President Donald Trump was ready to rumble when he crossed paths with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, calling out several directly over what he considered to be stupid questions. In one instance, Trump responded to a question about the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report — which showed an uptick in inflation largely driven by higher energy costs — and pushed back immediately on the suggestion that his policies might be causing it. WATCH LIVE: President Trump departs White House for China https://t.co/d1lwykVv7w — Fox News (@FoxNews) May 12, 2026 “You promised to bring inflation down. It’s now at its highest level in three years. Are your policies not working? What’s happening?” the reporter asked (3:45 mark). “If you go back to just before the war, for the last three months, inflation was at 1.7%,” Trump pushed back, arguing that his policies had been working well before the launch of Operation Epic Fury — and that the cost of the war was what was reflected in the latest reports. That cost, he insisted, was worth it. “Now, we had a choice. Let these lunatics have a nuclear weapon. If you want to do that, then you’re a stupid person, and you happen to be, I mean, I know you very well,” he said. “Anybody that wants them to have a nuclear weapon is a stupid person.” Trump went on to say that he expects to see oil prices drop — and inflation along with it — when the war with Iran is over. Another reporter challenged the president about the projected cost of the White House ballroom currently under construction, asking how he accounted for the fact that the cost had increased dramatically. “We have a ballroom that’s under budget, it’s going up right here,” Trump said, pointing across the White House lawn. “I’ve doubled the size of it because we need that, and we’re right now on budget, under budget, and ahead of schedule.” “The price has doubled!” one reporter exclaimed. “I doubled the size of it, you dumb person!” he shot back. “I doubled the size. You are NOT a smart person.” He went on to explain that he had decided to double the size in part because of things that had happened “in the last year,” likely a vague reference to at least one of the three assassination attempts against him. Trump was leaving the White House on Tuesday to head to China for several days of meetings with President Xi Jinping.

The problem of evil is the greatest emotional obstacle to belief in God. It simply doesn’t feel right that God should allow people to suffer, or at least to suffer as much as they do. The late atheist philosopher J. L. Mackie, a fellow Aussie, maintained that belief in God was irrational, for if God were all-knowing, He would know that there was evil in the world; if He were all-powerful, He could prevent it; and if He were all-good, He would wish to prevent it. The fact that there is evil in the world proves that God doesn’t exist, or if he does, that He is “impotent, ignorant, or wicked.” I’ll be honest: when I think about the kinds of evil some people endure, and are enduring even as I speak, I find myself feeling as though an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good God may not exist after all. But feelings, however powerful, are not arguments. And since we are engaged in philosophy here, we ought to be more concerned with right thinking than with how we are feeling. In fact, when I step back and consider the problem of evil from a rational point of view, rather than simply reacting to it emotionally, I do not think it succeeds as an argument against God’s existence. Mackie was wrong. The existence of God and the existence of evil aren’t mutually exclusive. And to see why, let’s look at the three attributes of God that Mackie named. Omnipotence Omnipotence does not mean the ability to do what is logically impossible because what is logically impossible is nothing at all. God cannot make a square circle, for instance, or a married bachelor, not because his power is limited, but because there is nothing there to be made. Logical contradictions are not difficult tasks awaiting divine power; they are empty descriptions. As St. Thomas Aquinas put it, “Whatever implies contradiction does not come within the scope of divine omnipotence, because it cannot have the aspect of possibility. Hence it is better to say that such things cannot be done, than that God cannot do them.” It follows then that while God can create beings with free will, capable of choosing between good and evil, He cannot both grant that freedom and simultaneously override it by forcing creatures always to choose the good. A forced choice is not a free one. C.S. Lewis captured the point succinctly: “If you choose to say, ‘God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it,’ you have not succeeded in saying anything about God.” Omniscience If God has infinite knowledge, then he knows many things we don’t. This means that He may, in fact, have good reasons for permitting evil and suffering that seem inexplicable to us. Human beings have a very limited vantage point, and we often lack knowledge of things of true significance. What appears to us to be a tragedy may have effects that bring about great good, and conversely, what appears to us as a good thing may, in the long run, prove harmful. Consider the analogy of a small child being taken to the doctor for his immunization shots. He knows the needle hurts, and he can’t understand why his own parents are allowing the doctor to cause him such pain. The child is unable to grasp that the inoculations will help prevent the much greater suffering of disease. He’s unable to perceive the greater good. Likewise, we should recognize that a being with more knowledge than us, like God, may have good reasons for things, even pain and suffering, of which we are unaware. He allows evils to exist because of His omniscience, not despite it. Omnibenevolence As we think about the goodness of God, we must be careful not to impose on Him our inadequate understanding of what goodness is. In his book “The Problem of Pain,” C. S. Lewis writes: By the goodness of God we mean nowadays almost exclusively His lovingness; and in this we may be right. And by Love, in this context, most of us mean kindness. . . . What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, “What does it matter so long as they are contented?” We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven, a senile benevolence who, as they say, “liked to see young people enjoying themselves” and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all.” Furthermore, most theists do not believe that God created us merely for happiness in this life. He created us most importantly for eternal happiness with Him in the next. So, His omnibenevolence should be judged neither by our limited human standards of goodness nor by what happens in this world alone. Putting all this together, we can recognize that an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent creator might have good reasons for tolerating abuses of human free will that lead to evil and suffering. We may not know what all His reasons are, but we sense the value of freedom, including the value of being able to choose good freely rather than by compulsion. We can see how God’s power and knowledge can bring good out of evil in ways that our limited minds aren’t able to comprehend. In faith, we can say along with St. Paul, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him” (Rom. 8:28). Evil: An Argument for God Evil, rather than disproving God’s existence, can actually point toward it, at least indirectly. To call something evil is not merely to register a feeling of dislike or pain, but to make a moral judgment. And moral judgments presuppose the reality of moral norms that are not reducible to individual preference or social convention. If such objective moral norms exist, then they must have an origin that transcends human opinion. The theist would say that this origin is God. Moral laws point beyond themselves to a moral lawgiver. Only within such a conceptual framework does it make sense to say that suffering is not merely unfortunate, but unjust, that it cries out for explanation, and that it ought, somehow, to be answered. This does not dissolve the mystery of why an all-good God permits suffering and evil. It doesn’t tell us the meaning, but it does tell us that it’s not meaningless. On this view, God can bring good out of evil, ensure that injustice does not have the final word, and ultimately bring about justice in a way that the bare facts of suffering alone never could. This is essentially St. Thomas Aquinas’ response to the problem of evil. Citing St. Augustine, he writes: “’Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil.’ This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good.”

Living on the East Coast has its perks, but one common complaint is the frustrating lack of access to In-N-Out, which is mostly located out west. But now there’s a solution. In between filling out petitions to open more In-N-Out restaurants, hungry customers can head to McDonald’s and use a very specific hack to mimic the taste of the fast food chain’s uber-popular “Animal Style” burger. It’s about as close as East Coasters can get to In-N-Out without purchasing a plane ticket.  It all starts with ordering a Double Cheeseburger at McDonald’s. Next, the order should be customized to include Big Mac sauce, extra pickles, and grilled onions on the burger, per Food Republic. The outlet notes that this request works best during non-peak hours, as grilled onions are not a standard menu item at McDonald’s. The customization doesn’t stop there. Hungry customers can also modify their French fries order at McDonald’s to be Animal Style. To achieve this hack, you’ll need to order an extra two slices of American cheese, grilled or raw onions, and Big Mac Sauce. It’s important to put the cheese on first so it melts, the outlet notes. Like Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out has always been near and dear to conservative hearts. The fast-food restaurant is known for its conservative corporate culture, inspired by the Christian faith of its founders. In-N-Out, founded in 1948, has largely rejected modernization techniques used by other fast-food chains. It has a limited menu, fresh ingredients, and a commitment to quality.  Liberals have also criticized the company for donating to Republican political campaigns and for printing Bible verses on its packaging. However, calls for boycotts usually don’t work because their fans are too loyal.  The company was also praised by conservatives in 2021 when it refused to enforce a COVID vaccine mandate for customers in San Francisco, temporarily closing a location and making it clear that it refuses “to become the vaccination police for any government.”

Democrats spent the weekend in Canada strategizing with foreign progressives. The headlining success story was Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took over a Liberal Party badly trailing in the polls and won by doing something American Democrats have not yet dared to do — Carney scrapped a consumer carbon tax, killed an electric vehicle mandate, and announced funding to accelerate homebuilding. The annual conference, organized by the Center for American Progress (CAP), sought to answer one simple question: “Why voters keep choosing the other guys.” The gathering featured former President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI).  At the summit, Carney shared success stories from Canada, where his progressive party has beaten the populist right. Slotkin said that progressives have spent too much time lecturing and not enough time delivering. “The most important thing is delivery of services and governance to people. The environmental movement, in general, needs to adjust, and say: ‘We can’t just be about stopping things.’” She added, “The average American is going to struggle to care about climate change if they can’t figure out how to pay their rent.” President and CEO of CAP Neera Tanden, who previously served as the director of the Biden White House Domestic Policy Council, echoed Slotkin’s statement. She said that attendees “are learning from our example that it’s important for progressives to deliver on results as soon as possible.” She argued that Democrats were stuck in disagreements over permitting and land use that took focus away from their “ambitious investment plans before voters got to see results.” The Democratic Party has a growing divide between more moderate Democrats and self-described socialists such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Obama told late-night host Stephen Colbert that he’s not worried about “this so-called rift.” “There are a bunch of things that we agree on. And it’s really more of a question of, what are the specific things that we have to do,” he said. The Canadian conference focused on those “specific things” the party needs to do — and held Carney up as an example of how to do them. But Carney has also begun to reposition Canada in terms of the global economy, calling publicly for a “reset” in his country’s relationship with China and openly criticizing longtime ally and trading partner — not to mention neighbor — the United States. In recent weeks, Carney panned economic ties with the United States as a “weakness” rather than a strength, basing that assessment primarily on tariffs implemented over the past year and a half by President Donald Trump’s administration. “The U.S. has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression. Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct,” he said. Addressing his nation in late April, he said that American tariffs were hurting Canada’s economy — and claimed that they needed to lessen dependence on the United States. In his address, he outlined his plan for “Canada Strong” — an agenda that has netted 20 new trade deals in less than a year. Carney has also pushed the country closer to China, traveling to the communist-controlled nation in January to announce a new strategic partnership between the two countries.

The Justice Department charged a foreign shipping company and an Indian national on Tuesday in connection with the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge more than two years ago.  The charges target Singapore and India-based entities of Synergy Marine, the operator of the motor vessel Dali, a container ship that caused billions of dollars in damage when it crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March 2024. Also charged is 47-year-old Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, an Indian national who worked as the Dali’s technical superintendent and for Synergy Marine.  Nair and Synergy Marine are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and with causing the death of six construction workers who were on the bridge at the time of its collapse.  “The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a preventable tragedy of enormous consequence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “This indictment is a critical step toward holding accountable those whose reckless disregard for maritime safety regulations caused this disaster.” The indictment says the Dali lost power twice on March 26, 2024, while attempting to depart the Port of Baltimore. This power outage was caused by the ship’s lack of proper safety measures, according to prosecutors.  If the Dali had “used the proper fuel supply and booster pumps, then the vessel would have regained power in time to safely navigate under the Key Bridge,” the indictment said.  Following the crash, prosecutors say Nair and other Synergy officials lied to investigators about the ship’s emergency procedures and preparedness for power outages.  Similar power outages had occurred on other vessels operated by Synergy before the crash, but no corrective action had been taken or safeguards put in place, prosecutors said.  The indictment further claims that Synergy had “a history of failing to document and address significant safety risks. SYNERGY failed to report hazards, casualties, and other safety issues to the United States Coast Guard (‘U.S. Coast Guard’) and other regulatory authorities. SYNERGY shoreside technical managers fabricated and directed the fabrication of safety inspections and certifications related to many vessel systems, including the fuel supply system.” Both Synergy entities are also charged with violations of the Clean Water Act, Oil Pollution Act, and Refuse Act related to the discharge of pollutants into the Patapsco River in Maryland.  Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced Tuesday that the state has reached a $2.25 billion settlement with Synergy over charges related to the bridge collapse.