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Editor's Choice: Scroll below for Part 2 of our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative April 2026 news and views.

Note: Excerpts are from the authors' words except for subheads and occasional "Editor's notes" such as this. Nearly all excerpts are drawn from news sources for which the Justice Integrity Project pays a subscription. Readers here are encouraged also to subscribe to these outlets also to receive their full coverage and to support their work.

 

April 7

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djt iran whole civilization 4 7 2026

President Trump with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the White House.

Trump Team Watch

Trump Threats Not New: Earlier this year, the President's Truth Social account portrayed him as the insane former Vietnam vet anti-hero portrayed in the film

Trump Threats Not New: Earlier this year, the President's Truth Social account portrayed him as a Vietnam-era character who described his enjoyment of the smell of "Napalm in the morning" in the film "Acopalypse Now," this time warning against vengeance against Chicago's liberal voters and officials in "Chipocalypse" against the city using the president's control over federal power

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime, Justice

More On U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

More On Iran and Lebanon Wars


Epstein Files, Trump Team Coverup

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U.S. Science, Education, Media, High Tech

 

Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen of CSA (Canadian Space Agency), pilot Victor Glover, commander Reid Wiseman, and mission specialist Christina Koch boarded Artemis II to travel around the moon and back, left to right(Photo byJoe Raedle via Getty Images).

Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen of CSA (Canadian Space Agency), pilot Victor Glover, commander Reid Wiseman, and mission specialist Christina Koch boarded Artemis II to travel around the moon and back, left to right(Photo byJoe Raedle via Getty Images).

More Global News

  • New York Times, Why Hungary’s Election Could Swing on Roma Votes, Lara Jakes and Mate Halmos, April 7, 2026. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s policies affecting the Roma minority have put those voters in play in upcoming parliamentary elections. In a tight race, they could make the difference.
  • New York Times, 2 French Citizens Detained in Iran for Years Are Freed, Catherine Porter, April 7, 2026. The couple, who had been arrested during a tourist visit in 2022, were accused of spying in a case that galvanized the French public.
  • Emptywheel, Analysis: Putin’s Puppet Project in Peril, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler), April 7, 2026. There’s a lot of commentary about how shamelessly Putin’s puppets are scrambling to save Viktor Orbán, the cornerstone of a larger far-right Russian-backed project.

Top Stories

 

 

djt iran whole civilization 4 7 2026

ny times logoNew York Times, Iran War Live Updates: Trump Announces Two-Week Cease-Fire, Backing Down From Threats of Imminent Devastation, Tyler Pager, Farnaz Fassihi, David E. Sanger and Eric Nagourne, April 7, 2026. President Trump announced a deal with Iran shortly before his deadline for Iran to agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face the death of a “whole civilization.”

Here’s the latest.

The United States and Iran reached an 11th-hour cease-fire deal on Tuesday evening, hours after President Trump threatened to start wiping out a “whole civilization” if the Iranians did not allow commercial shipping to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz.

The agreement was announced by Mr. Trump in a post on social media hours after Pakistan, a mediator in the dispute, urged Mr. Trump to stand down from the 8 p.m. Eastern time deadline he had set for Iran to accede to his demands. Pakistan proposed that each side observe a two-week cease-fire, and that during that time Iran allow oil, gas and other vessels to proceed unmolested through the economically vital waterway.

The cease-fire buys both sides time to try reach a longer-term end to the war, which began at the end of February with the United States and Israel subjecting Iran to a withering military assault.

But earlier, as the day wore on, it was not clear whether an off-ramp would emerge from the talks. It was not even clear if there were talks.

At one point, with Mr. Trump threatening devastating strikes on power plants, bridges and other critical infrastructure — a possible war crime under international law — Iran stopped engaging in the indirect negotiations.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Mr. Trump warned earlier in the day, though he said he hoped “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.”

In the hours before the 8 p.m. deadline, the United States and Israel stepped up their attacks on Iran. All the while, the Pakistanis were reported to be redoubling their efforts to get a cease-fire.

In urging Mr. Trump to hold off, the country’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said on social media that diplomatic efforts were “progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results.” He also asked Iran to open the waterway for two weeks.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan said in a social media post on Tuesday evening that diplomacy to stop the war had taken a “step forward” from a “critical, sensitive stage.”

But as night fell in the Middle East, Iranians were bracing for the possibility of more strikes. Some formed human chains along bridges and around power plants across the country, videos and photographs posted by state and other local media showed. It’s unclear whether the demonstrations were spontaneous or planned by the government.

Alarmed by President Trump’s threat to eliminate “a whole civilization” in Iran on Tuesday, more than a quarter of congressional Democrats have called for Trump’s removal from office, either through impeachment or by his cabinet stripping him of power through the 25th Amendment. Many raised concerns about the president’s soundness of mind and said his post to social media threatening widespread civilian destruction was evidence that he was not mentally fit to hold office.

An Iranian military spokesman warned on Tuesday that if President Trump followed through on his threats of crippling attacks on Iran, the Iranian military would target infrastructure of the United States and its allies in ways that could deprive them of access to the region’s oil and gas for years. The warning came as the spokesman described a new wave of missile and drone strikes across the region, including U.S.-linked sites in the Persian Gulf, petrochemical facilities in Saudi Arabia tied to American companies, and multiple locations in Israel.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

  • Railways struck: The Israeli military said it had launched airstrikes on eight bridges across Iran, and warned Iranians not to ride railroads until 9 p.m. local time. Iranian state media reported that at least three people were killed when a railway bridge was hit in the central city of Kashan.
  • Condemnation of Trump’s threat: Some commentators on the right are splitting from Mr. Trump, while some Republican lawmakers have expressed concern that the threat could cause the president to lose public support. Democrats forcefully condemned Mr. Trump, with a growing number calling for him to be removed from office.
  • Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,665 civilians, including 244 children, had been killed in Iran as of Monday. Lebanon’s health ministry on Monday said more than 1,500 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 20 people had been killed as of Monday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded.
  • Trump said that the agreement was “subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz,” meaning that Iran has not yet agreed to conditions. In the past, Iran has insisted it would only open the Strait in return for a complete peace agreement, guaranteeing no further attacks by the U.S. and Israel, but not a cease-fire.
  • The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based rights organization, said that over the past 24 hours it had recorded 425 attacks in 16 provinces in Iran, with at least 36 civilians killed and 48 others injured. The attacks on Tuesday notably targeted railway routes, bridges and major transportation corridors across the country. In total, the group has recorded at least 1,701 civilian deaths since the start of the war.

Robert Reich via Substack, Opinion: Trump has really, seriously, frighteningly lost his mind,robert reich color headshot Robert Reich, right, April 6-7, 2026. His latest threat is bonkers.  

Trump told reporters today that unless Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz, “every bridge in Iran will be decimated” and “every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” adding that “the entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.”

What about international law, which prohibits nations from destroying civilian infrastructure? What about Trump’s repeated assurance that the United States has already “obliterated” the danger Iran poses?

The biggest absurdity here is that Trump is now focusing his war’s endgame on Iran’s willingness to open the strait. But the strait was open before Trump attacked Iran on February 28. Iran blocked it in retaliation for that attack.

Iran said today it will reopen the strait only if it gets a guarantee that it will not be attacked again, if Israel ends its strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the U.S. lifts all economic sanctions on Iran. Sounds as if Iran believes it has more bargaining power now than it did before Trump began his war.

Trump also made a stunning admission today. “If it were up to me,” he said, “I’d take the oil, I’d keep the oil, it would bring plenty of money.” But he’s not going to do that, he said, because “unfortunately the American people would like to see us come home.”

Hello? Trump is already blaming the American public for his failure to achieve his objectives in Iran?

The problem isn’t that the American public wants this war to end. It does, but most of the public was against the war from its start.

The basic problem is we have a commander-in-chief who took the nation into this unwinnable war for reasons he never articulated, without a strategy for how to respond if Iran did the expected and closed the strait in retaliation, and without an exit strategy if Iran doesn’t surrender.

What if Iran refuses to reopen the strait by Trump’s deadline tomorrow? Has he really thought through the consequences if he goes through with his threat — likely thousands of Iranian civilians deaths? And what then? Has he thought through what happens if he doesn’t go through with his threat and loses still more credibility?

The problem underlying all this is we have a president who is no longer thinking straight. As Senator Chris Murphy posted, Trump “is completely, utterly unhinged. He’s already killed thousands. He’s going to kill thousands more.”

How do we deal with this underlying problem? Murphy suggests the 25th Amendment, section four of which authorizes the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet, or the vice president and a majority of an "other body" created by Congress, to declare a president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Doing so would elevate the vice president to acting president.

It won’t happen soon, but if Trump continues to deteriorate — subjecting Americans to ever-higher prices and ever-greater dangers — Republicans won’t have any alternative. Neither will America.

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump’s Threat to Wipe Out a ‘Whole Civilization’ Appalls Some on the Right, Nick Corasaniti, April 7, 2026. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson and Senator Ron Johnson were among those pushing back against President Trump’s threats toward Iran.

A growing number of prominent conservatives joined Democrats in condemning President Trump’s warning to Iran Tuesday that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if the country does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The threat prompted former representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, once one of Mr. Trump’s staunchest supporters but now a vocal critic, to call for Mr. Trump’s removal from office under the provisions of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment.

“We cannot kill an entire civilization,” Ms. Greene wrote on social media. “This is evil and madness.”

Tucker Carlson, the influential conservative commentator, focused particularly on the president’s rhetoric on Easter Sunday, when he profanely threatened the country’s infrastructure and promised the Iranian people would be “living in Hell” if the strait were not reopened. On his most recent podcast, Mr. Carlson called on U.S. officials to disobey the president’s orders if he calls to attack civilians.

“Now it’s time to say no, absolutely not, and say it directly to the president, no,” Mr. Carlson said, echoing Democratic members of Congress whose similar remarks calling on members of the military to disobey illegal orders prompted Mr. Trump to demand investigations. Mr. Trump’s allies dubbed them the “seditious six.” The Justice Department tried and failed to indict the six members of Congress for their comments.

Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin and often a strong supporter of the president, has escalated his warnings to Mr. Trump against making good on his recent threats toward Iran.

“I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure,” Mr. Johnson said on Monday during a podcast interview on “John Solomon Reports.” Later, Mr. Johnson told The Wall Street Journal that such an attack would be “a huge mistake” and that the president would lose support if he followed through on his threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages.”

Representative Nathaniel Moran, Republican of Texas, has supported the president’s decisions on military intervention in Iran, but drew the line at Mr. Trump’s recent comments.

“I do not support the destruction of a ‘whole civilization,’” Mr. Moran wrote on social media. “That is not who we are, and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America.”

At least one former administration official was also openly critical of the president.

“Trump believes he is threatening Iran with destruction, but it is America that now stands in danger,” said Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. “If he attempts to eradicate Iranian civilization, the United States will no longer be viewed as a stabilizing force in the world, but as an agent of chaos — effectively ending our status as the world’s greatest superpower.”

Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who helped Mr. Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, called Mr. Trump’s comments “unmoored” in an interview with NBC News.

“This reads like a president who feels increasingly invincible — and that should concern everyone,” Ms. Ellis said. She continued: “When you pair that tone with an apparent belief that executive authority is unconstrained, it raises serious concerns about decision-making in one of the most volatile geopolitical contexts in the world.”

Also joining the criticism of the president has been a chorus of far-right commentators and conspiracy theorists, including Alex Jones and Candace Owens, who echoed the call for Mr. Trump’s removal from office under the 25th Amendment.

“He is a genocidal lunatic,” Ms. Owens wrote on social media. “Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness.”

Others warned that the president may be alienating the base of supporters that put him in the White House.

“Trump would not have won the primary in 2016 had he run on Mitt Romney’s platform, nor would he have won the 2024 election by running on new wars,” Mike Cernovich, the conservative commentator who has promoted conspiracy theories in the past, wrote on social media on Sunday. “It’s silly to claim Trump is MAGA. He rode a cultural wave, only he had the personal will to do so, but the issues matter, too.”

Nathan Taylor described a rather sobering situation in which Secretaries of State and Commonwealth across the country have insisted that elections are very secure when evidence points to the contrary. In an age when one part7 sseks to place its thumbs on the scale when it comes to conducting free and fair elections, this apathy must change and quickly.

The Parnas Perspective, News and Commentary: Trump Says a "Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight" as Hegseth Faces Impeachment, Aaron Parnas, right, aaron parnas new headshotApril 7, 2026. Donald Trump has issued, as portrayed above, a direct threat of mass killing, stating that if no deal is reached tonight, an entire civilization will die. This is not abstract rhetoric. It is a stated willingness to carry out catastrophic violence against a civilian population.

This comes as Pete Hegseth faces articles of impeachment and U.S. strikes inside Iran are already underway. The threat is not hypothetical. It is paired with active military escalation and a declared timeline. If carried out, it would constitute a war crime in the clearest possible terms. Even issuing such a threat signals a collapse of legal and moral restraint at the highest level of power.

If any other president made a statement like this, Congress would be in session right now moving to constrain executive authority. That is not happening. The absence of immediate institutional response is itself part of the story. The rules are not being applied evenly, and that should alarm anyone paying attention.

This is a critical moment. It is going to be a long day and an even longer night. I will be tracking developments continuously and bringing you updates as they happen. If you want to support this work, keep me caffinated, and ensure clear, accurate information is getting out in real time, please subscribe.Subscribed

Here’s the news:

Donald Trump declares that an entire civilization of people could “die tonight,” framing imminent mass killing as a real possibility. The statement goes beyond rhetoric and presents the prospect of deliberate, large-scale destruction. It amounts to an explicit threat of a war crime.

'Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 1m A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.| I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!'

U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ0 announced plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth over his handling of the Iran war. She alleges he violated his oath of office and endangered U.S. service members through reckless conduct. The move reflects growing Democratic criticism of the administration’s military strategy. However, it is largely symbolic given Republican control of Congress and the high threshold for conviction.

Ansari also escalated her criticism to include Donald Trump, calling on his Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. She cited his inflammatory rhetoric toward Iran as evidence he is unfit to lead during a crisis. The statement frames both civilian leadership and military decision-making as destabilizing factors. Despite this, there is no realistic path for either impeachment or removal under current political conditions.

The U.S. has already escalated militarily, conducting airstrikes on Iran’s Kharg Island, a key oil export hub. Officials say dozens of military targets were hit, including bunkers and air defense systems, though oil facilities were not directly targeted. These strikes occurred even before the deadline expired, signaling that escalation is already underway. The military activity reinforces the credibility and immediacy of Trump’s threats.

Iran has rejected a temporary ceasefire proposal while indicating that diplomacy remains at a “critical, sensitive stage.” Negotiations are ongoing through intermediaries, but both sides appear far apart. The looming deadline intensifies pressure and reduces room for compromise. This creates a volatile environment where negotiations and military escalation are unfolding simultaneously.

Iranian officials have responded with defiance and warnings of retaliation. The Revolutionary Guard threatened to disrupt oil and gas supplies to the U.S. and its allies for years if attacks on civilian infrastructure proceed. Officials have also called on civilians to physically protect key infrastructure like power plants. These responses signal both military and civilian mobilization in anticipation of further strikes.

The human toll of the broader conflict is already severe, with more than 3,400 people reported killed across the region, including over 1,600 civilians. Deaths span multiple countries, including Lebanon and Israel, while Iranian figures remain unclear. Recent strikes have reportedly killed civilians, including children, and damaged residential areas and religious sites. This underscores the high stakes and humanitarian consequences of further escalation.

The conflict is producing global economic shockwaves, particularly in energy markets. Oil prices surged sharply following news of the U.S. strikes, reflecting fears of supply disruption. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical chokepoint for global oil flows, making the situation economically significant worldwide. Market volatility highlights how military escalation is already affecting global stability.

Diplomatic and international responses reflect growing concern about wider escalation. Countries like Egypt and China are urging restraint and pushing for de-escalation through dialogue. Regional actors are attempting mediation as tensions reach a “delicate turning point.” Despite these efforts, the combination of deadlines, threats, and ongoing strikes raises the risk of a broader regional conflict.

According to the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defense, Iran launched 1 ballistic missile and 11 one-way attack drones at the UAE in the past 24 hours. These latest strikes are part of a sustained campaign tied to the broader regional conflict under Operation Epic Fury. Despite the relatively smaller daily number, the attacks contribute to a much larger cumulative total. The continued launches show Iran retains the capability to carry out repeated strikes over time.

Cumulatively, Iran has fired 520 ballistic missiles, 26 cruise missiles, and 2,221 one-way attack drones at the UAE since the conflict began. UAE air defenses have intercepted the vast majority of these projectiles using systems like THAAD and Patriot. The scale of these totals highlights the intensity and persistence of the campaign. It reflects one of the largest sustained missile and drone attack efforts against a single country in recent history.

The Israeli military (IDF) issued a public warning urging civilians in Iran to avoid trains and railway infrastructure until 9 PM local time, citing immediate danger to anyone near those locations. The advisory strongly implies that rail systems could be targeted in imminent military operations, putting civilian transit routes at risk. Such warnings are typically issued ahead of planned strikes, signaling heightened escalation. The message frames civilian presence near infrastructure as life-threatening in the near term.

At the same time, Iran remains under a near-total internet blackout, leaving most civilians unable to access outside information or real-time warnings. The shutdown has reduced connectivity to a tiny fraction of normal levels and cut people off from global communication. As a result, many Iranians are unlikely to even receive evacuation or safety advisories like the IDF warning. This combination—active strike warnings and widespread information blackout—significantly increases the risk to civilians on the ground.

 

President Trump with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the White House.

President Trump with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the White House.

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump Says Iran Proposal Isn’t Enough to Stop Attacks on Bridges and Power Plants, Tyler Pager and Erika Solomon, April 7, 2026 (print ed.). President Trump has told Iran it must open the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. Tuesday or face the consequences, although he has delayed previous deadlines.

President Trump said on Monday that a cease-fire proposal put forth by mediators between the United States and Iran was a “significant step,” but he warned that it was “not good enough” as his deadline of Tuesday evening for a deal approached.

Iran, for its part, rejected any proposal for a cease-fire, mandating that any peace plan include a complete end of hostilities. Diplomatic talks coordinated by Pakistan and other regional countries were continuing, officials said, even as there appeared to be little agreement on what any cessation of hostilities would look like.

If Iran does not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time, Mr. Trump has threatened to launch a massive attack targeting bridges, power plants and other civilian facilities that would, in his words, send Iran “back to the Stone Ages.” But the president has also extended self-imposed deadlines in recent weeks, and diplomats around the world were asking whether Mr. Trump would find an off-ramp again or if he would follow through this time with what could be a gigantic conflagration.

“We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday afternoon. “I mean complete demolition by 12 o’clock.”

The White House has refused to answer questions about the specifics of the proposals, saying only that Mr. Trump was weighing his options.

The president brushed off a question about the possibility that U.S. attacks on Iran’s civilian infrastructure could amount to war crimes. Iran said it would retaliate forcefully if Mr. Trump carried out his threatened attacks.

“If attacks on civilian targets are repeated, the subsequent phases of our offensive and retaliatory operations will be carried out much more crushingly and extensively,” Ebrahim Zolfaghari, an Iranian military spokesman, said on Monday.

The president said the United States did not want to go down that route and would consider helping to rebuild Iran if they can strike a deal. He said the United States was working with an “active, willing participant on the other side.”

“They have till tomorrow,” he said. “Now we’ll see what happens. I can tell you they’re negotiating we think in good faith. We’re going to find out.”

Mr. Trump said Vice President JD Vance; Steve Witkoff, his special envoy; and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, were all involved in the negotiations. Mr. Vance, who is expected to participate in any face-to-face talks if they occur, is scheduled to be in Hungary on Tuesday to show support for Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Officials have said he may adjust his trip for negotiations if Iranian officials agreed to meet.

ny times logoNew York Times, Hegseth Likens Easter Rescue of U.S. Airman to Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Chris Cameron, April 7, 2026 (print ed.). President Trump also asserted that God supports the American war against Iran “because God is good, and God wants to see people taken care of.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pete hegseth crusade book coveron Monday likened the rescue on Easter Sunday of a missing American airman shot down over Iran to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Minutes later, speaking at the same news conference describing the military operation, President Trump asserted that God supports the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran, which has killed thousands, including many civilians. “Because God is good,” he said, “and God wants to see people taken care of.”

Mr. Trump continued: “God doesn’t like what’s happening. I don’t like what’s happening. Everyone says I enjoy it. I don’t enjoy this.”

“I don’t like seeing people get killed,” he said.

In his account of the rescue operation, Mr. Hegseth (shown at left on the cover of his memoir and at right with his tatoos reflecting his Christian nationalist beliefs in the tradition of the anti-Muslim Crusaders seeking to control the Holy Land) drew parallels between the airman’s ordeal and the account pete negseth tatooof Christ’s death and Resurrection given in the Bible.

The F-15E fighter jet, he noted, was “shot down on a Friday — Good Friday.” That is the day Jesus was crucified.

After the airman bailed out over Iran, he hid, Mr. Hegseth said, “in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday,” reminiscent of the tomb cut into a rock in which Jesus was buried.

Then, he said, the airman was rescued on the day Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus — “flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday.”

“A pilot reborn, all home and accounted for, a nation rejoicing,” the defense secretary said. “God is good.”

Mr. Hegseth also said that after the plane was shot down, the airman, the F-15E’s weapons systems officer, made contact with his American rescuers with a religious message: “God is good.” “In that moment of isolation and danger,” he said, “his faith and fighting spirit shone through.”

It was the latest example of the secretary of defense invoking Christian theology in public statements about the war with Iran. Earlier in the war, Mr. Hegseth asked Americans to pray for victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Christian leaders, including Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, have sharply disagreed with Trump administration suggestions that the war has divine sanction. The pope has repeatedly called for an end to the conflict and criticized the use of Christianity to justify warfare. In a recent homily, Leo said that the Christian mission had often been “distorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.”

Mr. Hegseth, who is directing a relentless bombing campaign against Iran, a majority-Shiite Muslim nation with a theocratic government, has often idolized the Crusades, the bloody medieval wars in which Christian warriors fought Muslims for control of important religious sites and territory in the Middle East.

Tattooed on Mr. Hegseth’s right biceps is the Latin phrase “Deus vult” — “God wills it” — which he describes as a battle cry of those wars. In his book “American Crusade,” published in 2020, Mr. Hegseth describes the Crusades as “bloody” and “full of unspeakable tragedy,” but argues that they were justified because they saved a Christian Europe from the onslaught of Islam.

Mr. Hegseth’s language also echoes tenets of conservative American Christianity, which often ties U.S. nationalism with religious virtue. Many of Mr. Trump’s Christian supporters have described themselves as combatants in a holy war that seeks to roll back secular and pluralist values and establish the U.S. as a fundamentally Christian nation.

 

Vice President JD Vance and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary in Budapest on Tuesday (Pool photo by Jonathan Ernst).

Vice President JD Vance and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary in Budapest on Tuesday (Pool photo by Jonathan Ernst).

ny times logoNew York Times, Vance Visits Hungary to Boost Orban Before Election, Andrew Higgins and Lili Rutai, April 7, 2026. The trip by the American vice president, JD Vance, makes clear that Russia is not the only country invested in a victory for Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban.

After 16 years in power, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary is struggling to maintain his footing as his governing Fidesz party trails badly in most polls. Now, Vice President JD Vance is attempting a last-ditch rescue effort to revive the flagging prospects of Europe’s nationalist standard-bearer.

Mr. Vance was visiting Budapest, the nation’s capital, on Tuesday, just days before Sunday’s election, to urge voters to stick with Mr. Orban. His trip underscored just how important an election in a small country with a tiny economy is to countries far beyond its borders.

Both the Trump administration and Moscow see Mr. Orban as a linchpin of their common antagonism toward Europe and are hoping the polls are wrong. The European Union, long hobbled by Hungarian obstruction on key issues like the war in Ukraine, hopes the polls are right, though it is not saying so publicly to avoid providing fuel to Mr. Orban’s anti-European diatribes.

For President Trump, Mr. Orban stands as a resilient European agent against the kind of liberal “woke” politics that his MAGA movement abhors, and he is a valued thorn in the side of the European Union.

For President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, he has been essential in stymying E.U. sanctions and holding up multibillion-dollar loans for Ukraine to help it defend itself in its four-year war with Russia. Moscow has made no secret of its collaboration with the Orban government.

Mr. Orban has put hostility toward Ukraine at the center of his campaign for re-election, presenting his Fidesz party as the only guarantor of security in face of what he says are dangerous threats from Hungary’s eastern neighbor.

Mr. Vance, who has long ruffled Europe’s political mainstream by cheering on political disruption from the nationalist right, was jumping into the final stage of Hungary’s volatile election campaign with a message of support for Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party.

Trump Team Watch

 

Trump Threats Not New: Earlier this year, the President's Truth Social account portrayed him as a Vietnam-era character who described his enjoyment of the smell of

Trump Threats Not New: Earlier this year, the President's Truth Social account portrayed him as a Vietnam-era character who described his enjoyment of the smell of "Napalm in the morning" in the film "Acopalypse Now," this time warning against vengeance against Chicago's liberal voters and officials in "Chipocalypse" against the city using the president's control over federal power

Legal AF, Opinion:: Trump has PSYCHOTIC MELTDOWN as He LOSES ALL CONTROL, Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz, April 7, 2026. Days of rage.

Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz review Trump’s lunacy, from his raging against leaders of the Western alliance to Bruce Springsteen to Davy Crockett, Trump being proclaimed Jesus, and his endless freefall into madness.

 

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: The Other Thing Trump’s Dying to Break, Bill Kristol, Andrew Egger and Jim Swift, April 7, 2026. Reminder: It’s not just Iran.

Today, the president tells us, is judgment day in Iran. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump posted this bulwark logo big shipmorning. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” If his threats are to be believed, Iran must agree to open the Strait of Hormuz tonight or face—it feels strange to type it, but it’s right there in plain English—genocide. Talk about the art of the deal.

Happy Tuesday.

Letters from an American,  Historical Commentary: April 6, 2026 [How the Media Covers Trump], Heather Cox Richardson, right, April 7, 2026. heather cox richardson cnn“It’s really difficult to cover him in a way that conveys how unhinged he is,” journalist Aaron Rupar of Public Notice told George Grylls of The Times about President Donald J. Trump. Rupar explained that political journalists are trained to think, “‘OK, what did he say that was newsworthy?’ So you…convey that to your audience. But in reality, when you actually watch his rallies, you see that they’re full of hatred, he’s lying constantly, and a lot of it is incoherent.”

Rupar spends as much as eighty hours a week watching Trump and members of his administration, clipping videos of their noteworthy statements into a few minutes at a time. His work is indispensable for translating Trump’s long, meandering speeches to people who need shorter versions of them. In this quotation, he nails the real problem of this moment in which the president of the United States is threatening “obliteration” if another nation doesn’t do as he demands: the noteworthy story is not what the president says; the story is the president himself and his obvious mental deterioration.

Today was another surreal day in the second Trump administration.

At the traditional White House Easter Egg roll this morning, Trump, whose right hand was swollen and covered with makeup after his weekend away from the cameras, stood with First Lady Melania Trump on a White House balcony, accompanied by a human-sized Easter Bunny. The columns of the White House stood festooned in soft red, white, and blue plaid over the crowd of young children and their parents in festive pastel clothes excited for the day’s events. The band played “Hail to the Chief.” After a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Trump told the audience that “it’s a day where we celebrate Jesus, it’s a day where we celebrate religion, and it’s an honor to be the president of the United States.” Then things veered off course. He continued: “Our country is doing so well like it has never done before. You’ll see that very shortly, and things that we’ve done have not been done before. We’ve broken every record on the stock market, we’ve broken every record on our military.”

And then he launched into a speech about Iran and wars and bombing and rescues. The Easter Bunny’s blank eyes seemed first shocked and then desperate. It was a scene out of a surreal movie: the president of the United States describing a war next to a giant rabbit with big, vacant, eyes. Charlotte Clymer of Charlotte’s Web Thoughts wrote: “Every day, I think: there’s no possible way it can get dumber and more embarrassing. And then Trump does something like this. And yes, this is real. It is all too real.”

While the children were rolling their eggs along the ground with spoons, Trump spoke to reporters, telling them about Iran, “If it were up to me, I’d like to keep the oil. I just don’t think the people of the United States would really understand.” He suggested that attacking Iran’s infrastructure wouldn’t be a war crime because “they killed 45,000 people in the last month. More than that. It could be as much as sixty. They killed protesters. They’re animals, and we have to stop them, and we can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”

He claimed again that former presidents are telling him they wish they had done what he did in attacking Iran; all four living ex-presidents have denied speaking to him. Sitting with children drawing pictures, he told them they could sell his autograph on eBay for $25,000. He signed their pictures, and while he signed, he told the children that former President Joe Biden was “incapable of signing his name” so he had aides follow him around with an autopen machine.

A later press conference at the White House continued the wild lies and non sequiturs. Trump began the conference by greeting the reporters with “Happy Easter. We had a great Easter. This is one of our better Easters, I think, in a lot of different ways. I can say, militarily, it’s been one of the best.”

The celebratory speeches about the war compared a rescued airman to Jesus Christ and gave a great deal of detail about the rescue operation, but they didn’t deliver much information to the journalists packed into the room about negotiations or goals or the president’s ultimatum that Iran must agree to his demands by 8:00 tomorrow night or face “obliteration.”

Trump reiterated: “The entire country could be taken out in one night. And that night might be tomorrow night.” He said that while the regime governing the country has changed—meaning its leadership, because the actual regime is still in power—that his reason for undertaking the war was not regime change, but rather to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

He assured the journalists that he has had a plan all along. “I saw somebody said, ‘Oh, he doesn’t have a plan.’ I have the best plan of all, but I’m not going to tell you what my plan is. You know, they want me to say, Here’s my plan, we’re going to attack at 9:47 in the morning, and then we’re going to do this, and then we’re gonna, and if you don’t do that, they say, I have a plan. These people know what the plan is. Everybody here knows what the plan is…. Every single thing has been thought out by all of us. But I can’t reveal the plan to the media. So, you know, but we’re just thrilled by the success of this operation.”

Trump has said Iranians are upset when the strikes stop, and a reporter challenged him to explain “Why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure, to cut off their power?” He answered: “They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom. The Iranians have, and we’ve had numerous intercepts—’Please keep bombing.’ Bombs that are dropping near their homes. ‘Please keep bombing! Do it.’ And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding, and when we leave and we’re not hitting those areas, they’re saying, “Please come back, come back, come back!’”

After noting he was responsible for the killing of Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani, he added: “I did one other but this one was not picked up. Osama bin Laden—If you read my book, I said you’ve got to take him out one year before the World Trade Center came down. So I wish you’d read the book. To be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts, and a lot of this is instinct.”

A special operations team located and killed Osama bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda and the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, in 2011, when Barack Obama was president. Trump’s frequent claim that his book called for a raid against Osama bin Laden has been just as frequently debunked as a lie.

Today was an exhausting day as Americans seem to have little choice but to pay attention to a man who is bizarrely threatening what appear to be war crimes against Iranians while spinning wild tales. The members of both chambers of Congress are away for another week and Republican leaders are showing no sign of calling them back, leaving the American people to face whatever Trump has in mind for tomorrow on our own.

In contrast to Trump’s vision of government according to the whims of a single man, no matter how bonkers those whims might be, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani—who, as a naturalized citizen, is not eligible for the presidency—is illustrating what it means to have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Mamdani’s videos about governing New York City inform New Yorkers about what their government does. At the same time, though, they lift up and honor the workers who make the wheels of government turn. During his campaign, Mamdani promised his administration would see to it that potholes got filled, and as the road maintenance workers made the trip to fill the 100,000th pothole of the year, he tagged along. The video humanized the process and dignified work that often doesn’t get attention.

Another video today about the 311 call center in New York City that helps residents find resources to help solve everything from where to recycle a mirror to how to get an apartment repaired featured Tangie Williams putting a face to the people in the center as she coached Mamdani himself through a call. Williams told Mamdani that the calls that “tug at my heart” are elderly people who have no family and need both to be heard and to access help, which she provides with evident joy.

Thinking about..., Commetary on Tyranny, The president speaks genocide, Timothy Snyder, April 7, 2026. The words, the law, the future.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

These are not the words of Hitler, or Stalin, or Mao, or Pol Pot, or Assad, or Putin. These are the words of the president of the United States, today.

Do not be distracted by circumstances. Of course there are emotions, personalities, politics, a war. None of this excuses that sentence. The reason we have a notion of genocide, and a convention on genocide, is to define certain actions as always and definitively wrong.

Are these “only words”? No, they cannot be “only words.” As any historian of mass atrocity knows, there is no such thing as “only words.” The notion of killing a whole civilization, once spoken, remains. It enables others to say similar things, as when another elected representative compared the entire country of Iran to a cancer that had to be removed.

Whatever happens tonight, the president, by saying such things, has already changed the world for the worse, and made acts of mass violence more likely. If we are Americans, he has also changed our country. He has changed us, because he represents us; we voted for him, or we didn’t vote and allowed him to come to power, or we didn’t do enough to stop him. These words are America’s words, until and unless Americans reject them.

Yes, there have been other genocides, and there are other politicians who endorse genocide. That makes the words of the president worse, not better. Yes, the United States has undertaken atrocities before. That makes it all the more important, all the more urgent, that we catch ourselves now. Neither the evil nor the good in our history determines who we are. It is what we do now.

If we do not say something ourselves about this horror, we allow ourselves to be changed.

Around the president there will be people, sadly, who work deliberately to normalize the language of genocide. There will be other politicians who find the right words to reject it. One can hope that there will be politicians who find the courage to remove the man who speaks genocide from office. And these words should lead to resignations by everyone who works closely with the president.

But we cannot count on politicians. This is ultimately up to us, the citizens: for our own sake, for the sake of the future of the country, for the sake of a possibility of new beginnings, we need to say something, to someone else, to ourselves: this is simply wrong. a black and white photo of a wavy surface

Whatever happens tonight, or any other night in this war, is now legally defined by the president’s statement. In the practical application of the law of genocide, the Genocide Convention of 1948, the difficulty is usually in proving “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Henceforth the intent is on the record, in the published words of the president of the United States and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces about the death of “a whole civilization.”

Article III of the Genocide Convention makes it clear that not only the person who issues the genocidal order is guilty. Genocide itself is of course a crime, where genocide means the intent that Trump expressed, and actions such as killing members of a group, causing members of a group serious harm, or “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” -- which would of course include actions such as destroying access to energy or water. But also defined as a crime are conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit genocide, attempts to commit genocide, and complicity in genocide.

We all have good ethical and political reasons to reject the president’s words. But those who serve in government, and in the armed forces, have been placed under the legal shadow of genocide by what Trump wrote. To bomb a bridge or a dam or a power plant or a desalinization facility, very likely a war crime in any event, could very well have a different legal significance, a genocidal one, if it takes place after the expression of genocidal intent by the commander and head of state.

The concept of genocide was created by a survivor and an observer of atrocities, Rafał Lemkin, so that we could see ourselves, judge ourselves, stop ourselves. But genocide is not only a concept. It is also a crime under international law, signed by the United States in 1948 as a convention, ratified by the United States as a treaty in 1988. That makes the words I have quoted here the law of the land.

The president speaks genocide. And so we too must speak. Not only about crimes, but about their legal punishment. 

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime, Justice

cassidy hutchinson sworn in ap

ny times logoNew York Times, Justice Dept.’s Civil Rights Division Is Investigating Star Witness Against Trump,  Alan Feuer and Michael S. Schmidt, April 7, 2026. It was a highly unusual move by Justice Department leadership to direct a case that appears to involve accusations of lying to Congress to a division that normally focuses on civil rights abuses.

The Justice Department has assigned its civil rights division to investigate Cassidy Hutchinson, shown above in an AP photo, a former White House aide who outraged President Trump four years ago after her testimony before Congress implicated him in the violence that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The move was a highly unusual one by Justice Department leadership, directing a criminal case that appears to involve accusations of lying to Congress to a specialized unit that normally focuses on systemic civil rights abuses like police misconduct and racial discrimination.

And yet the decision was in keeping with the administration’s bid to find new ways to use the powers of the federal government to target Mr. Trump’s political opponents. Those efforts persist even though the department has struggled to carry out the president’s demands for retribution and has increasingly hit roadblocks from judges, grand juries and even some of its own prosecutors.

Some Justice Department officials have been skeptical from the outset about whether there is a viable criminal case to be made against Ms. Hutchinson, who once worked for Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s last chief of staff during his first term in the White House.

Nonetheless, the inquiry into her was opened in recent weeks as the former attorney general, Pam Bondi, was trying to shore up her shaky standing with the president, according to two other people briefed on the effort. Ms. Bondi sought to move aggressively against Ms. Hutchinson and other investigative targets singled out by Mr. Trump in an effort to placate him.

Mr. Trump fired Ms. Bondi last week in part because she failed to push his increasingly unreasonable demands for revenge against his adversaries through the courts. He named Todd Blanche, her former deputy, as the acting attorney general, although Mr. Blanche will probably face similar problems in satisfying the president’s instructions to bring criminal charges against political targets with little to no evidence or legal justification.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Blanche shrugged off those concerns, saying that Mr. Trump had “the right,” even “the duty,” as president to call for investigations of anyone he believed deserved them. That position put Mr. Blanche at odds with most Justice Department leaders of the past 50 years, who have maintained at least the semblance of independence from the White House.

Typically, an investigation into perjury in front of Congress would be handled by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which is run by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump. In recent months, however, Ms. Pirro and her subordinates have suffered a series of setbacks in trying to push criminal cases against the president’s foes past judges and grand juries in the local federal courthouse.

In an unorthodox move, leaders at the Justice Department did not offer Ms. Pirro a chance to open an investigation into Ms. Hutchinson, but instead gave the case directly to Harmeet Dhillon, who runs the civil rights division, according to three of the people familiar with the matter. Ms. Dhillon, another Trump loyalist, has emerged as an effective advocate for the administration’s agenda, particularly as the department has targeted higher education institutions that the White House perceives as being “too woke.”

A spokesman for Ms. Pirro declined to comment on the inquiry. A Justice Department spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

The investigation into Ms. Hutchinson began some weeks ago after the Justice Department received a referral from a Trump ally in Congress who accused Ms. Hutchinson of lying to the special House committee that investigated the events of Jan. 6. During explosive televised testimony in June 2022, Ms. Hutchinson, now 29, said that Mr. Trump had encouraged the crowd that gathered to hear him speak near the White House on Jan. 6 to march to the Capitol even though he knew it was armed and could turn violent.

She also claimed that she had heard that Mr. Trump lunged at one of his Secret Service agents in a presidential limo when he was told he could not join his supporters on Capitol Hill. Other testimony later contradicted that assertion.

Among the U.S. attorneys who have been pushed to prosecute Mr. Trump’s political opponents, Ms. Pirro has arguably had the most challenging time following through on the president’s demands. Some of her subordinates have in fact worried that it could be difficult to force any more cases against Mr. Trump’s adversaries through the courts in Washington.

In February, prosecutors serving under Ms. Pirro failed to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who made a video last year reminding military and intelligence personnel about their obligations to disobey illegal orders. Around the same, they stalled in their efforts to build a case against former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and aides over allegations that they had broken the law by signing presidential documents with the autopen.

Last month, Judge James E. Boasberg, the chief federal judge in Washington, threw a major roadblock into an investigation of Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, over claims that there were overruns in the central bank’s renovations of its headquarters.

Judge Boasberg determined that prosecutors had issued subpoenas to the Fed for no other reason than to harass Mr. Powell, who had long run afoul of Mr. Trump for not swiftly dropping interest rates, more or less at the president’s request.

 More On U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

 

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion:Trump’s Election Obsession, Andrew Egger, right, andrew eggerApril 7, 2026. If Iran caves or if it doesn’t, if Trump follows through on his threats or if he doesn’t, there will be lots to talk about tomorrow. For today, though, I wanted to turn briefly to another presidential obsession that’s gone under the radar lately: Trump’s ongoing attacks on American elections infrastructure.

bulwark logo big shipSo far this year, the president has failed to convince Congress to pass his SAVE America Act, which among other things would require voters nationwide to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote or vote by mail. But last week, he tried to scratch his election-meddling itch in another way: a one-weird-trick-style executive order trying to seize federal control of mail voting by creating new lists of whose ballots the Postal Service can and can’t mail.

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary,” Trump, who himself cast a mail-in ballot to vote in Florida days before, said at the signing ceremony. “It’s horrible, what’s gone on . . . I think this will help a lot with elections.”

In all likelihood, what the order will actually do, at least as a legal matter, is nothing. Its strategy—which involves ordering the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of “approved” absentee voters, and ordering the USPS not to mail requested ballots to anybody else—is legally hilarious, a slapped-together usurpation of states’ election authorities without the slightest basis in federal law. The order has already drawn a plethora of major lawsuits, which are all but guaranteed swift success.

And yet pro-democracy advocates who are focused on the president’s election predations remain wary. Not because they think the order has a prayer in court, but because they see it as part of a larger, ongoing presidential strategy to sow doubt about future American elections, or even to attempt to meddle with their outcomes after the fact. It remains gospel in MAGA circles that Democrats fiendishly stole the 2020 election on behalf of Joe Biden. And Trump keeps testing the waters of how much bullying of election officials he can get away with, most notably with the FBI’s January raid on the elections office in Fulton County, Georgia.

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In this context, even a legal win against the order isn’t a total win. Trump still muddies the waters, still intimidates anyone connected with elections who might need the courage to stand up to him, still confuses voters about what is and isn’t allowed, and still gets another point of “rogue judges” grievance to parade before his followers as the justification for his next move.

“He can’t lose with this,” Alexandra Chandler of Protect Democracy told The Bulwark. “Because basically, if there is the faintest vanishing chance the courts didn’t stop him, then he gets a win there. If he doesn’t, he gets a win in a narrative sense, and it just is the pretext for the next round, for the next action and the next, and then the eventual denial of the [election] results.”

There’s a perverse attention trap at play here. The more insane, ludicrous stuff Trump does around the country and around the world—the war in Iran being the most obvious example—the more he hemorrhages his domestic political support. But at the same time, these controversies threaten to take our attention away from his insidious work to meddle in elections right in plain sight—efforts which, if successful, would make such trivialities as “maintaining domestic political support” pointless. Why bother with holding an electoral coalition together if you think this time around you’ll just be able to steal the whole game?

We should take heed of all this. Trump really is losing support at a remarkable rate; all the old received wisdom about the impregnability of Teflon Don really does seem to have fallen apart. But Trump still has his hands around the neck of American democracy with a much surer grip than he had in 2020. And too much of the country seems strangely confident—just as in 2020, and with even less justification now than then—that he’ll simply choose not to squeeze.

AROUND THE BULWARK

  • POTUS, the Macho Madman… BILL KRISTOL joins TIM MILLER on the flagship pod to break down Trump’s Iran war—driven by grievance and bravado—its potential war crimes implications, impeachment talk, and new Supreme Court retirement rumors.
  • The Pentagon Purge and the Moral High Ground… MARK HERTLING writes that one of the most troubling victims of the spate of dismissals at the Pentagon was Maj. Gen. William Green, the Army’s top chaplain.
  • SAVE THE DATE… Southern California, we’re coming to you next month—May 20–21! Tickets will be on sale soon for Bulwark Live with TIM MILLER, SARAH LONGWELL, and SAM STEIN starting in San Diego and winding up in Los Angeles. Watch your inbox and keep an eye on TheBulwark.com/events.

Quick Hits

PAIN AT THE PUMP: Think gas prices are bad now? You haven’t seen anything yet. Financial analysts at JP Morgan are warning that if Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues for another couple weeks, it may lead to nationwide gas prices above $5 a gallon. Prices have already risen nearly a dollar a gallon over the past month, sitting today at a national average of $4.14.

Trump has vacillated wildly in his public statements on the question of the strait, ping-ponging between shrugging statements that America doesn’t need it to reopen and ferocious demands that Iran reopen it immediately or face dire retribution. At his press conference yesterday, and in his post this morning, he threatened to destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran unless the Iranian government agrees by tonight to remove its choke on the strait.

MORE THREATS AGAINST THE PRESS: Donald Trump has long believed that journalists who protect their government sources should face jail time. Yesterday, he issued his latest threat in this department—pledging to unmask “that leaker” who had tipped the press off about the rescue of an American pilot in Iran Friday, while efforts to find and rescue the second American shot down were still ongoing.

“We’re going to go to the media company that released it,” Trump said during his long, rambling afternoon press conference, although many outlets reported on the rescue efforts. “And we’re going to say, ‘national security, give it up or go to jail.’ And we know who, and you know who we’re talking about.”

The evidence of the American search-and-rescue effort was also available on social media, where Iranians were posting videos of specialized aircraft and sharp-eyed observers were able to determine quickly what was going on.

DATA VIOLENCE: We’ve talked before about the growing populist backlash against AI in general and data center construction in particular, and yesterday we got a particularly alarming story in that vein out of Indianapolis. Last week, Councilman Ron Gibson voted in favor of a zoning measure he had championed to allow the construction of a data center in his district. The measure passed. Then, yesterday morning, someone shot up his home. Widely reported photos of the scene showed shattered glass and a front door riddled with holes; according to Gibson, thirteen shots were fired in all. And under his doormat, someone had placed a handwritten note: “NO DATA CENTERS.” The New York Times has more:

Gunfire at his home crosses a line, Mr. Gibson wrote in an emailed statement: “I understand that public service can bring strong opinions and disagreement, but violence is never the answer, especially when it puts families at risk.”

Mr. Gibson wrote that he and his 8-year-old son were awakened by the gunshots between 12:45 and 12:50 a.m. Monday, and he rushed to reassure his son that he was safe. He said 13 rounds were fired at his home, with bullets striking “just steps” from the dining room table where his son had played with Legos the day before.

The Parnas Perspective, News and Commentary: More U.S. Political News, Aaron Parnas, April 7, 2026. A pro-Trump retail store in Crystal Lake, Illinois, has been forced to close after a sharp collapse in demand for MAGA merchandise following the escalation of the Iran war.

The owner said sales “died the minute” U.S. airstrikes began, with foot traffic dropping to just a handful of visitors per day and most not making purchases. She attributed the downturn to widespread uncertainty and discomfort among supporters, who may now avoid publicly signaling political allegiance due to fear of confrontation or scrutiny.

The business, which sold items like hats, flags, and pro-Trump apparel, had initially performed well after relocating earlier in the year but quickly became financially unsustainable. The owner reported she was unable to cover basic expenses like rent and had already considered shifting to an online-only model before shutting down. She emphasized that the store was intended as a community space, but interest evaporated despite prior demand and promises of support.

An awkward moment reportedly unfolded during an interaction tied to the Artemis II mission, when Donald Trump stopped speaking mid-exchange and the astronauts had no response. The silence stretched into an extended pause, creating visible discomfort in the setting. The lack of dialogue highlighted a breakdown in communication rather than a substantive exchange.

The partial U.S. government shutdown has entered its eighth week, becoming a record-breaking standoff with no immediate resolution. Congress remains in recess and has failed to pass funding for key Department of Homeland Security agencies. A proposed Republican compromise would fund some agencies while withholding money from immigration enforcement bodies like ICE and parts of CBP. Internal GOP divisions, particularly pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson, are blocking progress and prolonging the crisis.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is considering pulling customs agents from airports in sanctuary cities. The proposal could significantly disrupt international travel and escalate tensions over immigration policy. It reflects a broader strategy of using federal resources to challenge sanctuary jurisdictions. Critics warn it could create logistical chaos at major transit hubs.

Additional domestic developments highlight broader political strain. Ron DeSantis signed a controversial law allowing the state to designate and penalize support for certain “terrorist groups,” raising concerns about free speech. Meanwhile, courts are increasingly blocking aspects of Trump’s agenda, prompting backlash from the administration. These developments point to intensifying legal and political conflicts within the U.S. government.

JD Vance used a high-profile visit to Hungary to strongly endorse Viktor Orbán ahead of the country’s upcoming election. He praised Orbán as a key ally and even predicted his victory, signaling clear political alignment between the Trump administration and Hungary’s leadership. The visit was framed as strengthening a “golden era” of U.S.-Hungarian relations. The overt support raises concerns about direct U.S. involvement in a foreign election.

Vance sharply criticized the European Union, accusing “bureaucrats in Brussels” of interfering in Hungary’s election and damaging its economy. He framed EU actions as hostile to Hungarian sovereignty while simultaneously urging voters to back Orbán. The rhetoric presents the EU as an external antagonist while positioning the U.S. as a supportive partner. Critics note the contradiction between condemning interference and engaging in political advocacy abroad.

On foreign policy, Vance outlined a stark ultimatum for Iran, presenting two paths: integration into the global system or continued economic and military pressure. He reiterated that a U.S. deadline for Iranian compliance was imminent and suggested consequences would follow failure to meet it. His comments reinforce the administration’s hardline stance during an escalating conflict. The framing emphasizes coercion over negotiation.

Vance also weighed in on Ukraine and European energy policy, arguing that the EU made a “huge mistake” by cutting off energy ties with the East. He linked energy dependence to broader geopolitical instability and defended U.S. policy as strengthening Europe. At the same time, he positioned Orbán as a key figure in potential peace negotiations with Russia. This reflects a shift toward elevating Hungary’s role in regional diplomacy.

The visit underscores deeper ideological alignment between the Trump administration and Orbán’s government, particularly around nationalism, energy policy, and “Western civilization” rhetoric. Vance emphasized shared values rooted in conservative and Christian identity. He framed this partnership as a counterweight to liberal European leadership. The messaging highlights a broader realignment of transatlantic political alliances. 

 

pentagon dc skyline dod photo

Popular Information, Accountability Journalism: The $1.7 trillion military budget includes a massive slush fund for Trump’s political allies, Judd Legum, right, judd legumand Noel Sims, April 7, 2026. Last week, President Donald Trump declared that the federal government cannot afford to spend “any money for day care” because “we’re fighting wars.”

According to Trump, the well-being of America’s children is not a concern of the administration. “We have to take care of one thing: military protection,” Trump declared. “We have to guard the country.”

These comments were made at a luncheon that Trump thought was private but was inadvertently live-streamed on YouTube.

noel simsA few days later, as the Iran War raged, Trump submitted an eye-popping $1.5 trillion defense budget for the 2027 fiscal year. This figure alone represents a 44% increase over 2026 funding.

The request does not account for the war in Iran, which, according to a detailed calculation by Stephen Semler, is costing $2.1 billion per day. The Trump administration says it will request another $200 billion in supplemental defense funding to finance the war in Iran and other programs.

The combined $1.7 trillion is double the funding baseline before Trump’s second term of about $850 billion, according to an analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense.

This funding level, if maintained, would dramatically expand federal spending. The Committee for a Responsible Budget found that the increased military spending proposed for 2027 would cost an additional $3.2 trillion over ten years. In 2024, only two other countries spent more than $100 billion annually on defense — China ($317 billion) and Russia ($149 billion).

A comprehensive federal subsidy for childcare and universal preschool would cost about $65 billion per year.

Notably, the “Department of War” cannot account for the money it is currently allocated. Congress has mandated an annual audit of defense spending since 2018, and the Pentagon has failed every single one. Hundreds of billions of dollars in spending and more than $1 trillion in assets are not accounted for appropriately.

Thus far, the White House has released few details about exactly how the Pentagon will spend this money. But we do know this: many billions of dollars will be directed to Trump’s political allies to pay for unproven technology that some experts believe will never work.The Pentagon’s golden egg

While there is no money for childcare, Trump’s defense budget allocates at least $17.5 billion to the “Golden Dome” — a space-based missile defense system. This is in addition to $25 billion that was earmarked for the project last year.

When the Golden Dome was first announced by Trump in May 2025, he claimed the project would cost $175 billion and be operational before the end of his term. Already, the price tag has increased to $185 billion, and the Pentagon says it will not be operational until at least 2035. Both of those estimates are likely much too optimistic.

In September 2025, Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute estimated that a system actually capable of neutralizing threats from all countries would cost $3.6 trillion. Among other limitations, a $185 billion system would not be effective against threats from China or Russia, which have thousands of missiles, Harrison argues. Bloomberg’s independent analysis found that an effective system would cost about $1.1 trillion. Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT), a Trump supporter and the founder of the Golden Dome caucus, acknowledged that “[i]t will likely cost in the trillions if and when Golden Dome is completed.”

Some scientists believe that, no matter how much is spent, a space-based missile defense system will not be effective. A February 2025 paper by the American Physical Society (APS) found that to defend against just one North Korean missile would require “a constellation of at least 1600 interceptors.” To defend against 10 missiles fired simultaneously, the United States would need 40,000 space-based interceptors, about three times the number of active satellites currently in orbit.

Even if a mutli-trillion-dollar system with tens of thousands of interceptors could be deployed, it could still be defeated with relatively inexpensive countermeasures, like decoys. The White House seems to acknowledge that the missile defense system it is building will not actually defend the country against a missile attack. “The goal is to not create a ‘perfect’ defense, but to provide an increasingly effective shield,” the White House budget document states.

While the efficacy of the Golden Dome is uncertain at best, the project will undoubtedly be a windfall for key Trump political allies.

Elon Musk spent over $250 million supporting Trump in the 2024 election. His company SpaceX is expected to receive “$2 billion to develop satellites that can track missiles and aircraft“ for the Golden Dome. This is likely the first of many payments to SpaceX to build and deploy hundreds — or even thousands — of satellites that the Golden Dome requires. SpaceX is slated to go public later this year and much of its valuation is tied to its $22 billion in federal government contracts.

Palantir, founded by Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel, is expected to develop software to run the Golden Dome, according to a Wall Street Journal report on March 24. Vice President J.D. Vance worked for Thiel, who donated $15 million to Vance’s Senate campaign. The software is the Golden Dome’s “glue layer” that will “connect the radars and other sensors that detect and track airborne threats.”

According to the report, Palantir is partnering with Anduril, a software company founded by Palmer Luckey. Luckey donated over $1.1 million combined to Trump’s presidential campaigns in 2020 and 2024, according to FEC data. In 2020, Luckey hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his Newport Beach home, with tickets priced up to $150,000, and co-hosted another high-dollar fundraiser in 2024. Anduril has already received a small $10 million contract related to the Golden Dome, according to a November 2025 Reuters report.

Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, is also expected to compete for Golden Dome satellite work. Bezos has prioritized improving relations with Trump, turning the Washington Post editorial board into a conservative mouthpiece. The effort appears to be working. Trump praised Bezos as a “good guy“ who is trying to be “more fair” at the Washington Post.$350 billion with little oversight

Of the $1.5 trillion in military spending Trump is requesting, $350 billion is set to come through the budget reconciliation process, instead of the typical appropriations process. This $350 billion will include nearly all of the funding for the Golden Dome, meaning there will be little Congressional oversight of the project.

Funding the military is complex, and typically, lawmakers on either side of the aisle spend months speaking with military leadership and hammering out the details. The National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress has passed every year since 1962, takes twenty subcommittees around nine months to craft, and it is typically hundreds of pages long. It also requires a degree of bipartisan support because it is subject to the filibuster and thus requires 60 votes to pass the Senate.

Of the total defense budget that Trump has proposed, $1.15 trillion will be subject to this lengthy, bipartisan process, and the money will be obligated to specific programs laid out in the appropriations bill.

The rest will go through the much faster process of budget reconciliation, which allows Congress to quickly pass legislation that adjusts government spending and taxes. Because budget reconciliation theoretically does not introduce any policy changes, but only adjusts how the government spends on its existing policies, reconciliation bills are not subject to the filibuster. This means Senate Democrats will have little say over this portion of Trump’s defense budget, unless they can successfully argue that it does include policy changes.

Last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is already proving what can go wrong when a portion of the defense budget comes from budget reconciliation. OBBBA included over $150 billion in defense funding. Because budget reconciliation moves through the legislative process much faster, OBBBA only included broad guidelines for how Congress wanted to DOD to spend the money, but did not explicitly tie all of the funds to specific programs.

Republican senators tried to get assurances from Hegseth and other DOD officials that the department would stick to Congressional intent for spending the $150 billion, but the Trump administration has already proven that it is willing to break these promises.

In December, Trump announced that he was sending out $1,776 “warrior dividend” checks to over one million service members. To pay these dividends, the Trump administration pulled nearly $2.6 billion out of a $2.9 billion allocation under OBBBA that was meant to subsidize housing allowances for military families.

Additionally, it was unclear for several months how DOD planned to spend a large portion of its reconciliation funding. Initially, DOD only shared a classified plan for how it would spend $90 billion of the funds with certain Congressional committees. The other $60 billion was unaccounted for until late February, when DOD declassified its spending plan. While some of the details are still classified, it is now clear that DOD plans to spend all $150 billion during fiscal year 2026, even though some of the funds were to be spent over a period of five years.

 

jonathan v last jvl triad logoThe Triad Via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: The Iran War Is Coming for Your Social Security, Jonathan V. Last, April 7, 2026. The Iran War Is Coming for Your Social SecurityA story about petrodollars, the gold standard, and the greatest trick Uncle Sam ever played.

The Iran war is a dagger aimed at the heart of the petrodollar system. I have been banging on about this for weeks because the petrodollar is America’s Achilles’ heel. The United States is losing the war, but we can absorb most of the losing scenarios. For instance: It will be bad if the sanctions regime against Iran is destroyed.¹ It will be worse if Iran is set on the pathway to become a nuclear power.²

bulwark logo big shipBut neither of those outcomes would be a strategic threat to America.

The risk to the petrodollar is a different category. If its supremacy is supplanted then the entire American-led world order begins to teeter and the extent of the damage is impossible to calculate.

Just as a for-instance: Without the petrodollar system, Social Security and Medicare become hard to support at current levels and defense spending gets crunched.

In order to understand this threat, we’re going to have to dig into economic and geopolitical history. We’re going to talk about the gold standard and currency recycling and deficit financing and OMG this is not sexy stuff.

But it’s hugely important, and I think it’s possible to explain it clearly. And (to mix metaphors) if you want to see around corners, sometimes you have to eat your vegetables. So get ready for a double-shot of spinach, fam.

In the post-Cold War era, our ability to do deficit spending is used to prop up Social Security and Medicare, which are too costly to be sustained through current revenues. We sell Treasury bills to a world that is hungry for them so that we can pay our Social Security and Medicare obligations every year.

We can afford to do this because America is in the unique position of being able to borrow money cheaply. No other nation on earth has this superpower.

And that is what it means when people talk about the U.S. dollar being the world’s reserve currency.

I cannot underscore this boldly enough: The status of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency is built on the foundation of the petrodollar system.

At this point I remind you that the vast majority of our federal budget goes to what is called “nondiscretionary” spending.

Which is to say that most of the congressional budget fights you hear about account for the minority of what the federal government spends—only about a quarter. Most federal spending—the other roughly three quarters—is nondiscretionary. 

I am oversimplifying matters a bit—but only a bit—when I say the following:

If the petrodollar system were to change, then America’s ability to finance debt as cheaply as we do would be imperiled. And so our ability to sustain Social Security and Medicare would be imperiled, too.

I don’t want to overstate things. The changes wouldn’t happen overnight. These things take time to work their way through the global financial system. And we could still borrow money in a world without petrodollars. But the interest rates would be higher. Which means that we’d have to either raise taxes or cut benefits just to stay at par.

People are starting to wake up to the danger the Iran war poses to the petrodollar. 

Iran is a Chinese client state and already the Iranians are pushing on the petrodollar system. When Iran sells its oil on the global market, those transactions are largely conducted in yuan, because Iranian oil is (or rather, was) sanctioned and China buys the vast majority of it.⁸

Iran has been allowing some passage through the Strait of Hormuz so long as the oil transiting is sold in yuan. What happens if Iran demands a formalization of this system as its price for reopening the strait?ca.

The destruction of the petrodollar system is unlikely. A lot of things would have to break just right and America’s leadership would have to be almost unimaginably incompetent.

But big systemic changes do happen from time to time. Bretton-Woods. The Jamaica Accords. William Simon’s crazy deal with the king of Saudi Arabia. Big, systemic change is always unlikely . . . until it happens.

And as for incompetence, did you see Trump’s press conference yesterday? I did.

I do not think any reasonable person could have seen Trump and his secretary of defense speak and be prepared to call a bottom on the incompetence of our current leadership.

More On Iran and Lebanon Wars

The Contrarian, Opinion: Words & Phrases, Jennifer Rubin, right, jennifer rubin new headshotApril 7, 2026. No, we don’t have ‘complete control’ of the skies.

Epitomizing the contrast between the U.S. military’s technical brilliance, on one hand, and Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s strategic malpractice, on the other hand, U.S. forces were able to complete a daring rescue mission of the remaining airman missing for 36 hours after a fighter jet was shot down on Friday. A second plane was also shot down, although the pilot managed to return to Kuwaiti airspace and ejected. Two Black Hawk helicopters attempting to rescue the airmen from the first incident were also struck.

As the Wall Street Journal put it, “Trump’s repeated declarations that the war is nearly over are colliding with the gritty battlefield reality.” Moreover, he and his juvenile, misogynistic, dim-witted defense secretary have consistently exaggerated and distorted “air superiority,” contrarian logosuggesting U.S. planes are untouchable. While our aircraft were uncontested in Iraq and Afghanistan wars, “the air campaign the U.S. is now carrying out is far more challenging…due to Tehran’s longstanding investment in air defenses and the duration of the conflict.”

Hence, the gap between Trump’s hyperbolic chest-thumping and the grim reality of the quagmire he has put us in. Beyond that, his mental and moral depravity, if not insanity, was on full display in his obscene Truth Social threats to commit war crimes: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

In his incoherent remarks from the White House last week, Trump insisted, “They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force.” He previously declared, “They don’t have any spotters, they don’t have anti-aircraft, they don’t have radar, and their leaders have all been killed at every level.”

Over a month ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proclaimed, “I hope all the folks watching understand what uncontested airspace and complete control means.” He lectured the press that we would enjoy “uncontested airspace.” He prattled on:

It means we will fly all day, all night, day and night, finding, fixing and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military, finding and fixing their leaders and their military leaders, flying over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital, flying over the IRGC. . .Iran will be able to do nothing about it.

A week later, he announced, “Iran has no air defenses.” On March 24, he again announced that “we literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country; they can’t do a thing about it.” On March 31, the New York Times reported, “The United States has achieved such unchallenged control of Iran’s skies that it is flying B-52 bombers directly over Iranian territory for the first time since the war began, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.”Subscribed

In short, we must be skeptical when “the administration’s claims about its military dominance in the skies have been absolutist, with phrases like ‘complete control’ and ‘uncontested airspace,’ even casting Iran as not even having the weaponry necessary to respond,” as CNN reports. Instead, we should view such hyperbole as “merely the latest example of Trump and those around him apparently exaggerating military success.” (As Michael O’Hanlon of Brookings explained to me, general control of airspace or even domination of airspace does not amount to “air immaculateness,” which the Trump regime seems to have implied.)

Thanks in part to his fixation on Hegseth’s adrenaline-pumping videos showing U.S. forces blowing stuff up, Trump mistakes tactical success for “victory” as he jettisons the goals he originally offered for this unnecessary war (e.g. regime change, removing all uranium) and seizes on immaterial developments (e.g. destroying Iran’s navy does not prevent Iran’s holding the Strait of Hormuz). Meanwhile, Iran ratchets up the pressure by recycling and quickly repairing its missiles, undercutting Trump’s declarations of victory.

Not even our intelligence community buys what Trump says. “The Pentagon and White House this week claimed to have made substantial progress against Iran,” the New York Times reports. “But American intelligence agencies have cast doubt on how close the United States is to destroying Iran’s missile capability, a key goal in the war.” It turns out: “While U.S. intelligence agencies have not estimated the number of remaining launchers with high confidence, Iran retains the ability to use its remaining arsenal of ballistic missiles and missile launchers to attack Israel and other countries in the region.” In other words, Trump, Hegseth, and whoever was cheerleading for the war (looking at you, South Carolina war-mongering Sen. Lindsey Graham) utterly miscalculated how Iran would respond to an existential threat.

It is hard to quibble with Mohammad Javad Zarif, a career Iranian official, when he argues that Iran “has maintained continuity of leadership even as its top officials have been assassinated, and it has repeatedly hit back at its aggressors even as they strike at its military, civilian, and industrial facilities.” Likewise, his conclusion — “The Americans and the Israelis who started the conflict with delusions of forcing capitulation thus find themselves in a quagmire without an exit strategy” — bears a greater resemblance to reality than the chest-thumping and deranged threats we hear from Trump. At the very least, we can infer this represents the current Iranian leadership’s assessment of the war.

The legacy media’s taking at face value Trump’s declarations that the U.S. has achieved “total and complete control over the skies” amounts to stenography. Frightfully, Trump lacks any semblance of control even over himself. (If anything, Iran understates the depth of the problem in declaring he is on “the brink of madness.”) We need less sane washing, more explanation of Iran’s surprising resilience/determination to wait us out, and increased attention to Trump’s serious mental deterioration, emotional unraveling, and incapacity to make rational decisions.

We and our allies remain vulnerable to Iran’s easily refurbished missiles and drones — and at the mercy of a president whose chances of removal under the 25th Amendment have betting markets buzzing.

Epstein Files, Trump Team Coverup

richard kahnRedacted Report, The Epstein Accountant Who Knew Everything: Richard Kahn and the Myth of Plausible Deniability, Staff Report, April 7, 2026. He impersonated Epstein to banks. He arranged a fake marriage. He managed the money for decades. But under oath, he says he saw "no red flags."

On March 11, 2026, a man named Richard Kahn, shown above, sat in a closed room on Capitol Hill and spent seven hours explaining to members of the House Oversight Committee how he managed Jeffrey Epstein’s finances for decades without ever noticing that anything was wrong. Epstein's longtime accountant testifies he was 'not aware' of sex offender's crimes : NPR

His name appears more than 50,000 times in the Department of Justice’s Epstein files — a fact you can verify yourself by searching the 400,000+ indexed documents at epstein.dugganusa.com. He was one of the targets profiled in the DEA’s Operation Chain Reaction drug investigation. He had the kind of access to Epstein’s financial life that almost no other human being possessed. And his testimony, once you lay it against the documentary record, reads less like a confession and more like an instruction manual for how the infrastructure around a predator actually works.

One of the most significant revelations from Kahn’s deposition was his confirmation of who actually paid Epstein. Not the dozens or hundreds of names that get thrown around in speculation — five. Kahn identified five clients who funneled money to Epstein:

  • Les Wexner, the former CEO of Victoria’s Secret parent company L Brands.
  • Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management.
  • Glenn Dubin, the hedge fund investor.
  • Steven Sinofsky, the former president of Microsoft’s Windows Division.
  • The Rothschild family.

That’s the list, according to the man who kept the books.

Each of those names has its own gravitational field in the Epstein story, but the fact that Kahn could produce this list — concise, specific, and apparently comprehensive — tells you something about the nature of his knowledge. This was not a man operating at the periphery. He knew exactly where the money came from because it was his job to know.

The Impersonation

Kahn admitted under oath that he impersonated Jeffrey Epstein in communications with banks. Let that settle in. The accountant wasn’t just processing transactions — he was pretending to be Epstein in dealings with financial institutions.

The implications here are enormous. If Kahn was representing himself as Epstein to banks, then the compliance systems those banks relied on — know-your-customer checks, suspicious activity monitoring, identity verification — were being deliberately circumvented by a member of Epstein’s inner circle. This isn’t a failure of banking oversight. It’s active fraud, admitted to under oath, before Congress.

And it maps directly onto the banking scandals that Senator Wyden has been unraveling. BNY Mellon’s failure to flag $378 million in suspicious transfers. JPMorgan’s years of inaction. Deutsche Bank’s belated compliance. If Epstein’s own accountant was impersonating him in bank communications, how much of what the banks “missed” was actually engineered to be invisible from the start?

Leon Black's $170 Million Machine: How a Billionaire Used Epstein, Paul Weiss, and America's Banks to Make Problems Disappear Leon Black's $170 Million Machine: How a Billionaire Used Epstein, Paul Weiss, and America's Banks to Make Problems DisappearRedacted Report · 12:21 AMRead full storyThe Impersonation

Kahn admitted under oath that he impersonated Jeffrey Epstein in communications with banks. Let that settle in. The accountant wasn’t just processing transactions — he was pretending to be Epstein in dealings with financial institutions.

The implications here are enormous. If Kahn was representing himself as Epstein to banks, then the compliance systems those banks relied on — know-your-customer checks, suspicious activity monitoring, identity verification — were being deliberately circumvented by a member of Epstein’s inner circle. This isn’t a failure of banking oversight. It’s active fraud, admitted to under oath, before Congress.

And it maps directly onto the banking scandals that Senator Wyden has been unraveling. BNY Mellon’s failure to flag $378 million in suspicious transfers. JPMorgan’s years of inaction. Deutsche Bank’s belated compliance. If Epstein’s own accountant was impersonating him in bank communications, how much of what the banks “missed” was actually engineered to be invisible from the start?

The Fake Marriage

Kahn also confirmed that he helped facilitate a fake marriage between two women connected to Epstein. The full context of this arrangement remains unclear from the public reporting — who the women were, what the purpose of the marriage was, and what legal or financial structures it was designed to create or protect.

But fake marriages in the context of trafficking operations typically serve specific functions: creating immigration pathways, establishing legal identities, or shielding assets. Whatever the purpose, Kahn’s involvement means the accountant’s role extended well beyond numbers on a spreadsheet. He was participating in the construction of the legal and administrative scaffolding that kept Epstein’s operation running.The Trump Question

Kahn confirmed that Epstein spoke about Donald Trump “a lot.” He did not elaborate in detail on the substance of those conversations, but the admission adds texture to a relationship that both men’s defenders have spent years trying to minimize.

The deposition also produced a contested exchange about payments. Democratic Rep. Suhas Subramanyam stated that Kahn testified that a person who had accused Donald Trump was given a settlement by Epstein’s estate. Rep. Ro Khanna later said Kahn backtracked and claimed he had been discussing a different woman. The ambiguity itself is telling — either the accountant was confused about which accuser received which payment, or the payments to accusers were numerous enough to create genuine confusion.The Ehud Barak Connection

Almost as an aside, Kahn confirmed that Epstein had investments connected to Ehud Barak, the former Prime Minister of Israel, or one of his entities. Kahn claimed he could not recall the details. Given that Barak’s relationship with Epstein has been one of the most scrutinized international dimensions of this story — including reports of visits to Epstein’s New York townhouse and a business relationship through a technology startup — the accountant’s convenient amnesia on this point stands out.Former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, Cousin Daphne Barak | Epstein Files Former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, Cousin Daphne Barak | Epstein FilesRedacted Report · Feb 14Read full storyThe Architecture of Ignorance

Rep. Robert Garcia put it plainly after the deposition: “Epstein’s massive sex trafficking ring would not have been possible without the consistent payments and services of his long-time accountant.”

This is the core of it. The Epstein story is often told as a story about powerful men who visited an island. But what made the island possible — what made any of it possible — was an infrastructure of professionals. Lawyers who drafted the agreements. Pilots who flew the planes. And accountants who moved the money, impersonated the client, arranged the marriages, and managed the books for decades while seeing, in their own telling, nothing at all.

Richard Kahn is not a peripheral figure. He is a case study in how complicity works at scale — not through dramatic villainy, but through the daily, professional, compensated act of looking away. His testimony is the most detailed map we have of how the financial plumbing of Epstein’s world actually functioned. The network graphs and CARVER analysis at epstein.dugganusa.com score figures like Kahn on criticality and vulnerability — and the data confirms what the narrative makes plain: the financial enablers were not bystanders. Kahn’s claim that he saw no red flags, in a life containing 50,000 mentions in DOJ files, is not a defense. It’s an indictment of the entire professional class that made Epstein possible.

Redacted Report, $378 Million and No Questions Asked: How BNY Mellon Became Epstein's ATM, Staff Report, April 7, 2026. How BNY Mellon Became Epstein's ATM270 wire transfers. No legitimate business purpose identified for any of them. And the bank waited more than a decade to tell the government.

In January 2026, Senator Ron Wyden released findings that should have detonated like a bomb in the financial press. Instead, it landed with the dull thud that Epstein-related banking stories always seem to produce — a brief flurry of coverage, a few stern quotes, and then nothing.

Here is what Wyden found: Jeffrey Epstein moved $378 million through 270 wire transfers at the Bank of New York Mellon. The bank’s own compliance review could not identify a legitimate business purpose for any of these transactions.

Not one.

And BNY Mellon did not file suspicious activity reports with the Treasury Department until 2019 — more than a decade after the transfers were made.

You can trace the financial flows yourself through the Sankey diagrams at epstein.dugganusa.com, which map money moving between Epstein’s entities, trusts, banks, and shell companies using DOJ source documents. What you’ll see is not a trickle. It’s a river.Upgrade to paidWhat the Bank Secrecy Act Requires

The Bank Secrecy Act is not ambiguous. Financial institutions are required to file Suspicious Activity Reports — SARs — when they detect transactions that appear to involve money laundering, fraud, or other criminal activity. The thresholds are not high. A single transaction of $5,000 or more that a bank “knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect” involves illegal funds triggers a reporting obligation.

Epstein moved $378 million. The bank found no legitimate purpose. And they said nothing for over ten years.

Senator Wyden’s characterization was blunt: “BNY’s failure to contemporaneously report Epstein’s suspicious activity to federal law enforcement may have enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes and allowed the abuse of women and girls to continue for years.”

He went further:

“Every one of these banks that enabled Epstein by waiting years to flag his suspicious transactions ought to face criminal investigation for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.”

The Pattern Across Banks

BNY Mellon is not an isolated case. It is the latest in a chain of major financial institutions whose relationships with Epstein followed the same pattern: accept the money, ask no questions, file reports only after the whole thing becomes public, and then settle with survivors rather than face trial.

JPMorgan Chase settled with Epstein survivors for $290 million in 2023 after evidence showed the bank maintained Epstein as a client for years after his 2008 conviction, with senior executives aware of the relationship. Deutsche Bank settled for $75 million. Bank of America, as revealed in March 2026, reached its own settlement with survivors after Wyden’s investigation proved the bank had enabled billionaire Leon Black’s payments to Epstein — more than $170 million — without conducting due diligence or reporting suspicious transactions.

The combined picture is of an entire tier of American banking that functioned, in practice, as Epstein’s financial infrastructure. Not because any single banker was a co-conspirator in trafficking, but because the compliance systems designed to catch exactly this kind of activity were either broken or deliberately ignored.

Jes Staley Former JPMorgan and Barclays executive:Melania Film Director Brett Ratner & Snow White, Jes Staley | Epstein Files Melania Film Director Brett Ratner & Snow White, Jes Staley | Epstein FilesRedacted Report · Feb 11Read full storyThe Wire Transfers and the Movement of Women

Wyden’s investigation uncovered something more disturbing than garden-variety compliance failure. Treasury Department files indicated that Epstein used several now-sanctioned Russian banks for hundreds of millions of dollars in wire transfers. More critically, investigators found that these wire transfers were “correlated to the movement of women or girls around the world.”

This is the detail that transforms the BNY Mellon story from a banking scandal into something much darker. If wire transfers can be mapped against the physical movement of trafficking victims — and investigators appear to believe they can — then the bank’s failure to report wasn’t just a regulatory violation. It was, functionally, a failure to flag the financial signature of human trafficking in real time.

The network analysis tools at epstein.dugganusa.com allow researchers to cross-reference financial entities with named individuals across the 400,000+ DOJ documents. The connections between banks, shell companies, trusts, and Epstein’s associates form a web that was designed to be invisible — and that banking compliance departments had every tool and legal obligation to make visible.

U.S. Science, Education, Media, High Tech 

 

Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen of CSA (Canadian Space Agency), pilot Victor Glover, commander Reid Wiseman, and mission specialist Christina Koch boarded Artemis II to travel around the moon and back, left to right(Photo byJoe Raedle via Getty Images).

Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen of CSA (Canadian Space Agency), pilot Victor Glover, commander Reid Wiseman, and mission specialist Christina Koch boarded Artemis II to travel around the moon and back, left to right(Photo byJoe Raedle via Getty Images).

ny times logoNew York Times, Artemis II Astronauts Head Home After Historic Journey Around the Moon, Kenneth Chang, Katrina Miller and Thomas Fuller, Updated April 7, 2026. The NASA lunar flyby took the four crew members farther from Earth than any humans. They witnessed a solar eclipse and received praise in a call from President Trump.

On the sixth day, 248,655 miles from Earth, four people ventured farther from home than any human being who has ever lived.

Embraced by the moon’s gravitational pull, four astronauts accelerated Monday afternoon on a path to swing around the lunar far side, five days after launching on the Artemis II mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“Today, for all humanity, you’re pushing beyond that frontier,” said Jenni Gibbons, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut who was the main point of contact for the crew at mission control in Houston.

In response, Jeremy Hansen, a fellow Canadian who is a member of the Artemis II crew, hailed the space pioneers who had preceded them.

“We most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generationand the next to make sure this record is not long-lived,” he said.

A few hours later, Mr. Hansen, along with Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA, became the first humans in more than half a century to slip behind the moon.

The New Republic, Trump Call to Artemis II Astronauts Hit With Longest Awkward Silence, Hafiz Rashid, April 7, 2026. Trump tried to blame the pause on a technical glitch. The connection was just fine. Artemis II astronauts wave while wearing their suits.

President Trump reached out to the crew of the Artemis II spacecraft Monday night, but ended up having a call that was so awkward it quickly went viral.

“America is a frontier nation, and the four brave astronauts of Artemis II are a modern day, you really are modern day pioneers, all of you,” Trump said, starting out with a congratulatory message. But then, he made things weird for one crewmember.

“And one of them happens to be a neighbor, you know who that is, right? You have a special person over there, a neighbor, and uh, we like our neighbor,” Trump continued.

The “neighbor” in question happened to be Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a member of the Canadian Space Agency. Trump can’t seem to be able to hide his feelings about the country, which he has antagonized by saying they should be the 51st U.S. state. Perhaps that’s why he couldn’t even bring himself to say the word “Canada,” even with a large Canadian flag clearly visible in the video feed from the crew alongside an American flag.

Trump said he spoke to Canadian ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, whom he called a “very special person,” and Prime Minister Mark Carney, and only then did he even say “Canada,” claiming to have many friends there.

“You have a lot of courage doing what you do, a lot of bravery, and a lot of genius. But they are very, very proud of you,” Trump said.

But after that, Trump went silent and the astronauts sat awkwardly during more than a full moment of silence.

“Yeah, I think we might have gotten cut off. It is a long distance.... Reception has been great,” the president said.

In the midst of an unnecessary war, a poor economy, and high gas prices, people around the world are looking at the Artemis II mission, which has brought humans further in space than ever before, as a source of inspiration. Does Trump see it that way as well?

Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Commentary: MAGA Is Winning Its War Against U.S. Science, Paul Krugman, right, paul krugmanApril 7, 2026. When a political movement believes that ignorance is strength.

With all the other terrible news right now, you may not have noticed that Donald Trump is in the process of killing American science.

OK, that’s an exaggeration — but not that much of an exaggeration. The Trump administration’s latest budget proposal calls for a gigantic increase in military spending combined with severe cuts to social programs. But as the chart above shows, it also calls for debilitating reductions in research funding.

Furthermore, Trump appointees have already been strangling science by sharply reducing the rate at which research grants are approved. Here, for example, is the number of new grants approved by the National Science Foundation: Two bar charts showing the number of grants issued by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health from 2015 to 2025. In both cases, 2025 is the lowest bar.

Large numbers of existing grants have also been frozen or terminated, especially in the study of infectious diseases.

Add to this a sharp drop in visas issued to foreign students, who often play a direct role in research and who help support academic departments that do research:

Put all of this together, and much U.S. scientific research is set to come to a screeching halt — not a few years from now, but over the course of the next year or two.

This new assault on U.S. science is taking place at a time when the role of American science in the world has already been greatly eroded. The chart below, based on research recently reported by the National Bureau of Economic Research, measures national strength in science by the share of publications in highly ranked journals. In the 1990s the United States had more such publications than the rest of the world combined. Since then we’ve dropped into third place — well behind China and slightly below the European Union. And this was before the Trump administration’s attack on science had time to take its full effect. China’s Rise in Global Research Primary tabs

Some erosion in U.S. scientific preeminence was inevitable given China’s growing sophistication and wealth. But we’ve also fallen behind Europe, even though everyone says that Europe is lagging economically and technologically. Claims about Europe’s underperformance are, in fact, dubious if one looks hard at the data. But it’s still striking to see America lagging.

What’s going on? There are presumably multiple factors behind America’s scientific lag. But even before Trump II the growing hostility of the U.S. right to science surely had some negative effect. And since the rise of MAGA G.O.P. attitudes toward science in general have become overwhelmingly hostile. This is true even for the Republican rank and file: A graph with blue lines AI-generated content may be incorrect.

And while I haven’t been able to find good survey data, it’s obvious that the anti-science turn has been even more pronounced — and began earlier — among the Republican political elite. Chris Mooney published The Republican War on Science in 2005, and even then was describing a longstanding trend.

Why have Republicans turned so anti-science? Part of the answer is that they believe that scientists don’t support them. And they’re right! A study of who scientists give money to shows that only a small percentage gave money to Republicans even 20 years ago, and that almost none of them donate to Republicans now: A graph of blue lines and numbers AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Social scientists have always been strongly pro-Democratic, while there used to be a significant number of physical, “hard” scientists supporting the GOP. But these days physicists are almost as uniformly Democratic, or at least non-Republican, as sociologists.

Why are there almost no Republican scientists? It’s not a mystery. GOP political orthodoxy includes positions that are at odds with the scientific consensus on multiple issues, ranging from the validity of the theory of evolution, to the reality of climate change, to the efficacy and safety of vaccines. In each case the scientific consensus is solidly grounded in evidence. But even before the rise of MAGA the U.S. right was increasingly hostile to evidence-based policymaking — especially, of course, where the evidence is unfavorable to fossil fuel interests or quack medicine, both financial mainstays of right-wing politics.

So scientists don’t support Republicans, and the feeling is mutual. Today’s Republican Party doesn’t like science or scientists. It doesn’t like having its preconceived views challenged by appeals to evidence. It knows that very few scientists are on its side electorally. In general, it sees scientific research as a threat to its grasp on political power.

Add in MAGA’s combination of rabid anti-intellectualism and allergy to any hint of criticism, and one has the makings of a drastic anti-science turn in policy. “Ignorance is strength” might was well be an official MAGA motto.

And as I said, we aren’t talking about something that will happen over the course of multiple years: The U.S. scientific enterprise is threatened with severe damage, even collapse, over just the next year.

There are many reasons to find this prospect horrifying: Think of all the beneficial advances, affecting almost every part of life, that won’t happen because U.S. science — still crucial to the world — has been eviscerated.

But think, also, of America’s international standing. Can a nation that has forfeited its role as a leader, or even a contender, in global science, still be a Great Power?

No.

ny times logoNew York Times, Texas Considers Required Reading List for Schools, Which Includes the Bible, Sarah Mervosh, April 7, 2026. Education officials are planning an overhaul to English and social studies in the nation’s largest Republican led state.

Texas education officials are considering sweeping changes to English and social studies instruction that would put readings from the Bible on a new state-required reading list for millions of public school students.

The changes would also bring a U.S. and Texas centric lens to history, with less emphasis on world history, a shift some historians and progressive groups have opposed.

The Texas State Board of Education, an elected board with a 10-to-5 Republican majority, is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to consider the proposals, including the hotly debated required reading lists for each grade level.

One draft of the list, proposed by the Texas Education Agency, includes widely recognized classics such as “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle for kindergartners, “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle for seventh graders and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech for eighth graders.

But it also includes passages from the Bible in middle and high school, such as the story of David and Goliath from the Old Testament and a meditation on love from First Corinthians.

The list includes select texts from Black historical figures like Langston Hughes and Frederick Douglass, but has relatively few Hispanic and Black authors, a move that has drawn criticism from Democratic members of the state board.

ny times logoNew York Times, American Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq Is Freed, Falih Hassan, Pranav Baskar and Erika Solomon, April 7, 2026. The journalist, Shelly Kittleson, was abducted by a militia allied with Iran and held for a week. Iraqi officials say she was freed in exchange for the release of militia members.

An American journalist who was abducted in Baghdad by an Iraqi militia allied with Iran was freed on Tuesday after a week in captivity, according to the militia and two Iraqi security officials.

The militia, Kataib Hezbollah, said in a statement that it had released the journalist, Shelly Kittleson, “in appreciation of the patriotic positions” of Iraq’s prime minister, who had been negotiating for her release. The group said Ms. Kittleson must leave Iraq immediately.

“This initiative will not be repeated in the future,” a security commander from the group, who is known as Abu Mujahid Al-Asaf, said in the statement. “We are in a state of war waged by the Zionist-American enemy against Islam and in such situations many considerations are disregarded.”

Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most powerful militias in Iraq, is closely tied to Iran’s Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The abduction of Ms. Kittleson, 49, is its second kidnapping of a foreigner in Iraq. In 2023, the group abducted Elizabeth Truskov, an Israeli-Russian doctoral student, and held her hostage for more than two years, torturing her while in captivity.

Ms. Kittleson, who has reported on the Middle East for more than a decade for various outlets, was set free in exchange for the release of several imprisoned Kataib Hezbollah members, according to the two Iraqi security officials. They asked not to be identified in order to discuss sensitive negotiations.

Her abduction prompted a manhunt for the kidnappers by Iraq’s security forces and efforts by the U.S. government to secure her release. A day after she was kidnapped, Kataib Hezbollah offered to negotiate the journalist’s freedom in exchange for the Iraqi government’s release of several detained militia members.

There has been growing American anxiety about Iranian-aligned armed groups in Iraq. In March, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad told all American citizens they should leave Iraq immediately, citing attacks on civilian facilities and government buildings owned by the United States and its regional allies.

Kataib Hezbollah is one of the Iraqi militias at the forefront of retaliatory attacks for the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. It has launched rocket and drone attacks almost daily on U.S. targets in Iraq and neighboring countries. Among the attacks it has claimed are missile strikes on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

More Global News

ny times logoNew York Times, Why Hungary’s Election Could Swing on Roma Votes, Lara Jakes and Mate Halmos, April 7, 2026. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s policies affecting the Roma minority have put those voters in play in upcoming parliamentary elections. In a tight race, they could make the difference.

The party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary is facing parliamentary elections on Sunday that are expected to be exceptionally close. And the marginalized Roma ethnic minority may prove to be an unexpected swing vote, pivotal to whether his party remains in power.

Over the last 16 years, Mr. Orban’s government has doled out public jobs to Roma voters, some in exchange for political loyalty to his party, Fidesz. But it has also overhauled Hungary’s education system in ways that experts and analysts say have systemically trapped Roma in Hungary’s underclass.

“There are many reasons why we won’t vote for Orban,” said Bettina Pocsai, an education expert in Budapest who is Roma and works with Roma people. “Many people in our community face so many challenges that it’s not just the failure of the educational system. But mainly that is what contributes to it.”

Long held back by economic instability and prejudice across Europe, ethnic Roma make up about 8 percent of Hungary’s population of 9.6 million, according to government officials and experts. But with a range of polls showing Mr. Orban’s party trailing in the election, “this is not the best time to risk the Roma vote,” said Gabor Gyori, a political analyst ​with the Policy Solutions research organization in Budapest.

Since taking office in 2010, Mr. Orban has imposed a range of national education initiatives that academics and analysts say have had a disproportionate impact on Roma students, largely limiting them to mediocre or substandard schools that, in turn, lead them toward low-wage jobs.

Mr. Orban’s government centralized control of public elementary and secondary schools, taking decisions about how children are educated out of the hands of communities. It shifted public funding to church-run schools that relatively few Roma attend. And it lowered the mandatory school attendance age from 18 to 16, leading to a significant drop in 17-year-old Roma continuing their educations.

At the same time, government programs have provided low-skills jobs to impoverished or otherwise disadvantaged Hungarians, many of them Roma, to replace some welfare assistance.

Disagreement over whether Mr. Orban’s education and employment policies hurt or help Roma has simmered for a long time. It took a profanity-laden remark in January by Mr. Orban’s transportation minister, Janos Lazar, to turn the debate into widespread anger.Speaking at a public forum at a lake resort town west of Budapest, Mr. Lazar used a racial epithet for Roma to declare that “someone has to clean the toilets on InterCity trains.”

He later apologized, but the remark created an uproar. ​Mr. Gyori said it reflected how politicians had generally “ignored the problems of the Roma community, thereby effectively cementing racial segregation in parts of Hungary.”

He called it “an instance of the mask slipping.”

Mr. Lazar did not respond to a request for comment.

ny times logoNew York Times, 2 French Citizens Detained in Iran for Years Are Freed, Catherine Porter, April 7, 2026. The couple, who had been arrested during a tourist visit in 2022, were accused of spying in a case that galvanized the French public.

Two French citizens detained in Iran for almost four years, after being convicted of espionage in a trial the French government deemed “completely unfounded” and “arbitrary,” were released on Tuesday and taken out of the country.

The couple, both teachers, had become symbols in France of unjust imprisonment and the “hostage diplomacy” used by the Iranian regime. Their faces were posted on government buildings.

Cécile Kohler, 41, a high school literature teacher, and her partner, Jacques Paris, a retired mathematics teacher in his 70s, were arrested during a tourist visit to Iran in 2022. They were thrown into Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where dissidents and political prisoners are held.

Over the next three years, they were allowed only four consular visits — and “under highly restrictive conditions,” the French state said. The French foreign affairs minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, likened their conditions to “torture.”

In 2025, the couple was convicted in an Iranian court of spying for French intelligence services, conspiring to undermine Iran’s national security and cooperating with Israeli intelligence services. Their sentences were severe: Ms. Kohler was given 20 years in prison, and Mr. Paris 17, according to the French government.

A month later, after intense negotiations, the couple was released, but barred from leaving Iran. They moved into the French Embassy in Tehran.

Over the years, Ms. Kohler and Mr. Paris’s names have repeatedly appeared in the French news, as their families rallied for them and French diplomats worked to secure their release. Their photos, with the word “freedom,” were posted on the metal gates of the French National Assembly, as well as ministry buildings.

After the United States and Israel launched the war against Iran at the end of February, and bombs began raining down over Tehran, French diplomatic efforts became more intense. The French government officials refused to disclose what, if anything, was given to Iran in exchange for the couple’s release.

President Emmanuel Macron made the much-anticipated announcement about the couple’s release at a health summit in Lyon, saying that they were “free and on their way back to France.”

“This is wonderful news,” he said.

When the news was announced in the National Assembly, lawmakers jumped to their feet to applaud.

Stephen Richer is the former elected recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona. He is now CEO of Republic Affairs and a fellow of the Cato Institute.

April 6

Top Headlines

News Updates

djt truth social 4 4 2026

At 8:03 this morning, Easter Sunday, President Donald J. Trump’s social media account posted: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F*ckin’ Strait, you crazy b*stards, or you’ll be living in Hell—JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

More on Iran-Lebanon Wars

U.S. Justice, Law, Courts, Crime, Civil Rights 

More On U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

 

  • djt capitol war hartmannThe Hartmann Report, Investigative Commentary: Are Trump’s Purges and Calls for a Larger Military Budget the Setup for a Coup? Thom Hartmann, right, thom hartmann newApril 6, 2026. As Trump demands sweeping new resources in the name of war, the scale of funding raises a chilling question: is this about national security or consolidating power?
  • Roll Call, Defense-focused Trump budget seeks to cut Democratic priorities, Aidan Quigley, Featured April 6, 2026. Budget lays groundwork for another clash with Democrats over nondefense spending.
  • Popular Information, Accountability Journalism: The broken database that could upend the 2026 election, Judd Legum, right, judd legumand Rebecca Crosby, April 6, 2026. President Trump and the election conspiracy theorists he surrounds himself with are determined to exclude people from voting in the 2026 election based on one database: the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE).
  • Lincoln Square Media, Guest Essay: Flood the Zone: Why Narratives are Replacing Reality in Local Politics, Trygve Olson (strategist, pro-democracy fighter and a founding Lincoln Project advisor, and author of Searching for Hope on Substack), April 6, 2026. When "could" becomes "fact": How political narratives quietly turn speculation into certainty—and why that matters for democracy.
  • Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Resistance and Impeachment, William Kristol, right, william bill kristol imdbApril 6, 2026. “How are we going to make it through thirty-three more months of this?” a friend asked yesterday. The first proposal is that we think seriously about the case for internal resistance within the executive branch. When the head of the executive branch shows a repeated willingness to enrich himself, to lie to the public, to break the law, senior officials can appropriately recall that the oath they take is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. They can remind themselves that they are obliged to obey the law rather than the illegal wishes of their boss or their boss’s boss.
  • Politico, Trump endorses Steve Hilton in California governor's race, Blake Jones, April 6, 2026. Republican contenders for California's party nomination for govenor this year, Chad Bianco, left, Steve Hilton (Los Angeles Times photos).la timesSome Republicans had argued the party’s best shot at the governor’s mansion depended on Trump staying out of the contest.

U.S. Immigration, Deportations, Civil Rights

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U.S. Education, Media, Culture

Gareth Gore was granted a one-on-one audience with the pope two years after the publication of his 2024 book on Opus Dei. Composite: Corbis via Getty Images, Courtesy Gareth Gore

Gareth Gore, above right, was granted a one-on-one audience with Pope Leo XIV (above) two years after the publication of his 2024 book on Opus Dei. (Composite photos: Corbis via Getty Images and courtesy Gareth Gore).

Top Stories

New York Times, Iran War Live Updates: As Trump’s New Ultimatum Looms, Tehran Vows to Step Up Attacks, Aaron Boxerman, Erika Solomon and Yan Zhuang, April 6, 2026. Iran said it would respond “crushingly” if President Trump carried out his threats to strike power plants and bridges unless Tehran reopens the Strait of Hormuz. An Israeli strike killed an Iranian intelligence chief overnight.

Here’s the latest.

Iran said on Monday that it would retaliate forcefully if President Trump carries out his threat to strike Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran ends its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Both countries appeared to stand on the precipice of what could become a new phase in the month-old war, as they escalated threats and Iran and Israel launched new attacks. An Israeli strike overnight on Monday killed Majid Khademi, the intelligence chief for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in the latest killing of a senior Iranian leader.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to bombard critical Iranian infrastructure unless Iranian forces end their de facto blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, which is a conduit for a significant portion of the world’s oil and gas. Iran, in turn, has refused to back down, firing repeated volleys of ballistic missiles at its neighbors and ensnarling global shipping.

“If attacks on civilian targets are repeated, the subsequent phases of our offensive and retaliatory operations will be carried out much more crushingly and extensively,” Ebrahim Zolfaghari, an Iranian military spokesman, said on Monday.

Strikes on power plants could impact millions of civilians across Iran and many legal experts argue it could be considered a war crime under international law. Such attacks could also add to worries about the global economy, which has already been rattled by soaring energy prices since the war began in late February. Oil prices rose slightly during Asia’s business day on Monday before falling on media reports of progress in indirect talks between Iran and the United States.

The impasse has left Mr. Trump contemplating extreme options for the next steps, including a ground invasion of islands in the Persian Gulf. Mediators in Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey have sought to clinch a deal to end the crisis to little avail. While Mr. Trump has postponed threatened attacks before, analysts say repeatedly doing so without tangible progress toward a deal would risk eroding his credibility.

Mr. Trump, seemingly emboldened by the U.S. rescue of an American airman in Iran over the weekend, told Fox News on Sunday that he believed he could reach a deal with Iran by Monday. But he also said he was “considering blowing everything up” and taking control of the country’s oil if Iran did not cooperate.

In an expletive-laden social media post, Mr. Trump told Iranian leaders to “open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards” or else the attacks on infrastructure would commence. He later wrote “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!” appearing to suggest a deadline for the strikes.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

  • Iranian strikes: Israeli paramedics retrieved the bodies of at least three people killed in an Iranian missile strike in Haifa, according to the Israeli authorities. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates reported attempted missile and drone strikes on Monday.
  • Warning from oil nations: Eight members of the consortium of influential oil producing nations known as OPEC Plus on Sunday expressed concern about the toll the war was taking on global oil supplies and energy infrastructure in the region. “Restoring damaged energy assets to full capacity is both costly and takes a long time,” the group said in a statement warning of a slow recovery after the war. Read more ›
  • Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,606 civilians, including 244 children, had been killed in Iran as of Friday. Lebanon’s health ministry on Thursday said at least 1,345 Lebanese had been killed since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 20 people had been killed as of Monday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded.

ny times logoNew York Times, News Analysis:On Iran, Trump Keeps World Off Balance With Ever-Changing Threats, Michael D. Shear, April 6, 2026. Global leaders are struggling in their efforts to find a way to end the American-Israeli war on Iran, and they are spooked about what President Trump might do next.

The world is on edge.

One minute, President Trump says the war in Iran is nearly over. The next he says it will continue for weeks. He brags that Iran has been “eviscerated,” but then vows that the fighting will go on. A huge bombardment, he says, might begin in five days, or 10 days, or on Tuesday at precisely 8 p.m. Eastern.

If the president means what he says, the world could be about 24 hours from a devastating escalation in the war. But like the producer of a television cliffhanger, Mr. Trump seems determined to keep everyone off balance.

On that, at least, he is succeeding.

In capitals around the world, presidents and prime ministers have spent almost six weeks seeking a way to prevent the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran from spiraling out of control. Diplomats from more than 40 countries gathered for a video call on Thursday that concluded with few concrete proposals. Leaders across Europe, Asia and beyond are exasperated, angry and more than a little spooked about what could be around the corner.ImagePresident Lee Jae Myung of South Korea speaking into microphones, with a flag behind him.President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea warned on Monday that “the order of peace and prosperity that has sustained the world is weakening.”

In an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday, President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea warned, “The scars of war are expected to persist for a long time.” In an Easter message, Mr. Lee lamented, “The order of peace and prosperity that has sustained the world is weakening.”

In Japan, a country that is deeply reliant on oil imports from the Middle East, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Monday that she would seek direct talks with the Iranian government as soon as Wednesday. In France, President Emmanuel Macron complained last week about Mr. Trump’s constantly changing commentary, saying that serious people “don’t say every day the opposite of what we said the day before.”

Mr. Trump and his aides have long boasted that unpredictability is a strength on the world stage. During his first term, Mr. Trump threatened to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen” on North Korea but later declared that he “fell in love” with its dictator, Kim Jong-un, whom he called “a smart guy.”

Even knowing Mr. Trump’s erratic history, his handling of the war in Iran has rattled his counterparts with a series of contradictory, up-is-down statements about how the war might end.

On Wednesday, in a speech to the nation, Mr. Trump effectively declared Iran defeated. “Their navy is gone, their air force is gone,” he said, adding, “Their missiles are just about used up or beaten.” Iran has “no antiaircraft equipment,” he claimed, with a radar system that is “100 percent annihilated.”

Two days later, Iran shot down two American military planes.

In his Wednesday speech, Mr. Trump seemed unconcerned about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, saying, “When this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally. It will just open up naturally.”

Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Commentary: The Terrorist in Chief, Paul Krugman, right, paul krugmanApril 6, 2026. It’s time for us to face up to the ugly reality.

Terrorism, according to ICE — yes, that ICE — “involves violence or the threat of violence against people or property to further a particular ideology.” The official website goes on to declare that “Terrorists do not care who they hurt or kill to achieve their goals.”

If you haven’t read Donald Trump’s Truth Social post from Sunday, above, take a minute to do so. Don’t rely on sanewashed descriptions in the media. And then tell me that Trump doesn’t perfectly fit his own officials’ definition of a terrorist.

Don’t tell me that his cause is just, that the Iranian regime is evil. That’s what terrorists always say, and even if it’s sometimes true, terrorism is defined by its means rather than its ends — by its attempt to achieve political goals by violently attacking the innocent.

And that’s exactly what Trump is doing: he’s threatening to attack civilian infrastructure if he doesn’t get his way. And since Trump is talking about targeting essential services — power plants! — this is a threatened attack on people as well as property.

Later on Sunday Trump told Axios that the U.S. is in “deep negotiations” with Iran. Forgive me for doubting that anything like that is happening. But he went on to say that if there isn’t a deal by Tuesday, “I am blowing up everything over there.”

He has issued these threats without even a pretense that we will be attacking military targets, and if anything he seems to relish rather than regret the death and suffering his actions will cause.

international criminal court logoOn second thought, however, I shouldn’t say that Trump is making a threat of violence; he’s promising violence. That vile post isn’t part of a negotiating strategy, since there is, after all, zero chance that Iran will open the Strait of Hormuz by tomorrow evening. The Iranian regime almost certainly couldn’t open the strait on short notice if it tried: Military control in Iran has, by all accounts, been decentralized to local commanders to limit the effects of U.S. and Israeli decapitation strikes. So there’s no way people in Tehran could order the whole Iranian military to stand down at short notice even if they wanted to.

And of course they don’t want to, because they think Iran is winning. And so do Trump and the people around him, even though they will never admit it.

For terrorism is a strategy of the weak. It’s what extremists do when they lack the ability to achieve their goals through military action or other non-criminal means.

And that’s where Trump and his officials find themselves. They inherited a powerful military (which they are rapidly degrading), but for all its firepower this military lacks the wherewithal to open the Strait of Hormuz to normal traffic. So the Trumpists are gearing up to impose suffering and death on innocent civilians instead, even though this suffering and death will do nothing to achieve America’s objectives.

I don’t know what Trump will do when his deadline passes and the Strait is still closed. He probably doesn’t know either. But he is promising to commit war crimes on a massive scale. And the duty of everyone with any influence who isn’t part of Trump’s inner circle is to do all they can to stop him.

Most immediately, military officers should be aware that they have the right and the duty to disobey illegal orders. It’s incredible that we have gotten to this point, especially so quickly, but here we are. alvin holseyYou may recall that Admiral Alvin Holsey, right, resigned in December, reportedly because he refused to be a party to illegal attacks on supposed drug boats. What Trump is now saying he will do is infinitely worse. And a refusal by senior officers to participate in war crimes may be the only thing that could stop this evil in its tracks.

Now is when we find out how completely our once honorable military has been corrupted.

Beyond the military, every politician, dare I say every public figure, in America should make it clear that Trump is not acting in their name.

This is not a time for Republicans who know — and most of them do know — that Trump has gone completely off the rails to remain obsequious for fear that he might endorse their primary opponents. One hopes that there are still a few genuine patriots left on that side of the aisle.

It is also not a time for Democrats to listen to strategists who urge them to stay silent on foreign policy and talk only about grocery prices. As it happens, that’s even bad political advice: Public disdain for Congressional Democrats has a lot to do with perceptions that they are weak and ineffectual, and ignoring Trump’s criminal madness will only reinforce that perception. And there has been no rally-around-the-flag effect from this war, which is growing more unpopular by the day.

But in any case, political considerations should take a back seat to civic duty.

The horrible but undeniable fact right now is that America has a terrorist president. And the whole world knows it. But we still have a chance to show the world that he is an aberration, that we are not a terrorist nation. And we can do that by standing up for the values that have always defined us. 

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Impeach Him Again, Bill Kristol, Andrew Egger and Jim Swift, April 6, 2026. And create friction against him within the executive branch.

bulwark logo big shipIt’s a weird spot we’re in when it comes to re-funding DHS: Even though leaders in both chambers and President Trump have backed a plan to fund the whole Department with the exception of ICE and the Border Patrol, which Republicans plan to instead fund through party-line reconciliation legislation, Republicans aren’t in a hurry to actually pass the deal.

The shutdown remains in place, and House Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t yet taken action to call the House back from its recess, which is currently scheduled to go until April 13. Happy Monday.

 

News Updates

djt truth social 4 4 2026

At 8:03 this morning, Easter Sunday, President Donald J. Trump’s social media account posted: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F*ckin’ Strait, you crazy b*stards, or you’ll be living in Hell—JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: April 5, 2026 [Threats of War Crimes?], Heather Cox Richardson, right, heather cox richardson cnnApril 6, 2026. There are many things that could be going on with this ultimatum, which actually doesn’t sound like Trump’s usual style, in the same way the post of yesterday morning didn’t.

The post appears to be threatening to commit war crimes by attacking civilian infrastructure, and it appears to suggest Trump is considering using tactical nuclear weapons. He emphasized the production of such weapons in his first administration. He seemed to encourage this interpretation in an interview with Rachel Scott of ABC News today. She said Trump “told me the conflict should be over in days, not weeks but if no deal is made he’s blowing up the whole country with ‘very little’ off the table. ‘If [it] happens, it happens. And if it doesn’t, we’re blowing up the whole country,’ he said. I asked if there’s anything off limits. ‘Very little,’ he said.”

In 2023 a book by New York Times Washington correspondent Michael Schmidt alleged that in 2017, when Trump was warning North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on social media that North Korea would be “met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before,” behind closed doors he was talking about launching a preemptive strike against North Korea and of using a nuclear weapon against the country and blaming someone else for the strike .

Schmidt reports that Trump’s White House chief of staff at the time, retired U.S. Marine Corps General John Kelly, brought military leaders to try to explain to Trump why that would be a bad idea and finally got him to move away from the plan by telling him he could prove he was the “greatest salesman in the world” by finding a diplomatic solution to his fight with the North Korean leader.

In his own book about that period, journalist Bob Woodward wrote: “The American people had little idea that July through September of 2017 had been so dangerous.”

But Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo told Woodward: “We never knew whether it was real or whether it was a bluff.”

And that is another way to look at the post from Trump’s social media account: that he is panicked that he has not been able to bully other countries into fixing the mess he created by attacking Iran and precipitating the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and is now simply trying to bully Iran. In The Guardian last Monday, Sidney Blumenthal noted that Trump “has declared ‘victory’ more than eight times,” says he has “won” more than ten times, and said Iranian forces have been “obliterated” or suffered “obliteration” more than six times. Blumenthal noted Trump is now threatening to “obliterate” Iran’s power grid and has used the words “decimate” or “decimation” at least six times.

Trump’s crazy post does, after all, push back yet again the deadline for his threats to rain destruction on Iran, which he then extended again in another post at 12:38 P.M. saying: “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!”

allison gillThis dynamic was not lost on Allison Gill of Mueller, She Wrote, left, who noted: “It was March 23rd. Then March 27th. Then March 30th. Then he gave that weird address on April 1st. [N]ew deadline April 4th. Then April 6th at 7 AM. Then April 7th at 8 PM. And now another address tomorrow at 1 PM. The chaos is intentional.” She also noted that his deadlines and his abandonment of them often seem tied to the rhythms of the stock market.

In an interview with Barak Ravid of Axios today shortly after this morning’s post, Trump reiterated that “if they don’t make a deal, I am blowing up everything over there” but also said the U.S. is “in deep negotiations” with Iran and that he thinks a deal can be reached. Trump told Ravid that his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner—not Secretary of State Marco Rubio—are talking with the Iranians. Sources told Ravid that mediators from Pakistan, Egypt, and Türkiye are facilitating the talks.

But Iranian officials are refusing to deal with Witkoff and Kushner after they apparently misunderstood earlier negotiations and instead told Trump the talks weren’t going well before he launched strikes. Neither Witkoff nor Kushner is a trained diplomat, and both have deep financial ties to the Middle East. Notably, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who urged Trump to start the Iran war, has invested at least $2 billion in Kushner’s private equity firm.

On March 13, Rob Copeland and Maureen Farrell of the New York Times reported that Kushner is trying to raise $5 billion or more for his private equity firm from Middle East governments at the same time as he is also supposed to be negotiating peace in the region.

But Stephen Kalin, Eliot Brown, and Summer Said of the Wall Street Journal reported today that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already cost the Saudis about $10 billion, and the grand plans of MBS were already falling short of money. Some of those plans were U.S. investments. The reporters note that even before the war, the Saudi’s sovereign-wealth fund, the same one that invested in Kushner’s private equity firm, had sold much of its U.S. stock portfolio. Last year, MBS promised to invest up to $1 trillion in the U.S. Those investments are now under review.

Regardless of the inspiration for Trump’s post, by itself it tells a very clear story. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s former assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi posted: “The American president has lost his mind.”

Journalist Steven Beschloss wrote: “This is an actual post. This is not funny. This is beyond desperate. This is a deeply unwell man who doesn’t belong anywhere near the levers of power. Every member of his cabinet and Congress is complicit in not demanding his removal now.”

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) posted: “If I were in Trump’s Cabinet, I would spend Easter calling constitutional lawyers about the 25th Amendment. This is completely, utterly unhinged. He’s already killed thousands. He’s going to kill thousands more.”

The 25th Amendment establishes a process through which a majority of the Cabinet and the Vice President, or another body Congress designates, can remove a president deemed “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

Murphy was not the only one thinking along those lines. Hollie Silverman of Newsweek reported that on the prediction market platform Kalshi, which allows traders to buy “yes” or “no” shares on the question “Will the 25th Amendment be used during Trump’s presidency?” “yes” has moved in recent days from 28.6% to 35.1%.

The Parnas Perspective, News and Commentary: Trump Posts More Islamophobic Content, More Calls for 25th Amendment, Iran Mocks Trump as White House Seeks Ceasefire, Aaron Parnas, right, aaron parnas new headshotApril 6, 2026. Overnight, Donald Trump posted more racist and Islamophobic videos and images on Truth Social that I cannot stay silent about as a journalist and have to call out.

Meanwhile, Iran is rejecting ceasefire proposals and even mocking Trump online, as the United States and Israel continue strikes on Iranian universities and petrochemical facilities. At the same time, more Democratic lawmakers, along with some Republicans who previously worked for Trump, are raising calls to consider the 25th Amendment.

Here’s the news:

Overnight, Trump posted an openly Islamophobic video on Truth Social targeting Muslim women in a public space, using somber music to frame their presence as something negative, and then amplified an unfounded claim that most of them were on welfare. Earlier yesterday, he made an unhinged Easter post threatening attacks on Iranian infrastructure if his demands weren’t met. This is not normal, again. While some may just say it is Trump being Trump, I refuse. Some lawmakers responded by calling for consideration of the 25th Amendment.

Trump’s threats to target Iranian infrastructure such as power plants and bridges have drawn sharp international criticism, with Iranian officials and others arguing such actions would constitute war crimes under international law. European leaders have also stressed that attacking civilian infrastructure is illegal and warned of the humanitarian consequences of escalation. Critics, including U.S. lawmakers, described Trump’s rhetoric as dangerous and destabilizing, while Iran has warned it would respond with “much more devastating” retaliation if such strikes occur.

More lawmakers call for the 25th Amendment: Trump’s former Communications Director did the same:

Iran has rejected a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for a temporary ceasefire, telling mediators from Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan that it will not accept short-term deals tied to U.S. conditions. It also refused to meet American officials in Islamabad and described U.S. demands to end the war as unacceptable. The rejection has stalled mediation efforts and highlights Iran’s position that negotiations cannot take place under pressure or ultimatums.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) released video footage showing U.S. strikes on multiple Iranian targets across the country, offering visual confirmation of ongoing military operations and the scale of the campaign.

Trump spent part of Easter Sunday going to his Virginia golf resort instead of attending church, despite his strong support from evangelical Christians. His trip was not publicly scheduled, and press access was limited once he arrived. This took place while tensions and conflict with Iran were ongoing, with U.S. troops deployed abroad. The situation drew criticism for the contrast between him enjoying a golf outing and soldiers remaining in harm’s way.

Sharif University of Technology, one of Iran’s top engineering schools often compared to MIT, was reportedly bombed in Tehran, with surrounding educational facilities also damaged. The university has long been a major center for scientific talent, producing engineers who have gone on to work in Silicon Valley and contribute to major tech companies. The strike raised sharp criticism and concern about targeting an academic institution in a densely populated city of around 10 million people.

Israel carried out a major strike on Iran’s South Pars petrochemical facility, a critical site responsible for roughly half of the country’s petrochemical production, triggering large explosions and raising concerns about escalation. The attack hit part of the world’s largest gas field, shared with Qatar, and came despite ongoing efforts to negotiate a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. Airstrikes also hit Tehran, killing senior Iranian military figures, including the intelligence chief of the Revolutionary Guards, while Iranian missiles struck Israeli cities like Haifa, causing deaths.

The conflict has expanded across the region, with Iran launching missiles and drones at targets in Israel and Gulf countries, prompting nations like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait to activate air defenses. Key global energy infrastructure has been repeatedly targeted, contributing to rising oil prices and broader economic disruption. The Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for about a fifth of the world’s oil supply, remains central to the conversation, with Iran restricting access and increasing pressure on global markets.

According to the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defense, Iran launched a large-scale barrage in the past 24 hours, including 2 cruise missiles, 12 ballistic missiles, and 19 one-way attack drones targeting the country. UAE air defense systems successfully intercepted these threats, though such attacks are part of a sustained campaign that has repeatedly targeted the country during the ongoing conflict.

Diplomatic efforts are ongoing but fragile, with mediators proposing a potential 45-day ceasefire as a step toward ending the war. Iran has confirmed receiving proposals but rejected being pressured by deadlines or threats, emphasizing its own conditions for negotiations. At the same time, Trump has issued ultimatums demanding Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz, warning of severe military consequences if it does not comply.

Newly released emails reveal that members of Elon Musk’s private security team were deputized as federal agents despite some lacking required training. The U.S. Marshals Service approved the request, reportedly coming from the White House, allowing them to carry weapons in certain federal buildings. The decision has raised concerns about standards and oversight in granting federal authority. It sheds light on unusual arrangements involving private security and government power.

CBS News has confirmed that the CIA World Factbook, a long-standing and widely used public database of global information on countries, was abruptly shut down by the Trump administration after more than six decades. The Factbook had served as a free, centralized source of data on geography, governments, economies, and cultures, used by students, researchers, and policymakers worldwide. Its closure sparked backlash and concern about losing a trusted, easily accessible source of information, with critics warning it may become harder to find reliable global data. The move was framed by the CIA as part of shifting priorities, but it also raised broader questions about access to knowledge and transparency.

The Supreme Court of the United States cleared the way for the Trump administration to dismiss the criminal contempt case against Steve Bannon, who had already served four months in prison for defying congressional subpoenas related to the January 6 attack. The court sent the case back to a lower court, effectively undoing a prior appeals ruling that upheld his conviction. The Trump administration has said it plans to drop the case “in the interests of justice,” which would erase the conviction after the fact. The move is largely symbolic but reflects broader efforts by Trump and his allies to revisit or undo legal actions tied to January 6.

According to Politico, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum quietly removed educational materials linking Nazism to American racism and canceled or altered programs focused on democratic fragility after Trump returned to office. Internal changes included renaming a workshop to avoid politically sensitive language and taking down resources about topics like Jim Crow and Holocaust-era racial parallels. Former employees said these moves appeared to be preemptive, aimed at avoiding backlash from the Trump administration, even though officials denied any direct pressure. The changes occurred alongside broader efforts by the administration to reshape cultural institutions and remove diversity-related content, while leadership shifts at the museum further aligned it with Trump-appointed figures.

Trump requested a massive $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027, a 44% increase over the previous year, which immediately drew skepticism from lawmakers. Senator Tim Kaine and others questioned whether such a large increase could be justified and indicated Congress would closely review it. The proposal is expected to face significant challenges in getting approved.

Senator Ruben Gallego is considering a run for president in 2028, pointing to his background and appeal to Latino voters as key strengths. He emphasized themes of patriotism and representation, noting the contributions of Latino Americans despite ongoing challenges. His potential candidacy reflects broader positioning within the Democratic Party ahead of the next election cycle. This signals early movement in what could become a competitive 2028 field.

Democratic politicians across the country are increasingly embracing tax cuts as a central campaign idea to address cost-of-living concerns. Proposals range from federal tax exemptions on certain income levels to eliminating state income taxes for specific groups like teachers. These plans are aimed at winning back working-class voters and expanding appeal ahead of future elections. The trend shows a shift in messaging and economic strategy within the party.

Steve Hilton, a candidate for California governor, has received an endorsement from Donald Trump, signaling Trump’s backing in the race and potentially boosting Hilton’s visibility and support among Republican voters.

According to Politico, Serbia’s top military and intelligence officials said Ukraine was not responsible for an incident involving a large cache of explosives found near a gas pipeline on the Hungarian border. This directly contradicts claims made by Viktor Orbán, who had suggested Ukraine was behind the suspected attack.

More on Iran-Lebanon Wars

 

iran hormuz shipping chart feb march 3

ny times logoNew York Times, The Islands That Give Iran Sway Over Hormuz, Josh Holder and Adina Renner April 6, 2026. A U.S. invasion of islands in the world’s most vital oil corridor would come with extraordinary risks.

Iran is using a string of islands in and near the Strait of Hormuz as outposts to help control shipping through the Persian Gulf.

But any operation to seize them would be perilous and would not assure control of the strait as long as Iran can attack ships with missiles and drones from the mainland.

President Trump has threatened to take Kharg Island, Iran’s biggest oil terminal. But an amphibious landing here would require a risky journey across the whole of the Persian Gulf.

Drop Site News, Iran Rejects Temporary Ceasefire, Says It Has Already Laid Out Terms for Agreement, Jeremy Scahillt, Murtaza Hussain, and Jawa Ahmad, April 6, 2026. Senior Iranian official tells Drop Site that Trump is pushing for a deal but the new proposal is “detached from the realities on the ground.”

Tehran rejects any agreement for a temporary ceasefire to end the war with the U.S. and Israel, a senior Iranian official told Drop Site, saying that Iran would only accept an agreement that leads to a permanent end to the fighting. The official, who was not authorized to make public statements and spoke on condition of anonymity, said recent proposals for a temporary pause in exchange for resumption of full access to the Strait of Hormuz were “detached from the realities on the ground.”

In the face of new threats by President Donald Trump to escalate the war on Iran, Reuters reported Monday on a Pakistani-led framework to end the fighting that had been shared with both Washington and Tehran. The framework reportedly calls for a temporary ceasefire in exchange for a resumption of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, with 15-20 days given to reach a final settlement that would address Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions relief, and a regional framework for administering the strait.

The senior Iranian official who spoke with Drop Site confirmed that Tehran had received the proposal but reiterated that Iran rejects any agreement based on a temporary ceasefire. “It is our assessment that the Trump administration, owing to legal constraints within the United States concerning the prosecution of the war as well as the need to maintain control over financial markets, requires a short-term pause in the conflict,” said the official. He added that Iran would only accept an agreement that ended the war against Iran conclusively, and which could then be used as a basis for broader talks. The official also pointed to Iran’s February proposal in Geneva that included significant concessions on its nuclear program and a non-aggression pact as a basis for a permanent agreement.

“Our assessment indicates that this [new, temporary] proposal has been drafted solely on the basis of the mediators’ perception of the minimum demands of the parties for halting the war,” the official said. “Tehran does not consider a temporary ceasefire to be a logical course of action, inasmuch as the window for the United States’ exit from the conflict has already been delineated. Should the requisite political will exist, the parties are in a position to establish a permanent ceasefire and thereafter concentrate their efforts on diplomacy.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An administration official speaking to CNN on Monday said Trump has yet to sign off on the proposal, and that it is “one of many ideas.”

New York Times, An Iranian intelligence chief killed overnight on Monday was one of several Iranian officials who occupied their posts for only a few months, Samuel Granados and Amelia Nierenberg, April 6, 2026. In the latest blow to Iran’s senior leadership, the intelligence chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Seyed Majid Khademi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tehran overnight on Monday, Israel’s defense minister said.

Israel has killed a number of Iran’s most senior officials since the start of the war, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader, and Ali Larijani, a top national security official who had effectively been running Iran.

Mr. Khademi was described by Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, as one of the top three leaders of the Revolutionary Guards. He was one of several Iranian officials who occupied their post for only a few months, as Israel has ramped up its killing of top Iranian generals, senior officials and nuclear scientists.

Mr. Khademi’s death was confirmed by Iran’s state broadcaster. It follows the recent killing of Esmaeil Khatib, the Iranian intelligence minister, who was killed in an airstrike in mid-March.

 

garrett graf doomsday scenarioDoomsday Scenario, Commentary: Is Trump About To Nuke Iran? Garrett M. Graff, above, April 6, 2026. The fact we can't say "no" for sure should terrify us.share on facebook share on twitter share on threads share on linkedin

Is Donald Trump set to nuke Iran tomorrow night, Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET?

The chances at this moment are, at least, non-zero.

The simple fact that we can’t say “definitely no, absolutely not, for sure” is an astounding commentary on how unhinged and dangerous his presidency has become and how far off the rails the war with Iran has gone as Trump flails about with no plan, no strategy, no exit, and a global economy that day-by-day is reeling from the biggest geopolitical oil shock in history. It sets the next 36 or so hours up as one of the weirdest and scariest moments in geopolitics of our lifetimes.

Sunday morning, around 8 a.m. on Easter, the holiest of days in Christianity, the faith that Trump pretends to be for political convenience, the president posted on Truth Social, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

It was a comment so startling that I double-checked it was real — and then checked a third time. For one thing, it didn’t really sound like him. For another, it was simply crazy. But it was true.

It was, by any measure, the most unhinged public comment by a president in US history. Later, he followed up with an ambiguous tweet that seemed to add a specific deadline: “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!”

Having caused such confusion and concern, Trump then settled back and celebrated Easter in the way that Christians traditionally do: With a day-long string of racist tweets about birthright citizenship.

More than one analyst online was left wondering whether Trump’s ultimatum and “promise” was a nuclear threat — and I think we have to take seriously the possibility that Trump does consider nuclear weapons as an answer to his own floundering in Iran. The chance, after all, is clearly more than zero — and at that point, the possibility that any president would use nuclear weapons in a conflict should be a terrifying and pressing public debate, just as it was in the opening stages of the Ukraine conflict when Vladimir Putin seemed to threaten such a use in 2022.

All sorts of media organizations failed the public, the country, and the world on Sunday in the wake of Trump’s unhinged explosion Sunday, downplaying or eliding the sheer insanity of Trump’s morning post.

The Associated Press, which usually is better, initially wrote, “WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump promises strikes on Iran's power plants and bridges on Tuesday if the Strait of Hormuz isn't reopened.” By the end of the day, as the media newsletter Status summarized, “The New York Times and other print outlets generally quoted the full expletive-tinged tirade. Broadcasters, held to a different standard and targeted by Trump’s FCC, didn’t.”

When you can’t quote a war-time commander-in-chief without violating the government’s own decency standards, you know something has gone terribly wrong.

And yet by this morning, less than 24 hours later, the front pages of all the nation’s major news outlets read as if it’s just another day in the war.

CNN’s top headline this morning says, “Trump and Iran trade threats over Strait of Hormuz.” The New York Times front-page headline reads, “As Trump’s New Ultimatum Looms, Tehran Vows to Step Up Attacks,” and the lede of that story says simply, “Iran said on Monday that it would retaliate forcefully if President Trump carries out his threat to strike Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran ends its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.” The Washington Post doesn’t even mention Trump’s tirade anywhere above its proverbial fold this morning, giving over the top headlines to the daring and courageous rescue of that downed F-15 crewman over the weekend:

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reduces the power plant threat to a single bullet point — and presumably is featuring it at all because it actually managed to get an interview with Trump yesterday.

How can this be? Are we really this inured to unhinged comments that “Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell” doesn’t even warrant a full 24-hour news-cycle?

In a sentence that would have surprised the me of not that long ago, I’m going to let former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green (shown below in a file photo) eloquently explain why this should matter to us:

 

marjorii taylor greene gun

“Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump's madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.… Trump threatening to bomb power plants and bridges hurts the Iranian people, the very people Trump claimed he was freeing. … Our President is not a Christian and his words and actions should not be supported by Christians. Christians in the administration should be pursuing peace. Urging the President to make peace. Not escalating war that is hurting people…. This is not making America great again, this is evil.”Share the newsletter

At one level, Trump’s Easter morning tweet was consistent with two weeks of threats about attacking civilian infrastructure — he’s set, reset, moved, and repeatedly delayed a deadline for reopening the Strait of Hormuz “or else” he says the US will target civilian infrastructure like power plants in Iran, which would traditionally be a war crime.

The constantly shifting deadlines and increasingly unhinged make clear that Trump is lost at sea. Today, evidently, he plans another “national address” at 1 pm (although the White House social media graphics say the address is at 1 pm “EST,” even though the US is currently on “EDT,” so who knows when it’ll actually be!)

As Edward Wong wrote in a smart analysis building off Trump’s unhinged weekend rants and deadlines, “No other recent American president has talked so openly about committing potential war crimes, legal experts, historians and former U.S. officials say. Wartime American presidents and their aides have usually insisted they were trying to follow international and U.S. military law, even if they violated it in some cases.”

politicus usa logoPoliticusUSA, News and Comment: Trump Claims The Iranians Want To Be Bombed During Press Conference Fiasco, Jason Easley, right, April 6, 2026. jason easleyTrump hid until the second downed US pilot was rescued in Iran, but on Monday he he held a press conference where he claimed that the Iranian people want to be bombed.

The press conference itself featured nearly an hour of propaganda from Trump and administration officials before a single question was taken from the assembled press.

The administration was trying to sell the war as a success, even though Trump’s claims that the US had already won the war were refuted by the shooting down of an American fighter plane.

The president is not living in reality as evidenced by his claim that the Iranian people want to be bombed.

Trump said:

 Yeah, of the regime. Regime. They would be willing to, they would be willing and it’s suffering. They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom the Iranians have, and we’ve had numerous intercepts. Please keep bombing bombs that are dropping near their homes. Please keep bombing, do it.

And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding. And when we leave and we’re not hitting those areas, they’re saying, please come back. Come back. Come. These are the people. I don’t know what they do. All I can tell you is they want freedom. They have lived in a world that you know nothing about.

Trump kept going and getting more insane:

It’s a violent, horrible world where if you protest, you are shot. Remember the great woman protests where they had 400,000, 500,000 women and they were all enthused and they were gonna protest, and everybody said, oh, the regime’s gonna come to an end, and then all of a sudden, boom. Boom. Five, six different areas.

A woman would go down, right between the eyes. They had snipers, they had five snipers. That’s all it took. And those four or 500,000 women said, oh my God, what’s that? Oh, look over there. What’s that? A woman shot right between the eyes and after five or six of them go down, then you start hearing the pur through the vast number of people.

Video:

And then they said, oh my God, who would do that? And they’re incredible people, but they’ve lived so horribly. They’ve lived so horribly. You know, Iran was a great country. If you go back 25 years ago or so. Uh, the Persian people, the, they’re incredible smart, brilliant actually. And I know so many I know coming from New York originally, I, I know so many people from arena.

They’re incredible people. Incredible energy. And, uh, very, very brilliant people. And, but when you’re standing in a group and protesting and you have a woman, in the case of a woman, remember the Great Woman March. Everybody was started, oh, this is the end of the country. And then snipers selectively picked, every single one was shot right between the eyes from a long distance.

They were on top of buildings. Nobody even knew where they were, where they coming from. This wasn’t like a machine gun, which is also very bad. They’ve done that too. They did that recently. This was snipers sitting on the top of buildings aiming and hitting women. And when they see people go down and all of a sudden there’s a riot in the reverse direction, and they never came out again.

And a lot of the, the news doesn’t talk about that. They talk about, oh, women’s rights. You wanna see women’s rights, you’re not gonna see it there. It’s amazing when I see, uh, some of the stupid people like, you know, a OC plus three, all that group, they talk about, oh. Freedom for Iran. They don’t tell you the real facts.

Women, men, gays. How about gays for Iran? They kill the gays. They throw ‘em off buildings. So I, I wonder what, what’s going on? I, I can only say this. They want us to keep bomb. Yeah, even if it jeopardized because their life is in much greater danger. They want freedom for Iran, but it’s very hard for them to protest.

I actually tell ‘em, I said, don’t go out. I fully understand nobody in this room would go out. I don’t think there’s any, because frankly, it’s not a question of bravery. We’re all brave, right? You’re brave. I’m brave. We’re all brave, but we’re also intelligent. If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best, what rifles you can get.

And hitting you right between the eyes every single time. And you’re looking here and you’re seeing, and you’re looking here, you’re out of there.

Trump said that the Iranians are shooting protesters. What he left out was ICE shooting and killing protesters in Minnesota.

Trump’s mind is gone as he rambles from topic to topic, and it is obvious that there is no strategy in this war.

I am not sure what the administration hoped this press conference would do, but any American listening to their president sound even more incoherent on the war than he was last week should not feel good about what is happening.

Emptywheel, Analysis: Trump Keeps Digging with the Same Toy Bulldozers, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler), right, marcy wheelerApril 6, 2026. Barak Ravid, the credulous mouthpiece for Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, insists there are Iran negotiations ongoing. A series of stories in the last week include all the trappings of negotiations that look real, like discussions of ceasefires and confidence building.

Amid those trappings of normalcy, one proof of life describes that Steve Witkoff is purportedly texting someone he believes to be Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Behind the scenes: Four sources with knowledge of the diplomatic efforts said the negotiations are taking place through Pakistani, Egyptian and Turkish mediators and also through text messages sent between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

A U.S. official said the Trump administration gave Iran several proposals in recent days, but so far Iranian officials hadn’t accepted them. The sources said the mediators are discussing with the parties the terms for two-phased deal; the first phase would a potential 45-day ceasefire during which a permanent end to the war would be negotiated. The ceasefire could be extended if more time were needed for talks, one of the sources said. The second phase would be an agreement on ending the war. The sources said mediators think that fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz and a solution for Iran’s highly enriched Uranium — either through its removal from the country or dilution — could only be a result of a final deal.

After the second version of this story (one, two, three, four), Ravid spoke directly to Trump (making him one of four sources for the story). Trump told him Steve Witkoff and Jared were in charge of the negotiations.

State of play: In an 8-minute phone call, Trump told Axios his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are holding intense negotiations with the Iranians.

Two sources involved in the negotiations said the talks are taking place through Pakistani, Egyptian and Turkish mediators, but also through text messages sent between Trump’s advisers and Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. “The negotiations are going well, but you never get to the finish line with the Iranians,” Trump said. He claimed that several days ago the U.S. and Iran were close to an agreement to hold direct negotiations. “But then they said they will meet us in five days. So I said, ‘Why five days?’ I felt they were not being serious. So I attacked the bridge,” Trump said, referring to Wednesday’s strike on a bridge that connects Tehran with northern Iran.

democratic donkey logoWhat to watch: Two sources briefed on the mediation efforts said the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey are trying to reach a package of confidence-building measures that could lead to an extension of Trump’s ultimatum and get the parties closer to a meeting.

The three ministers held phone calls on Saturday with both Witkoff and Araghchi on this issue, but no breakthrough was achieved.

That story made no mention of the airman rescue that happened between the second and third of these stories (Ravid posted multiple stories on that, but treated them as totally separate, aside from a more pessimistic take on “diplomatic efforts [that] have shown very little progress in recent days” in one). It also treated Trump’s claims that Iran would meet with US negotiators as if it were credible.

Several times, Ravid notes that Trump extended his deadline to blow the shit out of everything.

Driving the news: President Trump’s 10-day deadline to Iran was expected to expire Monday evening. But on Sunday, Trump extended his deadline by 20 hours and posted on Truth Social a new deadline of Tuesday at 8pm ET.

Trump told Axios on Sunday that the U.S. is “in deep negotiations” with Iran and that a deal can be reached before his deadline expires on Tuesday. “There is a good chance, but if they don’t make a deal, I am blowing up everything over there,” he said.

In spite of all his purportedly great sourcing, he provides no explanation for that extension, though seemingly suggests that it served to give Iran time to capitulate without explaining why it would change Iran’s intransigence.

Reuters, relying on a single source, implies that the extension was a chance to make a plan dictated by Pakistan and delivered to both sides (which don’t include Israel), a chance to be signed.

Iran and the United States ​have received a plan to end hostilities that could come into effect on Monday and ‌reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a source aware of the proposals said on Monday.

A framework to end hostilities has been put together by Pakistan and exchanged with Iran and the U.S. overnight, the source said, outlining a two-tier approach with an immediate ceasefire followed by a ​comprehensive agreement.

“All elements need to be agreed today,” the source said, adding the initial understanding would be ​structured as a memorandum of understanding finalised electronically through Pakistan, the sole communication channel in ⁠the talks.

Axios first reported on Sunday that the United States, Iran and regional mediators were discussing a potential 45-day ​ceasefire as part of a two-phase deal that could lead to a permanent end to the war, citing U.S., ​Israeli and regional sources.

The source told Reuters Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, has been in contact “all night long” with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

Under the proposal, a ceasefire would take effect immediately, ​reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with 15–20 days to finalise a broader settlement. The deal, tentatively dubbed the “Islamabad Accord,” ​would include a regional framework for the strait, with final in-person talks in Islamabad.

Lawrence Freedman has a post explaining why none of this makes sense, not least because Iran will never cede its leverage until it has permanent guarantees on the table.

I’m not much persuaded by any of these claimed deals and frankly suspect Trump will regret providing himself a specific deadline, as if he’s steeling himself, not least because the last time he provided Iran with his planned schedule — which happened to be the last time Trump promised to speak publicly, which he has said he’ll do today — they anticipated his statement with strikes. Even as he steels himself, he is overtly pining for a victory worthy of an Arch, both by touring its intended site and posting memes of the real thing.

I’m interested in how, over a month past the time that Jared and Witkoff proved either too stupid to handle negotiations or simply lying about their good faith claimed to be negotiating as the US and Israel used that as cover for strikes, there’s not more outrage about the fact that Trump would let Witkoff anywhere close to a negotiation. If Trump believes this is good faith, someone needs to pull the old geezer aside and explain how disastrously Witkoff has served him already, not least by making any possibility of a real negotiation far more difficult. But Trump is purportedly a grown-up, and there’s no reason anyone should treat a negotiation involving Jared and Witkoff as a negotiation rather than — as the ones in February appear to be — cover for crimes and corruption. Whether from stupidity or cupidity, Witkoff’s so-called negotiations created the mess that has destroyed the global economy.

As I wrote more than ten days ago, it is a travesty that anyone treats this charade as credible. Even if it were true that Trump believed these were legitimate negotiations (and the timing of the initial strikes calls that into question), zero sane people can treat Witkoff as a credible negotiator because he is so obviously unfit. No deal he was a part of would produce a viable peace, just as his Gaza “peace” has resulted in more genocide, just as his Russian “peace” amounts to rewarding Russia for its losing position. Trump’s continued inclusion of him (and Jared) is, at best, a sign that Trump himself doesn’t realize how fucked he and his son-in-law and his developer buddy have made things, or marginally less terrible, that Trump does realize he has fucked things but is so incapable of admitting his error, he’ll just continue to huddle with the men who helped create the mess in the first place, because they’re all psychologically incapable of confessing their own incompetence.

Meanwhile, the focus on Witkoff’s clown show distracts from curious discussions happening elsewhere.

After inking security deals with Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar (after which a key UAE diplomat announced the US would remain UAE’s main security partner) and even as Ukraine carried out strikes in Crimea not dissimilar to those Iran has pulled off in Saudi Arabia, Zelenskyy met with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then signed another security agreement, this time with Syria.

Meanwhile, there are claims that Witkoff and Kushner may bring their clown show to Ukraine after April 12 (which happens to be the date of the election in Hungary where a clean vote would replace Putin’s chief European puppet, Viktor Orbán), something that keeps getting floated but on which Dim Philby and Trump’s son-in-law always renege.

And Zelenskyy keeps insisting that Russia is helping Iran target civilian infrastructure in the wider Gulf. (It remains an open question how Iran acquired the infrared targeting that took down the F-15E and at least one other plane last week, but some sources claim Russia provided the weapons.)

Just as interesting, Giorgia Meloni — one of the handful of Europeans that Trump believes he must court — made her own diplomatic trip to the Middle East.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is on a surprise tour of Arab Gulf states that aims to ensure Rome continues to have access to crucial energy sources in the midst of the war in Iran.

Meloni kicked off her two-day trip on Friday afternoon, meeting with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in Jeddah before traveling to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Saturday.

Due to security concerns, the visit — the first by a European leader to the region since the start of the war — was kept secret, with only Italian President Sergio Mattarella briefed on the plans ahead of Meloni’s departure. According to Italian media, the country’s intelligence services “strongly advised against” traveling to Gulf states, and ultimately persuaded the prime minister to cancel a stop in Kuwait.

In an interview with TG1, Meloni said she had chosen to travel to the Gulf “as a gesture of solidarity” with regional allies. But she admitted the trip also had the pragmatic goal of securing Rome’s access to the region’s oil.

Even as Trump was promising war crimes in Iran, he continued to bitch that European NATO members didn’t want to support them. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has a visit to DC planned for Wednesday, but it will take place after the deadline Trump set for blowing the shit out of Iran.

None of these other diplomatic channels make me optimistic. Trump is not the agent he imagines (and the press treats him) as, but he is pining for something he can claim is a victory and that makes him susceptible to offers of a quick fix, no matter their viability or the cost to anyone else in the world.

But as Israel continues its largely-ignored invasion of Lebanon and as Trump continues to attempt to con his way out of the mess he caused, the interests of the rest of the world no longer align with the US as they did a month ago, especially given the many ways that the economic shock Trump created will have a delayed and less extreme effect in the US petrostate.

One likely outcome will be that Iran fills Hormuz with just enough traffic to make it even more unassailable. And then the rest of the world figures out what it will look like after Pax Americana.

And long after Trump’s incompetence destroys Pax Americana, Barak Ravid will still be claiming signs of life in Steve Witkoff’s texting habits.

Occupy Democrats,  Opinion:SECURITY RISK! Trump nearly leaks classified intel after admitting he ignored experienced generals’ military advice and endangered troops in Iran pilot rescue mission, Staff and wire reports, April 6, 2026. In the span of just a few extraordinary minutes at the White House today, Donald Trump nearly leaked classified military intelligence, admitted he overruled his own generals on a mission that could have killed hundreds of Americans, and stopped to compliment a four-star general's looks.

occupy democrats logoWe wish we could say that this is satire, but this happened today at the White House podium.Even worse, this all transpired right after Trump vowed to track down the reporter who leaked the story that one of the pilots shot down over Iran had not been initially rescued — a damning revelation about the failures of his vaunted military operation. Rather than address the substance of that failure, Trump's instinct was pure autocrat: find the leaker, punish the truth-teller.

Then, almost immediately, he nearly became the biggest leaker in the room himself.

When a reporter asked whether all of his military advisers had supported the rescue mission, Trump's answer was stunning in its candor: "There were people within the military that said this is not a wise…" He paused and then said, "I decided to do it."

His own generals told him not to do it. He did it anyway. And then he wanted to tell the whole world exactly how many troops he sent in.

"How many men did you send altogether, approximately, for the operation?" Trump asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair General Dan Caine — out loud, at a public press conference, on camera.

Caine's response was the desperate intervention of a man watching classified information about to spill onto live television: "I'd love to keep that a secret."

Trump's response to being told by the nation's top military officer that troop numbers should remain classified? "Okay, well, but I will tell you the number. I'll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds and hundreds of these people."

He then pivoted — mid-sentence, mid-crisis — to compliment General Caine's appearance. "Is he central casting?" Trump marveled, apparently unable to get through a discussion about a mission that nearly cost hundreds of American lives without remarking on how cinematic his general looks.Then came the line that should haunt every American: "Hundreds of people could have been killed. Forget about the equipment, a lot of equipment, nobody cares. Hundreds of people could have been killed."

Nobody cares about the equipment? The American taxpayers' money and the military hardware lost over Iran? Nobody cares?

The generals said it wasn't wise. Trump understood. Trump did it anyway. Hundreds of Americans were put in mortal danger. And when someone told the truth about what went wrong, Trump threatened to destroy them — while nearly spilling classified troop numbers himself at a press conference.

The most frightening thing is that this is the man with the nuclear codes.

 

jonathan v last jvl triad logoThe Triad via The Bulwark, Comment: All the President’s Bullshit (on Iran), Jonathan V. Last, April 6, 2026. Looking at everything he’s demanded, all at once. 

1. The Timeline

Last week President Trump said that he didn’t care whether or not the Strait of Hormuz was reopened because it wasn’t America’s problem.

bulwark logo big shipOn Sunday he demanded the strait be reopened in two days or he would begin a campaign of war crimes against Iran.

Which is it?

That’s a trick question, obviously. The answer is the former; or maybe the later. Or both. Or neither.

I don’t know about you, but until recently I had forgotten that President Trump originally demanded the Iranian regime accede to “unconditional surrender.”

That’s so far in the rearview that literally no one ever brings it up anymore.

Iran FlagWhy haven’t reporters asked Trump why he’s negotiating about opening the Strait of Hormuz when he originally said that nothing short of “unconditional surrender” would be accepted? When you start radically revamping your win conditions, doesn’t that mean that you’re losing?

But of course it’s not that simple. This isn’t really about “winning” and “losing.” Because when you put all of Trump’s shifting demands, conditions, and timelines together in one place and just read them chronologically, you get a picture of either a degenerate bullshitter, or a man who’s lost his mind.

Here are all of the war demands made (so far) by the president of these United States.

February 28: “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world. . . .

“[T]o the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”

March 2: “I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks. And we’re a little ahead of schedule.”

March 4: “One of the things I’m going to be asking for is the ability to work with them on choosing a new leader. . . . I’m not going through this to end up with another Khamenei. I want to be involved in the selection.”

March 5: “We want to go in and clean out everything. . . . We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a ten-year period.”

March 5: “They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment [of the next Iranian leader].”

March 5: “We’re going to have to choose that person along with Iran. We’re going to have to choose that person.”

March 6, 8:50 a.m. EDT: “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

March 6, at some point after 8:50 a.m. EDT: “Unconditional surrender could be that [the Iranians] announce it. But it could also be when they can’t fight any longer because they don’t have anyone or anything to fight with.”

March 6, 1:43 p.m. EDT: Karoline Leavitt says, “What the president means is that when he, as commander-in-chief ​of the U.S. Armed Forces, determines that Iran ​no ⁠longer poses a threat to the United States of America, and the goals of Operation Epic Fury has been fully realized, ⁠then Iran ​will essentially be in a place ​of unconditional surrender, whether they say it themselves or not.”

March 7: “He’s [Iranian national-security official, Ali Larijani] already surrendered to all of the Middle Eastern countries.”

March 7: “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

March 11: “We’ve won. Let me tell you, we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the—in the first hour, it was over. But we won.”

March 13: “The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal - But not a deal that I would accept!”

March 14: “The United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran, both Militarily, Economically, and in every other way, but the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT! The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well. This should have always been a team effort. . .”

March 21: “If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”

March 23: “I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD.”

March 23: “We are very intent on making a deal with Iran.”

March 23: “They [Iran] want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal, too.”

March 24: “You know, I don’t like to say this — we’ve won this, because this war has been won, the only one that likes to keep it going is the fake news.”

March 25: The Trump administration crafts a fifteen-point peace plan. Conditions include:

  • Dismantling of nuclear facilities in Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow
  • Handover of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium
  • Limits on the range and number of Iran’s missiles
  • Reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

March 26: “I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M.”

March 30: “[I]f the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!). . .”

March 31: “I had one goal: They will have no nuclear weapon, and that goal has been attained.”

March 31: “We’ll be leaving very soon. And if France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they’ll go up through the strait and—Hormuz Strait. They’ll go right up there, and they’ll be able to fend for themselves. I think it’ll be very safe, actually, but we have nothing to do with that. What happens in the strait we’re not going to have anything to do with.”

April 1: “[T]he countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage. They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it. They can do it easily. . . . Go to the strait and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done, so it should be easy. And in any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally. It will just open up naturally.”

April 4: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out - 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

April 5, 8:03 a.m. EDT: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

April 5: “If they don’t come through, if they want to keep it closed, they’re going to lose every power plant and every other plant they have in the whole country.”

This isn’t just about dunking on Trump. It’s about understanding just how weak America’s position is right now. The walls are closing in not just on Trump, but on the old global order.

  • This is a world leader negotiating against himself.
  • The enemy must surrender unconditionally.
  • Actually, unconditional surrender is something only the president can declare with his mind.
  • We want a deal.
  • We must select the next leader.
  • Okay, you picked the one guy I said was unacceptable.
  • We won; the war is over. They surrendered.
  • You must do what we say in the next two days, or we’ll escalate the war.
  • They want a deal, but I’m not ready to accept.
  • Open the Strait of Hormuz, or else.
  • Do whatever you want to the strait. We don’t care. It’s not our problem.
  • Open the Strait of Hormuz, or else.
  • Do what we say in ten days, or we’ll escalate the war.
  • Make a deal or we’ll start doing war crimes, like Putin.

Meanwhile, the Iranian regime has absorbed a tremendous amount of punishment while quietly achieving its two strategic aims. It has preserved continuity and enforced closure of the strait.

The Iranians are the ones methodically and proportionally escalating. The Iranians are the ones refusing (publicly) to negotiate. And why would they? From their perspective, the American president is out of his GD mind and all they have to do is hold out until the domestic political fallout makes his position unsustainable.

At which point one of two things will happen. Either:

(1) Trump will give them enough of a bribe to get them to open the strait, he’ll declare victory, and leave. Or,

(2) Trump will declare victory and leave without opening the strait. Which will shift the locus of the entire global political order several thousand miles eastward. At which point I promise you that the Chinese and the Europeans will figure out a new system for governing the oil supply through the strait. And this new system will be hostile to American interests.Share

The best-case scenario left is for Trump to cave and give the Iranians whatever they need to open the strait and end the war. The price will be steep. The cost to America will be significant. The Islamic Republic will become even more entrenched and its influence will grow.

But at least the damage to America will be capped.

If we wind up with Door #2, then this war could become our Suez Crisis.

Not that it matters, but purely as an academic question I’m interested in what you think about that timeline of Trump’s positions.

War Crimes

Just Security’s Margaret Donovan and Rachel VanLandingham have an excellent piece on Trump’s proposed war crimes:

  • [T]he president’s statements place servicemembers in a profoundly challenging situation. As former uniformed military lawyers who advised targeting operations, we know the presidents’ words run counter to decades of legal training of military personnel and risk placing our warfighters on a path of no return.
  • Iranian power plants and other critical civilian infrastructure are protected from attacks by the law of war the United States helped craft after World War II. Such an object can lose its protection only if it is used for military purposes by the enemy and its destruction “offers a definite military advantage.” Even then, such an object can be attacked only if, after a case-by-case rigorous analysis, the “concrete and direct military advantage anticipated” outweighs the civilian suffering that is expected to result. (Geneva Convention Additional Protocol I art. 52, art. 57; DOD Law of War Manual, § 5.6, § 5.12).

Despite those well-settled legal parameters, President Trump has repeatedly threatened to obliterate such infrastructure without regard to the law’s high demands. His comments are blatant expressions that he is willing to turn the United States into a rogue State like Iran and Russia, one that rejects the fundamental legal restraints that protect innocent non-combatants like children, and the Iranian civilian population itself.

While our Commander-in-Chief threatens to “obliterate” “each and every one of their electric generating plants,” U.S. military commanders have been approving strike packages, wrestling with how to transform Trump’s dangerous bombast into lawful targets.

Asking our military professionals—lawyers and commanders alike—to grapple with the president’s erratic behavior is enormously consequential. U.S. military commanders have sworn to obey the Constitution and only those orders from their superiors that are lawful. Threats to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” and to show “no quarter, no mercy” are plainly illegal. Trump’s outrageous statements gravely threaten our military professionals’ bedrock moral and legal principles, ones enshrined in the law of war that they’ve been trained to follow their entire careers.

Read the whole thing. The most consequential passage is this one:

[T]he public record of intent to commit war crimes puts soldiers at risk of later liability. In any future war crimes or U.C.M.J. investigation—for which there may be no statute of limitations—their actions will be judged based on the reasonably available information at the time of the strikes. See, e.g., Executive Summary of the Investigation of the Alleged Civilian Casualty Incident in the al Jadidah District, Mosul, May 8, 2017. Long after the Secretary of Defense receives his anticipated pardon from the president, it is not unlikely that both his and Trump’s expressly stated intent to commit acts that amount to clear war crimes and to dispense with “stupid rules of engagement” may be considered evidence of notice and scienter on the part of servicemembers’ during any future congressional or criminal investigations.

I do not envy military professionals who may be ordered to commit crimes by the commander-in-chief. Like Mike Pence, they may find themselves in a situation where they must either obey the president or the law—and there will be consequences no matter what.

But it seems important that the United States be fully committed to enforcing the full weight of legal consequences in the future, all the way down the chain. In the same way that every employee of DHS should be on the hook for any crimes committed during the Trump administration, so should members of the military.

Because if we turn back this authoritarian attempt and do not pursue full legal accountability for everyone who was complicit in it, then we will find ourselves confronted with another attempt.

There can be no free shots

Meidas Touch Network, Commentary: Iran Sends Message Back to Trump, Ben Meiselas, right, ben meiselas daily beastApril 6, 2026. Here are the top stories we’re tracking:

  • Iran has rejected any temporary ceasefire and sent back a 10-point counter-proposal with sweeping demands, calling Trump’s 15-point framework a non-starter
  • Axios’ Barak Ravid floated a “45-day ceasefire” story last night, right before markets opened, only to quietly walk it back this morning
  • Trump held what was supposed to be an Easter egg hunt at the White House and turned it into a deranged press conference about bombs, oil, and a mystery group he says stole his guns
  • Iran’s South Pars petrochemical facility, responsible for roughly 85% of Iran’s petrochemical exports, was struck again by U.S.-Israeli forces
  • Sharif University of Technology, Iran’s top engineering school (often called “Iran’s MIT”), was hit in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes, with labs, buildings, a mosque, and a nearby data center damaged
  • Israel killed IRGC intelligence chief Brigadier General Majid Khademi and Yazdan Mir, the head of Quds Force Unit 840, in overnight targeted strikes
  • Israel is now awaiting U.S. authorization to strike Iran’s energy facilities, with both countries reportedly having a coordinated target list designed to make Iran’s recovery, in their words, “long and painful”
  • Trump, at his afternoon press conference, said: “[Iran] could be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.”
  • Trump said his administration will pursue and potentially jail the reporter who revealed that a second U.S. F-15E pilot was missing unless they disclose their source, accusing them of “leaking”

Let’s get into it.

mtn meidas touch networkOn Sunday, Trump and his team were doing what they always do: shopping a feel-good story around to friendly reporters right before the markets open Sunday night. It again landed with the usual suspect, Barak Ravid at Axios, who published a piece claiming the U.S., Iran, and regional mediators were deep in talks over a potential 45-day ceasefire. Markets reacted accordingly. As I wrote on social media in response to the story last night, “Please stop.” The laundering of these false claims from U.S. and Israeli officials every Sunday night has been like clockwork. We’re at a point you can know it’s Sunday not by looking at the calendar, but by seeing if Axios posted a story claiming a deal is imminent.

Then morning came, and surprise! The claims of an imminent end to hostilities again was proven to be complete BS.

Iran announced it had sent a 10-point counter-proposal through Pakistan, and it had nothing to do with a temporary ceasefire. Iran’s position is clear, and frankly it’s been clear for weeks: no ceasefire, no temporary pause, no negotiating within Trump’s 15-point framework. What Iran wants is a permanent resolution — and the terms are sweeping. A full end to regional fighting, which means security guarantees not just for Iran but for the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iranian-backed Shia groups in Iraq. Full sanctions relief. Reconstruction support. Control of the Strait of Hormuz with a permanent toll system. And Iran will not give up its ballistic missiles, Shahid drones, or major weapons systems. Those are its non-negotiables.

A U.S. official described Iran’s response as “maximalist” and expressed doubt it opens any path to real diplomacy. Meanwhile, Ravid was already updating his story: the “45-day ceasefire” was now just “one of many ideas being discussed,” the president hadn’t signed off on anything, and Operation Epic Fury continues. It’s clear Iran believes it has a stronger negotiating position now than prior to the war, when it was willing to come to an agreement with the United States.

Now. About that Easter egg hunt.

Trump was outside the White House this morning for what was billed as a family-friendly Easter celebration. Easter Bunny, kids, pastel decorations, and so on. And Trump, being Trump, immediately turned it into a press conference. With the Easter music still playing in the background, he continued to ramp up his war rhetoric.

A reporter asked how bombing Iran helps the Iranian people. Trump’s answer: the Iranian people love it when they hear bombs. They want to be free, he said, and bombing is how they know freedom is coming. When the bombs stop, that’s when Iranians are most unhappy. He said this twice, with full confidence, while a children’s Easter event was happening around him. The man looked a reporter in the eye and said that the most miserable moment in an Iranian’s life is when the explosions stop. 25th Amendment, anyone?

When asked whether he’d continue the war if Iran doesn’t meet his demands, he said, “You’ll have to watch. It’s an easy question. The answer is yes, but you’ll have to watch.”

A reporter then pointed out the obvious contradiction: Trump has repeatedly claimed Iran has been “obliterated,” so why are we still fighting? Trump’s answer was that Iran can’t really fight back, they had a “lucky shot” with one airplane, they’ve got a few missiles and drones left but essentially nothing. This, as we watch Iranian ballistic missiles hitting U.S. military assets across the region on a near-daily basis. The helicopters, he acknowledged, have “a lot of bullet holes.” But that’s just luck. They’re obliterated.

Then came the guns story. Trump said he sent weapons to a group of people who were supposed to fight back against the Iranian regime, but they kept the guns instead of using them. He’s angry about it. They’ll “pay a big price.” Who are these people? He didn’t say. Many suspect he may be referring to Kurdish forces who were armed ahead of the war and then didn’t move when fighting began. But Trump didn’t say. He also said, unprompted, that if it were up to him, he’d keep Iran’s oil.

At one point, with Melania standing directly beside him, he scanned the crowd and said he thought the First Lady was there “someplace.” She was right next to him. I repeat: 25th Amendment, anyone?!!!!

And wrapping it all up, with what I can only assume was Marco Rubio somewhere nearby in an Easter Bunny costume, Trump told the assembled children and reporters that he built the greatest military in the world during his first term and didn’t realize how much he’d be using it in his second.

Trump then held his press conference in the White House, which was equally deranged. While speaking to press, he said regarding Iran, “The entire country could be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.”

Trump also threatened the press. He said his administration will contact the person who published the article "leaking" that the second US F-15E pilot was missing on Friday, warning the author of this article will "go to jail" if they do not release the name of the person who leaked this information.

While all this was unfolding at the White House, the war itself escalated significantly. The South Pars petrochemical complex in Assaluyeh was struck again — multiple explosions, major damage to what is Iran’s largest petrochemical facility. The last time South Pars was hit, Iran retaliated by striking a Qatari facility in the northern oil fields, given that Qatar and Iran share that same gas formation. We’ll be watching closely for what comes next there.

And Sharif University of Technology, Iran’s premier engineering institution, the school that produces the country’s top scientists, aerospace engineers, and tech minds, was hit in strikes this morning. Labs destroyed. Buildings damaged. A mosque hit. A data center possibly taken out. Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi responded by invoking a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad about Iranians’ relentless pursuit of knowledge, and warned that the aggressors “will see our might.”

Israel also confirmed the killing of IRGC intelligence chief Brigadier General Majid Khademi and Yazdan Mir, the commander of the Quds Force’s covert Unit 840. And Israel is now publicly waiting on a green light from Washington to begin striking Iran’s energy infrastructure across the board, a coordinated campaign, per both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, explicitly designed to cripple Iran’s economy and ensure any recovery is prolonged and severe.

U.S. Justice, Law, Courts, Crime, Civil Rights 

  

A group of Jeffrey Epstein sex assault and trafficking survivors raise their hands to signal they’ve been ignored by Trump’s DOJ as Attorney General Pam Bondi, wearing a gold crucifix as a neck ornament and backed by youthful Justice Department personnel seated to hear rear, refuses to look at the victims during a hearing before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 11, 2026. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt for AFP via Getty Images and Bluesky).A group of Jeffrey Epstein sex assault and trafficking survivors raise their hands to signal they’ve been ignored by Trump’s DOJ as Attorney General Pam Bondi, shown at right front wearing a gold crucifix as a neck ornament and backed by youthful Justice Department personnel seated to hear rear, refuses to look at the victims during a hearing before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 11, 2026. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt for AFP via Getty Images and Bluesky).

The Contrarian, Opinion: Bondi’s Replacement Will be Just as Bad, Jennifer Rubin, right, jennifer rubin new headshotApril 6, 2026. What Democrats should ask her nominated replacement.

Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi for doing his bidding poorly. Her vindictive prosecutions flamed out. Her refusal to abide by the law Trump signed to require disclosure of all of the Epstein pedophile files incurred the ire even of Republicans. Trump insists that the contrarian logofault for serial losses in court and scandals lies with Bondi’s lack of finesse in carrying out his orders, certainly not the underlying unconstitutionality, unreasonableness, and baseless actions he demands. He craved a more ruthless hired gun to oversee the weaponization of the Justice Department.

Bondi’s legacy will include the DOJ’s lost independence and credibility; ruined reputation in federal courts; failed, unconstitutional efforts to bully states to turn over unredacted voter files; refusal to enforce a host of white collar criminal laws; partisan firings of prosecutors who fulfilled their obligations to prosecute Jan. 6 insurrectionists; loss of thousands of qualified attorneys whose institutional memory and experience are irreplaceable (resulting staff shortages, which, among other things, threaten national security); and absurd, unreasonable, and unprofessional Office of Legal Counsel opinions justifying Trump’s whims and abuses of executive Justice Department log circularpower (e.g., declaring the presidential records act unconstitutional, justifying extrajudicial killings on the high seas, authorizing Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s kidnapping).

It will take decades to undo the damage she has wrought. To recover, the department will need to devise new mechanisms to insulate it from partisan corruption. At the very least, the next Democratic AG must complete a top-to-bottom review of DOJ’s misdeeds, ethical violations, and lawlessness, and then pursue accountability (e.g. professional sanctions, prosecution for perjury) for miscreants.

As Trump ponders Bondi’s replacement, we should remember Republicans votes to confirm her amidst a blizzard of red flags amounted to a green light for Trump’s reign of corruption, revenge, and lawlessness. Senate Republicans who voted for her will have to answer for their votes, many as early as this year when they face the voters (e.g., Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, John Cornyn of Texas, Jon Husted of Ohio, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Dan Sullivan of Alaska).Subscribed

When it comes to her successor, Trump assuredly will only nominate an election denier fully committed to his agenda of retribution, illegality, contempt (figuratively and literally) of federal courts, and crass partisanship. By definition, then, Trump’s nominee will be grossly unfit for the office. Voting to confirm someone willing to do Trump’s malicious bidding would violate any senator’s oath.

Nevertheless, it is important for Democrats to highlight how disreputable the nominee truly is — both to hold the Republicans who vote to confirm responsible and to set the stage for subsequent accountability for this nominee. (Did he lie under oath? Did he reveal the illicit motives of prosecutions?)

Questions for the nominee should include:

  • Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act requiring disclosure of all files and waiving an array of privileges. Has the Department followed the law? Will you follow the law? What do you say to the survivors about failing to release all files? Should people who lied about their association with Epstein hold public office?
  • Trump insisted his political enemies such as James Comey and Tish James be prosecuted. Their cases have been thrown out. Is it a violation of law and/or your oath to pursue prosecutions because the president wants revenge for perceived wrongs? Will you insist on pursuing these cases?
  • What about the investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for whom the department admits it has no evidence of criminality? And the frivolous case against Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA)?
  • The president is suing the Justice Department for millions for prosecutions that were terminated only because he was re-elected. Will you commit to appointing a special counsel to handle these so as to minimize the appearance of self-dealing? What would be the legal basis for awarding any damages for case that could still result in convictions?
  • Every court that has ruled against Bondi’s demand for state voting files. A court has already struck down one executive order seeking to supplant states’ election operations. Where does the Constitution place the power to regulate elections? Where is there any role/power for the president in running elections?
  • Trump said: “I said, ‘Look, you know, we have a thing called a war,’ or as they would rather say, a military operation. It’s for legal reasons,’ said Trump. ‘I say ‘military’ because as a military operation, I don’t need any approvals. As a war, you’re supposed to get approval from Congress. Something like that.’” How do you justify such subterfuge? Given that we have lost thirteen lives, had hundreds injured, launched thousands of punishing strikes for 5+ weeks on Iran, killed more than 1500 Iranians, and would expect Iran to treat downed airmen under the laws of war, how is this anything but a ‘war’?
  • The National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) on Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence purports to designate ‘Anifa’ a “domestic terrorist organization.” The crimes listed as “Antifa” are a list of discrete incidents for which no evidence of coordination exists. What evidence is there that Antifa is a coherent, organized entity? What authority does the president have to designate any domestic group as a terrorist threat?
  • In directing that a broad array of groups espousing certain political speech association (“anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; …extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality”) doesn’t NSPM-7 violate the First Amendment? Would an order designating “election deniers” be constitutional?
  • Who won the 2020 election? What specific evidence do you have to the contrary?
  • In dozens of instances, courts found department lawyers misrepresented facts and/or evaded court orders. Why is this tolerated? Will these lawyers be disciplined?
  • Is an exchange of money or investment in the president’s businesses in exchange for a pardon prohibited?
  • A Twitter post said prospective lawyers must support the president’s agenda. Is this a valid requirement or a violation of law?
  • The president has repeatedly insulted and threatened federal judges. Is this appropriate? Will you do the same? What is your reaction to Chief Justice John Roberts’ statement that such language has “got to stop”?
  • Grand juries refused to indict 6 lawmakers who made a video telling military personnel to follow the law, Chicago residents charged in the ICE crackdown, the sandwich thrower in D.C., Tish James (twice) and many others. Given this unprecedented failure, shouldn’t we conclude DOJ’s bringing spurious cases? What discipline is proper for prosecutors who abuse discretion?

We should be under no illusion that the requisite number of Republicans will block Trump’s nominee. However, Democrats should use the hearing to educate the public about DOJ’s depravity, expose the spinelessness of senators voting to confirm, gather evidence to use later to exact accountability for the nominee or others (e.g., bar complaints, perjury charges), and remind federal courts this DOJ does not deserve the presumption of regularity.

Republicans must not escape responsibility for the next AG’s unethical and illegal actions.  

Former Trump 2016 presidential campaign manager and White House aide Steve Bannon, now host of the podcast War Room, shown in a collage of file photos.Former Trump 2016 presidential campaign manager and White House aide Steve Bannon, now host of the podcast War Room, shown in a collage of file photos.

New York Times, Supreme Court Clears the Way for Dismissal of Bannon Conviction, Ann E. Marimow, April 6, 2026. Stephen K. Bannon, a former close aide to President Trump, was convicted for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to clear the way for the dismissal of the criminal conviction of President Trump’s longtime adviser, Stephen K. Bannon. The court’s action came in response to a request from the Trump administration, which had asked the justices to help wipe out the conviction from Mr. Bannon’s record.

Mr. Bannon already served four months in prison as a result of his 2022 conviction for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He had asked the justices to intervene after an appeals court affirmed his conviction.

But D. John Sauer, the solicitor general, in February subsequently asked the Supreme Court to send the case back to the lower court to be dismissed. The administration told the justices that it had determined “in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice.”

The Supreme Court’s action was announced in a routine two-sentence order that sends the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for “further consideration in light of the pending motion to dismiss the indictment.”

Mr. Bannon’s conviction was affirmed by the D.C. Circuit. The Supreme Court’s order on Monday formally gets rid of the appeals court judgment. The Trump administration’s request to dismiss the indictment is pending before Judge Carl J. Nichols of the Federal District Court in Washington.Sign up for the Docket newsletter. Adam Liptak helps you make sense of legal developments in a turbulent time. Get it sent to your inbox.

In a statement, Mr. Bannon’s lawyer Michael Buschbacher said the Supreme Court’s order was “a welcome correction. This case should never have been brought, and we’re delighted that the decision affirming Mr. Bannon’s unlawful conviction has finally been vacated.”

A dismissal would effectively wipe out Mr. Bannon’s conviction but have little practical effect since he has already served his sentence. It follows a pattern of Mr. Trump using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies and protect his allies by repeatedly granting clemency to supporters and pardoning rioters charged in connection with Jan. 6.

Todd Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, said in a previous statement that Mr. Bannon’s conviction was the result of an “improper” House subpoena and should be vacated

“This department will continue to undo the prior administration’s weaponization of the justice system,” he said.

The D.C. Circuit is likely to now send the matter back to Judge Nichols. Legal experts said the circuit court could direct him to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Bannon or leave the decision about how to proceed in his hands. Judges have limited discretion over such requests, especially when the federal government and defense team are in agreement that the matter should be dropped.

In 2020, a federal judge in Washington agreed to dismiss the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., but only after a lengthy process that included the appointment of a retired judge to evaluate the Justice Department’s decision to try to end the case.

The judge acted after Mr. Trump had pardoned Mr. Flynn, saying the legal question had become moot.

 

Steve Bannon and Hannah Dugan (via Getty Images)

Steve Bannon and Hannah Dugan (via Getty Images)

All Rise News, Bannon's rebound and Dugan's defeat, Adam Klasfeld,  April 6, 2026. On the day Steve Bannon prevailed at SCOTUS, Judge Dugan couldn't toss her conviction. What that says about the Trump 2.0 legal system.

On the same day that the Supreme Court cleared the Justice Department to dismiss Steve Bannon’s convictions, a federal judge rejected Judge Hannah Dugan’s effort to overturn her felony conviction.

The two developments, falling within hours of each other, significantly advance Donald Trump’s use of the Justice Department to reward his friends, target his enemies and advance his political agenda.

Federal juries found that Bannon and Dugan both tried to stand in the way of different types of lawful proceedings.‘All hell is going to break loose’

For Bannon, it was the investigation of the House Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Bannon had plenty of material information for congressional investigators. Before people even went to the polls on Election Day in 2020, Bannon predicted that Trump would falsely claim victory.

On his “War Room” podcast, Bannon stepped up the election subversion campaign in the days before the insurrection. He ratcheted up pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to illegally withhold certification of Joe Biden’s victory and announced on the eve of the riot: "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”

It took time for Bannon’s defiance of the House Jan. 6th Committee’s subpoena to be rewarded.

After losing his D.C. Circuit appeal, Bannon fully served his four-month sentence, and Trump’s Justice Department moved to erase the convictions by retroactively dismissing his indictment. The Supreme Court’s decision hasn’t ended that process, only cleared the way for that outcome as the case returns to a lower court.

“The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for further consideration in light of the pending motion to dismiss the indictment,” the Supreme Court’s order states.

The Supreme Court declined to consider the Trump Justice Department’s invitation to consider the effect of Bannon’s claims of executive privilege or attacks on the legitimacy of the House Jan. 6th Committee. It’s unclear what discretion, if any, the D.C. Circuit has once the motion to dismiss Bannon’s indictment returns to the lower court.

In his criminal referral, Jan. 6th Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote that Bannon’s defiance hampered the investigation.

“If any witness so close to the events leading up to the January 6th attack could decline to provide information to the Select Committee, Congress would be severely hamstrung in its ability to exercise its constitutional powers with highly relevant information informing its choices,” the referral said. “Information in Mr. Bannon’s possession is essential to putting other witnesses’ testimony and productions into appropriate context and to ensuring the Select Committee can fully and expeditiously complete its work.”

Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman and I unpacked the development in a Substack Live earlier today.Subscribed‘I tried to help that guy’

 Contrast Bannon’s case with that of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Dugan, who was convicted last year of obstructing an immigration proceeding — namely, the administrative arrest of Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a criminal defendant in her courthouse.

Just shy of a year ago, six federal agents showed up to Milwaukee County Circuit Court to arrest Flores-Ruiz, who was charged with domestic violence.

A federal jury found that Dugan had tried to obstruct Flores-Ruiz’s arrest by sending him and his attorney through a restricted hallway with two exits. The side door led to a stairwell leading out of the building, and the other door led to the hallway where the agents were waiting. Flores-Ruiz ultimately left through the hallway door, mere feet away from one of the agents, and he was safely arrested and deported. But an audio recording played for the jury suggested that wasn’t the plan.

A snippet of the audio captured Dugan saying “the side door.”

Judge Kristela Cervera, the government’s star witness, testified that Dugan told her she was “in the doghouse” with the chief judge because “I tried to help that guy,” apparently referring to Flores-Ruiz.

Throughout Dugan’s trial in December, there was little to no evidence that any “help” for Flores-Ruiz was personally motivated — and an avalanche of testimony and exhibits showing the upheaval that ICE enforcement inside courthouses wrought on the Milwaukee County Court system.

Milwaukee County’s Chief Judge Carl Ashley issued a press release warning that the policy could “significantly damage the integrity of the court system” by discouraging immigrants and marginalized groups from “attending court hearings, seeking legal assistance, or reporting crimes.” Ashley stood by that assessment in his courtroom testimony, and reams of internal emails showed judges struggling to navigate the legal boundaries of where and how ICE could execute arrests.

“What happens when someone with the highest duty to uphold the law decides that it doesn’t apply to her?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Brown Watzka said during closing arguments in December. “It undermines the entire justice system.”

 

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Trump-endorsed Republican of Texas, and his late staffer Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who committed suicide following his extensive sexual pressure, according to investigators.

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Trump-endorsed Republican of Texas, and his late staffer Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who committed suicide following his extensive sexual pressure, according to investigators.

Occupy Democrats, Opinion: New revelations in Trump-endorsed Texas congressman's #MeToo fatal staff scandal, Staff and wire reports, April 6, 2026. Regina Santos-Aviles, 35, died Sept. 14, 2025, after setting herself on fire. An autopsy ruled her death a suicide by self-immolation. At the time, she was director of U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales' regional district office in Uvalde. The two had an affair in 2024. U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales came under investigation by the House ethics watchdog because of his affair with a member of his staff, Regina Santos-Aviles. House rules prohibit such relationships.

occupy democrats logoRegina Ann Santos-Aviles, the congressional aide who had an affair with her boss, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, was legally intoxicated when she set herself on fire in her backyard in Uvalde, according to an autopsy report obtained by the San Antonio Express-News.

Santos-Aviles, 35, had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.094 grams per deciliter, according to the five-page report from the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office. After lighting herself ablaze on the evening of Sept. 13, 2025, Santos-Aviles was flown to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where she died the next morning.

It is illegal to drive in Texas and all other states with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 grams per deciliter or higher.

There is no evidence Santos-Aviles drove while intoxicated that night, but the toxicology results suggest her judgment may have been compromised.

At a blood alcohol level of 0.08 — less than what was in in her system — “judgment, self-control, reasoning and memory are impaired,” and it is “harder to detect danger,” according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In the hours before she soaked herself with gasoline and ignited the fluid with a handheld lighter, Santos-Aviles went to an Applebee's restaurant in Uvalde with longtime friends and members of their family, according to reports by police investigators.

A member of the family told police Santos-Aviles had one alcoholic drink at the restaurant, and afterward she and another person stopped at a liquor store and purchased tequila, police reports state.

 What Gonzales aide told police moments after setting herself on fire

Santos-Aviles drank some of the tequila at the friends' home. Because she had been drinking, one of the family members drove her to her own house at 8:15 p.m., police records state. She left her car behind.

The autopsy found no indication Santos-Aviles had illicit drugs in her system. It listed the cause of death as "self-immolation" and the manner of death as suicide.

Santos-Aviles was director of Gonzales’ Uvalde regional district office, where she had worked since 2021. She and the Republican congressman had an affair in 2024, text messages reviewed by the Express-News show. U.S. House rules prohibit sexual relationships between members of Congress and their staff members. At the time, Santos-Aviles was married and had a young son. Gonzales is married with six children.

Video from a home security system shows that Santos-Aviles was alone in her backyard when she ignited herself. She tried to extinguish the flames by rolling on the ground and then crawled to a faucet and poured water on herself with a garden house, police reports say.

She then walked through parts of her home, leaving a trail of blood and burned skin in a bedroom and hallway before she collapsed on the front porch, where first responders found her shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 13.

A pathologist for the medical examiner's office conducted the autopsy on the morning of Sept. 15.

Santos-Aviles’ body arrived at the ME’s Forensic Science Center in San Antonio bearing five heart monitor pads and three catheters inserted by emergency medical personnel as they tried to stabilize her.

“The body is nearly 100% burned,” the autopsy report states. The soles of Santos-Aviles' feet were the only area that escaped burns.

Her airway was red and swollen but free of significant soot, the pathologist found. Carbon monoxide levels in her blood were not elevated, indicating that smoke inhalation was not a primary cause of death.

In addition to alcohol, toxicology tests found traces of powerful anesthetics and sedatives administered by emergency personnel, along with levels of amphetamine “consistent with prescribed use,” the report says.

READ MORE: Gonzales says he is being 'blackmailed' over affair with staffer

After her death, police found a prescription bottle of Adderall, an amphetamine, in Santos-Aviles’ car. The drug is commonly prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and for narcolepsy, a sleep disorder.

The autopsy noted identifying features on Santos-Aviles' body, including tattoos: "El Rey" on her left wrist, wings on her right foot and, on one of the fingers of her right hand, an image of a broken heart.

The post-mortem exam found no indication Santos-Aviles was pregnant, contrary to rumors that had circulated about the case.

Santos-Aviles and her husband, Adrian Aviles, separated sometime after he discovered her affair with Gonzales in late May 2024. The couple had been married seven years and shared parenting responsibilities for their 8-year-old son.

According to police reports, Santos-Aviles told officers who responded to her home on Sept. 13 that she set herself on fire because she had discovered her husband was "cheating on her" with her best friend. Aviles denies the allegation.

READ MORE: Did Gonzales favor Santos-Aviles with pay raises?

Aviles told police his wife had previously made threats to harm herself and was in the habit of taking antidepressants, drinking alcohol, and sometimes mixing the two.

In a separate interview with investigators, a friend who was with Santos-Aviles at Applebee's on the evening of Sept. 13 said her affair — he did not say with whom — had "put a heavy strain" on her marriage. He said Santos-Aviles and her husband had "tried to work things out for the sake of their son."

Describing her state of mind on Sept. 13, the friend told detectives, "Regina was pretty sad about the situation and was saying she wanted her family back."

The Express-News obtained the autopsy report under the Texas Public Information Act. The newspaper also requested the medical examiner's investigative notes and related materials. Those records have not been released.

Gonzales' liaison with Santos-Aviles became the subject of an inquiry by the Office of Congressional Conduct, the House ethics watchdog. The agency is expected to submit a confidential report on its findings to the House Ethics Committee sometime after Tuesday's primary election. Gonzales is seeking the Republican Party nomination for a fourth term representing Texas' 23d Congressional District.

 

Ryan Peña, 50, is charged with continuous sexual abuse of a victim under 14.

Ryan Peña, 50, is charged with continuous sexual abuse of a victim under 14.

San Antonio-Express-News, Church of Acts pastor Ryan Peña charged with sexually abusing girls in his family, Annasofia Scheve, A relative told San Antonio police that pastor Ryan Peña began sexually assaulting her when she was 13. Two other women made similar claims. 

Ryan Peña, 50, is charged with continuous sexual abuse of a victim under 14.Courtesy of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office

A pastor at a West Side church has been arrested and accused of sexually abusing family members when they were girls.

Ryan Peña, 50, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14. He was released from the Bexar County jail Monday after posting a $150,000 bond.

A warrant for Peña's arrest directs law enforcement officers to arrest him at 9965 Kriewald Rd., the address of the Church of Acts. A biography on his website, Ryan Peña Ministries, lists him as a senior leader at the nondenominational Christian church, which was founded by his father, Robert Peña.

Videos and promotional material posted on the Church of Acts Facebook page feature Ryan Peña preaching in conjunction with the House of Many Waters, an online ministry he co-founded. He appears alongside his father in the videos.

Efforts to obtain comment from Peña, the Church of Acts and Peña's attorney were unsuccessful.Family members reported sexual abuse

Investigators with the San Antonio Police Department learned about the alleged abuse in January, when a family member reported that Peña had sexually abused her as a child.

She told detectives that Peña began "grooming" her around 2003, when she was between 6 and 8 years old. She would visit his home often, because he lived with her close family member.

On several instances when she stayed overnight at his trailer near the church, he approached her in the middle of the night. He would hold the girl "in a specific way" and tell her to "take several breaths" before she passed out, according to an arrest affidavit. When she woke up, he would do the same until she passed out again.

When she was about 13 years old, Peña began having intercourse with the girl "almost every night she spent the night," which was every other weekend, the affidavit states.

Peña would tell the victim "he loved her," the affidavit says. When she developed an interest in the vampire series "Twilight," Peña portrayed himself as the character Edward Cullen.

More on U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

 

djt capitol war hartmannThe Hartmann Report, Investigative Commentary: Are Trump’s Purges and Calls for a Larger Military Budget the Setup for a Coup? Thom Hartmann, right, April 6, 2026. As Trump demands sweeping new resources in the name of war, the scale of funding raises a chilling question: is this about national security or consolidating power?thom hartmann new

On Easter Sunday, Donald Trump posted to his failing, Nazi-infested social media site a rant that has shocked the world, threatening multiple war crimes with a level of obscenity that no Republican would have tolerated from President Obama or any other Democrat: 

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.”

hartmann report newThe Iranian response was to call his language “vile”:

“Iran’s steadfastness and resistance have driven Trump to the brink of madness.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene shared an opinion most of the world now agrees with, tweeting:

He has gone insane, and all of you (the administration) are complicit.”

She also added:

“Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshiping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. Our President is not a Christian and his words and actions should not be supported by Christians.”

All of which raises the question: What the hell is going on here?

When Donald Trump’s mentor Vladimir Putin wanted to cement absolute power in Russia, he and Yeltsen authorized a terror attack against an apartment complex in Moscow that would be blamed on Chechen “terrorists.” It was Russia’s 9/11 event, and signaled the end of that nation’s brief experiment in democracy.

Timothy Snyder, the world-renowned scholar of fascism, argued this past week that Trump and Hegseth may be planning something similar for America, using the war with Iran that they lurched us into as its foundation, and a false-flag “terror event” within the US to trigger a legal state of emergency to corrupt our coming elections.

If this is their plan, it could also explain the seemingly-inexplicable decapitation of the JAG corps (which advises officers on the legality of orders), and the recent removal of about twenty of our most senior military leaders who were uniquely in a position to stop Trump and Hegseth from staging a military coup they could use to stop or severely interfere with the November election.

After all, it wouldn’t be the first time Trump has attempted a coup against our American form of democracy; that’s exactly what he was trying to pull off on January 6th. With that attempt he was able to get the military to stand down for hours; this time he could mobilize it against the people he has now already officially designated as enemies of America in his National Security Presidential Memorandum 7.

It authorizes the FBI, DOJ, and over 200 federal Joint Terrorism Task Forces (coordinating FBI with local police across the country) to seek out and investigate any person or group who meet it’s “indica” (indicators) of potential domestic terrorism. They include, as Ken Klippenstein first reported:

“[A]nti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity, … extremism on migration, extremism on race, extremism on gender, hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.”

— Have you ever spoken ill of our country or its policies, particularly under Trump?— Trash-talked capitalism or praised socialism on social media?— Publicly questioned Protestant Christianity or professed loyalty to Judaism, Islam, Catholicism, Hinduism, Paganism, or any other non-Evangelical-Christian belief system or religion?— Embraced the trans or more general queer community?— Spoken out in defense of single-parenting, gay marriage, or same-sex couples adopting children?— Said things or carried a sign that might hurt the feelings of masked ICE agents, Trump, Miller, or Hegseth?

Just imagining that any of these could trigger FBI agents — or the Army — kicking in our doors was so grotesque a notion that when the story first appeared eight months ago, it was reported and then largely dismissed by mainstream media within the same day.

I mentioned it in a Saturday Report and an earlier article, but, like pretty much everybody else in the media, dismissed it as virtue-signaling to the Trump base rather than an actual plan to set up a Putin-style police state here in America.

I was wrong.

In a second bombshell report, Klippenstein obtained and published a copy of former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s December 4th memo ordering the FBI to actually begin Russian-KGB/FSB-style investigations of people and groups who fit into the categories listed above.

And now, he reports this week, the FBI is actively in the process of setting up the architecture necessary to essentially become America’s KGB, what he calls “the FBI’s new Political Pre-Crime Center” looking for and rooting out dissidents and critics of the Trump regime.

Not only that, Bondi also ordered the FBI to go back as far as 5 years in their investigations of our social media posts, protest attendance, and other activities to find evidence of average Americans’ possible adherence to these now-forbidden views.

At the same time, ICE is using a chunk of the massive budget the Big Ugly Bill gave them — larger than the budget of the FBI or any other police agency in America (or any other police agency in the world outside of China and Russia) — to buy tools they can use to spy on “anti-fascist” people who protest Trump’s cabal or oppose their actions.Subscribed

In a report titled “ICE Wants to Go After Dissenters as well as Immigrants,” the Brennan Center for Justice details how the agency has acquired “a smorgasbord of spy technology: social media monitoring systems, cellphone location tracking, facial recognition, remote hacking tools, and more.”

They’ve reportedly acquired devices that spoof cellphone towers, so if you’re near them your phone will connect, thinking it’s talking to your cell carrier. Once the connection is established, ICE and/or DHS/FBI can monitor every communication to or from your phone and possibly even download all the content on your phone including emails, pictures, apps, and your browsing history.

They’re tying into nationwide networks of license-plate readers, airport facial recognition systems, and federal surveillance drones to monitor people they consider enemies of the Trump regime. And they’re carefully combing your social media content for posts, likes, and reposts they consider objectionable. As the Brennan Center noted:

“Homeland Security Investigations recently signed a multimillion dollar contract for a social media monitoring platform called Zignal Labs that claims to ingest and analyze more than 8 billion posts a day. The agency is also paying millions to Penlink for monitoring tools that gather information from multiple sources, including social media platforms, the dark web, and databases of location data.”

ICE is also acquiring Russian-style spy software that can remotely target your phone without your realizing it, infect it with the equivalent of an “ICE virus,” and then have your phone send them everything you do, say, hear, or see on an ongoing basis for months.

The only clue you’ll have will be that your phone gets warm and battery life seems to have dropped as it’s pumping out to ICE your data and everything the camera and microphone in it pick up, all without your knowledge or permission.

This Putin-style “search” without a legal warrant is the sort of thing that King George III’s officers did against the colonists (although back then it was reading their mail, spying on them in person, and kicking in their doors) in the 1770s that provoked our nation’s Founders to write in the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

It’s also a clear violation of the First Amendment’s protection of our rights to “free speech” and “peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

When Putin ended democracy in Russia, he called the people who protested his policies “domestic terrorists” and had his secret police go after them in ways that are shockingly similar to the lawlessness ICE has been engaged in and Bondi ordered the FBI to begin.

With every passing day, Trump and his lickspittles grow more desperate that they’ll be held to account for their criminal activities and war profiteering if the November elections go the way they’re looking today.

Forty of Nixon’s senior officials, including his Attorney General John Mitchell, went to prison. Trump and his toadies realize they’re looking at the same thing if they lose their grip on power.

And now that the war is also going badly for Trump, and he’s decompensating right in front of our eyes with his obscene “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, You Crazy Bastards!” Easter rant, comes the very real possibility that after getting nearly $90 billion for ICE and proposing an astonishing half-trillion-dollar increase in the Pentagon’s budget, he’s doing it all to buy in advance the military’s willingness to go along with a second coup attempt against America.

An ICE officer can now make $200,000 a year, enough to ensure complete loyalty to his or her paymaster in DC, Donald Trump. If Trump’s purges of the military and request for additional funds are designed to do the same thing in the armed forces so that, like in Chile during Pinochet’s day, they’ll happily turn their guns on those who hold “hostility towards those who hold traditional American views,” we need to get ready.

That means spreading the alarm far and wide, as Snyder recommends in his excellent Substack newsletter.

Share the news of this threat with everybody you know, post to social media, reach out to your politicians to tell them in advance not to knee-jerk-react to a 9/11- or Moscow Apartments-type of terrorist event between now and the November elections.

And tell elected officials to cut funding to Trump’s ICE, stop his illegal war, and to begin immediate impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives.

Democratic-Republican Campaign logosRoll Call, Defense-focused Trump budget seeks to cut Democratic priorities, Aidan Quigley, Featured April 3, 2026. Budget lays groundwork for another clash with Democrats over nondefense spending.

roll call logoPresident Donald Trump unveiled a nearly $2.2 trillion spending request for fiscal 2027 Friday that features an enormous defense boost, posing a major challenge to GOP leaders as they seek an election-year spending deal with Democrats.

National security spending would soar to $1.5 trillion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, a roughly 42 percent — or $445 billion — increase from this year’s level, the budget shows. But the administration is counting on Republicans to provide most of that increase, or $350 billion, through a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill, outside of the normal appropriations process.

Nondefense programs, meanwhile, would again be put on the chopping block. Discretionary nondefense programs would face a net cut of $73 billion, or 10 percent, in the coming fiscal year. And if proposed increases for veterans and Pell Grants were set aside, all other nondefense programs would take a collective hit of $95 billion.

All told, spending would amount to nearly $2.18 trillion, a 15.3 percent increase, after accounting for disaster relief, wildfire suppression and other programs that don’t count against annual spending limits. But the budget document didn’t include all the mandatory spending programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, along with interest on the debt, that would show total federal spending surpassing $7 trillion in the coming year.

The budget “builds on the President’s vision by continuing to constrain non-defense spending and reform the Federal Government,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought wrote in a letter to Congress accompanying the budget.

The proposal immediately drew serious pushback from Democrats. Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said that Trump’s vision as laid out in the budget is “bleak and unacceptable.”

“President Trump wants to slash medical research to fund costly foreign wars,” Murray said in a statement. “It doesn’t get more backward than that, and the only responsible thing to do with a budget this morally bankrupt is to toss it in the trash.”

The request, while largely a messaging document, will help shape Republican priorities heading into the midterm elections, where they will fight to retain their thin majorities in both chambers. It also marks the official kickoff of the fiscal 2027 appropriations process, which is already starting about two months late.

The president’s request is due by statute on the first Monday in February, though that deadline is seldom honored. And the fiscal 2026 appropriations process isn’t even completed yet, as lawmakers continue to fight over funding for the Department of Homeland Security amid a partisan war over immigration enforcement.

 

noel simsPopular Information, Accountability Journalism: The broken database that could upend the 2026 election, Judd Legum, right, and Rebecca Crosby, April 6, 2026. judd legumPresident Trump and the election conspiracy theorists he surrounds himself with are determined to exclude people from voting in the 2026 election based on one database: the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE).

Why?

SAVE is an incomplete and flawed database that has been shown to produce a massive number of false positives, incorrectly identifying American citizens as aliens. Thus, using SAVE to exclude voters buttresses the lie that a significant number of undocumented immigrants vote in elections.

Trump’s latest effort came last week when he signed an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use SAVE and other databases, to create, for each state, “a list of individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State.” Trump’s executive order then directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute “individuals and public or private entities engaged in, or aiding and abetting, the printing, production, shipment, or distribution of ballots” to anyone not on the list.

It is an effort to coerce states to use the SAVE database to purge voters or risk criminal charges.

But SAVE, as its full name suggests, was designed to determine eligibility for government benefits — not citizenship. And, crucially, “[n]ot all of the data is necessarily up to date.”

Shortly after Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “optimized“ the SAVE database over two weeks, quickly adding a lot of additional information, including full social security numbers. DOGE also allowed state officials to search SAVE for hundreds of thousands of voters at once with bulk uploads.

Used in this manner, SAVE has produced an extraordinarily high error rate.

In Missouri, for example, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) ran the state’s voter list through SAVE in November 2025 and distributed the results to county election officials. In St. Louis County, Missouri, SAVE flagged 691 registered voters as non-citizens. But the county immediately determined that 35% of the names were naturalized citizens. After the list was cross-referenced with passport data in January, which has more accurate citizenship information, the list was cut to 133 — meaning at least 81% of the original data was incorrect. Even that list “may not be final“ and once a final list is established, anyone remaining on it will receive a letter and 90 days to appeal.

Seventy county clerks in Missouri, Republicans and Democrats, sent a letter to the state’s legislative leaders warning that the SAVE database is repeatedly flagging “individuals we know to be U.S. citizens — our neighbors, colleagues and even voters we have personally registered at naturalization ceremonies.”

Texas also uploaded its voter list to SAVE. In Denton County, Texas, SAVE identified 84 non-citizens who were registered to vote. Twelve of those responded to a notice with proof they were citizens. Fourteen others correctly marked on their registration forms that they were not citizens but were mistakenly registered anyway. The rest of the group did not respond to the notice and were removed from the rolls, but county election officials believe most of that group are eligible voters.

“What is bugging me is I think our voter rolls may be more accurate than this database,” Denton County elections administrator Frank Phillips told ProPublica. “My gut feeling is more of these are citizens than not.”

Trump’s executive order also attempts to weaponize the United States Postal Service (USPS), prohibiting it from mailing ballots to anyone who does not appear on the new federal list of voters.

Trump’s executive order, which would inject chaos into the voting process months before the election, is already being challenged in multiple court cases. These challenges have a good chance of success because the Constitution is very clear that states, not the federal government, have the primary authority to administer elections. Congress can pass laws that impact election administration, but Trump is attempting to invalidate state laws and procedures by executive fiat.

Trump’s efforts to enlist the USPS are also legally dubious, because it is an independent agency legally obligated to deliver mail throughout the country in a neutral manner. Trump’s order would transform the USPS into an arbiter of voter eligibility.

But even if this executive order is blocked by the courts, the push to purge voters from the rolls before November — or challenge ballots after the votes are in — remains a threat.The other paths to a voter purge

Trump’s executive order is trying to force states to cross-reference their voting list with the SAVE database. But even before the executive order was issued, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced in November 2025 that 26 states “already have, or are in the process of establishing, a memorandum of agreement for voter verification with SAVE.”

The USCIS website specifically lists 24 states that have formally registered to use SAVE: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. It’s possible that more will join before the election.

According to the DHS, SAVE has labeled 21,000 registered voters submitted by states as “non-citizens.” Whatever happens with the executive order, the purging of voters based on SAVE data in these states will continue. It’s unclear what, if anything, each state will do to double check the list of non-citizens produced by SAVE.

Separately, the DOJ has requested detailed voter roll data from at least 48 states. The states were presented with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) from the DOJ requiring them to remove any voters the federal government deemed ineligible using SAVE and potentially other databases. In December, the acting head of the DOJ Voting Section, Eric Neff, said that 11 states were willing to comply with the MOU.

According to a tracker maintained by the Brennan Center, 12 states have provided (or committed to provide) a full list of registered voters, including drivers license numbers and other personal information, to the DOJ. (Several other states have provided publicly available voter data to the DOJ.)

The DOJ has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia to force them to turn over detailed voter registration. Courts have dismissed cases against California, Oregon, Georgia and Michigan. But the DOJ has subsequently appealed or refiled in those states. The rest of the cases are still pending.

If the DOJ is ultimately successful in some or all of those cases, it could use the data to pressure states to purge their rolls of voters identified as non-citizens by SAVE — just as the executive order contemplates. It could also use SAVE’s list of alleged non-citizens to challenge the results of close elections after the ballots were counted.The other reason Trump wants voter data

The Trump administration has claimed that it is requesting states’ voter roll data to check for compliance with federal laws requiring states to maintain clean voter registration lists, including the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

At the end of March, however, CBS News reported that the DOJ and the DHS “are close to finalizing an agreement that will allow the federal government to use sensitive voter registration data for immigration and criminal investigations.” According to CBS, under the agreement, the DOJ would share state voter registration data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to check whether non-citizens have voted or are registered to vote. Sources told CBS that the White House was also involved in discussions about the agreement.

The DOJ agreement with DHS appears to contradict statements made by DOJ attorneys in court. On March 3, during a hearing in Minnesota, the court asked DOJ attorney James Tucker if the voter data was being used for immigration enforcement. “Not to my knowledge,” Tucker said.

On March 19, a federal judge in Connecticut asked Tucker if the DOJ would guarantee that voter data would not be given to DHS. “I simply cannot state what the Attorney General’s purpose may be at some other time,” Tucker replied. “What I can say is, as of today, there has been no directive or instruction that the data, the non-publicly available data, is going to be transmitted to any other agency.” Tucker went on to say that, “Under the circumstances it’s not consistent with what the United States has specifically stated in its basis and purpose.”

But after CBS News asked the DOJ for comment on the agreement, a DOJ attorney acknowledged its true plans to the court. When asked by a Rhode Island judge if the DOJ could ask DHS to check for non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls, Neff said, “Yes, and we intend to do so,” the Rhode Island Current reported.

The timeline raises serious ethical questions about whether DOJ attorneys knew about the deal with DHS and have intentionally misled the court, which would violate American Bar Association rules. While CBS News “could not determine whether all of the lawyers… arguing the cases in court” knew of the plan, sources said that “at least a handful of senior attorneys from the Civil Rights Division have been privy to some discussions about the data-sharing plan… in addition to multiple officials in other Justice Department offices, including the deputy attorney general.”

Trump’s executive order further confirms that the Trump administration wants to use the voter roll data it is collecting to attempt to exclude purportedly ineligible voters by creating a national voter registration list.

Lincoln Square Media, Guest Essay: Flood the Zone: Why Narratives are Replacing Reality in Local Politics, Trygve Olson (strategist, pro-democracy fighter and a founding Lincoln Project advisor, and author of Searching for Hope on Substack), April 6, 2026. When "could" becomes "fact": How political narratives quietly turn speculation into certainty—and why that matters for democracy.

lincoln square media logoPolitical narratives today often follow a predictable sequence.

Step One: The Hypothetical

  • The story begins with a hypothetical.
  • Not something happening now.Not something proposed.Not even something likely.
  • Just something that could happen under the most extreme interpretation of a policy idea.
  • Hypotheticals are powerful because they require no evidence to begin circulating.
  • All you need is imagination.

Step Two: Emotional Framing

  • Next comes emotional priming.
  • In this case, the key phrase was:
  • “Highest in the Nation.”
  • That phrase isn’t policy analysis.
  • It’s designed to trigger a reaction.
  • Anger.Fear.A sense of threat.
  • Once the emotional response kicks in, our brains begin doing what humans have always done:
  • Looking for evidence that confirms the story we already believe.

Step Three: Narrative Conversion

  • Now something subtle happens.
  • The word “could” quietly disappears.
  • Not literally.
  • But in the way the claim is treated.
  • People repeat it.Share it.Argue about it.
  • Soon, the hypothetical becomes part of the assumed political landscape.
  • The speculation has become a fact in the narrative world.

Step Four: The Defensive Loop

  • This is where the tactic becomes particularly effective.
  • Because when someone questions the claim, the conversation shifts.
  • Instead of defending the policy itself, the response retreats to the literal wording.
  • “I didn’t say it would happen. I said it could happen.”
  • This maneuver allows the narrative to spread as if it were real, while maintaining deniability about its truth.
  • And that’s where the psychology becomes important.

 

bulwark morning shots logo
Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Resistance and Impeachment, William Kristol, right, william bill kristol imdbApril 6, 2026. “How are we going to make it through thirty-three more months of this?” a friend asked yesterday.

“This” is of course the presidency of Donald J. Trump. The query from my normally calm and composed friend was prompted by Trump’s Easter Sunday post:

bulwark logo big ship“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell—JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

One might minimize the importance of this one post. Perhaps the president merely got carried away at his keyboard, as one does. But later in the morning, Trump told ABC News that if there were no deal immediately to open the Strait of Hormuz, “We’re blowing up the whole country.” He repeated to Axios that “if they don’t make a deal, I am blowing up everything over there.” And of course this post is merely one item in a long train of assaults on decency and sanity by the current president.

The simple fact is that we have a president who is irresponsible, reckless, and indeed unhinged. And he’s all the more dangerous because he is unconstrained by both his subordinates in the executive branch or by Congress.

What’s to be done? Let me offer two suggestions, one having to do with those subordinate officials in the executive branch, and one with Congress. I offer both of them in a spirit of tentativeness and as an invitation to further discussion. They may seem to be radical ideas—even desperate ones—but desperate times all for desperate measures.

The first proposal is that we think seriously about the case for internal resistance within the executive branch. When the head of the executive branch shows a repeated willingness to enrich himself, to lie to the public, to break the law, senior officials can appropriately recall that the oath they take is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. They can remind themselves that they are obliged to obey the law rather than the illegal wishes of their boss or their boss’s boss.

In current circumstances, this means that serious people within the executive branch have to think soberly about what they can do every day to minimize Trump’s damage to the rule of law. Senior officials do have discretion. They can move quickly or slowly. They can act privately or more publicly. They can make life more difficult for their political masters who are seeking to engage in misconduct or abuses of power.

Even if such resistance doesn’t stop but merely exposes illicit schemes, it would be doing a service. And if conscientious public servants find they cannot stay in their positions, they need not resign politely and then keep quiet. They could—and should—rather force their political bosses to fire them for standing up against impropriety, and then should speak up about what they have seen inside.

Now any kind of internal resistance within the executive branch is obviously a complicated and delicate matter. And I’m aware that resistance is difficult, especially when you know you’re facing a vindictive administration that will use the media and the justice department against you. But such resistance has always been an important tool in the battle against authoritarianism.

Independent media—that doesn’t rely on government regulatory approval or a billionaire’s whims or making friends in the administration—is also an important tool against authoritarianism. Help us grow by joining Bulwark+.Subscribed

Still, resistance from within the executive branch is necessarily piecemeal and limited in its effects. The bolder and more straightforward measure that ought to be put on the table for debate now is impeachment.

After two impeachments in Trump’s first term failed to produce convictions, there’s considerable reluctance to talk about impeachment once again: Been there, done that. But perhaps the third time will be the charm. In any case, the fact is that Trump deserves to be impeached and convicted for his behavior in his second term.

Impeachment is, as Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 65, the remedy in our system for “those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.” The misconduct of Trump, in terms of his corruption and that of his associates, is unparalleled in our history. His abuses of power leave Nixon in the dust. A trial of impeachment would allow all the evidence of his offenses to be presented coherently in one time and place. Even if conviction doesn’t follow, an unequivocal alarm would have been sounded.

Impeachment and conviction aren’t in the cards today. But it’s worth beginning to make the case now, because it may well be necessary for the public good to proceed along these lines in the next year. I’m the last person who would welcome JD Vance as president. But he would present less of a clear and present danger to the nation than Mad King Donald.

Raising the possibility of these two measures may seem alarmist. For some reason, even though the alarmists have been right all along in their analysis of Trump and Trumpism, it remains unfashionable to be one. But we shouldn’t be slaves of fashion. And in fact it’s not alarmism, it’s sober realism, to doubt that we can make it safely through the next thirty-three months without considering measures like these.

Resistance and impeachment. There may be convincing arguments against resorting to either or both these expedients. And there are of course many other important strategies for dealing with the situation we face. But the time to discuss all of them openly and candidly is now.

AROUND THE BULWARK

  • Why Democrats Should Shun Hasan Piker… They shouldn’t repeat the GOP’s mistake, argues MONA CHAREN, who also discusses Confronting Anti-Semitism, Left and Right with DAVID FRUM on her eponymous show.
  • bulwark logo big shipThe Cost of Boots on the Ground… On Shield of the Republic, ERIC EDELMAN welcomes MIKE NELSON to discuss the president’s White House speech making the case for war with Iran—and the key questions it left unanswered.
  • Remembering Shane DiGiovanna… In Overtime, JIM SWIFT remembers a friend of the Bulwark he profiled, who died last week at the age of 27.
  • It’s “Messing With Me Mentally”... The Atlantic’s ASHLEY PARKER joins SARAH LONGWELL on The Focus Group to break down a month of the deeply unpopular Iran war—and hear what swing voters are saying about the Trump administration, including who they like (Marco Rubio) and who they really don’t.
  • Dems Huffing the Hopium… In The Opposition, LAUREN EGAN writes of the Democrats’ growing optimism about the upcoming midterms. After that . . . it gets more complicated.
  • This Was the Moment Trump Lost His Mojo... In The Breakdown, JONATHAN COHN has the slo-mo replay of the exact point where Trump forgot what got him elected in the first place.

Quick Hits

DOWN IN FLAMES: How catastrophic has Trump’s second term in general and his prosecution of the war in Iran in particular been for America’s reputation among our allies? European leaders are now openly comparing our strikes on Iranian infrastructure to Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine.

“Any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable,” European Council President António Costa said this morning. “This applies to Russia’s war in Ukraine and it applies everywhere. The Iranian civilian population is the main victim of the Iranian regime. It would also be the main victim of a widening of the military campaign.”

THE STRAIT OF AFFAIRS: It was a weekend of confusing and contrary indicators for peace prospects in Iran, with official diplomatic contact inching forward even as the United States and Iran hurled increasingly wild threats at one another. So perhaps it’s unsurprising that oil prices, which careened upward after Trump’s Iran address last Wednesday, remained largely steady in weekend futures trading.

The number of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz continues to tick up slowly. Twenty ships transited the strait yesterday, the most in any 24-hour period since the war began—but still far below the historical average of nearly 140 ships a day. Iran continues to wield total control over which ships are able to transit, and continues to insist it has no intention of letting the strait fully reopen to America and its allies.

AND NOW, A WORD FROM THE POPE: As the first American pope,¹ and one elected at a moment of such upheaval for the world, Leo XIV’s statements have seemed to carry an unusual political urgency for America. His Easter message, released yesterday, is worth a read:

In the light of Easter, let us allow ourselves to be amazed by Christ! Let us allow our hearts to be transformed by his immense love for us! Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!

We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people. Indifferent to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow. Indifferent to the economic and social consequences they produce, which we all feel. There is an ever-increasing “globalization of indifference,” to borrow an expression dear to Pope Francis, who one year ago from this loggia addressed his final words to the world, reminding us: “What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of the world!”

The cross of Christ always reminds us of the suffering and pain that surround death and the agony it entails. We are all afraid of death, and out of fear we turn away, preferring not to look. We cannot continue to be indifferent! And we cannot resign ourselves to evil! Saint Augustine teaches: “If you fear death, love the resurrection!” (Sermon 124, 4). Let us too love the resurrection, which reminds us that evil is not the last word, because it has been defeated by the Risen One.

 

california mapRepublican contenders for California's party nomination for govenor this year, Chad Bianco, left, Steve Hilton (Los Angeles Times photos).la timesRepublican contenders for California's party nomination for govenor this year, Chad Bianco, left, Steve Hilton (Los Angeles Times photos)

Politico, Trump endorses Steve Hilton in California governor's race, Blake Jones, April 6, 2026. Some Republicans had argued the party’s best shot at the governor’s mansion depended on Trump staying out of the contest.

Donald Trump endorsed former Fox News host Steve Hilton in the California governor’s race early Monday morning, dealing a potentially fatal blow to GOP rival Chad Bianco’s campaign — and to Republicans’ hopes of locking Democrats out of the runoff.

“I have known and respected Steve Hilton, who is running for Governor of California, for many years. He is a truly fine man, one who has watched as this once great State has gone to Hell,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, before bemoaning the state’s leadership under Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Steve can turn it around, before it is too late, and, as President, I will help him to do so!”

Trump’s intervention comes despite some California Republicans arguing that the party’s best, if narrow, shot at the governor’s mansion depended on him staying out of the contest in this heavily Democratic state. Republicans had been hoping that a large field of Democrats would split the vote in California’s jungle primary, allowing two Republicans to advance. But with Trump boosting Hilton, it becomes more unlikely that he and Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, will be able to evenly split the GOP vote and keep Democrats out of the run-off.

The endorsement may also spare Democrats from having to spend heavily to boost one of the Republican candidates themselves — a strategy they have employed in several races in the past.

republican elephant logo“Trump’s endorsement of Steve Hilton likely frees up tens of millions of dollars for Democratic groups who would have otherwise had to spend heavily to elevate one of the two leading GOP gubernatorial candidates to avoid a Democratic lockout,” political data expert Rob Pyers of California Target Book, the nonpartisan campaign almanac, wrote on X.

While Hilton and Bianco had both openly invited the president’s endorsement, Hilton, who has talked with Trump over the years, told POLITICO on Thursday that he had not spoken with Trump about the race.

“I’d be honored to have the president’s endorsement, but I think that the California governor’s race is close to the last thing on his mind right now,” said Hilton, a former policy adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron. “He’s got a lot on his plate, and so I’ve never discussed that with him.”

The endorsement comes before California GOP delegates vote at their convention in San Diego this upcoming weekend on whether to endorse in the race. A party nod had looked unlikely given the large margin needed for an endorsement and the several low-polling candidates poised to peel off votes from party activists. But Trump’s involvement could change that calculation.

Still, in a state where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans and Trump is widely loathed, Hilton had sought to avoid nationalizing the election.

“The media obsession and the California Democrats’ obsession with Trump doesn’t do our state any favors. We have to focus on California issues, and that’s what I’m doing,” Hilton said late last week.

He said he did “not at all” see an electoral risk in Trump wading in before the primary. He and Bianco have both been lacing into each other in an effort to consolidate the Republican vote — including during a Saturday night debate moderated by Trump’s former Kennedy Center head and special envoy Richard Grenell. 

MS Now, Political Comment: The problem with Trump’s DHS paycheck promise, Hayes Brown, April 6, 2026. The end of the longest partial shutdown in history is in sight — but thanks to some House Republicans refusing to rush back to Washington to pass it, the finish line is still almost two weeks away. These pouting House conservatives, however, are getting a reprieve from President Donald Trump. Trump posted on Truth Social last week that he would “soon sign an order to pay ALL of the incredible employees at the Department of Homeland Security.”

msnow new logoAfter initially dismissing the Senate deal, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., yielded last week, promising with Thune to get the ICE and Border Patrol funded in a party-line vote later this year. But a group of conservative lawmakers are so upset with the deal that they won’t even vote on it until Congress returns from spring break on April 13 — leaving DHS in limbo for almost another fortnight. That degree of petulance would be much riskier if it weren’t for the president running cover for the absentee legislature.

In his attempt to let lawmakers off the hook, though, Trump is setting yet another dangerous precedent that threatens the balance of power in America. And the idea that the president can cause funding to appear out of nowhere is also deeply troubling.

Government shutdowns, be they full or partial, have gone from an anomaly to a regular part of the legislative toolbox. In theory, the lack of funding exerts enough political pain to eventually give way to a breakthrough on the seemingly insurmountable impasse of the moment. Legislators typically feel that pain directed their way from upset constituents, be it over an interruption of services for the public or missing paychecks for essential federal workers.

There’s no presidential American Express card that allows the White House to spend money that Congress hasn’t apportioned.

The Department of Homeland Security’s funding lapse has hit on both fronts, mainly thanks to the lack of money for the Transportation Security Administration. TSA agents have called out sick in droves during the last month, prompting massive lines at airports around the country. Other, less visible parts of DHS have also been suffering, including the Coast Guard and staffers with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Senate Democrats refused to pass a bill funding DHS without new restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, including a ban on wearing masks during immigration raids. Weeks of negotiations went nowhere, leading Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to pass a bill funding most of DHS but leaving ICE and Border Patrol’s budget for later. (The two law enforcement agencies are currently drawing money from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill that Congress passed last year that gave both a several billion-dollar slush fund from which to draw funds.)

After initially dismissing the Senate deal, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., yielded last week, promising with Thune to get the ICE and Border Patrol funded in a party-line vote later this year. But a group of conservative lawmakers are so upset with the deal that they won’t even vote on it until Congress returns from spring break on April 13 — leaving DHS in limbo for almost another fortnight.

That degree of petulance would be much riskier if it weren’t for the president running cover for the absentee legislature. As it stands, the the idea that Trump can cause funding to appear out of nowhere is deeply troubling.Air traffic controller on TSA workers going weeks without pay: ‘It’s very demoralizing’March 30, 2026 / 05:39

The memo Trump signed Friday builds on one issued last month to get backpay in TSA agents’ hands. The earlier directive ordered Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought to essentially figure out where the money is coming from. It memo specifically instructed them to “use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them.”

The administration has yet to give a public explanation for exactly which funding streams were drawn, but it’s possible that at least some was drawn from the pool of cash floating around ICE and Border Patrol. Friday’s memo is no more clear about which accounts will be drawn from to make the decreed payments. But it declares that once regular funding is restored “every effort should be made” to “adjust applicable funding accounts within DHS” to essentially make it like this whole thing never happened.More from MS NOW Daily

Must reads from Today's listCatherine Hanaway participates in a forum on Jul 26, 2016 in Jefferson City, Mo.Missouri’s failed DEI suit vs. Starbucks offers lessons to Big BusinessJa’han JonesRep. Byron Donalds.Byron Donalds faces racist attacks in Florida’s ugly GOP gubernatorial primaryJa’han Jones

That kind of financial shuffling was eyebrow-raising enough when it was just for TSA. Somehow finding the means to pay the more than a quarter-million DHS employees when no new funding exists is a much bigger stretch, one that can’t be accepted as a done deal. It’s a power that no president has ever claimed and goes against the Antideficiency Act, a 150-year-old law that prohibits federal officials from spending or obligating money that Congress has not appropriated.

Vought has argued that the appropriations are essentially a ceiling, not a floor, allowing the administration to choose how much of that funding to spend. It’s a willful misreading of the law, but at least still requires Congress to first provide funds to the executive branch. Last year, during a total federal shutdown, Vought flirted with the idea of transferring funds from various accounts to fund administration priorities. There were several tricks he managed to pull off, but nothing at the scale of causing paychecks to materialize for over 260,000 employees.

Even if Trump and his advisers do think he has this ability, where was it earlier in the shutdown?

The promise of a bill coming down Pennsylvania Avenue eventually doesn’t grant Trump the authority to pre-spend that money. There’s no presidential American Express card that allows the White House to spend money that Congress hasn’t appropriated.

And even if Trump and his advisers do think he has this ability, where was it earlier in the shutdown? Why were any paychecks missed if the president can simply issue an I.O.U. from the Resolute Desk?

It’s a move that not only undercuts congressional authority but goes against the law at the heart of federal shutdowns. If money siloed off for one function under the law can be freely spent throughout the government, there’s no limit to how often a president can rob Peter to pay Paul. The Constitution’s clear instruction that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law” would be made worthless.

This may be yet another instance of the White House daring its opponents to challenge them. After all, who wants the poor optics of suing to get that money back from FEMA staffers — only to potentially see the case made moot once Congress acts? It’s a bluff that should still be called though. The safeguards that prevent the Treasury itself from becoming an at-will checking account for the executive branch should be defended at all costs. 

U.S. Immigration, Deportations, Civil Rights

ICE logo

ny times logoNew York Times, Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Undermines ICE Account, Ernesto Londoño, Mitch Smith, Haley Willis and Robin Stein, April 6, 2026. Prosecutors did not watch video of the nonfatal shooting until weeks after charging the wounded man, an official said.

Almost immediately after an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis this winter, the federal government cast the injured man as an attempted murderer and the agent as the victim of a brutal beating.

That version of events began unraveling when prosecutors dropped felony charges against the injured man, Julio C. Sosa-Celis, and one of his housemates, Alfredo A. Aljorna, who had fled from immigration agents.

Yet video footage of the shooting, newly obtained by The New York Times, raises questions about why it took weeks for the government’s case to fall apart.

The video contradicts the agent’s claim that three assailants had beaten him with a shovel and broom for roughly three minutes before he opened fire. Instead, the confrontation depicted in the video lasts about 12 seconds and shows two men struggling with the agent. It shows no sustained attack with a shovel.

The federal government had access to that video within hours of the shooting on Jan. 14, the Minneapolis police chief said. Yet prosecutors did not watch the footage, an official said, until nearly three weeks after they filed charges against the two men.

“Bare due diligence would have shown that the agents were lying,” Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said in a recent interview, shortly after he watched the video for the first time.

The shooting was a rare instance in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Trump administration ultimately acknowledged a serious lapse. The agency’s acting director, Todd Lyons, said after the charges were dropped that two agents had appeared to have lied under oath about the events, adding that they had been placed on leave and could end up facing criminal charges.

The Department of Homeland Security did not answer written questions about the video, including whether it reviewed the footage before describing the incident publicly. The video, which The Times obtained after filing an open records request, was recorded on a city-owned camera at a nearby intersection.

The shooting of Mr. Sosa-Celis came during the height of the Trump administration’s deployment of thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota.Editors’ PicksHow to Find Great Values in WineMy Husband Can’t Get a Job. Should I Divorce Him?‘Summer House’ Mansion on the Market for $5.65 Million

From December to February, those agents made thousands of arrests, clashed with residents, shot three people and engaged in conduct that alarmed federal judges. The administration said the crackdown was necessary in part because of policies that limit state and local cooperation with immigration enforcement.

In the hours after Mr. Sosa-Celis was shot, protesters responded with fury. Some ransacked the vehicles of federal agents and threw fireworks at officers. The scene became so tense that investigators left before they had finished collecting evidence.

Still, Mr. Sosa-Celis’s case received far less attention than the two other shootings, which left American citizens dead at the hands of federal agents. In those killings, of Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, video footage also undermined the federal government’s version of events.‘They Are Coming’ 

Checks and Balances, We Are Sleepwalking Into a Surveillance-State Panopticon, Nuala O'Connor, April 6, 2026. Technology companies that contract with the government aren't just completing business transactions. They're making serious policy decisions that could erode our Constitutional right to privacy.

When a technology company builds the infrastructure that powers government enforcement, it is not merely providing a service. It is supporting a policy decision of its client and making an ethical one for itself - one that will affect millions of people who may have no knowledge it is happening. A company that builds tech architecture will say it is just providing a service. That argument does not age well.

Technology and data companies are not the first to face this reckoning with the lasting impact of their products - but they are newly, and urgently, confronted by it. The responsibility of knowing - of questioning, actively supporting, or rejecting certain use cases - extends across every layer of a company: leadership and front-line employees, lawyers and salespeople, coders and project managers alike. In the case of technology and data companies, that front line includes the engineers, developers, and data scientists who must recognize that what they are building is not neutral infrastructure. It is policy, encoded in software, executed at scale, and largely invisible to the people it affects.

We are in a unique moment. Large-scale data systems now provide the backbone - the very structure and mechanism - of government operations as almost never before. At least one data analytics company has been awarded a federal contract worth tens of millions of dollars to build a platform designed to aggregate personal data across multiple government agencies, track individual behavior with “near real-time visibility,” and optimize the identification and removal of immigrants from the United States. Based on an individual’s legal status, that removal may be legal and warranted. But the underlying data aggregation may not be. It has further been reported that government contractors have been engaged to expand social-media monitoring. Combining records across public and private sources likely exceeds reasonable expectations of privacy and the original consents attached to the underlying data - whether restrictions under federal law, or corporate promises made in customer-facing privacy policies.

According to publicly available contract documents, a database is being built that draws from passport records, Social Security files, tax data, driver’s license information, and license plate reader data and other geolocation sources. Most of the people in those databases never consented to their information being used this way. Some may be American citizens or legal permanent residents. This is happening largely without any public explanation, discourse, or opportunity to comment.

A primary use for this data is immigration enforcement - certainly a deeply contentious issue today. But that is only one example. The issues of widespread combination of data held, originally for differing purposes by different federal agencies, is a concern regardless of purpose. And the potential for blending private-sector data with data from public-sector sources - the blurring of the lines of private choices and data provided to the government - about which we often have no choice - is a human rights issue unique to the digital age. These practices raise foundational legal and ethical questions that every technology company doing business with the federal government should be asking itself right now - and always.

Support legal analysis and expertise like this. Subscribe to Checks & Balances.Upgrade to paidA Law Worth Understanding

The Privacy Act of 1974 was enacted in the aftermath of Watergate and J. Edgar Hoover’s surveillance files - a moment when Congress, in rare bipartisan agreement, decided that the government had accumulated too much unchecked power over personal information. Its core principle: federal agencies may only collect data for a specific, stated purpose. The law further prohibits sharing that data with other agencies without meeting specific legal conditions, including particularized written requests and formal public notice.

The law does include exemptions, particularly for law enforcement. As a former chief privacy officer of a federal agency, I’m well acquainted - and even supportive - of the important work our national security and law enforcement agencies do to keep us safe, and of the need for these exemptions. But an exemption is not infinite. A question worth asking is whether blanket data-synthesis programs that aggregate tax records, immigration files, biometric data, and geolocation feeds under a single enforcement architecture are consistent - even within the constraints and exceptions of our laws - with what Congress authorized.

Further, the blurring of lines between government databases and private-sector data - from license plate readers to social media and beyond - is likely not something the legislators who enacted the Privacy Act contemplated. It should concern all of us.

But legality is not the only standard. When a company builds the pipes that connect these systems, it does not merely provide a service. It becomes an architect of what could become a systemic end-run around the protections the Privacy Act was designed to provide. Building the infrastructure is the decision.

Join the Society for the Rule of LawA Framework for Ethical Engagement

If your company is a government contractor - or is considering becoming one - here is a rubric worth applying before you sign the contract, and at every renewal. It is not enough that your client represents that they are authorized; you, too, are responsible for the workstreams you pursue and the floodgates this work opens. The three questions below are deliberately simple. That is the point. If you cannot answer them - or if the answers are troubling - you should not build the system.

1. Would the people in this database have expected to be there? When someone filed a tax return, applied for a passport, or registered a vehicle, they consented to a specific purpose. They did not consent to their data being aggregated into an enforcement profile. If the people whose information powers your system would be surprised - or alarmed - by what you are building, that reaction is a signal, not a nuisance. Any system that depends on public ignorance to operate is a system that cannot withstand public scrutiny. It is not enough to rely on promises by the client that the system would never be used that way. Is the proposal at hand specifically authorized? How easy would it be to expand?

2. What happens when the system is wrong? Every platform designed for enforcement at scale will make errors. Even a small error rate, applied to millions of records, means thousands of people wrongly flagged, detained, or targeted. Before you build, demand answers: What is the appeal mechanism? Who corrects the record? How easily can individuals avail themselves of the correction process? Who bears accountability when an error causes harm? If those answers do not exist, the system should not be built. Accountability is not a feature to be added later - it is a precondition.

3. Who authorized this, and can it be undone? There is a meaningful difference between a system authorized by durable legislation and one implemented by leadership directive. Orders change overnight. A data platform embedded in federal infrastructure does not. Ask whether Congress has explicitly authorized the use you are enabling - and whether the architecture you are building can be audited, corrected, or shut down if the answer to that question changes. If the system cannot be reversed, you are not building a tool. You are building a permanent record. That is a different order of responsibility.A Word to the Helpers

The people who make these decisions are not only executives. They are the technologists who architect the data integration. The teams who write the code. The product managers who define the workflows. The lawyers who review the contracts. The account managers who maintain the relationships.

If you are being asked to build something and you cannot get a clear answer to the questions above, that ambiguity is itself information. Demand answers in writing. Raise concerns through internal channels. Understand that federal contractor employees have legal protections when they raise concerns about violations of law.

Design choices are policy choices. Architecture is governance. Accountability and transparency are features, not bugs, of a government system. And in a democracy, the engineers who build systems that affect millions of people are not merely contractors - they are participants in the exercise of public power and government force. Supporting that work comes with obligations that exceed ordinary commercial transactions, because the consequences - to real people, to civil liberties, to the rule of law - are of a different order entirely.

Nuala O'Connor is a leading privacy and technology policy expert who serves on the Advisory Council for the Society for the Rule of Law. She previously served as Chief Privacy Officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Commerce, helping shape early federal privacy frameworks. She later led the Center for Democracy & Technology as CEO from 2014 to 2019, advancing policies at the intersection of civil liberties and innovation. 

The Independent, ICE arrests newlywed Army sergeant’s wife hours after couple arrive at military base Joe Sommerlad, April 6, 2026. A U.S. Army staff sergeant who reported for duty at a military base in Louisiana with his new bride last week was shocked to see her arrested by ICE agents shortly after their arrival.

Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank, 23, had driven from Houston, Texas, to Fort Polk with his wife Annie Ramos, 22, and his parents in time for a 2 p.m. registration appointment on Thursday April 2.

Ramos is an undocumented migrant who was brought to the U.S. by her parents when she was a toddler and had understood that she would receive a green card through her marriage, which would entitle her to apply for citizenship within three years of its receipt, as is customary under U.S. immigration law.Matthew Blank and Annie Ramos on their wedding day in March (Family/GoFundMe)Matthew Blank and Annie Ramos on their wedding day in March (Family/GoFundMe)

The group duly signed in at the base’s visitors’ center as instructed and presented their documentation, which included Blank’s military ID, their marriage license, and Ramos’s Honduran passport.

But rather than be ushered into the facility’s benefits office, as they were expecting, ICE agents descended, taking Ramos into custody in handcuffs before having her transported to a detention center in nearby Basile for deportation as the family wept in disbelief.

“Our plan was to drive over, bring her to the office to get her military ID and activate her military spouse benefits,” Blank told The New York Times. “She was going to move in after the Easter weekend. Instead, she got ripped away from me.”

“I knew she didn’t have status,” he added, saying the couple had retained an immigration lawyer and were attempting to operate by the book. “We were doing everything the right way.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Ramos “has no legal status to be in this country and was issued a final order of removal by a judge,” alluding to a court order issued in absentia in 2005 that insisted the then-22-month-old infant must be returned to Honduras.ICE agents detained Ramos Thursday and removed her to a deportation center in Basile, Louisiana, saying she has no legal right to remain in the U.S. (Getty)ICE agents detained Ramos Thursday and removed her to a deportation center in Basile, Louisiana, saying she has no legal right to remain in the U.S. (Getty)

“This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law,” it added.

Ramos is a Sunday school teacher and college student who was a few months away from completing a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, according to the Times.

The couple met last year via a dating app, were engaged on New Year’s Day, and married in Houston last month, with 60 guests at their reception at which a Mariachi band performed and fried chicken and mashed potato was served.

“I grew up here like any American,” Ramos told the newspaper via phone from the detention center. “This is all I know. My husband and family are here.”

Blank, who has previously been deployed to the Middle East and Europe, has vowed to do everything he can to secure his wife’s freedom and said he has the support of his chain of command.Staff Sergeant Blank was reporting for duty at Fort Polk, Louisiana, when his spouse was arrested (Getty)Staff Sergeant Blank was reporting for duty at Fort Polk, Louisiana, when his spouse was arrested (Getty)

“We are going to fight with everything I have,” he said. “She is going to move in with me. We will start a family... I am going to be with her and serve my country.”

A GoFundMe campaign set up by the family to raise money for Ramos’s costly legal fees had raised more than $8,000 towards its $12,000 target at the time of writing.

Margaret Stock, author of the book Immigration Law and the Military, told the Times the couple’s marital situation was “very common.”

“Prior to the Trump administration creating a mass deportation policy, somebody like her would not have been detained,’’ she said.

“It’s fundamentally harmful to national security to be doing this to members of the military, particularly while there is a war going on. This is a major crisis for this soldier. His mind can’t be on the job.”

U.S. Education, Media, Culture+

 Gareth Gore was granted a one-on-one audience with the pope two years after the publication of his 2024 book on Opus Dei. Composite: Corbis via Getty Images, Courtesy Gareth Gore

Gareth Gore was granted a one-on-one audience with the pope two years after the publication of his 2024 book on Opus Dei. Composite: Corbis via Getty Images, Courtesy Gareth Gore

The Guardian, Interview: He spent years investigating Opus Dei, a Catholic group accused of a vast conspiracy of abuse. Then Pope Leo asked to meet, Sam Wolfson. April 6, 2026. Gareth Gore’s 2024 book Opus alleges decades of manipulation, which the group has denied, He believes the pope wanted to send a clear message. 

Gareth Gore was on a research trip to California earlier this year when he was told to expect a call from the Vatican arranging a one-on-one audience with the pope.

Gore was stunned. In 2024 he published the book Opus, a meticulously researched and gripping account of the abuses allegedly perpetrated by Opus Dei, the highly secretive Catholic group started by the Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá in the 1920s. Over a century Opus Dei established itself as a deeply religious order that, they claim, helps ordinary people “love God and serve others through work well done, carried out with honesty and integrity”.A hand holding a card with a prayer in Spanish and a photo of a priest‘I became like a slave’: why 43 women are suing the secretive Opus Dei Catholic group in ArgentinaRead more

Gore’s book lays out claims the organisation is at the heart of a conspiracy involving child grooming, human trafficking, and psychological and emotional control, with former members saying the group used private confessions as leverage against members and drugged those under its sway – claims Opus Dei categorically denies. Gore reported that Opus Dei collaborated closely with the bloody dictatorship of Francisco Franco in Spain, before supporting rightwing causes around the world.

Gore laid much of the blame for these alleged abuses with the wider Catholic church, which relied on Opus Dei for financial support in the 1970s and in return gave it freedom to operate as a legitimate branch of Catholicism, but outside the Vatican’s normal structures. In 2002, Escrivá was made a saint after ferocious lobbying by Opus Dei, despite much protest from within the Vatican, as abuse allegations mounted and some Catholic leaders began to raise questions about the organisation.

Gore believes Opus Dei would never have been able to function without the complicity of the Vatican – which made the invitation from Pope Leo all the more surprising.A man wearing glasses preaches to a crowd of peopleJosemaría Escrivá preaches in 1972 in Barcelona, Spain. Photograph: Getty Images

Gore began reporting on Opus Dei almost by accident. He was a financial journalist looking into the collapse of Banco Popular, one of Spain’s largest banks, in 2017. At the time, the world couldn’t understand how such a pillar of European banking had failed so spectacularly. Gore discovered that the bank had been hijacked by Opus Dei since the 1940s (the bank’s chair was a lifetime member, as were much of its board, and companies controlled by Opus Dei turned out to be the bank’s largest shareholders). Opus Dei had used the bank “as its personal cash machine”, Gore alleged, “siphoning off” funds to finance its expansion around the world. (The trial of Banco Popular’s former leadership, facing allegations of fraud, is scheduled to begin in Spain’s national court in 2027. For its part, Opus Dei has denied that it was involved in the management of the bank and said it “does not get involved in commercial activities”.)

Through hundreds of interviews with former Opus Dei members, Gore’s book traces how from the 1950s onwards, Banco Popular’s wealth went into creating a vast recruitment network targeting children and vulnerable teenagers, building palatial Opus Dei centres across the world, and eventually forming one of the most formidable clandestine political influences in the US. Its US members would become crucial in eroding reproductive rights, funding the Washington march that led to January 6, and heavily influencing Project 2025, according to Gore’s reporting.

Who knows how much information actually gets to [the pope]. Opus Dei is renowned for having penetrated the Vatican

Gore’s book also sheds light on the inner workings of Opus Dei. Its most religious members, called numeraries, live in single-sex dormitories in a life of servitude and self-flagellation: they fast for dangerously long periods, wear a small spiked chain called a cilice around their thighs, and whip themselves with ropes, former members told Gore. Every element of their life is strictly controlled and manipulated by the group’s leader and senior priests, Gore said. Mental illness, common in an atmosphere of constant physical and psychological abuse, was treated with a reported cocktail of antidepressants, sedatives and even Rohypnol, according to claims made by victims in interviews Gore conducted.

Female members known as “numerary assistants” – women and girls from mostly underprivileged backgrounds – staffed the Opus Dei residencies, working long days cooking and cleaning. Many of them were allegedly cut off from their families, transported internationally and, in many cases, expected to give their entire salaries to Opus Dei in an operation that Gore believes meets the UN definition of human trafficking. Some made claims to Gore of sexual abuse.

In Argentina, federal prosecutors are leading an investigation into senior leaders of Opus Dei who they accuse of overseeing the exploitation and trafficking of women and girls; Opus Dei in Argentina set up a “healing and resolution” office to hear the women’s complaints. In 2024 it also said allegations that girls were coerced into joining the organization on promises of education at its schools were “false and misleading”. Opus Dei said it is committed to safeguarding minors and vulnerable adults.

Most Opus Dei members don’t live in these conditions. These “supernumeraries” can marry and live in their own homes. The most critical mission of the numeraries is to recruit supernumeraries to make large donations back to Opus Dei and influence politics and society to further Opus Dei’s conservative goals. An Opus Dei priest in Washington DC, who Opus Dei acknowledged has credible accusations of sexual misconduct against him, oversaw the 2009 conversion of former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich to Catholicism.A cross within a circle symbolizing the Earth and a rose beneathThe Opus Dei coat of arms. Photograph: Eric Vandeville/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

In a statement to the Guardian, Opus Dei’s US communications director said: “There are cultural spheres from which the reality of faith cannot be understood. In this case, a financial journalist interprets the reality of the Church through an economic and political lens. Unless the dimension of faith is taken into account, one cannot understand the Church … at the same time, we firmly reject the serious allegations contained in the book Opus. The book contains numerous errors, distortions, and unfounded allegations.”

The organization previously denied claims that it “exercise[s] control of its members’ political and business dealings”. It has also denied that it is a “secretive” organization.

I spoke to Gore, who lives in London, two weeks after his 16 March visit to the Vatican about what happened when he met Pope Leo.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You’ve spent almost a decade compiling this dossier on Opus Dei that implicates the Vatican. How on earth does it happen that you’re invited to present these findings to the pope?

Honestly, I don’t know. I was on a work trip in the states and I got a call from somebody I know in Peru who’s quite close to the pope. And he had heard from the pope himself, that the pope wanted to meet me and to hear more. I remember putting the phone down and having to take a moment: is this for real?

I was told to contact someone at the Vatican who would arrange the meeting. So I sent this message, still thinking: no one’s going to reply to this. And almost immediately I got a message from someone quite senior inside the Vatican who was like, “Yeah, yeah, the Holy Father has told me absolutely that he wants to meet you. Let me know what dates might work.”

It was then a pretty stressful lead up to the meeting. Not because I was stressed about meeting the pope, but because I felt this weight on me. Having conducted this investigation over the course of five years, having spoken to literally hundreds of former members of Opus Dei and having unearthed all of these secret documents about the way that this group operates, I felt this weight to ensure that he received all this information.

How much do you think Pope Leo already knows about the organization?

Who knows how much information actually gets to him. Opus Dei is renowned for having penetrated the Vatican. It’s highly likely there are people there who are limiting what information gets to the pope – perhaps for malicious reasons, but also, as with any other kind of big company or big institution, sometimes it’s better that the boss doesn’t know everything so that there can be some kind of deniability.

I think [the pope] quite clearly wanted to send a signal to Opus Dei that he’s taking these allegations seriously

In the limited time you had to speak with Pope Leo directly, what was the central story that you wanted to tell him?

I think people on the outside don’t realize the founder of this movement, this Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá, told his members that the idea for Opus Dei had come directly from God. He’d received this vision which he wrote down in meticulous detail.

These writings are the source of all of this control and manipulation and political manoeuvring that’s ongoing today. And so without understanding the internal documents, internal rules, and without understanding that the members truly believe that these rules came directly from God, it’s impossible to understand the mentality of how Opus Dei works. So I was trying to convey that message to [the pope], while also trying to explain why reforming this group will be unbelievably difficult, because the founder is revered as a saint, which he is. He was made a saint by the Vatican in 2002.

So the pope can’t just say, “You guys have got to stop doing this,” because the true believers will continue believing that all of these practices and all of this manipulation is what God wants of them.

How does one hammer things home to the pope? Did you feel like you had the freedom to be persuasive, or do you have to adopt a respectful tone?

I went into the meeting with this kind of burden of wanting to really get this information to him, but I had this attitude of not giving a damn. Maybe I want to rephrase that: I was unafraid of offending him or of breaching etiquette. I just thought: no one else has been given this opportunity and if they throw me out after five minutes, I can live with that because I’ve tried to do what I think is right.

But I had no idea about how he would respond to me ambushing him with this huge pile of papers, these internal documents and me giving him a very clear, full, unvarnished account of what life in Opus Dei was really like. I didn’t know whether he’d be pressing his button, getting his secretary to come in and show me out.

How did he respond?

Honestly, the meeting could not have gone any better. He asked a number of very incisive questions. It went on for much longer than was scheduled. There were two cameramen there. And at the end of the meeting, the pope said to me that it had been his decision to invite the cameras in and to make the meeting public. I think he quite clearly wanted to send a signal to Opus Dei that he’s taking these allegations seriously.Three men pose togetherFrom left: Josemaría Escrivá, Pope John XXIII, and Don Alvaro Portillo, the second head prelate of Opus Dei, pose together in 1960 in the Vatican. Photograph: Vatican Pool/Getty Images

Opus Dei is only 100 years old, and perhaps the reason it’s not treated like other groups of the 20th century that have accused of cultlike behaviour is the seal of religious authority that has been stamped on it by the Vatican. Does the Vatican have real powers to rein in Opus Dei if it chose to?

The Vatican helped to create this monster, not least Pope John Paul II because he saw them as political allies in his conservative crusade. He saw them almost like his personal green berets that he could send off to any part of the world where there was some kind of progressive priest or bishop who was causing trouble. He could send Opus Dei there to do his work or be his eyes and ears. He gave them this special status that has never been granted before or since in the history of the Catholic church.

What is that status? Gareth Gore was granted a one-on-one audience with the pope two years after the publication of his 2024 book on Opus Dei.Composite: Corbis via Getty Images, Courtesy Gareth Gore

He made them into this thing called the “personal prelature”, which basically meant that they were answerable to no one but the pope. They could operate anywhere they wanted to in the world and any abuse allegations against [Opus Dei] couldn’t be handled in the normal way through the local bishop or archbishop. Ordinary Catholics welcome this group into their homes, they allow their kids to go to its schools, they attend its meetings because [it has] this stamp of approval from the Vatican.

Pope Francis, to his credit, started to take action [before his death in April 2025]. He issued a papal decree in 2022 where he basically ordered Opus Dei to get its house in order. But there was no effort to speak with any former members, no effort to speak with journalists such as myself who investigated the group.

The point I was trying to make to Pope Leo is that if you’re trying to solve a problem, the first step is to understand exactly what the problem is. Which is why I suggested to him that the next logical step would be to open a full independent investigation into all allegations of abuse [by Opus Dei] – whether they are spiritual, psychological, emotional, physical.

This is a group that is by invitation only and they target the elites: politicians, judges, business people, journalists, academics

Prosecutors are starting to look into the organization too.

Certainly in Argentina, public prosecutors there have conducted a two-year investigation into the allegations made by 43 or 44 women. And after the investigation, these public prosecutors concluded that there were absolutely grounds to charge the group with human trafficking and serious labour offences. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

 

paramount logo

Wall Street Journal, Gulf Funds Agree to Back Paramount’s $81 Billion Takeover of Warner, Jessica Toonkel and Lauren Thomas, April 6, 2026. wsj logoCommitments from Middle East entities will help offset costs for Ellison family.

“… Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has agreed to provide roughly $10 billion of the nearly $24 billion to Paramount, run by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

The agreements with investors also include Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Co., …

An early version of Paramount’s bid also initially included backing from Chinese company Tencent and Affinity Partners, the private-equity firm founded by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Affinity later backed out of Paramount’s deal. Tencent is also no longer in the deal, the people said. … ”

ny times logoNew York Times, Opinion: Teaching in an American University Is Very Strange Right Now, Frank Bruni, right, a Duke University professor who was on the staff of The New York Times for more than 25 years, April 6, 2026. Reflections on the mess (and magic) of politics and life. 

frank bruniIt’s sweetly customary for college students filing out of a seminar room or lecture hall to thank the professor who has just finished jabbering at them, as if all that verbiage were a favor rather than a job. I’m amused by it and grateful for it every time.

But my students this semester often murmur something else as well.

“That was depressing,” one student said — not rudely, not as a complaint, but as an accurate summary of a discussion we just had about all the falsehoods and fury that thrive in the digital age.

“Another uplifting class” was another student’s sarcastic review of a conversation about the volume and variety of President Trump’s litigation against news organizations, whose economic and reputational woes are exacerbated by his attacks.

Clearly, some adjustments are in order. But how do I describe this troubled world of ours — the grave crossroads we straddle, the mighty stakes of our decisions — in a manner both truthful and gentle? How do I gird my students for the uncertainties and obstacles ahead while equipping them with an ample store of hope?

I’ve been on the faculty at Duke University for five years now, and this past one has been the most challenging and the strangest by far.

That’s not about Duke. It’s about higher education. It’s about America. It’s about dynamics — chiefly, this country’s tilt toward authoritarianism and the rapidly accelerating advances of A.I. — that render our tomorrows even hazier than usual. None of us knows what we’re in for and up against, and that confusion crystallizes on college campuses, which are by definition gateways to the future. They’re supposed to leave students with maps, routes, a destination. Not with compasses whose needles gyrate this way and that.

For much of the past decade, college students flocked to computer science, wagering that few majors were surer on-ramps to employment. A.I. has exploded that roadway. I teach in Duke’s school of public policy, where many students point themselves toward jobs in government or nonprofit groups. The ax that fell in the first months of Trump’s present term deforested that landscape.

Those are just examples, and this is hardly the first generation of young people to face disruption and major economic shifts. I can’t say just how unusual, in a historic sense, the unease that I feel around me is.

But I can tell you that my previous nine semesters at Duke are no rival for this one when it comes to the number of students who initiate conversations about what they should do next, what they should expect after that, where the country is headed, whether they’ll have any real say in that. I can tell you that their miens are darker, their voices more tremulous. I’m like a Magic 8 Ball who won’t — who can’t — disgorge the desired answers no matter how tightly it’s clutched, how vigorously it’s shaken. One of my faculty colleagues said recently that he’d never felt so inadequate as a mentor. Same here.Editors’ PicksHow to Find Great Values in WineMy Husband Can’t Get a Job. Should I Divorce Him?‘Summer House’ Mansion on the Market for $5.65 Million

And we are both dealing with an extraordinarily lucky group of young people talented, driven or connected enough to breach the sanctum of a highly selective university whose resources and range of course offerings rank it among the nation’s best schools. Still, their advantages can’t compete with their apprehensions.

They’re undoubtedly picking up on their elders’ anxiety. We’re trying to manage not only their fears and bafflement but also our own. News stories about universities since Trump returned to the White House focus on huge funding cuts for research, which have led to painful belt tightening at Duke and other schools; on investigations into admissions practices and incidents of antisemitism; and on fines, more or less, for institutions at odds with Trump’s agenda. But the Trump administration’s impact on campuses has been more sweeping than that.

There’s a nagging sense of being surveilled by invisible eyes. No one wants to draw the White House’s ire. So some of us deliberate how carefully we should watch our language, avoiding “diversity” and “equity” and the Trump administration’s other dirty words. Some of us go out of our way to make our receptiveness to a broad spectrum of ideologies clear and not to play into progressive caricatures. But which adjustments are reasonable corrections of past mistakes, which are defensible self-preservation and which are cop-outs?

And what’s my purpose? A.I. isn’t just upending the job market; it’s raising questions about the necessity and utility of an array of skills. I teach writing, which is increasingly being outsourced to bots. Some are scarily adept at it. So should I pivot to bot maximization? Should other professors in other disciplines?

But what puzzles me even more is how to respond to a concern wisely articulated by Robert Pondiscio, a former public school teacher who is now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in several essays and in public remarks. He has been sounding an alarm about “the unbearable bleakness of American schooling,” a trend that predates Trump’s political ascent and that the president and his compatriots have used as populist fodder.

“If you simply listen to the stories we tell students,” Pondiscio wrote in a newsletter late last year, we promote “a view of the world in which everything is broken, corrupt, dangerous or doomed.” But optimism, he argued, is an essential civic virtue. “No society can expect its children to engage with a world they think has already given up on them.”

This world hasn’t. If I’ve given my students the opposite impression, I’ve screwed up. I need to communicate that for all this country’s current trials, it still brims with opportunities, its promise greater than its woes. And a blurry future isn’t the same as a bleak one. It just asks today’s college students to be especially nimble and patient. And it demands that those of us who stand before them work extra hard to find an honest balance between uncomfortable reckonings and reasons not to despair.

ny times logoNew York Times, Guest Essay: I’ve Covered Women in the Workplace for 15 Years. Something Alarming Is Happening, Joanne Lipman (author of “That’s What She Said: What Men and Women Need to Know About Working Together” and other books), April 6, 2026. “Believe women” was the defining message of the #MeToo movement. Today, there’s a new one: Erase women.

The Trump administration’s attack on diversity, equity and inclusion has rolled back decades of progress for women, who now face a widening gender pay gap and narrowing employment protections. In the process, discussions about women have become a third rail, a toxic topic that is too politically charged to touch. Companies, universities, law firms and cultural institutions are all expunging references to “women” and “gender,” even under the most benign circumstances.

The Trump administration has defined “illegal D.E.I.” as “programs, initiatives or policies that discriminate, exclude or divide individuals based on race or sex.” But in practice, President Trump’s allies have questioned whether women deserve a place in the work force at all. They have blamed women for last year’s California wildfires and slammed the conservative Supreme Court justice Amy Coney Barrett as a “D.E.I. hire” for a ruling they didn’t like. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is purging the military of senior female officers after complaining that the armed forces had become “effeminate.” Women’s names have disappeared from museums, parks, monuments and even the Arlington National Cemetery.

Terrified of being the administration’s next target, organizations are descending into the realm of the absurd. A researcher focused on maternal health removed references to gender-based discrimination in order to receive federal funding. A medical trade publication warned scientists to avoid words such as “female” and “women” in grant applications. After Senator Ted Cruz of Texas released a list of supposedly “woke” National Science Foundation grants last year, ProPublica found that some were included merely because their project descriptions included words like “female,” as in a female research scientist, or “diversify,” as in the biodiversity of plants.

It’s a fun-house mirror moment. For more than a decade, while reporting on women in the workplace, I’ve seen my inbox clogged with companies boasting about their work championing female employees. But most firms I contacted for this piece begged me to keep them out of it. At a recent event about working women, I asked a room of human resources executives whether their firms’ diversity efforts were continuing, and every hand shot up. When I asked who would talk about it publicly, almost every hand quickly went down. Executives say they fear not just the administration, but also right-wing activists and misogynistic trolls who might target them.Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.

Even companies with excellent track records in promoting women don’t want to mention it. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, the sociologists Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev identified several initiatives available to all employees that can actually be more effective than D.E.I. programs in boosting outcomes for marginalized groups. They highlighted the successes of IBM’s formal mentorship programs, Walmart’s training academy and Gap’s family-friendly scheduling options. All three companies recorded increases in the percentage of women and people of color in senior roles.

Just don’t ask IBM, Walmart or Gap to elaborate on those impressive findings. I did. All declined.

It may seem perfectly reasonable, even admirable, for companies to keep their mouths shut as they continue to advance diversity goals. After all, nobody wants to be a target. In previous years, too many companies went overboard, with lots of cheap talk about diversity and not enough action. The problem is that silencing the conversation risks undoing years of progress at a time when women are still underrepresented in business and public life. As women are erased from the narrative, injustices against them go unnoticed.

Already, incidents that in years past would have prompted public outrage are being met with silence. Just last month, in a stunning reversal, the United States for the first time in 70 years refused to sign off on the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women’s annual principles, an anodyne set of statements including a reaffirmation of its “commitments to gender equality” and a call to repeal “gender discriminatory provisions.” A U.S. representative to the U.N. slammed them as “gender ideology.”

My guess is that you haven’t heard about this historic repudiation. It’s not your fault: It got almost no public attention.Editors’ PicksBran Muffins Can Be Tender and Moist. Here’s How.He Suddenly Shuffled When He Walked. Why?The Best Raincoats for April Showers

Firms are even cutting funding for employee resource groups — affinity groups centered on women, ethnic and racial minorities or L.G.B.T.Q. communities — despite the fact that many aren’t in the administration’s cross hairs. In previous years, companies “would brag about what they’re doing,” Shelley Correll, a sociologist at Stanford University, told me. Now, companies are “canceling E.R.G.s that aren’t illegal,” she says. It’s “an overreaction to what even Trump is asking them to do.”

As a result, last year, an annual report on women in the workplace found that women have “less career support and fewer opportunities to advance.” One previous champion of women’s advancement, Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, now says companies need more “masculine energy.”

Other marginalized groups have also been targeted. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, corporations jumped to make grand statements and pledge billions of dollars to combat discrimination. Most of those efforts, including initiatives to boost female employees, turned out to be empty platitudes or just plain failures.

The erasure of women from the national narrative has long been a key strategy authoritarian leaders use to destroy democracies. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared that women aren’t equal to men. In Russia, some forms of domestic violence have been decriminalized. And in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government has urged women to focus on childbearing, not its large pay gap. A primary feature of the “autocrat’s playbook” is “reversing progress on gender equality and women’s rights,” the Harvard scholars Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks have written.

Now, women’s rights are eroding in the United States. The Trump administration has called for resurrecting “traditional” nuclear families where the mother is a homemaker. JD Vance argued that having more women in the work force results in “unhappier, unhealthier children.” The administration recently sued a Coca-Cola distributor for hosting a women’s retreat, alleging it discriminated against men. Trump allies have even suggested stripping women of the right to vote.

When women mobilize, countries are more likely to be egalitarian democracies. That’s why authoritarians fear women. The rest of us shouldn’t.

Associated Press, AP says it will offer buyouts, part of pivot from newspaper journalism, David Baudeer, April 6, 2026. The Associated Press, one of the world’s oldest and most influential news organizations, said Monday it is offering buyouts to an unspecified number of its U.S.-based ap logojournalists as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspapers and their print journalism that sustained the company since the mid-1800s.

The News Media Guild, the union that represents AP journalists, said more than 120 of the staff members it represents received buyout offers on Monday.

The news organization is becoming more focused on visual journalism and developing new revenue sources, particularly through companies investing in artificial intelligence, to cope with the economic collapse of many legacy news outlets. Once the lion’s share of AP’s revenue, big newspaper companies now account for 10% of its income.

“We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time,” Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP, said in an interview.

Despite changes – the company has doubled the number of video journalists it employs in the United States since 2022 – remnants of a staffing structure built largely to provide stories to newspapers and broadcasters in individual states have remained.

That has its roots well back in American history; the AP was started in the mid-19th century by New York newspapers looking to share the costs of reporting outside their immediate territory.

Exact numbers of staff reduction unclear

The number of AP journalists who will lose jobs is murky, in part intentionally. The AP does not say how many journalists it employs, though it has a large international presence as well as its U.S. staff. Pace said the AP’s goal is to reduce its global staff by less than 5%.

Since buyouts are being offered now to only U.S. journalists, it stands to reason that the cut among that workforce will be more than 5%. Whether there are layoffs depends on how many people take the offer, Pace said.

“The AP employs hundreds of talented journalists who are willing and able to adjust to the changing media landscape,” the union said in a statement. “However, the company refuses to offer them appropriate training and tools. Instead, AP continues to get rid of experienced staff and flirt with artificial intelligence — ignoring the opportunity to differentiate AP news stories as ones that are and always will be created by human journalists.”

The union said AP ignored a request last week to bargain over artificial intelligence. The news outlet had no immediate comment on that claim, or the union’s estimate of how many people were offered buyouts. It’s not clear whether the buyout offers were concluded by Monday afternoon.

Over the past four years, the AP’s revenue from newspapers has declined by 25%. Gannett and McClatchy, two of the largest traditional newspaper publishers, dropped AP in 2024.

In recent days, the company learned that Lee Enterprises — publishers of newspapers like The Buffalo News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Richmond Times-Dispatch — is seeking an early exit from a contract due to expire at the end of 2026.

Pace said the buyout plan was in the works before learning about Lee Enterprises. “We made a decision earlier this year that we needed to be bolder in this transformation,” she said.An even higher focus on the day’s biggest stories

Besides the transition to more video capabilities, the AP is deploying rapid-response teams where staff members, no matter their geographic base, contribute to the day’s big stories, she said. The AP is putting more journalists on beats to break news on topics of known customer interest. But it is committed to maintaining a presence in all 50 states.

National Press Club Journalism Institute, National Press Club opposes President Trump’s effort to force disclosure of confidential sources, Beth Francesco, April 6, 2026. National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr. today issued the following statement after President Donald Trump’s public remarks that a news outlet should reveal its confidential sources or face consequences including jail time:

“President Trump’s public suggestion that journalists should be jailed if they refuse to reveal confidential sources is a direct threat to the First Amendment and the core function of a free press.

No president should call for jailing journalists who refuse to betray their sources. The ability to protect confidential sources is essential to newsgathering and to informing the public on matters of urgent national interest. Those protections are at risk when the president tries to bully news organizations to disclose confidential sources.

The government has a legitimate responsibility to safeguard classified information. But that responsibility does not extend to punishing journalists for lawful reporting or coercing them to disclose sources.

Comments like these are not theoretical. They risk chilling constitutionally protected reporting and sending a dangerous signal to those who would seek to undermine press freedom.

Such a curb on the news process is particularly dangerous at a time when the public should be fully informed about the U.S. war against Iran. The public has a right to know, and journalists' work is crucial in fulfilling it.

We urge all public officials to respect the constitutional role of a free and independent press and to refrain from rhetoric or actions that threaten it.” 

April 5

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News Updates

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  • Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: April 4, 2026 [Pentagon Intrigues], Heather Cox Richardson, right, April 5, 2026. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth heather cox richardson cnnfired the U.S. Army chief of staff, General Randy George, in a struggle to exert his will over the career officers in the service.

U.S. Elections, Politics, Governance

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 More On Iran War

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  • Michael Cohen via Substack, The Strait Of Hormuz Standoff, Michael Cohen, right, michael cohen palmer portraitApril 5, 2026. As Trump’s ultimatum collides with Iran’s defiance, the world edges toward catastrophic escalation, where ego, power, and survival instincts threaten to ignite an uncontrollable global inferno.
  • Everyone's Entitled To My Own Opinion, Commentary: Get ready everyone, Jeff Tiedrich, right, jeff tiedrichApril 5, 2026. Iran gets an obscenity-laced ultimatum. 

More Global News

Pope Leo XIV holds up the holy host as he presides over a solemn Easter vigil ceremony inside St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV holds up the holy host as he presides over a solemn Easter vigil ceremony inside St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

U.S. and Global Economies

  • Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Sunday Primer: Private Credit and the New World of Financial Risk, Paul Krugman, paul krugmanright, April 5, 2026. There’s a whiff of 2008 in the air.
  • Emptywheel, Analysis: The Other Hostage Crisis, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler), right, April 5, 2026. DOD managed to rescue the marcy wheelerWeapons Systems Officer shot down in his F-15E on Friday, though not before having to backstop the transport planes used for the mission, requiring Special Forces to blow up the original transport planes which got stuck (and possibly one or more small Special Forces choppers as well). Meanwhile, WSJ has a story on the actual, ongoing Iranian hostage crisis happening in mostly plain sight: the 20,000 merchant sailors stuck on either side of the Strait of Hormuz, even as ships periodically get hit.

More On Epstein Files, Trump Team Coverup

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U.S. Law, Courts, Crime, Rights, Justice

  • MS NOW, host reveals one thing Pam Bondi's 'legally sick' DOJ couldn't destroy, Matthew Chapman, April 3, 2026. pam bondi 2025The story of Attorney General Pam Bondi's rise, fall, and firing is the story of the Trump administration failing to bend the federal courts to their will, said MS NOW's Ari Melber on Friday — and taking it out on the woman given that impossible task.

U.S. Immigration, Deportation, Civil Rights

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  • New York Times, Stephen Miller Is Still Pursuing His Immigration Agenda, but More Quietly, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Hamed Aleaziz, Christopher Flavelle, Emily Cochrane and Glenn Thrush, April 5, 2026. The architect of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign, above left, wants “a moratorium on immigration from third world countries until we can heal ourselves as a nation.” The chaos in Minneapolis has not pushed him off that course.

U.S. Culture Wars, Media, Religion, Race, Education

April 5

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Paul Krugman via Substack, Opinion: Living in Hell, War crimes coming: A horrifying update, Paul Krugman, paul krugmanApril 5, 2026. America as we knew it may end Tuesday.

Hi, I’m Paul Krugman. Sunday morning update. Yesterday, I talked about how awful Trump’s message about glory to God and all of that was, but it’s looking much, much worse today. I’ll quote Trump in a second.

But let me do a Heather Cox Richardson here and talk about history for a second. Think about what Abraham Lincoln, a president who was actually winning his war, said in his second inaugural. You’ve all probably heard the magnificent conclusion, which begins,

with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in.

Determination, humility, decency, Now, let me read you Donald Trump’s Truth Social post from this morning:

Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day, all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the fuckin strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in hell. Just watch. Praise be to Allah.

djt truth social 4 4 2026What happened to us? This is not the country we were supposed to be.

If Trump is actually going to give the order for massive war crimes, for destruction of civilian infrastructure, power plants, bridges, which will, among other things, lead to a lot of deaths in Iran, will the military obey it? A year ago, I would have said no.

But what we do know now is that, first of all, there turns out to be at least a significant MAGA component inside the officer corps. And we know that Pete Hegseth has been systematically corrupting, dismantling the military over the past 14 months. Generals who raise ethical concerns have been fired. Officers who even just want to be intelligent about warfare. and not believe that it’s all about warrior ethos and lethality have been fired, so it’s quite possible that there’s a quorum of officers who will follow instructions to commit war crimes.

timothy snyderYou can get even more pessimistic. Tim Snyder, right, has been arguing that we’re basically in preparation for a coup, that somehow or other the war will be a pretense and arguing that this insane expansion of military spending in the latest Trump budget is a bribe to the military.

I hope he’s wrong. But in any case, my God, if Trump gets his way, and if he doesn’t chicken out —and I think TACO is greatly overrated, I think all too often Trump actually does follow through on his insane stuff.

It’s entirely possible that basically by this time Tuesday, America will have established itself as one of the world’s great villains. I don’t want to be here, but, you know, be warned. This is happening. This is real.

It’s the most astonishing, awful thing that I’ve ever seen, and we’ve all seen a lot of awful things. Take care, I guess.

 abraham lincoln alexander gardner library of congress getty images

If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

—Abraham Lincoln (shown as president), Lyceum Address, 1838

The Hartmann Report, Historical Commentary: Your weekly excerpt from one of my books. This week: "The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink," thom hartmann newThom Hartmann, right April 5, 2026. Trump isn’t the first Republican president to have seized the White House by fraud. In fact, the historical pattern is far more disturbing: every Republican president since Eisenhower has either directly stolen the presidency or inherited their position from someone who did.

hartmann report newNixon, below right, started this treasonous tradition in 1968. While President Johnson was desperately working to end the Vietnam War, Nixon secretly sent envoys to persuade South Vietnamese leaders to boycott peace talks, promising them better terms after his election. Johnson discovered this sabotage when the FBI brought him the wiretaps; he confronted Nixon directly, calling it what it was: “This is treason.”

1. richard nixon headshot CustomNixon’s scheme worked, however, prolonging the war that killed an additional 22,000 Americans and over a million Vietnamese. And Johnson took this crime to his grave; his library didn’t release the tapes for decades. The pattern continued with Reagan in the election of1980. As recently confirmed by former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes, Reagan’s campaign struck a deal with Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini to keep fifty-two American hostages captive until after the election, deliberately sabotaging President Carter’s negotiations for their release.

 

From left: President Ronald Reagan, News Corp. and Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, right-wing fixer and superlawyer Roy Cohn (standing) and Reagan fund-raiser and U.S. Information Agency Director Charles Wick, back to camera (Photo via Reagan Presidential Library).From left: President Ronald Reagan, News Corp. and Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, right-wing fixer and superlawyer Roy Cohn (standing) and Reagan fund-raiser and U.S. Information Agency Director Charles Wick, back to camera (Photo via Reagan Presidential Library).

2. The hostages were freed the very minute Reagan was sworn in, and his administration later secretly sold weapons to Iran (leading to the Iran-Contra scandal), thus keeping his corrupt bargain. George H. W. Bush leveraged Reagan’s illegitimate presidency to get into the White william barr o 1992House himself, and then used Attorney General Bill Barr (shown in 1992) to shut down the Iran-Contra investigation by pardoning six key figures before they could implicate him.

3. The Supreme Court handed George W. Bush the presidency in 2000 by halting Florida’s recount, despite Gore winning the popular vote by over 500,000 ballots. A later investigation by major newspapers confirmed Gore would have won Florida under any fair counting standard.

4. And let’s not forget that Bush’s brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, purged at least 57,000 mostly Black voters from the rolls just months before the election that was “decided” by fewer than 600 votes.

5. Trump continued this tradition in 2016, benefiting from voter suppression orchestrated by Republican secretaries of state and Kris Kobach’s Interstate Crosscheck program that purged millions of legitimate voters—mostly people of color—from the rolls.

6. He also benefited from Russian interference through social media manipulation, as documented by Robert Mueller’s investigation.

7. stormy daniels djtFinally, Trump’s payment to silence Stormy Daniels (above) —the crime that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg successfully prosecuted, leading to Trump’s thom hartmann last american presidentthirty-four felony convictions for election fraud—was crucial to keeping Trump’s candidacy afloat after the “grab ’em by the pussy” scandal. Without those illegal payoffs violating campaign finance laws and keeping the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal stories under wraps, Trump almost certainly would have lost to Hillary Clinton.

America has ignored GOP crimes to seize the White House for far too long. Ford’s pardon of Nixon set a destructive precedent of presidential immunity that has echoed through decades, leading to packed courts, unnecessary wars, massive tax cuts for billionaires, and the gutting of America’s middle class.

And now it’s been amplified by six Republicans on the Supreme Court ruling that Trump can commit crimes while in office with relative impunity, an immunity that he’s apparently reveling in.

It’s time to break this pattern and finally hold at least one (convicted) criminal Republican president accountable. 

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ny times logoNew York Times, Iran War Live Updates: U.S. Rescues Officer From Downed Fighter Jet in Iran, Trump Says, Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmidt, Helene Cooper, Yan Zhuang and Aaron Boxerman, April 5, 2026. The rescue followed a two-day race between U.S. and Iranian forces to reach the injured airman, officials said. On Saturday, Israel attacked Iran’s largest petrochemical industrial complex.Here’s the latest.

An Air Force officer whose fighter jet had been shot down in Iran was rescued by U.S. Special Operations forces in a risky night mission deep inside Iranian territory, President Trump said on social media early Sunday.

The rescue followed a life-or-death race between U.S. and Iranian forces that stretched over two days to reach the injured airman, a weapon systems officer, officials said. The operation took commandos deep inside Iran and involved hundreds of special operations troops.

There were no U.S. casualties among the rescue team, Mr. Trump said. The rescued officer had “sustained injuries, but he will be just fine,” Mr. Trump added.

Finding the downed airman had been the U.S. military’s top priority since Friday, when Iran's military shot down the F-15E Strike Eagle. It was the first known instance of a U.S. combat aircraft being shot down by Iran since the war began more than a month ago. The two members ejected from the cockpit and the pilot was quickly rescued.

Another U.S. aircraft, an A-10 Warthog attack plane, crashed near the Strait of Hormuz at about the same time, and the lone pilot was rescued, two U.S. officials said. The Iranian military said its air defense systems had hit an A-10. The U.S. officials did not say what caused the plane to go down.

The incident underscored Iran’s ability to fight back despite weeks of attacks on its military arsenal. On Sunday, Israel and Gulf nations reported attempted drone and missile strikes they attributed to Iran. Kuwaiti officials said Iranian drones significantly damaged two power and water desalination plants, and sparked a fire at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s oil complex.

A fire at a storage facility for Bapco Energies, Bahrain’s state-owned energy company, was doused on Sunday after an Iranian drone attack, the state news agency reported.

Israel kept up its attacks on Iran and its allies across the region over the weekend, bombarding the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Sunday after attacking Iranian energy facilities on Saturday. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group, in Lebanon and has signaled that Israel could launch a longer occupation of the south of the country.

As the search for the second airman continued, Mr. Trump on Saturday reiterated his threat to strike Iranian power plants unless a deal was reached within two days to halt Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for Persian Gulf oil and gas.

Mr. Trump has already delayed the ultimatum twice, saying that there were ongoing talks between the United States and Iran. Iranian officials have publicly dismissed U.S. demands, however, and continued to voice defiance.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

  • Dwindling interceptors: The war in the Middle East has underscored the importance of antimissile interceptors in warfare but the conflict is rapidly depleting global supplies. Israel and Persian Gulf states have managed to weather most Iranian ballistic missile barrages thanks to the sophisticated defenses, but it is unclear how long the stockpiles will last, even as conflicts loom elsewhere around the world. Despite U.S. and Israeli efforts, Iran has been quickly repairing its bombarded missile bunkers and silos, according to U.S. intelligence reports. Read more ›
  • Petrochemical factories hit: Israel on Saturday struck a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr, a sprawling industrial center in Iran’s southwest that plays a significant role in the country’s economy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the targeted sites were part of a “money machine” that brought in revenues for the Iranian government. At least five people were killed and 170 others injured in the attack on the major oil industry hub, state media in Iran reported.

ny times logoNew York Times, What We Know About the Rescue of a U.S. Airman After Two Jet Crashes, Neil Vigdor, Aurelien Breeden and Yan Zhuang, Updated April 5, 2026. An airman was rescued on Saturday night, President Trump said. The rescue came after a risky two-day operation deep inside Iran.

An Air Force officer whose fighter jet had been shot down in Iran was rescued by U.S. Special Operations forces in a risky mission Saturday night, President Trump said on social media early Sunday.

The rescue followed a life-or-death race between U.S. and Iranian forces to reach the airman, a weapons system officer, that stretched over two days, officials said. There were no U.S. casualties among the rescue team, Mr. Trump said. The rescued officer had “sustained injuries, but he will be just fine,” Mr. Trump added.

Iran shot down the jet on Friday, the first known instance of a U.S. combat aircraft being shot down by Iran since the war began more than a month ago. It was a high-profile setback for the Trump administration, which has repeatedly sought to project American air supremacy in the war.

The two crew members on the plane, an F-15E Strike Eagle, were able to eject from it, U.S. military officials said. The pilot was rescued soon afterward, and officials launched an urgent search for the other airman.

Separately, another Air Force combat plane, an A-10 Warthog, crashed in the Persian Gulf region on Friday. The lone pilot was rescued, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.Here’s what you need to know:

Where was the first jet shot down? How did rescue efforts unfold? How have Iran and the United States reacted? What kind of jet were the airmen flying? What about the other plane that crashed?

Where was the first jet shot down?

Iran shot down the F-15E over the southwestern part of the country on Friday. Iran’s state broadcaster shared images that it claimed showed part of the wreckage.

The images showed the wingtip and top section of a vertical stabilizer from an F-15E, according to Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow who studies air power and technology at the Royal United Services Institute, a research institution in London. He said markings on the vertical stabilizer section were consistent with the 494th Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Air Force, based at R.A.F. Lakenheath in England.How did rescue efforts unfold?

Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos rescued the weapons systems officer in an operation that involved hundreds of special operations troops and other military personnel working deep in enemy territory, current and former U.S. officials said.

After ejecting from the F-15E, the officer hid in a mountain crevice. He evaded Iranian forces for more than 24 hours, at one point hiking up a 7,000-foot ridgeline, a senior U.S. military official said. His location was initially unknown to the United States but the C.I.A. found his hiding place, a senior administration official said.

U.S. aircraft dropped bombs and opened fire on Iranian convoys to keep them away from where the airman was hiding. U.S. commandos also fired their weapons to keep Iranian forces away from the rescue site as they converged on the airman but did not engage in a firefight with the Iranians, a U.S. military official said.

“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Mr. Trump said in his social media post.ImageA large torn piece of metal from a jet fighter lies on rocky ground. The word “Europe” is in a banner printed on the metal.A photo released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting purporting to show fragments of a jet fighter that was downed on Friday.Credit...Islamic Republic of Iran BroadcastingHow have Iran and the United States reacted?

The loss of the two aircraft, days after Mr. Trump declared in an address to the nation that the United States was moving closer to achieving its military objectives, raised questions about Iran’s capabilities after a month of attacks. Mr. Trump hailed the rescue as evidence that Iran’s defenses had been badly damaged, if not destroyed.

“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” he wrote.

Iran’s regime had offered a reward for the capture of “enemy’s pilot or pilots,” who it said should be turned over alive to security forces, according to a local affiliate of Iran’s state broadcaster. 

ny times logoNew York Times, News Analysis: Iran’s Downing of Plane and U.S. Rescue Leave Both Sides Dangerously Emboldened, Erika Solomon, April 5, 2026. After Iran shot down a U.S. plane and U.S. forces pulled off a risky ground operation to extricate a stranded airman, both sides claimed victory. That confidence could fuel further escalation.

Iran’s downing of an American fighter plane and the dramatic U.S. mission that followed to rescue a stranded airman provides both countries with fodder to claim a victory, but this chapter could end up propelling them toward further escalation.

Iranian state media on Sunday published photographs of a charred American aircraft and declared that the downing of three American aircraft in three days was a triumph of “divine grace.” Reposting the picture, Iran’s hard-line speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Ghalibaf, said: “If the United States gets three more victories like this, it will be utterly ruined.”

From the U.S. perspective, President Trump also emerged emboldened, boasting on Sunday about how American forces were able to pull off a risky ground operation and issuing a crudely worded threat that he would begin striking infrastructure targets.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” he wrote. Calling Iran’s leaders “crazy bastards” and using an expletive, he demanded they open the Strait of Hormuz shipping route, “or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

Iran is now one day away from Mr. Trump’s ultimatum to strike critical Iranian infrastructure if Tehran does not make a deal with Washington, or open the strategic strait. Attacking bridges or power plants, which could plunge Iran’s population of more than 90 million into darkness, would constitute a war crime.

Washington’s ally in the war, Israel, has already launched strikes on critical infrastructure, including a major pharmaceutical plant and its largest petrochemical complex.

Iran has warned it will retaliate by bombarding similar strategic assets in neighboring Gulf countries. Such escalation could be devastating for millions of civilians in the region, and wreak further havoc on the global economy and the already volatile markets.

“Iran’s approach is not to yield to these threats. Because if so, Trump will only continue,” said Sasan Karimi, a political scientist at the University of Tehran and the former deputy vice president for strategy in Iran’s previous government. “So Iran will use its maximum capability to retaliate — and not necessarily proportionally, because Iran’s infrastructure is vital, and hitting it is a violation of international law. A war crime, actually.”

With both sides perceiving themselves as at an advantage, there is currently little hope of making progress on a diplomatic solution to end the crisis, said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director of the International Crisis Group, a research organization. “From this point on, this war will become even more dangerous than it was before,” he said.

“This is exactly the kind of escalation trap that results in mission creep — which is if you constantly think that with more targeting and more pressure, you could eventually be able to force the Iranians to capitulate.”

Heather Delaney Reese via Substack, Trump's bizarre speech was so disturbing they deleted it, Heather Delaney Reese, right,helen delaney reese April 5, 2026. At an Easter lunch celebration surrounded by faith leaders, the President of the United States called Somali people “low IQ,” said he’d “prefer just to take the oil” from Iran, called daycare, Medicaid, and Medicare “little scams,” and while reading the biblical passage about Jesus entering Jerusalem, stopped mid-sentence and said, “They call me king now. Do you believe it?”

He compared himself to a king while telling the story of Christ’s sacrifice, at an Easter event, in the White House. Not one faith leader in the room pushed back. Instead, they laid hands on him and prayed. One pastor compared his suffering to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The White House later deleted the video of the entire speech.

Hours later, he delivered a primetime address to the nation that had been teased for 24 hours, holding the country in suspense. He looked physically weak. He struggled with the teleprompter, saying “epic theory” instead of “epic fury” and “batter field” instead of “battlefield.” He claimed the war was the greatest military success in history and said America has been “winning for five years under my presidency,” erasing the Biden administration from existence. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked if there has “ever been a more rambling, disjointed, and pathetic presidential war speech.” His own senior advisers admitted to Axios that they don’t know what he intends to do next.

And then he told Reuters he is “absolutely” considering pulling the United States out of NATO, calling the alliance “a paper tiger.” NATO was built in the ruins of a war that killed 70 million people. It was invoked for the first and only time after September 11th, when allied soldiers came to fight for us, and many never came home. Today, both the Australian and British prime ministers addressed their nations on the same day because of the chaos one American president has created. A CNN poll shows his economic approval at a career low of 31%. Among Republicans under 45, his economic approval is down 23 points since January. The cracks are widening, and November is coming.

We are living through a pivotal moment for our country, and my goal is to reach as many people as possible with clear, factual information about what is happening. The more people who understand what is unfolding, the better our chances of pushing back against chaos, cruelty, and corruption ahead of the midterms.

Salon, Paula White likens Trump’s troubles to Jesus Christ at Easter lunch, CK Smith, April 5, 2026. Some Christian leaders are calling the comparison “blasphemous” as criticism grows, White House deletes the video. 

salon LogoAs Christians prepare to observe Easter, remarks from Paula White — a longtime spiritual adviser to Donald Trump — are drawing sharp criticism, including from within Christian communities.

In comments made during a recent event, White appeared to draw a comparison between Trump and Jesus, invoking religious imagery that many critics said crossed a line. The remarks quickly circulated online, prompting backlash from both political observers and faith leaders who argued the framing was inappropriate particularly during Easter, one of Christianity’s most sacred holidays.

Some critics went further. Progressive Christian voices, including influencer and commentator Tim Whitaker, described the comparison as “blasphemous,” reflecting a broader concern that religious language is being used in ways that distort core theological meaning.

The controversy intensified as attention turned to how the remarks were handled afterward. Reports indicate that video of the moment was removed from official channels, raising additional questions about how the message was received internally.

paula white national faith boardWhite, right, has long been a prominent and polarizing figure in evangelical circles, known for blending faith and politics in her public messaging. Supporters see her as an unapologetic advocate for Christian values in public life, while critics argue that her rhetoric risks collapsing the distinction between religious belief and political loyalty.

This latest episode reflects that divide in stark terms.

Easter centers on themes of sacrifice, resurrection and redemption. The pope took this Easter to make a call for “hope” and “peace” amidst all the war and violence. This makes any perceived comparison between political figures and religious icons especially sensitive and often offensive. For many observers, the reaction to White’s remarks underscores how quickly those boundaries can become flashpoints.

While the moment is unlikely to carry direct political consequences, it highlights a recurring tension: when faith and politics intersect, even a single comment can resonate far beyond its original audience.

News Updates

Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: April 4, 2026 [Pentagon Intrigues], Heather Cox Richardson, right, heather cox richardson cnnApril 5, 2026. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the U.S. Army chief of staff, General Randy George, below left, in a struggle to exert his will over the career officers in the service.

On Friday at 8:15 p.m., the official social media account of the Joint Staff, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Vice Chairman appeared to express their opinion of the firing when they posted: “On behalf of the Joint Force and the Joint Chiefs, we extend our deepest gratitude to Chief of Staff of the Army, General Randy George, for his decades of steadfast service to our nation. Since 1988, General George and his family have consistently answered the nation’s randy georgecall with honor and dedication. We are profoundly thankful to General George and his wife, Patty, for their many years of sacrifice and devotion to those who serve. As they graduate from this distinguished chapter of service and look toward the future, we wish them both continued happiness and success in all that lies ahead.”

On Friday, Iranians shot down a U.S. F-15E fighter jet over Iran. U.S. forces quickly rescued the pilot of the jet, but the second crew member, a weapons system officer, was not rescued until late today, with the news breaking just minutes before midnight.

Iranians also hit a U.S. A-10 Warthog aircraft, a ground-attack plane designed for close support of ground troops, as it was engaging in the search. Its pilot ejected and was rescued. A helicopter also engaged in search and rescue was hit by small-arms fire that injured crew members, but it landed safely outside Iran.

The strikes came two days after Trump told the American people that the U.S. military had “beaten and completely decimated Iran,” that “[t]hey have no anti-aircraft equipment,” and that “[t]heir radar is 100% annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force.” Meanwhile, Iranian TV showed people heading into the mountains to find the airman.

Dan De Luce, Courtney Kube, and Gordon Lubold of NBC News identified the last time an American plane was shot down by enemy fire as 2003, with a crash near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. The pilot ejected safely and was rescued.

The social media accounts of the defense secretary and of U.S. Central Command went silent after Thursday night. Trump did not speak to the public about the missing airman. When the White House wants to tell the press there will be no more public information released that day, it “calls a lid” so journalists will stop waiting for news. The White House called a lid yesterday at 4:12 p.m., and the president did not go to Mar-a-Lago, as he has been in the habit of doing on the weekends. Trump did not appear at all today, and the White House called a lid at 11:08 a.m.

But Trump did post on social media. Yesterday, while the search for the airman was underway, his account posted: “With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A ‘GUSHER’ FOR THE WORLD??? President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

At 10:05 this morning, Trump posted: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out—48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Economist Paul Krugman noted today that this post didn’t sound like Trump. His speech on Wednesday was low energy and delivered in a paul krugmanmonotone. It suggested Trump was abandoning the idea of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and handing off the problem to other countries. Now he is threatening to “reign”—he meant “rain”—down “all Hell” on Iran to get it to restore the conditions that existed before he attacked. And then, as Krugman noted, he added “Glory be to GOD!” which sounds a lot more like Hegseth’s Christian holy war language than Trump’s.

Krugman says, “[I]t sounds like he’s…going to try and do something truly awful in an attempt to somehow redeem himself and the situation” in Iran.

Michael R. Gordon and Alexander Ward of the Wall Street Journal reported today that Trump’s aides have been telling him Iran’s civilian infrastructure is a legitimate wartime target, despite the understanding among experts that such attacks are illegal. The journalists say Hegseth has embraced the aides’ argument that attacking infrastructure would make it more difficult for Iran to transfer the materials they need to develop nuclear weapons. A White House official added that destroying electric plants could foment civil unrest, which would in turn make it more difficult to produce a nuclear weapon.

Ryan Goodman of Just Security commented: “That would be an F on a bar exam.” He observed, “This isn’t legal analysis. It’s idiocy.”

Reuters reported today that Israel is prepared to attack Iranian energy facilities but is waiting for the U.S. to agree.

Tonight the White House released the president’s schedule for tomorrow, Easter Sunday. It has a scheduled 8:00 a.m. “Executive Time” and a 7:00 p.m. family Easter dinner. He has no scheduled public appearances.

U.S. Elections, Politics, Governance 

Democratic-Republican Campaign logosLincoln Square Media, Political Opinion: Congratulations, Trump: You Played Yourself, Rick Wilson, right, rick wilson screengrabApril 5, 2026. Trump's new executive order is going to bite the GOP in the ass.

Trump’s latest and most madcap executive order on mail-in voting isn’t just a policy pivot; it’s a full-frontal assault on the plumbing of American democracy, delivered with the Cromwellian subtlety of a sledgehammer to a stained-glass window. It’s classic Trumpism: find a functioning, if unglamorous, part of the civic infrastructure, set it on fire because arson is your only tool when electoral reality is bearing down.

lincoln square media logoBut it’s also among the dumbest ideas to slither out of the wet-brained claque of Trump’s advisors and lackeys, and that’s a very, very high bar.

This executive order is going to absolutely wreck one of the GOP’s most effective election tools, because even if they lose in court, the MAGA voter now says, “Well… can’t do that mail-in ballot. George Soros has a secret army of gnomes in the mailbox to change my vote and make me trans!”

In the words of the poet and philosopher DJ Kahled: “Congratulations. You played yourself.”

The premise of this new order is a solution in search of a problem that doesn’t exist. It demands the creation of a federal “eligible voter” list, a sort of national velvet rope compiled by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. You know … the good voter. His voters. The rest of you? Not so much.

The order instructs the U.S. Postal Service to effectively act as a bouncer, refusing to deliver mail-in ballots to anyone whose name doesn’t appear on this centralized, non-existent database. I’m sure you’re filled with the same degree of confidence you’d feel if a large-animal vet showed up to do your heart surgery.

It’s an attempt to nationalize voter suppression under the imaginary demon of voter fraud. In reality, it’s a bureaucratic nightmare designed to inject maximum friction into the simplest act of citizenship.

But let’s talk about the why. This isn’t born of a sudden, scholarly interest in administrative efficiency; it’s born of a cold, acidic flopsweat over the 2026 midterms. The MAGA brain trust has seen the polling, and many of them are asking ChatGPT, “What is seppuku?” and “How to enter witness protection.”

With a blue wave currently building (and the data in every … single … poll, in primary turnout off-year, and special elections is shaking the MAGA GOP to its bones)…well, the White House is staring down a November where they could lose the House and the Senate, turning the rest of this term into a parade of subpoenas, investigations, impeachments, and accountability.

You know, Trump’s favorites.

They know they can’t win a fair fight on the merits, so they’re trying to clog the pipes. They are betting that if they can just break the process of voting by mail, which is enormously popular around the country, they can do an election-day turnout push and win.

Trump hopes the very engaged voters currently fueling the Democratic surge aren’t willing to face the harrowing gauntlet of delays, ICE agents at polling places, and eligibility checks, so that they can artificially suppress the tide before it reaches the shore.

We are witnessing a l’etat c’est moi jurisdictional hallucination of the highest order.

The Elections Clause of Article I, Section 4 is black-letter clear: the “Times, Places and Manner” of holding elections are prescribed by the States. While Congress has a limited role to “make or alter” these regulations, the Executive Branch has exactly zero authority to dictate how a state registers its voters or delivers its ballots.

This isn’t just an overreach; it’s a complete departure from the American tradition of decentralized power. Trump is treating the sovereign states like middle-management branch offices that need a fixer from Washington to tell them how to handle their own elections.

For a party that traditionally treats “States’ Rights” like a holy relic, the GOP’s silence on this federal intrusion is a masterpiece of hypocrisy. American elections are run by more than 10,000 local jurisdictions, a feature that prevents a single point of failure.

Now, red-state governors and legislatures, still under the grip of “What Does Master Trump Want?” will likely play ball. Good.

From Oregon’s universal mail-in system to Florida’s robust early-and-absentee program, states have spent decades perfecting their own machinery. By attempting to override these local systems with a clumsy federal mandate, Trump is signaling that the GOP’s commitment to federalism ends exactly where his personal political grievances begin.

For years, the Republican Party actually owned the mail-in game. Look at the Florida Model, of which I played no small part in creating: for decades, Florida Republicans spent millions of dollars perfecting the art of banking votes early via mail.

Why? It worked.

This allowed them to lock in their numbers and focus their resources on Election Day turnout. Their most reliable voters … seniors, rural residents, and military personnel …are the ones most reliant on the mailbox.

By demonizing the very system that kept them in power, Trump is effectively telling his own base to walk through a minefield just to reach the ballot box. It is political malpractice on a galactic scale, born of a narcissism that cannot distinguish between party strategy and a personal vendetta against the post office.

And honestly, I’m here for it on one level. Like the Texas Dummymander, regardless of the legal outcomes in this case, he’s telling his own people not to use the system that helped the GOP take power in states across the nation.

More On Iran War

djt march 2020 Custom

Michael Cohen via Substack, The Strait Of Hormuz Standoff, Michael Cohen, right, April 5, 2026. michael cohen palmer portraitAs Trump’s ultimatum collides with Iran’s defiance, the world edges toward catastrophic escalation, where ego, power, and survival instincts threaten to ignite an uncontrollable global inferno.

There’s a line in The Dark Knight that has been echoing in my head as this war barrels forward: it is when the Joker says to the Batman, “what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?”

Well, we are about to find out.

On one side, you have President Trump, a man I know better than almost anyone. A man who does not negotiate so much as he escalates. Deadlines, ultimatums, theatrics. It has always been his playbook. Only now, instead of a boardroom or a courtroom, the stage is the Persian Gulf, and the stakes are measured in lives, economies, and the fragile architecture of global stability.

On the other side stands Ali Khamenei, or whichever hardline faction is truly pulling the strings inside Tehran. And here is the uncomfortable truth: for all their ideological differences, these two men are cut from a similar cloth. Neither bends. Neither concedes. Both derive power from defiance. Both understand that backing down is not just a political loss. It is an existential one.

So when Trump gives Iran a timeline ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, he is not issuing a diplomatic request. He is setting a fuse.

And now we are down to T minus 24 hours.

Let’s be clear about what is happening. Iran has effectively choked off one of the most critical arteries of the global economy. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil flows through that narrow passage. Shut it down, and you do not just create a regional crisis. You ignite a global one. Energy markets convulse. Supply chains fracture. Nations that have nothing to do with this conflict suddenly find themselves dragged into its consequences.

Trump sees this as leverage, a pressure point. In his mind, force creates compliance.

But here is where experience matters, and where his instincts become dangerous.

Because Iran does not see pressure the same way. Pressure, for them, is validation. It reinforces the narrative they have built for decades: that the United States is an aggressor, that resistance is survival, that capitulation equals collapse. For the current regime to remain in power, it must not just resist. It must be seen resisting.

That is the immovable object.

Meanwhile, Trump has just been handed what he believes is proof of concept. The successful rescue of a downed American airman, pulled from behind enemy lines after Iran shot down his F-15 jet, has given him a victory moment. A narrative of strength, of capability, of dominance. Never mind that the mission reportedly cost the United States multiple aircraft, including a C-130 aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters. In Trump’s world, the headline is all that matters.

Success, to him, is binary. You either win, or you lose.

And right now, he thinks he is winning.

Add to that Israel’s overnight strikes, over 120 Iranian military targets and missile launch sites reportedly destroyed, and you begin to see the pattern. Escalation layered upon escalation. Each side raising the stakes, convinced the other will blink first.

But neither will.

Israel is waiting for the green light to strike Iranian energy infrastructure. Iran is launching drones and missiles not just at Israel, but at United States linked targets across the region, from the UAE to Kuwait. The Houthis are now involved. Hezbollah is lurking. What started as a bilateral conflict is metastasizing into a regional war with global implications.

And still, the rhetoric hardens.

Trump promises to unleash all hell. Iran warns the region will become exactly that if provoked further. These are not negotiating positions. These are declarations of inevitability.

Here is what I learned sitting just feet away from Trump for almost a decade and a half: he believes in domination, not resolution. He believes that overwhelming force compels submission. And in many contexts, real estate, media, even politics, that approach can work.

But geopolitics is not a Manhattan zoning dispute.

You do not win against a regime that equates martyrdom with victory. You do not intimidate a leadership structure that thrives on confrontation. And you certainly do not impose a ticking clock on a culture that has spent decades preparing for exactly this kind of showdown.

That is where the analogy from The Dark Knight stops being cinematic and starts being chillingly real.

Because when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, the outcome is not compromise.

It is collision.

And collisions at this scale do not just produce winners and losers. They produce fallout, literal and figurative. We are already hearing warnings about strikes near nuclear facilities like Bushehr, raising the specter of radiological risk. One miscalculation, one errant missile, one overzealous commander, and suddenly we are not talking about strategy anymore. We are talking about catastrophe.

Department of Defense SealWhat is perhaps most alarming is how little room remains for off ramps. Diplomatic efforts, like those tentatively being explored through Pakistan, are hanging by a thread. Public support in the United States is soft at best. And yet, the machinery of war keeps grinding forward, fueled by ego, ideology, and the dangerous illusion of control.

Trump believes he can bend Iran to his will.

Iran believes it can outlast Trump’s will.

History suggests they are both wrong.

But history also teaches us something else: when leaders refuse to see themselves in their adversaries, when they fail to recognize the mirror staring back at them, they are far more likely to repeat the same fatal mistakes.

Right now, we are watching two men, two systems, two ideologies locked in a contest neither can afford to lose and neither is capable of ending.

The clock is ticking.

And when it hits zero, the question will not be who blinked first.

It will be how much of the world pays the price.  

Everyone's Entitled To My Own Opinion, Commentary: Get ready everyone, Jeff Tiedrich, right, jeff tiedrichApril 5, 2026. Iran gets an obscenity-laced ultimatum. 

Loyal and patriotic citizens, please stand by for an Easter Message of Love and Peace from the President of the United States, Supreme Ruler of the Western Hemisphere, Lord-Emperor of the Sky Above and All the Planets, and God’s Own Avatar on Earth.

djt make a deal iran 4 4 2026“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out - 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Oh goody, another deadline.

pete negseth tatoo

'Glory to god,’ seriously? What, did Piss-Drunk Pete (Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, shown above with his Crusader tatoo) make Donny put that in there? The dunk-tank clown really does imagine he’s fighting a holy war, doesn’t he? remind me one more time which side is supposed to be the religious fanatics. It’s hard to tell them apart.

Also, you illiterate imbecile, it’s ‘rain,’ not ‘reign.’ Goddammit, it’s just so eternally exhausting being governed by morons.

But look at the timing here. Have you ever noticed how all of Donny’s ultimatums always come due a half an hour before the markets open on Monday morning?

It’s not just me who sees this, is it? Oh good, it’s not just me.

djt ultimatums iran mueller markets

Is recent history about to repeat itself? Tomorrow morning around 7am, is Donny going to post about how he’s been having ‘great talks’ with some farcical ‘new leadership,’ and announce that he’s giving Iran another ten-day extension to get their shit together in the Strait of Epstein™? will Donny and his cronies rake in billions as Wall Street goes nuts over the ‘news’?

You know what? Today is Easter Sunday. I’ve got an Easter message:

  • To all my Christian friends, happy Easter.
  • To all my Jewish friends, happy 4th day of Passover.
  • To all my Muslim friends, I hope you had a happy Ramadan.
  • To all my Pagan friends, happy Festival of Ēostre.

Wait, happy what? Oh, you don’t know about Ēostre? Ēostre is the pagan fertility goddess of humans and crops. The traditional colors of the festival are green, yellow and purple. The symbols used are hares and eggs, representing fertility (because we all know that bunnies breed like, well, rabbits) and new life.

Just have yourself a great day, wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing.

More Global News

Pope Leo XIV holds up the holy host as he presides over a solemn Easter vigil ceremony inside St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV holds up the holy host as he presides over a solemn Easter vigil ceremony inside St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

ny times logoNew York Times, Pope Leo Calls for Peace and Warns of a World Indifferent to Violence, Elisabetta Povoledo, April 5, 2026. The pontiff’s Easter remarks follow a Palm Sunday homily in which he said God rejected the prayers of “those who wage war.”

With war in the Middle East casting a shadow over the celebrations of the most important date on the Christian calendar, Pope Leo XIV used his first Easter address as pontiff to renew pleas for peace and dialogue, and to condemn violence.

“On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil,” Leo said on Sunday to tens of thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

The first U.S.-born pontiff has been increasingly outspoken on the issues of war and peace in recent weeks during the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. His Easter message came amid new Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and President Trump’s threatening to rain down “hell” on Iran.

Under a sunny sky in Vatican City, thousands celebrated Easter Mass and listened to the traditional “Urbi et Orbi,” or “To the City and the World,” message, a compendium of the Vatican’s global concerns and the pope’s priorities.

“Let those who have weapons lay them down. Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace,” Leo said in the message. “Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue. Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them.”

ny times logoNew York Times, Dozens Killed in Haiti Massacre as International Force Trickles In, André Paultre and Frances Robles, April 5, 2026 (print ed.). Gangs tore through several rural communities last weekend, underscoring the challenges that will face the new, U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force starting to enter the country.haiti flag

Ilres Théophile, a farmer living north of Haiti’s capital, said he woke in the middle of the night last Sunday to the unmistakable sound of heavy gunfire. Gran Grif, a feared gang in the area, had warned for days that it planned to attack a nearby community.

He fled, returning after sunrise to find carnage in the streets. Mr. Théophile’s three brothers and his son were among the dead. Homes, including his, were in flames. Gran Grif’s coordinated assault on at least eight towns in the agricultural Artibonite region left as many as 70 people dead.

“My son died with his eyes open,” said Mr. Théophile, 55. “We didn’t expect such horror.”

The massacre took place a few days before the arrival of the first wave of a United Nations-backed, multinational force created to quell the spiraling gang violence that has gripped Haiti for years. While the new Gang Suppression Force is expected to take a more aggressive approach than previous efforts, the slaughter in Artibonite underscored the challenges facing both the new force and the Haitian police in confronting the heavily armed groups.

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime, Rights, Justice

MS NOW, Host reveals one thing Pam Bondi's 'legally sick' DOJ couldn't destroy, Matthew Chapman, April 3, 2026. The story of Attorney General Pam Bondi's rise, fall, and firing is the story of the Trump administration failing to bend the federal courts to their will, said MS NOW's Ari Melber on Friday — and taking it out on the woman given that impossible task.

"Washington is still absorbing Trump's firing of Attorney General Bondi yesterday after a brief 14 months on the job, and she was often overshadowed in terms of what her general duties required by her key failures on Epstein," said Melber. "As part of Trump's steady drip of frustrations with her, the journal reports, Bondi stoked expectations about releasing an Epstein client list. She raised the bar on herself, and then later, basically all but conceded she was lying, just as she lied to MAGA influencers by handing them binders claiming to contain Epstein files, which did not - a kind of fraud against your own base, daring them to speak out."

pam bondi 2025But Epstein was just the start of it, said Melber, because Bondi, right, also oversaw "a DOJ that was losing in court."

"Now, that's often because Trump's demands are flatly illegal," said Melber. "Troops in the streets. Global tariffs without Congress. Abusing power to try to indict critics with no evidence. So Bondi's demise is also a story about the courts working, and sometimes the way these things go down and the way the Washington elites and some of the media, quite frankly, talk about it."

"We could miss that," he added. "We get into the personalities or what's happening next before making sure we understand that 14 months just went by. There was a lot of failures, you see, just a slight selection, handful of headlines about those failures on your screen. But this is a story as well, about the courts working, albeit slowly. It's a story and a development about Trump losing, admitting it in public, having to replace his AG, and the rule of law holding."

"Bondi did not win a single case in Trump's vendetta to try to make the DOJ a sword against enemies, and Politico reports, that was part of Trump's decision to oust her," said Melber. "And the good news for the rule of law tonight is that Bondi's replacement faces the exact same judges, courts, and rules of evidence that dealt her all of these losses in an almost absurdly long list of Trump enemies. We put this up before tonight. It has a new relevance. But over the 14 months they've opened all these cases, the green stamps show DOJ cases that already fell apart. Some others remain open as lawmakers are subpoenaed and harassed. Journalists and government vets awaiting trial."

"So let me be clear about what this news means," Melber concluded. "It's a sign of a legally sick DOJ that so many of these faltering and failed cases were ever opened at all. But it's also a sign of a reasonably healthy court system in America right now, that we know the facts and the evidence basically kneecapped these plots, to Trump's great frustration."

U.S. Culture Wars, Media, Religion, Race, Education

Politico, ‘Proactively fall in line:’ Holocaust Memorial Museum quietly changed content after Trump returned to office, Irie Sentner, April 5, 2026. Two former employees said they believed the museum was altering its content preemptively to avoid unwanted negative attention from the Trump administration. The changes came as President Donald Trump cracked down on what he called “corrosive ideology” at the Smithsonian politico CustomInstitution, demanding a slew of alterations. 

In the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington quietly removed from its website educational resources about American racism and canceled a workshop about the “fragility of democracy.”

The changes, which have not been previously reported, came as Trump cracked down on what he called “corrosive ideology” at the Smithsonian Institution, demanding a slew of alterations at the world’s largest museum network to more closely align its content with his worldview. They also coincided with the administration’s efforts to remove content related to diversity, equity and inclusion from federal websites.

Unlike his posture toward the Smithsonian, Trump has not publicly commented on the USHMM’s content or publicly called for any modifications. But two former museum employees who left amid the changes told POLITICO they believed the museum was altering its content preemptively, so as to not draw unwanted negative attention from the Trump administration. Both were granted anonymity due to fear of professional retaliation.

“It seems like they were trying to proactively fall in line as to not then be forced to change,” one of the people said.

The museum pulled from its website a page called “Teaching Materials on Nazism and Jim Crow” at some point after Aug. 29, 2025, the last time the page was captured on the Internet Archive. That page provided lesson plans and resources about the connections between American de jure racism and the Nazi regime, including links to sites about “African American Soldiers during World War II” and “Afro-Germans during the Holocaust,” among other topics.

It also linked to a 2018 video on the museum’s YouTube channel featuring a conversation between a Holocaust survivor and a woman whose father was lynched in Alabama. That video is now unlisted, meaning it does not show up on the USHMM’s YouTube page but is still accessible via direct URL.

Leaders at the museum also renamed a one-day civic education workshop designed for college students from “Fragility of Democracy and the Rise of the Nazis” to “Before the Holocaust: German Society and the Nazi Rise to Power.” In an email, obtained by POLITICO, between a senior staff member at the museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education and a staffer planning the workshop, the senior staff member said the change was necessary due to “concerns regarding how the term fragility may be perceived or interpreted in the current climate.”

Since taking office, Trump has tightened his grip on the USHMM, an independent museum that relies on both private donations and federal appropriations and is not affiliated with the Smithsonian. In an unprecedented move last year, the president purged from its board several of President Joe Biden’s appointees before the end of their terms. And in the months since, he has installed his own loyalists on the board — most notably replacing Stuart Eizenstat, who helped found the museum, with GOP megalobbyist Jeffrey Miller as chair last month.

In an unsolicited statement to POLITICO during this story’s reporting, a museum spokesperson emphasized: “The Trump administration has not requested any changes to the Museum’s content or programming.”

Asked to respond specifically to the claims made in this story, the spokesperson said in a follow-up statement that “The allegations made by the two former employees that we have retreated from this content are false.” The spokesperson added that “Neither the Trump administration nor others ordered changes to the Museum’s content or programming.”

The spokesperson did not respond to specific questions about why the teaching materials page had been taken down, but provided links to active webpages on the museum’s site about racism in Germany and the U.S., the 1936 Olympics and Americans and the Holocaust.

Neither Miller nor the White House responded to requests for comment. Eizenstat declined to comment.

The “Fragility of Democracy” workshop was intended to engage students to “examine key questions, including: What motivated ordinary Germans to vote for an extremist party like the Nazis in free and fair elections? What factors strengthened or weakened democracy in 1920s Germany?” according to copies of two flyers advertising the workshop — one with the original name and one with the new name.

The program behind the workshop, called Civic Learning for Campus Communities, had started in 2020. After years of research and testing, the “Fragility of Democracy” workshop piloted in 2024. The program was canceled in July 2025.

In emails reviewed by POLITICO sent from a museum employee to two professors who had planned on hosting the workshops, the employee attributed the cancellation to “a set of cuts that are due to limited federal funds and a difficult fundraising environment.” But the employee — who has since left USHMM — said museum leadership had privately told them the cancellation was also about “shifting priorities.”

U.S. Immigration, Deportation, Civil Rights

djt stephen miller resized

ny times logoNew York Times, Stephen Miller Is Still Pursuing His Immigration Agenda, but More Quietly, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Hamed Aleaziz, Christopher Flavelle, Emily Cochrane and Glenn Thrush, April 5, 2026. The architect of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign, above left, wants “a moratorium on immigration from third world countries until we can heal ourselves as a nation.” The chaos in Minneapolis has not pushed him off that course.

It was May 2025, a few months into the second Trump administration, and Stephen Miller, the right-wing populist powering the White House crackdown on immigration, was clearly frustrated.

President Trump had talked about arresting “the worst of the worst” of undocumented immigrants — the rapists, killers and other criminals he had emphasized during the previous year’s campaign. Mr. Miller, however, had long pushed for removing anyone who had entered the country illegally.

So when Mr. Miller arrived one day last spring at the headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for an update from agency leaders, an official raised a question on many agents’ minds: Who exactly should they be going after?

Mr. Miller was unequivocal, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting. Agents should not limit themselves to dangerous criminals. Instead, they should stop people with the lowest level of reasonable suspicion, and detain anyone in the country illegally, with warrantless arrests. His message was clear: Push the limits.

Eight months later, Mr. Miller did something startling — he backpedaled.

His demands had helped set in motion militarized operations on the streets of Democratic-run cities, intensified by immigration agents killing two U.S. citizens protesting in Minneapolis. After initially denouncing one of the slain protesters, an intensive care nurse, as a would-be assassin, Mr. Miller offered a rare concession that immigration authorities might have made a mistake.

Now, Mr. Miller, 40, one of the most influential presidential advisers in recent memory and an unabashed champion of Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigrant crackdown, is at a crossroads. He faces questions about how aggressively he can continue to drive the deportation campaign, and how much appetite his party and the country have for tactics that proved successful in helping to boost arrests of immigrants but reignited a polarizing debate over what it means to be American.

The administration has toned down its immigration strategy. Federal agents have drawn down from the streets of major cities, and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary who had become the face of the policy, is out. Mr. Miller even pulled back his public appearances for a time.

But there is little sense inside the administration that Mr. Miller has lost his standing with Mr. Trump.

Far from acknowledging defeat, Mr. Miller appears to have simply adjusted his strategy in an effort to minimize political fallout. He has remained steadfast in his view that the administration should act to reverse an openness to migration that he has called “the single largest experiment on a society, on a civilization, that has ever been conducted in human history.”

This account of Mr. Miller’s role in the White House and his influence over one of the more far-reaching deportation crackdowns in recent decades is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former administration officials, local representatives and people who work with Mr. Miller or have knowledge of internal administration deliberations.

Mr. Miller, who holds the dual titles of deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, continues to preside over regular calls with national security and immigration officials. He is pushing for new ways to squeeze the lives of undocumented immigrants and those with legal protections, such as making it harder to get public housing or other benefits, officials said. He has targeted those with refugee status, particularly Somalis, a group he has long derided.

He is also putting the finishing touches on a rule to block green cards for immigrants who might need public assistance, according to White House officials. The policy faced legal pushback during Mr. Trump’s first term and was lifted under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Miller is focused on crafting the rule to survive in court.

He has pushed Republicans in Congress to resist ICE reforms backed by Democrats, while his team in the White House has helped carry out Mr. Trump’s directive to deploy ICE agents to airports. And Mr. Miller is focused on ramping up deportations of noncitizens to faraway countries, with the hopes of encouraging immigrants still in the United States to leave voluntarily.

In addition to his efforts on the federal level, Mr. Miller has worked with politicians in various Republican states to pass anti-immigrant laws. He raised with Texas lawmakers last month the idea of ending public education funding for undocumented children.

U.S. and Global Economies

Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Sunday Primer: Private Credit and the New World of Financial Risk, Paul Krugman, right, paul krugmanApril 5, 2026. There’s a whiff of 2008 in the air.

On July 15, 2007, the New York Times published an article titled “The richest of the rich, proud of a new Gilded Age.” The article was centered on a profile of Sanford Weill, CEO of Citigroup, who, like others in the financial industry, believed that they were leading America into a new era of prosperity — justifying their immense wealth — and that the government should scrap regulations that were getting in the way of financial innovation.

Exactly one year and two months later, Lehman Brothers failed, plunging the world into the worst financial crisis it had seen in more than 70 years. Many of the innovations of which Weill and others were so proud had, it turned out, created a system of poorly regulated financial institutions — so called “shadow banks” — that were exposed to a 21st-century version of the vast wave of bank runs in 1930 and 1931 that turned an ordinary recession into the Great Depression.

But the 2008 crisis was 17 years ago, and political support for the precautions introduced after 2008 has waned. The Treasury Department is moving to gut the Office of Financial Research, which monitors risks of financial crisis. There is once again a push to deregulate, to embrace financial innovations like crypto that arguably recreate the risks that brought the world economy to its knees in 2008. Shadow banking has had a major revival; by some measures, as I’ll explain, shadow banks are bigger relative to the financial system as they were when Lehman collapsed. And it’s only reasonable to worry about the possibility of a new financial crisis.

At the moment these worries are centered on private credit — lending by institutions that, unlike banks, are effectively shielded from public disclosure and regulation. What’s actually on their books?

After two lenders went bust last fall, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, made waves with his comment that “When you see one cockroach, there are probably more.”

The good news is that providers of private credit aren’t banks, so that even if they turn out to have a lot of junk on their books it probably won’t have as much negative impact as bank losses in 1930 or shadow bank losses in 2008. But these companies aren’t exactly not banks either. And the rise of private credit is part of a broader growth in weakly regulated financial institutions that is making all of us who remember 2008 increasingly nervous.

So, today’s primer will be about private credit and the broader re-risking of the financial system. Beyond the paywall I will address the following:

1. How financial crises happen

2. The growth of private credit and other “non-bank financial intermediaries”

3. The risks from private credit

4. The big picture: Is it 2008 again?

The logic of financial crises

Financial crises — or, to use their older name, “panics” — were a regular feature of the U.S. economy before World War II. The Federal Reserve was created in a reaction to the Panic of 1907, in which J.P. Morgan rescued the banks from potential collapse: Everyone realized that you couldn’t count on there always being a J.P. Morgan around when you needed him, so an institutional equivalent was needed. Unfortunately, the Fed didn’t stop the mother of all panics, the immense banking crisis of 1930-31.

By 2008, however, many economists and policymakers considered such stories to be of mere historical interest. Bank runs, in which depositors raced to pull their funds from a bank they feared was on the edge of failure, were supposedly obsolete with depositors protected by deposit insurance, and in any case the risk of bank failure was supposed to be much lower thanks to regulations that limited risk-taking.

Then Lehman failed, and in the weeks that followed economists were wandering around muttering “Diamond-Dybvig” to themselves.

What? A seminal 1983 paper by Douglas Diamond and Phillip Dybvig — who won a Nobel prize in 2022 — laid out how bank runs can happen and spread through the economy. Their logic seemed obvious after the fact — why was a mathematical model necessary? — but that’s often true of breakthrough ideas in economics.

Diamond and Dybvig envisioned an institution that accepted deposits, which it promised to redeem with cash on demand even while investing most of that money in loans and other assets that could not be liquidated quickly except, possibly, at fire-sale prices.

Normally the disconnect between the liquidity of a bank’s liabilities and the illiquidity of its assets isn’t a problem, because only a small fraction of depositors will want to pull their money out on a given day. But if for whatever reason depositors come to fear that a bank will fail — possibly because other banks have failed recently — many will demand their money immediately. And this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because a bank trying to sell off its loans rapidly, at fire-sale prices, may well go bankrupt even if those loans were fundamentally sound.

That’s how the cascade of bank failures happened in the 1930s. But modern banks were supposed to be protected from such a fate because deposits are insured by the federal government.

What many economists more or less suddenly realized in the aftermath of Lehman’s fall was that the logic of bank runs, as laid out in Diamond-Dybvig, potentially applied to institutions that weren’t legally considered banks, and which didn’t accept conventional deposits. All that really matters, in terms of vulnerability to a crisis of confidence, is a mismatch between liquid liabilities and illiquid assets.

Thus Lehman was investing in mortgage-backed securities with money raised by issuing “repo”, basically one-day bonds. Repo isn’t exactly the same as bank deposits, but those buying it — for example, corporate treasurers — treated it as more or less equivalent, a place to park their cash with the expectation that it could be accessed on short notice. And because firms issuing repo were less regulated than conventional banks, they were able to offer a higher interest rate than their clients could get on bank deposits.

But when everyone lost confidence that money parked in repo would always be available on demand, Lehman and other financial institutions suffered the equivalent of a cascading wave of bank runs even though they weren’t banks in the conventional sense.

The 2008 crisis offered an object lesson in the risks created by shadow banking. But after retreating somewhat in the years after the crisis, shadow banking in a variety of forms has staged a huge comeback. This comeback is essential background for understanding the furor over private credit.

The growth in “non-bank financial intermediaries”

A financial intermediary is any institution that invests using other people’s money. Banks accept deposits and then lend them out — and banks are still, as a group, the largest class of financial intermediaries. But the Financial Stability Board, an international body based in Basel, Switzerland, estimates that non-bank financial intermediaries now hold slightly more than half the world’s financial assets: A graph with blue lines AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Many NFBIs are (financially) innocuous institutions like pension funds that probably don’t pose any significant risks to the system. But the board separates out a narrower measure that it poetically calls “the narrow measure of NBFI.” This is defined as “entities involved in credit intermediation activities that could give rise to bank-like vulnerabilities.” The share of these vulnerability-creating entities in assets fell substantially after the 2008 crisis but is now higher than ever:

Emptywheel, Analysis: The Other Hostage Crisis, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler), right, marcy wheelerApril 5, 2026. DOD managed to rescue the Weapons Systems Officer shot down in his F-15E on Friday, though not before having to backstop the transport planes used for the mission, requiring Special Forces to blow up the original transport planes which got stuck (and possibly one or more small Special Forces choppers as well).

The mission to save the crew member employed hundreds of special forces troops and other military personnel, dozens of U.S. warplanes, helicopters, and cyber, space and other intelligence capabilities.

The airman evaded Iranian forces for more than 24 hours, at one point hiking up a 7,000-foot ridgeline, a senior U.S. military official said. U.S. attack aircraft dropped bombs and opened fire on Iranian convoys to keep them away from the area where the airman was hiding. As U.S. commandos converged on the downed airman, they fired their weapons to keep Iranian forces away from the rescue site, but did not engage in a firefight with the Iranians, a U.S. military official said.

[snip]

In a final twist after the weapons officer was rescued, two transport planes that would carry the commandos and the airmen to safety got stuck at a remote base in Iran. Commanders decided to fly in three new planes to extract all the U.S. military personnel and the airman, and they blew up the two disabled planes rather than have them fall into Iranian hands.

I’ve reposted this post over and over since the shoot-down — laying out how Trump could not stop telling the NYT about his worries, during the Maduro kidnapping, that something like Eagle Claw would have happened.

It almost did.

NYT had already posted on the propaganda value if the US did not succeed in rescuing the airman. In spite of the success of the mission, Iran is nevertheless lying about the remains (Netblocks says today marks the record longest that a country has kept its Internet shut down during a war), which look eerily like those from Eagle Claw but have the context of five decades of Special Forces doctrine that changes the connotation of it.

This is what counts as a huge success, in spite of the two transport planes and the original F-15E (and some smaller choppers and a few Reaper drones) totally lost, the Warthog shot down during rescue attempts last Friday damaged, and several other planes that showed distress that same day. Hundreds live to tell stories (and make movies) about the rescues, and Trump avoids a truly catastrophic PR problem, an Iranian hostage crisis.

Meanwhile, WSJ has a story on the actual, ongoing Iranian hostage crisis happening in mostly plain sight: the 20,000 merchant sailors stuck on either side of the Strait of Hormuz, even as ships periodically get hit.

There are roughly 2,000 ships stuck in the Persian Gulf with more than 20,000 seafarers on them, according to the International Maritime Organization. Most have been stuck on board more than a month, because fewer than 200 ships have managed to slip through the Strait of Hormuz. In normal times, 20% of the world’s oil flows through the narrow waterway to global markets, along with critical supplies of natural gas, fertilizer and other cargo shipments. It’s unclear when the vital shipping lane will get back to normal.

Fresh vegetables and freshwater are running out on many ships, so the sailors are using social media and very-high-frequency marine radios to share survival tips and tactics. Some Chinese crew members have filmed themselves collecting condensate from air-conditioning units to shower and wash laundry. Others have taken to fishing over the side of their tankers, catching tuna, squid and largehead hairtail to cook.

Restocking supplies has become difficult—and expensive. The Port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, where ships usually turn to, has been repeatedly attacked. Companies that provide fresh food to ships are charging more. The going rate for mangos is now $31 for a kilogram, or roughly 2.2 pounds, and oranges are $15 a kilogram for about three large pieces of fruit, according to screenshots of supply price lists reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Flying in crews and swapping them out remains tough because flights to major crew-change locations, including Dubai, are still relatively scarce and expensive.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation, a labor union based in London that represents a million seafarers, has received about 1,000 inquiries since the start of the conflict from crew near the strait, asking for support. A growing number report vessels are running out of food, while 200 seafarers wanted help getting off a ship to go home. More than half of the calls have been about pay and other contractual entitlements while in the war zone.

There is growing attention to the problem, with the UN attempting to intervene, followed by an earlier profile of life aboard the ships.

Before that, however, the human hostages (as distinct from the corporate-owned steel hostages that have attracted close scrutiny) have gone largely unnoticed and gone unnoticed for an unsurprising reason. On top of corporate non-disclosure demands, few merchant sailors are Americans or even Europeans; most are from poorer Asian countries (Chinese sailors are mentioned in the WSJ piece, Filipinos are quoted in the earlier ABC one), just as the “guest” workers in Gulf countries bearing the brunt of Iran’s attacks are disproportionately from Asian countries.

Their lives as hostages simply won’t create any kind of political pressure on Trump, certainly not directly.

Where things get interesting is if the twin effect of this kind of hostage situation, taken with the disproportionate exposure to scarcity Asia faces, exerts some kind of pressure. As the Economist tracks, the scarcity (as distinct from anticipatory price increases) that will eventually ripple across the globe has started to hit Asia.

This war is “an Asian crisis”, Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore’s foreign minister, told Reuters last week. Around 80% of the oil and 90% of the gas that usually pass through the Strait of Hormuz are bound for Asian markets.

Poor countries are being hit the hardest. In the Philippines more than 90% of energy imports come from the Middle East; Bangladesh, India and Pakistan receive almost two-thirds of their total LNG supplies via the strait. But rich Asian countries are far from immune. Japan boasts a strategic oil reserve equivalent to 254 days of domestic demand, a buffer built up following the oil shocks of the 1970s. But bus and ferry services across the country have been curtailed for lack of supply.

[snip]

The strait’s closure presents three big risks to Asian economies. The first is rising fuel prices. These will increase costs elsewhere and crimp growth, potentially causing a stagflationary spiral. The immediate pain is being felt by motorists across the region, but especially in South-East Asia. Globally, petrol prices have risen by 14% since the war began; in South-East Asian countries the figure is 42%. Prices in the Philippines and Myanmar have shot up by more than 70%, among the biggest jumps in the world (see chart 1).

[snip]

The second risk, therefore, is to Asian governments’ balance-sheets. Many already spend heavily to subsidise energy or set fuel prices, but the fiscal room available for such interventions varies enormously. In Indonesia rising fuel subsidies could result in the country breaching its fiscal-deficit cap of 3% of GDP. Investor confidence, already fragile, would erode further. Cash-strapped Pakistan, under IMF scrutiny, has already had to put up fuel prices by 20%. Such pressures could invite unwanted attention from speculators looking for shaky currencies. Japan’s finance ministry is already said to be considering intervening in the oil-futures market to prop up the yen.

[snip]

The biggest inflationary force could come through food. The war has ensnared roughly a third of global seaborne fertiliser trade, which will drive up food prices, especially when the sowing season begins later this year. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) had projected that prices in Asia would creep up by just 2.1% in 2026. It now warns that figure could exceed 5%, depending on how long the war lasts.

If rising prices are an economics problem for Asian policymakers, the availability of fuel is one of politics and geography: a third big problem for Asia. Along with Japan’s 254 days of fuel reserves, estimates suggest that China has enough to cover 100 days. Both have started to tap those reserves to ease the strain. But analysis from Kpler, a data firm, suggests the situation is precarious in other parts of Asia. It estimates that the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand hold just enough onshore oil supplies to cover about three weeks of normal demand (see chart 2).

Most of these countries — the kinds of countries with significant populations that rely on remittances, but also countries that manufacture consumer goods for the US — don’t have the ability to pressure Donald Trump.

Aside from China.

But they may create the first wave of global instability that arises from a crisis entirely of Donald Trump’s making.

I suspect this crisis will end not because Donald Trump and Whiskey Pete Hegseth learn any lessons along the way. Even while inflation has already made this unpopular war more politically problematic,

It’ll come when outsiders — the Gulf allies getting hammered (several of which demand further costs to Iran), the countries formerly known as European allies, and Asians more generally — bring enough pressure to bear on both sides to find an exit-ramp.

It may not come before chaos hits some very high population countries around the world.

More On Epstein Files, Trump Team Coverup

maximilia corderounnamedRedacted Report, Jeffrey Epstein, Leslie Wexner, and the Victoria’s Secret Pipeline How a Trans Teenager Named Maximilia Cordero Exposed the Trafficking Network in 2007 — and Was Silenced for $28,000, Staff Report, April 3, 2026. "Cordero v. Epstein" named Wexner & Victoria’s Secret as defendants nineteen years before this week’s survivor lawsuit. The New York Post outed her. The court dismissed her. Epstein’s lawyers paid her.

leslie wexner youtube cropped screenshot american academy of achievementOn April 1, 2026, eleven survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking operation filed a lawsuit against Leslie Wexner, left, the Wexner Foundation, and Nine East 71st Street Corporation in New York Supreme Court. The suit alleges that Wexner provided Epstein with approximately $200 million in financial support that enabled decades of sexual abuse and trafficking — and that survivors were assaulted inside the East 71st Street mansion between 2000 and 2016, three of them as minors. The case is expected to transfer to federal court in the Southern District of New York.

This is being reported as breaking news. It is not. A transgender Latina teenager named Maximilia Cordero, shown above, filed the same case, against the same defendants, at the same address, nineteen years ago. She was sixteen when Epstein assaulted her. She was twenty-two when she sued. She was silenced for $28,000.

Who Is Maximilia Cordero?

Maximilia Cordero, also known as Ava Cordero, was a teenager in New York City in 2000 when she was lured to Jeffrey Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse at 9 East 71st Street — the same mansion that would become the most notorious private residence in modern criminal history. She was sixteen years old. The lure, according to court filings, was a modeling career with Victoria’s Secret.

Epstein told her he was a money manager for Victoria’s Secret and could advance her career. According to the amended complaint filed in New York Supreme Court, Epstein told the teenager:

“I love how young you are. You have a tight butt like a baby.” He encouraged her to bring friends, telling her: “I love girls your age.” He promised Victoria’s Secret work if she returned.

The complaint alleged that during 2000 and 2001, Epstein “violently sexually assaulted” Cordero by forcibly touching her and forcing her to perform oral sex on him. She was a child. He was a billionaire financial manager with the weight of the world’s most famous lingerie brand behind his promises.The Victoria’s Secret Recruitment Pipeline

What made Cordero’s lawsuit extraordinary — and what makes it more relevant today than ever — is that she did not sue Epstein alone. Her October 2007 complaint named Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands and owner of Victoria’s Secret, as a defendant. It named Victoria’s Secret Stores Brand Management. It named Nine East 71st Street Corporation, the entity Wexner established to purchase the Manhattan townhouse. And it named Jeffrey Epstein and Co.

The complaint alleged that Wexner “knowingly allowed” Epstein to use the glamour of the Victoria’s Secret brand to “harass and trap young models and teenage girls in performing sex acts.” This was not a peripheral claim.

It was the central theory of the case:

that Epstein weaponized the Victoria’s Secret brand as a recruitment tool, and that Wexner, who retained Epstein as his personal financial manager from 1987 to 2007, enabled it.

leslie wexner jeffrey epstein collageWexner’s relationship with Epstein (shown above right together in a collage) was, by any standard, extraordinary. Wexner granted Epstein sweeping power of attorney. He transferred the 9 East 71st Street mansion to Epstein. Epstein was described as Wexner’s “main client” and operated with access to Wexner’s fortune, his brand, and his social infrastructure. Congressional investigators have since stated publicly that Epstein would have been “nothing without Wexner.”

Cordero put all of this in a legal filing in 2007. She was twenty-two years old.

Instead of prompting an investigation into how a billionaire’s financial manager was using one of the world’s most recognized brands to recruit minors for sexual abuse, Cordero’s lawsuit was met with something worse than silence. It was met with destruction.

The New York Post published her story — and outed her as transgender. The coverage fixated on her gender identity, using transphobic language and sensationalist framing designed to discredit her. The substance of her allegations — that a sixteen-year-old was sexually assaulted by a billionaire who promised her a modeling career with Victoria’s Secret — was buried under headlines engineered to make readers laugh rather than investigate. (See also, New York Magazine: How the System Destroyed Maximilia Cordero.)

The court dismissed the claims on statute of limitations grounds. The alleged assaults occurred before November 2001. The lawsuit was not filed until October 2007. The law said she was too late. The law did not ask why a teenager who had been assaulted by one of the most powerful men in New York might not have felt safe coming forward for six years.

Then came the settlement. Buried in the millions of pages of Epstein-related documents that have since been released is a draft settlement agreement dated October 2009, marked “Confidential & Inadmissible.” The case caption reads: Ava a.k.a. Maximilia Cordero v. Jeffrey Epstein, Victoria’s Secret Stores Brand Management Inc. a.k.a. Victoria’s Secret Stores, Leslie Wexner, Nine East 71st Street Corporation, and Jeffrey Epstein and Co.

The settlement amount: $28,000.

For $28,000, Cordero agreed to a comprehensive release of all claims. She agreed to a strict confidentiality clause. She agreed to a non-disparagement provision that forbade her from making any public statements “that impugns or attacks the reputation or character” of Epstein or any defendant. And she agreed to never encourage or cooperate with any other civil claims against Epstein.

Days after that document was prepared, her lawsuits were withdrawn by her attorney — with prejudice. Meaning they could never be refiled. For the price of a used car, Epstein’s legal team bought the permanent silence of a survivor who had identified the Victoria’s Secret pipeline, named Leslie Wexner as a knowing enabler, and described the recruitment mechanism that would not become public knowledge for another decade.What Leslie Wexner Knew and When He Knew It

Wexner has maintained for years that he was deceived by Epstein and severed ties in 2007 after learning of the criminal investigation in Florida. His spokesperson said this week that the Wexners “have tremendous sympathy for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrendous crimes” but characterized the new lawsuit’s claims as baseless, stating they “appear to be based upon ownership of a house Mr. Wexner sold years prior to the time of the allegations.”

April 4

Top Headlines 

 

djt old looking resized headshotU.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon via Pool and Getty Images)U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon via Pool and Getty Images)

  • Paul Krugman on Substack, Opinion: Donald Trump Isn't Sounding Like Himself, Paul Krugman, right, paul krugmanApril 4, 2026. And that's terrifying. '
  • New York Times, News Analysis: Missing Airman Raises Concerns That Iran Could Gain Leverage Over the U.S., Yeganeh Torbati, April 4, 2026. Since 1979, Iran has repeatedly used Americans and Europeans detained on its territory to win concessions over more powerful adversaries.
  • iraq-iran mapNew York Times, Trump Pledged a Quick End to the Iran War, but He Hasn’t Explained How, Greg Jaffe, April 4, 2026. President Trump bet that American firepower could cow Iran into compliance. So far, Iran’s leaders have been unwilling to quit.
  • MS Now Daily, Opinion: Trump’s cruel budget request, Bobby Kogan, April 4, 2026. On Friday, the Trump administration submitted its annual budget request to Congress. The document called for dramatically reducing what the United States government does for Americans. The budget called for steep cuts to funding for education, housing and health, funneling resources toward the military as the war in Iran reaches its fifth week. 
  • Meidas Touch Network, Opinion: He’s Not Grifting Anymore. He’s Just Taking It, Dina Doll, April 4, 2026.The State Department transferred $1.25 billion in foreign aid to Trump’s Board of Peace, pulling $1 billion from international disaster assistance, $200 million from peacekeeping operations, and $50 million from international organizations. Money that Congress authorized for hurricanes and refugees, moved without a congressional vote, into a fund that Trump created by executive order and controls personally.  

News Updates

  • The Parnas Perspective, Pete Hegseth Purges Generals as Paranoia Grows, Aaron Parnas, right, aaron parnas new headshotApril 4, 2026. Military Silent as American Service Member is Missing, Trump Proposes Massive Cuts to Healthcare, Schools, and More.  

More On Iran War

  • New York Times, Europe’s Options in the Strait of Hormuz: Few, and Risky, Jim Tankersley, April 4, 2026. European leaders and other european union logo rectangleofficials have ideas for bringing shipping back to the strait once the Iran war ends. But none of them are sure bets.
  • National Public Radio, Evacuation of U.S. troops from Mideast base sends community groups scrambling to help, Steve Walsh, April 3, 2026. . NPR has learned that hundreds of sailors were evacuated back to the United States from their base in Bahrain after the base was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones. In addition to the base in Bahrain, NPR has learned that there have been evacuations at other U.S. military bases in the region, though the exact details are unknown at this point. 
  • Emptywheel, Analysis: Blind Spots in the Iran War, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler), right, marcy wheelerApril 3, 2026. Last week, I catalogued a number of filters — crazy, stupid, false, impotent, and blind — via which true accounts still present a misleading picture of the Iranwar. Just the last one — the blindness created by a delay in public release of satellite imagery — involved something other than the Trump team’s inadequacies. I wanted to revisit that, and catalog a number of similar blind spots.
  • HuffPost, Pete Hegseth’s Pastor Says He Wants James Talarico To Die, Jennifer Bendery, Updated March 25, 2026. “We want him crucified with Christ,” Brooks Potteiger said of the Texas Senate Democratic nominee, after the podcast host said he prays “that God kills him.”  
  • U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and his military aide Ricky Buria.Occupy Democrats, Opinion: Pentagon ROCKED as Hegseth’s top aide spreads wild story of disguises and drinking during war, Staff Report, April 3, 2026.U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and his military aide Ricky Buria.

More Global News

 

nato logo flags name

  • Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: April 3, 2026 [NATO's Founding, Purpose, Future], Heather Cox Richardson, right, heather cox richardson cnnApril 4, 2026. On April 4, 1949, representatives from twelve countries in Europe and North America—Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States—signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. This defensive security alliance has been a key institution for world stability since World War II. 

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime

More On Epstein Files, Trump Coverup

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, left, urged Acting U.S. Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche, center, to comply with federal law requiring the remaining millions of pages regarding the late sex trafficker and corrupt financier Jeffrey Epstein, shown at right with his longtime friend Donald Trump. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, left, urged Acting U.S. Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche, center, to comply with federal law requiring the remaining millions of pages regarding the late sex trafficker and corrupt financier Jeffrey Epstein, shown at right with his longtime friend Donald Trump.

  • Occupy Democrats, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie drops an Epstein bomb on Trump's new Acting Attorney General — warning him that he has just one month to fully release the files under the law! Staff Report, April 4, 2026. There will be no rest for the wicked in this scandal...
  • New York Times, Guest Essay: The Epstein Emails Show #MeToo Never Stood a Chance, Claire Wilmot (an academic who researches gender and legal systems), April 3, 2026. Jeffrey Epstein’s use of the false rape accusation — the #MeToo boogeyman and the catalyst of the backlash to the movement — that stopped me in my tracks. 

More On U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections 

  • The Hartmann Report, Week's Best News and Opinion: Vance Targets Blue States as Trump’s New Fraud Czar, Thom Hartmann, April 4, 2026. Sure is starting to smell like Vietnam; Who was General George, who Whiskey Pete just fired? Is the Supreme Court about to become even more bizarre and corrupt than it already is? The West is drying up and Republicans who take money from the fossil fuel industry are trying to ignore it. 
  • Occupy  Democrats, Pentagon ROCKED as Hegseth’s top aide spreads wild story of disguises and drinking during war, April 3, 2026. The Pentagon under Pete Hegseth has devolved into something between a frat house and a spy thriller — and the latest revelation is so unhinged it would be funny if the man at the center of it wasn't currently running America's military.

U.S. Education, Media, High Tech, Jobs

U.S. Jobs, Economy, Inflation

  • The New Republic, Jobs Report Hit With Seriously Brutal Revision, Staff Report, April 3, 2026. The March jobs report doesn’t seem too bad—until you take a closer look at the revision. For what was meant to be the Golden Age of America, it’s sure looking like a recession could be on the cards.

Top Stories

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon via Pool and Getty Images)U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon via Pool and Getty Images)

Paul Krugman on Substack, Opinion: Donald Trump Isn't Sounding Like Himself, Paul Krugman, right, paul krugmanApril 4, 2026. And that's terrifying. 

Hi, Paul Krugman here with a brief update on Saturday afternoon.

Not my usual thing. No economics, no analytics, just I felt I needed to say something. On Wednesday, Trump gave a speech, which was... pretty depressing. He was low energy, listless, and seemed to be disconnected from reality, insisting that everything is going great in this war and everything is going great across the board. And in terms of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, well, it’s somebody else’s problem. And the Strait may naturally open by itself, which didn’t sound like leadership.

In some ways it sounded like Trump, always living in a fantasy world in which things are going his way. But if you thought about the outcome for the world, it seemed to be pointing towards the U.S. never admitting it openly, but implicitly basically giving up and leaving a stronger Iran, but with the Strait of Hormuz opening up — maybe with tolls collected by the regime in Iran, and just a diminished, weakened U.S., but better than some of the alternatives.

Today Trump put up a Truth Social post, which said that if Iran doesn’t open up the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, “all hell will reign down on them.” That was how he put it. All hell will rain down. Misspelled rain, but OK. And then finished it up with glory be to God. GOD in caps.

Wow. So first of all, this is a completely different picture suddenly. Aside from the Strait of Hormuz not being our problem to we will commit massive war crimes, presumably. That’s the only thing that makes sense here, unless they open it up, which is pretty bad.

And also... I don’t think Trump has ever said “glory be to God.” That doesn’t sound like him. That sounds almost as if Pete Hegseth wrote this post, which maybe in some sense he did. The misspellings and all do look like Trump in his own hand, but it feels like this is the influence of our religious fanatic Secretary of War, or as people in the Pentagon apparently call him the Secretary of War Crimes.

This is really bad. It’s hard to see what happens in 48 hours. It’s clear that Trump, for all his pretense of, “I’m always winning,” is aware of how completely he screwed things up, that he’s aware that he has basically led America into an epic strategic defeat. I don’t think he cares about that from the point of view of America, but he is realizing what this has done to him — that he will probably quite rapidly lose his grip on U.S., politics, and certainly to the extent that he cares about his legacy, it’s not going to be his wonderful ballroom. It’s going to be that he’s the man who single-handedly led America to one of its greatest defeats ever. But now what?

It would be one thing if he just kind of slunk away into the night, which is what we would have hoped would happen, but instead it sounds like he’s unable to accept it and that he is going to try and do something truly awful in an attempt to somehow redeem himself and the situation.

If we had a functioning democracy, this would be 25th Amendment time. This guy should not have any authority at all. Finger on the button, although I don’t think we’re talking about nukes, but he shouldn’t have any authority on matters of state violence when this is the kind of mood he’s in. Just in general, although religiosity is often expected of American leaders, saying glory be to God before you unleash violence, that is not what used to be the American way.

Anyway, I’m scared. I wonder very much what the next few days will bring because this is looking like basically a president who is losing it and unfortunately losing it in a way that can really make the world a much worse place very fast.

I guess enjoy the rest of your weekend.

 

ny times logoNew York Times, News Analysis: Missing Airman Raises Concerns That Iran Could Gain Leverage Over the U.S., Yeganeh Torbati, April 4, 2026. Since 1979, Iran has repeatedly used Americans and Europeans detained on its territory to win concessions over more powerful adversaries.

The downing of a U.S. fighter jet over Iranian territory and the intense search for one of its crew members has raised concerns that the airman could be captured and provide Iran with a potent asset that it could use for leverage against the United States.

The rescue operation for the missing airman was in its second day on Saturday, with not only American troops conducting an all-out search but the Iranian military also trying to find the crew member, according to three Iranian officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

In one indication of Iran’s eagerness to find the airman, an anchor for a local affiliate of Iran’s state broadcaster read a statement on Friday on television calling on residents to capture the “enemy’s pilot or pilots” and turn them over alive to security forces for a reward.

The possibility that Iran could capture the airman raises the specter of a replay of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, a traumatizing event in American history that laid the foundation for nearly five decades of hostile U.S.-Iranian relations.

The crisis, in which militant students took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran and kept 52 Americans captive for 444 days, set a template for Iran that it would perfect in the coming decades as a way to capture global headlines, inflict pain on its adversaries and extract concessions.

Since 1979, Iran’s government has repeatedly used hostage-taking as a tactic against its adversaries. It has detained Americans, Europeans and other foreign citizens, sometimes imprisoning them for years before releasing them, often in exchange for cash or the release of its own citizens imprisoned abroad. It has used hostages as propaganda tools and to establish leverage.

The 1979 crisis came to define the final year of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and served for many as a symbol of his failures.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized Mr. Carter’s handling of the hostage crisis, calling it “pathetic.”

In 1980, he told a journalist, “That this country sits back and allows a country such as Iran to hold our hostages, to my way of thinking, is a horror, and I don’t think they’d do it with other countries.”

Hamidreza Azizi, an expert on Iranian security issues at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a research organization, said Iran could take one of two tacks if it manages to capture the airman.

If the capture remains secret, the Iranians could approach the United States privately and cut a behind-the-scenes deal, demanding concessions in exchange for the crew member’s secret release. Or Iran could parade the airman in front of the cameras as propaganda.

That, he said, was the more likely strategy. “They really do want to present this image of victory and also to humiliate Trump,” Mr. Azizi said.

Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Arab Gulf States Institute, pointed to a 2007 incident in which Iran captured British sailors, saying their vessels had trespassed in Iranian waters. The sailors were blindfolded, threatened and subjected to psychological pressure before giving videotaped statements in which they seemed to apologize. But there was no report of physical harm to them, Mr. Alfoneh noted.

“Then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maximized international media coverage as he announced their release, and personally shook their hands,” Mr. Alfoneh said in an email. He added that the treatment of the American airman would likely be different, given that the United States and Iran are at war.

Even if the missing crew member is brought to safety, the episode underscores the risks of conducting missions over hostile territory against an adversary with the ability to retaliate. Rescue operations are inherently dangerous because additional American service members are put at risk.

A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter involved in the search was hit by ground fire on Friday but escaped safely. And a second combat plane, an A-10 Warthog, crashed in the Persian Gulf region, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The pilot in that plane was rescued.

Iranian officials, and even pro-government commentators, have said little so far about the missing crew member and what their fate might be if they fell into Iranian hands. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament and a powerful member of Iran’s political establishment, taunted the United States on Friday on X.

“After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’” Mr. Ghalibaf wrote. “Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump Pledged a Quick End to the Iran War, but He Hasn’t Explained How, Greg Jaffe, April 4, 2026. President Trump bet that American firepower could cow Iran into compliance. So far, Iran’s leaders have been unwilling to quit.

From the moment the Iran war started, President Trump has been laboring to persuade anxious Americans that it will soon end.

“I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly,” he promised on Wednesday from the White House. “Very shortly.”

Days earlier, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, just back from a trip to the Middle East, insisted that the war he witnessed was nothing like the one he had fought two decades earlier in Iraq. That war had been a grinding treadmill.

“It was always about the next rotation, never knowing when the mission would end,” he recalled.

This war — Operation Epic Fury — was the “exact opposite,” he said.

“It was sheer mission focus,” he said of the conflict, now in its fifth week. “It was the American warrior unleashed.”

The message from Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth: America was not engaged in an endless war.

The problem: Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Hegseth has been able explain how the war will end, short of the U.S. military battering Iran’s leaders into agreeing to concessions that, thus far, they have been unwilling to make. Those prospects grew even more complicated on Friday after Iran downed an Air Force F-15E fighter jet, undercutting American claims of having achieved near-total air superiority.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth launched the Iran war convinced that they had corrected for the mistakes that produced the quagmires of the past. U.S. troops, they vowed, would not take on ill-defined or impossible nation-building missions as they had in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. military, unencumbered by “stupid rules of engagement,” would employ overwhelming force, Mr. Hegseth promised.

MS Now Daily, Opinion: Trump’s cruel budget request, Bobby Kogan, April 4, 2026. 

msnow new logoOn Friday, the Trump administration submitted its annual budget request to Congress. The document called for dramatically reducing what the United States government does for Americans.

The budget called for steep cuts to funding for education, housing and health, funneling resources toward the military as the war in Iran reaches its fifth week. This shift would leave the portion of the budget known as “nondefense discretionary,” or NDD funding, which accounts for most domestic activities aside from Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and SNAP, at its lowest level since at least Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency.

U.S. House logoWhen Trump signed the “big, beautiful bill” last July, he enacted the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history. The same law provided enormous tax cuts that disproportionately further enriched the very rich. Taken together, it instituted the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history. The new budget proposal would double down on his legacy of cutting programs that ordinary Americans, and especially those already struggling to make ends meet, rely on.

Budgets are always partially aspirational, but every other president in my lifetime has tried to keep at least most of the discretionary part of their budget requests within reality, specifically to influence the outcome. Trump is not doing that. 

 

The map shows the foreign nations, not including the U.S. State Department, that are contributing to billions of dollars Donald Trump via the new Board of Peace that he created to chair for the rest of his life.The map shows the foreign nations, not including the U.S. State Department, that are contributing to billions of dollars Donald Trump via the new Board of Peace that he created to chair for the rest of his life.

Meidas Touch Network, Opinion: He’s Not Grifting Anymore. He’s Just Taking It, Dina Doll, April 4, 2026.The State Department transferred $1.25 billion in foreign aid to Trump’s Board of Peace, pulling $1 billion from international disaster assistance, $200 million from peacekeeping mtn meidas touch networkoperations, and $50 million from international organizations. Money that Congress authorized for hurricanes and refugees, moved without a congressional vote, into a fund that Trump created by executive order and controls personally. 

You didn’t buy the Bible. You didn’t mint the coin. You didn’t sign up for Trump University or bid on the NFTs or book a room at Mar-a-Lago. You opted out of every scheme, every hustle, every grift and it didn’t matter. Because while you were watching an illegal war burn through a billion dollars a day and TSA workers suffered because Congress couldn’t find the money to pay them, Trump was doing something quieter. He was taking yours.

Trump has grifted his entire life. Now he’s just taking it.

state dept map logo SmallThe State Department transferred $1.25 billion in foreign aid to Trump’s Board of Peace, pulling $1 billion from international disaster assistance, $200 million from peacekeeping operations, and $50 million from international organizations. Money that Congress authorized for hurricanes and refugees, moved without a congressional vote, into a fund that Trump created by executive order and controls personally. When reporters asked the State Department about it, a spokesperson said they had nothing to announce at this time.

The Board of Peace has one defining characteristic. Trump controls it forever. He named himself chairman for life. No audits. No transparency requirements. No conflict of interest rules. Countries pay $1 billion into a fund he runs to get a seat at the table. It has transferred nothing to Gaza, disclosed nothing about its spending, and received $1.25 billion of your disaster relief money without a word of explanation.

When he leaves the White House he keeps the fund. That is not a loophole. That is the design.Operation Epstein Fury Operation Epstein FuryDina Doll · Mar 21Read full story

Of course, that’s not the only action Trump has recently taken to pay himself straight from the taxes Americans pay to the federal government. Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax records by a contractor. The problem, beyond the absurdity of the number, is that Trump controls the government he is suing. He confirmed it himself: “I’m supposed to work out a settlement with myself.” The DOJ attorneys who would defend against this lawsuit serve at his pleasure. Bondi is literally the only thing protecting the American people from Trump’s attempt to steal billions of our hard-earned money. Which means, there is an ineffective counsel sitting at the defense table for the American people, Trump on the other side of the negotiating table and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ready to sign the check.

He went from selling people something worthless to skipping the transaction entirely.

Disaster relief money in a fund he controls forever. A $10 billion lawsuit against himself with your money as the prize. A billion dollars a day on an unauthorized war while TSA workers went without pay and American healthcare credits slashed.

There was always money. It just wasn’t going to you.

The grift required something from you. A purchase. A click. A willing suspension of disbelief. You could say no to the Bible. You cannot opt out of your tax dollars. You have already paid. The question is whether enough people understand what is being done with that money to make enough noise that someone has to answer for it.

Americans do not like cheaters. The reason the fraud of Trump’s University landed everywhere it landed was because the story was simple. He took money from people who trusted him and gave them nothing back.

This is that story. Bigger numbers. Higher office. No brochure required.

Tell someone who doesn’t know. The noise is the only friction left.

Consider subscribing to Dina on Substack to support her work: Dina DollLegal Analyst/Attorney/Community Leader/Mom MeidasTouch Host & Legal AF Contributor/ I explain the law because the law belongs to us all

Dina Doll is an experienced attorney and legal analyst. She hosts the MissTrial podcast on MeidasTouch and co-hosts Unprecedented on Legal AF. Dina also serves as the legal expert for Access Hollywood’s Trial Files and provides regular legal commentary for CNN, NewsNation, and other national media outlets. 

News Updates

The Parnas Perspective, Pete Hegseth Purges Generals as Paranoia Grows, Aaron Parnas, right, aaron parnas new headshotApril 4, 2026. Military Silent as American Service Member is Missing, Trump Proposes Massive Cuts to Healthcare, Schools, and More. 

A U.S. service member shot down over Iran is still missing, and there is an active race between American and Iranian forces to find them first. At the same time, CENTCOM has gone silent, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly growing increasingly paranoid about losing his job, firing top generals in an effort to protect his position. All of this is happening as President Donald Trump proposes sweeping cuts to major programs including healthcare grants, NASA, medical research, and public education.

Here’s the news:• U.S. Central Command’s official X (Twitter) account has been inactive for over 24 hours, even as the conflict reaches one of its most critical moments for U.S. forces. It comes as U.S. forces are urgently racing to locate a missing crew member after an F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran. Search-and-rescue teams have been deployed deep into hostile territory, facing ongoing Iranian attacks that have already struck supporting aircraft. The operation is high-risk and time-sensitive, with intense efforts underway to recover the service member safely.

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to remove top Army leaders, including the Army chief of staff and other senior generals, was reportedly driven by growing paranoia that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll could replace him. Sources tell the New York Post that Hegseth became increasingly insecure after internal conflicts and began targeting officials he believed were aligned with Driscoll, attempting to sideline potential rivals. • Trump says time is running out before hell rains down on Iran:

• His concerns were fueled by Driscoll’s rising profile, close ties to Vice President JD Vance, and previous involvement in high-level negotiations.Officials describe the shake-up as less about policy and more about personal rivalry, with Hegseth going after perceived allies of Driscoll within the Army leadership. The situation has heightened tensions inside the Pentagon, raising concerns about instability and leadership struggles at a critical time during the Iran war.• Trump’s top economic advisor Kevin Hassett argued that current higher prices are temporary and will soon decline, echoing President Trump’s recent remarks. When challenged about past statements, he deflected by referencing earlier comments from Joe Biden, while Fox News pushed back that the situation has changed. • Donald Trump’s budget proposes massive cuts to social services that you rely on.

More On Iran War

iran hormuz shipping chart feb march 3

ny times logoNew York Times, Europe’s Options in the Strait of Hormuz: Few, and Risky, Jim Tankersley, April 4, 2026. European leaders and other officials have ideas for bringing shipping back to the strait once the Iran war ends. But none of them are sure bets.

When senior officials from 40 countries met virtually this week to discuss how to bring shipping traffic back to the Strait of Hormuz, Italy’s foreign minister had a proposal. He urged them to establish a “humanitarian corridor” allowing safe passage for fertilizer and other crucial goods headed to impoverished nations.

european union logo rectangleThe plan, described after the meeting by Italian officials, was one of several competing proposals from Europe and beyond that were meant to prevent the Iran war from causing widespread hunger. But it was not endorsed by the envoys on the call, and the meeting ended with no concrete plan to reopen the strait, militarily or otherwise.

European leaders are under pressure from President Trump to commit military assets, immediately, to end Iran’s blockage of the strait and tame a growing global energy and economic crisis. They have refused to meet his demands by sending warships now. Instead, they are hotly debating what to do to help unclog the vital shipping lane once the war ends.

But they are struggling to rally around a plan of action.

That partly reflects the slow gears of diplomacy in Europe and the sheer number of nations, including Persian Gulf states, that are invested in safeguarding the strait once the war ends. Many nations involved in the talks, including Italy and Germany, have insisted that any international effort be blessed by the United Nations, which could slow action further. Military leaders will take up the issue in discussions next week.

More than anything, the struggle reflects how difficult it could be to actually secure the strait under a fragile peace — for Europe or for anyone else. None of the options available to Europe, the Gulf states and other countries look foolproof, even under the assumption that the major fighting will have stopped.Idea 1: Naval escorts

The plan: French officials, including President Emmanuel Macron, have repeatedly raised the possibility that French naval vessels could help escort merchant ships through the strait after the war ends. American officials have pushed for Europeans and other allies, like Japan, to escort ships sailing under their own countries’ flags. (A French escort for a French ship, for example.)

The catch: Naval escorts are expensive. Also, their air defense systems alone might not be sufficient to stop some types of attacks, like drone strikes, should Iran choose to start firing again. “What does the world expect, what does Donald Trump expect, from let’s say a handful or two handfuls of European frigates there in the Strait of Hormuz,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius of Germany said last month, “to achieve what the powerful American Navy cannot manage there alone?”Idea 2: Sweep for mines

The plan: German and Belgian officials, among others, say they are prepared to send minesweepers to clear the strait of explosives after the war.

The catch: Western military leaders aren’t convinced that Iran has actually mined the strait, in part because some Iranian ships still pass through it. So while minesweepers might be deployed as part of a naval escort, they might not have much to do.

The plan: Send fighter jets and drones to intercept any Iranian air assaults on ships. American officials have pushed Europe to do this.

The catch: Also quite expensive. Still not guaranteed to work. Iran can attack ships with a single soldier in a speedboat, and if just a few attempts succeed, that could be enough to spook insurers and shipowners out of attempting passage.Idea 4: All of those, plus diplomacy

The plan: Use negotiations and economic leverage to pressure Iran to refrain from future attacks, and deploy a variety of military means to enforce that. This effort would go beyond Europe. On Thursday, the German foreign ministry called on China to use its influence with Iran “constructively” to help end the hostilities.

The catch: Expensive. Still not guaranteed. Negotiations seem to have done little to stop the fighting. But this may be Europe’s best bet, for lack of a better one.What if none of that works?

Iranian officials said this week that they would continue to control traffic through the strait after the war. They have already made plans to make ships pay tolls for passing through the strait, which is supposed to be an unfettered waterway under international law.

A continued blockage risks global economic disaster. Countries around the world rely on shipments through the strait for fuel and fertilizer, among other necessities. In some regions, shortages loom. In others, like Europe, high oil, gas and fertilizer prices have raised the specter of spiking inflation and cratering economic growth.

“The big threat right now is stagflation,” said Hanns Koenig, a managing director at Aurora Energy Research, a Berlin consultancy. “You’ve got higher prices, and they strangle the tiny growth we would have seen this year.”

Emptywheel, Analysis: Blind Spots in the Iran War, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler), right, marcy wheelerApril 3, 2026. Last week, I catalogued a number of filters — crazy, stupid, false, impotent, and blind — via which true accounts still present a misleading picture of the Iran war. Just the last one — the blindness created by a delay in public release of satellite imagery — involved something other than the Trump team’s inadequacies. I wanted to revisit that, and catalog a number of similar blind spots. 

In my earlier post I described how Planet Labs and other public satellite imagery firms delayed the release of targets hit by Iran for two weeks, which made it hard to understand, first, how Benjamin Pennington was killed and if it came with help from Russia, and second, whether that initial March 1 strike explains Iran’s subsequent success hitting Prince Sultan Air Force base.

Which brings me back to the decision by private satellite companies, notably Planet Labs, to delay the release of imagery reflecting targets on American or its allies facilities.

California-based Planet Labs has expanded restrictions on accessing ‌its imagery of the Middle East to prevent adversaries from using it to attack the U.S. and its allies, a sign of how the expansion of commercial space business can impact conflicts.

Planet, which operates a large fleet of Earth-imaging satellites and ​sells frequently updated images to governments, companies and media, told customers on Monday that it ​was extending restrictions to a period of 14 days from a delay of ⁠four days imposed last week.

The decision came after NYT published this story showing that Iran had succeeded in hitting communications infrastructure around the Middle East, including what is probably the strike that led to Benjamin Pennington’s death, which has never been fully explained.

But that strike — the strike on Prince Sultan’s radar — may well explain how Iran succeeded in another attack — the one that damaged five refueling tankers parked at Prince Sultan — presented as an example of bad news Trump learned from reading it in WSJ.

Yesterday, CNN published a picture (seemingly without that two week delay) that confirms that Iran did take out one of the radars on which the larger Middle Eastern missile defense depends.

A critical American radar was damaged in an Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base on March 1, a new satellite image has revealed. The radar, an AN/TPY-2, is a crucial piece of equipment for the US’ high-end THAAD missile interception system.

Since then, the base has suffered multiple Iranian attacks, including on March 27, when an E-3 radar aircraft and a refueling tanker were struck. That attack wounded at least 10 US service members.

The strike was part of a pattern of attacks by Iran seemingly intended to degrade the US’ ability to detect incoming missiles and drones by striking radars. Iranian strikes also destroyed another American AN/TPY-2 radar in Jordan, targeted military communications infrastructure, and damaged a Qatari early warning radar that cost over $1 billion to build.

CNN previously reported that a tent which had housed the radar at Prince Sultan was struck but could not confirm if the radar was present at the time of the attack, or if it had been damaged.

This is an example where we could assume the damage based on subsequent Iranian success. But we still don’t have a full explanation of Pennington’s death.Casualties

Nick Turse argues that’s intentional. He points to a number of ways, including limiting what DOD is counting as Iran War casualties and delaying the update of casualty figures, that DOD is low-balling casualty numbers.

U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, appears to be engaged in what a defense official called a “casualty cover-up,” offering The Intercept low-ball and outdated figures and failing to provide clarifications on military deaths and injuries.

At least 15 U.S. troops were wounded Friday in an Iranian attack on a Saudi air base that hosts American troops, according to two government officials who spoke with The Intercept. Hundreds of U.S. personnel have been killed or injured in the region since the U.S. launched a war on Iran just over a month ago.

[snip]

CENTCOM has sent outdated statements on casualty numbers, meanwhile, resulting in undercounts, including a statement sent Monday from spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins noting that “Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 303 U.S. service members have been wounded.” The comment was three days old and excluded at least 15 wounded in the Friday attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The command did not reply to repeated requests for updated figures.

CENTCOM also would not provide a count of troops who have died in the region since the start of the war. An Intercept analysis puts the number at no less than 15.

“This is, quite obviously, a subject that [War Secretary Pete] Hegseth and the White House want to keep under major wraps,” said the defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak frankly.

That obviously limits political pressure. But it also makes it harder to do what is critical to assessing Trump’s misconduct: documenting that Russia is now killing American service members, and Trump seems anxious to reward Russia.

DOD’s general lack of credibility makes it easier to assess claims, like those in the last day from Iran, that they’ve downed an F-15.

DOD has deployed rescue teams to southern Iran, so it is clear Iran is telling the truth about this downing.

Update: DOD has posted casualties for Operation Epstein Fury for the month of March.Enforced blindness, US: Press suppression

Meanwhile, four key players are using strategies to prevent more visibility.

In the US, Whiskey Pete gutted the press access to the Pentagon and is trying to criminalize actual reporting. Even as the NYT won a preliminary injunction against such measures, it accuses DOD of flouting that order.

Rather than comply with the Court’s Order and accompanying Opinion, Defendants are contemptuously defying it—both in letter and spirit in a newly released “interim” policy. Among other things, for the first time in history, the Interim Policy bars reporters with press passes from entering the building without an escort, sets up unprecedented rules governing when a reporter can offer anonymity to a source, and leaves in place provisions that this Court’s Order struck. Defendants’ counsel, Cmdr. Timothy Parlatore, candidly admitted that this revised, interim policy simply “use[s] more words to say the same thing.”1 See Second Supplemental Boutrous Decl., Ex. 1 (the “Interim Policy”). That is the definition of contempt.

As Julian Barnes (the named plaintiff) describes, effectively DOD is trying to pen journalists — even those with an escort — to the Pentagon library.

6. On Tuesday, March 31, 2026, I arrived at the Pentagon at 12:10 p.m. and entered the Visitor Center security area. I showed the attendant behind the glass my driver’s license and the PFAC. I entered my social security number upon his request. I was advised that individuals holding PFACs must enter through corridor 8. I replied that I had an appointment and the escort was going to meet me in the Visitor’s Center. The supervisor repeated that anyone with a PFAC could enter only through corridor 8. This was despite the fact that I was told to meet my escort in the Visitor’s Center and the fact that before I could have simply entered through the main gate using my PFAC. After I arrived at the Pentagon, the interview was postponed, and I was immediately escorted out of the building.

7. As that experience made clear to me, my PFAC does not provide me access to the Pentagon building and provides access only to the separate library building. By contrast, and like visitors who do not hold a PFAC, I may access the Pentagon building only upon invitation or approval by Department officials, and only with an escort. Neither I nor, to my knowledge, any of my colleagues have been told about the criteria used in determining whether to approve such a request, though the Interim Policy does state that no more than three PFAC holders from the same news organization will be provided an escort per day.

8. Going through a sometimes-lengthy process of scheduling official appointments in order to ask even one or two questions to an official—even assuming that request is granted and that official does not have to reschedule—does not allow for meaningful engagement with Department personnel on a timeline consistent with news reporting. As I stated in a prior declaration, reporting from the Pentagon has historically necessitated speaking to upwards of a dozen officials and other personnel from different press offices in a given day, sometimes in response to rapidly developing events. While I used to be able to walk from press office to press office throughout the day, I now would have to return to the library, call or email for an appointment, and wait for a response and approval, and for arrangement for and arrival of an escort. That means I will be spending hours of my day just waiting and walking back and forth—assuming I can get ahold of press offices and individuals and arrange interviews and be approved for an escort at all. That process will dramatically interfere with my ability to meaningfully engage with anyone from the Department on Pentagon grounds, or to obtain the information necessary to inform the public in a timely manner.

Effectively, DOD is saying that if is not allowed to restrict press resources to Laura Loomer (more on her in a follow-up) and Jack Posobiec, then no one can have access.

During the Iraq War, there would have been embedded journalists at Prince Sultan, who could explain some of what has happened at the base. Now, Whiskey Pete’s hand-selected scribes wouldn’t understand what they were looking at if they were embedded.Enforced blindness, UAE: Prosecution

The UAE risks having their entire myth of a desert paradise tainted if images of the damage Iran is doing circulate widely. As a result, it is cracking down on foreigners, particularly Brits, who are publishing videos of drone strikes.

Up to 70 UK citizens have been detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for taking photos and videos of Iranian attacks, it has been claimed by a British-based campaign group.

Detained in Dubai chief executive Radha Stirling said she believed dozens of Britons had been arrested in the UAE for sharing war images under the country’s “draconian” cybercrime laws.

“We’re talking approaching 50 to 70 was my estimate and possibly even more. I think by the end of this we’ll see a lot more, possibly 100, maybe 150,” she told Sky News.

Bellingcat has a report on some of the incidents UAE has been trying to downplay.

Bellingcat has identified several high-profile incidents where authorities in the United Arab Emirates have downplayed damage, mischaracterised interceptions and in some instances not acknowledged successful Iranian drone strikes on the country.

A review of official statements shows that the public account does not always align with what can be observed through open sources. This comes as the UAE faces sustained aerial attacks on civilian and economic infrastructure, challenging its image as a secure global hub for business and tourism. Hours after the United States and Israel launched coordinated attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, the Islamic Republic responded by launching an attack against US-allies in the region including the UAE.

In the wake of the attacks, the UAE’s attorney general warned that publication of images or videos of strikes was illegal. People were also encouraged to report anyone sharing photos or videos of the strikes to authorities.

[snip]

On March 3, a video filmed from a vessel appears to show a drone striking the port of Fujairah, one of the UAE’s most strategically important energy hubs. The port handles roughly 1.7 million barrels of oil per day and is among the world’s largest.

The drone appears to approach its target intact, with no visible sign of interception, Sam Lair, a researcher at James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told Bellingcat.

Moments after it descends behind storage tanks, an explosion is heard and a large plume of smoke rises from the site.

On the same day, the Fujairah Media Office stated that a fire resulted from debris following a successful interception, adding that the had been brought under control. Satellite images captured on March 4 and 5 show thick black smoke rising from the site. NASA FIRMS data also detected fires on March 3, March 4 and March 5. By March 7, satellite imagery shows at least three storage tanks fully destroyed (25.184565, 56.345481).

The UAE strikes, in particular, would serve to hide Iran’s attempt to target US corporate facilities, like the Oracle facility hit today (though the AWS facility it has serially targeted is in Bahrain).Enforced blindness, Iran: Netblock

Iran is using a more traditional method: Blocking access to the Internet for virtually everyone, which Netblocks continues to track.

Update: The internet blackout in #Iran is now on its 35th consecutive day as connectivity flatlines at 1% of ordinary levels after 816 hours. The general public remain cut off from the world without vital updates and without a voice as the incident closes its fifth week.

The US (or Israel) had tried to counteract Iran’s similar shutdown during protests earlier this year by getting Starlink terminals into the country.

Iran is now targeting them specifically.

Iranian authorities arrested dozens of people who were allegedly in a network that sold Starlink satellite terminals, as Tehran expands efforts to control information more than a month into its war with the US and Israel.

Iran seized 139 Starlink devices and arrested 46 people involved in selling SpaceX’s terminals, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported Monday, citing the country’s police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan. There are an estimated 50,000 Starlink terminals in the country, according to activists and digital rights groups.

In my earlier post, I described how Trump’s erratic state makes regular source-based reporting fraught with dangerous filters.

And what remains is blinded by a number of deliberate tactics. 

Global News

National Public Radio, Evacuation of U.S. troops from Mideast base sends community groups scrambling to help, Steve Walsh, April 3, 2026. . NPR has learned that hundreds of sailors were evacuated back to the United States from their base in Bahrain after the base was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones. In addition to the base in Bahrain, NPR has learned that there have been evacuations at other U.S. military bases in the region, though the exact details are unknown at this point.

NPR npr logoBahrain is the home of the Navy's 5th Fleet, making it a central hub for providing maritime security in the Middle East region, including protecting commercial shipping. The country is an island in the Persian Gulf that sits roughly 124 nautical miles away from the coast of Iran, which makes Bahrain well within range of Iranian drone and missile strikes.

Around 8,000 people were stationed at the base in Bahrain before the U.S. attacked Iran on Feb. 28.

On the opening day of the war, the base, known as Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain, was struck multiple times. Posts on social media showed a ballistic missile and Iranian drones slamming into the base. Satellite imagery from the company Planet shows that at least seven buildings in and around the base were struck between Feb. 28 and March 6.

In response to an NPR request, a Navy spokesman acknowledged that 1,500 sailors, their families and several hundred pets were relocated back to the U.S. from NSA Bahrain.

Sailors have been arriving in Norfolk, Va., home to the world's biggest naval base, since at least the middle of March. Several groups that provide aid to military personnel say that the sailors arrived with very little. A call went out to community groups, asking for basic supplies like hygiene products.

"The base was asking for donations of toiletries and different things for the sailors coming back, because they were coming back with nothing," said Derrick Johnson, commander of American Legion Post 327 in Norfolk.

The post hosted a spaghetti dinner for some of the sailors, said Keith Shanesy, one of the post's vice commanders.

"They literally told them, 'Get what you can get in the backpack. You've got to go,'" he said. "They came with no uniforms, nothing. The three we met first, they came with the clothes on their back, what they could fit in that backpack."

The Navy has provided services including "crisis counseling, financial and legal assistance, relocation support, educational resources, coordination for child and youth programs," according to Lt. Cmdr. Kara Handley.

And the USO, which offers support to service members and families, has been providing aid to sailors in Norfolk as they arrive from various locations in the Middle East, according to David Carrier, with the national USO.

The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society has handed out $1 million to roughly 2,000 sailors and their families since the evacuations began, said the group's chief operations officer Dawn Cutler, a retired rear admiral.The US Navy's USS Cincinnati littoral combat ship (LCS) arrives for a port call at the Ream Naval base, located in Cambodia's southern coast in Preah Sihanouk province, on Jan. 24, 2026. Several vessels of the same class have been equipped for mine-clearing operations.WorldIs the U.S. Navy ready to clear sea mines in the Persian Gulf?

"I saw one gal — she had a 2-week-old and a 2-year-old and a dog in a crate and a suitcase. So she was just at the moment, you know, looking to get out of danger, get to someplace safe. And now we're at the point where families are back and they're starting to ask the question: 'Well, what's next? Will we go back?'" Cutler said.

The money is mainly to pay for essentials and to provide bridge loans so families can pay basic living expenses while they wait for the government to reimburse them, which can take months, she said.

"The pet situation, I understand, was quite a challenge. We heard there was going to be no movement of pets. But then a change was made, but some were put on different flights. People didn't have carriers for a cat, so we helped scrounge up through our volunteers," she said.

When troops move overseas, they don't keep a home in the United States. The military requires service members to designate a safe haven where they will be relocated to in an emergency. Some of the sailors have gone to stay with relatives, while others remain on bases in the United States. MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., and Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina have also been hubs for returning flights.

On April 1, the Navy released updated guidance for sailors and families who were evacuated. The service has worked out how people can be reimbursed for living in hotel rooms, including families who were temporarily relocated to Italy and Germany before being transported back to the United States.

The Navy does not yet have an answer for what will happen to cars and furniture left behind in the rush to leave. The Navy is also not telling evacuees when or if they will be returning to their bases in the Middle East.Douglas James Wilson (b. 1953) is an American conservative Reformed and evangelical Christian theologian and pastor.[1] Wilson leads Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, in which capacity he has taken leading roles in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches and the classical Christian education movement.[2] He is a public proponent of postmillennialism, Christian nationalism, covenant theology, and biblical patriarchy. Wilson, a self-described "paleo-Confederate", first garnered extensive media coverage in 2004, when he held a conference which publicized his controversial stance on American slavery.[3][4]

More Global News

 

nato logo flags name

Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: April 3, 2026 [NATO's Founding, Purpose, Future], Heather Cox Richardson, right, heather cox richardson cnnApril 4, 2026. On April 4, 1949, representatives from twelve countries in Europe and North America—Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States—signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. This defensive security alliance has been a key institution for world stability since World War II.

On April 4, 1949, representatives from twelve countries in Europe and North America—Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States—signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. This defensive security alliance has been a key institution for world stability since World War II.

In the wake of that war, the U.S. and its allies recognized the crucial importance of peacetime alliances to deter future wars. To stop the spread of communism across war-torn Europe, the United States backed a massive financial investment into rebuilding Europe. President Harry S. Truman signed the European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan, into law on April 3, 1948.

Quickly, though, it appeared that economic recovery would not be enough to protect a democratic Europe. The expansion of Soviet-style communism prompted officials to consider a pact that would enlist the United States to stand behind the security of Western Europe. Crucially, though, they wanted it to stand outside the United Nations, where the Soviet Union could exercise veto power. The outcome was the NATO alliance.

NATO guaranteed collective security because all of the member states agreed to defend one another against an attack by a third party. Article 5 of the treaty requires every member nation to come to the aid of any one of them if it is attacked. That article has been invoked only once: after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, after which NATO-led troops went to Afghanistan.

Over the years, the alliance has expanded to include 32 countries. In 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, all former satellites of the USSR, joined NATO over the protests of Russia, which was falling under the control of oligarchs who opposed western democracy. More countries near Russia joined NATO in the 2000s, and Finland and Sweden have joined since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—Finland three years ago tomorrow, in fact.

When NATO formed, the main concern of the countries backing it was resisting Soviet aggression, but with the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Russian president Vladimir Putin, NATO resisted Russian aggression instead.

In 1949, when he signed the treaty, President Truman called the pact a positive influence for peace. That peace was, first of all, among the nations signing the agreement. They were, he said, agreeing “to abide by the peaceful principles of the United Nations, to maintain friendly relations and economic cooperation with one another, to consult together whenever the territory or independence of any of them is threatened, and to come to the aid of any one of them who may be attacked.” If such an agreement had been in place “in 1914 and in 1939, supported by the nations who are represented here today,” he said, “I believe it would have prevented the acts of aggression which led to two world wars.”

With NATO, Truman said, “we hope to create a shield against aggression and the fear of aggression—a bulwark which will permit us to get on with the real business of government and society, the business of achieving a fuller and happier life for all our citizens.”

NATO countries agreed to stand together to withstand aggression from outside the pact. Truman emphasized the difference between the NATO countries and the authoritarian system against which the alliance stood. The NATO countries could stand together without being identical. “There are different kinds of governmental and economic systems, just as there are different languages and different cultures. But these differences present no real obstacle to the voluntary association of free nations devoted to the common cause of peace,” he said. “[I]t is possible for nations to achieve unity on the great principles of human freedom and justice, and at the same time to permit, in other respects, the greatest diversity of which the human mind is capable.”

The experience of the United States “in creating one nation out of…the peoples of many lands” proved that this idea could work, Truman said. “This method of organizing diverse peoples and cultures is in direct contrast to the method of the police state, which attempts to achieve unity by imposing the same beliefs and the same rule of force on everyone.”

The NATO countries did not believe that war was inevitable, Truman said. “Men with courage and vision can still determine their own destiny. They can choose slavery or freedom—war or peace. I have no doubt which they will choose. The treaty we are signing here today is evidence of the path they will follow. If there is anything certain today, if there is anything inevitable in the future, it is the will of the people of the world for freedom and for peace.”

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime

ny times logoNew York Times, News Analysis: New Attorney General, Same Albatross: Trump’s Quest for Retribution, Alan Feuer and Glenn Thrush, April 4, 2026. The name atop the Justice Department’s organizational chart matters less than the presence of a president whose demands for revenge have become so extreme that even his most obsequious appointees have fallen short.

President Trump’s pick to replace Pam Bondi will face the same conundrum that every attorney general he has hired and fired has pam bondi 2025confronted: It is hard to steer the Justice Department when the president is grabbing the wheel and stepping on the gas.

Mr. Trump is searching for a tougher version of Ms. Bondi, left, but the fault lies not in the shirking weakness of those he has called upon to execute his will, but rather in the impossibility of his request — to bring criminal charges against political targets with little to no evidence or legal justification.

The president has settled for the moment on Ms. Bondi’s chief deputy and his former defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, right, whose grasp of legal Todd Blanche Omatters and low-key personality represent a contrast from the voluble, less lawyerly Ms. Bondi.

Yet the name atop the Justice Department’s organizational chart matters less than the overbearing presence of a president whose demands for retribution against his enemies have become so frequent and extreme that even his most obsequious appointees have fallen short.

“It’s certainly not about the willingness or the loyalty of any one person to carry out the president’s orders,” said Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor who is writing a book about the current state of the Justice Department.

“It’s more that there are limits on the president — courts, grand juries, lawyers and investigators who understand norms and ethics — that have started getting in his way.”

Justice Department log circularOver the past few months, those limits have become more visible as the legal system has pushed back in an extraordinary manner against the president’s attempts to investigate and prosecute his enemies, no matter how much — or rather, little — evidence exists to support the cases. Judges, grand juries and some federal prosecutors have stepped in to block Mr. Trump’s most egregious efforts, serving as a bulwark against his maximalist personal and political goals.

It remains unclear for now how long Mr. Blanche, 51, might stay in his new job as acting attorney general — or who is likely to replace him. One senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described the job as Mr. Blanche’s to lose.

Several other names have been floated in recent days, including Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah; and Senator Ashley Moody, Republican of Florida. But it is unclear how serious any of these candidates might be, given Mr. Trump’s habit of musing with his associates about potential personnel moves.Editors’ PicksHow Long Does It Take to Boil an Egg?On ‘Company Retreat,’ Anthony Norman Finished the JobTiny Love Stories: ‘If I Arrived Home After Dark ’

Some of Mr. Trump’s Republican allies seem to believe that all he needs to do is appoint a more belligerent attorney general to force through what Ms. Bondi failed to accomplish.

“We want to see heads roll,” Representative Chip Roy of Texas said on Friday morning on Fox News, adding, “The next attorney general needs to be very aggressive.”

The Contrarian Publisher’s Roundup: I Was There for the Trump-Bondi Breakup  Norman Eisen, right, publisher, norman eisen SmallApril 4, 2026. And Other Tales from the Birthright Argument at SCOTUS:

On Wednesday morning, I settled into my seat in the ornate U.S. Supreme Court chamber, with its coffered ceiling 40 feet above me, tall Ionic columns lining the walls, and heavy red drapes behind the elevated mahogany dais that the justices would shortly occupy. I was there as a member of the legal team defending birthright citizenship, one of my almost 300 legal cases and matters supported by the paid subscriptions of you Contrarians.Subscribed

contrarian logoLike the hundreds of others in the crowded courtroom, I expected to see history in the making — a case that would enter the annals of American law. What I didn’t expect was to witness a scene out of a reality TV show: The Real Cabinet Members of D.C.

I was seated in the third row of the gallery. The first row is reserved for cabinet members and VIPs, and it was filling up when, at about 9:45 a.m., Attorney General Pam Bondi arrived and took an open seat for the 10 a.m. argument. She looked uncomfortable and unhappy, her face a grimace, her back stiff. I assumed she knew her side was going to have a rough day of it. We now know that she had just been fired in the car ride over with the president. Pam Bondi and Donald Trump exit the Supreme Court. (White House X)

Before long came the lumbering bulk of Donald Trump, accompanied by the more diminutive White House Counsel David Warrington. He sandwiched himself between Bondi and Trump, with the president occupying the spot at the very end of the far right of the row. That’s where the drama kicked in. Trump began whispering to Warrington and to his Secret Service detail. Then Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hurried over from further down the row, sycophantically groveling in the aisle to Trump’s right for more presidential whispering.

The next thing I knew, Trump was getting up and moving to the far left opposite end of the bench, about five feet in front of me — and as far away from Bondi as possible. She was left alone at the end of the row, looking none too chipper.

At the time I thought maybe Trump just didn’t like the view, although it wasn’t that different. It was a little over 24 hours later that Bondi’s firing was announced. In retrospect, it makes me wonder if it wasn’t the seat that Trump disliked but the seatmate. Whatever the explanation, I momentarily felt sorry for Bondi, abandoned at the end of the row like a school kid without a lunch companion.

But my flicker of sympathy was short-lived. After her role in pursuing baseless criminal charges against innocent victims of Trump’s misplaced revenge, in exposing the names of the Epstein victims, and then in doing so much other damage to the Department of Justice and the rule of law, I can only say she deserves to be shunned–and disbarred. (Hmm, that gives me an idea….)

With all that as prologue, what then transpired once the arguments began must have done little to improve her mood. Based on what I saw in court on Wednesday, I am guessing we are looking at a 6-3 or 7-2 victory for our birthright case. It was a terrible day for Trump, Bondi and their ilk — but a great day for justice and for all you Contrarians, whose paid subscriptions help support my work on cases like this one.Subscribed

It appears that the Supreme Court is poised to affirm that the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment means what it has always been understood to mean: that every person born on American soil is an American citizen. ACLU Legal Director and my co-counsel Cecillia Wang did a brilliant job of explaining that the meaning of the citizenship clause has been fixed since the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868. Subsequent Supreme Court case law, notably the Wong Kim Ark decision in 1898, has only reinforced that babies born in the country are American citizens regardless of the citizenship status of their parents. Here I am with Cecillia right after the argument:

Even the conservative justices were skeptical of the government’s argument: that only babies with parents who are “domiciled” in the United States and have permanent legal status here are entitled to birthright citizenship. Solicitor General John Sauer was peppered with questions about the lack of textual and historical support for this argument. At one point, after Sauer mentioned Wong Kim Ark, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said, “Well, I’m not sure how much you want to rely on Wong Kim Ark.” Gorsuch also called out the government on the striking absence of discussion of “domicile” in congressional debates at the time the Fourteenth Amendment was passed. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. referred to the government’s examples as “quirky.”

We do not expect to win this case 9-0, and Justices Clarence Thomas and, to some extent, Samuel A. Alito were sympathetic to the government’s arguments. That said, based on the questioning from the justices, it appears that a clear majority will rule for our clients. This is not a difficult case, in large part because the court already decided this issue in Wong Kim Ark, which involved the son of Chinese immigrants. In fact, Kavanaugh asked Wang whether the opinion could be a very short one affirming that the court is following Wong Kim Ark, and she agreed that it could.

As I explained at a rally after the argument, Wednesday was the culmination of years of planning that began even months before Trump was reelected in 2024. This planning was the reason that Democracy Defenders Fund and our partners were able to act immediately when Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship as we know it was issued on the first day of his second term. More of my rally remarks are here:

We do not relish that this work is necessary, but I and my litigation colleagues at Democracy Defenders Fund and Democracy Defenders Action stand ready to continue fighting. That is thanks in no small part to your paid subscriptions, which fuel our role in cases and matters like this one and over 280 others.Subscribed

Of course, your paid subscriptions don’t support only my work in the courts of law; they also support the Contrarian’s stellar coverage that shapes the court of public opinion. Just take a look at this week’s highlights, put together by my wonderful Contrarian colleagues:Birthright citizenship at SCOTUS

  • Trump Is Likely to Lose on Birthright
  • No Kings Day at the Court
  • Iran’s Negotiating Strategy Is Built on Distrust
  • Is It Too Late To Apologize?
  • American Consumers Will Pay for Trump’s War with Iran
  • Trump Is Serious About Accepting a Humiliating Defeat
  • The Echo in Trump’s Detention Camps
  • For Meta, the Mask Is Off: They Knowingly Harmed Children
  • Women Who Serve Also Face the Trump Administration’s Misogyny
  • In Defense of Joyful Protest
  • The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement
  • Protesting is Necessary but Not Sufficient

U.S. Jobs, Economy, Inflation

The New Republic, Jobs Report Hit With Seriously Brutal Revision, Staff Report, April 3, 2026. The March jobs report doesn’t seem too bad—until you take a closer look at the revision. For what was meant to be the Golden Age of America, it’s sure looking like a recession could be on the cards.

new republic dailyThe Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report Friday found the U.S. added 178,000 jobs in March, surpassing expectations. But hidden in that good news was something else: The job losses in February were far worse than previously reported. Initially reported as a loss of 92,000 jobs, the labor market actually lost a total of 133,000 jobs that month.

This update means that February represented the largest U.S. job loss since December 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

The labor market has been consistently brutal since Trump took office in January 2025. Yearly job growth was the worst it had been outside of a recession since 2003.

“March was somewhat encouraging, but it’s been a rocky year for the labor market with almost no hiring since last April,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, told CNBC. “The March data will keep the Federal Reserve on hold, but no one is declaring victory yet. It’s likely to be a tough spring for job-seekers.”

The rough months come while Trump spends millions in taxpayer money on a golden ballroom for himself and his cronies (not to mention billions on his unpopular and unauthorized Iran war). Some Jay Gatsby parallels spring to mind—although at least Gatsby’s lavish spending was guided by unrequited love and a desire to fit in. Trump’s is more just because he’s a senile egoist.

More On Epstein Files, Trump Coverup

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, left, urged Acting U.S. Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche, center, to comply with federal law requiring the remaining millions of pages regarding the late sex trafficker and corrupt financier Jeffrey Epstein, shown at right with his longtime friend Donald Trump. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, left, urged Acting U.S. Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche, center, to comply with federal law requiring the remaining millions of pages regarding the late sex trafficker and corrupt financier Jeffrey Epstein, shown at right with his longtime friend Donald Trump.

Occupy Democrats, Opinion: Republican Congressman Thomas Massie drops an Epstein bomb on Trump's new Acting Attorney General — warning him that he has just one month to fully release the files under the law! Staff Report, April 4, 2026. There will be no rest for the wicked in this scandal...

occupy democrats logo"Congratulations AG Blanche. Now you have 30 days to release the rest of the files before becoming criminally liable for failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act," Massie wrote on X in response to a tweet from Acting AG Todd Blanche about his new position.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired earlier today by Trump, proving once again that loyalty is meaningless once he decides that you're worth throwing under the bus. In Bondi's case, she did everything within her power to obstruct and cover up Trump's role in Epstein's crimes but it still wasn't enough. In the end, she was more valuable to him as a scapegoat.

Now, Blanche finds himself in the unenviable position of being the face of this totally politicized, totally corrupt Justice Department. The MAGA base, and indeed all of America, are still demanding the full release of the files. But Blanche knows that Trump wants those files buried for good. If he releases them, he's fired. If he refuses to release them, he'll eventually become the next scapegoat — and end up criminally liable as Massie has pointed out. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Of course, Blanche has already proven himself a willing hatchet-man in this Epstein affair, which is why Trump sent him to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell right before she was moved to a minimum security facility in Texas. Presumably, that little jaunt played a large role in his elevation to Acting AG.

But justice is coming.

After the midterm elections, once Democrats retake control of Congress, Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Kash Patel, and every other soulless crook who systemically covered up the mass sexual abuse of children will be forced to pay the piper. With subpoenas in hand, Democrats are going to tear this administration apart in search of the truth. We cannot wait. 

ny times logoNew York Times, Guest Essay: The Epstein Emails Show #MeToo Never Stood a Chance, Claire Wilmot (an academic who researches gender and legal systems), April 3, 2026. Jeffrey Epstein’s use of the false rape accusation — the #MeToo boogeyman and the catalyst of the backlash to the movement — that stopped me in my tracks.

In Shakespeare’s tragedy “Titus Andronicus,” a general’s daughter, Lavinia, is raped by Chiron and Demetrius, two powerful princes. To prevent her from revealing their crime, her assailants carve out her tongue and amputate both her hands.

Lavinia has been on my mind as I’ve combed through countless emails between Jeffrey Epstein and his vast network. In them, tongue-severing swords take the form of threats, settlements and confidentiality agreements. But unlike Chiron and Demetrius, Mr. Epstein seemed to know that even these vows of silence can crack under pressure, that women can still speak out.

The recent release of millions of pages of court filings, correspondence and other records spanning decades show that Mr. Epstein had been developing a playbook on how to silence women since his conviction, in 2008, for soliciting a minor for prostitution (a polite way of describing the crime of paying a teenager in order to sexually assault her). These documents show how he cultivated a climate of skepticism around all women leveling accusations of sexual impropriety, not merely the girls and women he abused.

The mechanics of doubt revealed in the Epstein files — the strategies and tactics deployed by the powerful to erode survivors’ credibility — offer a rare glimpse into what the #MeToo movement was up against when it took off in 2017.

The emails make it clear that the movement’s hard-won progress never stood a chance. Mr. Epstein seems to have understood that if he could wield his behind-the-scenes influence to encourage a belief that women and girls were unreliable, that perception was stronger than any nondisclosure agreement. If you can transform a person from a victim into a liar, you can cut out her tongue for good

During the height of the #MeToo movement, a handful of high-profile men were prosecuted, many more were canceled, and a number of promising legal reforms were passed. In America, statutes of limitations for sex crimes were extended and definitions of harassment were expanded. Nondisclosure agreements intended to silence women were made harder to enforce. Police departments faced pressure to reduce the number of rape cases that are dismissed for lack of evidence.

But those reforms led to outcomes that were, in many cases, bitterly disappointing. As an academic researcher during that era, I spent time in police stations, prisons and courtrooms in North America, Europe and Africa documenting the aftermath of various legal reforms. In the wake of #MeToo, many of the places I worked registered upticks in sexual violence reporting alongside declining rates of prosecution. A conviction may be an imperfect measure of justice, but these trends suggest that the #MeToo movement had fueled a desire for consequences that was not being met.

In my work as a researcher, I documented the subtle ways in which doubt clung to the testimonies of sexual violence survivors. In jails in Maryland and Ohio, I spoke to women who had called the police for help only to be detained and investigated as criminals themselves. In Nigeria, where feminist movements and subsequent legal reforms overhauled gender violence laws, I reviewed over 70 sexual violence case files, tracing how many survivors tended to be disbelieved because of their identities and biographies, which were given greater weight than the facts of their cases.

Burdens of proof are not borne equally. Women who are poor, not white, undocumented or otherwise marginalized have more to prove to offset the weight of the prejudices that chip away at their credibility. I found that for most survivors, when they tried to hold men accountable for their crimes, the slogans of #MeToo could not contend with their reality.

Doomscrolling through the Epstein files, I’ve found countless resonances to the stories I heard from the women in Maryland, in Ohio, in Nigeria. Mr. Epstein and his allies portray his survivors who are from poor backgrounds as frauds and thieves after money. Those with histories of trauma or substance abuse are dismissed as untrustworthy. Victims’ behavior is endlessly dissected and litigated. In an email from 2010, a contact notes that one of Mr. Epstein’s accusers smiled during a deposition. “Her OWN behavior in the depo disproves her allegations,” he wrote.Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.

But it was Jeffrey Epstein’s use of the false rape accusation — the #MeToo boogeyman and the catalyst of the backlash to the movement — that stopped me in my tracks.

Available data shows false reports of this nature are exceedingly rare (generally 2 percent to 5 percent), dwarfed by the estimated number of sexual assaults that are not reported to the police (around three-quarters of sexual assaults in the United States). Men of Mr. Epstein’s class are among the least likely to be prosecuted for false allegations — exoneration data in the United States shows victims of this sort of miscarriage of justice are disproportionately Black and poor.

Still, Mr. Epstein and many of his friends stoked fears around such allegations. In 2019, Noam Chomsky wrote to Mr. Epstein describing the “hysteria that has developed about abuse of women.”

In 2015, a rare false rape allegation made news — when Rolling Stone had to retract an article featuring a woman who claimed she was gang-raped at the University of Virginia. Mr. Epstein seized on the moment to push his view of sexual abuse accusers.

“Think about if there is a way to captialize” on the retracted article, Mr. Epstein wrote to the journalist Michael Wolff, in one of the many typo-ridden emails in the files. “These stories are made out of whole cloth.” The files suggest that Mr. Wolff did not respond, but that night he sent Mr. Epstein an email with the subject line “Are women bad for journalism?” In the email, he linked to a column he wrote for USA Today that denounced the news media for continuing to point to sexual assault on campuses as a serious problem, even after the fallout from the retracted Rolling Stone article.

More On U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections 

The Hartmann Report, Week's Best News and Opinion: Vance Targets Blue States as Trump’s New Fraud Czar, Thom Hartmann, thom hartmann newright, April 4, 2026. 

— Sure is starting to smell like Vietnam… If you’re not old enough to remember the early days of the Vietnam war, ask somebody who was; the bravado, the bullshit coming from the SecDef, the president who’s afraid of being criticized as “weak” by “conservatives” if he doesn’t “win the war,” and the skepticism of the American people are all echoing so loudly it’s impossible to miss. Whiskey Pete, the wife-abusing alcoholic Fox “News” B-lister Trump put in charge of our military because he “looked strong” is proving to be every bit as incompetent and disastrous as the guy who appointed him. The most unqualified and frankly disastrous leader of our military in history — openly bragging about committing war crimes while trash-talking the Geneva Convention with his insane riffs about about “no quarter” and “no woke rules of engagement” — just purged the top ranks of our military again.

randy georgeHe just canned Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, right, four-star general David Hodne, and Major General William Green Jr., the top Army chaplain. Nobody’s sure exactly why (or if the timing of Bondi’s firing was designed to distract us from this) but speculation largely falls to two explanations. First, these are competent professional military men who most likely told Whiskey Pete and Trump the truth about what a disaster attacking Iran would be, and how it would be illegal to do it without congressional authorization, so they had to be removed. As Senator Chris Murphy noted, “It’s likely that experienced generals are telling Hegseth his Iran war plans are unworkable, disastrous, and deadly.” Only toadies, lickspittles, and sycophants allowed here. The other possibility is that they objected to Petey inserting himself into the promotion process explicitly to stop women and Black men from rising into the most senior ranks. Or both. Whatever it is, following on his gutting the JAG corps (which advises officers about what are and are not war crimes) and his previous attacks on Blacks and women, this is the lowest point for our military in my lifetime, and probably yours, too.

— Who was General George, who Whiskey Pete just fired? General Randy A. George enlisted in the Army in 1982, fought his way into West Point, and then spent a career in the active duty infantry from platoon leader in the 101st Airborne in Desert Storm to multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, commanding battalions, brigades, a division, and I Corps before becoming the 41st Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. Along the way he earned a Bronze Star with three oak leaf clusters, a Purple Heart, a Combat Infantryman Badge, a Ranger tab, and a senior parachutist badge with a combat jump; the résumé of someone who has led from the front and bled with his soldiers. Whiskey Pete, on the other hand, essentially bankrupted two small veterans charities that he was supposed to be running while he was busy getting drunk and cheating on his wife.

— Is the Supreme Court about to become even more bizarre and corrupt than it already is? Speculation is rife in DC that Sam Alito and possibly Clarence Thomas — the two most extreme neo-fascists and on-the-take betrayers of the rule of law — are planning to retire this summer, giving Trump the opportunity to turn the Court into a 5-4 Trump-appointed majority. Alito has apparently penned a book, which some see as a sign he’s paving the way for his departure. Since Mango Mussolini is furious right now with his own appointees because they didn’t appear to roll over for his Birthright Citizenship scam attempt, odds are anybody he puts forward will be even more extreme than anybody currently there. Aileen Cannon, anyone? Or Matthew Kacsmaryk? The former helped Trump avoid prosecution in Florida for stealing and disseminating Top Secret documents essential to national security, and the latter tried to outlaw abortion pills nationwide. And there’s always John Eastman, even though he’s already been disbarred; with Trump, anything is possible. Get ready.

— Gas prices got you down? A new report by Democratic members of the Joint Economic Committee finds that just during the first month of Trump’s criminal war against Iran American drivers paid fully $8.4 billion more at the pump for gas than they would have had the war not driven up the price of oil. While he’s borrowed over $7 trillion in our names and given it to his billionaire buddies as tax cuts and run up our national debt higher and faster than any president in American history, Trump appears determined to drain every last cent he and his greedy buddies in the fossil fuel industry can get from average working people. He took billions from us in tariffs, and now they’re screwing us on the price of gas and diesel, since their costs haven’t gone up a penny but they’re sure happy to use the war as an excuse to jack up prices. This after killing off the VA program that kept over 10,000 veterans in their homes (with another 90,000 facing foreclosure in the coming month or two), gutting food aid, decimating Medicaid, and telling us all this past week that he really doesn’t have the time and America doesn’t have the budget for Medicare. When billionaires first declared war on the American working class with the Reagan Revolution in 1981, most people just thought it was a labor dispute with the air traffic controllers and an “adjustment” to tax rates; now the naked attack the morbidly rich have spearheaded against our middle class is impossible to ignore.

— JD Vance (or whatever his name is this week) is now in charge of Project Screw Blue States. Trump named him the “fraud czar” yesterday and told him to go after Democratic-run states, specifically “California, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine, and New York.” In an announcement unconsciously rich with irony and double entendre, Trump began the announcement on his failing, Nazi-infested social media site with this line for the ages: “Vice President JD Vance is now in charge of ‘FRAUD’ in the United States.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

— Is Vance now the Vice President of Hungary? JD Vance flies to Budapest April 7th and 8th, four days before Hungary’s election. His mission is clear: boost Trump ally and fellow neofascist Viktor Orbán, whose Fidesz party is trailing in the polls for the first time in sixteen years. Trump has already endorsed Orbán on social media, calling him a “truly strong and powerful leader.” Secretary of State Rubio visited Budapest in February. Now Vance goes in for the close. Political analysts say the American intervention won’t shift the outcome since Hungarians are focused on kitchen-table issues. But the principle matters. For generations, American presidents stayed out of foreign elections. Orbán has gutted Hungary’s democratic institutions, had his friendly oligarchs take over all of the nation’s media (just like Putin did in Russian), packed the courts with sniveling toadies, and earned repeated EU sanctions for acting like a dictator and throwing in with Putin (he’s currently blocking EU loans to Ukraine). When the United States campaigns for a foreign autocrat, we’re not spreading democracy. We’re exporting its opposite.

— The West is drying up and Republicans who take money from the fossil fuel industry are trying to ignore it. Scientists are sounding a full alarm about a snowpack collapse across the American West unlike anything in the historical record. The Great Basin is at just 16 percent of average snowpack. The lower Colorado River basin, which supplies water to more than 40 million people, is at 10 percent. The Rio Grande is at 8 percent. During a California survey Wednesday, officials found zero measurable snow at a Sierra Nevada site where they’d normally stand knee-deep in snowpack. March 2026 was the warmest March on record, and that heat wiped out snowpack that should have lasted well into summer. Salt Lake City is already urging water conservation. Colorado and Wyoming are moving toward outdoor watering bans. Wildfire season is arriving weeks early. As one climatologist put it, the changes we’ve set in motion are going to be catastrophic. The West is running out of water and time.

— Trump has released his budget and wants $500 billion more for the military to pay for his war against Iran. He proposes to fund it by cutting:

$510 million - Grants for farmers and agricultural research

$82 million - Loans for rural small businesses (Fully eliminated)

$61 million - Support for farmers and food markets (Fully eliminated)

$240 million - School meals and food education for children abroad (Fully eliminated)

And more....

 

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and his military aide Ricky Buria.U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and his military aide Ricky Buria.

Occupy  Democrats, Opinion: Pentagon ROCKED as Hegseth’s top aide spreads wild story of disguises and drinking during war, Staff Report, April 3, 2026. The Pentagon under Pete Hegseth has devolved into something between a frat house and a spy thriller — and the latest revelation is so unhinged it would be funny if the man at the center of it wasn't currently running America's military.

occupy democrats logoAccording to a bombshell New York Post report, Hegseth's own chief of staff, Ricky Buria, has been telling Pentagon staffers an extraordinary story: that he and Hegseth donned disguises — hats and sunglasses — to sneak past Hegseth's security detail at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City so they could go on a secret drinking bender.

new york post logoOf course, this would be a direct violation of the solemn pledge Hegseth made to stop drinking entirely — the promise that was the only thing that got him confirmed as Defense Secretary by a single tiebreaking vote from JD Vance.Now here's where the drama gets truly Shakespearean.

Buria apparently claims he was making the whole thing up — spreading a fake story as a loyalty test to catch leakers. But multiple sources aren't buying it. Several say Buria was telling this tale to too many people, in too much detail, over too long a period, for it to be a simple sting operation.

One source recalled Buria describing finding three bottles of hard liquor on a flight with Hegseth in April, saying: "I protect him, don't worry." Another remembered Buria explaining that "a hat and sunglasses is all you need" to sneak the Secretary of Defense out undetected, adding that "it was kind of amazing that nobody recognized them."

So either Pete Hegseth's chief of staff is running around the Pentagon telling elaborate, detailed lies about his own boss to catch leakers — which is insane — or Pete Hegseth actually snuck out of the Ritz-Carlton in a disguise to go drinking while managing a war — which is also insane.

Pick your insanity.

Remember, this is the same Pete Hegseth whose ex-wife told the FBI he "drinks more often than he doesn't." The same Hegseth whose Fox News colleagues said he smelled of alcohol before going on air. The same Hegseth who only got confirmed because Vance broke a 50-50 tie after Hegseth pinky-promised he'd quit drinking.

And this is the same Ricky Buria who last week told a senior Army official that Trump wouldn't want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events — apparently adding casual racism to his impressive portfolio of Pentagon chaos.

One source put it perfectly: "From day one, Ricky has consistently heightened the level of drama, paranoia, and infighting in the secretary's office." America is fighting a war in Iran. Troops are being wounded and killed. And the Pentagon's leadership is playing drunk spy games at the Ritz-Carlton. The American military’s biggest crisis right now is one of leadership.

U.S. Education, Media, High Tech, Jobs

Politico, Judge blocks Trump's college admissions data push in 17 states, Bianca Quilantan, April 4, 2026. The order reflects how the president's efforts to dismantle the Education Department are getting in the way of his policy goals.The U.S. Department of Education building is seen.

politico CustomA federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s admissions data collection for public universities in 17 states, delivering a major blow to his crackdown on the use of race in college admissions.

The administration significantly expanded the scope of admissions information colleges must submit to the federal government after Trump issued an August memo directing the Education Department to do so. The move is a key part of a Trump administration effort to probe whether schools are discriminating against applicants based on race.

But a group of Democratic attorneys general from 17 states sued in early March to block the data collection.

Massachusetts District Court Judge Dennis Saylor, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in a late Friday order the survey was created in a “rushed and chaotic manner” and problems with it are being “compounded” by the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter the Education Department.

Saylor’s preliminary injunction is a stark example of how the administration’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department are getting in the way of its policy goals.

The states argued that the number of employees at the department’s National Center for Education Statistics has been cut from about 100 to only three amid Trump’s mass government layoffs, which would complicate the division’s work to collect and analyze the data.

The administration disputed that, saying 13 employees remained at the agency’s statistical arm and the collection and processing would be handled by contractors.

But Saylor said the government was “conspicuously silent” in explaining how the data will be handled once the agency no longer exists.

“This is not a merely technical issue,” Saylor wrote. The process “cannot be turned over to states and local communities; they have no authority … to conduct such surveys. Nor, for that matter, does any federal agency other than NCES.”

Once the division no longer exists, the authority to conduct the survey “vanishes — and with it the authority both to ‘collect’ data and to ‘analyze’ data collected from prior surveys,” he added. “Whether and where that data will continue to exist, and who will have access to it, is entirely unclear.”

But Saylor’s ruling was not a complete victory for the states, with the judge writing that the agency has the authority to collect the data it is seeking.

Saylor also said he saw no reason to restrict the department from using it to investigate potential discrimination, rejecting an argument by the states that Trump would use the data to punish colleges and could impose severe penalties such as the loss of federal funding.

April 3

Top Headlines

News Updates

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime, Justice, Rights

More On Iran War

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon via Pool and Getty Images)

  • Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Strait Talk, Andrew Egger, April 3, 2026. Iran FlagYesterday, we saw something astonishing. The president had just given a speech on the war in Iran that contained virtually no new information; in fact, it largely consisted of a restatement of thoughts he’d already put up on Truth Social days before.

More Global News

U.S. Eonomy, Inflation, Jobs, Energy, Transportation

  • New York Times, Live Updates: Strong Showing for Job Market in Latest Report, Lydia DePillis, April 3, 2026. U.S. employers added 178,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3 percent, a robust showing after a run of weakness.
  • Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Commentary: In Batteries We Trust, Paul Krugman, right, paul krugmanApril 3, 2026. A break for some good news. The war goes on, and so does the global energy crisis. In fact, I believe that prices of oil futures remain too low given how much spot prices will need to rise to resolve the shortages that will hit once oil supplies that were shipped before the Strait of Hormuz was closed are exhausted.

U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

  • Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: The Sexism of Trumpism, William Kristol, right, william bill kristol imdbApril 3, 2026. According to the Access Hollywood tape, our president, Donald Trump, likes to “move on” women. In fact he seems to relish moving on them “very heavily.” “I don’t even wait. . . . Grab ‘em by the p—y. You can do anything.” 

April 3

Top Stories

ny times logoNew York Times, Iran War Live Updates: One American Rescued From Fighter Jet Downed Over Iran, Officials Say, Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper, Yeganeh Torbati, Adam Rasgon and Ronen Bergman, April 3, 2026. The fate of a second airman shot down in a F-15E warplane was unknown. It was the first time during the five-week war that a U.S. warplane had been brought down over Iran.

Here’s the latest.

Iran shot down a U.S. fighter jet over the country, the first time that has occurred in five weeks of war, but a rescue effort succeeded in recovering one of its two crew members from Iranian soil, U.S. and Israeli officials said. The fate of the other one remained unclear.

The loss of the F-15E jet, reported by Iranian media and confirmed by U.S. and Israeli officials, and the rescue efforts create major military and diplomatic challenges for the United States. President Trump has threatened in recent days to bombard Iran “back to the Stone Ages,” and over the past 24 hours, the United States and Iran have been trading attacks on military and civilian infrastructure in the region.

Just days ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s air defenses were so degraded that the United States was sending B-52 bombers over the country, lumbering planes considered highly vulnerable to antiaircraft systems. The F-15E, with a crew of two, is much smaller, faster and more agile, making it a tougher target, though it is not one of the stealth fighters of more recent design.

Iranian media said helicopters were searching for the crew members. Videos posted to social media and verified by The New York Times show helicopters and a C-130 airplane, apparently American craft that were part of the search and rescue effort, flying low over southwestern Iran.

In response to Israeli and U.S. attacks, Iran continued to strike at their allied Persian Gulf countries.

The Kuwait Petroleum company on Friday said that drones had struck the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, without saying where the attack came from. In a separate incident, the Kuwaiti government said Iran had damaged a power and water desalination plant in the country. In Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital, the authorities said falling debris from an air defense interception started a fire at a major gas field, halting operations there.

On Thursday, the United States struck a highway bridge near the capital, Tehran, and Iranian news outlets reported eight people were killed.

Iran FlagSince the war started on Feb. 28, Iran has attacked refineries, oil tankers, storage sites and other energy infrastructure across the region, while Israel has hit some similar sites in Iran. Intentionally targeting energy infrastructure could constitute a war crime under international law. The strikes and Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for around a fifth of the world’s oil, have sent global oil prices soaring. (Markets in the United States were closed on Friday for Good Friday.)

Mr. Trump has threatened further strikes on energy infrastructure, warning that if Iran does not reopen the strait, the U.S. military will destroy the country’s power plants. “Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!” he wrote on social media late Thursday. “New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!”

Iranian leaders have been defiant in the face of the threats from Mr. Trump. Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a statement on Thursday that negotiations with Washington were impossible under current conditions.

Iranian leaders have been defiant in the face of the threats from Mr. Trump. Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a statement on Thursday that negotiations with Washington were impossible under current conditions.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

  • Targeting Israel: The Israeli military said Iran and Hezbollah had launched more missiles toward Israel, where the national emergency service reported several impact sites and one injury.
  • War’s cost: Some estimates suggest the war could cost the United States as much as $1 billion a day, a total that underscores the economic trade-offs the Trump administration faces as the president had promised to focus on lowering consumer costs and other domestic issues.
  • Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,606 civilians, including 244 children, had been killed in Iran as of Thursday. Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 1,345 Lebanese had been killed as of Thursday, since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 people had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded. 

 

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is shown with evangelical pastor Doug Wilson in a collage that includes also Pope Leo at right.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is shown with evangelical pastor Douglas Wilson, a self-described Paleo-Confederate and Christian Nationalist, in a collage that includes also Pope Leo at right.

ny times logoNew York Times, Hegseth Says U.S. Troops Are Fighting for Jesus. The Pope Disagrees, Motoko Rich, April 3, 2026. In sharp contrast to the Trump administration’s calls for Christian prayers for the war effort, Pope Leo XIV says military domination is “entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.

Pete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary, has asked the American people to pray “every day, on bended knee” for a military victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, has a starkly different take on what should be done in Jesus’s name.

In a homily during a Mass on Thursday morning before Easter, the pope said that the Christian mission has often been “distorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.”

Since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran in late February, the pope has consistently called for an end to the violence and a return to dialogue to resolve the conflict. But without naming Mr. Hegseth, he has also pointed out the ways in which Christianity has been marshaled for purposes that the pope says do not align with Catholic teaching.

“We tend to consider ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, great when we are feared,” the pope said in a homily during a Holy Thursday rite at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the bishop of Rome. “God has given us an example — not of how to dominate, but of how to liberate; not of how to destroy life, but of how to give it.”

In late March the pope warned against invoking the name of Jesus for battle, saying in a Sunday homily that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

Throughout his first year as pontiff, Leo has been careful not to wade into U.S. politics and has avoided direct confrontation with the White House.

He has used his influence through proxies, such as when he encouraged U.S. bishops to strongly support immigrants last year as President Trump escalated his deportation campaign.

He has mentioned Mr. Trump only when asked directly by a reporter if he had a message for the U.S. president.

“I’m told that President Trump recently stated that he would like to end the war,” the pope said outside his country residence in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome on March 31. “Hopefully he’s looking for a way to, to decrease the amount of violence, of bombing.”

Pope Leo has said he has not spoken directly to Mr. Trump about the war. But he talked Friday morning by telephone with Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, and reiterated the importance of dialogue and ending the conflicts to secure a “just and lasting peace” in the Middle East, according to a Vatican statement.

HuffPost via Yahoo News, Pentagon To Host Good Friday Service Just For Protestants, Not Catholics, Jennifer Bendery, April 3, 2026. The Pentagon has invited more than 3,500 employees to attend a Good Friday service at its in-house chapel. Except it’s only for Protestants, not Catholics.

“Just a friendly reminder: There will be a Protestant Service (No Catholic Mass) for Good Friday today at the Pentagon Chapel,” reads a huffington post logoFriday email sent by Air Force leadership, a copy of which was shared by an employee.

“I guess so the Catholics know their kind ain’t welcome,” said this employee, who requested anonymity to speak about internal communications. “It’s so ridiculous.”

A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed it is not hosting another, separate religious service for Catholic employees.

“The Protestant service is the only service scheduled in the Pentagon chapel today,” they said in a statement.

The Pentagon Memorial Chapel is a 24-hour interfaith space that employees can use for prayer and reflection, and that is used for religious services.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a far-right evangelical Christian, has tried to infuse his religious views into Pentagon activities.

Last May, he brought his Tennessee pastor and controversial spiritual advisor Brooks Potteiger to the Pentagon to lead a prayer service, during which he hailed President Donald Trump as a divinely appointed leader. Hegseth said at the time he wanted to make his prayer service a monthly tradition.

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump Administration Live Updates: White House Seeks 40 Percent Increase in Military Spending, Tony Romm, April 3, 2026. Here’s What We’re Covering Today.

Budget Request: President Trump will ask Congress to approve roughly $1.5 trillion in funding for the military in the 2027 fiscal year, according to a budget request released by the White House on Friday. If approved, that amount would set military spending at its highest level in modern history.

Spending Specifics: The White House budget proposal seeks to slash domestic spending by about 10 percent, and includes cuts to programs meant to respond to natural disasters, train new teachers, root out tax fraud and research cures for diseases. The proposal also requests tens of millions in new spending for immigration enforcement, $30 million for an anti-fraud effort led by Vice President JD Vance and $152 million to reopen a prison at Alcatraz.

ny times logoNew York Times, Forest Service Will Close Research Stations That Study Wildfire Risk, Eric Niiler, April 3, 2026. Scientists say their work on fires and climate change could be lost as the agency moves its headquarters to Utah from Washington and shuts 57 research stations.

The U.S. Forest Service is closing 57 of its 77 research facilities in 31 states under a reorganization plan announced this week, threatening science that looked at how wildfires, drought, pests and global warming are putting pressure on forests.

The agency plans to consolidate its research division into a centralized office in Fort Collins, Colo., and move field researchers to locations in nearby states. But employees said they feared the move would lead many scientists to leave instead. The reorganization will also move the agency’s headquarters to Salt Lake City from Washington, affecting 260 employees.

Many of the research facilities are at universities where Forest Service scientists have access to laboratories and computers or at experimental forests where scientists can monitor the effects of environmental changes over long periods of time. They also investigate logging techniques, endangered plant and animal species, and how forests grow back after devastating fires.

The agency is closing six research and development facilities in California, five in Mississippi, four in Michigan and three in Utah, among others.

It will also close all of its nine regional offices, which currently manage 154 national forests. Some states will have their own offices and others will be consolidated.

The Forest Service oversees 193 million acres of forest and grasslands in 43 states and territories, including forests managed for commercial logging and pristine wilderness areas. The agency lost 5,860 of its 35,550 employees during in the first half of 2025 to cuts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and early retirement programs, according to an inspector general’s report issued in December.

Critics raised alarm over the proposal to consolidate research stations while much of the Western United States is suffering from record temperatures and prolonged drought that increase the risk of wildfires this summer.

“This move will lead to an increasing divergence between sound science and land management,” said Kevin Hood, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, a nonprofit forest protection group.

 

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: All the President’s Women Scapegoats, Bill Kristol, Andrew Egger and Jim Swift, April 3, 2026. The women get the boot while the men get off scot-free.

bulwark logo big shipIt’s a big week in religious circles! A blessed end to Holy Week for all celebrating Easter this weekend, and a belated chag sameach to everyone celebrating Passover. And here’s an ecumenical offering for readers of all faith persuasions: At 11:45 a.m. E.D.T., Catherine Rampell and Sam Stein will be going live on YouTube and Substack to talk about the troubling state of the economy—unfortunately, it’s been a big week for other reasons, too. Happy Friday.

News Updates

The Parnas Perspective, News and Commentary: Trump Considers Mass Firings for his Cabinet, Blanche Says No More Epstein Files or Investigations, Iran Shoots Down American Jet, Aaron Parnas, right, aaron parnas new headshotApril 3, 2026. Donald Trump is reportedly frustrated with several Cabinet members, and significant firings could be imminent amid concerns he may struggle to get replacements confirmed if Democrats take the Senate.

At the same time, Iran claims it has shot down an American jet for the first time in the war, with a search operation reportedly underway for U.S. pilots inside Iran. Meanwhile, the new acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said the Epstein saga is in the DOJ’s past and not part of its future.

I want to be absolutely clear. No matter what Blanche says, I will not stop fighting for the Epstein files. I have already spoken with survivors and attorneys, and I am not backing down

Here’s the news:

According to Politico and The Atlantic, Donald Trump is considering additional Cabinet changes after ousting Attorney General Pam Bondi, reflecting frustration with some officials and a desire to reset his administration amid political challenges. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, FBI Director Kash Patel, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer are reportedly under scrutiny, though no final decisions have been made. The potential shake-up is aimed at addressing perceived underperformance and improving the administration’s standing ahead of upcoming elections. Despite internal discussions, the White House has publicly expressed support for the officials in question.

Trump is facing criticism for allegedly running a misogynistic administration after firing Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem—the only two women removed from his Cabinet so far. Critics argue that male officials with similar or greater controversies have remained in their roles, raising concerns about unequal treatment. Some Democrats and former Republican officials have pointed to a pattern of women being dismissed more quickly than men.

Todd Blanche, right, stated that the Department of Justice has released all files related to the Epstein case and intends to move on from the issue. Todd Blanche OHe emphasized that while the Epstein “saga” was part of the department’s recent past, it should not factor into its future work.

Blanche acknowledged frustration over the lack of progress in potential cases involving figures like Letitia James, Adam Schiff, John Brennan, and James Comey. He said the Justice Department is working diligently but does not publicly discuss investigations. Blanche also expressed understanding of broader anger toward actions taken during the administrations of Joe Biden and Barack Obama, noting he had personally experienced those events.

NBC News has confirmed that Pete Hegseth has intervened in military promotions, blocking or delaying more than a dozen senior officers, many of whom are women or minorities, raising concerns about possible bias. Critics inside the military and government worry his actions may target officers based on race, gender, or ties to Joe Biden-era policies, particularly diversity initiatives. His involvement has disrupted the traditionally structured and merit-based promotion process, with some officers removed despite no misconduct allegations. The moves have sparked concern that political considerations are undermining trust in the military’s promotion system.

Hegseth has removed several senior military leaders, including Army Chief of Staff Randy George, as part of a broader shake-up of military leadership. The firings appear tied to Hegseth’s effort to replace officials associated with prior administrations and reshape leadership in line with current priorities. Additional generals and top officers across multiple branches have also been dismissed, reflecting an ongoing pattern of high-level turnover.

The U.S. military carried out an airstrike destroying a major bridge connecting Tehran to a nearby city, marking a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict with Iran. Officials said the bridge was targeted because it was being used to transport military equipment, though the strike also hit key infrastructure. Donald Trump warned that further destruction could follow, signaling continued military pressure. The attack has heightened tensions and raised concerns about broader impacts on civilians and regional stability.

U.S. oil prices surged, with West Texas Intermediate crude reaching $112 per barrel—the highest level in four years—amid escalating global tensions. The sharp increase, up from $54 at the start of the year, reflects market reactions to the war in Iran and concerns about supply disruptions. Rising energy costs are fueling fears of economic slowdown, fuel shortages, and increased food insecurity worldwide. The spike comes despite markets being closed for the Easter holiday, highlighting the intensity of the upward pressure on prices.

Amnesty International has accused Iran of recruiting children as young as 12 into the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force, warning the practice could constitute a war crime. The group says evidence, including eyewitness accounts and video analysis, shows child soldiers being deployed at checkpoints and patrols, sometimes armed. Amnesty warned that these children face serious harm due to ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes targeting military sites. The report highlights growing humanitarian concerns as the conflict intensifies and draws in more vulnerable populations.

Pope Leo urged Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a phone call to pursue renewed dialogue to help end the war with Iran. The Vatican said the pope emphasized the need to protect civilians and uphold international humanitarian law. He has been increasingly vocal in criticizing the conflict and calling for peaceful resolution. The exchange reflects growing international pressure to de-escalate tensions in the region.

Hegseth announced a policy change allowing service members to carry personal firearms on military bases with commander approval, citing the need for self-protection. The move reverses longstanding restrictions and comes in response to past shootings on bases, though denials must now be justified in writing. Critics warn the policy could increase risks of gun violence and suicide among troops, noting existing concerns about firearm-related deaths in the military.

Axios has confirmed that the U.S. quietly expelled Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Saadat Aghajani, in December over national security concerns, using a discreet internal process rather than a formal public declaration. The move was part of a broader pattern, with at least three Iranian diplomats expelled from New York in recent months and restrictions placed on their movements. While no specific allegations were publicly detailed, such actions are typically tied to concerns like espionage or activities against U.S. interests.

Iranian state media claimed it shot down a U.S. fighter jet over central Iran using an advanced air defense system, releasing photos as evidence. However, the United States has not confirmed any aircraft loss, and the images have not been independently verified. Axios has confirmed this report:

Video footage circulating online appears to show a U.S. Air Force HC-130J “Combat King II” aircraft flying at low altitude over southern Iran, likely as part of a combat search-and-rescue mission. Reports suggest the aircraft may have been supporting efforts to locate and extract the crew of a U.S. F-15E fighter jet reportedly downed earlier, though this crash remains unconfirmed. Such rescue operations typically involve specialized aircraft and helicopters working together to recover personnel in hostile territory.

Pakistan sharply increased fuel prices, with diesel rising about 55% and gasoline about 43%, marking the second hike in less than a month. Officials said the surge was driven by soaring global oil prices due to the U.S.-Iran war. The increases have intensified the country’s cost-of-living crisis, with many citizens warning they may not be able to cope financially. Public reaction has been severe, with critics describing the move as a “petrol bomb” on already struggling households.

Kuwait reported that Iranian attacks struck a desalination plant and the Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery, causing damage and fires in key facilities. The incidents highlight the growing targeting of critical infrastructure, including water and energy systems, in the conflict. Desalination plants are especially vital in the region, supplying most of the water for Gulf countries. The escalation comes amid warnings from Donald Trump about potential strikes on similar facilities in Iran.

Ali Jahanshahi warned that any U.S. ground invasion would face severe retaliation, saying American troops would be sent to the “pre Stone Age.” The statement echoes escalating rhetoric following threats from Donald Trump and comes as the U.S. increases troop presence in the region. Jahanshahi emphasized Iran’s military readiness and framed the country as prepared to defend against invasion. The exchange highlights rising tensions and the potential for further military escalation.

A U.S. immigration judge ruled against deporting Subramanyam Vedam, whose decades-old murder conviction was overturned after he spent over 40 years in prison. The judge found Vedam rehabilitated and not a danger to the public, citing his personal growth and contributions while incarcerated. Despite the ruling, federal authorities are still seeking to deport him based on other past convictions.

U.S. senators, including Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren, criticized Ticketmaster for raising other fees after a federal crackdown on hidden charges. Lawmakers say the company may be engaging in “bait-and-switch” tactics by complying with transparency rules while still increasing overall costs for consumers. The controversy comes amid ongoing legal scrutiny, including a federal case examining whether Ticketmaster and its parent company operate as a monopoly. Critics argue the company’s practices continue to drive up ticket prices and harm consumers.

Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: April 2, 2026 [Trump's TV 1950s 'Reality'], Heather Cox Richardson, right, heather cox richardson cnnApril 3, 2026. This afternoon, President Donald J. Trump posted on social media a video of the theme song of the Davy Crockett TV series from 1954–1955 starring Fess Parker. Over the clip, he wrote: “Davy Crockett, obviously a distant relative of Jasmine Crockett, and a very High IQ Frontiersman, would be proud of the legacy that he began long ago, and especially Jasmine’s Great Success as a Politician from the Great State of Texas! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

The Walt Disney Studio designed the Davy Crockett western series for children when Trump was about nine, an age that put him in the right demographic to have been part of the Davy Crockett craze that put “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” at the top of the Hit Parade and spurred the sale of $300 million of Davy Crockett merchandise as little boys begged their parents for raccoon caps that would make them look like a western hero.

Jasmine Crockett is a current Democratic U.S. representative from Texas. There is no evidence she is related to David Crockett, who served as a U.S. representative from Tennessee from 1827 to 1835 and who died at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Trump mused about their possible relationship before, in 2025.

It feels frighteningly appropriate for a 1950s television western to seem more important to Trump right now than the real world of April 2026 does. Davy Crockett was only one of the many westerns on television in the 1950s and 1960s as those eager to dismantle the New Deal government championed the idea of the western hero as the true American. Trump is trying to bring to life a right-wing political fantasy of the 1950s, and Americans in the present are making clear they reject it.

After World War II, Republican businessmen, southern racists, and religious traditionalists hated the government that both Democrats and Republicans had embraced since 1933, one that leveled the American social and economic playing field by regulating business, providing a basic social safety net, promoting infrastructure, and protecting civil rights. They insisted that such a system of government action was socialism or even communism, and contrasted it with their fantasy of an independent white man on the frontier who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone.

In 1960 a ghost-written book released under the name of Arizona senator Barry Goldwater, who wore a cowboy hat and boasted of his family’s ties to the Old West although he himself grew up with a live-in maid and a chauffeur, articulated this right-wing vision.

The Conscience of a Conservative maintained that even if Americans liked the new government that had stabilized the country since the Great Depression and World War II, the Constitution’s framers had deliberately written a document that would prevent “the tyranny of the masses.”

In place of a strong federal government, the book said, power should go back to the states to restore true freedom to Black Americans, farmers, and workers. Federal action had given those groups too much power, and they were using it to destroy liberty and lower the American standard of living. In their hands, the book said, the U.S. was on its way to becoming a totalitarian state. At the same time, the government must protect the country with an increasingly strong military.

At an Easter lunch reception yesterday, Trump echoed this argument precisely. “I said to [Office of Management and Budget director] Russell [Vought], ‘Don’t send any money for daycare because the United States can’t take care of daycare,’” he said. “That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We have fifty states, we have all these other people. We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. You gotta let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They’ll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up, but we, it’s not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things, they can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing, military protection.”

Trump is expected to release his 2027 budget plan tomorrow, in time to use it to shape Republicans’ argument for the midterm elections in November. Like Trump’s budget requests for 2026, it calls for an enormous boost to the nation’s military spending, $1.5 trillion, to be paid for with cuts to domestic programs. But members of Congress recognized that domestic spending is popular, and their 2026 appropriations bills kept domestic spending relatively flat.

The popular pressure to fund domestic programs showed today when House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) backpedaled on the Senate’s plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the parent agency for Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection. Far-right House Republicans opposed the Senate’s bill, and bowing to them, Johnson called the Senate’s bill “a joke” and sent House members home until April 13 without voting on it. Today Johnson said he would bring the bill forward to pass it with Democratic support and that Republicans would then try to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection through a budget reconciliation measure that does not need Democratic votes.

Racism was central to the rhetoric of cowboy individualism, and the institutionalization of that racism in the mass deportations and incarcerations of the Department of Homeland Security under Trump has created a backlash. A poll last week by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) shows that only 35% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration while 61% disapprove.

An analysis of DHS records by Ali Winston and Maddy Varner of Wired revealed today that DHS has used agents from special units accustomed to dealing with high-risk warrants, armed drug cartels, and manhunts for civilian immigration sweeps. Agents from Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) and its sister unit, Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue (BORSTAR), are part of what the journalists call “a secretive, tightly knit world” in which their identities “are typically excluded from official documents and shielded from public records requests.”

The journalists’ analysis shows that these agents are “as a group, the most violent of the hundreds of federal agents deployed to Chicago.” Following the use-of-force guidelines rewritten by former leader Gregory Bovino—himself a member of BORTAC—their use of force there “included punching and kicking protesters, throwing tear gas, macing civilians, firing pepperballs and 40-mm foam rounds into crowds, shocking people with tasers, unleashing dogs on deportation targets, and shooting unarmed civilians, killing at least one of them [Silverio Villegas González, shot at “close range” as he fled from officers after a traffic stop].

The county medical examiner yesterday declared the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a visually impaired Rohingya refugee from Myanmar whom Border Patrol agents dropped off in the parking lot of a coffee shop on a frigid February night in Buffalo, New York, a homicide. Rather than releasing him to his family or lawyer, CBP officers offered Shah Alam what they called a “courtesy ride.” He was found dead five days after agents left him at the closed shop.

A DHS spokesperson told Sydney Carruth of MS NOW that the homicide ruling was “another hoax being peddled by the media and sanctuary politicians to demonize our law enforcement. This death had NOTHING to do with Border Patrol.”

Those who oppose government social welfare programs, regulation of business, and so on, have worked to concentrate power in the president, knowing that Congress will hesitate to slash programs their voters like. Yesterday Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, of the Office of Legal Counsel, published an opinion for the White House that claims the Presidential Records Act, which requires that presidents keep records of their official business and turn them over at the end of their term, is unconstitutional. Gaiser clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

“The PRA is not a valid exercise of Congress’s Article I authority and unconstitutionally intrudes on the independence and autonomy of the President guaranteed by Article II. The Act establishes a permanent and burdensome regime of congressional regulation of the Presidency untethered from any valid and identifiable legislative purpose,” the memo reads. “For these reasons, the PRA is unconstitutional, and the President need not further comply with its dictates.”

The fallout from that concentration of power is showing now in Trump’s disastrous adventure in Iran, undertaking to attack the country without consultation either with Congress or with allies.

Yesterday evening, Trump commandeered time from television networks to deliver what officials billed as a major announcement on the Iran war. But rather than announce anything new in his first address to the nation about a war that has gone on now for more than a month, Trump rambled for 19 minutes, reiterating what he has put in social media posts. He said the war was almost over but also that military operations were going to intensify, said its purpose was to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities—despite his claim in June 2025 to have obliterated those capabilities—and said the rise in oil and gas prices would be only a “short-term increase.”

Sounding tired and speaking in a monotone, Trump reiterated his claim that the U.S. doesn’t need the oil that travels through the Strait of Hormuz and demanded that other nations who need the oil more force Iran to reopen it. In reality, the U.S. is tied into international oil markets, and prices not only of oil, but also of products that use oil to get to market, are already rising.

One Republican strategist from a battleground state texted Lisa Kashinsky and Alec Hernandez of Politico: “What the hell did he just say?” The strategist called the speech “nonsense.”

As Trump spoke, U.S. stock futures plummeted, erasing about $550 billion in 25 minutes.

Today forty nations, led by Britain and France, discussed ways in which they could work to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The United States was not invited to participate.

In the midst of this crisis, the tension between the Army’s leadership and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blew up today when Hegeseth fired Army Chief of Staff General Randy George. The Army chief of staff is the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. Army, the top military advisor for the Secretary of the Army, overseeing planning, training, and policy. George was appointed to his position in 2023 and worked closely with former defense secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, the four-star general who preceded Hegseth. Recently, George refused to remove four officers—two women and two Black men—from a promotion list at Hegseth’s insistence.

A source who spoke to Jennifer Jacobs, Eleanor Watson, and James LaPorta of CBS News said that Hegseth “wants someone in the role who will implement President Trump and Hegseth’s vision for the Army.” Two other Army leaders were also removed: General David Hodne, leader of the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, and Major General William Green, head of the Army’s Chaplain Corps. Hegseth has reworked the Chaplain Corps recently to limit the range of religious instruction available to military personnel.

And finally, Trump today fired Attorney General Pam Bondi by posting her dismissal on social media. He was apparently angry that she has not adequately punished his enemies and that her botched handling of the Epstein files has stoked rather than calmed the story. For the present, her replacement will be Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was Trump’s personal lawyer before joining the Department of Justice.

It was Blanche who met privately with Jeffrey Epstein’s associate, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, last July, as the outcry over the Department of Justice’s apparent cover-up of the Epstein files grew. After their meeting, Maxwell was moved from the prison where she was being held in Florida, to a less restrictive, minimum-security federal prison camp in Texas.

U.S. Law, Courts, Crime, Justice, Rights

white house destruction

The Contrarian, Opinion: Undaunted, Jennifer Rubin, right, jennifer rubin new headshotApril 3, 2026. Judge Leon slams ballroom gambit!

With more than a dozen exclamation points, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon for the District of Columbia, a George W. Bush appointee, pulled the plug on Donald Trump’s illegal, cheesy, and poorly designed ballroom project financed by uber-rich elites and corporations. (This is a judge who loves his punctuation.) Leon’s opening line was telling: “The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!” It went downhill for Trump from there.

contrarian logoLeon made clear that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which brought the suit, “is likely to succeed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.” As seen on Dec. 17, the destruction left in the wake of the demolition of the White House East Wing. (G. Edward Johnson via Wikimedia Commons)

Leon found that the Constitution was determinative. “The Property Clause vests Congress with complete authority over public lands. See U.S. Const. Art. IV, § 3, cl. 2 (‘The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States’),” Leon wrote. That means Congress has sole authority over properties like the White House.

However, Trump has more problems than just the Property Clause. The Appropriations Clause (“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law”) and the District Clause (giving Congress exclusive power to legislate over the District of Columbia) leave Trump with zero authority to tear down and rebuild the White House. Leon pointed out that even the Trump regime’s lawyers “declined to argue that they have any inherent constitutional authority to build the ballroom.” Judge Richard J. Leon

richard j. leon That should be the end of it. However, Leon, right, also examined several statutes Trump’s side raised. They do not help Trump’s audacious power grab either. Trump hangs his hat on 3 U.S.C. § 105(d)(l), but that merely authorizes Trump to use funds for “the care, maintenance, repair, alteration, refurnishing, improvement, air-conditioning, heating, and lighting (including electric power and fixtures) of the Executive Residence at the White House.” Plainly, that doesn’t cover THIS. (Leon’s retort to the argument that this statute provides the legal basis the $400 million construction project is priceless: “Please!”) Since a mere $2.45 million is congressionally allocated for these purposes, Trump had to resort to a “convoluted funding scheme” that does not amount to a congressional authorization for fundraising.

The next statute also slams the door on the Versailles ballroom. “Congress has affirmatively prohibited the ‘erect[ion]’ of ‘[a] building or structure’ ‘on any reservation, park, or public grounds of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia without express authority of Congress.’ 40 U.S.C. § 8106,” Leon wrote. He then knocked down the government’s specious argument for why this statute does not apply:

Defendants argue that § 8106 should not be read to constrain the President or limit construction at the White House absent a clear statement. Please! A clear statement rule makes sense when Congress is legislating in an area where the President exercises overlapping constitutional authority.... But Defendants here have disclaimed that the President has any inherent constitutional authority over construction at the White House and have conceded that Congress’s constitutional authority over federal property is “exclusive.”

A separate statute that bars on national parks any “buildings over $1,000 dollars without express authority of Congress” does not help Trump on his $400 million project, Leon ruled. Likewise, the National Park Service Organic Act, which give the NPS authority “to promote and regulate” the park system, has nothing to do with building construction.

In weighing the equities on injunctive relief, Leon had no trouble determining that the imminent harm to the NPS (and the public) justifies halting the project. “It has demonstrated imminent, irreparable harm in the form of ongoing construction of a ballroom that would, in its own words, ‘overshadow[]’ the White House and disrupt the appearance of a historic and cultural icon,” Leon found. “The National Trust has shown that Defendants are making these irreversible changes without statutory or constitutional authority. While the National Trust would be deeply harmed in the absence of an injunction, the Government ‘cannot suffer harm from an injunction that merely ends an unlawful practice.’”

In one last gasp to rescue his monument to poor taste, Trump tried to waive around a claim of “national security.” Leon offers another “Please!” retort:

Please! While I take seriously the Government’s concerns regarding the safety and security of the White House grounds and the President himself, the existence of a “large hole” beside the White House is, of course, a problem of the President’s own making! Bald assertions of “national security” cannot excuse the Government’s failure to follow the law and then insulate those failures from judicial review.

(The White House has been blabbing about the location of a bunker under the East Wing/ballroom site, itself a glaring breach of confidentiality, but he can presumably install a covered entry way of some type.)

Finally, Leon reminded Trump he has a perfect alternative: Go to Congress for authorization and funding. Sure. Let the MAGA lackeys in the House and Senate decide whether to spend $400 million on this eyesore. If they rubber-stamp it, that would be one more reason to flip both houses — which would then allow Democrats to nix funding for this abomination.

Leon’s thorough and snarky put down of each preposterous argument is precisely the sort of undaunted, unflinching, and unequivocal response Trump’s increasingly ludicrous legal arguments requires. Trump’s determination to pursue patently absurd positions — and his lawyers’ willingness to give him thumbs up — point to the essential role of the federal courts in halting the slide into an autocracy run by the whims of a pathological narcissist. Fortunately, Leon, like so many other judges (appointed by presidents of both parties), remains a check against Trump’s mad and unconstitutional scheme.

This might not be the most important legal defeat Trump has suffered, but many Americans may find it among the most satisfying. It is their White House, not Trump’s.

 

ny times logoNew York Times, Pam Bondi Wanted a Graceful Exit. But Trump Wanted Her Gone, Glenn Thrush and Tyler Pager, April 3, 2026 (print ed.). Attorney General Pam Bondi had a pretty good idea her days were numbered.

President Trump had complained too freely, too frequently, to too many people about her inability to prosecute the people he hates. She was falling short of Mr. Trump’s unyielding, unrealistic demands for retribution against his enemies. She had made mistake upon mistake in her handling of the Epstein files. Her critics were in the president’s ear.

Last month, Ms. Bondi told a friend that Mr. Trump’s willingness to fire Kristi Noem from her post as homeland security secretary meant she might be in jeopardy too.

But Ms. Bondi had not expected Mr. Trump, the man responsible for elevating her to one of the most powerful positions in the country, to drop the curtain quite so soon, according to four people familiar with the situation.

On Wednesday, the 60-year-old Ms. Bondi, downcast but determined, joined Mr. Trump for a glum crosstown drive to the Supreme Court, where they watched arguments in the birthright citizenship case. In the car, Mr. Trump told her it was time for a change at the top of the Justice Department.

Ms. Bondi hoped to save her job or, at the very least, buy a little more time — until the summer — to give herself a graceful exit.

She ended up with neither, and grew emotional Wednesday in conversations with friends and colleagues after she realized she was out. The next morning, Mr. Trump made it official, and fired her via social media post.

Ms. Bondi’s precipitous fall laid bare a cornerstone truth of Mr. Trump’s second term: Loyalty, flattery and obeisance are prerequisites for power, but they don’t provide durable protection from a president intent on carrying out his maximalist personal and political goals.

HuffPost, Pam Bondi’s DOJ Portraits Immediately Trashed: MS NOW, Jennifer Bendery, April 3, 2026. Within hours of being fired as attorney general, portraits of Pam Bondi that had been placed around the Justice Department had been removed and, in the case of at least one portrait seen by MS NOW, unceremoniously tossed in the trash.

huffington post logoIt’s a fitting end for Bondi’s portraits, given her glee at removing those of her predecessors when she was originally appointed.

In an interview that aired on Fox News last February, Bondi told Lara Trump how she personally removed the portraits of former President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“I went up on the seventh floor, which is the national security division. The entire floor is a SCIF, so no one can get in there,” Bondi said. “So I was able to get the code, open the door, and I look on the wall and see President Biden, Kamala Harris, and Merrick Garland’s paintings still hanging.”

“I personally took all three photos down. I'm walking down the hall with these pictures,” she continued. “I put them in front of someone who said to me, ‘Oh, well, maintenance is really slow here.’ I said, well, it took me about 30 seconds to get them off the wall.”

“He said, ‘Well, they don't like us touching anything,’” Bondi boasted. “I said, ‘Well, I just did.’”

Ryan Grenoble35 minutes agoRyan GrenobleA Second Air Force Plane Operating In Iran Has Crashed: New York Times

Two U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity told the New York Times that a second plane conducting combat operations in Iran crashed Friday near the Strait of Hormuz.

The pilot of the plane, an A-10 Warthog, was safely rescued.

The crash marks the second U.S. military aircraft that went down in the region today.

Iran shot down a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle. One of two crew members aboard that aircraft have been rescued.

HuffPost, Trump Seeks $152 Million To Reopen Alcatraz As Active Prison, Jennifer Bendery, April 3, 2026. The request was tucked into a proposed budget the White House released to fund the government for the 2027 fiscal year.

 The White House on Friday sought $152 million to return the former Alcatraz prison island to active duty, following up on President Donald huffington post logoTrump’s call last year to transform the popular San Francisco Bay tourist destination.

The request was tucked into a proposed budget the White House released to fund the government for the 2027 fiscal year. Such spending requests are typically treated by lawmakers in Congress as suggestions.

The budget seeks funds for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to cover the first-year costs of rebuilding Alcatraz into “a state-of-the-art secure prison facility.” It closed in 1969 and has been under the National Park Service’s auspices.

Trump in May announced on social media that he was directing the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Department of Justice, and other agencies to “reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”An aerial view of Alcatraz Island prison on June 24, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)An aerial view of Alcatraz Island prison on June 24, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)Kirby Lee via Getty ImagesVisitors tour a cellblock at Alcatraz Island on July 02, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Visitors tour a cellblock at Alcatraz Island on July 02, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

Alcatraz, which opened in 1934, had been billed as America’s most secure prison given the island location, frigid waters and strong currents. No successful escapes were ever officially recorded, though five prisoners are listed as “missing and presumed drowned.”

Before its closure, it housed such notorious criminals as Al Capone and James “Whitey” Bulger.

The Bureau of Prisons’ website recounts that it was closed because it was too expensive to continue operating, noting it was nearly three times more costly to operate than any other federal prison.

More On Iran War

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Strait Talk, Andrew Egger, right, andrew eggerApril 3, 2026.Yesterday, we saw something astonishing. The president had just given a speech on the war in Iran that contained virtually no new information; in fact, it largely consisted of a restatement of thoughts he’d already put up on Truth Social days before.

Writing it up for this newsletter, Bill accurately described the speech as a “nothingburger.” But commodities markets reacted as though Trump had unveiled some terrible revelation. Crude oil, which was under $100 a barrel when Trump’s speech began, jumped nearly 15 percent, and it is now sitting north of $110.

bulwark logo big shipWas this irrational? I’m not going to sit here and act like I, a random political columnist with zero working knowledge of the finer points of oil trading, know better than the pros how to do their business. But it was certainly odd. In their ceaseless quest to turn a profit at the margin by reading market swings ahead of everybody else, traders seem to be pricing Trump’s washing his hands of the Strait of Hormuz Strait via Truth Social post more cheaply than Trump washing his hands of the Strait of Hormuz via primetime address. The theory seems to be that Trump says a lot of random nonsense on Truth Social, but if he sits down and reads the same thing off to a national audience, presumably he really actually means it.

Iran FlagIf that’s the case, then oil markets are waking up late to an unfortunate reality: Trump really seems to believe his own nonsensical spin about the U.S. economy not needing the strait to reopen. Repeatedly now he’s offered an “alternative” plan to the world: Just forget about the strait, and buy what you need from America. Problem solved, and in a way that’s much more profitable for the good old U.S.A.!

Once again, Trump here betrays his staggering ignorance of the inadvisability of trying to reshape mammoth global supply chains by “hey, here’s an idea” presidential fiat. American oil companies can’t just snap their fingers and scale up production overnight to meet the global demand created by the closure of the strait. Even if they could, they wouldn’t want to. Ramping up production costs big money, and is only profitable if you’re sure you’ve got a buyer for what you’re pulling out of the ground. If your buyers suddenly vanish—as oil producers learned all too well during the COVID oil shock of 2020, when the price of the stuff briefly went negative—you’re up a creek: What are you going to do, pump it back?

This is exactly the sort of situation Trump wants to put American oil companies in again. They should ramp up production, he says, sufficient to backfill the supply bottled up in the Strait of Hormuz. But the closure of the strait is presumably not permanent; in fact, Trump insists he’s still working hard to end the blockade as soon as possible. And so, of course, American oil companies won’t comply with his suggestion, lest they find themselves grievously overextended if/when the strait does reopen. Demand will keep outstripping supply as long as the strait remains closed, the price of oil will keep spiking, and all the presidential wheedling in the world won’t alter that brute fact in the slightest.

AROUND THE BULWARK

  • ​​The Spirit of Passover and the American Story… Liberation and new beginnings are themes of the Jewish holiday that can help us to bulwark logo big shiprevitalize our sense for the prospects and future of our country, observes SAM B. GIRGUS.
  • The Expanded Trump War Glossary: WILL SALETAN with still more of what he *really* means about Iran.
  • Justices’ Questions Reveal the Stupidity of the Case Against Birthright Citizenship… Awkward SCOTUS stare-down as the president watches his government lawyer flail, writes KIM WEHLE.
  • Why Theo Von and Joe Rogan are Losing Patience with Trump… Trump world is starting to crack, and TIM MILLER is here for it. He went live last night and took viewer questions.

More Global News

ny times logoNew York Times, At War With Iran Again, Some Israelis Fear Conflict Is Becoming Routine, Isabel Kershner, April 3, 2026. A majority of Israelis support the war with Iran, but many doubt that it will solve Israel’s long-term security problems. Some also question their prime minister’s assurances and motives.

On a recent weeknight, a veteran Israeli rock singer gave a free concert to a small audience in an odd venue — Floor -2 of an underground parking lot in central Tel Aviv that affords protection from incoming Iranian missile fire.

“It’s a small escape from our miserable reality today,” said one concertgoer, Maggie Litman, 60. She added that her parents’ home in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, was destroyed by an Iranian ballistic missile during the last war, nine months ago.

Wartime guidelines limit gatherings to 50 people. Mattresses were laid out along the walls of the improvised concert space. Someone had set up a tent in one corner.

Polls have shown overwhelming support among Israeli Jews for the war against Iran being waged together with the United States, despite the fear and disruption caused by hundreds of missile launches sending millions into bomb shelters at all hours of the day and night.

Many Israelis, like Ms. Litman, say there was no choice but to fight, while at the same time expressing skepticism that this would be the last war, or would solve Israel’s national security problems.

U.S. Eonomy, Inflation, Jobs, Energy, Transportation

New York Times, Live Updates: Strong Showing for Job Market in Latest Report, Lydia DePillis, April 3, 2026. U.S. employers added 178,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3 percent, a robust showing after a run of weakness.

The labor market put in a strong showing in March, as wintry weather receded, strikes concluded and businesses started looking beyond the significant uncertainty of President Trump’s first year in office.

Employers added 178,000 jobs last month, substantially more than economists had expected. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 percent, suggesting that the job market may be tightening up after gradually loosening.

Revisions to previous months subtracted only about 7,000 jobs, although employers appear to have shed 133,000 jobs in February.

The numbers were collected before the energy price shock caused by the war in the Middle East tightened its grip on the global economy. Forecasters have estimated that persistently higher oil prices will slow job creation and raise unemployment in a year they had expected the economy to regain some vigor.

Health care dominance: Even factoring in the addition of 31,000 jobs from workers ending a strike in California, the sector continued to lead gains, adding 76,000 positions. Manufacturing, which has been trending down for three years, added 15,000 jobs and construction grew by 26,000.

Federal government still contracting: The federal government shed another 18,000 jobs in March and is down a total of 355,000 positions, or 11.8 percent, since reaching a peak in October 2024.

Wage growth slowing: Average hourly earnings for private sector workers rose 3.5 percent over the year, the slowest rate since 2021 and just barely enough to keep up with inflation. Also, the average workweek shortened to 34.2 hours, indicating that employees are netting smaller paychecks than they might otherwise.

No vacancy: The hiring rate in February sunk to a low point last reached in 2020 as the economy was largely shut down. There are anecdotal signs that companies are investing in technology, rather than expanding their workforces.

Firings on ice: Burned by trying to rehire laid off workers after the pandemic, employers have stretched to hold on to their staff. Initial claims for unemployment insurance from laid-off workers are as low as they have been in two years.

Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Commentary: In Batteries We Trust, Paul Krugman, right, paul krugmanApril 3, 2026. A break for some good news. The war goes on, and so does the global energy crisis. In fact, I believe that prices of oil futures remain too low given how much spot prices will need to rise to resolve the shortages that will hit once oil supplies that were shipped before the Strait of Hormuz was closed are exhausted.

But a better future is coming, despite Donald Trump’s assault on renewable energy as he tries to drag us back into the fossil fuel past. Regardless of Trump’s chest-thumping, America is not the world. We account for only 15 percent of global energy consumption, compared with China’s 28 percent. And the rest of the world is moving rapidly to renewables, thanks to a technological revolution in solar power, wind power, and, less visibly, batteries.

So let me take an optimism break and talk about why batteries may save the world.

The decline in battery prices has been incredible. It’s like nothing anyone has ever seen before. Big, strong men with tears in their eyes come up to me and say, “Sir, have you seen the progress in batteries?”: A graph with a line going up AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Why does this matter?

First, cheap battery storage of electricity greatly mitigates the problem of intermittency — the sun doesn’t always shine, the wind doesn’t always blow. This was a major concern early in the renewable revolution. Some energy economists scolded me for my naïve optimism when I first wrote about solar technology way back in 2011. But solar + batteries provides round-the-clock power.

Here’s a graph of California’s electricity supply generated by renewables and batteries over the course of 24 hours on April 1 that illustrates my point: A graph of a line AI-generated content may be incorrect.

During the middle of the day, California generates lots of electricity from solar. Much of it is poured into batteries, which provide electricity when the sun sets. Californians don’t even notice the switch.

Second, battery performance has soared as prices have plunged. Crucially, there has been a huge increase in batteries’ volumetric energy density: the amount of electricity that can be stored in a given space. Until a few years ago the energy density of gasoline gave internal combustion a huge advantage over electric vehicles. But no longer. Outside the U.S. electrification, the transition away from petroleum and towards electricity — particularly green-sourced electricity — is well underway: A graph of sales AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Third, we should expect continuing rapid improvement in renewable energy. That’s because the progress in batteries has come from cumulative learning rather than scientific breakthroughs. Lithium-ion batteries are, in fact, a decades-old technology. Yet costs have fallen drastically and energy density risen thanks to an ongoing process of learning, which shows no sign of coming to an end.

Furthermore, we’ve seen rapid progress in all components of the green energy transformation, even though their underlying technologies have little in common. Solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries are very different, yet all have seen revolutionary improvements. This strongly suggests that the whole renewable energy complex is experiencing a virtuous circle: ever-growing use leads to falling costs and falling costs lead to ever-growing use.

If we ask where this virtuous circle is taking place, the answer is, largely in China with an assist from Europe. And the corollary is “not in America.” The United States has allowed itself to be far surpassed by China and is now only a peripheral player in the renewable revolution. Fortunately for the rest of the world, this means that the Trump administration’s hostility to renewable energy, its attempts to sabotage progress, won’t stop that revolution or even noticeably slow its momentum. True, Trump’s anti-green, pro-pollution tilt will serve to leave America further behind, but progress in fighting climate change and reducing the risks of global dependence on oil will continue.

So although we are now in the midst of a severe energy crisis that could easily go on for many months, this too shall pass. A better, cheaper, cleaner energy future is on the way, and not even Trump can stop it.

U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

 

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: The Sexism of Trumpism, William Kristol, right, william bill kristol imdbApril 3, 2026. According to the Access Hollywood tape, our president, Donald Trump, likes to “move on” women. In fact he seems to relish moving on them “very heavily.” “I don’t even wait. . . . Grab ‘em by the p—y. You can do anything.”

Trump likes to move on women. He also apparently likes to fire them. A month ago, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was the first cabinet official of Trump’s second term to be removed. She had tried dutifully to implement the mass-bulwark logo big shipdeportation agenda under the direction of Trump’s top aide, Stephen Miller. But it was Noem, not Miller, who was dumped when Trump needed a scapegoat for its unpopularity.

Not that one should shed tears for Noem. Nor should one cry for Attorney General Pam Bondi. She too was more than willing and eager to do Trump’s bidding. But Trump judged her to have failed to secure adequate revenge against his enemies. He probably also blamed her for the botched coverup of the Epstein files—even though Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel seemed equally involved in that effort. But it was Bondi who was dumped, not Blanche or Patel. In fact, Blanche is now acting attorney general.

And then there’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who’s been a central player in Trump’s signal foreign policy failure, the war on Iran. He’s not been fired either. To the contrary. He’s doing a lot of firing at Trump’s behest. Hegseth is continuing to remove senior military officers who are not or might not be sufficiently compliant with Trump’s wishes.

Yesterday, Hegseth summarily fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George. One of the precipitating factors seems to have been Gen. George’s resistance to Hegseth’s attempt to block the promotion of four officers, two black and two female, to be brigadier generals. General George, joined by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, with whom he’d reportedly formed a close relationship, refused to strike them from the list. They cited the officers’ long records of exemplary service. Hegseth had to intervene to purge them.

If you want close relationships and exemplary service, join our pro-democracy community by becoming a Bulwark+ member.Subscribed

A few months earlier, Gen. George and Driscoll had refused to accede to demands from Hegseth’s office to block the scheduled promotion of Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant to take command of the Military District of Washington. The Washington District commander appears alongside the president at ceremonial functions in the D.C. area, for example at Arlington National Cemetery. Hegseth’s chief of staff reportedly told Driscoll that Trump would not want to stand next to a black female officer at military events. Driscoll and Gen. George skillfully deflected, insisting that the president was neither sexist nor racist (how could anyone say such a thing?) and that the objection to Maj. Gen. Gant’s promotion was therefore unwarranted.

So yesterday’s removal of Gen. George seems to have been gender- and race-related: the firing of a man who refused to discriminate against officers for being black and/or women.

The mass-deportation regime, the gutting of the rule of law, purges of the military—these would be serious enough threats to our democracy even if unaccompanied by sexism and misogyny. At the Pentagon in particular, Hegseth’s “sweeping overhaul of how officers are selected for promotion and command” deserves more attention, as does the fact that the man Trump and Hegseth have put in charge of that overhaul, Anthony J. Tata, is so extreme in his views that he could not be confirmed by a Republican Senate to a senior Defense position in 2020.

In any case, it’s striking that Trumpist authoritarianism has been accompanied by gross sexism and racism and that Trumpist autocracy is attended by unabashed hostility to women’s equality and freedom. It’s a reminder that gender and racial equality are part of human equality, that respecting the dignity of every individual is part of the American creed. And it could lead us to recall, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our rebellion against tyranny, the words of Abigail Adams in a March 1776 letter to her husband: “Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. . . . Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.”

Quick Hits

BRIDGE BOMBERS: It’s been painfully clear for a while that aerial bombardment of military targets alone has not been sufficient for the Trump administration to break the will of Iran’s clerical regime. But rather than choosing to cut their losses or escalate with ground troops, the White House is apparently exploring a secret third option: What if we just started bombing civilian infrastructure instead? Here’s Axios:¹

The U.S. military on Thursday attacked major civilian infrastructure in Iran for the first time, hours after President Trump threatened in a prime-time address to bomb the country “back to the Stone Ages.”

The attack on the B-1 bridge near Tehran signals a widening of the U.S. military’s targets and could be a first step toward attacks on energy, water and transportation infrastructure.

Trump has said the U.S. could conduct such attacks, which would have devastating effects for Iranian civilians, to punish the regime if it won’t cut a deal. . . . A U.S. defense official told Axios more bridges are likely to be targeted.

But remember, folks: America loves the Iranian people and wants them to flourish. This is all for them, really.Subscribed

MEANWHILE, IN LEBANON: As war in the Middle East drags on, Americans have understandably been focused on what’s going on in Iran. But Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon will have major long-term consequences too. As the IDF has moved north, they have ordered mass civilian evacuation of the southern part of the country, where they have razed bridges, homes, and even whole villages. Lebanon claims a million civilians have already been displaced. And as the New York Times reports, it’s not clear Israel is in a hurry to leave:

This week, Israeli officials offered their most explicit plan to date to occupy a swath of southern Lebanon from the border up to the Litani River after the ground invasion ends. That would amount to about 10 percent of the entire country. Israeli officials have said they aim to establish a “security zone” to prevent the territory from being used to attack Israel.

The hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese who fled the south will not be allowed to return to their homes until the “safety and security of northern Israeli residents is ensured,” the defense minister, Israel Katz, said on Tuesday.

DISSENSION IN THE RANKS: As we noted yesterday, Donald Trump and GOP House and Senate leaders have all grudgingly lined up behind a partial acquiescence to Democrats’ Department of Homeland Security funding proposal: passing a bipartisan bill to fund all of DHS except ICE and the Border Patrol, then turning to a party-line reconciliation bill to get ICE funded without the concessions required to get Democratic votes. Rank-and-file House Republicans are far from pleased, however. Politico reports:

Dozens of members aired objections to a proposed two-step process backed by President Donald Trump in a lengthy private call Thursday afternoon, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the conversation.

Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders made a case for a bill funding most of the department—one they bitterly opposed as recently as this past weekend—leaving key immigration enforcement agencies for the party-line budget reconciliation process.

But several members on the call said they would oppose a bill that Johnson had publicly called a “joke” after it initially passed the Senate last week, with some reiterating they did not want to vote for a package that omits Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funding.

The revolt leaves Johnson in the uncomfortable spot of likely needing to rely on significant Democratic votes to get the package through the House. Read the whole thing. 

April 2

Top Headlines

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon via Pool and Getty Images)

Trump Fires U.S. Attorney General

More News Updates

More On Iran-Lebanon Wars

More On Epstein and Noem Scandals, Trump Coverup

pam bondi fox

More On U.S. Courts, Law, Immigration, Crime, Rights 

More On U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

  • New York Times, Trump Administration Live Updates: Senate Advances Bill to End D.H.S. Shutdown, Staff Reports, April 2, 2026. The House and Senate are scheduled to hold special ceremonial sessions on Thursday, where a bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security could be taken up and approved.
  • Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: March 9, 2026 [Court Watch], Heather Cox Richardson, right, heather cox richardson cnnApril 2, 2026. Today, for the first time in U.S. history, a sitting president attended oral arguments at the United States Supreme Court.
  • Popular Information, Accountability Journalism: Using water to combat ICE, Noel Sims, April 2, 2026. Across the country, local and state officials are fighting to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from turning local warehouses into sprawling detention centers to support the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
  • New York Time, Hegseth Fires Army Chief Amid Battle With Its Leaders, Greg Jaffe, Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt, April 2, 2026. Senior Army officers reacted with anger and frustration to news of Gen. Randy George’s dismissal, characterizing it as the latest blow to the service. 

More On U.S. Space, Science, Media, Education 

  • New York Times, Artemis II Successfully Kicks Off 10-Day Lunar Mission, Kenneth Chang, Updated April 2, 2026. The crew, three Americans and a Canadian, are the first humans to travel to the moon in more than 50 years. They will not land on the surface, but the mission will pave the way for future visits.
  • Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: NASA vs. the Internet, Andrew Egger, right, andrew eggerApril 2, 2026. For the first time in more than half a century, we’re heading for the moon.
  • New York Times, Opinion:Trump’s Media-Bashing Is Coming Back to Bite Him in Court, Erik Wemple, April 2, 2026. Judges have cited attacks on the press by the president and his appointees when ruling against the government in at least three court cases.
  • The Daily via PoliticusUSA,The Dirty Legacy of Blake Lively's Lawsuit after a Judge Gutted Most of Her Claims, Sarah Jones, April 2, 2026.  Even after a judge gutted most of Blake Lively’s case, its dirty legacy lives on. 
  • The Don Lemon Show, Boobgate and Blackmail, Peter Rothpletz and Don Lemon, March 31, 2026. The Noem family's narcissism and hypocrisy defines the GOP.

Right-Wing MAGA Polling, Reporting

  • Newsmax.com, Rasmussen: Trump Approval Steady at 51%, Jim Mishler, April 1, 2026. President Donald Trump's job approval held steady at 51% in March, unchanged from February, according to Rasmussen Reports. Forty-eight percent disapproved of Trump's performance, up 2 points from the previous month.

Top Stories 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Brandon via Pool and Getty Images)

New York Times, News Analysis: Every Trump Threat to Abandon NATO Hollows It Out, Steven Erlanger, April 2, 2026. Doubts that the United States would come to the aid of NATO allies increase each time, prompting Europeans to consider an alliance without Washington.

Since his re-election, President Trump has threatened to leave the NATO alliance several times. On Wednesday, he did it again, frustrated that European nations had refused to join the so-far indecisive United States-Israeli war against Iran.

But the more he disparages NATO and threatens to abandon it, the more hollow it becomes.

The alliance, built after World War II to deter the Soviet Union and keep the peace in Europe, is in crisis, with some questioning whether it can survive. The Mideast war has brought existing doubts about American commitment to the alliance to the fore, argued Ivo Daalder, a former American ambassador to NATO.

“It’s hard to see how any European country will now be able and willing to trust the United States to come to its defense,” he said. “Hope, perhaps. But they can’t count on it.”

In his speech to the nation Wednesday night, Mr. Trump did not mention NATO, to the relief of allies.

But a senior European official said he thought most Europeans did not believe that Article 5, the NATO commitment to collective defense, still had teeth. The United States now seems part of the problem of world disorder, the official said, speaking anonymously given the sensitivity of the topic. The country is no longer the solution and the guarantor of last resort, he said.

Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, reflecting Mr. Trump’s unhappiness with European allies, warned that relations with NATO would need to be re-examined after the war in Iran is resolved.

“Without the United States, there is no NATO,” Mr. Rubio said. “An alliance has to be mutually beneficial. It cannot be a one-way street. Let’s hope we can fix it.”

“If we decided tomorrow that we were going to remove our troops from Europe, that would be the end of NATO,” he added.

Others are not so sure. The United States is the nerve center and bones of the alliance, because Washington had always wanted it that way. But Europe is hardly helpless, and it is spending much more money on the military now, in part because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in part because of Mr. Trump’s demands, including previous threats to leave the alliance unless its members “paid up.”

ny times logoNew York Times, 5 Takeaways From Trump’s Address on Iran, Luke Broadwater and Tyler Pager, Updated April 2, 2026. President Trump did not define a clear path out of the conflict, which he estimated would end within three weeks.

More than a month into the war in Iran, President Trump gave a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday to make the case for why he believes the conflict is necessary.

In a 19-minute speech from the White House, Mr. Trump said Iran’s missiles and drone systems have been “dramatically curtailed and their weapons factories and rocket launches are being blown to pieces.”

Although the U.S. and Israeli militaries have destroyed many of Iran’s ballistic missiles and launchers in airstrikes, Iran continues to fire missiles in the region.

Still, Mr. Trump described the military action as a major success and called on Americans, who are uneasy about its costs, to keep things in perspective. He estimated that the war should wind down within three weeks.Trump did not define a clear path out.

Mr. Trump oscillated between endorsing negotiations to end the war and promising an escalation of violence.Sign up for Your Places: Global Update. All the latest news for any part of the world you select. Get it sent to your inbox.

“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” he said. “We are going to hit them extremely hard. Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing.”

Iran has said there are no direct talks with the United States, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the Iranians are willing to keep channels of communication open but not to make concessions at this point.He urged Americans to keep the war in perspective.

Mr. Trump seemed sensitive to criticism that he has bogged the United States down in a protracted conflict that is hurting the American economy and alienating voters who want a focus on domestic issues.

He listed the lengths of World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and the Korean and Iraq wars to argue that his military campaign has been far shorter than past wars.

“It’s very important that we keep this conflict in perspective,” Mr. Trump said.

He did not explicitly empathize with the economic pain Americans are feeling, but Mr. Trump maintained that the war was worth it to eliminate what he argued was the threat from Iran.

“This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future,” he said.He appeared to rule out a raid to capture Iran’s enriched uranium.

Mr. Trump has been weighing whether to authorize a mission to extract the highly enriched uranium that is secured under Iran’s nuclear site at Isfahan.

But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said that Iran’s nuclear sites have been hit so hard that “it would take months to get near the nuclear dust.” He said the United States has satellites monitoring the sites and would attack if Iran made a move to retrieve the material.

It’s possible that Mr. Trump is deceiving Iran after weeks of telegraphing his interest in securing the material. If not, he will have left the nuclear material exactly where it was before the war started — deep underground, but theoretically within Iran’s reach — leaving open the question of what the conflict would have accomplished on that front.

He said the Strait of Hormuz is not America’s problem.

The president repeated his demands that the countries that import oil from the Persian Gulf via the strait take the lead in forcing Iran to reopen it.

He asserted that “we don’t need” the oil that goes through the artery off Iran’s southern coast. It’s true that the United States imports very little oil from the Gulf, but Mr. Trump’s stance ignores the economic reality that oil prices are set globally and that supply disruptions in the Middle East will filter through to the United States.

Less oil on global markets means higher gas prices for Americans. Other key commodities, like fertilizers, are also exported via the Strait of Hormuz, meaning that if Iran chokes off most shipping, the greater the risk of inflation in food prices and other goods.He hailed the Venezuela operation as a model for Iran, again.

In the opening minutes of his speech, Mr. Trump bragged about the success of the U.S. mission to capture the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Aides say Mr. Trump sees that operation as a model for what he wants to accomplish in Iran. But the two situations are very different. In Venezuela, U.S. forces quickly dropped into Caracas and left with Mr. Maduro in custody. There were no U.S. military deaths.

“That hit was quick, lethal, violent and respected by everyone all over the world,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday night. He added that the United States and Venezuela were “joint venture partners” and “getting along incredibly well.”

In Iran, the war so far has left a hostile regime in place and more than a dozen U.S. troops have been killed and hundreds have been 

 

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Trump’s Pathetic Little Nothingburger of a Speech, Bill Kristol, Andrew Egger and Jim Swift, April 2, 2026. In the absence of a plan, the president chose to pretend that things are going well.

bulwark logo big shipLots to discuss today, but one big headline before we do: We’ve got a DHS deal. The partial government shutdown looks likely to end after House GOP leadership suddenly agreed yesterday to accept the Senate’s proposal to fund everything in DHS except ICE and the Border Patrol—itself a package Senate Democrats had suggested long before Senate Republicans finally agreed to it last week. More on this below. Happy Thursday. 

Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Commentary: Trump Doesn't Even Have the Courage to Run Away, Paul Krugman, right, April 2, 2026. paul krugmanWhat the world learned from his big speech.

Donald Trump doesn’t even have the courage to run away.

Hi, I’m Paul Krugman. I’m not going to do a regular post today — it’s Thursday morning — because I wanted to wait and see what was in the big speech from Donald Trump last night. And I thought I could just do a short video about it.

It turns out that the speech was sort of an anticlimax, although not in a good way. Many people expected Trump to pull the mother of all TACOs, to declare victory and surrender. He did not do that. He declared victory, of course, but he did not actually announce an end to hostilities. On the contrary, he said we’re going to bomb Iran into the Stone Age. So add massive war crimes to your schedule.

There is clearly no strategy here. There’s no endgame. There’s nothing. It’s hard to tell, as always, whether Trump is delusional or just completely unable to admit something that he actually knows.

One of the moments that really struck me in the speech was him declaring that the whole world was extremely impressed by what happened. He said,

the whole world is watching and they can’t believe the power, strength and brilliance. They just can’t believe what they’re seeing. The world can’t believe what it’s seeing.

What it’s seeing is that the world’s greatest military power took on a fourth-rate power. Again, as I said the other day, Iran’s military budget is a rounding error in our military budget. And we lost. For all practical purposes, we’ve left ourselves in a much weaker position and Iran in a stronger position than it was before.

But Trump has to believe or has to claim that he believes that the whole world is extremely impressed. You might say, why do we care? Well, he cares, obviously. His whole thing is about dominance and believing that we’ve got the world awed by our strength.

If you want the real verdict on the speech, well, Brent oil futures were under $100 when Trump started speaking. They are over $108 as I record this. The oil market, I think is a more clear gauge, although the stock market has also reacted.

Basically, everybody said, oh my God, we thought that this was going to be at least the beginning of the end, and instead it looks like an endless quagmire. I still think that people are not fully taking into account the implications for global oil prices and everything else of the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed for the indefinite future.

So this is going to be really bad. But anyway, it was radically disappointing even to people who are, you know, the markets and a lot of people in the world were actually hoping that the United States would give up. I mean, it’ll be terrible. We really don’t want a medievalist theocracy empowered. But since this is heading nowhere except for, again, massive war crimes, better to end it. But we’re not getting that.

What really strikes me, and there’s obviously deeper stuff in here, but it is a question of character. It’s funny, I don’t think there’s a sort of, if you like, native English term for the Yiddish — but it’s effectively English now — word mensch. A mensch is literally a person, but it means somebody who takes responsibility for their actions, who accepts defeats as being defeats and tries to move on, who tries to improve, basically just being a mensch.

It’s hard to imagine somebody who’s less of a mensch than Donald Trump, except maybe for some of the members of his cabinet. It’s incredible that they’re so lacking in the basics of character.

The thing about what this means for America’s role in the world is not only that Trump and company are doing great damage, but the whole world is watching. They saw that this guy, and it wasn’t hard to see what kind of a person Trump was, that America elected this guy twice. It appears that the American public has completely lost sight of what it means to be a responsible, serious person.

I might say, since this masculinity posturing is such a part of it, they’ve forgotten what it is to be a man. Obviously, that applies to all genders. A country that will elect somebody like that twice is not a country anyone can rely on. And that is the ultimate lesson here.

We have Trump lecturing the world and saying, why are you cowards? Why don’t you come in and help us in this ill-conceived, disastrous war that we started without checking with you? But the reality is that the world is looking and saying, my God, what is wrong with America? They may still have a lot of bombs — although not as many as we started with — but it’s not a country anybody can trust for anything. And that, even more than the price of oil, is going to be the legacy of this war.

I guess have a great day.

Trump Fires U.S. Attorney General

  

A group of Jeffrey Epstein sex assault and trafficking survivors raise their hands to signal they’ve been ignored by Trump’s DOJ as Attorney General Pam Bondi, wearing a gold crucifix as a neck ornament and backed by youthful Justice Department personnel seated to hear rear, refuses to look at the victims during a hearing before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 11, 2026. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt for AFP via Getty Images and Bluesky).A group of Jeffrey Epstein sex assault and trafficking survivors raise their hands to signal they’ve been ignored by Trump’s DOJ as Attorney General Pam Bondi, shown at right front wearing a gold crucifix as a neck ornament and backed by youthful Justice Department personnel seated to hear rear, refuses to look at the victims during a hearing before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 11, 2026. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt for AFP via Getty Images and Bluesky).

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump Administration Live Updates: Bondi Fired as Attorney General, Tyler Pager and Glenn Thrush, April 2, 2026. Here’s What We’re Covering Today. 

President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday, removing the nation’s top law enforcement officer after privately venting his frustrations for months over her handling of the Epstein files and her failed efforts to prosecute his political enemies.

Todd Blanche OIn a social media post, Mr. Trump said he was replacing Ms. Bondi with Todd Blanche, right, her deputy, on an interim basis.

“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Ms. Bondi is the second cabinet member in recent weeks to lose her job, after Mr. Trump ousted Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, last month.

Justice Department log circularThe firing of Ms. Bondi, 60, ends a turbulent 14-month tenure as attorney general in which she tried desperately to appease a boss who demanded unimpeded control of the Justice Department to pursue politically motivated investigations against targets of his choosing, even when prosecutors warned that there was no evidence to do so.

In the process, Ms. Bondi surrendered much of the department’s historic independence and oversaw the exodus of experienced career officials, leaving the department’s public corruption and national security units, along with many local U.S. attorneys’ offices, weakened and demoralized.

Yet Mr. Trump remained annoyed by Ms. Bondi’s inability to secure indictments of people he referred to as “scum” during a speech in the department’s Great Hall about a year ago.

The president’s support for Ms. Bondi has steadily eroded since last summer, when her early stumbles in managing the release of the Epstein files created a political liability for Mr. Trump among a segment of his supporters. He has also complained about her shortcomings as a communicator and TV surrogate — a role he thought would suit her talents.

Ms. Bondi spent much of the last day making her case to stay in the cabinet, according to two people familiar with the situation. But her team could sense those chances slipping away when Mr. Trump issued only a lukewarm statement when The New York Times requested comment on rumors she was about to be removed.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job,” he said on Wednesday, a day before he announced that she was fired.

In recent weeks, Mr. Trump sent mixed signals, privately praising her loyalty in public, and he has spoken with her several times a week, sometimes to seek advice or test ideas, a person close to Ms. Bondi said.

On Wednesday, even as Mr. Trump was discussing with aides whether to fire Ms. Bondi, the president traveled with her to the Supreme Court to watch arguments in the case challenging his executive order limiting birthright citizenship. Ms. Bondi was also at the White House on Wednesday evening for Mr. Trump’s address to the nation on the war in Iran.

But he has also expressed continuing dissatisfaction with her performance, and increasingly engaged with her critics inside his circle of advisers.

Sentiment had also been turning against Ms. Bondi among congressional Republicans.

pam bondi refused to apologize 2 11 2026In mid-March, five Republicans on the House Oversight Committee blindsided their own leadership — and Ms. Bondi — by joining Democrats to vote to subpoena her to testify under oath behind closed doors about the Epstein case.

The committee’s Republican chairman, Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, scheduled a deposition for April 14. Ms. Bondi has said she would comply with the law, but she and Mr. Comer have been quietly working together to avoid the deposition, even though it is unclear if it is legally possible to withdraw a subpoena, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.T

Todd Blanche, the new acting attorney general, said in a statement that Pam Bondi “led this Department with strength and conviction” and thanked Trump for promoting him.

“We will continue backing the blue, enforcing the law, and doing everything in our power to keep America safe,” Blanche wrote on social media.”

Representative Nancy Mace, the South Carolina Republican who pushed for the Oversight Committee to subpoena Pam Bondi and had been one of her more outspoken G.O.P. critics, said in a statement that she looked forward to Bondi’s replacement.

“Bondi handled the Epstein Files in a terrible manner and made this situation far worse than it had to be for President Trump,” Mace said.

The House Oversight Committee was scheduled to depose Pam Bondi on April 14 over the Justice Department’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and its handling of investigative material in the case. But Bondi had not yet committed to appearing, according to people familiar with the discussions between her and the committee.

kash patel o croppedRepresentative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the panel, said in a statement that Bondi was still “legally obligated to appear before our committee under oath.” A representative for the committee’s Republican chairman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Trump formally announced on Truth Social that he was firing Attorney General Pam Bondi and replacing her on an interim basis with Todd Blanche, her deputy.

“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” he wrote on social media.

ny times logoNew York Times, Guest Essay: The One Thing Trump Wanted That Pam Bondi Failed to Deliver, Jeffrey Toobin, April 2, 2026. President Trump had many good reasons to fire Attorney General Pam Bondi. He picked the single bad one.

When the president announced Ms. Bondi’s departure from his cabinet on Thursday, he offered the customary false praise and cold comfort that accompany such defenestrations. But the core of Mr. Trump’s dissatisfaction with the attorney general was apparently her failure to serve his need for revenge against his enemies. She did not prosecute enough of Mr. Trump’s adversaries, and the cases she did bring were failures.

In a Sept. 20, 2025, message to Ms. Bondi that President Trump posted on Truth Social, he complained that “nothing is being done” about his demand for prosecutions of the former F.B.I. director James Comey, Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” he wrote. In apparent response, Ms. Bondi’s Justice Department did later bring transparently defective cases against Mr. Comey (for allegedly lying to Congress) and Ms. James (for alleged mortgage fraud). Both prosecutions were promptly and properly dismissed, but the Justice Department is appealing.

These cases were among Ms. Bondi’s worst abuses of the legal system since her appointment, and judges have checked her. But her Justice Department has more such abusive investigations in the works. There is, for example, a federal grand jury inquiry underway in Florida that is apparently aimed at the Obama-era officials who began the investigation of ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. Mr. Trump and his allies have also demanded a prosecution of Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought indictments against Mr. Trump in 2023.

The fact that Ms. Bondi has failed in these abusive prosecutorial efforts is cause for relief, not dismissal. It’s the rest of her record that has turned the Justice Department into an oxymoron that will take years, if not decades, to fix.Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.

Ms. Bondi herself has been a terrible spokesperson and symbol of the department — disrespectful of its honorable traditions, dismissive of critics, intolerant of dissent — and this was demonstrated most clearly with her inept handling of the Jeffrey Epstein matter. After Ms. Bondi misled the country about her initial disclosures in the case, Congress responded by passing a law forcing the Justice Department to release its files on the pedophile and his allies. Ms. Bondi’s delayed, inconsistent and generally incompetent response to the law achieved the seemingly impossible goal of uniting congressional Democrats and Republicans — in disgust with her performance. (Evidently, Mr. Trump was unimpressed as well.)

Still, the deeper problems with Ms. Bondi’s leadership rested at the level of policy. Under Ms. Bondi, the Justice Department had all but stopped doing its job of prosecuting crime. Caseloads are way down, and so are the number of prosecutors — almost certainly a result of Ms. Bondi’s leadership. The main reason for these changes is that instead of charging actual criminals, Ms. Bondi’s Justice Department has remade itself as the legal auxiliary of President Trump’s disastrous immigration enforcement practices.

The worst consequence of the Justice Department’s pursuit of cases involving otherwise law-abiding but undocumented individuals is that it has led to untold suffering among those targeted, their families and the economies they support. Ms. Bondi’s lawyers have spent considerable time and money on the harassment, and worse, of people who have done no harm to anyone.

In part because of its fixation on immigration, the Justice Department has cut back on the prosecution of white-collar crime, including through a complete cessation of enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Local prosecutors can pick up the slack when the Justice Department doesn’t prosecute violent crime, but only the federal government has the resources and expertise to bring these cases. White-collar criminals are now getting a free pass, which is how Ms. Bondi, and the president, has wanted it.

Under Ms. Bondi, too, right-wing culture warriors wield the power of the federal government. The department’s storied civil rights division is now headed by Harmeet Dhillon, who has essentially ended its efforts to defend the rights of Black citizens and instead assigned her lawyers to combat “woke” policies and harass the beleaguered trans community. In an administration headed and staffed by 2020 election deniers, the department has launched investigations in Georgia and Arizona that seem aimed above all at putting future election results, including those of this year’s midterms, in doubt.

Perhaps worst of all, Justice Department lawyers under Ms. Bondi have often behaved in shockingly unethical ways. For decades, federal judges have looked at assistant U.S. attorneys and other Justice Department lawyers as something more than mere combatants. For good reason, judges assumed that federal lawyers told them the truth about the facts and the law of their cases. In legal terms, the actions of the Justice Department received a “presumption of regularity,” which the private bar did not enjoy. But based on the frequently appalling conduct — for instance, lying, gaslighting, hiding facts and evidence — of Justice Department lawyers in the Bondi era, many judges are no longer giving government lawyers the benefit of the doubt. Nor should they.

Replacing Ms. Bondi with her deputy, Todd Blanche, or the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, to name two likely successors, will not solve this problem unless the new attorney general makes the commitment, unlikely under the circumstances, that the Justice Department will return to its tradition of honesty and integrity.

With the midterms looming, President Trump may have decided to replace his attorney general while his party still controls the Senate. But whomever he chooses, the future at the Justice Department looks like more of the same, and probably worse.

Jeffrey Toobin is a former assistant U.S. attorney who writes about the intersection of law and politics. He is the author of “The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court,” “The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy” and other books.

ny times logoNew York Times Magazine, Investigation: The Unraveling of the Justice Department, Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser Photographs by Stephen Voss, Nov. 16, 2025. Sixty attorneys describe a year of chaos and suspicion. 

“If we’re indicting people because the president hates them, that’s counter to the whole point of doing my job.”Mike Romano, former prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section

“Our job wasn’t to engage in fact-finding investigations; our job was to find the facts that would fit the narrative.”Dena Robinson, former lawyer in the Civil Rights Division

“They didn’t want the ethics office calling them up and telling them what to do.”Joseph Tirrell, former director of the Departmental Ethics Office

President Trump’s second term has brought a period of turmoil and controversy unlike any in the history of the Justice Department. Trump and his appointees have blasted through the walls designed to protect the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency from political influence; they have directed the course of criminal investigations, openly flouted ethics rules and caused a breakdown of institutional culture. To date, more than 200 career attorneys have been fired, and thousands more have resigned. (The Justice Department says many of them have been replaced.)

What was it like inside this institution as Trump’s officials took control? It’s not an easy question to answer. Justice Department norms dictate that career attorneys, who are generally nonpartisan public servants, rarely speak to the press. And the Trump administration’s attempts to crack down on leaks have made all federal employees fearful of sharing information.

But the exodus of lawyers has created an opportunity to understand what’s happening within the agency. We interviewed more than 60 attorneys who recently resigned or were fired from the Justice Department. Much of what they told us is reported here for the first time.

Beginning with Trump’s first day in office, the lawyers narrated the events that most alarmed them over the next 10 months. They described being asked to drop cases for political reasons, to find evidence for flimsy investigations and to take positions in court they thought had no legitimate basis. They also talked about the work they and their colleagues were told to abandon — investigations of terrorist plots, corruption and white-collar fraud.

Some spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation against them or their new employers. We corroborated their accounts with multiple sources, interviewing their colleagues to confirm the details of what they described and reviewing court documents and contemporaneous notes. We also sent a list of questions to the Justice Department and the White House. “This story is a useless collection of recycled, debunked hearsay from disgruntled former employees,” a spokeswoman for the D.O.J. responded in an email. “Targeting the department’s political leadership while ignoring the questionable conduct of former attorneys who do not have the American people’s best interest at heart shows exactly how biased this story is, and further illustrates why Americans are turning away from biased, outdated legacy media platforms.”

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, sent this statement: “These are nothing more than pathetic complaints lodged by anti-Trump government workers. President Trump is working on behalf of the millions of Americans who voted for him all across the country, not the D.C. bureaucrats who try to stymie the American people’s agenda at every turn.”

The attorneys who spoke to us for this project, many of whom have spent decades in government service, disagree.

More News Updates

 

 

Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi, center right, joins other Trump administration officials in boasting in February 2025 outside the White House that they held in their hands Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi, center right, joins other Trump administration officials in boasting in February 2025 outside the White House that they held in their hands "The Epstein Files" in binders that they would soon release -- a year ago. Shown below: Victims in February raised their hands during Bondi testimony when they were asked if the Justice Department had failed to follow up on their complaints.

pam bondi portrait of death of empathy epstein survivors 2 22 2026

The Parnas Perspective, Evening News and Comment: Congress Set to Force Pam Bondi to Testify, DOJ Allows Trump to Take Presidential Records, GOP Rep. Tells Americans to Get Another Job, Aaron Parnas, April 2, 2026. Pam Bondi will still be required to testify before Congress on the Epstein files, as the subpoena remains valid, while survivors say she failed them. At the same time, the Justice Department has issued a new opinion allowing Donald Trump to keep presidential records when leaving office, the very issue that once led to his prosecution, now declared permissible by his own DOJ.

This comes as Pete Hegseth forced a widely respected Army chief to retire early and the United States carried out strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran, marking a sharp escalation. If you can, please subscribe or gift a subscription today. We are breaking stories, tracking developments, and doing this work independently, and it is only possible with your support.Subscribed

Here’s the news:

President Donald Trump announced he is removing Pam Bondi as attorney general and replacing her with Todd Blanche as acting AG. The move comes after months of frustration from Trump over the Justice Department’s performance and criticism of Bondi’s handling of sensitive issues, including the Epstein files. Bondi will transition to a private sector role, while Blanche—previously Trump’s defense attorney—steps into the position.

Congressional Democrats say that Pam Bondi must still testify in front of the Oversight Committee on April 14th:

Epstein survivors issued a statement criticizing Attorney General Pam Bondi after her firing, saying she “failed” them. They expressed disappointment in her handling of matters related to Jeffrey Epstein and accountability for his crimes. The statement reflects ongoing frustration among survivors over how authorities have addressed the case. Overall, it underscores their demand for stronger justice and support for victims.

Rep. Garcia said that Todd Blanche should be held accountable for his role in matters related to the Epstein files. He suggested Blanche has been involved in how those files were handled and released. The statement implies concerns about transparency and decision-making in the case. Overall, Garcia is calling for greater scrutiny of Blanche’s actions.

Rep. Moulton claimed that Pam Bondi was about to be deposed in connection with the Epstein case. He alleged that this was the real reason behind her removal. According to him, her firing was not routine but tied to potential legal exposure. The statement suggests a political motive related to the Epstein investigation.

Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew suggested that Americans struggling with rising prices could consider getting another job. His comment came in response to concerns about the cost of living and financial strain. The remark has drawn attention as a blunt take on how individuals might cope with inflation.

Earlier reports confirm that the B1 Bridge on the Karaj–Tehran route was indeed targeted in U.S. (and possibly joint U.S.-Israeli) airstrikes amid the ongoing conflict. The strike hit a key highway bridge linking Tehran and Karaj, causing significant structural damage or partial collapse. U.S. officials said the bridge was targeted because it was allegedly being used by Iranian forces to transport missile and drone components, marking a notable escalation to include infrastructure targets. Iranian officials say that the bridge was civilian infrastructure and was not complete when it was destroyed:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced out Army Chief of Staff Randy George, asking him to retire immediately despite expectations he would remain in the role longer. The move is part of a broader effort to remove senior officials tied to previous administrations. George’s departure comes amid ongoing military tensions, including the conflict with Iran. It remains unclear who will replace him, though officials suggest a successor may already be in consideration.

The Justice Department issued a legal opinion stating that Donald Trump is not required to turn over presidential records to the National Archives, arguing the 1978 Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. The opinion claims the law oversteps Congress’s authority and infringes on presidential powers, though it is advisory and not legally binding. If followed, the decision could prompt legal challenges, especially given past controversies over Trump’s handling of classified documents. The move signals a potential major shift in how presidential records are managed and interpreted.

President Donald Trump said he plans to sign an executive order to ensure all Department of Homeland Security employees are paid during the ongoing government shutdown. While some workers—like those in ICE and CBP—were already funded, many others, including FEMA and Coast Guard personnel, have been working without pay. The shutdown has lasted over 40 days, causing financial strain and operational disruptions, including airport delays. Trump framed the move as relief for affected families, while Congress works on a broader plan to restore full DHS funding.

A federal judge dismissed most of Blake Lively’s claims in her lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, including allegations of sexual harassment, defamation, and conspiracy. However, three claims—breach of contract, retaliation, and aiding retaliation—will proceed to trial. Lively accuses Baldoni of inappropriate behavior on set and a retaliatory smear campaign, while he denies the allegations. The ruling significantly narrows the case but allows key disputes to be decided in court.

Federal prosecutors allege that Pooh Shiesty orchestrated a kidnapping and robbery plot targeting Gucci Mane over a dispute about his record contract. According to the complaint, Shiesty allegedly pulled a firearm and forced Mane to sign release papers, while others involved carried out robberies and threatened victims. Authorities say multiple people were assaulted and feared for their lives during the incident. Shiesty and several others have been arrested and could face life sentences if convicted.

Today, Trump announced new tariffs of up to 100% on some brand-name pharmaceuticals, along with changes to tariffs on steel, aluminum, and other metals. The policy includes exemptions for generic drugs and companies investing in U.S. manufacturing, while allied countries will face lower rates. The move comes after the Supreme Court limited his broader tariff powers, signaling a shift toward more targeted trade actions. Critics warn the tariffs could raise costs, while the administration argues they will boost domestic production and national security.

According to TMZ, after a car crash in Florida, Tiger Woods told a deputy he had been speaking with “the president,” according to body camera footage. Woods was arrested and charged with DUI after officers observed signs of impairment and found medication in his possession. He pleaded not guilty and said he had not been drinking, though authorities noted failed sobriety tests. The incident caused minor property damage but no injuries, and Woods later said he plans to seek treatment.

TMZ spotted John James vacationing in Turks and Caicos during the ongoing government shutdown, even as many federal workers are going unpaid. Reports say he was traveling with his family and appeared to be relaxing while Congress remains on recess. He has, however, said he supports withholding his own paycheck during the shutdown. The trip has drawn attention as part of broader criticism of lawmakers taking time off while economic pressures continue.

According to Politico, the Treasury Department is moving to significantly cut the Office of Financial Research, a post-2008 crisis agency that monitors risks to the financial system. Plans include slashing up to 63% of its staff and reducing its budget, with layoffs and buyouts already underway. Supporters argue the office is inefficient and duplicative, while critics warn the cuts could weaken oversight during a time of growing instability in private credit markets. The move has sparked concern that it could increase the risk of another financial crisis.

The Parnas Perspective, Morning News and Commentary: White House Concerned as Trump's Address to Nation Falls Flat, Trump Considers Firing Bondi and Gabbard, and More, Aaron Parnas, right, aaron parnas new headshotApril 2, 2026. Here is what you need to know right now. Trump is actively considering firing Pam Bondi and Tulsi Gabbard. He and Hegseth are escalating rhetoric about Iran and openly talking about sending the country “back to the stone age.” Trump is now comparing himself to Jesus. He is also facing backlash after suggesting the federal government cannot sustain programs like Medicaid and Medicare because of the war.

At the same time, there is big news on the independent media front. We have remained the number one “news” newsletter in the world for nearly a full year and are reaching more people than most major media companies. Many of you have asked if I would ever sell out to one of them. The answer is no. I will stay independent.

Here’s the news:

Donald Trump’s speech last night did not provide any new details. In a prime-time address, President Donald Trump said the U.S. war with Iran is progressing and could end “shortly,” though he warned that heavier strikes would continue in the coming weeks. He defended the conflict as necessary for global security, claiming major damage to Iran’s military capabilities while leaving open the possibility of further escalation. Despite his optimism, public skepticism remains high and experts question whether the campaign will achieve lasting strategic success.

Pete Hegseth amplified calls to send Iran back to the “Stone Age.”

Donald Trump acknowledged that many Americans are worried about rising gasoline prices but argued the U.S. economy remains strong. He claimed the country had built the strongest economy in history and is still experiencing its effects.

tulsi gabbard o newAccording to the Guardian, Trump has privately discussed replacing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, right, after becoming frustrated with her handling of testimony related to the Iran war. His concerns stem from her perceived reluctance to fully support the administration’s justification for the conflict, though no final decision has been made. While Trump has expressed mixed public support, advisers warn that removing her without a clear successor could create political complications.

The New York Times has confirmed that Trump has recently discussed the possibility of firing Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, due to pam bondi 2025frustrations with her leadership and handling of issues like the Epstein files. He has considered replacing her with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, though no final decision has been made and he continues to publicly express support for her. The situation reflects growing internal tensions in the administration, particularly over legal strategy and political priorities.

Donald Trump compared himself to Jesus’ reception on Palm Sunday, noting that crowds once hailed Jesus as king and saying people now call him “king.” The remark draws a parallel between a significant Christian event and his own public support. It is likely to be seen as controversial given the religious significance of the comparison.

Paula White, a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, compared his experiences to those of Jesus, citing themes of betrayal, accusation, and eventual triumph. She suggested that, like the resurrection of Jesus, Trump has “risen up” after challenges.

Trump said the U.S. cannot adequately fund programs like daycare, Medicaid, and Medicare while also managing its size and ongoing conflicts. He argued that the country’s scale and involvement in wars make it difficult to sustain expansive social services.

Despite Trump’s claims, Western officials and experts say there is no evidence that Iran’s regime has lost power or fundamentally changed. Although many senior leaders have been killed, their replacements appear equally or more hard-line, and key institutions like the Revolutionary Guard remain in control. Analysts say the government is weakened but still intact, with uncertainty over leadership dynamics and little sign of a shift toward U.S. demands.

War crimes experts warn to NBC News that President Donald Trump’s threats to target Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including power and desalination plants, could constitute war crimes under international law. Critics argue such actions would harm civilians disproportionately and risk damaging the U.S.’s global standing, potentially labeling it a “rogue state.” The White House defends the strategy as necessary for security, but legal experts say even making such threats could signal dangerous intent and set troubling precedents.

The U.S. Embassy in Iraq is urging Americans to leave the country immediately due to credible threats of imminent attacks by Iran-aligned militias in Baghdad. The warning follows the reported kidnapping of an American journalist and highlights risks to U.S.-associated locations, including businesses and diplomatic sites. With flights suspended, Americans are advised to exit via land routes despite delays and heightened security dangers.

sanae takaichi oFrench President Emmanuel Macron called for a ceasefire in the Middle East during a visit to Japan, emphasizing the need for peace, stability, and safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. He and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, right, agreed on de-escalation while also strengthening cooperation in defense, energy, and technology. The visit highlights growing France–Japan ties in response to global tensions, even as differences remain with U.S. policy on the conflict.

nurul amin shah memorialThe death of Rohingya refugee Nurul Amin Shah has been officially ruled a homicide after U.S. Border Patrol agents left him outside a Buffalo restaurant on a cold night, where he later died. The medical examiner determined he died from complications of a perforated ulcer worsened by hypothermia and dehydration, noting that “homicide” reflects death caused by another person’s actions or negligence, not necessarily intent.

Shah, who was visually impaired and unable to speak English, had been detained and then released without notifying his family or lawyer, and was found dead days later. The ruling has intensified scrutiny of immigration authorities, prompting investigations by New York officials and calls for accountability over how he was treated.

Donald Trump encouraged Erika Kirk to take legal action against Druski, saying she should sue over comments made about her. He framed the situation as driven by jealousy and suggested she push back forcefully through the courts.

erica kirk druski facebook

Turning Point CEO Erica Kirk, widow of the extremist white nationalist organization's founder Charlie Kirk, is shown in a collage above with the comedian Druski, who created a video in which he donned "white-face" make up (shown above right) to mock MAGA women.

Background: Yahoo News, Erika Kirk Hasn't Said a Word About Druski's 110-Million-View Parody. Everyone Else Won't Stop Talking, Olamide Oloro, March 27, 2026. Last Wednesday, the comic Druski released a skit parodying “conservative women in America,” in which he donned white face, a blonde wig, blue contact lenses and a pant suit for the role. The video juxtaposes him delivering deadpan remarks at a press conference with footage of him dancing near pyrotechnics, striking pilates poses and ordering food at a drive-through. “We have to protect all men in America, especially the white men in America,” he says at one point. “Those are the ones we care about.” The two-minute clip has garnered over 184 million views on X, with many commenters claiming that Druski was specifically lampooning Erika Kirk, the CEO of Turning Point USA and widow of Charlie Kirk.

New Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, right, rescinded a rule requiring his personal approval for DHS spending over $100,000, Markwayne Mullin oreversing a policy that had slowed disaster response efforts. The change is expected to ease bottlenecks at FEMA and improve the speed of aid distribution, though ongoing funding issues may still limit immediate impact. The move marks an early shift in leadership after his predecessor Kristi Noem was removed amid criticism of the policy.

Midwives in Georgia have filed a lawsuit challenging state laws that restrict their ability to practice, arguing the rules worsen shortages in maternity care. The plaintiffs say requirements like physician agreements and limits on non-nurse midwives create barriers that contribute to high maternal mortality and limited access to care. The case is part of a broader trend of legal challenges across Southern states seeking to expand midwives’ roles in addressing healthcare gaps.

More On Iran War

ny times logoNew York Times, Iran War Live Updates: Oil Prices Surge After Trump Claims Success Without Offering Exit Plan, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Yan Zhuang and Jason Karaian, April 2, 2026. In his address, President Trump also repeated his threats to hit Iranian infrastructure, including electrical plants, unless a deal was struck.

Oil prices surged and stock markets sank on Thursday, hours after President Trump declared in a national television address that the U.S. military campaign against Iran was an overwhelming success but failed to offer a clear exit strategy.

On Wednesday night, in his first prime-time address from the White House since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, Mr. Trump threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” and repeated his threats to hit Iranian infrastructure, including electrical plants, unless a deal was struck.

Investors hoping for clearer signals of a de-escalation appeared disappointed. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, jumped more than 7 percent in early trading on Thursday, the steepest daily rise in three weeks. Stock markets around the world fell, with indexes in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas from the Middle East, hit particularly hard.

Mr. Trump said in his speech that Iran’s “ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed.” On Thursday morning, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said that American and Israeli strikes had not decimated the country’s missile production centers, long-range drones, air defenses or electronic warfare systems. The United States and Israel “know nothing about our vast and strategic capabilities,” the Guards said in a statement on Thursday.

The U.S. and Israeli militaries have destroyed many of Iran’s ballistic missiles and launchers in airstrikes. But a large number are undamaged, and Iran continues to launch missiles and drones.

Early Thursday, Israel’s military said its forces had intercepted missiles launched from Iran. The authorities in the United Arab Emirates said their forces had responded to drone and missile strikes from Iran, while Saudi Arabia reported intercepting a missile and drones without saying where they came from.

Mr. Trump also appeared to plead with Americans uneasy about the war’s economic costs to “keep this conflict in perspective.” He framed the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, a major global conduit for oil, as an issue for other nations, even though he had said hours earlier that he would not agree to any cease-fire deal unless the waterway was opened. Iran has choked off traffic through the strait, causing oil and natural gas prices to surge.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

  • Strait of Hormuz: Britain’s foreign secretary was expected to host a virtual meeting about Iran’s de facto blockade of the waterway. Dozens of nations are expected to participate, but the United States is not.
  • Nuclear capabilities: Mr. Trump argued in his Wednesday night address that Iran was on the cusp of building a nuclear weapon. That is disputed. Iran could have produced bomb-grade nuclear fuel within days or weeks. But it would take months or more than a year to fashion that fuel into a weapon, American intelligence agencies concluded. Read more ›
  • Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,606 civilians had been killed, including 244 children, in Iran since the war began. Lebanon’s health ministry said that more than 1,318 Lebanese had been killed as of Wednesday since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded.

 

bulwark morning shots logo
Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Oh, the War? Don’t Worry. It’s Over. Almost, William Kristol, right, william bill kristol imdbApril 2, 2026. What was the point of Donald Trump’s sad and lackluster speech to the nation last night?

The main point—really, the only point—was that his Iran war is basically over. Of course it’s not quite over. But, he wants us all to understand, it’s going to be over soon. Very soon.

“We’re getting very close.”

“We are going to finish the job and we’re going to finish it very fast.”

“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly.”

Why is Trump so very eager to have the American people understand that his war is so very much “nearing completion”? Because, as Nate Silver and Eli McKown-Dawson put it, in the last two weeks Trump’s “popularity has taken something of a nosedive.” So Trump wants out. Last night he promised us over and over again that we’ll be out soon.

Trump doesn’t want the American people to think too hard about the lack of justification for the war. He doesn’t want anyone to dwell on the fact that there was no imminent threat from Iran, or that Trump didn’t obtain authorization to go to war from Congress. He doesn’t want the American people to focus on what his administration’s conduct of the war has shown about its lack of character and competence. And he wants to divert attention as much as possible from the real-world consequences of his war for the American and global economy.

If you want to stay focused on what matters, there’s no better way to do it than by joining Bulwark+ and taking full advantage of the members-only reporting, analysis, and commentary. Join today.Subscribed

And by the way, what about all those U.S. troops steaming toward the region for possible ground operations—to take Kharg Island or reopen the Strait of Hormuz or seize the nuclear material? What about all those plans for putting “boots on the ground,” something that Trump boasted just a few days ago that he wasn’t afraid of?

Fuhgettaboutit. The prospect of the use of ground troops was never raised in last night’s update. The term “ground troops” was never uttered.

Trump did go out of his way, however, to tell us that this war was not going to last as long as World War I or World War II or Vietnam. So that’s something. And he told us that even though we’ve already “completely decimated Iran,” that we’ll be doing some more decimating on our way out the door. “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages [sic], where they belong.”

So we won’t succeed in preventing the Iranian regime from closing international waters in the Strait of Hormuz, and we won’t be doing anything to help liberate the people of Iran from that oppressive regime. But we’re going to continue to rain down death and destruction on the nation of Iran.

Our founders hoped that the United States might herald a Novus Ordo Seclorum, a new order of the ages. In Trump’s America, we’ve given up on that promise. Instead we boast that we’re going to bomb people back to the “Stone Ages, where they belong.”

The Contrarian, Opinion: Trump Is Serious About Accepting a Humiliating Defeat, Jennifer Rubin, right, jennifer rubin new headshotApril 2, 2026. Donald Trump started an unconstitutional, reckless war without goals and with minimal planning. He failed to anticipate Iran’s entirely predictable response. No one, therefore, should be surprised that the war may end with the United States and its allies (or, rather, countries that used to be allies) worse off than when the war started.

On Wednesday, Trump delivered a rambling, breathless, low-energy “speech” to the nation that bore a strong similarity to his social media posts. He claimed Iran had been “decimated,” despite its continued strikes in the region. Trump insisted we have completed all our objectives — except the war will go on for a few more weeks. (He again threatened to commit war crimes by hitting Iran’s power plants.) The Strait of Hormuz will “open up naturally,” he proclaimed. (How? Don’t ask!) It is not clear what the point of contrarian logothis address was or whom he could possibly have persuaded. During the speech, the price of oil rose and the markets fell.

Imagine if Barack Obama, without congressional consent, had initiated a war that resulted in 13 American deaths and hundreds of injuries, caused massive civilian deaths (including two horrific strikes on civilians, primarily children), pushed gas to $4 per gallon, and induced counterstrikes on Israel and Gulf states (including oil and natural gas facilities). Consider the hue and cry if Obama had left Iran in control of the Strait of Hormuz and failed to force Iran to give up its enriched uranium, ballistic missile program, or support for regional terrorism.

And yet that is where Trump may put us. His feckless and irresponsible secretary of defense acknowledged on Tuesday that Iran retains the ability to launch missiles and drones. (Pete Hegseth is mystified that the MAGA base, which was told Trump opposed regime-change wars, is upset.) He also insisted regime change has already occurred, a sign of how far the Trump team is prepared to delude itself to get out of the quagmire.

Trump on Tuesday threw a revealing temper tantrum on his Truth Social platform:

All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil.

That confirmed the jaw-dropping report that Trump was prepared to run for the exits with the Strait of Hormuz in Iranian hands. And sure enough, on Wednesday Trump showed no interest in trying to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“For a war ostensibly designed to reduce Iran’s military capabilities and ability to threaten the region, it would seem an extraordinary outcome to have a result of the war be a situation in which Iran could now export oil freely, but our allies would have to pay fees to Iran for the privilege of doing so,” Brookings Institution’s Philip Gordon told me. “And Iran would remain in a position to close the strait again at any time, imposing high costs on Americans as well as exporters not just of oil and gas but of fertilizer, helium, etc. All this would have a sustained impact on world gas and food prices and overall inflation.”

Trump’s unilateral war has already inflicted immense damage on the Gulf states. In addition to damage to oil tankers and facilities, the war “could plunge four million more people across the Arab world into poverty and shave off up to 6 percent of the region’s economic output during that time, according to projections by the United Nations Development Program,” the New York Times reported. This would affect not only Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria but also “tip more countries, including Iraq, Jordan and Egypt, into severe economic crises,” the Times wrote. (Egypt, already in economic distress, has been “reliant on investments from oil-producing Gulf countries whose energy production has come under attack during the war.”)

In addition, the war has already kneecapped NATO, which Trump is threatening to leave. Italy and Spain have denied the United States the use of its bases and airspace, a natural reaction to Trump’s bullying and insults and his refusal to coordinate before launching his ill-conceived war. (Trump also lashed out at France, apparently thinking that France had denied use of its bases; it withheld only the use of its aircraft.) Britain has insisted that U.S. planes from its bases are used only “to conduct only operations that protect British and allied interests across the Middle East.” This is what a world without friends looks like.

As historian Robert Kagan explained:

Whenever and however America’s war with Iran ends, it has both exposed and exacerbated the dangers of our new, fractured, multipolar reality—driving deeper wedges between the United States and former friends and allies; strengthening the hands of the expansionist great powers, Russia and China; accelerating global political and economic chaos; and leaving the United States weaker and more isolated than at any time since the 1930s.

We have saddled allies with an energy shock, thrown into question our NATO Article V commitment, and bizarrely elevated the Middle East (where Trump promised not to start open-ended wars) over real priorities such as Russia and China. (Kagan noted that inexplicably the Middle East “seems to be the only priority, apparently worth any price, including the introduction of ground forces and even the destruction of the American alliance system.”)

In short, because we no longer offer and cannot expect cooperation and assistance from other democracies, we will be forced to rely on threats and bullying (which become less effective as Trump reinforces his TACO image) to round up support. China and Russia relish the collapse of the U.S. system of alliances that has maintained our superpower status.

In sum, Trump may wind up losing this war and subjecting the United States and the rest of the world to an open-ended, devastating oil shock. (As Gordon put it, “Trump has a history of being willing — and to his supporters often able — to sell anything, but it would be hard to sell an outcome of this war that left control over the strait in Iran’s hands as anything other than a major strategic defeat for the United States.”) That would be bad enough. However, the war has reinforced Trump’s determination to discard our historic advantages (e.g., alliances, a free-trade system, U.S. credibility, and moral stature).

No other president could possibly have done this much damage in such a short time. The United States stands alone — more despised and less respected than we have ever been in the modern era. 

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump Hails Destruction of Iranian Bridge, Warning ‘More to Follow,’ Euan Ward and Edward Wong, April 2, 2026. Fars, a semiofficial news agency, said eight people had been killed in the attack and dozens wounded.

President Trump celebrated the destruction of a bridge near Tehran on Thursday, warning on social media that there was “much more to follow.”

The attack on the B1 bridge between Tehran and the nearby city of Karaj killed eight people and wounded 95, according to Fars, a semiofficial Iranian news agency. Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, reported that two strikes had hit the bridge around an hour apart, the second arriving while emergency responders were assisting the wounded.

A U.S. military official said that American forces had struck the bridge, eliminating what the official called a planned military supply route for Iran’s missile and drone forces. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to share operational details.

But Mehr, another semiofficial Iranian news agency, said the claim the span was being used as a military supply route was false. “Bridge B1 has not yet been inaugurated,” it said.

It is unclear if the bridge, in the mountains, was open to the public or if the casualties were among people on the bridge or nearby. The strike occurred on the last day of Nowruz, the Iranian new year, which is traditionally a day when Iranians celebrate by spending time outdoors.

Mr. Trump’s post on Truth Social was accompanied by a video of an explosion on or near the bridge and a large plume of smoke rising into the sky. With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran now in its fifth week and showing little sign of abating despite Washington’s diplomatic overtures to Tehran, Mr. Trump in his social media post urged Iran’s government to “MAKE A DEAL BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE, AND THERE IS NOTHING LEFT OF WHAT STILL COULD BECOME A GREAT COUNTRY!”

The Israeli military said in a briefing to reporters on Thursday that it was not responsible, and that the bridge had been a U.S. target. U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, did not reply to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump has threatened to destroy all power plants and other infrastructure in Iran if its leaders did not agree to a peace deal and end their military’s de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Some experts in the law of armed conflict say that a country’s infrastructure could be considered a legal and legitimate target if that infrastructure is used by its military or plays a role in military operations. The legality would vary on a case-by-case basis.

“Whether the bridge was a lawful military objective would depend on the facts,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who specialized in the law of armed conflict and who now works at the International Crisis Group. “My read is that bridge was targeted not to provide any military advantage but in the hopes of coercing Tehran and generating content.”Kristi Noem walks in on her husband....

ny times logoNew York Times, Rival Nations Seize On Choke Points to Counter Trump, Ana Swanson, April 2, 2026. From Iran to China, President Trump’s global aggression has encouraged other countries to search for new ways to pressure the U.S. economy.

President Trump has unapologetically wielded the power of the United States on the global stage, taking a much more belligerent approach economically and militarily to try to dictate the actions of other countries.

From high tariffs to the war with Iran, Mr. Trump has claimed that this aggressive behavior internationally has only upsides, and that past leaders were fools for refusing to tap into America’s power.

But one clear drawback of the strategy is emerging. While many countries have acceded to the president’s demands, some have found a highly effective new way to fight back. Mr. Trump’s aggression has given them the opportunity to test their control over choke points, threatening the United States and the global economy.

One such choke point is the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, which accounts for less than 1 percent of global economic output, has control over the shipping lane that transports a fifth of the world’s oil and gas. Its closure since the United States and Israel began attacking Iran at the end of February has blocked shipments of fuel, fertilizer and other goods, sending gas prices sharply higher and spreading anxiety among U.S. farmers and manufacturers.

Another experiment in retaliatory coercion began one year ago on Thursday, when Mr. Trump walked into the Rose Garden and unveiled tariffs on what he called “Liberation Day.” While many governments — even powerful economies like the European Union — complied with U.S. demands, China was a notable exception. Beijing rolled out a licensing system for exports of rare-earth minerals and magnets that has given China unparalleled control over the global manufacturing system.

Makers of cars, semiconductors, fighter jets and other goods — the backbone of a U.S. factory system that Mr. Trump wants to revive — depend on rare earths, most of which are processed in China.

While China is approving some licenses and allowing some rare earths to flow, supplies for many manufacturers are running short. And China has cut off exports of these materials to companies that work for the U.S. military, leaving them struggling to find other suppliers. Mr. Trump's decision to delay a visit to China by roughly six weeks until mid-May worried some executives who hoped that his meeting with Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, could alleviate the pressure.

ny times logoNew York Times, News Analysis: How Trump Boxed Himself In on Iran, David E. Sanger,.April 2, 2026. President Trump faces the possibility that at the end of his own two-to-three week window for wrapping up the war in Iran, nothing much will have changed.

More than a month into a war that he insists will come to an end within two or three weeks, President Trump has put himself in a strategic box from which he is finding no easy exit.

Talks with Iran about a deal to end the conflict, to the degree they are substantive, have so far shown little promise. The key metrics of success described at various points by Mr. Trump — keeping Iran from possessing the fuel to make a nuclear weapon, helping the Iranian people topple a government much of the populace despises and reopening the Strait of Hormuz — remain in the distance, at best.

Iran’s tolerance for pain appears far higher than Mr. Trump anticipated, and despite devastating losses to its arsenal, it retains some ability to strike Israel with missiles. It did so even while Mr. Trump spoke about the war on Wednesday evening.

That televised, prime-time address was intended to reassure Americans that the costs of the war would be transitory, that an end to hostilities and a return to normal economic life were imminent. But the markets responded to his speech with deep skepticism.

Oil prices surged 8 percent in the hours after his 19-minute address, largely because he described no plan to end what amounts to a tanker hostage crisis in the Strait of Hormuz that is now rippling across the global economy. The strait, he insisted, would “open up naturally” when the conflict is over.

At this stage, Mr. Trump appears to be offering a host of sometimes contradictory paths forward, and faces the possibility that at the end of his own two-to-three week window, nothing much will have changed. And his promise to send Iran back to the “Stone Ages” if it did not agree to his terms — which he did not specify on Wednesday night — would amount to an expansion of the war, not a winding down.

Mr. Trump has never been troubled by internal contradictions, of course. He is the master of raising and dispensing with arguments to fit the moment. In the opening moments of the war he urged Iranians to rise up and take over their government, but he hasn’t mentioned that approach since, other than to say it would probably lead to the slaughter of the Iranian protesters.

On Wednesday evening he said that “regime change was not our goal,” although he had called for just that after the initial attack by the United States and Israel on Feb. 28. He now claims that “regime change has occurred because of their original leaders’ death,” as if a change of personnel was the same as a change of regime. (When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died in 1989, only to be succeeded by another supreme leader, few argued that it constituted a change of the governing structure.)

In weaving back and forth, Mr. Trump is relying on techniques he honed in the New York real estate world, where he often succeeded at creating his own reality. But war is different. The enemy gets to shape the environment as well, and the Iranians apparently sense they can wait Mr. Trump out. And while Iran has precious few allies — even its biggest oil customer, China, has kept its distance — Iranian leaders seem to be counting on declining stock markets and rising oil prices to speed Mr. Trump’s exit from the conflict.So whether the U.S. forces pull back in two or three weeks, as Mr. Trump predicted, or whether Washington escalates the fighting and gets stuck, here is a look at the challenges that seem unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

ny times logoNew York Times, Iran War Live Updates: Macron Voices European Frustration With Trump for Criticizing NATO, Mark Landler, Jason Karaian, Erika Solomon and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, April 2, 2026. Speaking of Mr. Trump’s verbal attacks on the alliance, the French leader said: “If you create doubt every day about your commitment, you hollow it out.”

Here’s the latest.

Mounting European frustration with President Trump, and defiance of his wishes on the war with Iran, bubbled over on Thursday, when President Emmanuel Macron lashed out at the American leader for his shifting war goals and his undermining of the NATO alliance.

“When we’re serious, we don’t say the opposite of what we said the day before every day, and maybe one shouldn’t speak every day,” Mr. Macron told reporters during a trip to South Korea. He also said of Mr. Trump’s mounting attacks on NATO, “If you create doubt every day about your commitment, you hollow it out.”

The French president has been among the most vocal of frustrated allies, but he is hardly the only one. Mr. Trump has steadily berated European leaders for refusing to join in a war that they view skeptically, at best, that he entered without consulting them, and that has had wide-ranging consequences the United States appeared unprepared for.

European leaders who have struggled to stay on Mr. Trump’s good side, and even gone out of their way to praise him, are increasingly resigned to the idea of a United States that is no longer a reliable partner and protector.

ny times logoNew York Times, A Bid to Use Force to Open Strait of Hormuz Hits U.N. Roadblocks, Farnaz Fassihi and Vivian Nereim, April 2, 2026. Several permanent members of the Security Council opposed the resolution, drafted by Bahrain in coordination with its Gulf neighbors, officials said.

Russia, China and France on Thursday effectively stymied a push by Arab countries to get the United Nations Security Council to authorize military action against Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying they opposed any language authorizing force, according to a diplomat and a senior U.N. official.

The actual vote on the resolution, which was drafted by Bahrain with the support of the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, is expected to be scheduled for Friday. But it remained unclear whether extra hours of diplomacy would bring the three veto-holding countries on board.

Russia, China and France are among the five permanent members of the council with veto power. There were also divisions over the resolution among the 10 nonpermanent members, according to diplomats.

The current draft resolution is in its fourth revision after weeks of closed-door negotiations. The part of the text that has generated an impasse states that the Security Council “authorizes member States, acting nationally or through voluntary multinational naval partnerships, with advance notifications to the Security Council,” to use all necessary means “to secure transit passage and to deter attempts to close, obstruct or otherwise interfere with international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic choke point where a fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally travels, shortly after the United States and Israel launched a war against it on Feb. 28. The closure has caused global energy disruption, hurt financial markets and increased the costs of oil, shipping and insurance. Iran has also launched thousands of retaliatory attacks on the Arab nations in the Persian Gulf — which host major American bases — killing at least 18 civilians and severely damaging military and energy infrastructure.Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Bahrain and Iran? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.

Bahrain’s foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, told a session of the Security Council on Thursday that “Iran’s aggressive intentions” toward its Arab neighbors were “treacherous” and “preplanned,” and violated international law. He said Iran had targeted civilian structures such as airports, water stations, seaports and hotels.

Iran signaled on Thursday that it intended to continue to oversee shipping traffic through the critical Strait of Hormuz, even after the war.

For Iran, its Arab neighbors uniting against it at the Security Council represented a serious, perhaps irreparable, deterioration of relations. For years, Iran cultivated closer ties with its neighbors, only to blow them up during the past month of war.

Analysts say the Bahraini-led efforts at the Council are more symbolic than pragmatic; the militaries of most of the Persian Gulf countries are relatively small, and heavily dependent on U.S. support. They have minimal experience combating a military the size of Iran’s.

And France’s president, Emanuel Macron, said on Thursday that President Trump’s comments urging countries that rely on the strait to forcefully open it were unrealistic.

“It is unrealistic because it would take an inordinate amount of time and would expose anyone crossing the strait to coastal threats from the Revolutionary Guards, who possess significant resources, as well as ballistic missiles, a host of other risks,” Mr. Macron said.

Abdulaziz Sager, the chairman of the Gulf Research Center, a think tank based in Saudi Arabia, said any cease-fire agreement must also address Iran’s capability to attack Gulf countries and control maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. “We will not forget what they have done to us, and they will not forget that the U.S. had a lot of facilities here in the Gulf,” he said.

The blocking of the strait has cut off the main export route for the Arab countries, where economies and government budgets depend heavily on fossil fuel revenue. Qatar, one of the world’s largest exporters of natural gas, has been forced to shut down production entirely and declare force majeure, breaking contracts with buyers.

The Qatari government said it expects a $20 billion loss in annual revenue. Most of the Gulf countries had maintained cordial ties with Iran before the war, including Saudi Arabia, which re-established diplomatic relations with Iran in a China-brokered pact in 2023.

More On Epstein and Noem Scandals, Trump Coverup

Emptywheel, Opinion: Trump Fires Bondi for Failing to Cover Up Allegations He Raped a Teenager, Emptywheel, (Mary Wheeler, right), marcy wheelerApril 2, 2026. And so the deed is done.

After two days of chatter about firing Pam Bondi, Trump has done it.

Reporting on the reasons for firing Bondi are vague. She has failed to prosecute any of Trump’s enemies who are not guilty of any crime. But holy hell, it’s not for wont of trying.

She fucked up the Epstein files. She did! But then so did Kash Patel, and he also ran off to Italy to get drunk on the taxpayer dime.

There’s an aspect of the Epstein fuck-up that should always be mentioned: she also appears to have tried — but failed to — cover up the allegation that Trump raped and assaulted a woman when she was a teenager. It’s not so much the allegation itself that is important, at least for the moment (and there are still reasons to be cautious about the allegation).

It’s that Bondi falsely claimed there was no credible evidence that anyone, including Trump, could be blackmailed. But there was, from this woman.

Remember, when Pam Bondi and Kash Patel attempted to dismiss this whole issue last July, they claimed, “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.” That’s factually false; there’s clear evidence Epstein was pressuring Bill Gates. But given that, weeks later, the FBI listed the allegation from this woman first in what appears to be prep for Todd Blanche’s interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, it is exceedingly likely they had this claim in mind when they dismissed the credibility of all blackmail claims.

This woman told the FBI that Epstein and Trump discussed blackmail, and days later he suicided in prison.

And after that, the FBI wanted to focus on Trump because, well, Epstein wasn’t around to be prosecuted anymore.

Then, years later, DOJ attempted to withhold documents recording all that.

When faced with overwhelming evidence that they had withheld documents implicating Trump, DOJ released them. But the excuses it gave are as suspect as the withholding.

And there is good reason to believe that DOJ attempted to bury these files altogether, but accidentally provided files from the Ghislaine Maxwell discovery that allowed others to put together proof there was more there there.

As NPR explained, when caught withholding these documents, DOJ claimed they had withheld them because they were duplicates, and now is effectively saying, oops, they weren’t duplicates.

The Justice Department has repeatedly told NPR that any documents withheld were “privileged, are duplicates or relate to an ongoing federal investigation.”

Last week, after NPR’s initial story, the Justice Department said it was determining if records had been mistakenly tagged as duplicates and if any were found, “the Department will of course publish it, consistent with the law.”

But in fact, these documents — every one of the documents released so far — are duplicates.

As NPR focused in their original story on the withholding, what got released was the discovery shared with Ghislaine. Both the original release and these includes three Bates stamps, including the series — 3501.045-003, here — tied to discovery to Ghislaine, along with stamps from that production.

The Ghislaine material is the definition of duplicate material, because everything that went to her should have an original copy in the FBI’s case file.

But we didn’t get any of those originals. We still haven’t gotten those originals. We can’t be sure if the originals still exist. DOJ certainly hasn’t given us the originals, they gave us duplicates after saying these were duplicates.

DOJ not only withheld documents documenting a claim that Trump raped a teenager, and with it, a claim that Trump and Epstein discussed blackmail, but they’re still withholding the originals of all that.

Pam Bondi has been colluding with James Comer to avoid a sworn deposition this month. This firing may actually make it easier for DOJ — for the moment, Todd Blanche, who did succeed in silencing Maxwell — to instruct her not to answer any questions. But then Congress can subpoena him.

Unless something significant disrupts Trump’s control over Congress, Bondi will be back as a judge.

Which is why it is important to remember the specifics of how she fucked up the Epstein scandal.

 

pam bondi fox

ny times logoNew York Times, How Pam Bondi’s Missteps on the Epstein Files Jeopardized Her Job, Glenn Thrush and Michael Gold, April 2, 2026 (print ed.). Ms. Bondi’s critics inside and outside the administration say she has made unforced errors that have turned the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files into a political crisis.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, above, emerged from a House Judiciary Committee hearing in February in an upbeat mood after delivering what she believed was her best, which is to say most bombastically defiant, defense of her handling of the release of the Epstein files.

Many others, including some of her allies, thought her testimony — hours of high-volume insults and non sequiturs (“The Dow is over 50,000 now!”) — was a miscalculation that only deepened distrust of Ms. Bondi. She even declined to make eye contact with victims of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who were seated behind her.

When bad reviews started pouring in, Ms. Bondi did not blame herself. Instead, she told an associate that the committee’s Republican chairman, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, had refused to defend her and had enabled Democratic questioners, according to people in her orbit speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Ms. Bondi has long promoted her transparency in the Epstein case, pointing to what she has described as an Eiffel Tower’s worth of documents made public on her watch. And her attack on Democrats landed better with the audience she cares most about, President Trump. But to critics, it was just the latest in more than a year of unforced errors and messaging misfires that have turned a thorny dilemma — how to handle an investigation that has shadowed Mr. Trump — into an enduring Republican political liability.

That is on top of the criticism leveled by Democrats and former Justice Department officials over the past year that she has sacrificed the department’s independence in pursuit of the president’s retribution agenda.

Yet like a radio built to pick only one channel — tuned to Mr. Trump’s demands — Ms. Bondi has gained and maintained her position through her attentiveness, loyalty and obedience. That makes her uniquely vulnerable to shifts in Mr. Trump’s opinion.

In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has privately sent mixed signals. He has discussed firing Ms. Bondi, according to four people familiar with the conversations, and replacing her with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

He has complained about her shortcomings as a communicator and vented about what he sees as the department’s lack of aggressiveness in going after his foes, according to people who have spoken to him recently, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

But he has also praised her loyalty in public, and he speaks with her several times a week, sometimes to seek advice or temperature-test ideas, a person close to Ms. Bondi said. And on Wednesday, she accompanied the president to the Supreme Court to watch arguments in the birthright citizenship case.Editors’ PicksL.A. Locals Share Their Favorite BurritosHe Was Supposed to Break Up Kraft and Heinz. He Changed His Mind.Raphael and the Renaissance of Divine Beauty

In response to questions about his relationship with Ms. Bondi, Mr. Trump said in a statement that “Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job.”

The greatest danger Ms. Bondi now faces, in the view of current and former officials, is the possibility that she has become expendable to Mr. Trump, who was able to quell Republican criticism of his hard-line immigration policy by removing Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary.

Some of the protection Ms. Bondi enjoyed from G.O.P. lawmakers in the wake of Mr. Trump’s unifying victory in 2024 appears to be eroding ahead of the midterm elections, with congressional Republicans increasingly willing to call out the attorney general over what they see as her mishandling of the investigative files.

“We want to know why the D.O.J. is more focused on shielding the powerful than delivering justice,” said Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of Ms. Bondi’s most vocal Republican critics. The Epstein case is “one of the greatest cover-ups in American history,” she added, summing up the sentiments of a segment of the party’s base.   

The Don Lemon Show, Boobgate and Blackmail, Peter Rothpletz and Don Lemon, March 31, 2026. The Noem family's narcissism and hypocrisy defines the GOP.

There’s a pattern, and if you’ve been paying attention, you already know what it is: the politicians who scream loudest about policing other people’s sexuality and gender identity are almost always the ones with the most interesting things happening behind closed doors. It’s practically a law of political physics at this point. Newton’s Fourth: for every crusade against LGBTQ+ rights, there is an equal and opposite skeleton rattling around somewhere in the family home.

Let me be clear at the top, because this matters: none of what follows is about shaming anyone for what they wear, what they enjoy, or what they do in private. That’s their business. This is about something else entirely: hypocrisy and national security risks. And right now, for former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and her husband Bryon, those two things are colliding in salaciously spectacular fashion.

Here’s what we know. According to reporting from the Daily Mail, Bryon Noem allegedly participated in online communities centered around “bimbofication” — a fetish involving hyper-feminized, doll-like presentation — exchanging hundreds of messages with women in that space and sharing photos of himself in revealing feminine clothing, going for a sort of “Barbie-doll” aesthetic. Among other things. (The Daily Mail, of all places, breaking a story that would make Rupert Murdoch blush.)

Those details remain unverified by other outlets. However, Bryon didn’t deny all of the allegations. A spokesperson for Kristi told the New York Post: “Ms. Noem is devastated. The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at this time.”

I pray for their children. This isn’t fair to them. It’s an awful trauma they’re enduring. But this isn’t tawdry gossip. This is a security crisis wearing the oh-so tight-fitting clothes of a tabloid story.

One of the women Bryon was messaging with identified him almost immediately as the husband of the sitting Secretary of Homeland Security. He confirmed it. And when the topic of Kristi’s alleged affair with Corey Lewandowski came up — and I cannot stress enough that this is real, reported information about real, actual people in the real, actual world — Bryon apparently replied: “I know. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

Read that again. A stranger on the internet is extracting sensitive, deeply personal information from the spouse of the person who ran the Department of Homeland Security. That isn’t a marital drama. That’s an exploitable, dangerous vulnerability. That is, quite literally, the architecture of compromise, available via just one DM. We are not talking about some mid-level functionary here. Noem controlled an agency with sweeping federal enforcement powers and billions in funding (billions that, it’s worth noting, were already flowing through an institution rife with alleged corruption). Noem awarded hundreds of millions in advertising contracts to people with close personal ties to her. Border Czar Tom Homan was caught with $50,000 in cash handed to him in a Cava bag — during an FBI sting, no less. The money sloshing through DHS for its mass deportation campaign alone is staggering. The conflicts of interest aren’t the exception. They’re the texture of the whole operation.

Now add the hypocrisy, because it is, as they say, staggering in its brazenness.

During her time in office, Noem built her entire political brand around restricting LGBTQ+ rights. She questioned the settled legality of same-sex marriage following the Dobbs ruling, calling it a “debate that we will continue to have.” She signed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2021 — a law that, in practice, sanctioned discrimination against LGBTQ+ people dressed up as piety. She banned gender-affirming care for minors, barred trans women from women’s sports, terminated a contract with a transgender advocacy group, and ultimately had to pay $300,000 to settle the resulting lawsuit out of court. That last one is particularly rich: Kristi Noem, champion of fiscal conservatism, cutting six-figure checks to clean up her own discriminatory messes.

That is the record. That is what she stood for. That is her legacy.

And again — the issue is not what Bryon does in private. People’s private lives are their own. The issue is that officials at the highest levels of government are revealing, in real time, just how easily they can be made to bend. If this is what surfaces publicly, the obvious question is: what are people like Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr. working overtime to keep behind closed doors? Because that’s where real leverage lives. That’s where power gets quietly traded.

One final note… For the Republicans already maneuvering for 2028: if you’ve built a career on restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, you might want to make sure your personal life can survive the scrutiny that’s coming. Because it will come. And the gap between the sermon and the reality? It will eat you alive.

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More On U.S. Courts, Law, Immigration, Crime, Rights 

The New Republic, Opinion: Trump’s Corrupt Pardons May Well Be the Most Corrupt Thing About Him, Madeleine Dean, right, and madeleine dean oNorman J. Ornstein, April 2, 2026. When the Framers invented the pardon power, they never imagined someone like Trump as president. We need to rein that power in immediately.

Joseph Schwartz had a multistate nursing home empire. Through negligence and fraud, including deaths of patients in his facilities, it unraveled, leaving the families of the victims with nothing. And Schwartz responded by engaging in a massive payroll tax scheme, bilking his employees of $39 million. As ProPublica wrote, “He pleaded guilty last April to failure to pay the IRS taxes withheld from employees and failing to file a financial report for his employees’ benefit plan. A federal judge sentenced him to three years in prison.”

Justice Department log circularThree months into that sentence, in November of last year, Donald Trump pardoned Schwartz. Why? The New York Times reported recently on his extensive lobbying campaign: “Nearly a million dollars went to right-wing operatives who claimed to have worked with Laura Loomer, a social media provocateur who has the ear of Mr. Trump, to advocate for Mr. Schwartz’s release. Another $100,000 or more was paid to a lobbyist who had a different set of connections to Mr. Trump: pro-Israel evangelicals. Thousands more went to lawyers who had personal relationships with Alice Marie Johnson, Mr. Trump’s ‘pardon czar,’ and David Warrington, the White House counsel, according to four people familiar with the effort.”

Schwartz’s is only the latest of a series of pardons of fraudsters. Of all the corrupt actions taken in chapter 2 of the Trump presidency, none is more shocking than the misuse of the presidential pardon—not just for personal gain but to reward friends, enrich lobbyist buddies, and make clear that anyone who commits a crime to further Mr. Trump’s interests need not fear prosecution.

Our Constitution does not limit presidential pardons. The Framers debated bestowing this immense power upon one individual, yet ultimately believed that presidential integrity, and the possibility of impeachment, would shield it from corruption. Unfortunately, the Framers did not anticipate a president with no integrity—nor did they anticipate a Congress abandoning its Article 1 authority in service to an unprincipled executive.

As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, we must safeguard our democracy and counteract Mr. Trump’s corruption. And we believe the only way to restore the presidential pardon power to its original, merciful purpose is through a constitutional amendment.

Origins of Mercy

The power to issue pardons and grant clemency is not unique to the United States. The concept—originated as the “royal prerogative of mercy” in seventh-century England—allowed British monarchs to commute death sentences and pardon convicted criminals. As the name implies, it was a tool intended for mercy; to alleviate pain, suffering, and injustice.

The power survived America’s colonial era and was eventually codified in the U.S. Constitution. Like their British predecessors, the Framers viewed the pardon power as a strong, necessary check against the judicial branch.

In The Federalist, Number 74, Alexander Hamilton argued that “a single person would be a more eligible dispenser of the mercy of the government than a body of men.” Imagining that congressional gridlock would render this power obsolete, the Framers made a calculated decision: Offering grace and mercy to the oppressed was worth the risk that some future president might abuse it (and after all, impeachment was always an option).

Presidential Perversion

Yet here we are. Mr. Trump has spent the last 14 months perverting the presidential pardon in every way imaginable to line his pockets, reward and protect those who commit or might commit crimes on his behalf, and assuage his fragile ego.

The Campaign Legal Center has defined three types of suspect pardons:

  • Reward pardons, which benefit donors and supporters who break the law on Trump’s behalf;
  • Corrupt pardons, which excuse public officials who abuse their office as long as they pledge loyalty to Trump and his political agenda; and
  • Brokered pardons, where deep-pocketed individuals hire well-connected lobbyists or political fixers to secure clemency.

On Trump’s first day back in office—January 20, 2025—he issued a blanket pardon to every one of the 1,500 people charged or convicted over the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

We are two people who love our precious democracy—one as a congressional scholar, and the other as a member of Congress who stood in the House Gallery on January 6 as we braced ourselves for the violence outside the door. We find Trump’s pardons of those who assaulted police officers and were convicted of seditious conspiracy to be the most chilling assault on our democracy.

But Trump was undeterred. He then pardoned Trevor Milton, who had been convicted of fraud having to do with his electric truck startup, Nikola. Milton had been sentenced by a federal judge to four years in prison and ordered to pay $675 million in restitution to those who had been bilked. Just before Milton went to prison, Trump pardoned him and wiped away the payments to the victims. Mr. Milton and his wife contributed $1.8 million to Trump’s political committees.

Paul Walczak was similarly sentenced to 18 months for stealing his Florida nursing home employees’ tax payments, and ordered to pay $4.4 million in restitution. He was pardoned, with payments wiped out, just weeks after his mother attended a $1 million-a-person fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.

The New York Times noted, “Across both of his terms, Mr. Trump has granted clemency to more than 70 allies, donors, and others convicted in fraud cases. In his second term, Mr. Trump’s pace of pardoning those convicted of fraud has increased. In the first year of his second term, he handed out nearly three dozen pardons and commutations for people accused of fraud.”

Then there are the drug traffickers. Ross Ulbricht, founder of the dark site Silk Road, was convicted in 2015 on multiple charges, including distributing narcotics by means of the internet and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was sentenced to two life sentences plus 40 years without the possibility of parole, to be served concurrently. In 2023, according to The New Yorker, the head of the Libertarian Party guaranteed Trump the libertarian vote if he promised to free Ulbricht. Trump, for once, kept his promise: Ulbricht received a full and unconditional pardon in January 2025.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, former president of Honduras, took bribes from drug cartels to facilitate the transport of 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. and to protect violent cartel leaders from prison. He was sentenced to 45 years. But after Trump’s buddy Roger Stone contacted the president, Hernandez was pardoned in full.

Republican lobbyists have reveled in Trump’s open-for-business pardon shop, especially after he fired the Justice Department’s career pardon attorney, Liz Oyer, when she refused to recommend a pardon for convicted domestic violence offender Mel Gibson to enable him to get a gun.

Reward pardons? Corrupt pardons? Brokered pardons? The last 15 months of the Trump administration have been replete with these perverse pardons. In Trump’s Washington, there is no place for mercy. Corruption reigns supreme.

Constitutional Reform

Previous presidents have abused the pardon power. But compared to Trump, those were on the level of jaywalking on Fifth Avenue compared with murder. We the People need a constitutional amendment.

Two hundred fifty years later, it is time that we reconvene—perhaps in Philadelphia—a convention of scholars, legislators, lawyers, judges, and citizens to draft a constitutional amendment to reorient and reanchor the presidential pardon power to the qualities of mercy and grace. To find the best language and methods to invalidate pardons done for corrupt and malign purposes—and to make clear that a president cannot pardon himself.

While the path to a constitutional amendment is difficult—requiring passage by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, and ratification by three-fourths of the states—this one should be widely embraced in a bipartisan way.

We call on all members of Congress—Republicans and Democrats. Though we may practice different faiths, we share common values: love of country, belief in justice and the rule of law, and an esteem for mercy. After all, as William Shakespeare so eloquently taught us in The Merchant of Venice, “Earthly power doth then show likest God’s / When mercy seasons justice.”Madeleine Dean

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean is the U.S. representative for the 4th district of Pennsylvania. She serves on the Appropriations and Foreign Affairs committees, and was an impeachment manager for President Trump’s second impeachment.Norman J. Ornstein

Norman Ornstein is an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

 

Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, a Repujblican now serving a nine-year sentence on election-tampering charges, and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, now serving a nine-year sentence on election-tampering charges, and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

ny times logoNew York Times, Tina Peters, Colorado Election Denier, Will Have Prison Sentence Reconsidered, Jack Healy and Nick Corasaniti, April 2, 2026.  Peters, a former county clerk, received a nine-year sentence after being convicted of tampering with voting machines. An appeals court overturned the sentence but did not immediately free her from prison.

A Colorado appeals court on Thursday overturned the prison sentence of Tina Peters, the most prominent election denier still behind bars for crimes stemming from the 2020 election. But the court did not free Ms. Peters from prison, and it upheld her underlying conviction.

In a 3-to-0 ruling, the appeals court panel threw out the nine-year sentence handed down in 2024 to Ms. Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, and ordered that her case be sent back to the trial court in the county for resentencing. The court did not specifically order a shorter sentence. A jury in her conservative Western Colorado hometown had convicted her of tampering with voting machines that were under her control.

President Trump has demanded her release for months in a pressure campaign aimed at Colorado and its Democratic governor, Jared Polis.

The judges found that the trial judge who sentenced Ms. Peters had violated her free-speech rights by criticizing her as a “charlatan” and a snake-oil saleswoman who peddled false claims that the 2020 election had been rigged against Mr. Trump.

“The trial court’s comments about Peters’s belief in the existence of 2020 election fraud went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing,” the judges wrote. “Her offense was not her belief, however misguided the trial court deemed it to be, in the existence of such election fraud; it was her deceitful actions in her attempt to gather evidence of such fraud.”

But the judges also rejected Mr. Trump’s attempt to issue a presidential pardon for Ms. Peters, noting that “the President’s pardon does not reach Peters’s state offenses.”

“We are unaware of — and can find no historical record of — any instance of a president pardoning someone for a state offense,” the judges wrote.

The ruling on Thursday is likely to intensify the legal battle swirling around Ms. Peters, 70.

With Ms. Peters in prison, the Trump administration has battered Colorado, cutting federal money to the state, moving to close a leading science center and relocating the headquarters of U.S. Space Command. Mr. Polis has suggested he is edging closer to granting clemency to Ms. Peters, a politically perilous decision for the governor in a solidly Democratic state.

Mr. Polis applauded the court’s ruling, saying that it ensured “equal justice for all” and that he was glad the judges had rejected Mr. Trump’s pardon of Ms. Peters. He also said Ms. Peters’s nine-year prison sentence had been an “obvious outlier” compared with those for other defendants charged with similar crimes.

But the governor did not say how the ruling might now affect Ms. Peters’s application for clemency that is sitting on his desk.

Mr. Polis has spent months talking to friends and political allies in private about her case. In public, he has dropped a series of increasingly concrete hints that he might commute her sentence, calling it “harsh” and noting her advanced age. In March, Mr. Polis compared Ms. Peters’s sentence to that of a Democratic former state senator, Sonya Jaquez Lewis, who was convicted of similar charges but given a far lighter sentence.

Peter Ticktin, a lawyer representing Ms. Peters, said they planned to appeal the decision, possibly directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Attorney General Phil Weiser of Colorado, whose office helped prosecute Ms. Peters, said in a statement that he thought her original sentence was fair. A spokesman said the office had not decided whether to appeal the court’s ruling.

“Whatever happens with her sentence, Tina Peters will always be a convicted felon who violated her duty as Mesa County clerk, put other lives at risk, and threatened our democracy,” said Mr. Weiser, a Democrat who is running for governor. “Nothing will remove that stain.”

Jena Griswold, the secretary of state and a Democrat, added her appreciation that the conviction had been affirmed and that Ms. Peters would “continue to face accountability for coordinating a breach of her own election equipment.” She added that Ms. Peters “should not receive any special treatment as the District Court considers re-sentencing.”

The willingness of Mr. Polis, who will leave office early next year because of term limits, to consider commuting Ms. Peters’s sentence has drawn strident opposition from nearly every elected Democrat in the state, and some moderate Republicans. They have questioned why their governor would speed up the release of a Trump supporter who helped fuel false claims of election fraud after the 2020 election.

But the Trump administration has offered its own reasons for Mr. Polis to act. Over the past few months, the administration has cut off transportation money earmarked for the state; relocated U.S. Space Command to Alabama from Colorado; vowed to dismantle a leading climate and weather research center in Boulder; and rejected disaster relief for rural counties in the state hammered by floods and wildfires.

The first veto of Mr. Trump’s second term killed a pipeline project to provide drinking water to the state’s eastern plains.

The president has not cited Ms. Peters’s case as a reason for any of these actions, but his calls for her release have been angry.

ny times logoNew York Times, Woman Spent Five Months in Jail After A.I. Linked Her to Bank Fraud Case, Michael Levenson, March 30, 2026.  The police chief in Fargo, N.D., acknowledged “missteps” but stopped short of apologizing to Angela Lipps, a Tennessee resident who said she had never been to North Dakota before she was arrested.

It was Christmas Eve when Angela Lipps was released from jail in Fargo, N.D.

She had spent more than five months behind bars after the police used a facial-recognition app to connect her to a bank fraud case in North Dakota, a state she had never visited until she was arrested in her home state, Tennessee, and taken there to face charges, she said.

“I had my summer clothes on, no coat — it was so cold outside, snow on the ground — scared, I wanted out, but I didn’t know what I was going to do, how I was going to get home,” Ms. Lipps told a Fargo television station, WDAY.

Last week, the Fargo police chief, David Zibolski, acknowledged “missteps” in the handling of Ms. Lipps’s case and said the department had overhauled its artificial-intelligence policy. But he stopped short of apologizing to Ms. Lipps, 50, who is planning to sue the police, and said the investigation was continuing.

“We’re happy to acknowledge when we make errors, and we’ve made a few in this case, for sure,” Chief Zibolski said at a news conference on March 24. He added, “We certainly apologize for any effect, or adverse effect, that this has had on trust in the community.”

Ms. Lipps’s lawyers said they were still piecing together what went wrong in her case. But Jay Greenwood, who represented Ms. Lipps in the bank fraud case, said it was “a cautionary tale about the use of A.I. and facial recognition as the sole tool to make these kind of charging decisions.”

The authorities in North Dakota relied on facial-recognition technology to identify Ms. Lipps “but made zero other efforts to corroborate that identification,” Mr. Greenwood said in an email on Monday. “Nor did they do any interviews with her or people in her orbit to determine whether they had the right person.”

As a result, Mr. Greenwood said, law enforcement officials held her in jail for more than five months in Tennessee and North Dakota “before realizing they had identified the wrong person.”

The case began when the Fargo police were investigating a string of bank fraud cases in April and May of 2025. In at least four of those cases, the same woman showed a fake military ID card with stolen personal information and withdrew money from a bank account or a home-equity line of credit, according to a Fargo police report.

The West Fargo Police Department, which had a similar bank fraud case with video surveillance footage, asked its intelligence unit to identify a person of interest, using Clearview AI, a facial recognition app, the West Fargo police said.Editors’ PicksOur Best Easter RecipesThey’re Plus-Size and Kind of Famous at Disney WorldHow to Replace Daniel Radcliffe on Broadway? Call Mariska Hargitay.

Clearview AI, which is based in New York, has scraped billions of photos from the web and from social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. It is used by hundreds of local police departments, the Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I. The company says its technology was “designed to function as one tool within a broader investigative process.”

“It generates leads; it does not make identifications, draw conclusions, or recommend arrests,” the company said in a statement. “When using Clearview AI’s platform, independent corroboration by trained law enforcement professionals is required.”

In the North Dakota bank fraud investigation, Clearview AI “identified a potential suspect with similar features to Angela Lipps,” the West Fargo police said in a statement. “That intelligence information was then shared with the Fargo Police Department, at their request, in relation to their open cases.”

A Fargo police detective then located Ms. Lipps’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and her Tennessee driver’s license photo, according to a Fargo police report. The detective determined that Ms. Lipps “does appear to be the suspect” in the bank fraud cases based on her facial features, body type and medium-long, blond-brown hair, the police report stated.

The Cass County State’s Attorney’s Office in Fargo determined there was probable cause to charge Ms. Lipps with eight felonies — four counts of unauthorized used of personal identifying information and four counts of property theft. On July 1, 2025, a judge signed an arrest warrant authorizing the nationwide extradition of Ms. Lipps to North Dakota, the Fargo police said.

Law enforcement agents in Tennessee arrested Ms. Lipps on July 14, 2025, while she was babysitting four young children, WDAY reported. Ms. Lipps, who referred questions to her lawyers on Monday, told WDAY: “It was so scary. I can still see it in my head, over and over again.”

She was held in a county jail in Tennessee, initially on a probation violation, the Fargo police said. In October, she was moved to Fargo, where she was booked into jail on the bank fraud charges. “I’ve never been to North Dakota,” Ms. Lipps told WDAY. “I don’t know anyone from North Dakota.”

Mr. Greenwood said he had met with Ms. Lipps and then contacted her family and friends, who sent him records showing she had been making purchases and deposits in and around Elizabethton, Tenn., in April and May of 2025, when the bank frauds were taking place in Fargo.

On Dec. 24, 2025, a judge dismissed the charges against Ms. Lipps, and she was released from jail. Local defense lawyers donated money for food and a hotel room before a volunteer drove her to Chicago to meet her family a couple of days later.

At the news conference last week, a reporter asked Chief Zibolski, who has since retired, if the police should apologize to Ms. Lipps. He responded that the police were still investigating the bank frauds, which he said had been carried out by a large criminal organization.

“So I think that’s an appropriate question and response at the right time,” he said. “But we do not know definitively who’s involved and who’s not at this juncture.”

Ms. Lipps’s lawyers said there was no evidence that she had anything to do with the bank frauds.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” Ms. Lipps told WDAY. “I’ll never go back to North Dakota.”

More On U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump Administration Live Updates: Senate Advances Bill to End D.H.S. Shutdown, Staff Reports, April 2, 2026. The House and Senate are scheduled to hold special ceremonial sessions on Thursday, where a bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security could be taken up and approved.

  • D.H.S. Shutdown: The Senate sent a bipartisan funding deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security back to the House on Thursday morning. Still, it was unclear whether the chamber would take up the legislation amid opposition from hard-line conservatives. Though the House could pass the bill by unanimous consent, a single member’s objection on the floor would block the effort. Read more ›
  • More Administration News: The Trump administration removed Delcy Rodríguez, the acting leader of Venezuela, from its sanctions list on Wednesday, another step toward normalizing relations with the country after the American raid on the Venezuelan capital in January, in which President Nicolás Maduro was captured. Read more › 

 

neil gorsuch supreme courtLetters from an American, Historical Commentary: March 9, 2026 [Court Watch], Heather Cox Richardson, right,heather cox richardson cnn April 2, 2026. Today, for the first time in U.S. history, a sitting president attended oral arguments at the United States Supreme Court.

President Donald J. Trump broke precedent to take a seat in the front row of the Supreme Court’s public seating area, alongside Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to observe arguments in the case of Trump v. Barbara, a case under which Trump hopes to end the birthright citizenship guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

The case argued before the court today grew out of Trump’s executive order of January 20, 2025, the day he took the oath of office a second time, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” Fulfilling a campaign promise, the order declared that, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment, individuals born in the United States are not citizens if their parents do not have legal permanent status.

With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other partners, three families who represented the many people endangered by this order sued the administration. Barbara, for whom the case is named, is an applicant for asylum from Honduras whose baby was due after the order was set to go into effect.

Trump has called for ending birthright citizenship since his first term as part of his appeal to his racist supporters who want to end Black and Brown equality in the United States. But his argument would overturn the central idea of the United States articulated in the Declaration of Independence, that we are all created equal.

The Fourteenth Amendment that established birthright citizenship came out of a very specific moment and addressed a specific problem. After the Civil War ended in 1865, former Confederates in the American South denied their Black neighbors basic rights. To remedy the problem, the Republican Congress passed a civil rights bill in 1866 establishing “[t]hat all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians, not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens of every race and color…shall have the same right[s] in every State and Territory in the United States.”

But President Andrew Johnson, who was a southern Democrat elected in 1864 on a union ticket with President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Bill. While the Republican Party organized in the 1850s to fight the idea that there should be different classes of Americans based on race, Democrats tended to support racial discrimination. In that era, not only Black Americans, but also Irish, Chinese, Mexican, and Indigenous Americans, faced discriminatory state laws.

In contrast to the Democrats, Republicans stated explicitly in their 1860 platform that they were “opposed to any change in our naturalization laws or any state legislation by which the rights of citizens hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired; and in favor of giving a full and efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at home and abroad.”

When Republicans tried to enshrine civil rights into federal law in 1866, Johnson objected that the proposed law “comprehends the Chinese of the Pacific States, Indians subject to taxation, the people called Gipsies, as well as the entire race designated as blacks,” as citizens, and noted that if “all persons who are native-born already are, by virtue of the Constitution, citizens of the United States, the passage of the pending bill cannot be necessary to make them such.” And if they weren’t already citizens, he wrote, Congress should not pass a law “to make our entire colored population and all other excepted classes citizens of the United States” when eleven southern states were not represented in Congress.

When Congress wrote the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, it took Johnson’s admonition to heart. It did not confer citizenship on the groups Johnson outlined; it simply acknowledged that the Constitution had already established their citizenship. The first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

In the short term, Americans recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment overturned the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that people of African descent “are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.” The Fourteenth Amendment established that Black men were citizens.

But the question of whether the amendment recognized birthright citizenship for all immigrants quickly became an issue in the American West, where white settlers were not terribly concerned about Black Americans—there were only 4,272 Black Americans in California in 1870, while there were almost half a million white Americans—but wanted no part of allowing Chinese men to be part of American society.

Western state legislatures continued to discriminate against Asian immigrants by falling back on the country’s early naturalization laws, finalized in 1802, to exclude first Chinese immigrants and then others from citizenship. Those laws were carefully designed to clarify that Afro-Caribbeans and Africans—imported to be enslaved—would not have the same rights as Euro-Americans. Those laws permitted only “free white persons” to become citizens.

In the late nineteenth century, state and territorial legal systems kept people of color at the margins, using treaties, military actions, and territorial and state laws that limited land ownership, suffrage, and intermarriage.

As late as 1922, in the case of Takao Ozawa v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that Takao Ozawa, born in Japan, could not become a citizen under the 1906 Naturalization Act because that law had not overridden the 1790 naturalization law limiting citizenship to “free white persons.” The court decided that “white person” meant “persons of the Caucasian Race.” “A Japanese, born in Japan, being clearly not a Caucasian, cannot be made a citizen of the United States,” it said.

The next year, the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind upheld the argument that only “free white persons” could become citizens. In that case, the court said that Thind, an Indian Sikh man who identified himself as Indo-European, could not become a U.S. citizen because he was not a “white person” under U.S. law, and only “free white persons” could become citizens. After the Thind decision, the United States stripped the citizenship of about fifty South Asian Americans who had already become American citizens.

Those discriminatory laws would stand until after World War II, when U.S. calculations of who could be a citizen shifted along with global alliances and Americans of all backgrounds turned out to save democracy.

But despite the longstanding use of laws designed to perpetuate human enslavement to prevent certain immigrants from becoming citizens, the Supreme Court always upheld the citizenship of their children. In 1882, during a period of racist hysteria, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act agreeing that Chinese immigrants could not become citizens.

Wong Kim Ark was born around 1873, the child of Chinese parents who were merchants in San Francisco. In 1889 he traveled with his parents when they repatriated to China, where he married. He then returned to the U.S., leaving his wife behind, and was readmitted. After another trip to China in 1894, though, customs officials denied him reentry to the U.S. in 1895, claiming he was a Chinese subject because his parents were Chinese.

Wong sued, and his lawsuit was the first to climb all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, thanks to the government’s recognition that with the U.S. in the middle of an immigration boom, the question of birthright citizenship must be addressed. In the 1898 U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark decision, the court held by a vote of 6–2 that Wong was a citizen because he was born in the United States.

Immigration scholar Hidetaka Hirota of the University of California, Berkeley, explains that the government went even further to protect children born in the U.S. In 1889 the Treasury Department—which then oversaw immigration—decided that a native-born child could not be sent out of the country with her foreign-born mother. Nor did the government want to hurt the U.S. citizen by expelling her mother and leaving her without a guardian. So it admitted the foreign-born mother to take care of the citizen child.

The Treasury concluded that it was not “the intention of Congress to sever the sacred ties existing between parent and child, or forcibly banish and expatriate a native-born child for the reason that its parent is a pauper.”

In May 2023, then–presidential candidate Donald J. Trump released a video promising that on “Day One” of a new presidential term, he would issue an executive order that would end birthright citizenship. He claimed that the understanding that anyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen is “based on an historical myth, and a willful misinterpretation of the law by the open borders advocates.”

But one judge after another has sided against him on this issue, and he apparently showed up at the Supreme Court today to try to intimidate the three judges who owe their seats on the bench to him into supporting his own radical reworking of one of the key principles of our nation. He left after an hour and a half, before Cecillia Wang, the ACLU lawyer arguing for the plaintiffs, began to speak.

Later, Wang described what it was like to argue in court today. She explained, it’s “a nerve-wracking experience to argue any case in the Supreme Court, and especially one as weighty as this one, where the president of the United States is taking aim at a cherished American tradition and individual right of citizenship based on your birth in this country. I myself am a Fourteenth Amendment citizen because my parents had not yet naturalized when I was born. So I walked in today with the spirit of my parents and so many people’s ancestors in that first generation of Americans—whether they naturalized or not, I consider them all Americans. They came to this country with hopes and dreams, and they gave birth to future Americans, and that’s us.”

 noel simsPopular Information, Accountability Journalism: Using water to combat ICE, Noel Sims, left, April 2, 2026. Across the country, local and state officials are fighting to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from turning local warehouses into sprawling detention centers noel simsto support the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.

The most powerful weapon in their arsenal? Water.

Over the last year, the number of people in ICE custody skyrocketed. According to a January report from the American Immigration Council, there are 75% more people in ICE detention on a given day than there were at the start of 2025. And although a smaller percentage have criminal records, fewer of those in custody are being released on bond.

ICE logoThe warehouses ICE is buying up are meant to help the agency keep up with its huge influx of detainees. But a warehouse and a facility where up to 10,000 people will live 24 hours a day are very different. A warehouse ICE purchased in Roxbury, New Jersey, for example, only has four toilets, one urinal, and five sinks. It is supposed to be converted into a facility that will hold 1,500 people. As detention facilities, these converted warehouses will need far more power, sewage treatment, and water.

ICE has claimed it conducted “thorough due diligence” to ensure that surrounding communities were equipped to provide the warehouses with necessary utilities and infrastructure. In at least three states, however, officials say that the new ICE facilities will overwhelm local water and sewage infrastructure or damage the local environment.

So, they are shutting off the water.Upper Bern and Tremont Townships, PA

Shortly after ICE purchased two warehouses in small Pennsylvania towns in early February, Governor Josh Shapiro (D) sent a letter to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem promising that his administration would “aggressively pursue every option to prevent these facilities from opening.”

Shapiro’s letter was accompanied by another letter from state health, environmental, and emergency response officials outlining the harm that the ICE facilities could cause in Upper Bern Township and Tremont Township, with populations of 1,600 and 300, respectively.

The Tremont facility previously used under 8,000 gallons of drinking water per day, but ICE’s plan for a 7,500-person detention facility would require an estimated 800,000 gallons per day. The total capacity of the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority’s water system — which serves Tremont and other nearby towns — is just one million gallons per day. The Schuylkill County area has experienced extreme drought in the last few months, meaning its water supply is already stretched thin, and the state has had to issue several emergency permits allowing more water to be hauled in.

Sewage at the Tremont facility poses similar problems. The warehouse was initially approved for just 6,000 gallons of sewage per day, but Pennsylvania officials estimate the ICE facility would produce hundreds of thousands of gallons per day.

The Upper Bern Township facility is a 1,500-person processing facility meant to hold detainees for just a few days. But officials in Pennsylvania say it will cause similar water and sewage problems.

As a result, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection sent five administrative orders to ICE stating that ICE’s current plans would violate state water and sewage regulations. As a result, water and sewer service will not be provided, and ICE cannot proceed with converting the warehouses until they comply with state law.

These orders, issued on March 6, gave ICE a 20-day deadline to show the state its plans for providing drinking water and disposing of sewage without overburdening local infrastructure. In theory, ICE should already have these plans completed. However, the agency recently asked Pennsylvania for an extension, saying it will not have completed water and sewage plans until the end of April.

Until then, the warehouses remain closed.Social Circle, GA

When ICE purchased a warehouse in December 2025 in Social Circle, Georgia — a small town outside of Atlanta with a population of just under 5,500 — city leaders did not learn of the purchase until reporters asked about it.

The planned detention center, which could hold up to 10,000 detainees and employ 2,500 people, would triple the local population, overwhelming local water and sewage systems.

City leaders have shut off water and sewage at the warehouse and padlocked the water meter. “The lock is there until ICE indicates how water and sewer will be served without exceeding our limited infrastructure capacity. The City of Social Circle is not satisfied that an adequate engineering analysis has been conducted,” City Manager Eric Taylor said.

Social Circle currently has the capacity to treat 1.25 million gallons of wastewater per day, and an ICE document shared by the city indicates that ICE expects the detention facility to produce 1 million gallons of wastewater per day. In the document, ICE says that this is not a problem because Social Circle is planning to build another three-million-gallon treatment plant — but this plant has not been built, and accelerating the construction would come at a huge cost to the city.

“If DHS intends to rely on this future facility to meet the demands of its project, the question remains whether it plans to assist in alleviating the significant financial burden associated with accelerating or expanding that infrastructure,” city leaders have said.

Social Circle is primarily in Walton County, Georgia, which voted overwhelmingly for President Trump in 2024.Salt Lake City, UT

In late March, the Salt Lake City council voted unanimously to alter city ordinances to prevent new nonresidential developments from using more than 200,000 gallons of drinking water per day.

This new rule will directly impact a warehouse in the city that ICE purchased earlier in the month to turn into a detention center that could hold up to 10,000 people. Salt Lake City officials estimate that such a facility could use up to two million gallons of drinking water per day. Previously, the warehouse used less than 6,000 gallons per day.

The new water use limit came after Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall vowed to “use every tool at the city’s disposal to stop [the ICE facility].” But city officials also say that the ordinance is as much about protecting the city’s water resources as it is about opposing ICE.

Salt Lake City, with a population of over 200,000, is much larger than Social Circle and Upper Bern and Tremont Townships. So the new ICE facility will not necessarily exceed the capacity of the city’s water or sewage systems.

However, Salt Lake City is facing a water crisis. The region received very little snow over the winter and faced record-breaking high temperatures in March, causing the city to issue a stage 2 drought advisory the week before voting to limit water use by new developments. As a part of the drought advisory, the city is aiming to reduce water usage by 10 million gallons per day.

Mendenhall said she met with ICE to discuss how they would mitigate the environmental impacts of the facility, and they were unable to provide a clear plan.

“They indicated they are waiting for a due diligence report on their recently acquired parcel of land,” she said. “They did not provide information about the anticipated environmental and traffic impacts to the area, nor did they have specific information on utility needs for the site.” 

ny times logoNew York Time, Hegseth Fires Army Chief Amid Battle With Its Leaders, Greg Jaffe, Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt, April 2, 2026. Senior Army officers reacted with anger and frustration to news of Gen. Randy George’s dismissal, characterizing it as the latest blow to the service. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff, on Thursday, a move that reflects growing hostility between Mr. Hegseth and the Army’s leadership, military officials said.

General George, who was appointed to his position in 2023, led the Army out of one of its worst recruiting crises in history in 2024 and more recently has pushed the service to accelerate its acquisition of cheap drones and other kinds of weapons that have come to dominate the war in Ukraine.

The tension with Mr. Hegseth was not rooted in substantive differences over the direction of the Army, military officials said. Rather it is the product of Mr. Hegseth’s long-running grievances with the Army, battles over personnel and his troubled relationship with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, the officials said.

Over the last year, General George and Mr. Driscoll had formed a tight partnership, officials said.

Mr. Hegseth has also clashed in recent months with General George and Mr. Driscoll over the defense secretary’s decision to block the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals.

Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consisted of 29 other officers, most of whom are white men. Mr. Hegseth’s highly unusual decision to remove the officers prompted some senior military officials to question whether they were being singled out because of their race or gender, officials said.

Mr. Hegseth had been pressing Mr. Driscoll and General George for months to remove the officers from the promotion list. But Mr. Driscoll and General George refused, citing the officers’ long records of exemplary service.

Two weeks ago, General George asked Mr. Hegseth to meet with him to discuss the removal of the four officers from the one-star list, as well as the general’s view that Mr. Hegseth was interfering unnecessarily in Army personnel decisions overall, the officials said. Mr. Hegseth refused to meet with General George about the matter, they said.

Last week, Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist who is close to Mr. Hegseth and President Trump, posted on social media that the defense secretary was “seriously considering” removing General George. Ms. Loomer has also repeatedly attacked Mr. Driscoll.

General George also had a close relationship with Lloyd J. Austin III, Mr. Hegseth’s predecessor and a former Army four-star general.Editors’ PicksWhy Australia Enshrined ‘a Succulent Chinese Meal’ Rant in Its ArchiveThis Puppy Could Someday Save Your LifeWaking Up in Pain? Your Sleep Position May Need Adjusting.

General George is expected to be replaced by Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who previously served as Mr. Hegseth’s senior military assistant in the Pentagon. In addition to removing General George, Mr. Hegseth also fired Gen. David M. Hodne, who was promoted in October to lead the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, a key four-star position focused on Army modernization and doctrine.

Mr. Hegseth also fired Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s top chaplain, an official said.

General George’s dismissal had been rumored for months. He learned that he was being replaced on Thursday during a 4 p.m. phone call from Mr. Hegseth, Army officials said. CBS News reported his firing around the same time Mr. Hegseth placed the call.

Senior Army officials described General George’s dismissal as a blow to a service that has seen many of its top three- and four-star officers with deep experience fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan fired or sidelined in recent months. 

ny times logoNew York Times, The Women Who Believe That Women Should Lose the Right to Vote, Vivian Yee, April 2, 2026. Adherents to biblical patriarchy support household voting: One household, one vote — the husband’s. They say the idea is catching on.

When they prayed on the Sunday after Valentine’s Day, as on other Sundays, most of the women at King’s Way Reformed Church in the old mining town of Prescott, Ariz., wore dainty kerchiefs knotted over their hair to show devotion to God. Marybelle East, 36, wore hers all the time, she said — seven days a week — “for him to see that I submit to his authority.” Her husband’s authority, that is.Listen to this article with reporter commentary

Her head scarf is a physical reminder of biblical patriarchy, the kind of marriage the church preaches. “It keeps me from running my mouth,” she said.

To her and the other women, patriarchy also means ceding their political voices to their husbands. They believe America would be better off if women could not vote.

The Easts and their children had driven two hours from the Phoenix area to hear Dale Partridge, the 40-year-old pastor based on the outskirts of Prescott, in a brick-and-glass events space set between a regional airport and a modest golf course.

On social media, the pastor has attracted a following by posting incendiary commentary: railing against feminists, Catholics and gay people, describing immigration as “national suicide,” and labeling Islam and Hinduism “demonic.” He also calls for erasing women’s suffrage, which he lists as one reason “the world is falling apart.”

The 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment, the landmark legislative achievement of the movement to make women equal citizens, made it possible for women across America to vote. But for Mr. Partridge and a growing number of like-minded Christians, it drove America into national decline. Instead, they support “household voting.” One household, one vote — the husband’s.

While many Americans would see this as an unthinkable regression to a time when women were treated as second-class Americans, proponents of the concept believe deeply that this arrangement is what God envisioned in a marriage.

If a decade ago the idea was just another extreme provocation, today it is gaining adherents beyond the fringe. Male influencers and podcasters in the ultraconservative corner of the internet known as the manosphere often push to “repeal the 19th,” and far-right young women have also backed the idea.

“I used to teach this as, ‘This is this fringe thing that’s out there.’ Now I teach it as, ‘This is no longer fringe,’” said Beth Allison Barr, a history professor at Baylor University, author of “The Making of Biblical Womanhood” and advocate for women’s equality in the church, who said she has heard household voting and biblical patriarchy being discussed increasingly in evangelical circles. “It’s being made to sound more palatable and reasonable.”

Even Mr. Partridge is surprised at how fast the conversation has shifted. Just a few years ago, “you’d be slaughtered talking about this,” he said.

And now?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a clip last summer of pastors in his ultraconservative denomination, which holds that America is a Christian nation whose laws should reflect Christian tenets, arguing that women should be barred from voting. In 2024, the popular conservative wellness podcaster Alex Clark said on her show that she “wouldn’t mind if it was just the male head of household that voted.”

A prominent anti-abortion activist who spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention, Abby Johnson, has also endorsed household voting.

The church Mr. Partridge founded out of his house with a few people in 2021 now has more than 100 parishioners attending every Sunday, with five to 10 new families joining every year, he said. They’re coming from Phoenix and Minnesota and Las Vegas, from Canada and from as far away as Germany.

“Early adoption of any particular idea always seems strange to the mass,” the pastor said in a recent interview in Prescott, where he lives with his wife, Veronica Partridge, and four children. “But then a few years later, the mass is there, and you’re not as weird as everybody thought you were.”

To people at King’s Way, feminism is what’s weird, and women holding civil authority, or voting independently, is what’s unnatural.

“The results just speak for themselves,” Ms. Partridge, 36, said of female independence. “Everybody seems more stressed out, angry, frustrated with one another, depressed.”

Every democracy in the world has universal suffrage, and repealing the 19th Amendment would require approval by three-quarters of the states — an exceedingly unlikely prospect. But Mr. Partridge said that as more Americans embraced traditional gender roles, he foresaw red states throwing up barriers to women’s suffrage.

Some obstacles to women voting could come sooner. President Trump and Republican allies are pushing legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, a restriction that opponents say could disenfranchise the many women whose married names do not match those on their birth certificates or other documents.

As an untested model, household voting still has some basic problems, people at King’s Way acknowledged. Unmarried women, they suggested, could be represented by fathers, brothers or uncles. But in their ideal, women would be married, and only to men. (Gay couples have no place in this system.)

Supporters say women’s suffrage divided wives from husbands, rupturing the unity of what the Bible describes as “one flesh.” They argue that what they describe as women’s natural tenderness makes them dangerously susceptible to supporting immigration-friendly candidates and liberal policies.

Prominent conservatives including Allie Beth Stuckey, the Christian podcaster, and Ben Shapiro have also railed about what Ms. Stuckey calls women’s “toxic empathy,” though they stop short of advocating barring women from voting.

More On U.S. Space, Science, Media, Education  

ny times logoNew York Times, Artemis II Successfully Kicks Off 10-Day Lunar Mission, Kenneth Chang, Updated April 2, 2026. The crew, three Americans and a Canadian, are the first humans to travel to the moon in more than 50 years. They will not land on the surface, but the mission will pave the way for future visits.

A towering orange-and-white NASA rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday evening, lifting four astronauts toward space and transporting spectators’ imaginations to a future in which Americans may again set foot on the moon.

As they did during the heyday of the Apollo program, which first put men on the lunar surface, spectators squeezed onto the beaches along Central Florida’s Space Coast. The crowds cheered when the powerful rocket launched into the clear sky at 6:35 p.m. Eastern time. It traveled eastward, over the Atlantic Ocean, on a journey that will take astronauts around the moon but not land there.

“We have a beautiful moonrise and we’re headed right at it,” said Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut who is the commander of the mission, as the crew headed into space.

Tens of thousands of excited spectators exclaimed and hugged along Cocoa Beach and surrounding communities as the rocket shot into the sky on a column of fire and a long white vapor trail.

“The contrast against the blue sky was absolutely remarkable,” said Anthony Rodriguez, 35, of Orlando. “It’s just an unforgettable sight.”

The flight aboard a spacecraft named Integrity is taking Mr. Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on what is expected to be a round trip of more than 695,000 miles to clear a path for more exploration, a new lunar landing, eventually a sustained human presence on the moon, and journeys farther out into the solar system. 

 

bulwark morning shots logo
Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: NASA vs. the Internet, Andrew Egger, right, andrew eggerApril 2, 2026. For the first time in more than half a century, we’re heading for the moon.

Yesterday evening, the Artemis II mission launched successfully from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, sending four astronauts—Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen—on a ten-day mission to circumnavigate the moon. The mission’s path around the moon’s dark side is expected to take it farther from bulwark logo big shipEarth than humans have ever gone.

Watching the launch was surreal and awe-inspiring and, especially for Americans old enough to remember the Apollo program, a throwback to a vanished American age. This was especially true, I suspect, for people who watched the launch via a terrestrial TV newscast. “So impressed that CNN has stuck with coverage of Artemis II, giving it the attention it deserves as a major milestone in human history,” Peter Baker of the New York Times tweeted. “Compelling television that is about courageous people taking risks on behalf of all of us instead of those trying to divide us.”

Being a digital native myself, however, I didn’t watch Artemis II’s launch on TV. I streamed it on YouTube. In the main window of Fox’s LiveNOW stream was the same sublime, breathtaking footage. But that wasn’t all. Over in the sidebar raged the other distinctive characteristic of the streaming internet: the infinite gibbering scroll of the live-video comments feed. It wasn’t clear everyone was feeling particularly exalted. Pepe-avatar trolls crowing that the whole thing was obviously faked, people arguing about whether the Earth is flat, squabbles about preposterously off-topic matters like the death of Charlie Kirk, commenters offering fervent prayers for the mission, others asking NASA to turn the rocket to give them a better view: It all raged past, faster than you could read, at the speed of the internet’s id.

Later, I saw a viral clip from the Daily Wire’s stream of the launch: Host Michael Knowles, who was on site, got so fed up with commenters accusing him of being on a green screen that he unclipped his lav mic, took out his earpiece, and ran into the background of his shot, doing jumping jacks and pulling up clumps of grass.

It’s always been a bit like this, of course. The Apollo missions were a noble, audacious endeavor, a triumph of the human spirit that lifted the nation in a glorious common purpose—and they were also the genesis of one of the first big internet-style conspiracy theories. The idea that America faked the moon landings, that the powerful interests who controlled our information streams could hoodwink the public into believing in entirely fictional events through the magic of SFX, was an idea ahead of its time. Tinfoil-hat types would find many more applications for this sort of thinking later.

The mechanism of this sort of conspiratorial thinking has evolved. During the Apollo program, all the footage Americans saw—the ones who weren’t physically there, that is—came through a handful of institutional channels: the big news organizations and, of course, NASA itself. Today, the situation couldn’t be more different. Panning shots of the crowds who gathered near the Kennedy Space Center to watch the Artemis II launch in lawn chairs showed pretty much everybody with their smartphone out, documenting the rocket launch for themselves. Several viral videos were captured by observers with a particularly lucky viewpoint: They happened to be on flights where they could see and tape the rocket’s flight through the plane window.

We now live in a world where events like the Artemis II launch are better documented than ever, with hundreds or thousands of independent observers capturing them in HD.

But we also live in a world where every image, every video, every story, every take comes to the remote observer through the delivery mechanism of the internet algorithm. He is pelted with it—the real and the fake, the truths and the lies, all mixed together, raw, unmediated, context-collapsed. There is more to know than ever, if only he could figure out which bits to grasp. Instead, a certain type of internet user retreats into himself, dismissing it all with the same general-purpose sneer. Elaborate explanations of central-channel fakery—NASA falsified the footage to help us win the Cold War!—are no longer really needed. One-size-fits-all cynicism that we can really know anything about anything is enough to suit his purposes.

AROUND THE BULWARK

  • APRIL FOOL… SAM STEIN, JVL, and MARK HERTLING were live, reacting to President Trump’s April 1 address on the war in Iran.
  • How Big Is the Democrats’ ‘Big Tent’? In The Opposition, LAUREN EGAN takes on on the creation of the Hasan Piker litmus test.bulwark logo big ship
  • Why Quitting NATO Would Be a Huge Mistake… MARK HERTLING on how to understand the value of the alliance.
  • Trump Is Doing Structural Damage to American Intelligence… The issue isn’t just his disregard for facts. It’s that he’s reshaping the government in his image, writes JOHN SIPHER.
  • ICYMI: Our next Bulwark Founders Town Hall will be April 13. Upgrade to a Founders Membership today to join JVL and Sarah for this exclusive virtual town hall.

Quick Hits

DHS DEAL: Here’s the bad news up front: With their limited leverage in both the House and the Senate, congressional Democrats have not yet been able to force Republicans to acquiesce to any of their civil-rights demands about ICE enforcement, from banning masks to mandating badges, body cameras, and uniforms.

But when it comes to the procedural wrangling, it’s been shocking how effectively Democrats have driven the negotiating process from the beginning. First, they succeeded in striking a deal that would fund the whole federal government except for the Department of Homeland Security over their demands that Congress codify ICE reforms. Now, they’ve held firm until Republicans caved on funding everything in DHS except ICE and the Border Patrol.

Until about two seconds ago, Republicans were denouncing this solution as ludicrous. Sen. John Cornyn scoffed last month that it was “not acceptable.” Then he voted for it. Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson called it a “joke.” Now he’s on board, too.

Republicans still think they have a path to re-fund ICE without giving Democrats an inch on their demanded reforms. They hope to jam the funding into a party-line reconciliation bill later this year. But that leaves them at the mercy of the Senate parliamentarian, who decides what can and can’t qualify for simple-majority legislation. And meanwhile, it leaves the fight exactly where Democrats want it, with TSA and FEMA funded, and the only remaining question a straightforward one: Before ICE gets its money, will Republicans agree to make them take the masks off?Subscribed

BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP: Donald Trump wants to unilaterally end the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. Now, as the Supreme Court considers the matter, he’s doing everything he can think of to tilt the scales in his favor. Which is to say: He’s trying to bully the court into it with Truth Social posts—“We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!”¹—and a little good old-fashioned mean-mugging: Trump attended oral arguments in the case personally yesterday, apparently on the theory that the judges would be more sympathetic to his case if he could stare them down from the gallery.

It’s not clear it worked. Politico reports that, Trump or no Trump, the justices “sounded broadly skeptical about his attempt to upend the country’s long tradition of birthright citizenship”:

The court’s conservative majority joined the liberals in aggressively questioning [Solicitor General John] Sauer about the potential implications of disturbing the decades-long consensus on citizenship.

The president sat through about an hour of arguments before silently exiting after a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union stepped to the lectern to attack Trump’s policy as a violation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment and Supreme Court precedent dating back to the 19th century.

It’s no big shock he didn’t stay longer—this is a guy, after all, who can seemingly barely stay awake these days even for his favorite forms of entertainment, like cabinet meetings where everybody is falling over themselves to pay him the biggest compliments. The Court is expected to issue a ruling by early summer.

The president opens up a new front in his World War on Culture: Not true. 

ny times logoNew York Times, Opinion: Trump’s Media-Bashing Is Coming Back to Bite Him in Court, Erik Wemple, April 2, 2026. Judges have cited attacks on the press by the president and his appointees when ruling against the government in at least three court cases.

President Trump in April 2025 posted some thoughts on Truth Social about public media, in all caps: “Republicans must defund and totally disassociate themselves from NPR & PBS, the radical left ‘monsters’ that so badly hurt our country!”

This was not a watershed moment. In both his social media posts and his off-the-cuff comments to reporters, Mr. Trump’s broadsides against traditional news outlets have become the tap water of his political rhetoric.

But they’re now haunting him in court.

Judges have cited attacks on the press by Mr. Trump and his appointees when ruling against the government in at least three court cases involving news organizations. The latest came on Tuesday, when a federal judge invoked Mr. Trump’s attacks on NPR and PBS while ruling that the president’s executive order to cut funding to the organizations was unconstitutional.

“It is difficult to conceive of clearer evidence that a government action is targeted at viewpoints that the president does not like,” Judge Randolph D. Moss, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, wrote in his decision.

The lawsuits provide a pathway to enforcing consequences for media-bashing by government officials. In Mr. Trump’s first term — when he took to calling the news media “the enemy of the people” — journalists, pundits and politicians puzzled over how to handle the attacks, in part because the attacks themselves are protected speech. Denouncing the rhetoric became the default approach. “Seeking to delegitimize journalists is dangerous to a healthy republic,” Jeff Mason, then the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said in April 2017.

But when politicians punish media companies based on their reporting, they risk running afoul of the First Amendment.

“Where the rubber meets the road is where they take governmental action to try to squelch speech because they don’t like the views being expressed,” said Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., a First Amendment lawyer at Gibson Dunn who has argued several such cases, including a suit filed by The New York Times against new Pentagon press rules.

In addition to cases involving news organizations, law firms and at least one university have filed suit against the administration over the same principle. “It’s like a viewpoint discrimination festival,” Mr. Boutrous said.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement: “President Trump and his entire administration have repeatedly demonstrated their unwavering commitment to the First Amendment by providing unparalleled press access, restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.”

The Associated Press has taken legal action against a White House measure from early 2025 that curtailed the wire service’s access because it declined to follow an executive order that renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. When asked about the A.P. kerfuffle last year, Mr. Trump criticized the news wire for being “very, very wrong on the election, on Trump and the treatment of Trump.”

The Daily via PoliticusUSA,The Dirty Legacy of Blake Lively's Lawsuit after a Judge Gutted Most of Her Claims, Sarah Jones, April 2, 2026. Even after a judge gutted most of Blake Lively’s case, its dirty legacy lives on. 

A New York federal judge has dismissed 10 of 13 claims in Blake Lively’s lawsuit against co-star and director Justin Baldoni, including all of her sexual harassment claims.

Judge Lewis J. Liman rejected Lively’s sexual harassment and defamation claims due to insufficient evidence and jurisdictional issues. While initial claims about on-set behavior were dropped, claims regarding retaliation, breach of contract, and aiding/abetting against other parties will proceed to trial.

his case has rocked the entertainment world with revelations of Ryan Reynolds’ private text messages where he pressured people with power that he knew in the industry, and messages between Lively and Taylor Swift became public.

It also brought awareness of how nasty the public relations game is, with publicists on both sides revealed as callous, manipulative and too powerful in text messages and emails.

The private messages also revealed that Lively’s publicist (Lively being the most powerful person in this equation due to her husband Ryan Reynolds) Leslie Sloan has the power to force journalists to change their stories and headlines about her, which should raise alarms about how mainstream media has become a PR machine for the powerful (as is also apparent on the politics side of media).

Lively’s lawyers made accusations about misuse of crisis PR against the Wayfayer Parties, alleging that they engaged bots and manipulated social media ala Amber Heard.

So far, the evidence of the smear campaign aspect of this case has not been shared if it exists, with Lively’s side filing spoliation accusations suggesting that because they can’t find the evidence, it must have been destroyed.

This dirty tactic would fall in line with what has become a topic of celebrity lawsuits across the board, the use of crisis PR to manipulate the landscape. There has been evidence brought forth in other cases. However, that doesn’t mean it applies to this case and these defendants.

The lawsuit also revealed some very disturbing methods used by the wealthy and powerful, including the use of an anonymous “Doe” lawsuit used to get access to someone’s phone without alerting that person so they could object in court, followed by dropping that separate case after the Lively parties got the contents of the phone they sought.

If any wealthy person can get access to anyone’s phone without that person’s knowledge by filing a Doe lawsuit, that is a big problem for victims of domestic violence and stalking.

The Lively lawsuit also revealed rather disturbing tactics used to harass and silence small, independent content creators. Over 100 subpoenas were sent out by Lively’s lawyers to tech companies directly, without giving the creators’ themselves a heads up so they could object.

Some of the tech companies chose to alert the creators, which resulted in raising awareness of the subpoenas, which asked for information about banking records, addresses and more of people who spoke about Blake Lively in a video on social media. This tactic — and the willingness of some tech companies to comply silently — certainly raised First Amendment concerns.

Right-Wing MAGA Polling, Reporting

Newsmax.com, Rasmussen: Trump Approval Steady at 51%, Jim Mishler, April 1, 2026. President Donald Trump's job approval held steady at 51% in March, unchanged from February, according to Rasmussen Reports. Forty-eight percent disapproved of Trump's performance, up 2 points from the previous month.

The poll found 36% of voters strongly approved of Trump's job performance, down 1 point, while 40% strongly disapproved, up 2 points.

The poll reports results by party but does not disclose the share of respondents identifying as Republican, Democrat, or unaffiliated.

Rasmussen Reports said the monthly figures reflect longer-term trends beyond daily tracking fluctuations.

The March results match Trump's highest monthly approval during his first term, when he reached 51% in February 2017.

His approval later dropped to a low of 42% in August 2017 before ending his first term at 47% in December 2020.

For comparison, former President Joe Biden reached a high of 52% approval in May 2021 before falling into the low 40% range through much of 2022.

Biden's approval later rose to as high as 48% in 2023 and ended at 45% in December 2024.

Rasmussen said the monthly results are based on approximately 8,000 interviews with likely voters, drawn from daily tracking surveys of about 350 respondents per night. The margin of sampling error for the monthly data is less than plus or minus 1 percentage point with a 95% level of confidence. 

April 1

Top Headlines

News Updates

  • The Parnas Perspective, Morning News and Commentary: Trump Moves Closer to Leaving NATO, Will Address the Nation, Kristi Noem Asks for Prayers, Supreme Court Will Consider Birthright Citizenship Today, Aaron Parnas, right,aaron parnas new headshot April 1, 2026. This morning, Trump is signaling that he may move to pull the United States out of NATO as soon as tonight, when he addresses the nation from the White House at 9 PM EST. 
  • Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: March 31, 2026 [Washing Hands On Iran War?], Heather Cox Richardson, right, heather cox richardson cnnApril 1, 2026. At 4:11 this morning, President Donald J. Trump’s social media account posted: “All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, to to the Strait, and just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil! President DJT”

Noem Family, Homeland Security Scandals

President Trump, then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her husband Bryon Noem are shown above in a photo collage above by the New York Post.. President Trump said he was surprised hearing about Kristi Noem’s husband’s double-life as a cross-dresser with a fetish for grotesquely oversized breasts, as widely reported March 31after an exclusive by the Daily Mail.

President Trump, then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her husband Bryon Noem are shown above in a photo collage above by the New York Post.. President Trump said he was surprised hearing about Kristi Noem’s husband’s double-life as a cross-dresser with a fetish for grotesquely oversized breasts, as widely reported March 31after an exclusive by the Daily Mail.

More On U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

U.S. Courts, Law, Crime, Rights

  • USA TODAY, Does the bullet match? Key issue emerges in Charlie Kirk murder case, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, April 1, 2026 (print ed.), Attorneys for the man accused of shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk said a federal law enforcement agency did not connect the bullet found during autopsy to the suspected murder weapon.
  • Democracy Docket, Democrats sue to block Trump’s ‘unlawful’ order targeting mail-in voting, Yunior Rivas, Jim Saksa, April 1, 2026. Democratic plaintiffs in this case are represented by the Elias Law Group (ELG). ELG Chair Marc Elias, right, is the founder of Democracy Docket. 
  • Occupy Democrats, Opinion: Trump STORMS OUT of Supreme Court after his own Justices tear apart his birthright citizenship case, Staff and  wire reports, April 1, 2026. Donald Trump showed up to the Supreme Court on Wednesday to intimidate nine justices into stripping citizenship from 200,000 American-born babies a year. He left humiliated, with his motorcade speeding away down Independence Avenue before the other side had even finished arguing.
  • New York Times, Supreme Court  to Hear Landmark Challenge to Birthright Citizenship, Abbie VanSickle, April 1, 2026. The justices will consider the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented people and some temporary foreign visitors.
  • New York Times, Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From Penn, Michael C. Bender and Alan Blinder, April 1, 2026 (print ed.). The government’s effort to collect the names and phone numbers of Jewish people on campus as it investigates antisemitism has upset some people who worry about how the information will be used.

More On Iran, Lebanon Wars

Trump Watch

djt drooping face

U.S. Economy, Inflation, Jobs

U.S. Media, Education, High Tech, Culture

Global News

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ny times logoNew York Times, Iran War Live Updates: Trump Berates Allies While Signaling He Will Wind Down the War, Abdi Latif, Dahir Megan Specia and Erika Solomon, April 1, 2026. President Trump said that he was considering leaving NATO over allies’ failure to support his Iran offensive. He suggested that the U.S. war would end in two or three weeks and that Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz would be a problem for others to solve.

Here’s the latest.

President Trump said that he was considering pulling the United States out of NATO over the war with Iran, as he heaps pressure on allies to djt o 2025manage the fallout of a conflict he signaled he would wind down in two or three weeks.

In an interview with Britain’s Telegraph newspaper published on Wednesday, Mr. Trump was asked whether he was reconsidering U.S. membership in the military alliance and was quoted as replying, “Oh yes,” and that it was “beyond reconsideration.” The remarks were published hours after President Trump said that he expected the U.S. military campaign in Iran would be over “very soon” and dismissed Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has jolted global energy markets, as a problem for other countries to resolve.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Mr. Trump had again denigrated U.S. allies, chiefly Britain, for not heeding his call for help in securing the strait, a conduit for much of the global oil supply, and said that the United States would not come to their aid in the future. An Iranian official emphasized on Wednesday that the United States would not regain access to the waterway, saying in a social media post: “The Strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you.”

Iran FlagMr. Trump was scheduled to deliver “an important update” on the war in a national address at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Trump told reporters that he had achieved his primary goal of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, though there is no evidence that the United States or Israel has destroyed the country’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade fuel.

Earlier Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the U.S. had achieved such control of Iran’s skies that it was flying B-52 bombers directly over Iranian territory. But Mr. Hegseth acknowledged that Iran retained the ability to retaliate with missiles and drones targeting U.S. allies in the region. On Wednesday morning, the authorities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar all reported missile or drone attacks from Iran.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had completed a wave of strikes against Iranian government infrastructure in Tehran, the capital, without specifying the targets. Iranian state television reported that three locations were hit, including an area northeast of Tehran with military buildings and housing.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

  • American kidnapped: A journalist, Shelly Kittleson, was kidnapped in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, on Tuesday evening, the country’s Interior Ministry said. The ministry said that security forces had pursued the kidnappers, arrested one suspect and seized a vehicle used in the abduction. The suspect is a member of the Iranian-allied paramilitary group Kataib Hezbollah, two senior Iraqi security officials said.
  • Houthis: In Yemen, the Iran-backed Houthi militia said it had launched ballistic missiles at Israel on Wednesday. Israel said it had detected a missile launch from Yemen toward its territory. The Houthis entered the war on Saturday by launching a missile attack on what they said were Israeli military targets.
  • Lebanon: Israeli strikes in Beirut killed at least seven people and wounded 24 others early Wednesday, Lebanon’s national news agency reported. And there were more Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon, a day after Israel said it planned to occupy and control a large swath of the region and demolish entire towns.
  • Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,598 civilians had been killed, including 244 children, in Iran since the war began. Lebanon’s health ministry said that more than 1,260 Lebanese had been killed as of Tuesday, with more than 3,750 others wounded, since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In Iran’s attacks across the Middle East, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded.

Paul Krugman via Substack, Psychology of Military Incompetence, Paul Krugman, right, paul krugmanMarch 31- April1, 2026. How the Iran War was lost.

So the world’s greatest military power went to war against a fourth rate nation whose military budget would be rounding error in our defense spending. And it appears that we lost.

It’s Tuesday. It’s the day that the stock market rallied enormously, that the futures price of oil dropped precipitously, all on the happy news that the United States, at least based on Trump’s Truth Social, appears to be surrendering. Trump put up a Truth Social post saying that, you know, we don’t need to open the Strait of Hormuz. If the Europeans think they need it, they should go ahead and do it. And it’s up to them. And this is pretty amazing.

Of course, the idea that it only matters to the Europeans, that it doesn’t matter to us, is all wrong. And that will be a subject of a Substack post shortly. But it is pretty much a confession. Although it’s framed as we won, now let somebody else do the cleanup, the reality is it’s effectively a confession that, well, we lost. We can’t do this.

How the hell did we manage to do this? I mean, the objective reality is that this was never going to be... Maybe it wasn’t even going to be doable. There were reasons why we didn’t go to war with Iran, particularly why we didn’t go to war in a way that basically became an existential threat for the regime so that they have no compunction about creating lots of damage because the alternative result is annihilation for them personally. But everybody who thought about it even for a couple of minutes, anyone who knew anything, particularly anyone who’d been paying attention to four years of war in Ukraine … we know something about what modern war looks like and about the inability of countries that have conventional superior forces to avoid major damage from drones and missiles. So this was completely, unbelievably stupid.

How did we get there? Well, there was a very good article by Tobin Harshaw in Bloomberg, and mostly I’m just riffing off what he wrote, but I think that it deserves wider circulation. He resurrected a book I had forgotten about, a 1976 book by Norman Dixon called The Psychology of Military Incompetence. It was very British oriented, but the lessons apply; Dixon looked at the great military disasters of British history.

You might think there were many reasons why really bad decisions were made, but he actually said there was a kind of consistent pattern. That what happened was that you had military leaders, or people making military decisions, who for the most part shared two things. First, they believed, they had this atavistic, anachronistic belief that warfare is all about muscles and not about minds. which hasn’t been true for a very long time. And second, he argued that they are just generally anti-intellectual, anti-education.

So in some sense, it’s all about muscles and don’t give me all of these smarty-pants intellectuals who are telling me about why I’m doing it wrong. It’s an uncannily accurate portrait of Pete Hegseth, down to even seemingly minor details. Muscular Christianity is among the defining symptoms of the bad British military leaders that Dixon analyzed. So this is what happened.

This is not about specific bad judgments. It’s not, in a way, about the specifics of the case. It is that we were led into war by people who exemplified in the classic way how really bad military decisions are made. And it all comes down to believing in brute force and toughness and muscles — muscles in the age of drone warfare! — and hate intellectuals, hate learning.

What really gets me is that in a war where the deciding factor is having some intellectual understanding of what you’re doing, that a theocratic regime in Iran, which basically wants to bring back the Middle Ages, mostly got it right.

And the world’s leading haven of scientific thought, or we were at least until the current administration, got it completely wrong. It’s humiliating. It’s awful. And, you know, we will all be paying the price for this incredible defeat for probably for the rest of our lives.

The Parnas Perspective, News and Commentary: Trump Leaves Early as Supreme Court Poised to Rule Against Him in Birthright Citizenship Case, Aaron Parnas, right, aaron parnas new headshotApril 1, 2026. Here is a full and expanded update following this morning’s landmark Supreme Court arguments on the future of birthright citizenship in the United States.

I followed the proceedings closely so you would not have to, and based on both legal analysis and reporting experience, the trajectory is becoming increasingly clear. The Court appears poised to rule against Donald Trump later this year.

The case itself is already historic. At issue is a sweeping executive order issued by President Trump that seeks to reinterpret the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Specifically, the order argues that children born on U.S. soil to parents who are either in the country unlawfully or on temporary visas should not automatically receive American citizenship.

That position runs directly into more than a century of constitutional understanding. The Court’s landmark precedent in United States v. Wong Kim Ark established that birthright citizenship applies broadly to nearly all individuals born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ status. That precedent has long been considered settled law.

john sauer foxYet today’s arguments demonstrated that the Court is taking a hard look at the administration’s attempt to revisit that interpretation. Notably, President Trump himself attended the arguments, becoming the first sitting president in modern history to do so. He remained in the courtroom for just over an hour, listening as Solicitor General D. John Sauer presented the government’s case. However, he departed shortly after attorney Cecillia Wang began arguing in defense of broad birthright citizenship.

Observers noted the timing of his departure, especially as questioning from the justices began to intensify.

What stood out most during the session was the degree of skepticism from both conservative and liberal justices. This was not a divided ideological exchange. Instead, it was a unified probing of the administration’s legal theory.

neil gorsuch supreme courtJustice Neil Gorsuch, shown above at left, raised concerns about the government’s reliance on sources outside the established constitutional framework. Referencing Wong Kim Ark, he openly questioned how much weight the administration could realistically place on alternative historical interpretations, including references to Roman law traditions. The implication was clear. The argument appeared disconnected from binding precedent.

Justice Elena Kagan went further, directly challenging the textual basis of the administration’s position. She noted that the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment does not support the proposed limitation. Her remarks suggested that the argument depends heavily on obscure or strained historical readings rather than the Constitution’s actual wording.

john roberts headshotChief Justice John Roberts, right, delivered one of the more memorable exchanges. When Solicitor General Sauer argued that modern globalization has changed the stakes, pointing out that billions of people are now only a plane ride away from the United States, Roberts responded succinctly. It may be a new world, he said, but it is still the same Constitution. That statement underscored a central theme of the hearing: technological or social change does not alter constitutional meaning.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett also pressed the administration on its historical framing. While acknowledging that the Fourteenth Amendment was designed in part to secure citizenship for formerly enslaved people, she pointed out that this purpose is not explicitly written into the text in a way that supports the administration’s narrower interpretation.Several exchanges highlighted potential weaknesses in the administration’s argument.

At one point, Justice Gorsuch asked whether Native Americans would qualify as birthright citizens under the government’s proposed test. Solicitor General Sauer struggled to provide a clear answer, signaling uncertainty about how the framework would apply consistently across different groups.

ketanji brown jackson robeJustice Ketanji Brown Jackson, left, raised practical and procedural concerns. She questioned how the government would implement such a policy, including whether pregnant women might be subject to investigation or deposition to determine their legal status or intent. When Sauer explained that citizenship determinations would occur automatically at birth through administrative systems, Jackson pointed out the troubling implication: individuals would only have the opportunity to challenge a denial after their child had already been stripped of citizenship status.

Justice Jackson’s line of questioning emphasized the real world consequences of the policy, not just its theoretical legal justification.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh addressed one of the administration’s broader arguments, which compared the United States to other countries that do not recognize birthright citizenship. While acknowledging that difference, Kavanaugh stated plainly that international practices are not particularly relevant when interpreting the U.S. Constitution. His comments suggested that comparative law arguments would carry little weight with the Court.

Taken together, the arguments painted a difficult path forward for the administration. The justices repeatedly returned to three core issues: the text of the Constitution, binding precedent, and the practical consequences of the proposed rule. On each of these fronts, the administration appeared to face significant challenges.

While it is always risky to predict Supreme Court outcomes with certainty, the tone and substance of today’s questioning strongly suggest that a majority of the Court is not persuaded by the effort to restrict birthright citizenship. A decision is expected later this year, and all signs point toward a ruling that reaffirms the long standing interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

For now, this case stands as one of the most consequential constitutional disputes in recent memory, with implications that reach far beyond immigration policy and into the fundamental definition of citizenship in the United States.

Democracy Docket, Democrats sue to block Trump’s ‘unlawful’ order targeting mail-in voting, Yunior Rivas, Jim Saksa, April 1, 2026. Democratic plaintiffs in this case are represented by the Elias Law Group (ELG). ELG Chair Marc Elias, right,marc elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.

democracy docket logoDemocrats sued to block President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting mail-in voting Wednesday, calling it “unconstitutional” and designed to rig elections ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The lawsuit, brought by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governors Association and Democratic congressional leaders, alleges Trump’s order would “upturn the electoral playing field in his own favor and against his political rivals.”

The plaintiffs* are asking a judge to quickly halt enforcement of the order before it can take effect.

dnc square logoWhen Trump signed the executive order Tuesday, he appeared to anticipate legal challenges — and to start trying to pressure judges who might hear those challenges. He claimed that only “rogue” and “very bad” judges might block it.

The order directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to work with the Social Security Administration to create lists of verified U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state. It also instructs the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to send absentee ballots only to voters on approved lists, and directs the attorney general to prioritize the prosecution of ballots sent to anyone else.

At the center of the lawsuit is the core constitutional principle that presidents do not control elections.

“Our Constitution’s Framers anticipated this kind of desire for absolute power. They recognized the menace it would pose to ordered liberty and the ways in which it would corrode self-government like an acid,” the complaint reads.

Democrats argue Trump’s order would restrict mail voting access and insert federal agencies into election administration — a role the Constitution explicitly reserves for states and Congress.

“Undeterred by this consistent authority— and his own continued failures to convince Congress to adopt his self-aggrandizing election policies — President Trump has yet again taken matters into his own hands,” the complaint adds. “Just days after it became clear Congress would fail to pass the President’s SAVE America Act, he signed a new Executive Order … This Executive Order seeks to impose radical changes to the manner and conditions under which citizens may cast absentee or mail-in ballots — changes that imminently threaten to disenfranchise lawful voters and plainly exceed the President’s lawful authority.”

The lawsuit also takes aim at one of the order’s most controversial provisions, the creation of a national citizenship database for voters, describing it as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to centralize control over elections.

 

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Liberation Day Brought Us Here, Andrew Egger and Jim Swift, April 1, 2026. Trump’s tariff catastrophe taught the world about TACO. We may have over-learned the lesson.

Could peace in Iran be getting closer? Yesterday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, suggested that Iran would be willing to end the war Masoud pezeshkian 2024 6 12 win exchange for U.S. security guarantees, which led to an immediate jump in stock prices—even though bulwark logo big shipPezeshkian’s remarks were heavily caveated.

Then, this morning, Trump posted that Pezeshkian had just asked America for a “CEASEFIRE,” adding that “we will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear.”

Whether Trump was breaking new news or just responding to yesterday’s reports isn’t clear.

One reason to think this might just be Trump winging it is that he described Pezeshkian, who has been in office since 2024, as “much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors”—apparently taking him to be one of the leaders who recently took over for a top official killed by Israeli or American strikes.

Trump is planning to give a primetime address on Iran to the nation tonight. Should be illuminating! Happy Wednesday.

News Updates

The Parnas Perspective, Morning News and Commentary: Trump Moves Closer to Leaving NATO, Will Address the Nation, Kristi Noem Asks for Prayers, Supreme Court Will Consider Birthright Citizenship Today, Aaron Parnas, right, aaron parnas new headshotApril 1, 2026. This morning, Trump is signaling that he may move to pull the United States out of NATO as soon as tonight, when he addresses the nation from the White House at 9 PM EST. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 31 percent and is now dangerously close to falling below 30. The Supreme Court is also set for a major clash today over birthright citizenship, and Trump will be there in person.

At the same time, Big Tech is tightening its grip on journalism, letting misinformation spread while AI-generated videos of me go viral. I am pushing back and staying focused on delivering real information, but I cannot do it alone. This is still one of the last places where independent voices can break through.

Here’s the news:

A new CNN poll shows Donald Trump’s approval rating on the economy has fallen to a career low of 31%, with most Americans saying his policies have worsened economic conditions. Rising gas prices—linked to the Iran conflict—are a major factor, with many households reporting financial strain and cutting back on spending. Overall approval remains low at 35%, and a majority believe he lacks a clear plan to address key issues like inflation and fuel costs.

nato logo flags nameDonald Trump said he is seriously considering withdrawing the U.S. from NATO, calling the alliance a “paper tiger” and suggesting he has long doubted its strength. He criticized NATO allies for not assisting in reopening the Strait of Hormuz amid ongoing Middle East conflict, implying their lack of action was disappointing. Trump also argued that the U.S. has provided support to other countries, such as Ukraine, even when it was not directly obligated to do so. Additionally, he took aim at the UK’s military capabilities, questioning the strength of its navy.

Marco Rubio questioned the value of NATO, saying the U.S. may need to reconsider its membership if it cannot use allied bases. His remarks reflect growing frustration within the administration over limitations placed on U.S. military operations by NATO partners.

Trump is set to deliver a national address tonight on the Iran war, with broadcasters reserving time for what officials call an important update. He has Iran Flagsuggested the conflict could end within weeks and that the U.S. may soon withdraw from involvement. Despite earlier threats to escalate, recent statements from his administration indicate key military objectives against Iran may already have been achieved.

Broadcasters have been instructed to set aside 20 minutes of airtime for an upcoming presidential address, indicating an official and potentially significant announcement.

keir starmer w 2017Keir Starmer, right, addressed the nation, warning that the ongoing war will have lasting effects on the UK’s future. He sought to reassure the public, emphasizing that the country is prepared to withstand the challenges ahead. His message framed the conflict as a significant test but expressed confidence in Britain’s resilience.

Anthony Albanese warned that the economic impact of the ongoing war will last for months and could bring difficult conditions ahead. He cautioned that the situation may not be easy but pledged that the government will take all possible steps to shield Australians from the worst effects.

Trump said Iran’s new leadership has requested a ceasefire with the United States. He indicated that the U.S. would consider the request, but only if the Strait of Hormuz is reopened.

United Kingdom flagKeir Starmer said he plans to pursue closer economic and security ties with the European Union at an upcoming summit, aiming for a more ambitious partnership based on shared values and interests. He reaffirmed the UK’s strong commitment to NATO, calling it highly effective for maintaining global security. Starmer emphasized that the UK will stay out of the current conflict, insisting it is not Britain’s war, while still prioritizing national interests.

Kristi Noem said she is “devastated” following reports about her husband, Bryon Noem, allegedly engaging in a secret online fetish involving cross-dressing and explicit interactions. The reports claim he used a pseudonym and paid individuals while participating in a niche online community. The situation has drawn additional attention due to longstanding rumors about Noem’s personal life and political relationships. Her representatives say the family was blindsided and is asking for privacy.

Iran warned NATO member Bulgaria not to allow the U.S. to use its airports for military operations related to Iran, according to Bulgaria’s foreign ministry. The warning came in a diplomatic note protesting U.S. refueling planes stationed at Vasil Levski Airport, with Iran stating it could take necessary measures to protect its interests. Bulgarian officials confirmed receiving the note but emphasized that the country is not involved in any conflict.

Mojtaba Khamenei, right, Iran’s new supreme leader, sent a message thanking Naim Qassem and Hezbollah for their resilience against what he mojtaba khameneicalled major enemies of the Islamic world. He reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to supporting groups opposing U.S. and Israeli forces in the region. Khamenei has not appeared publicly since the war began on 28 February and has communicated only through written statements. U.S. and Israeli officials believe he was wounded in an attack that killed several family members, including his father, Ali Khamenei, and is currently in hiding.

The Supreme Court of the United States is set to hear arguments on Donald Trump’s effort to limit birthright citizenship, a constitutional right for those born in the U.S. to citizen or permanent resident parents. The case challenges the scope of this guarantee and could have major legal implications. Trump is expected to attend the hearing in person.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Army aircrew who flew helicopters near Kid Rock’s home will not face pete hegseth facebookpunishment, reversing an earlier suspension. The incident initially prompted a review over possible safety or protocol violations, but officials ultimately decided against any investigation. The helicopters were identified as AH-64 Apaches operating in the Nashville area, and the flight was described as unrelated to nearby protests.

American journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in Baghdad by suspected Iran-backed militants, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. Authorities say one suspect linked to Kataib Hezbollah has been captured, while efforts continue to locate the others and secure her release. The United States Department of State is working with the FBI and had previously warned her about security risks in Iraq. The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the region, with U.S. officials cautioning that Americans in Iraq face significant danger.

A Russian An-26 military transport plane crashed in Crimea, killing all 29 people on board, including crew and passengers. Russian authorities said the aircraft likely went down due to a technical malfunction, with no evidence of external causes like missiles or drones. Communication with the plane was lost during a routine flight before it crashed into a cliff. Investigators are examining the site as part of an ongoing military inquiry into the incident.

KitKat has launched a tracker to find the 12 tons of KitKats stolen:

Allies of Donald Trump have proposed a new plan to dramatically increase deportations, aiming for over 1 million in a year by focusing heavily on workplace enforcement. The strategy would target industries employing undocumented workers, but risks backlash from sectors like agriculture and construction that rely on such labor. Critics warn it could disrupt supply chains and alienate voters, potentially dividing Trump’s political coalition. While the administration says its immigration priorities remain unchanged, the proposal highlights ongoing tensions over how aggressively to pursue deportations.

According to Politico, Frank Bisignano is facing scrutiny over his role leading the Internal Revenue Service, with critics questioning who is truly in charge given his unusual “CEO” position alongside an acting commissioner. He has defended his leadership, saying he is focused on modernizing the agency with technology and improving customer service. However, lawmakers, union leaders, and staff argue he lacks clear direction and may be hindering progress, especially after major staffing cuts and funding losses. The controversy is expected to intensify as he prepares to testify before Congress.

Reuters has confirmed that eleven children who were evacuated as premature babies from Gaza during the Israeli bombing two years ago have now been reunited with their families in an emotional return. The infants had been taken to Egypt for treatment without their parents as conflict surrounded hospitals at the time. Their return, arranged through a U.N.-backed effort, brought relief and joy to families who had been separated for years. The reunions also highlight the lasting humanitarian impact of the war, with ongoing shortages of medical supplies and damaged healthcare infrastructure in Gaza.

Democrats in California risk an unexpected setback in the governor’s race due to a crowded field that could split the vote and allow Republicans to take the top two spots under the state’s election system. With no clear frontrunner and several high-profile figures opting out, party leaders are struggling to unify support behind a single candidate. Efforts to narrow the field have failed, raising concerns about a potential “lockout” from the general election. While many believe the race will eventually consolidate, the situation has created significant issues within the party about a possible historic upset.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has slowed or paused visa renewals for foreign doctors from certain countries deemed high-risk, leaving many unable to work despite years in the U.S. The delays are worsening staffing shortages, especially in rural and underserved areas that rely heavily on international physicians. Doctors report months-long waits with little communication, even after paying for expedited processing. Medical groups warn the policy could disrupt patient care nationwide and are urging exemptions for healthcare workers.

Hackers linked to North Korea breached widely used background software to steal login credentials and enable further cyberattacks. The attack targeted open-source code used in many apps and websites, making it a potentially large-scale “supply chain” hack. Security experts warned that the malicious update could have exposed data across millions of systems without users realizing it. Such operations are often tied to efforts by North Korea to fund its programs through cybercrime and cryptocurrency theft. 

Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: March 31, 2026 [Washing Hands On Iran War?], Heather Cox Richardson, right, heather cox richardson cnnApril 1, 2026. At 4:11 this morning, President Donald J. Trump’s social media account posted:

“All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, to to the Strait, and just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil! President DJT”

While this morning, Trump appeared to wash his hands of his Iran war, there was an undertone of panic in his post, especially coming as it did just before an exclusive story by Alexander Ward and Meridith McGraw in the Wall Street Journal reporting that Trump has “told aides he is willing to end the military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed.”

Economist Paul Krugman noted this evening that this is essentially an admission of defeat, and Suzanne Maloney, vice president of the Brookings Institution think tank and an expert on Iran, called Trump’s suggestion that he is willing to leave the strait closed “unbelievably irresponsible.” Having started a war, she said, the U.S. and Israel cannot walk away from the outcome. “Energy markets are inherently global, and there is no possibility of insulating the U.S. from the economic damage that is already occurring and will become exponentially worse if the closure of the strait continues,” she told the Wall Street Journal reporters.

Nonetheless, the idea the Iran War would end soon was a signal investors wanted to see. On the strength of the hope for a short war, the stock market posted its biggest one-day gain in ten months.

Meanwhile, another aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, left its home port, Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, today to head in the direction of the Middle East, although it is not clear if it will support Operation Epic Fury. According to Alison Bath of Stars and Stripes, the carrier will pick up other elements of the carrier group, including the destroyers USS Ross, USS Donald Cook, and USS Mason, as it crosses the Atlantic. The George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group also includes several aircraft squadrons and detachments that make up the 70 or more aircraft in Carrier Air Wing 7, along with more than 5,000 sailors and military personnel.

Nearly 3,500 sailors and Marines from the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group arrived in the region on Saturday.

Yesterday, host Laura Ingraham, left, of the Fox News Channel wondered, “[W]as the president fully briefed about the risks of all of this from the beginning? And laura ingraham gage skidmore Customwas he then able to take it all in and understand the complexity of this? How complex it could actually get, and further possibilities of casualties or other damage—the difficulty of dealing with these people? Or was he told this would be relatively quick, in and out?”

Nick Hilden of AlterNet reported that MAGA leader Alex Jones speculated today that ill-health is contributing to Trump’s poor decisions on Iran. “Trump’s run off the edge of a cliff, and I don’t think he’s coming back from it,” Jones said. He urged MAGA to move on without Trump. “We cut bait on Trump and we mobilize against the Democrats,” he said. “Trump is just a minor figure.”

Hunter Walker of Talking Points Memo picked up the story of another MAGA figure distancing himself from Trump. When he ran for governor in 2024, former North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson flat out denied stories about his participation in pornography forums and social media chats where he attacked Jewish, Black, gay, and transgender people as well as flirting with Holocaust denial and calling himself a “black NAZI!” He even sued CNN for $50 million for defamation, calling their story about him “a high-tech lynching” before dropping the suit after losing the election.

Walker noted that Robinson recently admitted on a podcast that he was lying all along. He “had to ignore the truth at that moment,” he said, because he was shielding Trump. “I certainly don’t want to be the person that costs the president of the United States the election,” he said. “Didn’t want to cost anyone else their election.” Asked if he would do it again, he answered: “I’d make the exact same decision. I’d fight in the exact same way.”

After Saturday’s No Kings rallies around the country and the world, and after new polls showing his job approval ratings have dropped to new lows, Trump this afternoon signed an executive order attacking mail-in voting. Although both Democratic and Republican election officials insist mail-in voting is secure and reliable, Trump claims it permits Democrats to cheat.

Ironically, earlier this month the story broke of a right-wing activist in Wisconsin who ordered ballots in other people’s names to prove that mail-in voting enabled voter fraud. Last week Harry Wait was convicted of one felony count of identity theft and two misdemeanor counts of election fraud, suggesting mail-in voting is not as insecure as he thought.

Nonetheless, Trump is ordering the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to work with the Social Security Administration to create a list of verified U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in each state. The order directs the U.S. Postal Service to send mail-in ballots only to voters on the list, and to mark each ballot with its own unique barcode. It threatens any states refusing to cooperate with the order with a loss of federal funding and directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate anyone wrongfully distributing mail-in ballots. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council notes that “there is no such thing as a federal list of citizens. It does not exist.”

“This is unconstitutional on its face,” election law expert David Becker told Yunior Rivas of Democracy Docket. “The Constitution clearly gives the president no power over elections.” The Senate Rules Committee oversees federal involvement in elections, and its top Democrat, Alex Padilla (D-CA), called the order a “blatant, unconstitutional abuse of power,” adding that Trump has “no authority to commandeer federal elections or direct the Postal Service to undermine mail and absentee voting.” Representative Joe Morelle (D-NY), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said that the order is “illegal, dangerous and subversive” and that “Donald Trump fears the American people and is willing to violate the Constitution to stop them from voting.”

“See you in court,” posted Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “You will lose.”

Another of Trump’s executive orders was in court today, when Judge Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that much of Trump’s order stripping NPR and PBS of funds was unconstitutional. As Brian Stelter of CNN reported, Moss quoted a Supreme Court ruling when he wrote: “The First Amendment draws a line, which the government may not cross, at efforts to use government power—including the power of the purse—‘to punish or suppress disfavored expression’ by others.” Republicans in Congress have since voted to cut federal funding from NPR and PBS, but the decision is a victory for the First Amendment.

richard j. leon Judge Richard Leon, left, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also stymied Trump today when he ruled that Trump cannot proceed with his plans for a giant ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing of the White House without approval from Congress. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued Trump and a number of federal agencies to stop construction of the ballroom, noting that Trump skipped reviews and approvals that were required by law.

The decision by Leon, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, begins: “The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!” It goes on to say that “no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims…to construct his East Wing ballroom project and do it with private funds,” and points out that Trump appears to be relying for authority on a law permitting him “to conduct ordinary maintenance and repair of the White House.” Leon also noted that the White House has offered vague and shifting information about who is actually in charge of the project and that the public has an interest in the appearance of the White House. Leon said “the ballroom construction project must stop until Congress authorizes its completion.”

The Department of Justice has already appealed.

Trump exploded at the judge’s decision, posting on social media:

“The National Trust for Historic Preservation sues me for a Ballroom that is under budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer, and will be the finest Building of its kind anywhere in the World. I then get sued by them over the renovation of the dilapidated and structurally unsound former Kennedy Center, now, The Trump Kennedy Center (A show of Bipartisan Unity, a Republican and Democrat President!), where all I am doing is fixing, cleaning, running, and ‘sprucing up’ a terribly maintained, for many years, Building, but a Building of potentially great importance. Yet, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Radical Left Group of Lunatics whose funding was stopped by Congress in 2005, is not suing the Federal Reserve for a Building which has been decimated and destroyed, inside and out, by an incompetent and possibly corrupt Fed Chairman. The once magnificent Building is BILLIONS over budget, may never be completed, and may never open. All of the beautiful walls inside have been ripped down, never to be built again, but the National ‘Trust’ for Historic Preservation never did anything about it! Or, have they sued on Governor Gavin Newscum’s ‘RAILROAD TO NOWHERE’ in California that is BILLIONS over Budget and, probably, will never open or be used. So, the White House Ballroom, and The Trump Kennedy Center, which are under budget, ahead of schedule, and will be among the most magnificent Buildings of their kind anywhere in the World, gets [sic] sued by a group that was cut off by Government years ago, but all of the many DISASTERS in our Country are left alone to die. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Hours later, he posted: “Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and I are working on fixing the absolutely filthy Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. This work was supposed to be done by the Biden Administration, but Sleepy Joe doesn’t know what ‘CLEAN’ or proper maintenance is—The President and Secretary do!”

Tonight Summer Said, David S. Cloud, and Michael Amon of the Wall Street Journal reported that the United Arab Emirates is trying to get a United Nations Security Council resolution to call for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The UAE says it will help the U.S. and other allies open the strait by force.

Noem Family, Homeland Security Scandals

 

President Trump, then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her husband Bryon Noem are shown above in a photo collage above by the New York Post.. President Trump said he was surprised hearing about Kristi Noem’s husband’s double-life as a cross-dresser with a fetish for grotesquely oversized breasts, as widely reported March 31after an exclusive by the Daily Mail.

President Trump, then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her husband Bryon Noem are shown above in a photo collage above by the New York Post.. President Trump said he was surprised hearing about Kristi Noem’s husband’s double-life as a cross-dresser with a fetish for grotesquely oversized breasts, as widely reported March 31after an exclusive by the Daily Mail.

Daily Mail, Investigation: Secret double life of Kristi Noem's crossdressing husband Bryon, Ben Ashford and Josh Boswell, April 1, 2026. The pouting 'busty bimbo' photos and trove of explicit messages.

kristi noem byron noem just married cowboy hathusband today revealed 124773871 a61200Future South Dakota Governor and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with her husband Bryon early in their marriage.

New York Post, Kristi Noem weighs in on report husband lives cross-dressing double life, Chris Nesi, April 1, 2026 (print ed.). 'The family was blindsided by this.'

new york post logoShocking pictures of Kristi Noem's cross-dressing husband flaunting giant fake breasts revealed — sparking grave security questions.

President Trump said he was surprised hearing about Kristi Noem’s husband’s double-life as a cross-dresser with a fetish for grotesquely oversized breasts, and that he felt remorse for the upheaval the revelation has caused the family.

“They confirmed it? Wow, well, I feel badly for the family if that’s the case, that’s too bad,” Trump told the Daily Mail Tuesday afternoon.

“I haven’t seen anything. I don’t know anything about it. That’s too bad, but I just know nothing about it,” he added.

Bryon allegedly shared hundreds of fetish photos.

A spokesperson for the ousted homeland security chief told The Post that she was “devastated” to learn what her husband of 32 years was allegedly up to, and that the family was “blindsided” by the disturbing revelation.

According to the outlet, Bryon Noem engaged in explicit conversations with women from a niche fetish scene known as “bimbofication” — in which adherents pump up their breasts to extreme proportions in pursuit of a “Barbie doll”-like appearance.

He allegedly sent tens of thousands of dollars to various women he chatted with, and even sent selfies wearing pink hotpants and flesh-toned crop-tops stuffed with balloons inflated to resemble cartoonish-sized breasts, even featuring the outlines of protruding nipples.

kristi noem corey lewandowski october facebook cuckholdHis face was clearly visible in several of the salacious images.

In one conversation viewed by the Mail, Bryon pledged to worship one woman like a “goddess,” telling her, “you turn me into a girl,” before asking if he should “put on leggings.”

Questions about the Noems’ marriage have increasingly come to light as the former South Dakota governor has made numerous high-profile appearances with Trump confidant Corey Lewandowski, shown together at right, sparking rumors of an affair with the aide, who is also married.

 

bryon noem kristi noem daily mailThem, Kristi Noem's Husband Accused of “Bimbo” Cross-Dressing Fetish in Leaked Messages and Photos, Quispe López, April 1, 2026 (print ed.). Bryon Noem allegedly dressed in a makeshift breast plate and dressed in tight pants and a crop top.

Bryon Noem, husband of former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has allegedly been cross-dressing and messaging sex workers who specialize in “bimbofication” to turn him “into a girl,” according to a report published in The Daily Mail.

Yes, you’re reading that correctly.

In hundreds of messages reviewed by the Daily Mail, the 56-year-old is allegedly shown messaging sex workers who specialize in “bimbofication,” or a type of roleplay fetish that involves being turned into a stereotypical bimbo or Barbie dolls in some cases.

According to the publication, Bryon Noem messaged three sex workers that he enjoyed their “huge, huge ridiculous boobs,” and sent over $25,000 to them. In one of the photos included in the report, he appears to be wearing a large, makeshift breast plate made of balloons under a peach crop top and tight pink shorts. Another appears to show South Dakota’s former “First Gentleman” pouting in a selfie wearing green tight pants and another balloon-stuffed crop top.

In one message, Bryon Noem told a sex worker, “You turn me into a girl” and then asked, “Should I put on leggings?”

Obviously, we're not here to condemn cross-dressing at Them, or anyone exploring their gender presentation. However, we would be remiss to not point out the irony of the report, given Kristi Noem’s long history of opposing queer and trans rights.

Cross-dressing is not inherently considered queer or trans, as exploring your gender presentation ultimately has no gender. But, the report does come after years of Kristi Noem attacking anyone playing with their gender, presentation or otherwise.

The former Governor of South Dakota signed a “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” that allowed people to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in her home state under the guise of religious freedom, banned trans girls from participating in women’s sports, and banned gender-affirming care for trans youth, just to name a few of her anti-LGBTQ+ policy points.

 

kristi noem training gun coast guard

us dhs big eagle logo4Not to mention her leadership of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to conduct mass deportations and what advocates have called “state-sponsored kidnapping,” including that of vulnerable LGBTQ+ migrants such as Andry Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan asylum seeker who was sent to Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Everyone, including Bryon Noem, should be free to explore their gender. But if Kristi Noem got the world that she actively is fighting for, no one would ever get to do that, including cisgender people with bimbofication fetishes. Outlets have reported that Kristi Noem is aware of the report and — perhaps shocking to no one who is aware of her track record — she is not taking it well.

“Ms. Noem is devastated,” a spokesperson for Kristi Noem told The New York Post. “The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time.”

The report about Bryon Noem’s alleged fetish comes just weeks after Kristi Noem was fired by President Donald Trump from her position as head of the DHS. Trump later replaced her with Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.

Quispe López is the lifestyle editor for Them.us and an LGBTQ+ issues journalist whose work has appeared in NOLA.com, | The Times-Picayune and Business Insider. As a transmasculine Quechua Qariwarmi writer, their work focuses on transgender health and wellness. 

 

bryon noem kristi noem gettyNew York Post, Former Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem is “devastated” by salacious allegations her husband Bryon lives a double life where he cross-dresses and chats online with fetish models, Staff Report, April 1, 2026 (print ed.). “Ms. Noem is devastated. The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time,” Noem’s representatives told The Post.

new york post logo“Ms. Noem is devastated. The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time,” Noem’s representatives told The Post.

According to reporting by the Daily Mail, Bryon Noem chatted up women from the so-called “bimbofication” fetish scene, in which adult performers augment their breasts with massive amounts of saline to achieve a “Barbie doll”-like appearance.Kristi Noem and Bryon Noem smiling on a beach with a rocky coastline. 9Kristi Noem’s rep said that she is ‘devastated’ over allegations that her husband, Bryon Noem, lives a double life dabbling in cross-dressing. Kristi Noem/FacebookBryon Noem hugs Governor Kristi Noem after she takes the oath of office. 9Noem’s “family was blindsided by this,” her rep said. REUTERSBryon Noem hugs Governor Kristi Noem after she takes the oath of office. 9According to reporting by the Daily Mail, Bryon Noem chatted up women from the so-called “bimbofication” fetish scene. Erin Woodiel / Argus Leader / USA TODAY NETWORK

Citing “hundreds” of messages purportedly sent by three women from the scene, Noem’s husband enthusiastically praised their heavily augmented appearances, and proclaimed he coveted “huge, huge ridiculous boobs,” according to the Mail.

One photo the Mail claims Bryon Noem shared with the women features him wearing pink hot-pants and a flesh-colored, skin-tight suit.Start your day with all you need to know.

The Bulwark, Commentary: Kristi Noem's Husband Isn’t the Problem, Jonathan V. Last, Tim Miller, and Sarah Longwell, April 1, 2026. The wild new scandal involving Kristi Noem’s husband—and why the story isn’t what people think it is.

bulwark logo big shipThey also discuss Trump’s chaotic handling of the Iran conflict, the political fallout at home, and whether his support is starting to crack. Plus: Lindsey Graham’s surreal Disney detour, protests across the country, CPAC’s decline, and JD Vance’s latest reinvention.

More On U.S. Governance, Politics, Elections

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump Signs Order Seeking Federal Control of Mail Voting as He Promotes False Claims, Nick Corasaniti and Michael Gold, April 1, 2026. Election experts and Democratic officials called the order legally invalid, and Arizona and Oregon pledged to immediately challenge it in court.

President Trump on Tuesday stepped up efforts to promote his false claims of widespread voting fraud, signing an executive order of questionable constitutionality seeking to create a national list of citizens that would determine voting eligibility and restrict mail ballots.

Mr. Trump acknowledged that the order, which comes as a bill he has been pushing to restrict mail voting has languished in Congress, could face legal hurdles.

“I believe it’s foolproof,” Mr. Trump said about the executive order before signing it in the Oval Office. “And maybe it’ll be tested. Maybe it won’t.”

The president has no explicit Constitutional authority over elections, and many aspects of the order appear difficult to enforce.

It directs the Department of Homeland Security to create a “state citizenship list” based on data from citizenship and naturalization records, Social Security records and other federal databases.

The order directs federal officials to send the list to state election officials, and orders the attorney general to prioritize prosecution of election officials who provide federal ballots to ineligible voters. It also directs the U.S. Postal Service not to transmit mail-in or absentee ballots from any individual not included on the “state citizenship list.”

Election experts and Democratic state election officials rejected the president’s directive as legally invalid. Officials in Arizona and Oregon pledged to fight the executive order in court. Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer, also vowed to file a lawsuit against the order.

“The Constitution doesn’t allow the executive to take over elections administration, that’s a job for the state legislatures or Congress, and so I don’t think this is going to pass any sort of judicial muster,” Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s secretary of state, said in an interview. “So this is a big, giant waste of time, and it’s an attention grab from the Trump administration.”Editors’ PicksIs ‘One-Sided Monogamy’ Just Cheating?This Old-Fashioned Dish Deserves a Place on Your Easter TableBill Lawrence and Christa Miller List Their NoMad Condo for $7.85 Million

He added: “The greatest threat to American elections is Donald Trump lying about them. Our elections are in good shape.” 

The Contrarian, Opinion: How Mass Movements Topple Autocracies, Jennifer Rubin, right, jennifer rubin new headshotApril 1, 2026. Trump is weak. The people are strong.

Historically, autocrats often have turned out to be remarkably fragile, while effective mass movements have demonstrated unexpected strength to topple them. Donald Trump’s recent serial disasters vs. the burgeoning Resistance movement suggest the same might hold true in the U.S. Trump is sinking in approval in every public poll, with the University of Massachusetts Amherst poll reporting a new low of 33 percent approval. He is suffering from a crack-up in his base and rapidly losing young voters, Hispanics, and the “manosphere.” (About the latter, Elaine Godfrey writes that “the disillusioned young men and independents who voted for Trump in 2024 … can’t be expected to get out and vote for the GOP.”)

contrarian logoDiscrete blunders (e.g., tariffs/affordability, the Iran war, the Epstein pedophile scandal, mass deportations, gas prices) might explain millions of voters’ disillusionment. But looked at with historical perspective, this sort of decay, characteristic of late-stage autocracy, flows directly from its defining features: corruption, cronyism, isolation from reliable information, and unalloyed faith in propaganda.

Each played a part in the predictable quagmire in Iran and the corresponding nosedive in Trump’s poll numbers. His head-spinning corruption (e.g. reaping billions for him and his family from Middle East regimes) and cronyism (e.g., installing fan-boy incompetents such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, sending ignoramuses Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to negotiate) set him up for failure. Tip: A corrupt leader surrounded by cronies can be played.

Making matters worse, Trump might be the least informed person in America, in part because all he consumes is a steady junk food diet of dramatic video footage, slobbering right-wing media coverage, and political sycophants’ cringeworthy flattery. (Looking at you, Speaker Mike Johnson!) The self-created information vacuum leaves him without reliable data about the state of the war, the sides’ relative weapons capacity, the Iranians’ leverage and objectives, and the impossibility of certain maneuvers (e.g., sending in troops to ferry out enriched uranium).

In the realm of state propaganda, Trump’s communication, even for him, has been terribly frantic and contradictory. He has become so accustomed to his cult’s uncritical acceptance of his lies (e.g., the “Sir” stories, fake history, incoherent blather “sane washed” by legacy media) that he is no doubt rattled when his bluster, threats, and transparent dissembling have no impact on the Iranians. Tip: Intoxication by your own lies is a serious handicap — as is deluding yourself into believing that implacable foreign enemies buy your nonsense.Subscribed

Put differently, autocracies are inherently brittle and susceptible to pressure because they eliminate the very things necessary to survive, such as reality-based decision-making, advisers picked on merit, a healthy flow of information, and the ability to discern spin from reality. (This sounds eerily similar to Russia’s Ukraine debacle, driven in large part by the “inefficiency, corruption, and brutality” of Vladimir Putin’s regime.)

The term for the point when autocracy goes haywire — autocratic backfire — “occurs when narcissistic leaders have insulated themselves from criticism by surrounding themselves with sycophants and loyalists,” Ruth Ben Ghiat explains. At that point, “[n]o one will tell them the truth, and religious collaborators tell them they are in office by divine will…so they also end up believing their own propaganda about their invincibility, genius instincts, and infallibility.” They therefore are likely to make “decisions on the basis of erroneous beliefs or personal ideological obsessions.” No wonder the result is often military or economic calamities and bone-headed “policies and projects championed by the ruler out of hubris and megalomania and implemented to disastrous effect.”

If Trump’s regime is brittle and subject to self-destruction, what about the Resistance? In polling, election results, and mass organizing events such as the No Kings protests, a vibrant grassroots movement has demonstrated surprising resilience, strength, and adaptability over 15 months.

Social movements scholar Dr. Liz Corrigan explains that mass events with huge turnout of people “who share some similarity of grievance against state actions” are critical to building a movement. Large numbers gathered without imposed ideological litmus tests encourage others to join. ‘Safety in numbers’ is real. “At protests, folks are registering voters, organizing volunteers, building databases for further actions, debating various courses of action, and creating relationships,” Corrigan observes. “It is literally how people build skills for solidarity actions as they are forced into more immediate confrontation with the state.”

Unlike autocrats, mass movements can adapt to new circumstances and embrace moments that can galvanize millions. The larger the number of activists, the more sources of information and ideas can be tapped to inform the movement. We saw the Resistance initially focus on direct opposition to DOGE with the “Hands off!” protest. Then it embraced the anti-corruption message that included the Epstein-Trump scandal (highlighting the Epstein elites’ avoidance of accountability). And most recently, ICE and the Iran War have supercharged the movement.

Mass movements — unlike inflexible, know-it-all autocrats — also can experiment with different models. Through trial and error, the movement can test new organizing methods (e.g., the Jimmy Kimmel boycott) and figure out ways to draw in different parts of the electorate.

Perhaps most powerfully of all, while autocrats operate through violence, bullying, threats, censorship, and weaponization of the justice system, a successful mass movement is built on hope, solidarity, and, yes, love. It turns out mass movements suffused with joy, love, and mutual support have triumphed time and again over brutal and menacing regimes, whether in Turkey, Chile, or in the American Civil Rights Movement (anchored in its quest for a “Beloved community”). In the current context, we see the whimsical costumed characters, an ever-expanding array of witty signs, the near-total absence of any violence, widespread impromptu community-organized aid for immigrants, and consistent expressions of joy and a deep, abiding love of neighbors, country, and democracy. (Credit: Tim Dickinson)

Certainly, victory over MAGA authoritarianism, brutality, and racism is far from inevitable. However, the Resistance can take solace that signs of Trump’s crackup are multiplying, the predictable result of erratic decisions from an isolated narcissist surrounded by yes-men. Trump’s version of autocratic backfire also reflects the growth of the Resistance movement, one large and flexible enough to sweep in millions of Americans, innovate over time, and propound a positive, uplifting message.

In sum, Trump’s profound weaknesses and the Resistance’s considerable strengths should give democracy defenders confidence to translate protest into organization and to redouble efforts to prevail in November, no matter what futile MAGA voter suppression tactics are deployed.

 

alex jones radio logoThe Hartmann Report, Opinion: Alex Jones Didn’t Just Spread Lies: He Helped the Right Wing Weaponize Them to Undermine American Democracy, Thom Hartmann, right, thom hartmann newApril 1, 2026. How Republicans turned misinformation into a system for seizing power and reshaping reality, and the damage those lies are doing to our democracy…

I still remember the day, back in 2009 when we were on speaking terms, when Alex Jones showed up naked for a live simulcast of our two shows. It’s one of those pictures that my staff and I have worked for years to get out of our heads.

hartmann report newIt was for a stunt, of course; if nothing else, Alex has always known how to be a showman. It was April 15, Tax Day, and he wanted to emphasize how the IRS had “taken the shirt off my back.” Point made. And a largely harmless one (other than that $38 trillion national debt that’s 100% derived from tax cuts for billionaires and corporations we were lied into by Reagan, Bush, and Trump).

But when he filmed a phony, staged “ISIS beheading” that he claimed happened on the southern US border, it was far from harmless, according to a new book by one of his former employees, Josh Owens, titled The Madness of Believing: A Memoir from Inside Alex Jones’ Conspiracy Machine.

The video of one of Jones’ reporters dressed up as an ISIS soldier carrying a phony severed-head prop went viral, gaining millions of views, and helped fuel anti-Muslim hatred that the rightwing was then working hard to exploit in post-9/11 America. Owens told an NPR reporter that the turning point for him was sitting on a plane next to a Muslim woman with her young daughter:

“I remember sitting there watching her, and it sounds so cheesy, but it was just this moment of like ... these people didn’t do anything. There’s no reason for suspicion; it’s just racism. It’s not like after that I changed everything and all of a sudden became a good person or started to do the right thing. But it did start to make me look at things a little bit differently.”

The real crisis this kind of media causes isn’t just the misinformation; it’s the collapse of a shared reality among Americans, without which democracy can’t function. And we’re seeing that play out in real time in the daily dysfunction both in Congress and in state capitols across the the nation.

When political power is built not on debate, compromise, and persuasion but on intentional lies, governance simply becomes a shallow performance and an opportunity for corruption rather than a way to serve the needs of the people of a country. It becomes, in essence, a grift.

This is why partisan lies used to seize and hold power are so corrosive: they destroy a nation’s sense of shared reality.

While it’s nearly impossible to identify any meaningful lies Democrats depend on to win elections, increase media profits, or pass special-interest legislation, there’s a long list of rightwing lies that serve those exact purposes:

— Tax cuts for billionaires help average people,— Unions are bad for workers,— Climate change is a hoax,— Welfare fraud is widespread and mostly committed by Black “welfare queens,”— Social Security is going broke and lifting the cap on what billionaires pay won’t solve the problem,— The 2020 election was stolen from Trump,— Immigrants bring more crime than native-born citizens,— Deregulation doesn’t produce harms but by increasing profits helps society,— National single-payer health insurance can’t work in America (even though it mysteriously works just fine, better than what we have, in dozens of other democracies),— America was founded as a Christian nation,— Men are superior to women,— White people are superior to people of color,— Vaccines are dangerous and Covid isn’t,— Voter fraud and voting by non-citizens is widespread,— Guns will keep your home and children safe,— Rich Jews are funding a program to “replace” white workers with dark-skinned people,— Increasing the minimum wage destroys economies and causes severe inflation.

Each one of these lies is repeated regularly by Republicans on TV and hosts of rightwing talk shows as if they’re true to the point where MAGA voters can recite them in their sleep (and when they’re carrying tiki torches).

As America learned when Fox “News” was forced to admit in court that their top talent was lying directly to the camera for months about the 2020 election, these lies are typically planned, organized, intentional, and can produce millions in revenue for the media and its stars.

Not to mention supporting billions in profits for aligned industries like fossil fuels and tobacco that depend on people believing lies to keep consuming their products.

Republican lies can also swing elections, like when a PAC aligned with George HW Bush’s 1988 campaign promoted their Willie Horton ad arguing that a prison furlough program that led to a white woman being raped and murdered by a Black man was Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis’ fault when, in fact, it’d been started by a previous Republican governor.

Rightwing lies have taken America into or prolonged wars, as we learned when Nixon lied about his “secret plan” to end the Vietnam war, Reagan “rescued” medical students by invading Grenada, George HW Bush had a member of the Kuwaiti royal family lie on national TV about Iraqi soldiers throwing babies out of incubators, Bush and Cheney lied us into combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Trump lied us into attacking Iran and killing hundreds of innocent children.

Republican lies can even create self-fulfilling prophecies, like how when both Obama and Biden each came into office Republicans and rightwing media immediately started loudly claiming the US southern border was “now wide open” and that lie, repeated over and over again by conservative politicians and media, made its way down to South and Central America and caused people there to believe it and then to migrate north.

It’s particularly problematic when Republican lies become loyalty tests for public office. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse have been asking every Republican-promoted federal judge nominee to come before the Judiciary Committee the simple question, “Who won the 2020 election?” Not even one single candidate has yet answered with the simple truth that Joe Biden won, fair and square, a result that was even litigated 60 times and proven before the Republicans on the Supreme Court.

The problem Republicans, rightwing billionaires, and conservative media have is that if they simply told the truth about any of the things in the list above — that they really do support more pollution and raw bigotry while exclusively working to enrich the already morbidly rich — they’d quickly lose their audiences and their voters.

The fix, therefore, isn’t particularly complicated, even if does require discipline.

Every anchor, every host, every journalist, and particularly every guest on radio or TV who lets one of these lies slide past without correction needs to be called out for it.

Not “some people disagree,” or “Democrats say otherwise.” Lies like these require a flat-out, factual, on-air correction: “That’s not true, and here’s the proof.” There really are differences between the two major parties, and only the GOP consistently uses demonstrable lies to get their way.

When hosts or Republican guests refuse to respond to that in good faith, when they treat a documented lie as just another “perspective” worthy of equal consideration, they have to be outed.

The Founders understood — as much as they loved free speech — that democracy can’t survive without a press willing to tell the truth. What we have today in far too much of our media landscape is the opposite: a press that’s either owned by billionaires invested in the lies or so terrified of being called “liberal” that it’s stopped holding liars accountable.

So, when you see this happen, pick up your phone and tell the network, station, host, or politician exactly what you just witnessed. And amplify it on social media.

The deep truth here is that decades of Republican lies have only worked because so many in the media — and so many of us who consume media — have let them pass unchallenged.

The facts are on our side. Americans, when presented with the actual substance of these issues without partisan labels attached, consistently support the positions Democrats hold and Republicans lie about.

And remember, every one of the lies on the list above exists for one reason only: because without them, the people telling them couldn’t win an election, hold an audience, get tax cuts and deregulation, or make more money.

So, correct the lies at the dinner table. Share articles like this one that document them with receipts. Support the journalists and outlets brave enough to call partisan and corporate liars out by name. Show up for protests. And, most important, vote this fall like your democracy depends on it, because (as the old cliché goes) it does.

The Daily Show,Kristi Noem's Husband Leads a Double-D Life, Desi Lydic, April 1, 2026. Who says Kristi Noem is the only person in her marriage allowed to dress up?  

U.S. Science, Space, Health Care

ny times logoNew York Times, NASA’s Artemis II  Moon Mission Launches Atop Tower of Flamen, Kenneth Chang, April 1, 2026. The crew of four — three Americans and one Canadian lifted off at 6:35 p.m. Eastern on the first crewed journey to the moon since 1972. But they will not land there on this mission.

A towering orange-and-white NASA rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday evening, lifting four astronauts toward space and transporting spectators’ imaginations to a future in which Americans may again set foot on the moon.

As they did during the heyday of the Apollo program, which first put men on the lunar surface, spectators squeezed onto the beaches along Central Florida’s Space Coast. The crowds cheered when the powerful vehicle launched into the clear, twilight sky at 6:35 p.m. Eastern time. It traveled eastward, over the Atlantic Ocean, on a journey that is to go around the moon but not land there.

The flight aboard a spacecraft named Integrity is taking Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on what is expected to be a round trip of more than 695,000 miles to clear a path for more exploration, and eventually a new lunar landing.

The mission, known as Artemis II, is the 21st century equivalent of Apollo 8, when NASA astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders captured the rapt attention of the world. When they launched in December 1968, it was the first time that astronauts rode on top of NASA’s mighty Saturn V rocket. For that mission, instead of just a short test flight around Earth, the space agency audaciously decided to send the crew all the way to the moon and back, the first time that another celestial body became a destination that humans could reach.

Like Apollo 8, Artemis II aims to similarly check that the spacecraft can safely make the journey and keep its crew alive during the 10 days it is expected to take to go to the moon and return. Under those plans, the trip will conclude with a splash in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.

 

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with President Trump and Mehmet Oz, the Medicaid and Medicare services administrator, in the White House in September (New York Times photo by Tierney L. Cross)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with President Trump and Mehmet Oz, the Medicaid and Medicare services administrator, in the White House in September (New York Times photo by Tierney L. Cross)

ny times logoNew York Times, C.D.C. Pauses Testing for Rabies and Pox Viruses, Apoorva Mandavilli, April 1, 2026. The diseases were removed from a list of tests the agency conducts for state and local health departments. Experts worry that with drastic staff reductions, the testing may not resume.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has temporarily paused testing for rabies and pox viruses, the family of viruses that includes smallpox and mpox, according to an update to the agency’s website on Monday.

The C.D.C. offers testing for dozens of pathogens to assist state and local public health laboratories that are not equipped to conduct them. The organization began evaluating its tests in late 2024 as part of an agencywide review.

But widespread layoffs, hiring freezes and resignations have shrunk the number of qualified scientists who can assist state labs. The C.D.C.’s rabies and pox virus teams have lost many of their members. By July, the rabies team will be down to just one person with the clinical expertise to advise state and local officials, and the pox virus team will have none.

The teams already have too few members to offer after-hours advice for states as the agency has long done, according to an official with knowledge of the situation who asked to remain anonymous because of fear of retaliation.

Several public health experts said they were concerned with the shortage of testing and expertise at the nation’s infectious disease agency. The country faces the threat of emerging diseases such as bird flu and is also preparing for major events, including the World Cup tournament and the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, that will amass large crowds.

“In relative peacetime of no major outbreaks, no major pandemics, it’ll be fine,” said Jill Taylor, who directed the Wadsworth Center, New York State’s public health laboratory, until October 2020.

But, she said, “If we have an emergency all of a sudden, God help us.”

ny times logoNew York Times, Hegseth Reverses Helicopter Crew Suspension Over Kid Rock Flyby, Emily Cochrane and Eric Schmitt, Updated April 1, 2026. Videos posted Saturday showed the pro-Trump musician saluting two Apache attack choppers, which appeared to be the same ones that flew low over a “No Kings” rally in Nashville.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday abruptly reversed the suspension of Army crews that piloted two Apache helicopters close to the musician Kid Rock’s residence in Nashville over the weekend.

Earlier on Tuesday, a spokesman said that the crew members involved had been barred from flight duties, a day after the Army began an inquiry into videos of the flyover posted on social media.

But Mr. Hegseth appeared to end both the suspensions and the investigation, with a social media post on Tuesday night declaring: “No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots.”

It was a remarkable intervention from the highest level of the Pentagon, circumventing the internal military chain of command. For Mr. Hegseth, who in his previous career as a Fox News host defended service members accused of war crimes, the decree was another indication of his contempt for legal guardrails in the military.

Hegseth’s post came on the same day that President Trump told reporters at the White House that the crew members “probably should not have been doing it.”

“You’re not supposed to be playing games, right? I will take a look at it,” Mr. Trump said, adding, jokingly, “They like Kid Rock. I like Kid Rock. Maybe they were trying to defend him.”

Mr. Hegseth has also repeatedly clashed with the Army secretary, Daniel P. Driscoll, over personnel and administrative decisions, including by blocking the promotion of four Army officers to one-star generals. By reversing the suspension, he has waded into what had otherwise been a fairly routine disciplinary proceeding.

The Army directed a request for comment to Mr. Hegseth’s office.

The end of the suspensions was the latest twist in the helicopter episode after Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, posted two videos on social media on Saturday that prompted official scrutiny. One video shows Mr. Ritchie waving and saluting as a helicopter hovers near the pool at the 27,000-square-foot mansion he has christened the Southern White House, which is fashioned after the original structure in Washington.

In a second video, another helicopter can be seen flying above the first as Mr. Ritchie continues to wave. The musician, who has been vocal about his support for President Trump, shared the videos with some derogatory commentary about Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, adding “God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her.”Mr. Ritchie’s manager did not respond to requests for comment.

The helicopter gunships also appeared to be the same ones that flew over a “No Kings” protest held on Saturday in Nashville, a maneuver that some attendees said felt like intimidation. (A spokesman said that the helicopter crews had been in the Nashville area for training, and he called their appearance over the rally “entirely coincidental.”)

charlie kirk hand wave uncreditedUSA TODAY, Does the bullet match? Key issue emerges in Charlie Kirk murder case, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, April 1, 2026 (print ed.), Attorneys for the man accused of shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk,shown above in a file photo, said a federal law enforcement agency did not connect the bullet found during autopsy to the suspected murder weapon.

usa today logo 5Tyler Robinson, shown below at right in a file photo, has been charged with aggravated murder and other felonies in Kirk's death. Kirk, 31, was killed Sept. 10 while speaking to students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Authorities had said the gun used to assassinate Kirk was a Mauser 98, a common bolt-action rifle typically used for hunting. The hunting rifle, which had a heavier .30-06 caliber, dates back decades as German-made military surplus with millions produced and resold in the United States, experts told USA TODAY.

tyler robinson trump shirtOfficials recovered the weapon near the scene of the shooting with one spent cartridge in the chamber and three unfired bullets etched with meme-influenced messages.

Robinson's attorneys said in a court filing that they have received a summary report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives "which indicates that the ATF was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson."

"Although the State has not indicated an intent to produce this report at the preliminary hearing, the defense may very well decide to offer the testimony of the ATF firearm analyst as exculpatory evidence," the court filing said.

Robinson's attorneys said the FBI is conducting a second comparative bullet analysis and a bullet lead analysis, but it was not yet complete. The defense asked Judge Tony Graf to delay the preliminary hearing, scheduled for May, in part because the team has not gotten the case files and protocols related to these analyses and other evidence from prosecutors.

The defense did, however, receive a hard drive with more than 600,000 files in a meeting March 12 with prosecutors, according to the court filing. That came on top of the 20,000 files the defense team had already received, which included 31 hours of audio and more than 700 hours of video.

Robinson's attorneys said it would take at least 60 days to review the evidence they have and determine whether more has not yet been turned over to them.

"The defense team has devoted, and will continue to devote, significant resources to processing discovery, including identifying materials not yet received to inform readiness for the preliminary hearing," the court filing said. "However, the defense team is realistic and the comprehensive review required to determine what is missing will take hundreds of hours."

When asked about the defense's characterization of the ATF report, Christopher D. Ballard, a spokesperson for the Utah County Attorney's Office, told USA TODAY ethical rules prohibit him from speaking publicly about forensic testing and test results.

"But I can say generally that when the results of a bullet fragment analysis come back as inconclusive, that means only that the fragment did not contain enough detail for the examiner to determine whether the characteristics on the fragment were consistent with having been fired by a particular firearm," Ballard said.

Ballard confirmed the FBI and ATF are adding information to the initial reports, which prosecutors expect will include data supporting the initial conclusions. "As soon as the State receives those supplemental reports, we will provide them to the defense," he said.

Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray has said he will seek the death penalty for Robinson. Robinson is set to return to court April 17 for hearing on a defense motion to ban cameras from the courtroom.

 

alexandria ocasio cortez resized yoho speech july 23 2020 house tv via ap

ny times logoNew York Times, Ocasio-Cortez Says She Will Oppose All U.S. Military Aid to Israel, Tim Balk, Benjamin Oreskes and Kellen Browning, April 1, 2026. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, shown above in a file photo, said she would oppose U.S. military aid to Israel, including for defensive systems.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said Tuesday that she would vote against all U.S. military aid to Israel, including for defensive systems, a shift that underscores how opposition to the Israeli government has grown among various wings of the Democratic Party since the war in Gaza.

Speaking at a private, virtual forum with members of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was asked if her opposition to aid for Israel extended to its defensive systems.

The congresswoman said yes, according to her chief of staff, Mike Casca.

The forum was part of the Democratic Socialists of America’s endorsement process. The news outlet City & State previously reported Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent and vocal critics of the war, has long been opposed to sending money to Israel for offensive weaponry. But over the years her position on whether to support Israel’s Iron Dome, its vaunted air defense system, has been less clear.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said the Israeli government did not require U.S. assistance to defend itself.Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Israel? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.

“I believe the Israeli government is well able to fund the Iron Dome system, which has proven critical to keep innocent civilians safe from rocket attacks and bombardment,” she said. “Consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and U.S. law.”

Her announcement comes as support for Israel has fallen sharply among Democrats since the war in Gaza. The party has been consumed by debates about its stance toward Israel, with a growing number of Democratic lawmakers supporting some restrictions on military aid for Israel. Some prominent Democrats have said that they will no longer accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which long enjoyed bipartisan support but has emerged as a flashpoint in recent Democratic primaries. And several outspoken critics of Israel’s policies have won recent elections, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in her statement that American allies “who need our military aid must understand that we will provide it consistent with the Leahy amendment,” which bars the United States from providing training or equipment to foreign military units that commit human rights violations. Israel has strongly denied accusations that it has carried out a genocide.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez entered political office as an anti-establishment progressive and is one of the most prominent democratic socialists in the country. She has emerged as a leader in the Democratic Party and is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate. But some progressives are eager to see her challenge Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, in 2028.

In 2024 Ms. Ocasio-Cortez signed a statement with 18 other Congress members that said, “All of us support strengthening the Iron Dome and other defense systems.” In 2021 she voted “present” on a funding vote for the Iron Dome, saying that she had planned to vote no but had changed course in response to “hateful targeting.”

She has at times been at odds with the Democratic Socialists of America, particularly over Israel. In 2024, the national leadership of the organization pulled its endorsement of her, saying she had been insufficiently supportive of the pro-Palestinian movement.

ny times logoNew York Times, Opinion: Stolid Midwestern Republicans Might Be the Real #Resistance, Michelle Cottle, April 1, 2026. There was a while late last year when the Republican lawmakers in Indiana who were resisting President Trump’s push to redraw the state’s congressional map lived with the pervasive risk of physical violence. “We had firebomb threats,” State Senator Jim Buck told me in a recent interview. “All kinds of threats!”

Several anti-redistricting Republicans were swatted — armed police swarmed their homes in response to fraudulent emergency calls. “I had to have a conversation with my kids about what happens if police kick down our door and why that’s happening and what to do,” recalled State Senator Spencer Deery.

More than three months after 21 Republicans helped vote down Mr. Trump’s redistricting scheme in the Indiana Senate, the danger of physical attacks appears to have dimmed. But for the eight members of that group pursuing re-election this year — Mr. Buck, Mr. Deery, Greg Goode, Travis Holdman, Greg Walker, Linda Rogers, Dan Dernulc and Rick Niemeyer — the political peril remains. And these senators’ fortunes in the state’s May 5 primary, in which early voting starts next week, have national implications.

Indiana was not the only red state where Mr. Trump, desperate to retain his party’s control of the U.S. House in the coming midterms, pressed state legislators to rig the game by pursuing mid-decade redistricting aimed at juicing the G.O.P.’s electoral odds. It was, however, the rare case where state Republicans thwarted him.

Now hellbent on unseating the holdouts, the president and a collection of allies have encouraged primary challengers and are expected to pour millions of dollars into these down-ballot races. Mr. Trump’s minions are candid, even boastful, about their retributive goal. “I want this to be talked about in political science textbooks for decades to come as a cautionary tale of deviating away from the conservative platform,” Brett Galaszewski, a leader with Turning Point Action, a conservative activist group, told Politico.

The Indiana senators are on the front lines of the MAGA movement’s fight to establish itself as a force that will endure beyond Mr. Trump’s reign, a process that involves stamping out competing power centers and glimmers of independent thinking in the Republican Party. Small-d democratic fundamentals, such as the idea that state lawmakers are autonomous operators with priorities distinct from the White House’s, have no place in the loyalty-based system Mr. Trump has built. 

U.S. Courts, Law, Crime, Rights

The Daily Show, Kristi Noem's Husband Leads a Double-D Life, Desi Lydic, April 1, 2026. Who says Kristi Noem is the only person in her marriage allowed to dress up?  

U.S. Science, Space, Health Care

ny times logoNew York Times, NASA’s Artemis II  Moon Mission Launches Atop Tower of Flamen, Kenneth Chang, April 1, 2026. The crew of four — three Americans and one Canadian lifted off at 6:35 p.m. Eastern on the first crewed journey to the moon since 1972. But they will not land there on this mission.

A towering orange-and-white NASA rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday evening, lifting four astronauts toward space and transporting spectators’ imaginations to a future in which Americans may again set foot on the moon.

As they did during the heyday of the Apollo program, which first put men on the lunar surface, spectators squeezed onto the beaches along Central Florida’s Space Coast. The crowds cheered when the powerful vehicle launched into the clear, twilight sky at 6:35 p.m. Eastern time. It traveled eastward, over the Atlantic Ocean, on a journey that is to go around the moon but not land there.

The flight aboard a spacecraft named Integrity is taking Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on what is expected to be a round trip of more than 695,000 miles to clear a path for more exploration, and eventually a new lunar landing.

The mission, known as Artemis II, is the 21st century equivalent of Apollo 8, when NASA astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders captured the rapt attention of the world. When they launched in December 1968, it was the first time that astronauts rode on top of NASA’s mighty Saturn V rocket. For that mission, instead of just a short test flight around Earth, the space agency audaciously decided to send the crew all the way to the moon and back, the first time that another celestial body became a destination that humans could reach.

Like Apollo 8, Artemis II aims to similarly check that the spacecraft can safely make the journey and keep its crew alive during the 10 days it is expected to take to go to the moon and return. Under those plans, the trip will conclude with a splash in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.

ny times logoNew York Times, C.D.C. Pauses Testing for Rabies and Pox Viruses, Apoorva Mandavilli, April 1, 2026. The diseases were removed from a list of tests the agency conducts for state and local health departments. Experts worry that with drastic staff reductions, the testing may not resume.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has temporarily paused testing for rabies and pox viruses, the family of viruses that includes smallpox and mpox, according to an update to the agency’s website on Monday.

The C.D.C. offers testing for dozens of pathogens to assist state and local public health laboratories that are not equipped to conduct them. The organization began evaluating its tests in late 2024 as part of an agencywide review.

But widespread layoffs, hiring freezes and resignations have shrunk the number of qualified scientists who can assist state labs. The C.D.C.’s rabies and pox virus teams have lost many of their members. By July, the rabies team will be down to just one person with the clinical expertise to advise state and local officials, and the pox virus team will have none.

The teams already have too few members to offer after-hours advice for states as the agency has long done, according to an official with knowledge of the situation who asked to remain anonymous because of fear of retaliation.

Several public health experts said they were concerned with the shortage of testing and expertise at the nation’s infectious disease agency. The country faces the threat of emerging diseases such as bird flu and is also preparing for major events, including the World Cup tournament and the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, that will amass large crowds.

“In relative peacetime of no major outbreaks, no major pandemics, it’ll be fine,” said Jill Taylor, who directed the Wadsworth Center, New York State’s public health laboratory, until October 2020.

But, she said, “If we have an emergency all of a sudden, God help us.”

ny times logoNew York Times, Hegseth Reverses Helicopter Crew Suspension Over Kid Rock Flyby, Emily Cochrane and Eric Schmitt, Updated April 1, 2026. Videos posted Saturday showed the pro-Trump musician saluting two Apache attack choppers, which appeared to be the same ones that flew low over a “No Kings” rally in Nashville.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday abruptly reversed the suspension of Army crews that piloted two Apache helicopters close to the musician Kid Rock’s residence in Nashville over the weekend.

Earlier on Tuesday, a spokesman said that the crew members involved had been barred from flight duties, a day after the Army began an inquiry into videos of the flyover posted on social media.

But Mr. Hegseth appeared to end both the suspensions and the investigation, with a social media post on Tuesday night declaring: “No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots.”

It was a remarkable intervention from the highest level of the Pentagon, circumventing the internal military chain of command. For Mr. Hegseth, who in his previous career as a Fox News host defended service members accused of war crimes, the decree was another indication of his contempt for legal guardrails in the military.

Hegseth’s post came on the same day that President Trump told reporters at the White House that the crew members “probably should not have been doing it.”

“You’re not supposed to be playing games, right? I will take a look at it,” Mr. Trump said, adding, jokingly, “They like Kid Rock. I like Kid Rock. Maybe they were trying to defend him.”

Mr. Hegseth has also repeatedly clashed with the Army secretary, Daniel P. Driscoll, over personnel and administrative decisions, including by blocking the promotion of four Army officers to one-star generals. By reversing the suspension, he has waded into what had otherwise been a fairly routine disciplinary proceeding.

The Army directed a request for comment to Mr. Hegseth’s office.

The end of the suspensions was the latest twist in the helicopter episode after Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, posted two videos on social media on Saturday that prompted official scrutiny. One video shows Mr. Ritchie waving and saluting as a helicopter hovers near the pool at the 27,000-square-foot mansion he has christened the Southern White House, which is fashioned after the original structure in Washington.

In a second video, another helicopter can be seen flying above the first as Mr. Ritchie continues to wave. The musician, who has been vocal about his support for President Trump, shared the videos with some derogatory commentary about Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, adding “God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her.”Mr. Ritchie’s manager did not respond to requests for comment.

The helicopter gunships also appeared to be the same ones that flew over a “No Kings” protest held on Saturday in Nashville, a maneuver that some attendees said felt like intimidation. (A spokesman said that the helicopter crews had been in the Nashville area for training, and he called their appearance over the rally “entirely coincidental.”)

USA TODAY, Does the bullet match? Key issue emerges in Charlie Kirk murder case, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, April 1, 2026 (print ed.), Attorneys for the man accused of shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk said a federal law enforcement agency did not connect the bullet found during autopsy to the suspected murder weapon.

Tyler Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder and other felonies in Kirk's death. Kirk, 31, was killed Sept. 10 while speaking to students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Authorities had said the gun used to assassinate Kirk was a Mauser 98, a common bolt-action rifle typically used for hunting. The hunting rifle, which had a heavier .30-06 caliber, dates back decades as German-made military surplus with millions produced and resold in the United States, experts told USA TODAY.

Officials recovered the weapon near the scene of the shooting with one spent cartridge in the chamber and three unfired bullets etched with meme-influenced messages.More: What we know about the gun used in the Charlie Kirk assassination

Robinson's attorneys said in a court filing that they have received a summary report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives "which indicates that the ATF was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson."

"Although the State has not indicated an intent to produce this report at the preliminary hearing, the defense may very well decide to offer the testimony of the ATF firearm analyst as exculpatory evidence," the court filing said.

Robinson's attorneys said the FBI is conducting a second comparative bullet analysis and a bullet lead analysis, but it was not yet complete. The defense asked Judge Tony Graf to delay the preliminary hearing, scheduled for May, in part because the team has not gotten the case files and protocols related to these analyses and other evidence from prosecutors.

The defense did, however, receive a hard drive with more than 600,000 files in a meeting March 12 with prosecutors, according to the court filing. That came on top of the 20,000 files the defense team had already received, which included 31 hours of audio and more than 700 hours of video.

Robinson's attorneys said it would take at least 60 days to review the evidence they have and determine whether more has not yet been turned over to them.

"The defense team has devoted, and will continue to devote, significant resources to processing discovery, including identifying materials not yet received to inform readiness for the preliminary hearing," the court filing said. "However, the defense team is realistic and the comprehensive review required to determine what is missing will take hundreds of hours."

When asked about the defense's characterization of the ATF report, Christopher D. Ballard, a spokesperson for the Utah County Attorney's Office, told USA TODAY ethical rules prohibit him from speaking publicly about forensic testing and test results.

"But I can say generally that when the results of a bullet fragment analysis come back as inconclusive, that means only that the fragment did not contain enough detail for the examiner to determine whether the characteristics on the fragment were consistent with having been fired by a particular firearm," Ballard said.

Ballard confirmed the FBI and ATF are adding information to the initial reports, which prosecutors expect will include data supporting the initial conclusions. "As soon as the State receives those supplemental reports, we will provide them to the defense," he said.

Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray has said he will seek the death penalty for Robinson. Robinson is set to return to court April 17 for hearing on a defense motion to ban cameras from the courtroom.

ny times logoNew York Times, Ocasio-Cortez Says She Will Oppose All U.S. Military Aid to Israel, Tim Balk, Benjamin Oreskes and Kellen Browning, April 1, 2026. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said she would oppose U.S. military aid to Israel, including for defensive systems.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said Tuesday that she would vote against all U.S. military aid to Israel, including for defensive systems, a shift that underscores how opposition to the Israeli government has grown among various wings of the Democratic Party since the war in Gaza.

Speaking at a private, virtual forum with members of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was asked if her opposition to aid for Israel extended to its defensive systems.

The congresswoman said yes, according to her chief of staff, Mike Casca.

Israel FlagThe forum was part of the Democratic Socialists of America’s endorsement process. The news outlet City & State previously reported Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent and vocal critics of the war, has long been opposed to sending money to Israel for offensive weaponry. But over the years her position on whether to support Israel’s Iron Dome, its vaunted air defense system, has been less clear.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said the Israeli government did not require U.S. assistance to defend itself.Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Israel? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.

“I believe the Israeli government is well able to fund the Iron Dome system, which has proven critical to keep innocent civilians safe from rocket attacks and bombardment,” she said. “Consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and U.S. law.”

Her announcement comes as support for Israel has fallen sharply among Democrats since the war in Gaza. The party has been consumed by debates about its stance toward Israel, with a growing number of Democratic lawmakers supporting some restrictions on military aid for Israel. Some prominent Democrats have said that they will no longer accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which long enjoyed bipartisan support but has emerged as a flashpoint in recent Democratic primaries. And several outspoken critics of Israel’s policies have won recent elections, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in her statement that American allies “who need our military aid must understand that we will provide it consistent with the Leahy amendment,” which bars the United States from providing training or equipment to foreign military units that commit human rights violations. Israel has strongly denied accusations that it has carried out a genocide.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez entered political office as an anti-establishment progressive and is one of the most prominent democratic socialists in the country. She has emerged as a leader in the Democratic Party and is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate. But some progressives are eager to see her challenge Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, in 2028.

In 2024 Ms. Ocasio-Cortez signed a statement with 18 other Congress members that said, “All of us support strengthening the Iron Dome and other defense systems.” In 2021 she voted “present” on a funding vote for the Iron Dome, saying that she had planned to vote no but had changed course in response to “hateful targeting.”

She has at times been at odds with the Democratic Socialists of America, particularly over Israel. In 2024, the national leadership of the organization pulled its endorsement of her, saying she had been insufficiently supportive of the pro-Palestinian movement.

ny times logoNew York Times, Opinion: Stolid Midwestern Republicans Might Be the Real #Resistance, Michelle Cottle, April 1, 2026. There was a while late last year when the Republican lawmakers in Indiana who were resisting President Trump’s push to redraw the state’s congressional map lived with the pervasive risk of physical violence. “We had firebomb threats,” State Senator Jim Buck told me in a recent interview. “All kinds of threats!”

Several anti-redistricting Republicans were swatted — armed police swarmed their homes in response to fraudulent emergency calls. “I had to have a conversation with my kids about what happens if police kick down our door and why that’s happening and what to do,” recalled State Senator Spencer Deery.

More than three months after 21 Republicans helped vote down Mr. Trump’s redistricting scheme in the Indiana Senate, the danger of physical attacks appears to have dimmed. But for the eight members of that group pursuing re-election this year — Mr. Buck, Mr. Deery, Greg Goode, Travis Holdman, Greg Walker, Linda Rogers, Dan Dernulc and Rick Niemeyer — the political peril remains. And these senators’ fortunes in the state’s May 5 primary, in which early voting starts next week, have national implications.

Indiana was not the only red state where Mr. Trump, desperate to retain his party’s control of the U.S. House in the coming midterms, pressed state legislators to rig the game by pursuing mid-decade redistricting aimed at juicing the G.O.P.’s electoral odds. It was, however, the rare case where state Republicans thwarted him.

Now hellbent on unseating the holdouts, the president and a collection of allies have encouraged primary challengers and are expected to pour millions of dollars into these down-ballot races. Mr. Trump’s minions are candid, even boastful, about their retributive goal. “I want this to be talked about in political science textbooks for decades to come as a cautionary tale of deviating away from the conservative platform,” Brett Galaszewski, a leader with Turning Point Action, a conservative activist group, told Politico.

The Indiana senators are on the front lines of the MAGA movement’s fight to establish itself as a force that will endure beyond Mr. Trump’s reign, a process that involves stamping out competing power centers and glimmers of independent thinking in the Republican Party. Small-d democratic fundamentals, such as the idea that state lawmakers are autonomous operators with priorities distinct from the White House’s, have no place in the loyalty-based system Mr. Trump has built.

 

djt handwave fileOccupy Democrats, Opinion: Trump STORMS OUT of Supreme Court after his own Justices tear apart his birthright citizenship case, Staff and  wire reports, April 1, 2026. Donald Trump showed up to the Supreme Court on Wednesday to intimidate nine justices into stripping citizenship from 200,000 American-born babies a year. He left humiliated, with his motorcade speeding away down Independence Avenue before the other side had even finished arguing.

occupy democrats logoTrump made the unprecedented decision to personally attend oral arguments in his birthright citizenship case — the first sitting president in American history to do so. He was escorted in ten minutes early and seated in the front row, presumably to send a message.

The message the justices sent back wasn’t exactly what the adamantly anti-immigrant crusader had in mind.Within 90 minutes, multiple members of the court's own conservative supermajority — justices Trump either appointed or championed — were openly dismantling his administration's arguments. Chief Justice John Roberts called a key part of the government's position "quirky."

Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Amy Coney Barrett both signaled serious skepticism. And when Trump's solicitor general, D. John Sauer, tried to argue that modern realities like "birth tourism" justified rewriting 157 years of constitutional interpretation, Roberts delivered the most perfectly devastating response of the entire term: "Well, it's a new world. It's the same Constitution."

Trump didn't wait around to hear more. His motorcade was spotted zipping away from the Supreme Court at 11:25 a.m., while the challengers' lawyer was still being questioned. The man who came to project dominance fled before the other team even got to speak.

Here's what was actually at stake in that courtroom. Trump's executive order — signed on day one of his return to power — would eliminate automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants or temporary visa holders. It has never gone into effect, blocked by courts from the moment it was signed. If ultimately upheld, it would strip citizenship from approximately 200,000 babies born every year.

By 2050, according to a new study, it would create 6.4 million U.S.-born children with no legal status — stateless in the only country they have ever known. It would disproportionately affect Hispanic and Asian families. It would even potentially leave abandoned infants with no citizenship anywhere on earth.All of this to undo the 14th Amendment — ratified in 1868 specifically to guarantee that America would never again create a permanent underclass of people born on its soil with no claim to its protections.

The Constitution has answered this question for 157 years. On Wednesday, even Trump's own justices seemed to know it. While we’ll have to wait for an official ruling to see what the Justices ultimately decide in this particular challenge, Trump’s hasty retreat from the Court proceedings presages what the expected decision will be — and it’s not what the Racist-in-Chief was intimidating the Justices for.Trump came to the Supreme Court to make history.

He made it — just not the kind he was hoping for.

ny times logoNew York Times, Supreme Court  to Hear Landmark Challenge to Birthright Citizenship, Abbie VanSickle, April 1, 2026. The justices will consider the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented people and some temporary foreign visitors.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear a landmark case testing whether President Trump can limit birthright citizenship, the long-held principle that nearly all children born in the United States are automatically citizens.

The case focuses on the constitutionality of an executive order signed by Mr. Trump last year that would end citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil to undocumented immigrants and temporary foreign visitors.

A ruling in favor of the Trump administration could redefine what it means to be an American. It could also have sweeping practical consequences, stripping citizenship from more than an estimated 200,000 babies born in the United States each year to undocumented immigrants.

The executive order, which was blocked by lower courts and has never gone into effect, would only affect babies born in the future. Opponents say a decision to uphold it would create chaos and uncertainty for newborns and their parents, and cast doubt over the status of millions of people who have already benefited from birthright citizenship.

A decision is expected in the case by the end of June or early July.

Mr. Trump raised the stakes for the court by telling reporters during an event at the White House on Tuesday that he planned to attend Wednesday’s arguments in person.

No sitting president has attended a Supreme Court argument, and Mr. Trump’s presence in the courtroom would add to the drama for an already emotionally charged session. Mr. Trump had previously mused about attending court arguments, but has steered clear of them.

In a key precedent, the Supreme Court ruled in 1898 that Wong Kim Ark, a man of Chinese ancestry born in San Francisco to noncitizen parents, was a U.S. citizen.

But the administration has argued that when the 14th Amendment was adopted, it was intended to apply to formerly enslaved people and their descendants. It has also claimed that the amendment has been incorrectly interpreted as extending to the children of undocumented migrants.

The plaintiffs, a group of expectant parents and their children, argue that the guarantee of birthright citizenship is enshrined in the Constitution, and that the president does not have the power to unravel it.

They point to English common law and assert that the language in the 14th Amendment “drew on and reaffirmed a centuries-old, common-law tradition of citizenship by virtue of birth, rather than parentage,” according to a brief to the court.Editors’ PicksIs ‘One-Sided Monogamy’ Just Cheating?This Old-Fashioned Dish Deserves a Place on Your Easter TableBill Lawrence and Christa Miller List Their NoMad Condo for $7.85 Million

The plaintiffs, who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, also argue that the language in the Constitution was meant to enshrine birthright citizenship as a foundational principle “beyond the reach of officials in any branch of government who might seek to overturn or narrow it.”

ny times logoNew York Times, Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From Penn, Michael C. Bender and Alan Blinder, April 1, 2026 (print ed.). The government’s effort to collect the names and phone numbers of Jewish people on campus as it investigates antisemitism has upset some people who worry about how the information will be used.

The Trump administration was within its rights to demand that the University of Pennsylvania turn over information about Jews on campus as part of a federal investigation into discrimination at the school, a federal judge decided Tuesday.

The government’s investigation had united Penn leaders with Jewish students and faculty members as they opposed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s subpoena. Many on campus drew parallels between the government’s approach and methods deployed in Nazi Germany.

But the Trump administration has said that its request was typical for discrimination investigations to seek potential victims and witnesses, and Judge Gerald J. Pappert of Philadelphia’s Federal District Court agreed on Tuesday. He gave Penn until May 1 to comply with the administration’s subpoena, though the ruling appeared unlikely to quell the debates around how the administration has pressured top American universities.Read the decision.In his ruling, Judge Gerald J. Pappert of Philadelphia’s Federal District Court said Penn “relies on two federal-court opinions which hurt, not help, its position.”

Judge Pappert, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, appeared to hint at the discomfort that the government’s subpoena had prompted and at the accusations that the E.E.O.C. had gone too far with its tactics, especially a demand for information tied to groups “related to the Jewish religion.”

“Though ineptly worded, the request had an understandable purpose — to obtain in a narrowly tailored way, as opposed to seeking information on all university employees, information on individuals in Penn’s Jewish community who could have experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the workplace,” Judge Pappert wrote in his 32-page opinion, issued three weeks after he heard oral arguments.

Ultimately, Judge Pappert said, Penn’s constitutional claims were “easily dispensed with” and the government’s subpoena was valid.

Penn said in a statement on Tuesday that it would appeal the ruling and that it was “committed to confronting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.”

“While we acknowledge the important role of the E.E.O.C. to investigate discrimination, we also have an obligation to protect the rights of our employees,” the university said. “We continue to believe that requiring Penn to create lists of Jewish faculty and staff, and to provide personal contact information, raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns.”Editors’ PicksIs ‘One-Sided Monogamy’ Just Cheating?Chappell Roan, a Security Guard and a Crying Child. What Happened?As Hollywood Courts Gamers, They Warn: ‘Don’t Ruin This’

The university added that it did not “maintain employee lists by religion.”

A spokesman for the E.E.O.C. declined to comment.

The E.E.O.C. has been pursuing an inquiry into potential workplace discrimination against Jewish faculty and staff at Penn, an Ivy League school in Philadelphia, since 2023. While university officials said they welcomed the investigation, they balked last year after the government issued a subpoena seeking, among other records, names and phone numbers of employees who were members of Jewish groups on campus.

More On Iran, Lebanon Wars

ny times logoNew York Times, Israel’s Message to Southern Lebanon: Shiites Must Go, Christina Goldbaum, Photographs by David Guttenfelder, April 1, 2026. Israel has issued sweeping evacuation warnings, and pressed some Christian and Druse leaders to expel Shiite Muslims from their towns, the leaders said.

When Israel and Hezbollah last went to war two years ago, Israeli evacuation warnings came a few villages at a time for residents in southern Lebanon.

With the outbreak of a new war last month, the warnings came all at once. As fighting reignited, Israel issued blanket evacuation guidance for a vast stretch of southern Lebanon — extending 25 miles from the Israeli border — publicly urging all civilians to flee to the north.

But behind the scenes, Israeli officials have conveyed a more targeted message.

In private calls to local leaders across southern Lebanon, Israeli military officials have assured several Christian and Druse communities that they could remain in the evacuation zone. They have pressed them, however, to force out any Lebanese from neighboring Shiite Muslim communities who have sought refuge among them as Israeli bombardment flatten Shiite towns, according to local Christian, Druse and Shiite leaders who spoke to The New York Times. The Shiites make up the majority of southern Lebanon.

Local leaders took the messages as a clear signal: Israel is trying to force out one group in the south — Shiites, who are from the same sect as Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that Israel is trying to vanquish.

“Israel wants to create a new buffer zone, it wants us out, what can we do?” said Ali Naser, 26, a Shiite from one border village, Aitaroun.

Mr. Naser and his relatives fled their farm there when the war broke out and sought refuge in Rmeish, a predominately Christian town within the evacuation area. About two weeks later, municipal leaders informed them they needed to leave at once. First they went to the city of Sidon, on the coast, and then, after being unable to find space in any of the government-run shelters there, a relative’s home in the eastern Bekaa Valley beyond the limits of the evacuation zone.

“The town received and hosted us, we are grateful for that,” Mr. Naser said of Rmeish. But, he said, local leaders told him the pressure from Israel to make them leave was too great. “I’m at a loss,” he said.

The Israeli directives are among the earliest indicators of the plans Israel appears to be laying in southern Lebanon.  

ny times logoNew York Times, Placing U.S. Troops in Middle East Hotels May Violate Laws of War, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, April 1, 2026. U.S. commanders have kept many troops away from bases in the region to protect them from Iran’s ballistic missile attacks.

The U.S. military’s decision to move troops away from bases under Iranian attack to hotels and office spaces in civilian areas may amount to violations of international humanitarian law and the U.S. military’s own laws of war, human rights officials and experts say.

The constellation of American bases in the Persian Gulf region has been essential to the U.S. military’s execution of the air war over Iran. But commanders have relocated many of their troops because the sprawling compounds did not have adequate defenses to protect from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, U.S. defense officials said.

The move illustrates the U.S. military’s lack of preparedness for a war that the Trump administration started on its own terms, military experts said.

“This is the first war the United States is facing where we see the implications of democratized air power and the long-range persistent strikes from their adversary,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. “And the lack of preparedness is not limited to this theater.”

This lethal puzzle continues to complicate U.S. war planning after thousands of airstrikes, as Iran still retains the ability to launch ballistic missiles throughout the region. This has kept American forces away from bases and dispersed among the civilian population.Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Iran? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.

“It is unconscionable that U.S. forces would knowingly put civilians at risk by leaving their bases and moving to hotels in the densely populated city centers,” said Brian Castner, a crisis researcher at Amnesty International, a human rights organization. “The commanders who ordered these relocations, not out of the conflict area but right into the heart of the civilian populations, should be investigated for violating U.S. laws of war.”

Iran has urged people in the Gulf region to report on U.S. military troop locations off their bases. Iranian strikes have since killed a number of civilians in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.

Both the Pentagon’s law of war manual and the first protocol of the Geneva Conventions outline the need to avoid placing military forces in or near civilian populations.Editors’ PicksAs Hollywood Courts Gamers, They Warn: ‘Don’t Ruin This’When Stars’ Plastic Surgery Is Played for Your EntertainmentWhat One Month of Intense Red-Light Therapy Did to My Mind

The U.S. Law of War Manual, which was updated in 2023, states that “military commanders and other officials responsible for the safety of the civilian population must take reasonable steps to separate the civilian population from military objectives and to protect the civilian population from the effects of combat.”ImageA U.S. Navy base in Bahrain in 2023.Credit...Andrea DiCenzo for The New York Times

The manual gives some wiggle room for cases when troops need to be “housed in populated areas to take advantage of existing facilities, such as facilities for shelter, health and sanitation, communications or power.”

“These are mushy rules in the sense that all these obligations are to the maximum extent feasible,” said Kevin Jon Heller, a professor of international law and security at the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Military Studies.

But “do the U.S. actions raise issues here? They do,” he added.

Where the U.S. military crosses the line in international humanitarian law is around what are called “passive precautions,” or the measures militaries take to protect civilians in the vicinity of military positions from attack.

“Passive precautions are required, but they are often not followed,” said Michael Schmitt, a professor of international law at the University of Reading and an emeritus professor at the U.S. Naval War College. “Billeting troops in civilian structures in which there are civilians as in a hotel that is still being used or an apartment building where civilians are still living would be a violation of passive precautions.”

The first protocol of the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. law of war allows some discretion when it comes to placing forces among civilians when there is active combat in those areas. One example would be Ukrainian forces defending the southern city of Mariupol in 2022. Ukrainian troops were among civilians because Russian forces were directly attacking the city with ground troops, artillery and air strikes.

“This would not apply to the current situation of U.S. forces in the Middle East because the soldiers are not deployed to the cities to defend the civilian population from attack,” Mr. Castner said. “In fact, the opposite. The forces are trying to avoid attack by being in the hotels, which would not be lawful targets otherwise.”

A step further would be if a military intentionally used civilians as “human shields” to protect troops from attacks, a tactic that is considered a war crime. Insurgent forces have used noncombatants in this way in conflicts with larger and more capable militaries.

Underscoring the U.S. military’s challenges, the Pentagon solicited a contract last week for premade bunkers that could be shipped quickly to the Middle East and could “protect personnel from blast and fragmentation threats.”

nato logo flags nameEmptywheel, Analysis: It’s Not that Trump Is Threatening NATO; He Is Making NATO Toxic, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler, right), April 1, 2026. The day after Trump won (the first time) I wrote what I consider an AMAZEBALLS post asking whether “Trump’s skepticism about NATO [would] bring EU closer together?” Here’s just one line of it:

It’s unclear how much Trump’s soft side for Putin will affect events in Eastern Europe (and whether Trump will be smart enough not to get completely rolled by Putin).

I don’t consider it all correct, per se (though I was correct about Trump getting rolled).

It has taken a decade and a second Trump presidency for the EU to learn this hard lesson. But I was asking the right questions, including about the US’ propensity for using NATO for offensive adventures.

And here we are almost ten years later, Trump is demanding NATO support for his illegal war on Iran, and we’re still focused on whether Trump will abandon NATO, with both Trump …

Donald Trump has told The Telegraph he is strongly considering pulling the United States out of Nato after it failed to join his war on Iran.

The US president labelled the alliance a “paper tiger” and said removing America from the defence treaty was now “beyond reconsideration”.

It is the strongest sign yet that the White House no longer regards Europe as a reliable defence partner following the rejection of Mr Trump’s demand that allies send warships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Mr Trump was asked if he would reconsider the US’s membership of Nato after the conflict.

He replied: “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by Nato. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”

… And Marco Rubio (a big champion of NATO when he was a Senator) attacking the alliance.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington may need to reconsider its relationship with NATO once the war against Iran is over, sharply escalating pressure on European allies that America accuses of withholding support.

“We’re going to have to reexamine the value of NATO and that alliance for our country,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night.

“If NATO is just about us defending Europe if they’re attacked, but them denying us basing rights when we need them, that’s not a very good arrangement. That’s a hard one to stay engaged in,” Rubio added.

Ivo Daalder asking whether this is the end of NATO.

There are three things not mentioned in these stories.

First, the damage was already done when Trump made his plans to steal Greenland. It’s not just, as Daalder fashions it, that European countries have no “confidence that if I am attacked, you will come help defend.” It’s a certainty that Trump will attack not just Greenland, but also liberal institutions within Europe, if he gets his way.

Second, Iran is not a war unto itself. Iran has supported Russia in a war targeting Ukraine but aimed against much of Europe and, at the same time, Russia is helping Iran kill American troops fighting in the Middle East. Trump’s response to Russia’s involvement has been to reward Russia, almost certainly including requests to Ukraine not to target Russia’s oil infrastructure. This reality appears not to have dawned on much of the US commentariat. A Politico catalog of all the ways Europe has refused to help, for example, includes Poland’s refusal to give up its Patriot battery, didn’t include the most important part of the Polish Defense Minister’s explanation why not: “Our Patriot batteries and their weapons are used to protect Polish skies and NATO’s eastern flank.” They’re there to protect against Russian invasion. The same is true of the UK’s increasing reluctance to share intelligence with Trump, also included in that catalog; Europe is in an adversarial position against Russia and Trump is everywhere helping Russia against Europe, increasingly aggressively as Viktor Orbán faces voters this month.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, a close alliance with Trump will become a big liability if one of the likely outcomes in the Hormuz comes to pass: that a negotiated settlement allows Iran to keep much of the power Trump has given to it, with some ability to veto who goes through the Strait. Trump is demanding that Europe reopen the Strait that he allowed Iran to close, but he appears to have no fucking clue that the most likely way that will happen is by negotiation, not bombs, a negotiation that will make any involvement from European countries a significant liability.

One big reason Europe is not rushing to join Trump’s war (though Ireland, which has peacekeepers under fire from Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, has inexplicably allowed Trump to use Shannon) is because it is so manifestly illegal. Israel’s extension of its Gazan tactics to Lebanon only makes things worse.

But another is that if, as Trump has threatened, he simply takes his toys and goes home, then any contributions to the war will make it far harder to clean up after Trump’s mess.

In January, as Trump threatened to invade Greenland, Europe finally had to face that Trump was not their ally. In the last month, as Trump has waged even stupider adventures in Iran, any alliance with Trump is becoming increasingly costly.War in the Middle East

Trump Watch

ny times logoNew York Times, Bomb Shelters and a Drone-Proof Roof: Trump Says Ballroom Is a Matter of Security, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, April 1, 2026. President Trump spoke about his ballroom’s security features as he argued against a judge’s orders to stop construction.

President Trump on Tuesday delivered a new justification for his White House ballroom, just hours after a federal judge ordered him to halt construction. The $400 million project, he argued, is a matter of presidential security.

“We have a drone-proof roof,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, reading from prepared notes. He said the ballroom would also include bulletproof glass, “air-handling systems,” “biodefense all over,” “secure telecommunications and communications all over,” bomb shelters, a hospital and “major medical facilities.”

“We have all of these things,” Mr. Trump said. “So that’s called: I am allowed to continue building as necessary.”

A federal judge on Tuesday said that work on the ballroom had to stop until the project received a go-ahead from Congress, a ruling that the administration swiftly appealed. In the Oval Office, Mr. Trump made the unusual disclosure of the security features, including apparent references to the bunker being built beneath the ballroom.

While such security details are normally kept quiet, Mr. Trump has been talking about them more openly as his project faces legal challenges. On Sunday, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Mr. Trump referred to underground facility as a “massive complex.” He said the ballroom “essentially becomes a shed for what’s being built under.”

Mr. Trump had previously spoken of the ballroom mostly as a matter of hospitality.

He has said that a new ballroom is needed to host large events for world leaders and other guests, so that the White House does not need to stand up a large tent on the South Lawn. “We don’t have a big room,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday. “We have the East Room, which is very small.”

U.S. Economy, Inflation, Jobs

Popular Information, Accountability Journalism: The tale of the tape: Trump repeatedly pledged to cut gas prices by 50%, Judd Legum, right, judd legumand Rebecca Crosby, April 1, 2026. “Mark it down, and you can get very angry at me if we don’t do it.”

During the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump promised that if he were elected president again, he would reduce the price of a gallon of gas by 50% within a year of taking office. “12 months from January 20th… your gasoline for your car is going to be 50% cheaper,” Trump declared at a speech to the Detroit Economic Club on October 10, 2024. “That’s a big thing.”

On January 20, 2025, the day Trump took office for a second term, the average price for a gallon of gas was $3.12. Had Trump kept his pledge, gas would now cost about $1.57 per gallon.

On Tuesday, the average price of a gallon of gas was $4.02. Instead of the 50% reduction in gas prices that Trump promised, prices have increased by more than 28%.

Trump also promised to drive down other energy costs, including electricity bills and home heating gas, by 50%. “Energy costs, all of it, air conditioning, heating, all of it, including gasoline, will drop by more than 50% within the first 12 months,” Trump pledged during an August 19, 2024, rally in York, Pennsylvania.

Home heating oil has gone from $3.94 per gallon on the day of Trump’s inauguration to $5.57 per gallon today, a 41% increase. Residential electricity costs averaged 15.92 cents per kilowatt-hour in January 2025. Today, Americans are paying an average of 18.05 cents per kilowatt-hour, an increase of 13%.

The sharp increase in energy prices, particularly oil prices, is not the result of misfortune. Rather, it is a direct and predictable consequence of Trump’s policies. Trump made the decision to start a war against Iran without a plan to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a sea passage used by about 20% of the world’s oil supply. Although most oil that travels through the Strait of Hormuz is not imported to the United States, oil trades in a global market, so cutting off a significant percentage of the supply increases costs for everyone.

Trump has pursued these policies even though his pledge to reduce energy prices was not a flip remark but a central plank of his reelection campaign, one he repeated over and over again.

“Under the Trump economic plan, we will cut your energy prices in half,” Trump said at a September 21, 2024, rally in Wilmington, North Carolina. “Mark it down, and you can get very angry at me if we don’t do it.” Two days later, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Trump promised, “If you vote for me, I will cut your energy and electricity prices in half within 12 months.”

There are many more examples, all of which are on tape. Popular Information has compiled some highlights. Watch:

Trump has addressed increasing energy prices in a variety of ways. At times, he has sought to spin the increased prices as a positive development. “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” Trump bragged on March 12, 2026.

Alternatively, he has claimed the price spikes would be fleeting. Trump predicted that prices would “go lower than they were before“ as soon as the war ended. This is unlikely because the end of the war would not necessarily mean the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. If the Strait remains closed for an extended period, crude oil prices could reach $200 per barrel, resulting in gas prices of about $7 per gallon.

Finally, after campaigning on lower energy prices, Trump has, at times, dismissed the issue as unimportant.

“If they rise, they rise,” Trump said.

Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Commentary: $4 Gasoline is Less Than Half the Story, Paul Krugman, right, April 1, 2026. The biggest losers from the Iran War are buyers of diesel, jet fuel, chemicals and fertilizer.

Although I expected the war on Iran to be a disaster, I didn’t expect the Trump administration to be implicitly conceding defeat after barely a month. Yet that’s where we are: A screenshot of a message AI-generated content may be incorrect.

The stock market has soared on the news of potential U.S surrender, which tells you something about how the war is going. Unfortunately, declaring victory and running away will be a lot more difficult than Trump thinks. For one thing, thousands of U.S. ground troops are on their way to the Persian Gulf, and it will be very hard to avoid succumbing to the temptation to use them, at which point we will have entered what Robert Pape calls the “escalation trap.”

At the same time, Trump’s claim that the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is other countries’ problem is whistling in the dark. Trump is telling Europeans that if they lack the “courage” to seize the jet fuel they need — funny how the vastly larger U.S. military isn’t doing the job — they can just “buy from the U.S., we have plenty.” Here’s what has happened to the average price of jet fuel at major U.S. airports:

Does this look to you as if we have “plenty”? It doesn’t look that way to airline executives: A black text on a white background AI-generated content may be incorrect.

The reality is that U.S. prices of petroleum distillates and other products in which Persian Gulf nations are key producers have soared. The rise in gasoline prices, for which the national average just hit $4 a gallon, has made headlines. But other prices are also hugely important.

Most non-electric cars run on gasoline, but most trucks are fueled with diesel. And diesel prices are up even more than gasoline prices — approximately $1.70 per gallon as opposed to $1: A graph of a graph with blue lines AI-generated content may be incorrect.

The feedstocks for fertilizer are largely manufactured from natural gas, and Persian Gulf nations were major producers, shipping their production out through the Strait of Hormuz, before the war. Here’s what has happened to the price of urea: A graph with blue line AI-generated content may be incorrect.

And where do you think plastic comes from? Here’s the price of polyethylene: A graph showing a line AI-generated content may be incorrect.

How important are these non-gasoline price shocks? The Energy Information Administration has a useful chart — the data are for 2022, but the numbers will look similar for the eve of the Iran War: A chart of a graph AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Less than half of U.S. consumption of petroleum products was gasoline. And the price of distillate fuel oil — mostly diesel — is up about 70 percent more than the price of gasoline. Add in soaring costs for fertilizer and feedstocks for plastic, and the surge in gas prices, even though it dominates headlines, is well under half of the economic story.

And who pays the higher prices of diesel, jet fuel, fertilizer and plastics? The answer is that these show up initially as costs to producers but will quickly be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for shipping and, indirectly, almost everything you buy.

How big is the non-gasoline price shock? We consume around 4 million barrels of diesel a day, which is about 60 billion gallons per year (there are 42 gallons per barrel.) The price of diesel is up $1.70 a gallon, so if prices were to stay at current levels, that alone would be a roughly $100 billion hit to consumers. Substantial additional hits will come from higher prices of jet fuel, fertilizer and petrochemicals.

And, of course, gasoline has gotten a lot more expensive too. Do you still think that the Strait of Hormuz is other countries’ problem?

Now, America produces a lot of oil, and the domestic oil industry will be earning large windfall profits even as U.S. consumers suffer. But so what? We don’t have any mechanism in place to capture and redistribute those windfall gains, so ordinary U.S. families will bear the full brunt of the global oil shock even though America is a net oil exporter.

There’s an additional, technical but important reason to be even more worried about soaring prices for diesel, jet fuel and industrial materials than about gasoline prices. It involves how the Federal Reserve is likely to react.

The Fed normally bases its decisions about whether to reduce or increase interest rates on “core” inflation — inflation excluding food and energy prices. The reason it does this is that food and energy prices are highly volatile and are usually a poor indicator of what inflation will be over the next few years. So the Fed tries to “look through” inflation fluctuations driven mainly by the prices of groceries and gasoline. For example, it didn’t raise rates in 2011, when there was a temporary uptick in inflation driven entirely by oil prices.

There is a major debate among monetary policy experts about whether the Fed can safely focus only on core inflation and look through the inflationary effects of the Hormuz blockade, which if unresolved will be the worst energy crisis in history. In any case, however, core inflation only excludes energy directly purchased by consumers. Oil-related price shocks such as soaring jet fuel and diesel prices, which raise the cost of doing business, aren’t excluded, which means that they will increase the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation. This will push the Fed toward raising interest rates or at least holding off on rate cuts.

The Fed could, in principle, try to look through the effects of the Strait crisis on business costs as well as direct effects on consumer prices. But given how nervous everyone is about the risk of 70s-type stagflation, it probably won’t.

So the diesel/jet fuel/plastics shock will lead, other things equal, to a more hawkish Fed — and an elevated risk of recession.

The moral here is that the United States retains a vital interest in seeing the Strait of Hormuz reopened. Much as Trump would like to declare victory and insist that the blockade is other countries’ problem, reality won’t oblige him.

 

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: TACO Is The Opiate of the Masses, Andrew Egger, right, April 1, 2026. Liberation Day! One year ago tomorrow, Donald Trump took the lunatic policy swing that would bring a swift end—though he didn’t yet know it—to the first act of his second term.andrew egger

He’d been reelected with a mandate to rule, he believed, and he’d wasted no time getting started. He’d empaneled DOGE to run riot through the executive branch, and Elon Musk’s posse of tweaky manlets had already ripped much of the wiring out of the walls of the government. He’d gotten started immediately with his personal-vengeance campaigns of political retribution and economic extortion, and he’d begun to spin up an immigration-enforcement machine to deliver on his promises of mass deportation. And now it was time to turn to the biggest bulwark logo big shipeconomic swing of all: reorienting the entire global economy through an unbelievably strict regime of massive tariffs.

“April 2, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” Trump exulted in his Rose Garden¹ speech announcing the change. “Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than fifty years, but it is not going to happen anymore.”

Markets had been bracing for some major tariff action, but what the president actually rolled out—massive, economy-stifling tariffs on nearly every country in the world, with rates calculated according to an almost unfathomably clownish baby’s-first-stats-class formula—went beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings. “The market reaction after hours, I’ve never seen anything like it,” a shell-shocked Jon Fortt said on CNBC immediately after Trump wrapped up. “This—I think, fair to say—is worse than the worst-case scenario of the tariffs that many in the market expected the president to impose.”

You probably remember what happened next. Trump held firm for about a week, as markets crashed around his ears and investors fled the U.S. bond market. Then, abruptly, he gave in to gravity: He postponed implementation of most of the global tariffs, then spent much of the next year hashing out individual deals with various countries. His partial retreat let the economy return from its cardiac event: from then on, tariff damage would accrue to it gradually, rather than all at once.

This was the moment that the world learned the lesson that Trump would, in the final and bitterest moment, respond to normal economic stimuli. Until the fallout from Liberation Day, Trump’s momentum had seemed unstoppable: You can just do things was the MAGA credo on which the country was suddenly running, and nowhere was his determination greater than in the realm of tariffs. And yet, faced with the prospect of inevitable economic calamity, he had blinked. The lesson seemed clear: If markets get spooked enough, Trump will see reason. And this in turn meant that if any individual trader held their holdings while others were panic selling amid a nightmare Trump policy swerve, they’d stand to benefit when Trump abruptly chickened out. Overnight, the TACO trade was born.

We’ve been living in the time of TACO ever since. But there’s a contradiction at the heart of this model that rendered it fundamentally unstable over time, and I wonder whether we’re now reaching the end of this second era of Trump II.

If Morning Shots has helped you navigate the first part of Trump’s second term, consider becoming a Bulwark+ member. You’ll get access to more newsletters, podcasts, and live events—and you’ll be helping us grow.Subscribed

The only thing that seems to get through to Trump is catastrophic market movements—but those market movements are not only reacting to Trump, but trying to predict him, too. The more the TACO trade philosophy permeates through the markets, the less the markets respond to Trump’s rash impulses and grandiloquent proclamations—because they expect him to reverse course once the damage becomes obvious. But that very confidence means Trump’s moves aren’t causing markets to swoon like they once did, which in turn means Trump isn’t getting the better-act-now stimuli that might cause him to reverse course.

What does this vicious cycle look like in practice? It looks like the world we’re living in now, where Trump has risked a global depression by precipitating Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz—and has now apparently deluded himself into thinking America can actually get on just fine without solving that problem. And why not? Sure, oil prices have risen and the stock market has taken a bit of a hit. But neither market has gone truly berserk yet—in part because they’re expecting Trump to change course. But he has convinced himself he has little incentive to change course, since they haven’t yet gone berserk!

So far, it appears Trump sees his strait problem as primarily a political one, which can be solved by simply finding the right people to blame. He does not see the economic calamity bearing down on us, because the markets—in their quest to find the optimal way of dealing with Trump—have inadvertently taken away the one signal that can get through to him. Liberation Day wasn’t just the economic catastrophe that set the tone for the 2025 economy. By introducing us to the TACO model, it sowed the seeds of our present catastrophe, too.

AROUND THE BULWARK

  • Zelensky’s Kickass Two Weeks… CATHY YOUNG shares his broader achievement (so far).
  • Reporters Now Need Escorts to Do Their Jobs at the Pentagon… On The Illegal News, ELLIOT WILLIAMS joins SARAH LONGWELL to explain a series of legal fights that go to the core of how the country operates.
  • bulwark logo big shipCourt Orders Trump to Stop Construction on His Beloved Ballroom… SAM STEIN and WILL SALETAN take on a judge’s decision to halt Donald Trump’s plan to build a massive White House ballroom on Bulwark Takes.
  • It Is Time to Scream and Yell… JON LOVETT joins TIM MILLER on the flagship pod to explain why this is the moment for Democrats to show what a real opposition is—especially when warmonger Lindsey Graham runs off to play at Disney World.
  • Command Post Live! Mark Hertling and Ben Parker are going live at 11 a.m. EDT today on Substack and YouTube to discuss Trump’s speech tonight, the prospect of ground troops in Iran, and Trump’s slow-motion destruction of NATO (about which, more below).
  • We’ll also have a Bulwark crew reacting live to Trump’s address tonight. Look out for links later in the day. We’ll post the replays of both livestreams on Bulwark Takes for those who can’t join us live.

Quick Hits

BREAKING NATO: President Trump told the Telegraph that he’s considering withdrawing the United States from NATO, saying his decision is “beyond reconsideration.” He told the British newspaper that the United Kingdom doesn’t have a navy—which is false—and said of the most successful alliance in the history of the world: “I was never swayed by Nato. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”

There is a problem for Trump here, though.

Embedded in the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress passed and Joe Biden signed into law, is a provision that no president can withdraw from NATO without the approval of the Senate or an act of Congress. That provision may or may not be constitutional—but that’s a question the courts will have to sort out, not Trump. If he wants to know more about the law,² he can consult one of its co-authors, his national security advisor and secretary of state,³ Marco Rubio.

But Trump has already broken NATO in so many ways. The United States is no longer trusted—and is much less popular—in Europe. Even if the transatlantic alliance can be repaired, it will never approach what it was before Trump’s second term. Trump’s military threats against Canada and Denmark were clear, specific, and obvious violations of the North Atlantic Treaty. Even if he decides not to invite the legal headache of formally withdrawing from the treaty, it hardly matters. The damage is done.

—Benjamin Parker

WHATEVER WE EXPECTED, IT WASN’T THAT: Tabloid family drama has surrounded outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for years, mostly due to her she-denies-it-but-come-on relationship with longtime political ally Corey Lewandowski. Yesterday, however, brought startling headlines not about Lewandowski, but about Noem’s longsuffering husband Bryon—who, the Daily Mail reported,⁴ has a thing for putting balloons under his shirt and chatting online with “bimbofication” fetish models.⁵

Both Noem and her boss Donald Trump weighed in on the news yesterday, with a spokesperson for Noem telling the New York Post that she was “devastated” and the family was “blindsided.” Trump seemed surprised that Noem confirmed the story: “They confirmed it? Wow, well, I feel badly for the family if that’s the case,” he told reporters. “That’s too bad.”

The timing of this story was bizarre: It leaked on the very last day of Noem’s tenure at DHS. Did the Daily Mail sit on it until it was less likely to hurt the administration? Did a Noem enemy at DHS want to take a parting shot on her way out the door? Or is Lewandowski just tired of being the side piece and trying to figure out a path toward a more permanent arrangement? And perhaps most importantly: Now that “bimbofication” has joined “felching” in the dubious category of “fetish terms Trump cabinet officials have compelled us to learn,” will there be others to follow?Kristi Noem's Husband Isn’t the Problem Kristi Noem's Husband Isn’t the ProblemJonathan V. Last, Tim Miller, and Sarah Longwell · Mar 31Read full story

ANYTHING BUT THE BALLROOM: Legal losses have been piling up for the president lately, including the Supreme Court’s demolition of his “Liberation Day” tariffs and a California judge’s decision to grant the AI company Anthropic a temporary restraining order against the administration’s attempt to bar the company from all government-adjacent work. But yesterday, a federal judge dealt Trump perhaps the most grievous blow of all: a bar on further construction of the president’s lusted-after White House ballroom. “Unless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization,” Judge Richard Leon wrote, “construction has to stop!”

It is no exaggeration to say that ballroom construction has been one of the top priorities of Trump’s second term. Even amid all the other upheavals occupying his attention—trade wars, actual wars, deportations, occupations of cities, extortions of companies, retributions against enemies—Trump has routinely made time to micromanage the details of its construction. On Sunday, while taking questions about Iran aboard Air Force One, Trump was suddenly brandishing a posterboard rendering of the ballroom: “I’m so busy that I don’t have time for this,” he said. “I’m fighting wars and other things, but this is very important, because this is going to be with us for a long time.” Prior to the ruling, he’d posted about the ballroom a total of 23 times on Truth Social and mentioned it more than 50 times at various press gaggles and media events.

The White House is appealing Leon’s decision, and the president is behaving predictably, railing against the National Trust for Historic Preservation—“a Radical Left Group of Lunatics”—which brought the suit after Trump demolished the White House East Wing to make way for the ballroom. Meanwhile, Trump is also testing out interesting new strategies to try to stanch the legal bleeding: He suggested yesterday that he plans to attend the Supreme Court’s oral arguments next week as the Court takes up his unconstitutional attempt to end birthright citizenship via executive order.

U.S. Media, Education, High Tech, Culture

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump’s Executive Order on NPR and PBS Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules, Benjamin Mullin, April 1, 2026 (print ed.). The ruling will have minimal effect on the federal money going to public media because Congress voted to claw back funding. But it could have implications for any future funding.

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that President Trump’s executive order barring the federal funding of NPR and PBS violated the First Amendment.

Randolph Moss, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said in his ruling that Mr. Trump’s order, signed last May, was unlawful because it instructed federal agencies to refrain from funding NPR and PBS because the president believed their news coverage had a liberal viewpoint.

“The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the president disapproves of their ‘left-wing’ coverage of the news,” Judge Moss wrote. But the First Amendment, he said, “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.”

The ruling will likely have minimal effect on the federal funding of public media. Two months after the executive order, Congress voted to claw back roughly $500 million in annual funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that distributes federal money to NPR and PBS. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has since shut down, and public radio and TV stations across the country have sought alternate forms of revenue.

But the ruling could have implications for any future money Congress decides to allocate to public media, removing a hurdle that could have prevented lawmakers from restoring funding for NPR and PBS.

The White House did not immediately respond for comment. “Today’s ruling is a decisive affirmation of the rights of a free and independent press,” Katherine Maher, NPR’s chief executive, said in a statement. PBS said in a statement that the judge’s ruling affirmed that Mr. Trump’s executive order imposed “textbook unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.”

NPR’s lawsuit against the executive order upset some members of the public media community because it included the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as a defendant. NPR added the corporation as a defendant because Mr. Trump’s order directed it to deny NPR funding. NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting eventually settled that dispute.

In his opinion, Judge Moss wrote that the executive order, along with other public statements from the White House criticizing NPR reporting, including about Russia’s attempt to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, “targets a disfavored viewpoint.”

“It is difficult to conceive of clearer evidence that a government action is targeted at viewpoints that the president does not like and seeks to squelch,” Judge Moss wrote.

Public Notice, Political Commentary: Big tech is coming for the midterms, Paul Waldman, April 1, 2026. And Silicon Valley's agenda is bad news for working people.

It wasn’t that long ago that the prevailing view in Silicon Valley was that politics is both grubby and boring, not worth the time and money of the nerd emperors too busy shaping the future of humanity to care who wins the next election.

But those days are gone, and now it seems that every few weeks we hear of a new tech-funded effort to leverage buckets of cash into the election of friendly members of Congress and state legislators.

The latest, called Innovation Council Action, reportedly plans to spend $100 million between now and the midterm elections in November. It’s run by Taylor Budowich, a key MAGA operative and former deputy chief of staff in the Trump White House.

ny times logoNew York Times, Army Suspends Helicopter Crew After Kid Rock Gets a Flyby, Emily Cochrane and Eric Schmitt,  April 1, 2026 (print ed.). The pro-Trump musician saluted the pair of Apache attack choppers, which appeared to be the same ones that flew low over a “No Kings” rally in Nashville.

The Army has suspended the crews that piloted a pair of Apache helicopters close to the musician Kid Rock’s residence in Nashville over the weekend, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday.

The crew members involved, who have not been identified, have been barred from flight duties, a spokesman said, a day after the Army began an inquiry into videos posted on social media of the flyover.

“The Army takes any allegations of unauthorized or unsafe flight operations very seriously and is committed to enforcing standards and holding personnel accountable,” said the spokesman, Maj. Montrell Russell. He declined to offer additional details about the suspensions, which were first reported by NBC News.

The helicopter gunships appeared to be the same ones that flew over a No Kings protest held on Saturday in Nashville, a maneuver that some attendees said felt like intimidation.

But it was the videos posted by Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, on social media on Saturday that prompted official scrutiny. One video shows Mr. Ritchie waving and saluting as a helicopter hovers near the pool at the 27,000-square-foot mansion he has christened the Southern White House, which is fashioned after the original structure in Washington.

In a second video, another helicopter can be seen flying above the first as Mr. Ritchie continues to wave. The musician, who has been vocal about his support for President Trump, shared the videos with some derogatory commentary about Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, adding “God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her.”

Mr. Ritchie’s manager did not respond to requests for comment.

Maj. Jonathon Bless, a spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, which is based about 60 miles north in Fort Campbell, Ky., said on Monday that an administrative review would “assess the mission and verify compliance with regulations and airspace requirements.”What matters to you in the South?Emily Cochrane covers the South for The Times. She is eager to learn about what makes life in this changing region distinct, and to talk to people whose lives have been directly affected by laws passed in Washington. Share your thoughts

The helicopters, Major Bless said, had been in the Nashville area for training, and he called their appearance over the No Kings rally “entirely coincidental.”

While Major Bless did not address the rally portion of the flight, Pentagon officials said that would be part of a review. They said the crew’s training mission had been scheduled only for the airspace above Fort Campbell. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the internal discussions.Some of the people who attended the protest in Nashville said the brief flyover was jarring as they assembled in a park. Many in the sprawling crowd of thousands grumbled at what they said felt like a pointed maneuver, but did not leave.

Even for the couple of people familiar with the occasional training flight, and at least one other close flight over a Tennessee Titans game in 2021, it was an unusual sight.

“That’s taxpayer dollars right there,” said Sandra Sepulveda, a Nashville councilwoman who was at the protest and saw the helicopters. She added: “They could have chosen any other place, any other time to do a training exercise. So why was it this location specifically?”

The videos provoked some eye-rolling in liberal-leaning Nashville. Mr. Ritchie, whose stardom began in the Detroit area with the image of a no-holds-barred party beast, has evolved into a conservative flag-bearer and cultural icon in the MAGA movement. He joined many conservatives in moving south to Tennessee, and most recently headlined counterprogramming to Bad Bunny’s performance at the Super Bowl halftime show.

The military has faced scrutiny before for its use of helicopters during protests. In 2020, as thousands converged on Washington to protest the death of George Floyd, Army National Guard helicopters flew low and used the downward blast from their rotor blade to disperse protesters.

The appearances of the helicopters in Nashville were not the only incidents connected with No Kings rallies in Tennessee that raised alarm. In Memphis, roughly three hours away, a confrontation toward the end of the day became violent, as police officers used pepper spray and aggressively detained protesters whom they accused of failing to clear the road.

Three people were arrested and the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave during an investigation, Mayor Paul Young of Memphis said.

Global News

Politico Magazine, She Spoke Out About Gaza. Now She Can’t Use a Credit Card, Karl Mathiesen, April 1, 2026 (print ed.). After accusing governments and corporations of complicity in Gaza, the U.N. investigator for Palestine territories now finds herself in Washington’s crosshairs.

politico CustomFrancesca Albanese was on stage receiving a standing ovation when she first learned how the United States was going to punish her.

It was July 9 last year. The Italian legal expert, who is the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, was in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana wrapping up a two-hour talk on her most incendiary report yet.

As she spoke, her tone flicked between professorial bromides on international law and flares of outrage as she detailed how some of the world’s largest companies — including giants of American tech, energy and defense — were aiding Israel in the starvation and killing of the Palestinians of Gaza. Now and again she fixed the audience with a look of exasperation.Francesca Albanese

When the talk ended, Albanese stood to accept the crowd’s adulation. One of the organizers walked across the stage, leaned close and said into her ear: “The United States has imposed sanctions on you.”

Albanese’s head dropped. She stared at the floor, absorbing what it meant, thinking that she needed to call her husband and children. Sanctions would cut her and her family off from U.S. banking, travel and tech. Would they be okay? But the crowd was still there. Clapping. Hollering. Her head snapped up. She stretched her arms wide, palms facing her supporters, with a wry smile that said, “What are you gonna do?”

A few seconds later, she raised a fist in the air.

“I was scared and I thought: ‘What a mafia,’” she told me when we spoke in March, referring to the U.S. administration. “‘But they will not break us.’”

Albanese is a self-admitted partisan in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, making her loved and loathed with equal extremes of feeling.e

Albanese was among the first official voices to label what has happened in Gaza a genocide. In a statement last week, the Israeli mission to the U.N. Geneva said she had engaged in “virulent antisemitism.”

Her supporters — including human-rights activists, Palestinians, some Israelis and a vast legion of online followers — see Albanese as a rare and forceful voice piercing the cone of silence and indifference that has fallen over Gaza while a generational crime takes place within.

This has earned her powerful enemies. Israel and U.S. officials, antisemitism watchdogs and a group of European governments say she is an antisemite, whose simplistic depiction of the conflict and inflammatory language is fanning hatred toward Jews. Some Jews who might otherwise be sympathetic to her cause find some of her public statements — which, for instance, have drawn parallels between Israel’s government and the Nazis — troubling and offensive.

But even against a campaign to discredit and silence her, the U.S. sanctions were an escalation — and an impressive expression of American power and animus. She was, after all, an unpaid U.N. expert, whose only real weapon (aside from the symbolic authority of her office) was her voice. That’s a point her family will take up in a court in the District of Columbia on Wednesday as they challenge the sanctions on free-speech grounds.

Now she is under constraints normally reserved for narco-barons and terrorists. What had she done that was so threatening to the U.S.?

Albanese thinks she knows. “This fury comes because I poked the bear,” she said. “Not in one eye, in both eyes.”

The targeting of a U.N. official was like “nothing that ever happened in the 18-plus years I was in the department and likely violates our own freedom of speech laws,” said one former State Department diplomat, granted anonymity to candidly discuss U.S. government policy. (The U.N. said there had been previous cases of the U.S. sanctioning its officials.)

A key part of that campaign has been allegations that her views on Israel are grounded in antisemitism.

When I raised this issue with Albanese, she was ready with a dismissal.

“The religion Israel professes cannot be used as an excuse to murder or torture children, right?” she said. “And the legitimate fight against antisemitism cannot be weaponized against those who ask for justice for those children.” 

When U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions on Albanese last summer, he said she had “spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West.”

But none of these were the final trigger for the move, said a former senior White House official familiar with the development of the sanctions who was granted anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

That came in April and May 2025, when Albanese wrote letters to 48 companies, universities and financial institutions notifying them that, in her view, they were complicit in and profiting from a genocide. She said she was planning to name them in an upcoming report.

The letters went to a Who’s Who of U.S. capitalism — Alphabet, Lockheed Martin, BlackRock, Chevron, Palantir and Caterpillar among them. The companies listed above either did not respond to questions, called Albanese’s allegations “categorically false” (Palantir’s response), deferred questions about military sales to the U.S. government (Lockheed Martin) or highlighted their compliance with strict due diligence requirements (BlackRock).

Asked to comment, the State Department said in an emailed statement: “Our sanctions are legal, appropriate, and necessary. Her so-called ‘reports’ targeting American workers and their livelihoods from farms to factories show a deep-seated bias against American economic sovereignty, and have no basis in reality or fact, and distract from the very real work the UN does to help people, particularly in humanitarian settings.”

The first hearing in her court case is expected to take place on Wednesday, when Judge Richard J. Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, will decide whether to temporarily lift the sanctions while the court considers the matter. 

March 31

Top Headlines 

 

President Trump addresses about 800 U.S. generals and admirals in a political-rally-style speech at Quantico, VA on Sept. 30, 2025.President Trump addresses about 800 U.S. generals and admirals in a political-rally-style speech at Quantico, VA on Sept. 30, 2025, preceded by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a former National Guard officer who prefers to call himself "Secretary of War" instead of the congressionally mandated term "Secretary of Defense." 

 

pete hesgeth military collage

Senior military leaders look on at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30, 2025 in Quantico, Virginia.

News Updates

U.S. Law, Crime, Courts, Rights, Justice 

  • New York Times, Editorial Board Opinion: The People Trump Pardoned Are on a Crime Spree, The Editorial Board, March 31, 2026. The Constitution grants sweeping pardon powers to the president, which means that public opinion has historically been the only check on that power. How can the nation hold Mr. Trump accountable for the lawlessness that he has made possible? The only answer is public opinion and its most tangible manifestation: election results. In this year’s midterms, he and the Republican Party he leads deserve to pay a political price for the pardons. 
  • New York Times, Trump Administration Live Updates: Fired Agents Sue F.B.I., Seeking Class-Action Status, Alan Feuer, March 31, 2026. What We’re Covering Today.Three fired F.B.I. agents who are suing the bureau and the Justice Department are seeking class-action status on behalf of those who say they have been terminated for running afoul of the president. The former agents, who helped investigate President Trump’s efforts to cling to power after the 2020 election, also named Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general, as defendants
  • New York Times, Justices Reject Colorado Law Banning ‘Conversion Therapy’ for L.G.B.T.Q. Minors, Ann E. Marimow, March 31, 2026. The state and more than 20 others restrict therapists from trying to change the gender identity or sexual orientation of L.G.B.T.Q. clients under the age of 18.

More On Iran War

  • Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Retreat By Any Other Name, William Kristol, right, william bill kristol imdbMarch 31, 2026. For what it’s worth—and keep in mind, this newsletter is free—here’s my speculation, as of early Tuesday morning, March 31, about where Donald Trump is heading on Iran. Where he’s heading is toward the exits.
  • New York Times, News Analysis: Trump Faces a Decision on Whether to Start a Ground War in Iran, David E. Sanger and Tyler Pager, March 31, 2026. The president wants a negotiation, but the Iranians say they are refusing until a cease-fire is declared. And while Marines and the 82nd Airborne Division offer new leverage, the risks escalate quickly.
  • New York Times, Iran War Live Updates: After a Month of War, Hegseth Says Iran Retains Ability to Strike, John Ismay, Greg Jaffe, Helene Cooper and Aurelien Breeden, March 31, 2026. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held their first public update on the state of the war in 12 days.
  • New York Times, Trump Lashes Out Again at Europe for Its Lukewarm Support Against Iran, Mark Landler and Catherine Porter, March 31, 2026. President Trump’s latest outbursts followed reports that European countries were imposing more restrictions on American aircraft in their airspace.
  • Emptywheel, Analysis: How Much Will Crown Prince Bonesaw Tolerate? Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler), right, marcy wheelerMarch 31, 2026. I’m Saudi King Salman honors President Trump in the latter's first foreign trip in 2017 after winning the U.S. presidency (Associated Press photo by Evan Vucci).fairly obsessed with the serial damage the Iranians have done on Prince Sultan Air Base (and other US facilities) in Saudi Arabia. While there has been some superb work analyzing the second and third successful strike at Prince Sultan, this NYT article I keep returning to is the only one I’ve seen documenting the damage from the first strike, which hit a building close to a radar facility (ABC reported the strike itself).

Trump Watch

U.S. Energy, Transportation, Inflation, Jobs, Economy

U.S. Politics, Governance, Elections

Democratic-Republican Campaign logos

U.S. Immigration Crackdown, Rights, Disputes

ICE logo

  • New York Times, Latino Republicans in South Texas Break With Trump Over Birthright Citizenship, Jazmine Ulloa, March 31, 2026. Frustrated by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, some Latino voters say they also disagree with his plan, now before the Supreme Court, to reject automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to immigrant parents.
  • Tjennifer rubin new headshothe Contrarian, Opinion: Words & Phrases, Jennifer Rubin, right, March 31, 2026. Same policy, ‘lower profile.’ Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation is hugely unpopular. He was compelled to fire Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and to force Custom and Border Control thug Gregory Bovino into retirement.

More Global News 

Top Stories

New York Times, Iran War Live Updates: After a Month of War, Hegseth Says Iran Retains Ability to Strike, John Ismay, Greg Jaffe, Helene Cooper and Aurelien Breeden, March 31, 2026. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held their first public update on the state of the war in 12 days.

Here’s the latest.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth conceded on Tuesday that Iran retained the ability to retaliate after a monthlong U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign but repeated claims that Iran’s military capabilities had been crippled, in his first public briefing on the war in nearly two weeks.

“They will shoot some missiles; we will shoot them down,” Mr. Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon alongside Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They last took questions from reporters on the state of the war on March 19.

Mr. Hegseth said that he had paid an unannounced visit to the Middle East over the weekend to visit troops at bases around the region.

“I witnessed urgency to finish the job,” he said. He said that the United States was “closer than ever before to winning,” even as the Trump administration strains to contain the fallout of a conflict that has jolted the global economy and sent U.S. gas prices soaring.

“We have more and more options, and they have less,” Mr. Hegseth said.

Gen. Caine said that the U.S. military had begun flying B-52 bomber missions over land for the first time. The military’s ability to fly the big planes over Iranian territory suggests that Iran’s air defenses have been significantly degraded.

He also said U.S. warplanes were now focused on destroying supply chains that feed Iran’s missile, drone and naval ship building facilities, choking off the country’s ability to replace munitions destroyed in thousands of American bombing runs.

President Trump has tried to put pressure on Iran to end its de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — normally a conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies — by alternating threats of destruction with unverified claims of diplomatic progress. Iran has denied holding substantive talks with the United States and has rejected the Trump administration’s conditions to end the war as unreasonable.

djt o 2025Mr. Trump has complained about a lack of support from U.S. allies in the war, even as he has insisted that he does not need it. On Tuesday, he criticized countries that “refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran,” saying on social media that “you’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself.”

“The U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” he added. “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”

Fighting continued in the fifth week of the war, and Iran kept a firm chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz. Oil and gas prices rose again after a Kuwaiti oil tanker erupted in flames near Dubai on Tuesday in a drone attack that its owner, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, attributed to Iran.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

  • Gas prices: Gasoline in the United States crossed an average of $4 a gallon on Tuesday, a threshold it hadn’t reached since August 2022. The average cost of gas has jumped 35 percent since the war began at the end of February, according to data from the AAA motor club, becoming a political burden for Mr. Trump.
  • Persian Gulf: Gulf countries reported more missile and drone attacks on Tuesday. The authorities in Dubai and Saudi Arabia reported that debris from interceptions had injured several people. In the United Arab Emirates, distance learning will continue at all schools until mid-April, the country’s education ministry said.
  • Lebanon: Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, on Tuesday outlined more explicitly plans for the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people and the destruction of Lebanese villages along Israel’s northern border. Israeli forces have taken control of more territory in southern Lebanon as they battle Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group. He said that the Israeli military would maintain control over all of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, which is about 20 miles from the Israeli border at its farthest point.
  • Casualties: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,574 civilians had been killed, including 236 children, in Iran since the war began. Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 1,230 Lebanese had been killed as of Sunday, with more than 3,543 others wounded, since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In Iran’s attacks across the Middle East, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded. Two United Nations peacekeepers who were killed in southern Lebanon on Monday by an explosion of undetermined origin were from Indonesia, the country’s foreign ministry said. 

 

yemen map middle eastAssociated Press, Gulf allies privately make the case to Trump to keep fighting until Iran is decisively defeated, Aamer Mahdhani, Samy Magdi, ap logoMatthew Lee and Sam Mednick, March 31, 2026. Gulf allies of the United States, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging President Donald Trump to continue prosecuting the war against Iran, arguing that Tehran hasn’t been weakened enough by the monthlong U.S.-led bombing campaign, according to U.S., Gulf and Israeli officials.

After private grumbling at the start of the war that they were not given adequate advance notice of the U.S.-Israeli attack and complaining the U.S. had ignored their warnings that the war would have devastating consequences for the entire region, some of the regional allies are making the case to the White House that the moment offers a historic opportunity to cripple Tehran’s clerical rule once and for all.

Officials from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have conveyed in private conversations that they do not want the military operation to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or there’s a dramatic shift in Iranian behavior, according to the officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The push from the Gulf nations comes as Trump vacillates between claiming that Iran’s decimated leadership is ready to settle the conflict and threatening to further escalate the war if a deal is not reached soon.

ny times logoNew York Times, News Analysis: Trump Redefines ‘Regime Change’ in Iran War, Edward Wong, March 31, 2026. President Trump and his aides have made contradictory statements on whether the United States and Israel have transformed the Iranian government through violence.

Regime change has occurred in Iran. Or it hasn’t. It is a goal of the war. Except it isn’t.

Those are some of the dizzying messages that have come from President Trump and his aides in recent days. The phrase “regime change” has flown from lips this week like fighter jets crisscrossing the Persian Gulf.

But there appears to be disagreement among top administration officials on what the phrase means, or whether the United States and Israel have achieved it in four weeks of war against Iran.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unequivocal declaration about the Iranian government at a news conference on Tuesday: “This new regime, because regime change has occurred, should be wiser than the last. President Trump will make a deal. He is willing.”

A common definition of regime change is a forced transformation of government or leadership that results in structural alterations in policies, politics and governance. In Iran, a theocratic leadership that is authoritarian and anti-American — and that continues to wage war — remains in place.

On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the president’s national security adviser, expressed some doubt in an interview with ABC News about whether anything had really changed in Iran.

“The people who lead them, this clerical regime, that is the problem,” he said. “And if there are new people now in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news for us, for them, for the entire world. But we also have to be prepared for the possibility, maybe even the probability, that that is not the case.”

Later, speaking to Al Jazeera, Mr. Rubio made it clear that destroying Iran’s weapons was important because the current leadership — the new regime, as Mr. Hegseth puts it — is an adversary.

“I think the best way to stability, given the people who are in charge in Iran, is to destroy the ability of Iran in the future to launch these missiles and these drones against their infrastructure and civilian populations,” Mr. Rubio said.

He added that “our objectives here from the very beginning had nothing to do with the leadership.”

Mr. Trump opened the war on Feb. 28 by working with Israel to carry out a strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, and other top officials. Hours later, he called for Iranians to overthrow their government sometime after the bombing stopped. The uprising, which was promised to Mr. Trump by Israeli leaders, has not materialized, but the president is saying mission accomplished on regime change.

In fact, he said, the United States has been so successful that it has ended not just one, but two Iranian regimes.

“We’ve had regime change, if you look, already because the one regime was decimated, destroyed. They’re all dead,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Sunday aboard Air Force One. “The next regime is mostly dead. And the third regime, we’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before. It’s a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change.”

To emphasize the point, he said, “Regime change is an imperative, but I think we have it automatically.”

Mr. Trump’s talk of the destruction of two regimes appeared to refer to the initial attacks that killed Mr. Khamenei and other senior officials and also injured his son Mojtaba Khamenei, who was later appointed by a group of clerics to be Iran’s new supreme leader. Iranian and Israeli officials say the son suffered leg injuries, and he has not appeared in public during the war.

The younger Mr. Khamenei is considered a hard-line ally of a powerful arm of the Iranian military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The government in Tehran vows resistance and continues to fight the United States, Israel and Arab partners, and to block energy shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting the global economy.

“There has been personnel change in Iran, not regime change,” said Karim Sadjadpour, a scholar of Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “Different men with the same ideology.”

Mr. Trump’s remarks about regime change have muddied the waters. But his military actions and coercive economic warfare against a handful of nations — Iran, Venezuela and Cuba — are aimed so far at decapitating leadership to put in power someone who will accede to U.S. demands, rather than effecting a wholesale transformation of the political system.

The president’s aim is to create client states by coercing regime compliance, part of a greater project of resurrecting empire. And he constantly talks about a template: the U.S. military’s violent incursion into Venezuela in January to seize Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president, and Mr. Trump’s subsequent negotiations over oil and other matters with the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, who like Mr. Maduro is a hard-line leftist.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a news conference on Monday that the United States and Israel had to kill the older Mr. Khamenei and some of his aides after it proved too difficult to do diplomacy with them. Those previous leaders “are now no longer on planet Earth,” she said, “because they lied to the United States and they strung us along in negotiations, and that was unacceptable to the president, which is why many of the previous leaders were killed.”

ny times logoNew York Times, News Analysis: Trump Redefines ‘Regime Change’ in Iran War, Edward Wong, March 31, 2026. President Trump and his aides have made contradictory statements on whether the United States and Israel have transformed the Iranian government through violence.

Regime change has occurred in Iran. Or it hasn’t. It is a goal of the war. Except it isn’t.

Those are some of the dizzying messages that have come from President Trump and his aides in recent days. The phrase “regime change” has flown from lips this week like fighter jets crisscrossing the Persian Gulf.

But there appears to be disagreement among top administration officials on what the phrase means, or whether the United States and Israel have achieved it in four weeks of war against Iran.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unequivocal declaration about the Iranian government at a news conference on Tuesday: “This new regime, because regime change has occurred, should be wiser than the last. President Trump will make a deal. He is willing.”

A common definition of regime change is a forced transformation of government or leadership that results in structural alterations in policies, politics and governance. In Iran, a theocratic leadership that is authoritarian and anti-American — and that continues to wage war — remains in place.

On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the president’s national security adviser, expressed some doubt in an interview with ABC News about whether anything had really changed in Iran.

“The people who lead them, this clerical regime, that is the problem,” he said. “And if there are new people now in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news for us, for them, for the entire world. But we also have to be prepared for the possibility, maybe even the probability, that that is not the case.”

Later, speaking to Al Jazeera, Mr. Rubio made it clear that destroying Iran’s weapons was important because the current leadership — the new regime, as Mr. Hegseth puts it — is an adversary.

“I think the best way to stability, given the people who are in charge in Iran, is to destroy the ability of Iran in the future to launch these missiles and these drones against their infrastructure and civilian populations,” Mr. Rubio said.

He added that “our objectives here from the very beginning had nothing to do with the leadership.”

Mr. Trump opened the war on Feb. 28 by working with Israel to carry out a strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, and other top officials. Hours later, he called for Iranians to overthrow their government sometime after the bombing stopped. The uprising, which was promised to Mr. Trump by Israeli leaders, has not materialized, but the president is saying mission accomplished on regime change.

In fact, he said, the United States has been so successful that it has ended not just one, but two Iranian regimes.

“We’ve had regime change, if you look, already because the one regime was decimated, destroyed. They’re all dead,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Sunday aboard Air Force One. “The next regime is mostly dead. And the third regime, we’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before. It’s a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change.”

To emphasize the point, he said, “Regime change is an imperative, but I think we have it automatically.”

Mr. Trump’s talk of the destruction of two regimes appeared to refer to the initial attacks that killed Mr. Khamenei and other senior officials and also injured his son Mojtaba Khamenei, who was later appointed by a group of clerics to be Iran’s new supreme leader. Iranian and Israeli officials say the son suffered leg injuries, and he has not appeared in public during the war.

The younger Mr. Khamenei is considered a hard-line ally of a powerful arm of the Iranian military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The government in Tehran vows resistance and continues to fight the United States, Israel and Arab partners, and to block energy shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting the global economy.

“There has been personnel change in Iran, not regime change,” said Karim Sadjadpour, a scholar of Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “Different men with the same ideology.”

Mr. Trump’s remarks about regime change have muddied the waters. But his military actions and coercive economic warfare against a handful of nations — Iran, Venezuela and Cuba — are aimed so far at decapitating leadership to put in power someone who will accede to U.S. demands, rather than effecting a wholesale transformation of the political system.

The president’s aim is to create client states by coercing regime compliance, part of a greater project of resurrecting empire. And he constantly talks about a template: the U.S. military’s violent incursion into Venezuela in January to seize Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president, and Mr. Trump’s subsequent negotiations over oil and other matters with the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, who like Mr. Maduro is a hard-line leftist.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a news conference on Monday that the United States and Israel had to kill the older Mr. Khamenei and some of his aides after it proved too difficult to do diplomacy with them. Those previous leaders “are now no longer on planet Earth,” she said, “because they lied to the United States and they strung us along in negotiations, and that was unacceptable to the president, which is why many of the previous leaders were killed.”

ny times logoNew York Times, Putin’s Internet Blackout: A Chaotic Drive to Cut Off Russians From the World, Paul Sonne, Valerie Hopkins and Oleg Matsnev, March 31, 2026. With new outages and blockages, President Vladimir V. Putin is taking his boldest steps yet to control Russians’ communications.

Russians in recent weeks have faced two disruptions at once. The authorities, armed with new technical capabilities and wartime pretexts, have been pulling the plug on the mobile internet in certain places. They have also been blocking ever more foreign apps used by millions of Russians.ImageA soldier holding a large gun runs outside in an open concrete space. Fallen trees, coiled barbed wire and buildings are in the background.A Ukrainian infantry soldier in the besieged city of Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, in January. Russia has used the war as a pretext to crack down on internet freedoms at home.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

russian flag wavingThe government has cited security reasons for the internet outages, calling them precautions against Ukrainian drone attacks that use Russian mobile networks for targeting. But experts say the government is also conducting the sort of targeted blackouts that it would impose in the event of unrest, like the mass demonstrations that swept Iran this year.

Even bolder, in the eyes of many Russians, is Mr. Putin’s assault on Telegram. Having blocked Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube, the Russian leader is now moving to hobble an app that more than 100 million Russians use every month to communicate and read news, including from exiled outlets banned in Russia.

Moscow is pressuring Russians instead to use a new Kremlin-approved “super app” known as MAX. Russian media outlets have reported that Moscow plans to block Telegram fully starting on Wednesday, but signs have emerged that they could delay the move amid a public backlash.

Of all the examples of growing repression in Russia during four years of war in Ukraine, few have touched more people than the internet restrictions.

The on-again, off-again blackouts and blockages have caused havoc as the digital services that power everyday life have flickered in and out, forcing people into a frustrating hunt for workarounds.

 

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: And He Ran, He Ran So Far Away. From Iran, He Ran All…, Bill Kristol, Andrew Egger and Jim Swift, bulwark logo big shipMarch 31, 2026. You can just abandon things.

Average gasoline prices hit $4 per gallon today as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. As we’ll discuss below, President Trump doesn’t really care whether it opens again. So, uh, better adjust that gas budget for the long term. Happy Tuesday.

News Updates

Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: March 30, 2026 [A Fantasy War Result?], Heather Cox Richardson, right, heather cox richardson cnnMarch 31, 2026. Showing reporters on Air Force One a series of posterboard images of his new ballroom last night, Trump told them: “I thought I’d do this now because it’s easier. I’m so busy that I don’t have time to do this. But, ah, I’m fighting wars and other things. But this is very important ’cause this is going to be with us for a long time and it’s going to be, I think it’ll be the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world.”

At 7:26 this morning, about two hours before the stock market opened, Trump’s social media account posted: “The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran. Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalination plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’ This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror.’ Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

When he decided to go to war with Iran, Trump apparently fantasized that the operation would look like his strike on Venezuela, in which a fast attack enabled U.S. forces to grab Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Celia Flores, leaving behind Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who appeared willing to work with the Trump administration, in power. The initial strikes of Israel and the U.S. on Iran did indeed kill that regime’s leadership, but officials simply replaced that leadership from within the regime, making Trump’s claim of regime change as imaginary as his claim that the U.S. and Iran have been at war for 47 years.

More shocking in this statement, though, is that Trump appears to be trying to force his will on the Iranians by threatening to commit war crimes. International law recognizes attacks on civilian infrastructure—like those Russian president Vladimir Putin has been carrying out on Ukraine for years—as war crimes. The Geneva Convention specifically prohibits attacks on drinking water, so Trump’s threat to attack the desalination plants that make seawater drinkable is, as Shashank Joshi of The Economist notes, not only stupid because Iran could do the same to other Gulf states, but “also, quite obviously,...very illegal.”

Joshi notes that “[Arizona Democratic senator] Mark Kelly et al were right to warn of illegal orders,” and Charles A. Ray of The Steady State explains that not just Trump but anyone carrying out these orders would be implicated in potential criminality. Trump’s threat comes the day after Christiaan Triebert and John Ismay of the New York Times reported that on the first day of attacks, U.S. forces hit not just the girls’ school we knew about, but also, in a different city, a sports hall used by civilians and a nearby elementary school, killing at least 21 people.

Trump apparently had no plan B for what to do if the initial plan to strike Iran and knock out its leaders failed, and is now flailing. His repeated assurances that talks with Iran are making “great progress” contrast with Iran’s insistence it is not engaged in talks with the United States. Trump entered the war with vague promises of “regime change” and promises to guarantee Iran never developed a nuclear weapon but now is reduced to hoping for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, putting the U.S. in the odd position of fighting a war to achieve the conditions that existed before it started the war.

On Sunday, Trump told the Financial Times that “my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran” as the U.S. did when it took control of Venezuelan oil fields. This sounds like bluster, but he is also massing U.S. troops in the region.

Meanwhile, the price of oil rose to $116 a barrel after strikes against Israel by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. The Houthis have the potential to disrupt yet another key strait, the Bab el-Mandeb, through which tankers carry about 10% of the world’s oil out of the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and into the Arabian Sea, from where it can go into the Indian Ocean and to the rest of the world.

In the 1980s, a faction of the Republican Party that was determined to cut taxes and regulations and to get rid of programs that benefiting racial minorities and women went to war against the federal government. Those so-called Movement Conservatives—“movement” because they were a political movement, and “conservatives” because they wanted to take the U.S. back to a time before the New Deal—became increasingly radical over time. Some, like activist Grover Norquist, wanted to take the government back even further, to the time of the robber barons in the 1890s, before “the socialists took over” with the Progressive Era and its income taxes and regulation.

But Americans liked the programs that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, protected equality before the law, and provided international security, so Movement Conservatives focused on taking power away from Congress, where the people’s voices could be heard, and centering power in the president.

Now we are seeing what that sort of a government, devoid of experts and beholden to the whims of a single man, looks like. After a year in power, Trump’s administration has embroiled the U.S. in a war of choice that has created an extraordinary global energy crisis, inflation is rising, job growth is down, and Republicans in Congress have abdicated their authority to oversee the war or other government agencies, or even to fix a problem of their own making in a partial government shutdown. Instead, they are seemingly content to let Trump do whatever he wishes.

Trump’s imperial presidency has demonstrated the country’s need for the allies he has disdained, as he has been forced to beg for their help. They have generally refused to get involved in a war Trump started without consulting them; today Spain’s defense minister said Spain has closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in operations against Iran.

Trump appears to be turning not to the gutted State Department, but to his usual cadre of billionaires to help him figure out a way forward. Edward Wong, Theodore Schliefer, Tyler Pager, and Ryan Mac of the New York Times reported that when Trump talked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India last Tuesday, billionaire Elon Musk took part in the call, although the readouts from both the U.S. and the Indian government did not mention his participation.

Now, with Congress out of session until April 13, Trump is putting the people and matériel in place to escalate the war. And yet, as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo notes, the new goal of freeing traffic in the Strait of Hormuz leaves the Iranians rather than the U.S. in control of the terms of declaring victory. An Associated Press–National Opinion Research Center (AP-NORC) poll from March 25 shows that 59% of Americans think the U.S. has gone too far in Iran, with only 13% supporting escalation. Sixty-two percent oppose sending ground troops into Iran, while only 12% favor the idea.

Even so, as David Kurtz wrote today in Talking Points Memo, “There’s no telling what President Trump will resort to doing to save face, create the mirage of victory, and extricate himself from the box canyon into which he so triumphantly galloped.”

What we do know, though, is that Trump is extraordinarily unlikely ever to do anything that will conflict with the wishes of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. Trump has blockaded Cuba, strangling its energy sector by blocking off all oil tankers from the island. Although he has stopped Venezuelan and Mexican tankers, today he permitted a Russian-flagged tanker to get through the blockade to sell oil that will help fund Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Asked why he permitted that tanker through, Trump answered: “He loses one boatload of oil, that’s all it is. If he wants to do that, and if other countries want to do it, doesn’t bother me much.” World affairs journalist Frida Ghitis commented: “When Mexico tried to send oil to Cuba, Trump immediately threatened to impose crushing tariffs on it, or on any country that broke his blockade of the island. Now Russia is sending Cuba oil and Trump says it’s fine, no problem. The mystery continues.”

We can also be sure that Trump will find time to keep attacking those he perceives to be his enemies. As J.D. Wolf of Meidas News reported today, Trump has posted about continuing to try to prosecute New York attorney general Letitia James fourteen times in the past five days. James successfully prosecuted Trump, some of his children, and the Trump Organization for fraud. Trump has tried unsuccessfully and repeatedly to charge her with mortgage fraud or insurance fraud.

Peter Sullivan of Axios reported today that to pay for the war and find more money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Republicans are considering making cuts to federal health care spending. House majority leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told Sullivan that they were looking at areas of “waste and fraud and abuse.”

As the administration flails, insiders are leaking about some of the administration’s most powerful individuals. Two senior sources from the us dhs big eagle logo4Department of Homeland Security leaked stories about White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to the Daily Mail, a tabloid out of the United Kingdom. They claimed Miller demanded agents in Minneapolis be sent to areas where DHS knew there would be a lot of protesters because he wanted to “force confrontations” between agents and protesters that would enable the administration to “win the ‘PR battle.’” They echoed others in suggesting that Miller, not the president, was in charge of immigration policy.

Yesterday Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post reported that former high-ranking military officials, experts on religion and law, and veterans groups, as well as current Pentagon staff and officers, have expressed deep concern over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s extremist evangelical worship services and his casting of the U.S. military as a force for Christian holy war. Last Wednesday he prayed for U.S. troops to assert “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,” saying: “We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.”

G. Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers and Fifty Plus One reported today that Trump has hit a new approval low among all American adults, with 58.1% disapproving of his job in office and just 37.6% approving, an overall difference of -21 . A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll has Trump’s job approval rating at 33%.

Tonight Trump’s social media account posted an AI-generated video of a future President Donald J. Trump Presidential Library. To triumphal music, the video features a gleaming skyscraper containing what appears to be the airplane the president pressured Qatar into giving him, along with what seems to be a replica of the Oval Office…and a model of his anticipated ballroom.

The Parnas Perspective, ,Evening News and Commentary: Trump Overhauls Election System, Judge Blocks White House Ballroom, Trump Says Iran War Could End Soon (He's Lying), Aaron Parnas, March 31, 2026. Donald Trump has signed an executive order restricting mail-in voting—even though he has used the system himself—while ordering the creation of a sweeping federal list of Americans eligible to vote. At the same time, a federal court has blocked construction of his White House ballroom, yet Trump is already signaling he may push forward anyway under the guise of “security.”

On foreign policy, Trump is now claiming the war with Iran could end “within two weeks.” There is no clear evidence to support that timeline, and strikes are continuing as we speak.

A couple of quick notes. First, I’ve seen the ongoing discourse around influencers and journalists. I’m not getting involved. I don’t use this platform to attack others—I focus on reporting and building coalitions, and that’s where I’m staying. Second, many of you have said I look exhausted—you’re right. That’s mostly due to having a newborn and very little sleep. But I’m okay, and I care deeply about this work.

If you’re able, please consider subscribing to support it. This kind of sustained, high-level scrutiny takes time, resources, and real endurance. I can’t do it alone—and your support is what makes this reporting possible.Subscribed

Here’s the news:

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order restricting mail-in voting, including requiring a federal list of verified eligible voters and limiting ballot distribution to those on the list. The move is part of his long-standing push to curb mail voting following the 2020 election, though critics warn it could disenfranchise millions and face legal challenges.

The executive order would tighten restrictions on mail-in voting by requiring the federal government to create verified lists of eligible U.S. voters in each state and limiting absentee ballots only to those approved lists. It also introduces new security measures, including specialized envelopes and barcode tracking for ballots. Additionally, states that fail to comply with the requirements could face the loss of federal funding.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked construction of President Donald Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, ruling that he likely exceeded his authority by moving forward without congressional approval. The court ordered an immediate halt to construction and demolition work, emphasizing that the White House is federal property under Congress’s control. The administration has already appealed the decision, while the judge noted the project could proceed if Congress formally authorizes it. Here is Trump’s response:

Trump defended continuing limited construction on the White House ballroom despite a court order, arguing the work falls under necessary safety and security measures. He cited features such as bulletproof glass, drone-resistant roofing, bio-defense systems, secure communications, and medical and shelter facilities as justification for ongoing activity under the ruling.

A Daily Mail report alleges that Bryon Noem, husband of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has been leading a secret double life involving crossdressing and online interactions with adult entertainers. The article claims he used disguises and paid for explicit conversations while his wife held a high-profile government role. The report relies on purported photos and messages, though no official response or independent verification is cited.

Kristi Noem told the New York Post that she was “devastated” and that her family was “blindsided” by allegations that her husband leads a secret cross-dressing double life, according to her representatives. The claims, first reported by the Daily Mail, remain unverified, and Noem’s team argues the situation has caused significant personal distress while raising concerns about privacy and potential political implications.

The U.S. Army has suspended an aircrew after military helicopters were seen flying near Kid Rock’s home in Tennessee, prompting an investigation into possible violations of flight rules. Officials said the helicopters were AH-64 Apaches on a routine mission and not connected to nearby protests, but emphasized that aviators must follow strict safety and professionalism standards.

Trump reacted casually to reports of Army helicopter crews being suspended after flying near Kid Rock’s home, joking they may have been trying to “defend him.” He acknowledged the crews likely shouldn’t have been doing it but said he would review the situation.

An unflattering photo of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was pulled from a photo agency’s database after the administration expressed dissatisfaction, but the move sparked wider attention and circulation online. The image, which had initially seen limited publication, quickly spread across social media in what critics described as a “Streisand effect.” The incident highlights ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and media outlets over coverage and image control.

The Supreme Court ruled 8–1 that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors violates the First Amendment, siding with a Christian therapist who argued the law restricts free speech rather than regulating medical conduct. The decision, which could impact similar laws in over 20 states, is viewed as a setback for LGBTQ protections, as conversion therapy is widely discredited and considered harmful by major medical organizations. The lone dissenting justice warned the ruling may weaken oversight of medical professionals and lead to unsafe or unregulated practices.

President Donald Trump downplayed concerns about rising gas prices reaching $4 per gallon, arguing that national security is a greater priority. In response to questions about the economic impact on Americans, he said that while costs are increasing, people are “feeling a lot safer” in the current geopolitical environment.

An Iranian strike destroyed a U.S. E-3 Sentry surveillance aircraft at a Saudi airbase, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in protecting critical military assets and Iran’s ability to accurately hit high-value targets. Ukrainian officials said a Russian spy satellite had photographed the base multiple times before the attack, suggesting possible intelligence coordination, though Russia denies involvement. The incident, which also injured U.S. personnel, underscores escalating regional tensions and a potential shift in Iran’s strategy toward targeting key components of U.S. airpower.

Trump said the U.S. could leave Iran “within two weeks,” suggesting a potential timeline for ending American involvement in the conflict.

A global jet fuel shortage driven by the Iran war is pushing up airfares and prompting airlines to raise fees and cut some flights. Fuel prices have surged sharply, forcing carriers to pass costs onto travelers, with some already increasing baggage fees and reducing capacity. Analysts warn the disruption to energy supplies could continue to strain the airline industry and keep travel costs elevated in the near term.

According to Reuters, an American journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad, prompting Iraqi security forces to launch an operation to locate her and pursue the kidnappers. Authorities said one suspect has been arrested and a vehicle used in the abduction was recovered after a crash, but other suspects remain at large. The incident comes amid heightened security risks in Iraq tied to ongoing regional conflict, with U.S. officials monitoring the situation closely.

According to The Guardian, Pakistan and China have proposed a joint five-part peace plan aimed at ending the Middle East conflict, calling for an immediate ceasefire, protection of key waterways, and renewed diplomatic dialogue. The initiative comes as Pakistan seeks to position itself as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran, despite limited progress and the absence of both countries from recent talks. The effort reflects both geopolitical ambitions and domestic concerns, as Pakistan faces economic and security risks from the ongoing conflict.

Israel has announced plans to occupy large parts of southern Lebanon and establish an expanded buffer zone, including destroying homes to prevent the return of hundreds of thousands of residents. Officials say the move is aimed at pushing Hezbollah away from the border, but human rights groups warn it could constitute forced displacement and potential war crimes. The escalation comes amid intensified fighting, rising casualties, and growing concerns over a deepening humanitarian and regional crisis.

Three former FBI agents who worked on criminal cases involving Donald Trump have filed a lawsuit alleging they were illegally fired as part of a political “retribution” campaign by Trump administration officials. The suit claims more than 50 FBI employees were dismissed without due process and that officials publicly disparaged them to damage their reputations, citing remarks from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as evidence. The agents argue they were targeted for their lawful investigative work, while the administration has defended its authority to remove personnel in high-level roles tied to its policy priorities.

Federal funding for reproductive health clinics through the Title X program is at risk of lapsing due to delays by the Trump administration, leaving providers uncertain about whether funds will arrive on time. Clinics that serve millions of low-income patients are preparing contingency plans, including potential service cuts or charging fees, as the government shortened the application timeline and has not confirmed when funding will be distributed. The uncertainty raises concerns about disruptions to essential services like birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing.

According to NBC News, a deadly collision at LaGuardia Airport involving an Air Canada jet and a fire truck is raising concerns that air traffic control procedures may have been violated. Investigators are examining whether a controller was handling both air and ground duties before midnight, contrary to standard rules, amid ongoing staffing shortages and heavy flight volume that night. The crash, which killed both pilots, has intensified scrutiny of controller workloads and broader safety risks within the U.S. air traffic control system.

A former aide to Rep. Marcy Kaptur pleaded guilty to wire fraud after stealing nearly $23,000 from the congresswoman’s bank account to pay personal credit card bills. Prosecutors say she made multiple unauthorized transfers over nearly a year and initially tried to blame “hackers from the dark web” before admitting her actions. She now faces potential prison time, though her sentence is expected to be less than the 20-year maximum.

Rep. Eric Swalwell has sent a cease-and-desist letter to FBI Director Kash Patel seeking to block the release of investigative files related to his past association with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, arguing the move is a political attempt to damage his gubernatorial campaign. Swalwell’s attorneys say releasing the files would violate federal law, Justice Department rules, and his constitutional rights, noting he was never accused of wrongdoing and cooperated with investigators.

Three people were arrested after allegedly attempting to break into reality TV star Larsa Pippen’s Miami-area home, with police apprehending the suspects within minutes of their attempted escape. Officers responded to a burglary-in-progress call, pursued a fleeing vehicle that crashed nearby, and took the suspects into custody after a brief foot chase.

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill aimed at improving housing affordability in rural areas by expanding eligibility for federal housing assistance. The proposal would update decades-old population limits, allowing communities of up to 10,000 people to qualify and potentially helping millions of Americans access home loans.

A federal judge has ordered the University of Pennsylvania to comply with a Trump administration subpoena seeking information related to Jewish employees as part of an investigation into alleged antisemitic harassment. The ruling allows the request to proceed in a limited form, barring disclosure of specific organizational affiliations, while the university argues it raises serious privacy and constitutional concerns and plans to appeal.

The Parnas Perspective, Morning News and Commentary: Trump Lashes Out as Gas Prices Soar, Approvals Fall to Lowest in History, France Rejects US Access to Airspace, Trump Looks for Way out of Iran, Aaron Parnas, right, aaron parnas new headshotMarch 31, 2026. Donald Trump and the White House are facing mounting pressure right now. Gas prices have surged past $4 a gallon, his approval rating has dropped to historic lows for this point in a presidency, and he is lashing out at allies like France after disputes over military access. At the same time, reports suggest he may be looking for a quick exit from the war in Iran, raising serious questions about strategy and stability.

On another note, many of you asked why you could not see a video I posted about Lindsey Graham last night on other platforms. It was taken down. More “community guidelines” enforcement, more quiet removals.

This is exactly why this platform matters. No billionaires pulling the strings. No algorithm deciding what you are allowed to see.

Here’s what you missed:

Donald Trump’s net approval rating has dropped to -17, the lowest for any President in American history at this point in their presidency:

Harry Enten reported that House Republicans are retiring at a historic pace, with 36 departures already announced this cycle—the highest number since 1930. He suggested the wave of exits signals growing concern within the party ahead of upcoming elections.

NBC News has confirmed, in exclusive reporting, that the U.S. Marine Corps will have U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stationed outside graduation events at Parris Island, South Carolina, to check the immigration status of visitors. The move comes as part of heightened security measures during the ongoing Iran conflict, requiring strict identification such as passports or REAL IDs to enter the base. Officials said ICE will not make arrests, but undocumented family members may still face questioning at access points. The decision is unusual and has raised questions about why immigration enforcement is being tied to military graduation events.

A report (first from the Financial Times) claims that a broker connected to Pete Hegseth contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in a defense-focused fund. The fund in question invests in major defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, companies that could benefit financially from increased military conflict and spending. The timing is what’s raising alarm: the inquiry reportedly happened just weeks before the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, leading to concerns about potential insider knowledge or conflicts of interest.

The partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security could drag on for weeks or even months as negotiations collapse and lawmakers leave Washington without a deal. Infighting among Republicans, combined with a standoff with Democrats over immigration funding, has stalled progress. With TSA workers now being paid and airport disruptions easing, pressure to resolve the crisis is fading, leaving thousands of other federal employees unpaid or furloughed. Officials warn the situation may continue into the summer as no clear path to a resolution has emerged.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump has told aides he is willing to end the war with Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, prioritizing a quicker end to the conflict. Officials believe reopening the key shipping route would require a longer and more complex military campaign than the administration wants. Instead, the U.S. aims to weaken Iran’s military capabilities and then rely on diplomacy or allies to restore trade flow later. The approach could leave Iran maintaining control over one of the world’s most critical oil chokepoints.

It comes as the average price of a gallon of gas in the United States has now surpassed $4 for the first time since 2022:

A report says the White House pushed to remove a photo of press secretary Karoline Leavitt from major news wire services after it angered officials. The image was taken during a lighthearted Thanksgiving briefing featuring the ceremonial turkey pardon. One specific photo reportedly triggered a strong reaction, leading to its removal from distribution. The incident raises questions about media control and the handling of press images by government officials. This is the image they wanted removed:

At least 11 people, including three children and two mothers, were killed in a strike on the Iranian city of Mahallat, according to state-linked media. The attack destroyed four residential buildings and damaged several others. The incident highlights the growing civilian toll as the conflict continues.

An Iranian strike destroyed a $300 million U.S. E-3 Sentry surveillance aircraft at a base in Saudi Arabia, marking the first time one has been lost in combat. The attack also injured multiple U.S. service members and damaged additional aircraft, highlighting the growing cost of the war. Experts warn the loss weakens U.S. early warning and coordination capabilities in the region. The conflict has already resulted in significant casualties and the destruction or damage of numerous U.S. military assets.

Pete Hegseth described a conversation with a service member, saying: “I witnessed lethality… she simply looked up at me with a sly smile on her face and said, more bombs, sir, and bigger bombs. We will happily oblige her,” highlighting an aggressive stance on escalating military force.

Reuters has confirmed that New York University has temporarily closed its Abu Dhabi campus after threats from Iran targeting U.S.-affiliated universities in the region. Students, faculty, and staff are being relocated, and classes will continue online as a safety precaution. The move follows recent Israeli airstrikes on Iranian universities, which appear to have escalated tensions. University officials said the decision was made to prioritize the safety of the campus community.

Israel Katz said Israel plans to demolish all homes near its southern Lebanon border to create a security buffer zone against future attacks. The military aims to control territory up to the Litani River and prevent residents from returning until northern Israel is considered safe. The move could affect hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians living in the area. The announcement raises significant humanitarian and geopolitical concerns.

Pete Hegseth said the U.S. will “negotiate with bombs,” signaling a strategy of using military pressure to force Iran into a deal. He also acknowledged a “new regime” in Iran, implying regime change as part of the broader context. Hegseth emphasized that securing a deal remains the primary goal, but warned the U.S. is prepared to continue military action if negotiations fail.

The United Nations Development Programme warns that the war in Iran could push up to 4 million people across the Middle East into poverty. The conflict may also shrink regional economies by up to 6%, costing as much as $194 billion and increasing unemployment by around 4%. The report highlights how existing economic vulnerabilities make the region especially sensitive to even short-term military escalation. Officials caution that the impacts could be long-lasting, extending well beyond the immediate conflict.

Per Reuters, a Kuwait-flagged oil tanker, the Al-Salmi, was struck in an attack attributed to Iran while at a port in Dubai. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said no crew members were injured and there was no environmental damage or oil spill. Authorities are continuing to assess the extent of the damage.

Damage to the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi crude oil tanker, following a reported strike

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini is calling for a high-level investigation into the deaths of more than 390 staff members during the Gaza war, the deadliest conflict for U.N. personnel in history. Discussions are underway with United Nations leadership, including Secretary-General António Guterres. Lazzarini said the probe has not yet been launched because the conflict is still ongoing. Israeli officials have not yet responded to the proposal.

Pete Hegseth delivered a prayer asking for God’s protection, peace, and safety over those involved in the Iran war, ending it in the name of Jesus Christ. This is yet another example of how religion is flowing into this war:

Hegseth said there is no fixed timeline for achieving U.S. objectives, noting estimates have ranged from a few weeks to longer. He emphasized that the final decision on timing will be up to Donald Trump. The comments reflect uncertainty about how long the operation may continue.

Lawyers for Tyler Robinson, accused of killing Charlie Kirk, are seeking to delay a key hearing as new forensic evidence raises questions about the case. A federal ballistics analysis could not conclusively link a bullet fragment to the rifle found at the scene, and further testing is ongoing. Prosecutors say DNA ties Robinson to the weapon and are pursuing the death penalty, while the defense argues the evidence is inconclusive and may help clear him.

Tensions are escalating ahead of Hungary’s election as Viktor Orbán faces a serious challenge from opposition leader Péter Magyar that could end his 16-year rule. The campaign has been marked by accusations of vote-buying, spying, and foreign interference involving both Russia and Ukraine. Observers warn the election may not be fully fair due to government control over media and institutions. Analysts also fear the dispute could continue after election day, with both sides potentially challenging the results.

New renderings show Donald Trump’s planned presidential library as a massive skyscraper in Miami, featuring his name prominently and luxury design elements. The project includes replicas of the Oval Office, a large ballroom, and even a Boeing jet gifted by Qatar displayed inside. The building would dominate the skyline near Biscayne Bay and is expected to cost close to $1 billion. Critics note the project breaks from traditional presidential library designs and raises questions about its scale and funding.

Frustration is growing within the Democratic Party toward Chuck Schumer, as several Senate candidates publicly question his leadership and call for change. While Schumer is still expected to retain support from much of his caucus, the criticism reflects deeper divisions over the party’s direction and strategy. Some candidates argue he has mishandled key negotiations, while allies defend his record and focus on winning back the Senate majority. The debate highlights ongoing tensions and a push for generational change within the party.

A new study links common plastic chemicals called phthalates to nearly 2 million premature births and about 74,000 infant deaths worldwide in a single year. These “everywhere chemicals,” found in products like food packaging, personal care items, and household goods, can disrupt hormones and affect fetal development. Researchers warn the health risks may be widespread and difficult to avoid without stronger regulations and safer materials. Experts say the findings highlight the urgent need to limit harmful chemicals in plastics globally.

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U.S. Law, Crime, Courts, Rights, Justice 

ny times logoNew York Times, Editorial Board Opinion: The People Trump Pardoned Are on a Crime Spree, The Editorial Board, March 31, 2026. The Constitution grants sweeping pardon powers to the president, which means that public opinion has historically been the only check on that power. The risk of a backlash is the reason that presidents have waited until their last days in office to issue many pardons and commutations, especially dubious ones to family members (like Hunter Biden) or political allies (like Caspar W. Weinberger, whom George H.W. Bush pardoned).

The potential for a backlash also made presidents cautious about the number of pardons they issued. They understood that there could be an outcry if somebody who received a pardon later committed a new crime. The pardon system has also relied on the decency of American presidents.

President Trump has abandoned this approach. His self-serving pardons are so numerous that public attention cannot keep up with them. It is a version of the strategy that his former adviser Steve Bannon has described as “flood the zone”: Do so much so fast that people cannot follow the consequences.

He has created a veritable pardon industry, in which people with White House connections accept payments from wealthy convicts. Among those on whom he has bestowed freedom are dozens of people convicted of fraud. He has also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras, who helped traffic hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States, and Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for running Silk Road, a sprawling criminal enterprise that sold drugs. There seems to be no crime too ugly for a Trump pardon.Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.

Worst of all, Mr. Trump issued pardons on the first day of his second term to everyone who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He did not distinguish between rioters who were relatively peaceful and those who attacked police officers, as Vice President JD Vance said should be the case. All 1,500 or so Jan. 6 rioters received a clean slate.

The results have been disastrous. At least 12 of the pardoned rioters have since been charged with other serious crimes, including child molestation, assault, harassment, murder plots and charges related to a vicious dog attack. The outcome was predictable. Critics, including this board, had warned that Mr. Trump’s pardons would embolden the rioters by signaling that crime has no consequences. One does not have to be a criminologist to predict that people who commit a violent act and are absolved of any punishment might become repeat offenders.

The American public deserves to understand the mayhem that the Jan. 6 pardons have unleashed. Among the 12 serious recidivists whom we are aware of, four were in jail or prison at the time of the pardon, and they quickly went on to commit more crimes:

On March 5, a court in Florida sentenced Andrew Paul Johnson to life in prison for molesting a 12-year-old boy and a girl of the same age. To keep the children quiet, Mr. Johnson is said to have promised to bequeath to them part of a Jan. 6 restitution payment from the federal government that he claimed he would receive. He used the online gaming platforms Discord and Roblox to reach out to the children after Mr. Trump freed him from prison. On Jan. 6, Mr. Johnson entered the Capitol through a broken window and accosted police officers.

In the past two months, Jake Lang destroyed an ice sculpture outside the Minnesota State Capitol, leading to a felony vandalism charge, and helped organize an anti-Muslim rally in New York City that turned violent. On Jan. 6, he was caught on camera storming the Capitol with a baseball bat and a riot shield, which prosecutors said he used to attack police officers.

In May, Zachary Alam was arrested for breaking into a house in Virginia and stealing a tablet computer and a diamond necklace. On Jan. 6, he was among the first to enter the Capitol building from its west lawn and hurled items at police officers from a balcony. At his sentencing hearing, he was unrepentant: “Sometimes you have to break the rules to do what’s right.” He had previous convictions for auto theft and driving under the influence.

enrique tarrio micEnrique Tarrio, above, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys, scuffled with protesters at a news conference and was briefly detained on assault charges, a month after Mr. Trump freed him from a 22-year prison sentence. Mr. Tarrio was one of the leaders behind the Jan. 6 attack, but he was not in Washington on the day of the riot. He had been kicked out of the city after vandalizing a Black church after an earlier pro-Trump rally.

An additional eight Jan. 6 rioters were out of prison when Mr. Trump pardoned them and have since been charged with new crimes:

On March 25, a judge sentenced Daniel Tocci to four years in prison for possession of more than 110,000 child pornography images. During the Jan. 6 riot, he joined the mob as it broke into the Capitol and destroyed and took government property.

On March 1, Bryan Betancur grabbed a woman’s hair on the Washington Metro, leading to a charge of assault and battery. At least two women have also accused him of stalking. He was already on probation for a burglary conviction when he stormed the Capitol and helped rioters circulate furniture that most likely was used as weapons.

In October, Christopher Moynihan threatened to kill Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and pleaded guilty to a harassment charge over the incident. On Jan. 6, he was among the first rioters to breach police barricades and eventually broke into the Senate chamber.

Robert Packer was arrested in September after his dogs attacked people, putting four in the hospital. He previously had a long criminal record that included theft and drunken driving, and during the Jan. 6 riot, he wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt.

John Andries violated a legal order requested by the mother of his child by repeatedly following and confronting her, leading to a sentence in June of 60 days in jail and three years of unsupervised probation. On Jan. 6, he entered the Capitol through a broken window and pushed police officers once inside.

Brent Holdridge was arrested in May for stealing tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of industrial copper wire. On Jan. 6, he was scheduled to be in jail on separate drug-related charges, but he skipped his booking and joined the mob as it breached the Capitol.

Jonathan Munafo was rearrested last year after he allegedly fled federal supervision imposed for dozens of menacing phone calls, including one in which he threatened to “cut the throat” of a 911 dispatcher. During the riots, he punched a police officer twice, stole his riot shield and used a wooden flagpole to try to break a window.

Days after he was pardoned, Matthew Huttle is said to have resisted arrest during a traffic stop, and a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed him. The police said he had a gun. On Jan. 6, he helped take over the Capitol and joined rioters in chanting, “Whose house? Our house.”

This list does not include at least 27 rioters who committed other crimes before they received their pardons. That group includes one woman who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing someone while driving drunk and a man who livestreamed a bomb threat while driving around Barack Obama’s neighborhood in Washington.

How can the nation hold Mr. Trump accountable for the lawlessness that he has made possible? The only answer is public opinion and its most tangible manifestation: election results.

In this year’s midterms, he and the Republican Party he leads deserve to pay a political price for the pardons. Mr. Trump continues to lionize a violent attack on Congress carried out in his name — an attack that included threats to kill the vice president of the United States and physical assaults against police officers guarding the Capitol. In the aftermath of the attacks, one officer suffered a series of strokes and died, and four other officers died by suicide.

Yet Mr. Trump still supports the rioters and lies about what happened that day. Congressional Republicans, for the most part, back him up. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said, referring to the blanket pardon, “I stand with him on it.” Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio has complained about the unpleasant nature of life in prison for the rioters before the pardons. Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado said she wanted to give the rioters a guided tour of the Capitol. Other Republicans, including the Senate majority leader, John Thune, have avoided answering questions about the pardons and said they involve “looking backward.”

The violence that the pardoned rioters continue to commit puts the lie to that weak excuse. The Jan. 6 pardons undermined the law, and they undermined public order. They were an affront to police officers everywhere. Mr. Trump has a constitutional right to pardon whom he chooses. The rest of us have a right to hold him and his enablers responsible for their actions. 

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump Administration Live Updates: Fired Agents Sue F.B.I., Seeking Class-Action Status, Alan Feuer, March 31, 2026. What We’re Covering Today.

  • Fired Agents: Three fired F.B.I. agents who are suing the bureau and the Justice Department are seeking class-action status on behalf of those who say they have been terminated for running afoul of the president. The former agents, who helped investigate President Trump’s efforts to cling to power after the 2020 election, also named Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general, as defendants. Read more ›
  • Royal Visit: King Charles III will make a state visit to the United States starting April 27, his first since assuming the British throne in 2022. The trip had long been expected, though tensions between the United States and Britain have flared over the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. Read more ›
  • Trump Library: A two-minute video with renderings of Mr. Trump’s planned presidential library in Miami shows a skyscraper with a golden escalator and airplanes in the lobby. The video appeared to include elements generated by artificial intelligence: In one scene, an enormous American flag on the outside of the tower appears to have 56 stars. Read more ›

Fired F.B.I. agents look to bring a class-action lawsuit, claiming political retaliation.ImageKash Patel, the F.B.I. director, wearing a blue suit and patterned tie inside a congressional hearing room.The lawsuit against Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, was filed by three agents who served on a public corruption squad at the F.B.I.’s Washington field office that investigated President Trump’s efforts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Over the past year, several F.B.I. agents fired by the bureau have sued its director, Kash Patel, seeking to get their jobs back and claiming they were victims of political retribution by the Trump administration.

The agents have included new recruits, seasoned investigators and some of the F.B.I.’s most senior executives. While they each have accused Mr. Patel of dismissing them for improper reasons, the suits have so far all been filed by individuals or small groups of employees.

On Tuesday, however, three fired agents took a new approach and sued Mr. Patel not just on their own accord, but also on behalf of a proposed class of all F.B.I. employees who have already been dismissed — or could be in the future — for political reasons. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, represented one of the broadest efforts to date to seek accountability against Mr. Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi for getting rid of F.B.I. employees who have run afoul of President Trump or his allies.

Each of the agents who brought the suit — Jamie Garman, Blaire Toleman and Michelle Ball — served on a public corruption squad at the F.B.I.’s Washington field office that investigated Mr. Trump’s expansive efforts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election. That inquiry, code-named Arctic Frost, was taken over by the special counsel, Jack Smith, who eventually dropped the conspiracy charges after Mr. Trump was re-elected.

The three agents were all fired last fall, the lawsuit says, because of their work on Mr. Smith’s election interference case and despite their years of “exemplary and unblemished” service in the F.B.I.

“Our removal from federal service — without due process and based on a false perception of political bias — is a profound injustice that raises serious concerns about political interference in federal law enforcement,” they said in a statement released by their lawyer, Daniel M. Eisenberg. “We bring this lawsuit to protect the rule of law and to allow our former colleagues to do their jobs without fear of retaliation.”

The suit seeks to represent a class of more than 50 employees of the F.B.I. who have been terminated since Mr. Trump returned to the White House and any others who might fall prey to what it described as a campaign of retribution by the administration. A federal judge will ultimately decide whether to allow the case to proceed as a class action.

Since taking control of the F.B.I. in February 2025, Mr. Patel has fired or forced out dozens of employees “on the basis of their perceived political affiliation,” the lawsuit said.

Some were fired for working for Mr. Smith on either the election case or the other case he brought against Mr. Trump — the one accusing him of illegally holding onto classified documents after he left office in 2021. Others have lost their jobs after they refused to fire subordinates because of their assignments and without having found any evidence of misconduct.

Still more were fired after kneeling during protests for racial justice in 2020. One agent resigned after claiming he was threatened with demotion for being friends with a former colleague disfavored by Mr. Patel. An agent in training claimed he was fired for hanging a pride flag at his workplace.

The dismissals have been accompanied by a constant drumbeat of verbal attacks against F.B.I. agents by Mr. Trump, Mr. Patel and other senior administration officials. Just this weekend, the lawsuit noted, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas that Mr. Patel had “cleaned house” at the F.B.I.

“There isn’t a single man or woman with a gun, federal agent, still in that organization that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump,” Mr. Blanche said.

The lawsuit also pointed out that some of Mr. Trump’s allies in Congress appear to have worked in tandem with the F.B.I. to undermine the work of agents who took part in the Trump investigations.

The lawsuit said, for instance, that the firings of Ms. Garman, Ms. Toleman and Ms. Ball took place after Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released documents related to Arctic Frost. Those included records indicating that Mr. Smith’s team had subpoenaed the phone records of some Republican lawmakers, a move that outraged some of the president’s congressional allies.Royal VisitMegan SpeciaMarch 31, 2026, 10:54 a.m. ET3 hours ago

Megan SpeciaReporting from LondonKing Charles will visit the U.S. during a state visit in April, Buckingham Palace says.ImageFour people in fancy clothing walk in an ornately decorated room.King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, for a state banquet at Windsor Castle last year.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

King Charles III will travel to the United States for an official state visit in April, Buckingham Palace confirmed on Tuesday. The trip — which the king will carry out on behalf of the British government — had been expected, but it was cast in doubt as tensions between the longtime allies rose over the war in Iran in recent weeks.

The strained relations, characterized by disparaging remarks President Trump has made about Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government over Britain’s reluctance to join the offensive, will be a backdrop to the event. But there are hopes that the king’s visit could help smooth the fraught relationship.

ny times logoNew York Times, Justices Reject Colorado Law Banning ‘Conversion Therapy’ for L.G.B.T.Q. Minors, Ann E. Marimow, March 31, 2026. The state and more than 20 others restrict therapists from trying to change the gender identity or sexual orientation of L.G.B.T.Q. clients under the age of 18.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a Christian therapist, rejecting a Colorado law that prohibited mental health professionals from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of L.G.B.T.Q. minors.

The court’s decision has implications for more than 20 other states that have similar laws barring so-called conversion therapy, which critics say is ineffective and potentially dangerous for young people.

In its decision, the court said the law, as applied to talk therapy, impermissibly interferes with free speech.

“Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety,” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote for himself and seven other justices from across the ideological spectrum. “But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”

Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, reading a lengthy summary of her opposition from the bench. Justice Jackson warned of the broader implications for medical care that she said could be “catastrophic” if states cannot regulate some kinds of speech by licensed professionals.

“This decision might make speech-only therapies and other medical treatments involving practitioner speech effectively unregulatable,” she wrote, criticizing her eight colleagues for having made “this momentous decision without adequately grappling with the potential long-term and disastrous implications.”

Colorado’s statute, adopted in 2019, prohibits “any practice or treatment” that tries to change a minor’s “gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”

State officials have never enforced the measure, which includes fines of up to $5,000 for each violation and possible suspension or revocation of a counselor’s license. The law includes a religious exemption for those “engaged in the practice of religious ministry.”

Kaley Chiles, an evangelical Christian, sued the state over the law in 2022, contending it prevented her from working with young patients who want to live a life “consistent with their faith.”

More On Iran War

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Retreat By Any Other Name, William Kristol, right, william bill kristol imdbMarch 31, 2026. For what it’s worth—and keep in mind, this newsletter is free—here’s my speculation, as of early Tuesday morning, March 31, about where Donald Trump is heading on Iran. Where he’s heading is toward the exits.

bulwark logo big shipOn Sunday night, on Air Force One, Trump called the current Iranian leadership “a whole different group of people” who have “been very reasonable.” The next morning, he claimed on Truth Social that “The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran. Great progress has been made.”

Maybe this was just Trump being fanciful. Or it could be Trump pretending to want a deal when in fact he’s planning to escalate. And it’s true that the rest of his post was less upbeat and pacific, mostly consisting of threats of war crimes against this supposedly new and enlightened Iranian regime:

if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalination plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’ This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror.’ Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Still—and it might be wishful thinking on my part—these threats sound to me like bluster. And I’ll note that Trump did precede the bluster with the claim that a deal will probably be reached shortly.

This isn’t bluster: If you don’t join Bulwark+, you won’t get to join the conversation in the comments; you won’t get members-only newsletters, podcasts, and live events; you won’t be helping The Bulwark grow. But if you do . . . thank you!Subscribed

In any case, despite Trump’s demand early in the morning that the Strait of Hormuz be “immediately ‘Open for Business,’” a few hours later Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved the goalposts. Speaking to al Jazeera, Rubio said that he expected the military campaign to be finished within weeks, and that

Then we’ll be confronted with this issue of the Strait of Hormuz, and it will be up to Iran to decide, or a coalition of nations from around the world and the region, with the participation of the United States, we’ll make sure that it’s open, one way or the other.

Along the same lines, Trump’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, vaguely told reporters yesterday that the United States was “working toward” normal operations in the strait.

That sounded to me like an administration backing off from the demand the strait be reopened.

Last night, the Wall Street Journal reported that

President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. . . . He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.

And if that wasn’t enough of a tell, Trump seemed to all but confirm the reporting this morning when he posted that other countries were going to have to figure out how to get oil through the strait themselves. “[T]he U.S.A won’t be there to help you anymore,” he added.

All in all, it seems more likely than not that Trump plans on walking away rather than escalating. I think this would be a less bad outcome of this reckless and feckless “excursion” than introducing ground troops. But it will still be a bad outcome for the United States and the world. And I’m afraid it won’t be the last bad outcome we’ll experience from having an unbelievably irresponsible individual as our president. 

ny times logoNew York Times, Iran War Live Updates: After a Month of War, Hegseth Says Iran Retains Ability to Strike, John Ismay, Greg Jaffe, Helene Cooper and Aurelien Breeden, March 31, 2026. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held their first public update on the state of the war in 12 days.

Here’s the latest.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth conceded on Tuesday that Iran retained the ability to retaliate after a monthlong U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign but repeated claims that Iran’s military capabilities had been crippled, in his first public briefing on the war in nearly two weeks.

“They will shoot some missiles; we will shoot them down,” Mr. Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon alongside Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They last took questions from reporters on the state of the war on March 19.

Mr. Hegseth said that he had paid an unannounced visit to the Middle East over the weekend to visit troops at bases around the region.

“I witnessed urgency to finish the job,” he said. He said that the United States was “closer than ever before to winning,” even as the Trump administration strains to contain the fallout of a conflict that has jolted the global economy and sent U.S. gas prices soaring.

“We have more and more options, and they have less,” Mr. Hegseth said.

Gen. Caine said that the U.S. military had begun flying B-52 bomber missions over land for the first time. The military’s ability to fly the big planes over Iranian territory suggests that Iran’s air defenses have been significantly degraded.

He also said U.S. warplanes were now focused on destroying supply chains that feed Iran’s missile, drone and naval ship building facilities, choking off the country’s ability to replace munitions destroyed in thousands of American bombing runs.

President Trump has tried to put pressure on Iran to end its de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — normally a conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies — by alternating threats of destruction with unverified claims of diplomatic progress. Iran has denied holding substantive talks with the United States and has rejected the Trump administration’s conditions to end the war as unreasonable.

Mr. Trump has complained about a lack of support from U.S. allies in the war, even as he has insisted that he does not need it. On Tuesday, he criticized countries that “refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran,” saying on social media that “you’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself.”

“The U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” he added. “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”

Fighting continued in the fifth week of the war, and Iran kept a firm chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz. Oil and gas prices rose again after a Kuwaiti oil tanker erupted in flames near Dubai on Tuesday in a drone attack that its owner, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, attributed to Iran.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

  • Gas prices: Gasoline in the United States crossed an average of $4 a gallon on Tuesday, a threshold it hadn’t reached since August 2022. The average cost of gas has jumped 35 percent since the war began at the end of February, according to data from the AAA motor club, becoming a political burden for Mr. Trump.
  • Persian Gulf: Gulf countries reported more missile and drone attacks on Tuesday. The authorities in Dubai and Saudi Arabia reported that debris from interceptions had injured several people. In the United Arab Emirates, distance learning will continue at all schools until mid-April, the country’s education ministry said.
  • Lebanon: Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, on Tuesday outlined more explicitly plans for the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people and the destruction of Lebanese villages along Israel’s northern border. Israeli forces have taken control of more territory in southern Lebanon as they battle Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group. He said that the Israeli military would maintain control over all of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, which is about 20 miles from the Israeli border at its farthest point.
  • Casualties: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,574 civilians had been killed, including 236 children, in Iran since the war began. Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 1,230 Lebanese had been killed as of Sunday, with more than 3,543 others wounded, since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In Iran’s attacks across the Middle East, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded. Two United Nations peacekeepers who were killed in southern Lebanon on Monday by an explosion of undetermined origin were from Indonesia, the country’s foreign ministry said. 

ny times logoNew York Times, News Analysis: Trump Faces a Decision on Whether to Start a Ground War in Iran, David E. Sanger and Tyler Pager, March 31, 2026. The president wants a negotiation, but the Iranians say they are refusing until a cease-fire is declared. And while Marines and the 82nd Airborne Division offer new leverage, the risks escalate quickly.

President Trump and his tight circle of close aides have made opening the Strait of Hormuz a new, and nonnegotiable, issue.

As the war in Iran has entered its second month with no negotiations yet scheduled between the major combatants, President Trump is facing several interlocking decisions that will determine how long American forces will stay engaged in the battle, and with what kind of risks.

The most pressing choice seems to be whether he should narrow his war aims in hopes of pushing through a negotiated settlement with a new crop of Iranian leaders. Talking to reporters on Sunday night aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump called the Iranian leadership “a whole different group of people” who have “been very reasonable.” (His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was significantly more skeptical.) Deal-making, as Mr. Trump knows, requires give-and-take — although he generally dislikes being seen as giving an inch.

But if the Iranians continue to rebuff him, claiming as they did on Monday that there is nothing to talk about until the United States and Israel stop bombing Iranian territory, he has different choices to make.

With more than 4,000 Marines and the 82nd Airborne Division about to arrive in the region, Mr. Trump can put muscle behind his threat to take Kharg Island’s oil-exporting facilities, free the Strait of Hormuz and perhaps seize Iran’s cache of near-bomb-grade nuclear material.

But the risks of all three steps are enormous. Even Mr. Trump admitted on Sunday that if he sent troops to seize Kharg Island, keeping it operating would require the U.S. military “to be there for a while.” The same goes for opening the strait, which the Iranians now say is their sovereign territory — and that ships wanting to pass will have to pay the multimillion-dollar tolls they have begun to impose.

Control of the strait was not even an issue four weeks ago, when the war started. But Iran’s assertion of control over traffic has so disrupted the global trading system that it looms large in any discussion of how the conflict gets resolved.

“The strait will reopen either with Iran’s consent or through an international coalition including the U.S.,” Mr. Rubio said on Monday.

If getting it reopened fails, Mr. Trump added on his social media account, “we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island, (and possibly all desalination plants!)”

Setting aside for a moment that such attacks against civilian infrastructure would almost certainly constitute a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, Mr. Trump knows that Iran could strike back against similar facilities in the Persian Gulf, with its dwindling fleet of drones and medium-range missiles.

“The Iranians have achieved mutual assured destruction without a nuclear weapon,” said Robert S. Litwak, a scholar at George Washington University who has written extensively on Iran’s nuclear program. “If Trump attacks Iran’s civil infrastructure, Iran will destroy the comparable energy and desalination facilities in the Gulf.”

At the heart of Mr. Trump’s strategic dilemma is the fact that even after striking 11,000 targets, he has yet to achieve the kind of political changes in Iran that he talked about on Feb. 28, as the operation began. Of course, he still has time: He predicted a war that would last four to six weeks, and there are nearly two weeks left on that clock.

 

Saudi King Salman honors President Trump in the latter's first foreign trip in 2017 after winning the U.S. presidency (Associated Press photo by Evan Vucci).Saudi King Salman honors and cooptsPresident Trump in the latter's first foreign trip in 2017 after winning the U.S. presidency (Associated Press photo by Evan Vucci).

Emptywheel, Analysis: How Much Will Crown Prince Bonesaw Tolerate? Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler), right, marcy wheelerMarch 31, 2026. I’m fairly obsessed with the serial damage the Iranians have done on Prince Sultan Air Base (and other US facilities) in Saudi Arabia. While there has been some superb work analyzing the second and third successful strike at Prince Sultan, this NYT article I keep returning to is the only one I’ve seen documenting the damage from the first strike, which hit a building close to a radar facility (ABC reported the strike itself).

On Saturday night, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps announced that the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia had been targeted with missiles and drones. The following morning, satellite imagery captured a mile-long smoke plume rising from a building connected to the site.

Another satellite image captured on Tuesday showed the structure was largely destroyed.

The building that was hit is close to a radome and sits within a fenced-off area roughly six miles east of the main base, indicating Iranians may have been specifically targeting a communications section of the site.

So the first thing Iran did when the US launched its attack was to target this facility in Saudi Arabia. Based on what I’ve seen publicly, this may not have been the most serious damage done in those initial attacks. But this piece assesses that one reason Israel is failing to intercept everything Iran launches at it may stem from a degradation of detection systems elsewhere in the region, including what ABC reports to be the AN/TPY-2 at Prince Sultan.

Reports based on available satellite imagery suggest that at least 10 U.S. radar sites in the Middle East have been hit by Iranian drones since the start of the war. These include multiple AN/TPY-2 radars used in the THAAD air defense systems, and an AN/FPS-132 Phased Array Radar in Qatar. Though the loss of a single radar would not disable the whole air defense network, the loss of 10 or more radars or sensing systems would significantly degrade the U.S. ability to identify and respond to incoming threats.

Not even the death of Benjamin Pennington a week later, understood to be a result of injuries suffered in that initial March 1 attack, has led to closer coverage of that strike. Who else was injured in the strike who ended up killing him? What was the facility that appears to have been destroyed?

On March 3, Iran succeeded in striking the part of the US Embassy in Riyadh housing the CIA station.

A suspected Iranian drone attack hit the CIA’s station at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia on Monday, in what would amount to a symbolic victory for the Islamic republic as it lashes out at U.S. targets and personnel across the Middle East, according to two CIA Logopeople familiar with the matter.

The U.S. and Saudi governments confirmed that two drones hit the U.S. Embassy complex in Riyadh but did not disclose that America’s spy hub was hit in the attack.

No CIA personnel were wounded. The agency declined to comment.

The drone attack came three days into a conflict launched early Saturday by the United States and Israel on Iran. The waves of strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader and scores of its senior military and political command have prompted fierce retaliation by the Islamic republic against U.S. and Israeli targets in the region, as well as those of Gulf partners.

An internal State Department alert obtained by The Washington Post said the drone attack “collapsed” part of the embassy’s roof and “contaminated” the inside with smoke. The notice said the embassy sustained “structural damage” and personnel “continue to shelter in place.”

Five days later, DOD announced the death, overnight on March 7, of a soldier they would later identify as Pennington.

Another American service member has died in the war with Iran, the Pentagon said on Sunday, bringing the number of American troops killed in the conflict to seven.

The service member, who was not publicly identified while the military notifies relatives, was seriously injured on March 1 when Iran struck a Saudi military base where American troops were stationed, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The service member died on Saturday night from those injuries while military health officials were preparing a transfer for more advanced medical care at a U.S. military hospital in Germany, officials said.

Among the things we’ve never seen explained is why DOD hadn’t evacuated Pennington, right,benjamin pennington earlier.

The next day, March 9, several sources (of uncertain reliability) claimed that the US had evacuated a number of Boeing refueling tankers from the base to Europe after aggressive strikes on March 8.

The decision to disperse KC-135 aerial refueling tankers from Prince Sultan Air Base follows a sustained Iranian missile and drone campaign targeting U.S.-linked military infrastructure across the Gulf, exposing the operational vulnerability of centralized logistics nodes that are essential to American airpower projection.

On 6 March 2026, Saudi air-defence systems intercepted three ballistic missiles and one drone directed toward PSAB, illustrating the persistent targeting of the base as part of a broader Iranian operational strategy aimed at disrupting U.S. military logistics and command support networks in the region.

Although Saudi and American air-defence systems successfully intercepted incoming threats during that attack, some missiles landed in close proximity to U.S. personnel operating at the installation, causing minor injuries and underscoring the operational danger posed by saturation missile attacks.

That report was all the more confusing given that five days after that, and one day after a tanker crashed in Iraq purportedly as a result of a collision with another one, killing its crew, Iran successfully hit at least five tankers, still at Prince Sultan.

An Iranian missile strike damaged five U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, two U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal.

The aircraft were parked on the flight line at the time of the strike and sustained damage but were not destroyed, according to the officials. The tankers are being repaired and are expected to return to service. No U.S. personnel were killed in the attack, The Wall Street Journal reported.

President Donald Trump disputed those characterizations in a Saturday Truth Social post, saying, “The Base was hit a few days ago, but the planes were not “struck” or “destroyed.” Four of the five had virtually no damage, and are already back in service. One had slightly more damage, but will be in the air shortly. None were destroyed, or close to that.”

Trump singled out The Wall Street Journal by name, saying its reporting was “the exact opposite of the actual facts.”

This is the strike that, according to NBC, Trump found out about by reading WSJ.

One example came this month when five U.S. Air Force refueling planes were hit in an Iranian strike at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, according to one of the current U.S. officials. Trump wasn’t briefed about the strikes, and he learned what had happened from media reports, the official said. When Trump inquired, he was told the planes weren’t badly damaged, the official said.

The official said Trump reacted angrily behind the scenes to the news coverage. Publicly he posted on Truth Social calling coverage of the strike misleading and accusing media organizations of wanting the U.S. “to lose the War.”

Last Friday — as Anna Paulina Luna was hosting Russian Duma members and Trump and Jared was yucking it up at a Saudi investment conference in Florida — Iran struck again, destroying an AWACS radar plane.

The extent of the damage in Friday’s strike is still uncertain. One source says just one AWACS was hit (and destroyed). But NPR reported yesterday two were, in addition to 15 or so service members; other reports say more tankers were damaged.

But it will further degrade the US ability to protect its own resources.

The destruction of a US Air Force E-3 Sentry aircraft in an Iranian strike on a Saudi Arabia air base could damage US abilities to spot incoming Iranian threats at distance, analysts say.

Dramatic images of the wrecked aircraft, geolocated by CNN, show its tail broken off and its distinct rotating radar dome –– a critical part of the airborne warning and control system, or AWACS –– on the ground at the Prince Sultan Air Base.

The loss of the AWACS is “a serious blow to (US) surveillance capabilities,” said CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, a former US Air Force colonel who has flown on the aircraft.

“It can potentially impact (US) ability to control combat aircraft and vector them to their targets or protect them from engagements of hostile aircraft and missile systems,” he said.

All this just documents what has happened at Prince Sultan Air Base (and the CIA station).

That’s separate from less successful Iranian efforts to damage Saudi oil capacity, which thus far have hit but done limited damage to refineries and drilling facilities.

Ruwais, UAE: One of the biggest refineries in the world was shut as a precautionary measure after a drone strike caused a fire in the industrial area where it’s located. Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Aramco temporarily halted operations at the kingdom’s largest crude processing plant — with 550,000 barrels a day of capacity — after a drone attack in the first few days of the war. The facility has since been restarted. Samref, Saudi Arabia: A drone fell on refinery that’s half owned by Exxon Mobil Corp.

[snip]

Shaybah, Saudi Arabia: The 1 million barrel-a-day field in the kingdom’s east has been repeatedly targeted by multiple drones. No damage has been reported.

[snip]

Yanbu, Saudi Arabia: Loadings at the key Red Sea port resumed after a brief halt, following an Iranian attack last week. The facility has become crucial as the Kingdom races to boost exports following the near standstill in the Strait of Hormuz.

Following the Saudis’ successful diversion of some production through a pipeline to Yanbu (on its west coast), the Houthis joined the fighting. Thus far, they appear to be targeting exclusively Israeli targets, but they can roil shipping through the Red Sea, thwarting the effort to shift shipping away from Hormuz, and might choose to focus on the closer Saudi oil facilities instead.

Still, particularly as compared to Qatar or UAE, the Saudi damage appears to come primarily at Prince Sultan.

Enter Zelenskyy

Amid all this turmoil (and even as Trump inches closer to selling out Ukraine to Putin), Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, attempted to gain a strategic volodymyr zelenskii cropped headshotadvantage by offering Gulf nations Ukrainian expertise at countering the Iranian drones Russia has used for years, while at the same time scolding unnamed allies to stop complaining that Ukraine is targeting Russia’s energy facilities unless they arrange a ceasefire.

After the global energy crisis began, we received signals from some partners requesting that we reduce our responses targeting Russia’s oil and energy sector. I emphasize once again: if Russia is ready not to strike Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, we will not retaliate to theirs.

We are open to discussing any type of ceasefire—a full ceasefire, an energy ceasefire, a food security ceasefire. We have already proposed all of this, and we are still open. If the Russians are ready, let them suggest any timeframe—we are ready to resolve this issue.

Around ten days ago, a Ukrainian team started consulting with the Saudis, and last week, the Saudis signed a security agreement with Russian FlagUkraine (which signed similar agreements with UAE, Jordan, and Qatar).

On Friday, after Ukraine laid out evidence that Russian intelligence was behind strikes like the ones on Prince Sultan Air Base, Representative Luna hosted her Russian buddies, discussing further rewards to Russia for helping Iran kill Americans.

And then Iran — once again presumably assisted by Russian intelligence — scored one of its most devastating strikes of the war, on Saudi soil.

Kiss my ass

In the wake of that devastating attack (though who knows whether Whiskey Pete bothered to tell Trump?), Trump went to a Saudi investors conference in Miami and told Mohammed bin Salman, Mohammed Bin Salman Al-Saudright, the guy who chopped up an Jamal Khashoggi with a bone saw, to kiss his ass.

One year ago you were a dead country. Now, you’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. He didn’t think this was going to happen. He didn’t think he’d be kissing my ass. He really didn’t. He thought he’d be … just another American President that was a loser, where the country was going downhill. But now … he has to be nice to me. You tell him [voice roughens] he’d better be nice to me. He’s gotta be.

Apparently after Trump made those intemperate comments, according to what I consider well-placed but unverified Ukrainian chatter, Marco Rubio scolded the Saudis for signing an agreement with Zelenskyy without first consulting with the US.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on behalf of Donald Trump, expressed regret that the Saudi authorities signed defense agreements with Ukraine without consulting the United States, which had been Saudi Arabia’s main ally.

In response, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman noted that the U.S. had failed to fully protect the Kingdom from Iranian strikes, and therefore Saudi Arabia made a decision that could quickly strengthen its defense capabilities. The Crown Prince also stated that his country will continue to be guided by its own national interests when making decisions regarding its defense.

All that is background that hasn’t made it into multiple reports that have been treated as straight, albeit conflicting, reporting as Trump amasses an army to escalate the war against Iran (in an operation DOD claims, as it did the invasion itself, would only last a matter of weeks).

Pressure on and from the Gulf states

First, while MbS reportedly was always pushing for an attack on Iran (which makes Jared’s role in fucking up negotiations all the more problematic), in recent days, multiple outlets have described the pressure the Gulf states — the ones that America’s very pricey missile defense systems have failed to protect — are putting on Trump to keep fighting until he neutralizes the power he has given Iran.

While regional leaders are broadly supportive now of the U.S. efforts, one Gulf diplomat described some division, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading the calls for increasing military pressure on Tehran.

The UAE has emerged as perhaps the most hawkish of the Gulf countries and is pushing hard for Trump to order a ground invasion, the diplomat said. Kuwait and Bahrain also favor this option. The UAE, which has faced more than 2,300 missile and drone attacks from Iran, has only grown more irritated as the war grinds on and the salvos threaten to tarnish its image as the safe, pristine and monied hub for trade and tourism of the Mideast.

Oman and Qatar, which historically have played the role of intermediary between the long economically isolated Iran and the West, have favored a diplomatic solution.

The diplomat said Saudi Arabia has argued to the U.S. that ending the war now won’t produce a “good deal,” one guaranteeing security for Iran’s Arab neighbors.

The Saudis say an eventual war settlement must neutralize Iran’s nuclear program, destroy its ballistic missile capabilities, end Tehran’s support for proxy groups, and also ensure that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be effectively shutdown by the Islamic Republic in the future as it has during the conflict.

Karoline Leavitt at her first Press ConferenceYesterday, Karoline Leavitt, right, claimed that Trump would ask the Gulf Arabs to pay for the war.

All that’s happening, though, while Trump is telling aides (to tell journalists) that he might just take his toys and go home without first opening Hormuz.

President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, administration officials said, likely extending Tehran’s firm grip on the waterway and leaving a complex operation to reopen it for a later date.

In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.

Particularly given the claim that Rubio scolded the Saudis for attending to their own security, there’s no reason to believe that Trump would treat MbS — bone saws and all — any differently than he would, say, Keir Starmer.

Trump believes he can bully allies into ceding to his demands before he sends American service members to risk their lives to unfuck a problem of his own creation. He’s presumably preparing to demand concessions from Gulf allies before he bails them out of the catastrophe he exposed them to.

The conflicting stories of the last few days are probably not conflicting at all. They simply reflect Trump’s belief that the way to gain concessions, even from close allies, is to bully them and issue threats in the press (which means, for better and worse, Trump is likely not going to leave without opening Hormuz).

It’s not at all surprising that the Gulf states expect Trump to unfuck the catastrophe he caused in the Gulf. The real drama is to see just how long MbS will accept anything less than obedience from Trump.

Timeline

  • February 28: Trump starts a war
  • March 1: Iran strikes facility at Prince Sultan, injures Benjamin Pennington
  • March 2: Drone attack on Ras Tanura
  • March 3: Iran strikes US embassy in Riyadh hitting the CIA station
  • March 6: Intercepted Iranian strike cause minor injuries
  • March 7: Pennington dies from his injuries after DOD fails to evacuate him to Germany
  • March 8: DOD announces Pennington’s death
  • March 9: DOD allegedly evacuates tankers from Prince Sultan to Europe
  • March 10: Drone strike at Ruwais
  • March 12: Incident involving two tankers flying over Iraq leads one to crash, killing its crew of six
  • March 14: Five tankers at Prince Sultan damaged, which Trump learned from the WSJ
  • March 19: Drone strike on Samref refinery on Red Sea
  • March 27: Significant strike takes out at least one AWACS plane and some more tankers, injures at least 15
  • March 28: Trump’s “kissing my ass” comments at Saudi conference 

Trump Watch

Associated Press, Airport cleared to be renamed for Trump as he unveils design for skyscraper library, Staff report, March 31, 2026. A Florida airport was cleared to be renamed after President Donald Trump on Monday, hours before the president separately revealed plans for a Miami skyscraper planned to house his presidential library.

ap logoFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill allowing Palm Beach International Airport to be renamed the President Donald J. Trump International Airport. The change is set to take place in July, formally rebranding the airport near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Later Monday, Trump posted a video to social media that appears to show digital renderings for his presidential library. Set to dramatic music, the video unveils a piercing tower along the Miami skyline emblazoned with the signature “Trump” lettering seen on his other towers.

The video includes panning shots of the tower’s exterior and interior, with a presidential jet parked in the lobby alongside a gold escalator like the one Trump rode while launching his presidential campaign in 2015. Other shots show a giant ballroom like the one he’s planning for the White House, a replica Oval Office, rooftop gardens and a large, gold statue of Trump.

Miami Dade College gave up a nearly 3-acre plot of downtown real estate as a gift for the future library. A judge in December dismissed a complaint challenging the gift on grounds that the college’s board didn’t give sufficient public notice. The site is valued at more than $67 million.

Trump’s son Eric previously said the library will be “one of the most beautiful buildings ever built” and “an Icon on the Miami skyline.”

Since he returned to the White House, Trump has pressed to get his name on all manner of American institutions, from the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Kennedy Center performing arts venue to U.S. currency.

In Palm Beach, a stretch of road from the airport to Trump’s estate was recently renamed Donald J. Trump Boulevard. 

ny times logoNew York Times, Trump Lashes Out Again at Europe for Its Lukewarm Support Against Iran, Mark Landler and Catherine Porter, March 31, 2026. President Trump’s latest outbursts followed reports that European countries were imposing more restrictions on American aircraft in their airspace.

President Trump lashed out again at European allies on Tuesday for their refusal to get more involved in the Iran war. He accused France of denying permission to American warplanes to fly over its territory and challenged Britain to “go get your own oil” by forcibly reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The French government said it was “surprised” by Mr. Trump’s claim, made on his Truth Social account, but did not issue an explicit denial. A French military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, said that France had not closed its airspace to American planes.

The president’s two posts came after Spain, which has been the most vocal European opponent of the war, said it had denied permission to U.S. military planes to fly over its territory before striking Iran.

There were reports in the Italian media that Italy, too, had restricted the use of a base in Sicily by American planes. But the Italian government played down those reports, saying that it considered American requests on a case-by-case basis, and denied tensions with Washington over the use of bases.

Britain and France have refused to take part in offensive military operations, citing the fact that Mr. Trump did not consult them before launching the joint operation with Israel. Britain has allowed American bombers to use bases in its territory, though it has insisted that they be used only for defensive missions like striking Iranian military sites involved in attacks on British interests.

Britain and France are coordinating an effort to assemble a coalition of up to 35 countries that would help secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route that lines Iran’s southern coast, after the conflict has scaled down. That effort could include deploying frigates to escort oil tankers through the narrow waterway. Some could be mounted with antiaircraft batteries to shoot down Iranian drones or missiles.

In his posts, Mr. Trump repeated his claim that the United States and Israel had “decimated” Iran, leaving European countries with little to do, aside from reopening the strait, which he said was in their own economic interest. He also repeated a threat that the United States would no longer defend its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

 

ben franklin currency wmr

Wayne Madsen Report, Investigative Reporting: Even dictators don't use their signatures on their currency, Wayne Madsen, right, March 29-31, 2026. Donald Trump's narcissism makes him an outlier among the world's autocrats.wayne madsen new headshot

Trump’s announcement that U.S. currency notes will bear his signature instead of that of the Treasurer of the United States makes the United States an outlier even among the world’s worst dictatorships. Only one other country’s circulating banknotes includes its president’s signature. Most nations, present and past, use the signatures of central bank governors, finance ministers, or treasurers on their currency. Trump signature on dollar bill: When ...

angola currency wmrThe kwanza, the currency of the petro-autocracy of Angola, above, has in the past borne the signatures of its presidents — Agostinho Neto, José Eduardo dos Santos, and João Lourenço, However, more recent currency notes only have the signature of the central bank governor.

Nations refrain from placing the signatures of their heads of state or government on their currency notes. Reasons are that it politicizes money, undermines central bank independence, requires reprinting currency every time a leader changes, and signals instability or personalization of power.

hitler currency wmrNeither Adolf Hitler nor Benito Mussolini placed their signatures on their respective Reichsmark (above) and Lira notes. The 1938–1945 Fascist Italy’s Lira notes, below, only bore the signatures of the Director General of the Treasury, head of the Court of Auditors, and the Special Cashier. Mussolini’s signature was not included.

benito mussolini currency wmr

Other monarchs and dictators who did not order their signatures to appear on their currency include Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte; Argentine dictator Juan Peron; Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and Mikhail Gorbachev; Chinese Communist leaders Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Xi Jinping, Iranian Ayatollahs Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei, North Korean dictators Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un; and Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.

Iran Chamber Society: Iranian Banknotes ... North Korea admits drastic currency ... 50 Rubles - Soviet Union – Numista CNY - Chinese Yuan - Foreign Currency Exchange in Los Angeles 100 Argentine Pesos banknote 3rd Series ...

U.S. Energy, Transportation, Inflation, Jobs, Economy

ny times logoNew York Times, Average Gasoline Price Hits $4 in U.S., a ‘Headache’ for Drivers and Trump, Emmett Lindner, March 31, 2026. A month since the first U.S.-Israeli attacks and Iran’s response effectively shut off Persian Gulf oil, drivers are paying significantly more to fill up.

Gasoline in the United States crossed an average of $4 a gallon on Tuesday, a threshold it hadn’t reached since August 2022, continuing a series of nearly uninterrupted increases since the Middle East war began that are chipping away at the spending power of American consumers.

Since the end of February, the average cost of regular gasoline has jumped 35 percent, according to data from the AAA motor club.

Seeing gasoline at more than $4 a gallon — when it was below $3 a month ago — could push American drivers to change their spending habits.

“We have this obsession with gas prices because they dictate a lot of ‘Can we drive? Can we do things we enjoy?’ And now some of that is at risk,” said Patrick De Haan, an analyst at GasBuddy, which also tracks fuel prices.

“As we get to a month of increases and prices are much higher,” he added, “the amount of pressure on Americans’ budgets and their spending is going to ramp up.”

For President Trump, who not long ago was boasting about how prices had fallen since he was re-elected in 2024, the highly visible reminder of the war’s consequences is a political burden.

Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Commentary: The Oil Crisis is About to Get Physical, Paul Krugman, right, paul krugmanMarch 31, 2026. From market speculation to crude reality.

In normal times, about 20 percent of the world’s oil production passes through the Strait of Hormuz. That flow has been cut off except for Iranian oil and a handful of other vessels the Iranians are allowing through. This disruption has led to a large spike in oil futures prices:

But this price rise has been speculative, driven by the (justified) expectation of future shortages rather than a current lack of oil. In fact, so far deliveries to markets around the world haven’t declined, because shipping oil from the Persian Gulf to major markets takes 4-6 weeks. As a result there was a large quantity of oil already at sea, outside the Strait, when the war began.

However, this grace period is about to end. The oil crisis is about to get physical. The map at the top of this post shows J.P. Morgan’s estimates of when tankers from the Gulf will stop arriving at various destinations. Deliveries to Asian markets will end this week; deliveries to Europe will end next week.

And once the crisis gets physical, there will no longer be room for jawboning the markets. Since the war began there have been several occasions on which Donald Trump has been able to talk prices down by asserting that meaningful negotiations are underway with his invisible friends the Iranian regime, but that won’t work once the oil runs out. So prices will have to rise to whatever level destroys enough demand to match it to the available supply.

PS: The United States buys little oil from the Persian Gulf, but we can expect U.S. oil prices to rise in response to shortages around the world.

So how high will oil prices get? I’ve written about this before, but I thought it might be useful to update the analysis, emphasizing how uncertain the prospects are and the real risk of extremely high prices.

There are two big sources of uncertainty. The first is that we don’t know how much oil will manage to escape the Gulf. Right now oil supply is drastically curtailed, but not by the full 20 million barrels of oil a day that used to flow through the Strait of Hormuz. The Saudis have a pipeline that lets them ship some of their oil to the Red Sea; Oman has a pipeline that takes some oil around the Strait. And Iran has been letting millions of barrels of its own oil pass. Whether all these “leakages” will continue depends on the course of the war.

Second, how high must prices rise to choke off a given amount of demand? We know from previous oil shocks that the price elasticity of demand for crude oil is low — that is, even large price increases only cause small declines in demand. But in the current crisis it matters just how low that elasticity, a number that is impossible to estimate with any precision, really is.

So, what is a reasonable range of possibilities? I’ve considered three scenarios for the disruption to oil supply: a “low disruption” scenario in which supply is reduced “only” 8 percent from normal levels, a medium scenario in which supply falls 12 percent, and a high disruption scenario in which it falls 16 percent. I’ve also considered three alternatives for the price elasticity of oil demand: “high” at 0.2, medium at 0.15, and low at 0.1.

And I assume that in the absence of this war the Brent price would be $65 a barrel. In that case I get the following matrix: A screenshot of a graph AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Readers should know that Robin Brooks has done a conceptually similar analysis. My numbers, however, are more alarming — and I believe that you should be alarmed.

In particular, by presenting the analysis this way, I risk conveying the impression that we should assume a moderate, medium/medium outcome. That is not at all a safe assumption.

After all, what would it take to get to my “high disruption” scenario? That’s what might happen if Iranian oil exports are cut off, say by a U.S. attack on Kharg Island, and if supply via pipelines is hindered by Iranian retaliation against other Gulf oil facilities as well as attacks by the Houthis on Red Sea shipping. That is not an outlandish possibility. It is, in fact, exactly what we should expect if the Trump administration follows through on what appear to be its current war plans.

And if oil really does go to $200 or more, it’s all too easy to envisage a full-blown global economic crisis, with an inflation surge and quite likely a recession.

Ever since this war began I’ve noticed a sharp divide in sentiment among experts. Finance and macroeconomics experts have been relatively sanguine about our ability to ride out this storm. But talk to or read energy experts — people who focus on the physical side of the oil crisis — and their hair is on fire.

I’m mostly a macroeconomist. But my hair is definitely starting to smolder.

U.S. Politics, Governance, Elections

bulwark morning shots logoMorning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Non-Slop Populism, Andrew Egger, March 31, 2026. For politicians, strong populist tendencies and radical political commitments tend to go hand in hand. This makes sense: The people with the loudest critiques of a given status quo are often the people who want to see that status quo most aggressively changed.

But there are exceptions. Which is part of why I’ve become so interested this year in Rob Sand, Iowa’s Democratic state auditor and the party’s candidate for governor.

bulwark logo big shipThe last few cycles have seen Iowa go from a purple agricultural state to a solid-red one; Sand, who has been elected auditor twice, is the only Democrat there currently serving in statewide or federal office. But national Democrats are hopeful that he may be the rare candidate who can pick the Iowa lock. Early public polling is extremely sparse, but suggests a competitive contest;¹ earlier this month, Sand qualified for the ballot with a state-record 24,756 signatures. The Democratic Governor’s Association sees Sand’s race as one of its strongest pickup opportunities this cycle.

Some of this has to do with the aesthetics that men-chasing Democratic consultants have lately decided their candidates need: He’s a native son! He wears ball caps and vests! He bow hunts! Last week, Politico followed Sand to a deer-hunting expo to capture anecdotes of him hobnobbing with the “camo-wearing, venison jerky-chomping, Busch Light tallboy-nursing fellow hunters,” splashing pictures of Sand’s latest trophy buck across the article.²

This sort of narrative parade is always a bit silly—Democratic men: We’re not all pencil-necked lanyard dorks and/or metrosexuals!—and it can certainly get overblown. (See: Walz, Tim.) But these aesthetics are the sauce, not the meat, of Sand’s appeal. The main course is his record working a transparency-focused job in a state government he argues has been made sloppy and lazy by years of one-party rule. He points to a law Iowa’s Republican supermajority passed in 2023 stripping away some of the powers of his office: “They don’t want accountability,” Sand told the AP at the time.

For Sand, accountability is a central theme. This week, his campaign released a policy platform on the subject, one stuffed with populist proposals: banning stock trading for state officials and requiring more muscular financial disclosures for candidates for office, requiring mandatory prison time for fraudsters convicted of stealing taxpayer money, strengthening whistleblower protections for state employees, and placing new requirements on elected officials: term limits, age limits, and cognitive and civics tests. All of it amounts to an anti-elite platform that is more procedural than ideological: A lot of people have been skating by with a lot of shabby, shoddy work for a long time. I intend to change it.

At a time when Americans are showing record cynicism toward pretty much all public institutions, it’s easy for politicians to channel that cynicism in empty-calorie, slopulist ways. We have no shortage of politicians willing to denounce the system and to argue that their chief virtue is that they’re outsiders who had no part in building it. Meanwhile, current officeholders are offering no shortage of pointless policy gestures designed to signal their own opposition to the status quo. It’s refreshing to see someone like Sand, who appears to have come by his critiques based on observations from inside the system of the incentives for bad behavior. But let’s see if his system-reforming org-chart populism can actually win.

AROUND THE BULWARK

  • The Iran Hawks Are Losing Their Heads… If you’re not critical of Trump’s war in Iran, you probably haven’t been paying attention, argues MONA CHAREN.
  • bulwark logo big shipEx–Trump Intel Official Sounds Alarm on Iran… SAM STEIN talks with former intelligence official SUE GORDON to break down the fast-moving Iran crisis—and why the U.S. may not have the intelligence it needs for what comes next.
  • Ground Forces in Iran—for What? Success is impossible if there’s no goal in the first place, observes MARK HERTLING.
  • Morning Chaser: Join Andrew and Bill live on Substack or YouTube at 10 a.m. EDT. We’ll post the replay to the site and the Bulwark Takes feed after it concludes. See you soon!

Quick Hits

YOU CAN’T SPELL LINDSEY WITHOUT ‘DISNEY L’: It was a scene right out of one of those old commercials. Sen. Lindsay Graham, you’ve just gotten a president to launch the regime-change war in Iran you’ve hoped to see for your entire political career—what are you going to do next? I’m going to Disney World!

The South Carolina senator was photographed repeatedly at the Orlando theme park over the weekend—improbably carrying a Little Mermaid bubble wand through the “Tangled” area of the Magic Kingdom Friday,³ and brunching at Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary Resort Sunday.⁴

TMZ made a lot of Graham enjoying the Most Wonderful Place On Earth™ during a partial government shutdown, although it’s not exactly the senator’s fault TSA agents still aren’t being paid—he voted to accept the Democrats’ compromise offer alongside the rest of his conference before leaving town. Still, it’s a dangerous time to be a lawmaker enjoying yourself in public—and a particularly dangerous one if you happen to be a Republican with a penchant for enjoying regime-change wars. It raises obvious questions about what sacrifices you yourself are making. And it makes you an easy target for crabby MAGA media figures still too chicken to focus their fire on Trump.

“While our country is at war, our airports are a mess, DHS is not funded, and our elections are not secure, Lindsey Graham is wandering around Disney World with a bubble wand,” fumed Daily Wire pundit Matt Walsh. “This is an image that should live in infamy.”

BAD TO WORSE: Another day, another five-alarm-fire poll for Donald Trump. A UMass Amherst survey released yesterday found the president with the rock-bottom approval of 33 percent—eleven points down from eleven months ago, five points down from last July. Fully 62 percent of respondents either somewhat or strongly disapprove of Trump’s second-term leadership.

“Americans grade Trump harshly on the most prominent issues facing the country, especially on bread-and-butter economic issues,” said UMass Amherst Professor Jesse Rhodes, who was co-director of the poll. “When it comes to public opinion, economic concerns usually dominate, and Americans’ harshly negative views of Trump’s economic leadership are a major cause of his declining poll numbers.”

Others in the MAGA coalition are drawing different lessons from the poll. “For the love of all that is holy,” Megyn Kelly said, “we need to get out of Iran and work full time on [people’s financial] worries.”

CAN’T EVEN DO CORRUPTION RIGHT: Maybe one of the reasons so many suspicious, anonymous people with apparent inside information about the Trump administration’s foreign policy decisions have been making well-timed bets on prediction markets like Kalshi is that doing corruption the old-fashioned way is just too complicated for them. The Financial Times reports that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth tried to invest in American defense contractors just before the start of the Iran war—but failed:

Hegseth’s broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in the asset manager’s Defense Industrials Active ETF, the people said, shortly before the US launched military action against Tehran. . . . The investment discussed by Hegseth’s broker did not ultimately go ahead as the fund, which launched in May last year, was not yet available for Morgan Stanley clients to buy.

Hegseth and Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell denied the story. BlackRock and Morgan Stanley didn’t comment.

Worry not, though. Even if Hegseth had invested in the fund, it would have backfired, per FT: “The Nasdaq-listed IDEF fund has risen 28 per cent over the past year, but has not risen on the Middle East war, falling almost 13 per cent in the past month.” As the old saying goes: God protects fools, drunks, and the United States of America. Or at least two out of three.

—Benjamin Parker

ny times logoNew York Times, Will $4 Gas Hurt Trump’s Approval Ratings? Here’s What History Shows, Ruth Igielnik and Katherine Chui, March 31, 2026. When gas prices spike, the approval rating for the president typically falls.

Now that the war in Iran has pushed the national average price of gas above $4 a gallon, Republicans are watching closely to see if President Trump’s approval ratings take a hit — which could dim the prospects of some of their House and Senate candidates in the midterm elections.

Mr. Trump’s approval rating has hovered around 40 percent in The New York Times polling average tracker for several months. It remains to be seen whether the recent spike in gas prices — which has been unusually rapid — will have an effect on them.

There have been indications in recent years that the correlation between the price at the pump and approval ratings may be weakening, as the electorate has grown more polarized. But in this case, the price increase is clearly tied to Mr. Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

Just last month, Mr. Trump boasted in his State of the Union address that gas was “below $2.30 a gallon in most states.” On Tuesday the national average hit $4.02, climbing above the $4 mark for the first time since August 2022, according to the AAA motor club. In some states, the average price at the pump is more than $5 a gallon, and in some counties it is more than $6.

Here’s a closer look at how gas prices have historically stood apart as a key factor driving shifts in public attitudes toward the president.The Carter Administration

In 1979, as gas prices soared to what would now be about $5 a gallon amid the energy crisis, President Jimmy Carter’s approval ratings plummeted to around 30 percent. (During that period, Mr. Carter did get a small rally in support with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, though it was short-lived.)

Then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich arrives at Mar-a-Lago on February 1, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

Then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich arrives at Mar-a-Lago on February 1, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

Popular Information, Accountability Journalism: AI industry taps January 6 operative to run $100 million campaign to boost MAGA candidates, Judd Legum, right, judd legumand Rebecca Crosby, March 31, 2026. The AI industry has tapped Taylor Budowich, a key operative in the effort to undermine the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, to lead a new group dedicated to boosting Republican candidates in the 2026 midterms. The group, called Innovation Council, is reportedly planning to spend $100 million.

Before the Innovation Council, AI companies and top executives had already committed nearly $200 million to influence the 2026 elections. President Trump’s allies, however, were reportedly irked that these funds were not being spent exclusively to promote his agenda. The Innovation Council — and Budowich’s involvement — are designed to placate those concerns.

“President Trump has made it clear, America will win the AI race against China, period. He built the framework, he’s leading from the front, and this organization exists to make sure he doesn’t fight that battle alone,” Budowich told Fox News. “The cavalry is coming to back up the policymakers who stand with the president and will hold accountable the ones who don’t.”

The group also quickly gained the endorsement of David Sacks, the conservative billionaire who recently stepped down as Trump’s AI czar. “Innovation Council will play a critical role in advancing the innovation agenda championed by President Trump and this administration,” Sacks said in a statement. “We welcome its support at this important juncture.”

The influx of cash comes at a critical time for Trump. The Iran War, the sputtering economy, a partial government shutdown, and the Epstein files have driven his approval rating to historic lows. With the November elections fast approaching, some Republicans are fearing a rout — with control of both the House and Senate in play.

Now, Budowich, described by Trump advisor Stephen Miller as “one of the true MAGA faithful,” has been handed a boatload of AI cash to reverse this dynamic. Budowich has shown a willingness to go to extreme lengths to advance Trump’s political interests.

Budowich was a senior advisor to Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, serving as chief of staff to Donald Trump Jr. After Trump lost the election, Budowich worked closely with Trump Jr. and his then-girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, to overturn the results.

Specifically, Budowich directed over $200,000 for radio and social media advertisements to build the crowd on January 6, 2021. The money was funneled through a dark-money nonprofit.

Budowich sued the Congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack to keep his bank records secret and protect the source of the cash. But Budowich lost the case, and the money was traced back to Julie Jenkins Fancelli, a top Trump fundraiser and heir to the Publix supermarket fortune.

In a text exchange with Caroline Wren, who was also involved in “Stop the Steal” organizing, Budowich said that Trump needed to “end his speech [outside the White House on January 6, 2021] by saying something like ‘Now go march on the capital [sic]. march to save America.’”

The text was uncovered by the Congressional investigation, and Budowich was asked about it during a deposition.

During the 2024 election, Budowich founded MAGA Inc, the main Super PAC supporting Trump, and Securing American Greatness, its associated dark-money non-profit group. After Trump prevailed in November 2024, Budowich joined the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff. He left that position in September 2025 and is now running the Innovation Council.

Thus far, the Innovation Council has a barebones public website featuring materials created by the Trump White House. But Popular Information found that the group created a series of pages, later taken offline, that describe concerns about AI job displacement, data center energy use, and safety as “hoaxes.”

The pages were indexed by the Bing search engine.

Despite the vast sums of money involved, there is no information about the Innovation Council’s donors. This is by design. The Innovation Council is currently organized as a nonprofit, so it is not required to disclose its donors or file with the Federal Election Commission.

Budowich has experience using complex organizational structures to keep donors anonymous while maintaining operational flexibility.

No corporate overlords. No false equivalencies. No B.S. Upgrade to paid to support independent accountability journalism.SubscribedThe AI industry’s “bipartisan” spending also leans Republican

While other new pro-AI PACs claim to be bipartisan, some are still tilted towards Republicans.

Leading the Future, for example, which has raised over $125 million, indicated it would “back candidates of both parties who support a national framework for artificial intelligence regulations.” The PAC hired Josh Vlasto, who has worked for Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Zac Moffatt, a prominent Republican operative.

The PAC, however, has received many large donations from prominent Trump allies, including $12.5 million each from Andreessen Horowitz cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and $12.5 million each from OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman and his wife Anna. Andreessen and Horowitz both donated millions to a super PAC supporting Trump in the 2024 election. Last week, Trump appointed Andreessen to his “President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.” In September, Brockman and his wife gave $25 million to MAGA Inc.

As of mid-March, Leading the Future has spent around $2.9 million supporting Republicans and around $2.5 million supporting Democrats through its Republican and Democratic affiliates, American Mission and Think Big. But Think Big has also spent $2.3 million attacking Alex Bores, a Democrat running for Congress in New York. The Democrats the PAC supported, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Melissa Bean, are running in historically blue Illinois districts, where it is unlikely that Republican candidates will win. (Jackson lost the Democratic primary in March.)

The PAC has also pledged to spend $5 million in support of Representative Byron Donalds’ (R-FL) campaign for Florida Governor. This was reportedly an effort to solidify its relationship with the White House.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has also started multiple new pro-AI super PACs. One of the PACs, Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (Meta) California, will focus its efforts in California, while the American Technology Excellence Project (ATEP) will focus on other states. The company gave $20 million to the California PAC and $45 million to the ATEP.

Like Leading the Future, Meta has also indicated that the PACs will support bipartisan candidates. But so far, the ATEP appears to favor Republicans. Company representatives told the New York Times in February that the company’s spending would start in Illinois and Texas. The New York Times reported that the company had started two additional Super PACs, Forge the Future Project and Making Our Tomorrow, which are expected to be funded by the ATEP. According to campaign finance reports, as of February 23, the company’s Forge the Future Project PAC, which supports Republicans, has spent around $1.3 million in Texas. In Illinois, the company donated $750,000 to its Making Our Tomorrow PAC in February, which has been spending in support of Democratic candidates.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, was named to Trump’s new President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology last week. Meta also donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.

U.S. Immigration Crackdown, Rights, Disputes

ny times logoNew York Times, Latino Republicans in South Texas Break With Trump Over Birthright Citizenship, Jazmine Ulloa, March 31, 2026. Frustrated by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, some Latino voters say they also disagree with his plan, now before the Supreme Court, to reject automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to immigrant parents.

Outside a cafe in South Texas, Samuel Garza, an actor on break with his Mexican cinema troupe, was bracing for one of the most consequential immigration decisions in a century: Whether the Supreme Court would preserve automatic citizenship for anyone born on American soil.

Mr. Garza, 62, voted for President Trump three times, he said, because he believed his administration would be a boon for the economy.

But he became dismayed when Mr. Trump signed an executive order last year seeking to restrict automatic citizenship for babies born in the United States to parents who are not citizens or legal permanent residents. For more than a century, birthright citizenship was considered settled law, guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. It had also made Mr. Garza, an American born to Mexican parents in McAllen, Texas, a citizen by birth.

“It is saddening,” Mr. Garza said, as the Supreme Court takes up a case Wednesday that will decide the fate of the right. If the precedent is overturned, he said, “it would hurt so many families who come here to contribute and make lives here.”

 

ICE logoThe Contrarian, Opinion: Words & Phrases, Jennifer Rubin, right, March 31, 2026. jennifer rubin new headshotSame policy, ‘lower profile.’ Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation is hugely unpopular. He was compelled to fire Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and to force Custom and Border Control thug Gregory Bovino into retirement.

Now, we learn that Markwayne Mullin, Noem’s successor, wants “to get the department off the front page of the news.” The new mantra for a mass deportation policy that routinely violates human rights, engages in racial profiling, and kills people is “lower profile.”

contrarian logoThe Atlantic reports, “[Immigration Czar Tom] Homan’s tactical shift would give ICE a lower profile while aiming to make it easier for local jurisdictions and their police departments to cooperate on immigration enforcement.” The Wall Street Journal reports on more profile adjustment: “ICE leadership isn’t moving forward, for now, with high-profile operations like the ones it previously conducted in big blue cities like Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis.” Again, Mullin assured the Senate, “My goal in six months is that we’re not the lead story every day.” More profile lowering!

“Mass deportations” are verboten. “Cooperation” is in. Flashy SWAT operations are no good; “small workplace raids” are fine. Angry villain Stephen Miller is tucked away; Mullin (right), the face of the “softer approach” (not only on immigration but on FEMA), is front and center. What’s next — ads with Care Bears and rainbows instead of White supremacist imagery and scary shock troops?

Markwayne Mullin oBefore you get lulled into complacency, understand that the Trump regime is not altering its policy one iota. “Although Mullin gives Trump a different face at DHS, his arrival doesn’t change the administration’s overarching goal—enshrined into law last July by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—to remove 1 million people a year from the United States,” The Atlantic reports.

One Republican let on that the regime flunkies “[j]ust have to message it a little bit better,” Politico reported. “White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the administration’s immigration enforcement isn’t changing, and that the president’s ‘highest priority has always been the deportation of illegal alien criminals who endanger American communities.’” But we know the vast number of people detained are not violent criminals. So: nicer words, the same undiluted xenophobia.

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