th, election fraud claims, the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, gas prices, tariffs. The White House wanted to talk about farmers. Welker came prepared to talk about everything. And in a wide-ranging interview with a well-prepared journalist, you do not control the agenda just because you sent the invitation.
What unfolded on that barn set, interrupted by the sound of heavy rain hammering the metal roof, was a president increasingly cornered by questions he was not prepared to defend with clarity or composure.
When Welker asked him about the weaponization fund and his persistent, evidence-free claims about election fraud, the temperature in that barn changed. Trump called her crooked. He called the network crooked. He told her she was “either crooked or stupid.” He cited no evidence for claims he has made for years, and when she pushed back, he pushed back harder — not with facts, but with volume.
And then he stood up and walked out.
Sad.
FIGJAM Kicked Out Of Club. Al (not A I) once told me that Phil Mickelson was reviled by his fellow golfers, and was given the nickname FIGJAM (‘Fuck, I’m the Greatest, Just Ask Me’). As you know, this mega-millionaire was the first big name to cry poormouth and join the Saudi Blood Money-funded LIV. Now there’s this:
Phil Mickelson has been kicked out of a San Diego golf club over allegations he made unwanted physical contact with a female employee, Golf Digest reported Thursday.
Golf Digest cited multiple sources as saying Mickelson is no longer welcome at The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, California, where the six-time major champion has played and practiced for decades. The unwanted contact was said to have happened earlier this spring.
Mickelson, the chief recruiter in the launch of LIV Golf, has played only once this year because of a serious family health matter that has not been disclosed. He did not play the Masters and PGA Championship and is no longer exempt for the U.S. Open.
Golf Digest cited sources in reporting Mickelson approached the woman in the clubhouse and made nonconsensual and inappropriate physical contact with her. The woman rejected his advances and reported it to her supervisors.
Officials at The Farms reviewed and investigated, Golf Digest reported, and then confronted Mickelson on the course. Mickelson, 55, was told to leave the premises.
The Farms said in a statement to Golf Digest: “Following a staff member report of member misconduct, the club provided immediate and ongoing support to the staff member, conducted a thorough independent investigation of the incident and took decisive action. This individual is no longer a member of The Farms Golf Club.
Mickelson is so despicable that he just might have a future in Rethuglican politics.
What do you want to talk about?
LIV experience gives Mickelson stature with the Saudis. Maybe he becomes secretary of state after Lil Marco resigns to run for president.