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Month	Stories	All outlets
February 2026	1	150
March 2026	3	1,094
April 2026	4	4,537
May 2026	0	none collected
June 2026	0	none collected
July 2026	0	none collected
August 2026	0	1 (collection gap)
September 2026	0	598

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Republican55% · 12 pairs
Democrat36% · 8 pairs
Party not recorded9% · 2 pairs

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Bad Look: 7 (88%)

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Articles served from heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

April 14, 2026

There are signs the political game has changed in the United States since Hungarian voters rejected Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s leadership on Sunday, April 12. His party’s loss of control of the government to a supermajority of its opponents undermined the belief that right-wing authoritarianism was an unstoppable force in world politics. Since MAGA Republicans had tied themselves to Orbán and his movement, his loss also weakened their own claims to inevitable victory over those trying to protect democracy. On Sunday night, President Donald J. Trump appeared to melt down on social media. In The Atlantic today, Tom Nichols noted that Trump’s “emotional state seems to be fraying: This weekend, he attacked Pope Leo XIV, presented himself as Jesus Christ, and then jabbed at his phone until dawn.” Nichols notes that after Trump attacked the Pope and portrayed himself as Jesus, he posted an AI version of a Trump Tower on the moon. (“Sure,” Nichols writes. “Why not?”) Then Trump posted a meme of how senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and former president Joe Biden all look old—unlike Trump—and then posted clips from Newsmax. The postings continued throughout the night. “This is not the behavior of a stable, healthy leader,” Nichols writes. “The American people must not look away…. They must pay attention to the president’s deterioration, and insist that the House and Senate start acting like functioning branches of the government by asking the White House to explain what is happening, without insults or evasions, before the eyes of the country and the world.” Trump has tried to explain away the AI image he posted on social media on Sunday depicting himself as Jesus, clothed in robes, bathed in radiant light, and apparently healing a man in bed. After an extraordinary outcry over the image from his evangelical Christian followers, he took the image down, telling reporters “I thought it was me as a doctor” and claiming that “only the fake news” could suggest the image showed him as Jesus. He added: “I do make people better.” With the House back in session today, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill to establish an independent commission to evaluate the president’s mental state. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution establishes a process by which either a majority of the Cabinet or a majority of a body created by Congress to evaluate the president’s fitness can declare that a president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” In a press release, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee expressed concern about “Trump’s escalating erratic conduct.” The bill has fifty Democratic co-sponsors. “Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows as he threatens to destroy entire civilizations, unleashes chaos in the Middle East while violating Congressional war powers, aggressively insults the Pope of the Catholic Church and sends out artistic renderings online likening himself to Jesus Christ. We are at a dangerous precipice, and it is now a matter of national security for Congress to fulfill its responsibilities under the 25th Amendment to protect the American people from an increasingly volatile and unstable situation,” Raskin said in a statement. Trump’s deteriorating mental state has become impossible to overlook, but Republicans are making excuses for it. Cabinet members, who owe their positions to Trump and who likely recognize they will never rise to such power again in a merit-based system, will probably not question Trump’s mental acuity. But Raskin’s measure will force Republicans in Congress either to vote for an independent commission to evaluate Trump or to own his increasingly erratic behavior themselves. Today, when asked if he were comfortable with Trump’s threat of last week that an entire civilization would die if it did not meet his demands, Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) changed the subject by saying: “You’ve got to…look at what the president is doing, and I think right now he’s trying to open the Strait of Hormuz, which…we are all supportive of.” The strait was, of course, open before Trump attacked Iran. The Lincoln Project accused Republicans of “ignoring Trump’s sharp mental decline the same way they’ve ignored his crimes.” Trump’s erratic behavior has led the U.S. into disaster by striking Iran, which in turn attacked its neighbors and closed the Strait of Hormuz. After unsuccessfully bullying other nations to force Iran to reopen the strait to all ships, not just to those of certain nations, Trump last week declared a ceasefire and a framework for an agreement, then suggested the U.S. and Iran would together manage the strait. When Iran continued to maintain control of it, Trump announced the U.S. would blockade the strait to make sure no ships at all could cross through it, with the idea that the U.S. can withstand the economic pain that closure will cause for a longer time than Iran can. Data released today show that wholesale inflation has risen to 4%, the highest annual rate in three years. Today Marta Pacheco of EuroNews reported that the last of the vessels that left the Strait of Hormuz before the U.S. and Israel struck Iran have reached Europe. Analysts expect a new surge in energy prices. In Talking Points Memo today, David Kurtz points out that the economic mess in which the U.S., and the world, finds itself is entirely Trump’s fault. The trade wars, unjustified war in the Middle East, and attacks on U.S. science, universities, and immigration that are throttling economic growth are all a product of Trump’s personal choices. As the war enters its seventh week, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said today that Senate Democrats will repeatedly force votes on war powers resolutions designed to force Trump to get congressional authorization before any further military action in Iran. “Forty-five days into this war, Congress has been sidelined because our Republican colleagues refuse to take a strong stand against this war and duck it completely because they’re afraid of Trump,” Schumer said today. Thune and other Republicans countered with the belief that the war won’t go on much longer, and they support Trump’s actions. Today former attorney general Pam Bondi was scheduled to testify under oath before the House Oversight and Reform Committee about the Department of Justice’s handling of the release of the Epstein files. The DOJ has released only about half of those files despite a law requiring it to produce them all no later than December 19 of last year. Many of the records it did release are heavily redacted, despite the very few and very specific conditions under which Congress allowed such redactions. Bondi did not show up. The Department of Justice is taking the position that since she was subpoenaed as attorney general and no longer holds that position, the subpoena was no longer in force. Democrats on the committee disagree. Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who was a prosecutor before she entered the House, posted: “Pam Bondi refused to show up for today’s Oversight deposition—defying our lawful subpoena. We couldn’t care less that she was fired from her job as Attorney General. She is responsible for leading the White House cover-up of the Epstein files. Since she didn’t show up, Oversight Democrats will move to hold her in contempt of Congress. The survivors deserve justice—and we will get answers. Enough is enough.” Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told the Weeknight: “People have to be held accountable for the laws that we pass in the Congress and the subpoenas that we put in place.” — Notes: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/us/politics/trump-jesus-picture-pope-leo.html https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italy-rallies-round-pope-trump-attack-tests-ties-with-meloni-2026-04-13/ https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-raskin-introduces-legislation-establishing-independent-commission-on-presidential-capacity https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5830863-raskin-bill-25th-amendment/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/trump-pope-post-truth-social/686802/ https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/14/economy/us-ppi-wholesale-inflation-march https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/04/14/energy-prices-set-to-rise-as-last-gulf-tankers-reach-europe-analysts-say https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-democrats-will-try-try-again-rein-trumps-iran-war-powers-2026-04-14/ https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trumps-corruption-is-whats-tanking-the-economy X: harryjsisson/status/2043627709553692942 Bluesky: crockett.house.gov/post/3mji5byhngc22 acyn.bsky.social/post/3mjfcur5bhu2j atrupar.com/post/3mjhz4v7vmh2o andrewsolender.bsky.social/post/3mjhr43ywvc2f robertgarcia.house.gov/post/3mjipmupnyc26 lincolnproject.us/post/3mjhzzolkxp2i Share

Apr 15, 202615 votes

April 14, 2026

Apr 15, 202612 votes

April 14, 2026

Apr 15, 202622 votes

April 9, 2026

The ceasefire President Donald J. Trump announced Tuesday night fell apart almost immediately. Israel complained that it hadn’t been consulted, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Israel did not accept an end to its bombardment of southern Lebanon as a way to dislodge Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Steven Scheer of Reuters noted today that Israel has been under a state of emergency that halted the work of the judicial system, but with the end of the war, Netanyahu’s trial for corruption is scheduled to begin again on Saturday. Iran has been permitting certain ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, but responded to Israel’s continued bombing by closing the strait again. Vice President J.D. Vance said there was a “legitimate misunderstanding” about whether the ceasefire included Lebanon. “We never made that promise,” he said. But in fact, Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, who posted the terms of the ceasefire on Tuesday, noted that the agreement did include a ceasefire in Lebanon. He tagged Vance in the post. As more information about the achievement of the ceasefire became known, it reflected poorly on Trump. Humza Jilani, Abigail Hauslohner, and Demetri Sevastopulo of the Financial Times reported yesterday that while Trump claimed Iran was begging for a deal to end hostilities, it was actually the Trump administration that was pushing Pakistan to broker a deal with Iran. Tyler Pager and Katie Rogers of the New York Times reported that the White House was helping to craft Sharif’s social media statements, suggesting Trump “was actively looking for a way out of the crisis” as his own imposed deadline drew closer on Tuesday evening. Although Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claims the U.S. has had a “historic and overwhelming victory” that achieved “every single objective,” David S. Cloud of the Wall Street Journal wrote yesterday that Iran saw the ceasefire as a “triumph” because it had survived a 38-day barrage from the United States and Israel and because it had gained control over the Strait of Hormuz, inflicting deep damage on the U.S. economy. Iran claimed the U.S. had suffered “an undeniable, historic, and crushing defeat.” Iran’s new leadership is even more anti-Western than the previous leadership, killed in the early days of the U.S.-Israeli strikes. Yesterday the president posted his own interpretation of the terms of the agreement, but they were aspirational and asked for Iran to agree to terms that were less advantageous for the U.S. than the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that President Barack Obama negotiated in 2015 and Trump tore up in 2018. The actual terms of the ceasefire agreement were murky. On Wednesday, Iran released its version of the points of the agreement; the White House said those points weren’t the basis for the ceasefire. Also yesterday, Trump suggested the U.S. was considering joining the Iranians in demanding tolls for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. “We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it,” he told journalist Jonathan Karl. But today Trump posted: “There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait—They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!” Hours later, he added: “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That is not the agreement we have!” By Wednesday night, Trump was backing away from his celebratory statements about the ceasefire. “All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary—NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE. In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!” Meanwhile, Jonah Kaplan and Michael Kaplan of CBS News reported today that survivors of the deadly March 1 attack on U.S. forces in Kuwait, which killed six service members and wounded over 20 more, disputed Defense Secretary Hegseth’s description of the deadly drone that hit their position as a “squirter,” suggesting it squirted through the defenses of a fortified area. The survivors say their position was not fortified and was dangerously exposed to attack. Although Congress is not scheduled to conduct business again until April 13, Democrats were in Washington, D.C., today to try to force Republicans to vote on a war powers resolution to end the war on Iran. Republicans have steadfastly refused to discuss Trump’s attack on Iran, even on Tuesday after Trump threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” That pattern continued today. The Republican in charge of the House, Chris Smith of New Jersey, refused to recognize the Democrats and ended the day’s session immediately. He later said the Democrats should get behind the ceasefire agreement. This afternoon, out of the blue, First Lady Melania Trump called the White House press pool to hear a statement. The first lady strode to a podium bearing the presidential seal—always reserved for the president alone—and announced that she had never been friends with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, that she had never had a relationship with Epstein or his “accomplice” Ghislaine Maxwell, and that the “lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.” She called for Congress to hold hearings for Epstein’s victims, and concluded that “Epstein was not alone. Several prominent male executives resigned from their powerful positions after this matter became widely politicized.” Her six-minute statement appeared to have been written by someone else: she could not pronounce some of the words in it, like “trivial,” and she said “calculating” and “convinced” in place of “circulating” and “convicted.” Notably, she did not mention her husband even as her unexpected statement injected the issue of the Epstein files and his appearance in them squarely back into the news. When she was done speaking, she turned and walked back out of view the way she had come, as reporters shouted questions. Trump told a reporter he did not know the first lady was preparing to give a speech, but a source told CNN’s Betsy Klein that Trump had been alerted that she was going to make the statement. If his actions afterward were any indication, he wasn’t keen on it. This afternoon, Trump began posting wildly. At 4:28 his social media account lashed out at former allies Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones, who don’t support Trump’s war in Iran. Trump said “[t]hey’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too!” He reiterated his false claim that he won “in a LANDSLIDE,” and suggested MAGA voters love him. Those standing against his Iran adventure are “not ‘MAGA,’” he wrote; “they’re losers, just trying to latch on to MAGA.” Then, at 5:28, Trump’s social media account posted: “The Wall Street Journal, one of the worst and most inaccurate ‘Editorial Boards’ in the World, stated that I ‘declared premature victory in Iran.’ Actually, it is a Victory, and there’s nothing ‘premature’ about it! Because of me, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON and, very quickly, you’ll see Oil start flowing, with or without the help of Iran and, to me, it makes no difference, either way. The Wall Street Journal will, as usual, live to eat their words. They are always quick to criticize, but never to admit when they’re wrong, which is most of the time! President DONALD J. TRUMP” And then, at 7:49 tonight, the president’s social media account posted a graphic video of a man killing a woman with a hammer. The screed that accompanied the video attacked Haitian immigrants, former president Joe Biden, and “the Radical Democrats in Congress.” The post echoed the usual vicious racism to which Trump turns to feed his base. But it is hard to miss that hours after his wife gave an unexpected press conference about Jeffrey Epstein, Trump posted a video of a woman’s murder. — Notes: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-war-2026-trump-deadline-latest-news/card/exclusive-israel-was-informed-late-about-cease-fire-deal-and-wasn-t-happy-s18QUNCt1s4fL60Rnn03 https://www.ft.com/content/249b9255-c448-492b-88bf-098d97de4159?syn-25a6b1a6=1 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/a-closer-look-at-irans-10-demandsand-which-the-u-s-might-accept-c0148284 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-war-kuwait-drone-attack-survivors-us-army/ https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/why-iran-thinks-it-won-the-war-despite-huge-military-losses-94c60ac7 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/08/us-not-won-iran-war-00864337 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/world/middleeast/trump-pakistan-tweet-iran.html https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/halt-iran-attacks-means-netanyahus-corruption-trial-will-resume-sunday-2026-04-09/ https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-denies-knowing-about-melanias-epstein-presser-beforehand-amid-cnn-report-that-he-got-a-heads-up/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/09/house-democrats-trump-war-powers-resolution-iran https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/against-a-backdrop-of-war-congressional-republican-embrace-their-own-irrelevance https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr-ryan/our-work/carr-ryan-commentary/whole-civilization-will-die-tonight-day-american https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/us/politics/trump-iran-congress-republicans.html https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415455 https://thedigestonline.com/news/chris-smith-new-jersey-iran-war-powers-resolution-blocked/ YouTube: watch?v=vyn-_Tsl5A0 Bluesky: robertscotthorton.bsky.social/post/3miyja6jlds2s gtconway.bsky.social/post/3miydz4jshs2e mattgertz.bsky.social/post/3miz2i6wfzk2l ericcolumbus.bsky.social/post/3miz2tcgha22i ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3mj2ohpzfjk2d bgrueskin.bsky.social/post/3mj3heuvp6k2l acyn.bsky.social/post/3mj3hcbkqye2g paleofuture.bsky.social/post/3mj3ns6st322f factpostnews.bsky.social/post/3mj3n3emgfh2y meidastouch.com/post/3mj2yr2k4s22w charles.littlegreenfootballs.com/post/3mj3zstd2ug2q chadbourn.bsky.social/post/3mj3tji7vrs22 paulballen.bsky.social/post/3mj3r34scbc2p paleofuture.bsky.social/post/3mj3ucnitas2k Share

Apr 10, 202610 votes

April 9, 2026

Apr 10, 202620 votes

April 7, 2026

At 5:06 this morning, President Donald J. Trump posted on social media: “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!” Trump has painted himself into a corner in his impulsive war against Iran. His job approval is dismal and Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil travels, is sending the cost of oil soaring, squeezing the global economy. Always in his life he has had someone to fix his mistakes—his father, Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, the “adults in the room” in his first administration who distracted him from catastrophic errors, and so on—but no one was willing to bail him out of the global disaster of his war on Iran. So he threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” an open threat to push his current embrace of war crimes all the way to genocide. No one knew if he was gearing up for a ground invasion of Iran in a war that has never received congressional authorization, or a massive bombing campaign, or even the use of nuclear weapons. Or if he was making yet another empty threat. Within the announcement were signs that perhaps it was bluster designed to let him claim victory and walk away. Despite his claim, there has been no “regime change” in Iran: the regime is very much still in place, although it has changed leadership in the wake of the bombing deaths of previous leaders. The new leaders appear to be more radical than their predecessors. There was also the unmistakable echo of television advertising in his announcement. Either “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” or “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.” At 6:32 this evening, we learned that the horrifying announcement of the morning was, indeed, cover for Trump to declare victory and get out of the crisis he has caused in the Middle East. Trump posted: “Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East. “We received a 10 point proposal from Iran,” Trump continued, “and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated. On behalf of the United States of America, as President, and also representing the Countries of the Middle East, it is an Honor to have this Longterm problem close to resolution. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP” Michael Rios of CNN reported that Iran’s media is claiming it has achieved a great victory, forcing the U.S. to agree in principle to its 10-point plan, which includes the end of sanctions against Iran, the removal of all U.S. combat forces from bases in the region, and Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz. If these terms are correct, they leave the United States significantly worse off than it was before the war and leave Iran significantly stronger. Trump called Rios’s story a fraud, and immediately sought to reassert his strength. He posted, “Authorities are looking to determine whether or not a crime was committed on the issuance of the Fake CNN World Statement,” and said that “CNN is being ordered to immediately withdraw this Statement with full apologies for their, as usual, terrible ‘reporting.’” Political commentator Ben Rhodes summed up the situation: “In the best case scenario, Trump struck a deal to reopen a Strait that was open before the pointless war he started, with [Iran] demonstrating its control over the Strait and potentially extracting fees plus sanctions relief. Thousands of innocents—including hundreds of children—dead in Lebanon and Iran for no reason. U.S. troops killed and wounded. U.S. embassies and bases in the Middle East badly damaged. U.S. standing in the world obliterated. U.S. munitions badly depleted. Hundreds of billions spent. Prices up everywhere. More global economic fallout to come. Putin strengthened and enriched. Just a catastrophic situation even in the best of circumstances. A profoundly shameful episode in American history no matter what happens next.” And then, a minute after midnight, Trump posted: “A big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else! The United States of America will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz. There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process. We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just ‘hangin’ around’ in order to make sure that everything goes well. I feel confident that it will. Just like we are experiencing in the U.S., this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP” Journalist Aaron Rupar of Public Notice wrote: “Trump went from making insane genocidal threats this morning to hyping the ‘golden age’ of Iran hours later, and he received no concessions in between. He’s an absolute basket case who needs to be removed from power before he follows through on one of his mass murder fantasies.” The American people spent the whole day wondering if their mad king would destroy the world, only to find out he was terrorizing them in order to protect his ego after starting a disastrous war. Throughout the day, Democratic members of Congress have called for Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to recall the Senate and for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to recall the House of Representatives from break to end the war in Iran and start the process of removing Trump from office. Trump’s threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” was not just a reference to Iran. If he had destroyed Iran in our names, unhampered by the Republican Congress members who have vowed to defend the U.S. Constitution, it would also have been an epitaph for the United States of America. — Notes: https://votevets.org/press-releases/statement-of-major-general-ret-paul-d-eaton-on-trumps-threat-to-wipe-out-a-civilization https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/07/world/live-news/iran-war-trump-us-israel?post-id=cmnp8b6kb0001356sct0yez8e X: brhodes/status/2041680999537381857 Bluesky: atrupar.com/post/3mivujg3kns2f adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social/post/3mix4brpgkk2m thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3mixc77fw5k2n atrupar.com/post/3mixgi5cuhk2y pdehello.bsky.social/post/3mixgjhyxtu2z ameresolicitor.bsky.social/post/3miwxi2owc22z raskin.house.gov/post/3miwkw6froc2d kim.senate.gov/post/3mix4uvzp5s24 robertgarcia.bsky.social/post/3miwi7erujc2x andrewsolender.bsky.social/post/3miw7rqx66c2j Share

Apr 8, 202625 votes

April 5, 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” 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!” This dynamic was not lost on Allison Gill of Mueller, She Wrote, 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%. — Notes: https://fas.org/publication/w76-2deployed/ https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/689510716/trump-administration-begins-production-of-a-new-nuclear-weapon https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-chances-of-being-removed-by-25th-amendment-climb-11785658 https://2017-2021.state.gov/nuclear-weapons-policy-in-the-trump-administration/ https://en.unav.edu/web/global-affairs/a-sense-of-deja-vu-in-the-us-nuclear-domain-trump-and-the-prospective-policy-shift https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-discussed-using-nuclear-weapon-north-korea-2017-blaming-someone-rcna65120 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nuclear-threat-trump-bob-woodward_n_5f5ae074c5b62874bc1ad130 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/05/us/politics/trump-iran-war-crimes-truth-social.html https://www.justsecurity.org/135423/professors-letter-international-law-iran-war/ https://www.axios.com/2026/04/05/trump-iran-deal-power-plants https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/theres-another-big-reason-trump-is-stuck-in-the-gulf https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2026/03/24/jd-vance-eyed-take-over-iran-talks/ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/30/trump-iran-war https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/business/jared-kushner-affinity-mideast-funds.html https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/the-back-channel-diplomacy-behind-trumps-u-turn-on-iran-b70efc60 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-futuristic-vision-reality-3245a8b5 X: ChrisMurphyCT/status/2040776740465758422 Bluesky: momcjl.bsky.social/post/3mis5h2vqf22j atrupar.com/post/3mircanvivc27 brandonfriedman.bsky.social/post/3mirrdrhshc2e muellershewrote.com/post/3mirt6ivxbs2j muellershewrote.com/post/3mirrzjeacc2j markey.senate.gov/post/3mirmazhmfs2j rrkennison.bsky.social/post/3mirnrdmn2k2p frankfigliuzzi.bsky.social/post/3miqtagxuhs2o stevenbeschloss.bsky.social/post/3miqrghkdds2n Share

Apr 6, 202620 votes

April 5, 2026

Apr 6, 202610 votes

March 22, 2026

President Donald J. Trump‘s behavior is increasingly erratic as he lashes out at those he perceives to be enemies. On Thursday he defended his failure to inform allies and partners about his February 28 attack on Iran by telling a Japanese reporter he wanted the element of surprise. “Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK?” Trump said, referring to the Japanese attack on Hawaii that took place on December 7, 1941, five years before Trump was born. Sitting beside Trump, the prime minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, appeared taken aback. Japan is a key Pacific ally of the United States. The president is under enormous pressure, as his war with Iran sparked Iranian officials to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil flows. This outcome was expected by previous presidents, but Trump seemed to think he could avoid it and now is stuck without an easy solution. As former defense secretary and Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta told David Smith of The Guardian, “[I]f there was an escape here for Trump, it would be to declare victory and it’s over and we’ve been able to be successful in all of our military targets. The problem is he can declare victory all he wants but, if he doesn’t get the ceasefire, he’s got nothing. And he’s not going to get a ceasefire as long as Iran is holding the gun of the strait of Hormuz against his head.” “He tends to be naive about how things can happen,” Panetta told Smith. “If he says it and keeps saying it, there’s always a hope that what he says will come true. But that’s what kids do. It’s not what presidents do.” In a frantic attempt to lower oil prices, the administration on Friday lifted sanctions on Iranian oil currently at sea. Iranian oil has been sanctioned since 1979. The lifting of sanctions will enable Iran to sell about 140 million barrels of oil, worth about $14 billion, including to the United States and to China. National security scholar Phil Gordon, who served as the White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf Region during the Obama administration, posted: “When Obama sent Iran $400m + $1.3bn in interest in 2016 Trump called it ‘insane’ and he and others spent a decade mocking the idea of ‘pallets of cash’ even though it was Iran’s own money, American prisoners were released, courts were likely to require the U.S. payment, and Iran had just agreed to significant and verified reductions and restrictions on its nuclear program for 15+ years. “Now Trump is giving Iran up to ten times that amount of revenue—one of the most significant measures of sanctions relief provided to the Islamic Republic since its founding—in exchange for marginal and temporary relief from the big increase in oil prices his actions have caused, without any concessions from Tehran, and even as Iran continues to target the United States, its allies, and world oil supplies. No way to read as anything other than desperate recognition of the situation Trump’s own actions have created and the lack of available alternatives for dealing with it.” On Meet the Press today, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said: “We’re gonna give Iran $14 billion to fund this war with the United States? We’re gonna give Russia billions of dollars to fund their war with Ukraine? We’re literally putting money into the pockets of the very nations that we are fighting right now. We’ve never seen this level of incompetence in war-making in this country’s history.” Trump is also under pressure over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been mired in news stories about corruption since former secretary Kristi Noem stepped down. Yesterday morning, Trump appeared to try to change the momentum of those stories by going on the offensive against Democrats. New scrutiny of the department has brought renewed attention to the November 2025 ProPublica report by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, and Alex Mierjeski that DHS had awarded a $220 million contract for a taxpayer-funded ad campaign to cronies, getting around transparency laws by awarding the contract to a small company that then subcontracted the deal to friends of Noem and her associate Corey Lewandowski. Of the contract, Trump allegedly said: “Corey made out on that one.” On Thursday, March 19, Julia Ainsley, Matt Dixon, Jonathan Allen, and Laura Strickler of NBC News reported that Lewandowski told George Zoley, the head of the giant private prison company GEO Group, that he expected to be paid for steering contracts to GEO Group. Zoley said he declined initially but later offered to put Lewandowski on retainer with a consulting fee. But, sources told the journalists, Lewandowski “wanted payments—what some people would call a success fee” based on awarded contracts. When Zoley refused, GEO Group lost out on contracts. A senior DHS official told the journalists Lewandowski had told him not to award any more contracts to GEO Group. Lewandowski’s official title was that of a “special government employee,” with a temporary appointment that permitted him to work only 130 days in a year, but DHS officials told the journalists that Lewandowski had broad authority over contracts in the department and was referred to as “chief.” He allegedly sidestepped the limits of his appointment by going into the building accompanying Noem, and thus without swiping in using his badge. Lewandowski has denied any wrongdoing. Yesterday Hamed Aleaziz, Alexandra Berzon, Nicholas Nehamas, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Tyler Pager of the New York Times reported on the extraordinary power Lewandowski had in DHS under Noem, explaining that he held meetings without her present, sat in on classified briefings, read a version of the highly classified President’s Daily Brief, and issued orders as he spearheaded detention and deportation of migrants. In addition to approving government contracts that worried officials, Lewandowski helped put Greg Bovino, a midlevel Border Patrol leader, into a senior position that gave him national power. At 11:34 yesterday morning, Trump tried to turn the DHS story into one about the Democrats, posting: “If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia, who have totally destroyed, with the approval of a corrupt Governor, Attorney General, and Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, the once Great State of Minnesota. I look forward to seeing ICE in action at our Airports. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP” This appeared to be a threat to use Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, whom Trump appears to see as his own private army, to hurt Democrats by pinning the long lines in airports on the Democrats’ refusal to fund DHS, which means that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents aren’t being paid. But Democrats have repeatedly proposed funding every agency in DHS other than ICE and Border Patrol, leaving those out until their abuses under Noem, Lewandowski, and Bovino have been addressed. Republicans have refused that funding unless DHS requests are funded in full at the same time. Under Trump, ICE has become the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the U.S., with an annual budget higher than those of all other federal law enforcement agencies combined. While ICE budgets previously had hovered around $6 billion, the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act gave DHS $85 billion to fund it through September 30, 2029. What is outstanding now is its base budget of around $10 billion. Unlike TSA agents, ICE agents are getting paid during the funding fight. Today the administration announced ICE agents will take the place of some TSA agents, although as the former national security officials at The Steady State note, the legality of moving ICE agents into TSA positions isn’t clear. Tonight Trump admitted he is not interested in any deal with the Democrats to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless Democrats also agree to the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and to vote, and which is widely understood to be a measure designed to suppress voting. Trump also includes in the measure an end to mail-in voting, and an attack on transgender Americans. Then, at 1:26 yesterday afternoon, Trump responded to the death of 81-year-old special counsel Robert Mueller by posting: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people! President DONALD J. TRUMP.” As Josh Meyer of USA Today reported, Mueller was a lifelong public servant. He served in combat as a Marine Corps officer in the Vietnam War, during which he was wounded. “I consider myself exceptionally lucky to have made it out of Vietnam,” Mueller said years later. “There were many—many—who did not. And perhaps because I did survive Vietnam, I have always felt compelled to contribute.” He became a federal prosecutor covering organized crime, terrorism, and public corruption. A conservative Republican nominated by President George W. Bush to direct the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), he took office just a week before 9/11 and proceeded to reshape the FBI’s mission from fighting crime to an emphasis on counterterrorism and intelligence. In 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller special counsel for the Department of Justice to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller’s team filed charges against Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort and co-chair Rick Gates for conspiracy to launder money, violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and conspiracy against the United States, and reached a plea agreement with Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian operative and ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Mueller’s team also indicted thirteen Russians and three Russian companies involved in pushing Russian propaganda to American voters. Ultimately the team indicted thirty-four people, including six of Trump’s former advisors, five of whom pleaded guilty. Mueller’s final report detailed the efforts of Russian operatives to help Trump and hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, saying Russia launched “multiple, systematic efforts” to interfere with the election. Mueller said he had not been able to consider Trump’s guilt because Justice Department policy prohibits the prosecution of a sitting president, but added: “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.” He refused to say his report “exonerated” Trump, as Trump’s supporters insisted. A later report by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee agreed that members of Trump’s 2016 campaign, led by Manafort, worked with Russian operatives to help Trump get elected. Not only is Robert Mueller getting under Trump’s skin, so, clearly, is his own failure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. At 7:44 last night, he posted: “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! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP.” In a conversation with Anne McElvoy of Politico on Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres noted that attacks on civilian energy infrastructure are war crimes. Yesterday Julie K. Brown of The Epstein Files, whose work digging into the cover-up of the Epstein story for the Miami Herald has been instrumental in bringing the scandal to light, and her colleague Claire Healy reported that after sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his prison cell on August 10, 2019, a corrections officer called the FBI’s Threat Operations Center saying the officer “found it suspicious that an after-action team charged with investigation would be shredding huge amounts of paperwork” while FBI agents were in the building. An inmate who helped shred documents told guards: “They are shredding everything,” and an assistant federal prosecutor noted the destruction or misplacing of relevant records. Another corrections officer wrote to the FBI on August 19 about an unusual amount of shredding and disposal, and suggested: “you may want to investigate why [Bureau of Prisons] employees are destroying records.” This morning, at 8:24, Trump posted: “Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT” Tonight, just before midnight, he posted: “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, TO PUT IT MILDLY!!!” — Notes: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/20/trump-pearl-harbor-japan-takaichi-iran-war.html https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/22/surprise-embarrassment-unease-japan-pearl-harbor-00839369 https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fbi-warned-bags-documents-were-143207523.html https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/21/what-to-know-about-former-fbi-chief-and-trump-foe-robert-mueller/89264548007/ https://www.propublica.org/article/kristi-noem-dhs-ad-campaign-strategy-group https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dhs-contractors-told-white-house-officials-asked-pay-corey-lewandowski-rcna263744 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/21/us/politics/corey-lewandowski-noem-dhs.html https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/tsa-wait-times-government-shutdown-03-22-26 https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5674887/ice-budget-funding-congress-trump https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/22/trump-iran-leon-panetta https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/20/us-sanctions-iranian-oil https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/tsa-wait-times-government-shutdown-03-22-26 https://www.politico.eu/article/un-chief-guterres-reasonable-grounds-believe-war-crimes-happening-iran-war/ https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sites-default-files-documents-report-volume5.pdf X: PhilGordonDC/status/2035346997343866924 Bluesky: atrupar.com/post/3mhnsvsjc7y23 atrupar.com/post/3mhnlb2im5c2k axidentaliberal.bsky.social/post/3mhltdap5wk2y ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3mhmdxe2ojs2o ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3mhlozz53zc2s gillianbrockell.com/post/3mhlf5tyspc2m thesteadystate.org/post/3mhokt7nrxk2t eliothiggins.bsky.social/post/3mhnkq6hmwk2u thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3mhp7lpz47c2x josephpolitano.bsky.social/post/3mhp5zgdy7k2u murray.senate.gov/post/3mhloteycsk2l Share

Mar 23, 202620 votes

March 22, 2026

Mar 23, 20267 votes

March 22, 2026

Mar 23, 202612 votes

March 10, 2026

Today, administration officials gave a classified briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee about the war in Iran. Democrats who spoke to the press afterward appeared to be furious. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters he was coming out of the briefing “as dissatisfied and angry, frankly, as I have from any past briefing in my 15 years in the Senate. I am left with more questions than answers, especially about the cost of the war. My questions have been unanswered. And I will demand answers because the American people deserve to know.” “I am most concerned about the threat to American lives, of potentially deploying our sons and daughters on the ground in Iran. We seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran…and there is also, as disturbingly as anything else, the specter of active Russian aid to Iran, putting in danger American lives. Literally, Russia seems to be aiding our enemy, actively and intensively, with intelligence and perhaps with other means, and China, also, may be assisting Iran.” “So, the American people deserve to know much more than this administration has told them about the cost of the war, the danger to our sons and daughters in uniform, and the potential for further escalation and widening of this war, a war of choice made by this president, not chosen by the American people, with potentially huge consequences to American lives.” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) noted on social media that the administration appears to have no goals for the war except continued bombing, and no plan for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) was obviously frustrated that the administration is giving out information only under the cloak of classified briefings, making it hard for elected officials to communicate with their constituents about the war. “[W]e’ve been calling over and over again for them to come out of the classified briefings, to allow us to have these conversations, as much as we can, in an open setting, not just with the press, but with the American people, and with our constituents. With our men and women who serve in the military with their families, who are waiting home for them.” While it is “solely the responsibility of the United States Congress to declare war,” she said, she called attention to Trump’s frequent use of the word “war” to suggest Republicans are hiding his seizing of that power by claiming Trump’s attacks on Iran do not fall under that constitutional provision. “Make no mistake,” she said, “this is Trump’s war. He says it every day…. And he wants to go any further, he needs to come out and have this discussion with Congress and the American people. “[W]hat I heard is not just concerning,” Rosen said, “it is disturbing, and I’m not sure what the endgame is or what their plans are.” She said Trump “has not shown, to this Congress, to me, or, I believe, to us in our classified briefing…any plans for what he wants to do for the day after.” She warned that Trump could not simply stop the war and have everything go back to the way it was on February 27. The Middle East has sustained too much damage. “You see the bombs, you see the destruction. It’s not going to stop just because he wishes it to be so.” A key reason the Framers of the Constitution put the power to declare war in the hands of Congress, rather than the executive, was that they were all too familiar with the history of European kings who had launched wars of choice that had reduced their subjects to poverty under crushing war taxes. They feared that the same thing could happen in their new country: that supporting an army would cost tax dollars, impoverishing the citizens of the new nation. If the debate over war went to Congress, voters could hear the reasoning for the war hashed out and decide for themselves if the cost in lives and treasure was worth it to them. And, after they voted for a war, members of Congress would have to answer to their constituents for the money they spent and the lives lost. That argument is potent again almost 250 years later. Democrats are calling out that Trump is spending $1 billion a day in his attacks on Iran but that he slashed through government programs that help Americans, claiming the need to address the country’s ballooning national debt. Just yesterday, Berkeley Lovelace Jr. of NBC News reported that Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administration official overseeing the Affordable Care Act, says that many of those enrolled in healthcare under the law should not be there. About 23 million people signed up for ACA coverage this year, down by more than 1.2 million from last year. Oz anticipates cutting another 4 million off the rolls as he targets “waste, fraud, and abuse.” And yet, as Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling of The New Republic noted last night, according to a report from government watchdog Open the Books, the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blew through $93.4 billion in September 2025 alone, with more than $50 billion going out in the last five days of the month alone. To spend the entirety of the defense budget, rather than lose it, Pentagon officials bought “a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home, $5.3 million for Apple devices such as the new iPad, and an astronomical amount of shellfish, including $2 million for Alaskan king crab and $6.9 million worth of lobster tail. (Lobster tail is apparently a favorite of Hegseth’s Pentagon—the department spent more than $7.4 million total on the luxury item in March, May, June, and October.) In other pricey food purchases, the government decided to drop $15.1 million for ribeye steak (again, just in September), $124,000 for ice cream machines, and $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts.” In October, Houghtaling noted, the administration said it could not fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, because the government had shut down. Millions of Americans lost food benefits. Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) reposted Houghtaling’s article and commented: “You better believe we’ll be investigating.” Democratic Texas state representative James Talarico, who is running for the U.S. Senate, expressed his concerns about the Iran war on CBS Mornings yesterday. “As a millennial, I saw how military disasters like the Iraq War robbed this nation of young lives, of billions of dollars of our moral standing in the world, and I worry that our current leaders are repeating those same mistakes,” he said. “I was in Sand Branch, Texas, which is a community south of Dallas that doesn’t have running water. It doesn’t have basic sewer infrastructure,” he continued. “So every dollar we spend bombing people in the Middle East is a dollar we’re not spending in Sand Branch, Texas, or in our communities here at home.” “We’re always told that we don’t have enough money for schools, or for health care, or for our veterans. But there’s always enough money to bomb people on the other side of the world. And so we can support the democracy movement in Iran. We can prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, all without bombing innocent schoolchildren, or sending our American troops off to die on the other side of the world.” Talarico was channeling a Texas-born Republican from the post–World War II years: President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In early March 1953, soon after he took office, Soviet leader Josef Stalin died, and Eisenhower jumped at the chance to reset the militarization of the Cold War. All people hunger for “peace and fellowship and justice,” he said in a speech to newspaper editors, and he deplored the growing arms race with the USSR. Even if the two superpowers managed to avoid an atomic war, pouring wealth and energy into armaments would limit their ability to raise up the rest of the world. “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” The sweat of workers, the genius of scientists, and the hopes of children would be better spent on schools, hospitals, roads, and homes than on armaments. World peace could be achieved, Eisenhower said, “not by weapons of war but by wheat and by cotton, by milk and by wool, by meat and by timber and by rice.” Extremist Republicans sneered at what they called Eisenhower’s “stomach theory” of diplomacy, but Eisenhower’s approach to the world was forged by his horror at what he saw at Ohrdruf, the Nazi concentration camp that funneled prisoners to Buchenwald, when he commanded the Allies in World War II. “I never dreamed that such cruelty, bestiality, and savagery could really exist in this world!” he wrote. He was determined to do all he could to guarantee that such atrocities never happened again. Eisenhower recognized that economically dispossessed people were natural targets for political and religious extremists. They could easily be manipulated by a strong leader to back a cause—any cause—that promised to resurrect a world in which they had enjoyed prosperity and cultural significance. Such extremism had been dangerous enough in the hands of the Nazis, but 1945 gave quite specific shape to Eisenhower’s fears. The atomic bomb, unleashed by the United States over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in summer 1945, changed the meaning of human conflict. If a charismatic political or religious extremist roused a dispossessed population behind another war, and if that leader got his hands on a nuclear weapon, he could destroy the world. Promoting economic prosperity and better standards of living at home and around the world was not just about peace or justice, Eisenhower thought; it was about saving humankind. — Notes: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/dr-oz-trump-obamacare-aca-insurance-fraud-deductible-plans-rcna262468 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FqO7Mwggde6HS58RyQXR_RiOszFpeEu4/view OpenTheBooks Pentagon Should Focus on Defense Priorities, not Lavish Dinners, After Historic $93.4B “Use-It-or-Lose-It” September Defense officials typically enter the end of each fiscal year with at least one goal in mind: spend the rest of the military’s budget by any means necessary. Otherwise, “use-it-or-lose-it” funding rules force the Pentagon to forfeit its unused money and potentially see reduced funding next year… Read more 4 days ago · 180 likes · 21 comments · OpenTheBooks https://newrepublic.com/post/207555/pete-hegseth-billions-dollars-fruit-basket-stands-chairs-crab Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Eisenhower Diaries, ed. Robert H. Ferrell (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), pp. 136–137, 143–144. Dwight D. Eisenhower, “The Chance for Peace,” April 16, 1953, at https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-chance-for-peace-delivered-before-the-american-society-newspaper-editors YouTube: watch?v=w2BAdyPp4b4 Bluesky: atrupar.com/post/3mgpstlcyxj25 repstansbury.bsky.social/post/3mgqh56qjhc2z thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3mgqgsstckc2z chrismurphyct.bsky.social/post/3mgqotmihcs2w Share

Mar 11, 202618 votes

March 2, 2026

The Economist’s Middle East correspondent Gregg Carlstrom noted that Trump appears to be workshopping the causes for his attacks on Iran and his goals for the war by talking to journalists. As Meidas Touch summarized Carlstrom’s argument, he said: “[Trump] doesn’t sound convinced by any of it. He’s throwing spaghetti at the wall. Ultimately I suspect he just wants to say he ‘solved’ a problem that has vexed every American president since Jimmy Carter. But there’s no clear idea what that looks like and no plan for how to get there. And there are plenty of possible scenarios in which Trump declares victory and leaves the region with an absolute mess.” Matt Gertz of Media Matters noted today that Trump, who watches the Fox News Channel consistently, appears to have shaped his attack on Iran in response to encouragement from FNC hosts. Gertz recalled that for decades, the FNC hosts Trump trusts the most have called for military strikes on Iran. Last June, FNC personalities Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Brian Kilmeade urged Trump to bomb Iran and then lavished praise on him when he did. Hannity said the bombing would “go down in history as one of the great military victories.” In the past weeks, Gertz wrote, the same figures have been urging Trump to attack. But their goal appeared to be the bombing itself. They expected an easy victory, without defining what that might look like. According to Kilmeade, the U.S. would “lose credibility forever” if it didn’t hit Iran. On Friday morning, Kilmeade said: “I hope the president chooses to go at it. We have been looking at these headlines for 47 years, and we have an opportunity to end it. And this president likes to make history.” On Friday night, Levin told Hannity: “This president knows right from wrong. He knows good from evil. He knows that this regime is a death cult. And he knows that there’s only really two countries that are prepared and willing to put an end to this. We don’t need to put up with their crap. It’s time to put it to an end.” On Saturday, after Trump had started the bombing, Levin said: “Donald Trump did what nobody else could do for half a century. How do you like that? And you know why he did it? Because he loves his country.” Trump’s strikes on Iran could have had something to do with the increasing heat over the Epstein files or his fury that the Supreme Court struck down his tariff walls, which were central not only to his economic program but also to his pressure on foreign governments and companies to do his bidding. Possibly he was responding to pressure from Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, or both. Whatever their immediate trigger, the strikes fall in line with the ideology of cowboy individualism that began to take over the Republican Party in the 1980s and which, under Trump, has turned into brutal displays of dominance. The old idea of a cowboy from rural America who cuts through the government bureaucracy that threatens his livelihood by coddling racial minorities and women has curdled into the notion that a leader can do whatever it takes, including violence, to force opponents to submit to his will. In foreign affairs, that means smashing the international alliances built after World War II. One of the crowning achievements of that international order is the United Nations, constructed to maintain international peace and security by creating organizations that could provide a forum for diplomacy and stop countries from attacking each other. The U.S. currently owes the U.N. nearly $4 billion in unpaid dues as Trump seeks to replace the organization with his own “Board of Peace” that he alone controls. This month, the U.S. holds the presidency of the U.N. Security Council, enabling it to set the agenda. Today, Trump sent First Lady Melania Trump to chair the meeting, the first time a presidential spouse has done so. Another of the crowning achievements of the post–World War II international order is the Geneva Conventions, which define the legal treatment of noncombatants in war. In his confirmation hearings, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to tell Senator Angus King (I-ME), who pressed him on the issue, that he would uphold the Geneva Conventions. In the ideology that honors violent domination, Trump’s bombing Iran without regard for the Constitution or international law, when no president before him had done so, proves his strength. Hegseth illustrated that idea this morning when he said: “For forty-seven long years, the expansionist and Islamist regime in Tehran has waged a savage, one-sided war against America.” Hegseth, who was a Fox News Channel weekend host before becoming secretary of defense, tried to turn the administration’s military operation into a heroic stand in a silent war that had lasted for two generations. Claiming the U.S. attacks on Iran that started this conflagration were defensive, rather than offensive, Hegseth claimed: “We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump we are finishing it…. It took the 47th president, a fighter who always puts America first, to finally draw the line after 47 years of Iranian belligerence. He reminded the world, as he has time and time again…[i]f you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on Earth, we will hunt you down, without apology and without hesitation, and we will kill you.” Hegseth celebrated Israel and its strikes alongside the U.S., while he condemned “so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force. America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history…. No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives.” In this ideology, the dominance itself is the point: there is no other endgame. But this ideology was always based on a myth that played well on television. Three days into the attack on Iran, there is increasing scrutiny of the assertions from government officials. According to Dustin Volz, Alexander Ward, and Lara Seligman of the Wall Street Journal, lawmakers and experts say those assertions are “incomplete, unsubstantiated, or flat-out wrong.” And as the conflagration spreads, taking the lives of now six of our military personnel, the administration is now discovering that the American people would like to know why we are engaged in what appears to be a war of choice, and why this approach to the world is better than the one that kept us safe for 80 years. Today the State Department told U.S. citizens to leave Gulf states immediately because of “serious safety risks,” “using available commercial transportation.” But many of the airports in the region are closed, some because they have been hit in the fighting. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) posted on social media: “Dear [Secretary of State Marco Rubio]: You told Americans to depart now via commercial means when you know many airports/airspace are closed. YOU MUST IMMEDIATELY SCHEDULE U.S. GOVERNMENT EVACUATION FLIGHTS FOR THE STRANDED AMERICANS IN DANGER. Maybe you should have thought of a frickin’ plan first.” Retired Major General Randy Manner, who is currently stranded in the United Arab Emirates, told CNN: “It seems to me that the purpose and mission have been shifting over the past few days and the past few weeks. Initially, it was to ensure that they could not continue to develop nuclear weapons. Now it’s about regime change, and then there’s so many things that are being piled onto the mission list, it almost seems like someone googled it before the brief, to throw everything…in the kitchen sink into it. So it’s a little bit disconcerting. “And, in fact, one of the small things that does matter to tens of thousands of people here, as well as to their families: It’s a little bit disheartening and a little bit envious to hear that the BBC has announced that the U.K. government is actually arranging transport for the British citizens to be able to extract them, whereas here, for us as Americans, we feel abandoned. The State Departments have talked to two embassy personnel, two different embassies. They are in survival mode, quite frankly, because as we know, the administration reduced their budgets by almost one half over the past year. So this is a difficult situation for people who are not used to being in a combat situation. And that, of course, is, quite frankly, probably 99% of the travelers that are here.” Former paratrooper and Army Ranger Representative Jason Crow (D-CO) also had something to say about the reality of war. “I learned, years ago, that when elites like Donald Trump bang the war drums and pound their chests in Washington, D.C., and talk about sending troops into the ground or into combat, he’s not talking about his kids. He’s not talking about all of his minions’ kids. He is talking about kids like me and the people that I grew up [with] in working-class areas, rural places around the country that have to pick up rifles, jump in the tanks or helicopters, and…do the tough work. Well, America is over it. America is over the three trillion dollars we’ve spent. The quagmires of failed nation building. The sending of our sons and daughters and brothers and sisters to enrich oil executives. America is over endless adventurism using our military. Because they want their infrastructure rebuilt. They want quality affordable healthcare. They want to be able to afford groceries. They want to be able to afford a home. They want to be able to send their kids to school.” — Notes: https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/iran-most-consequential-test-fox-trump-feedback-loop-yet https://www.ms.now/morning-joe/watch/secy-hegseth-we-didn-t-start-this-war-but-under-trump-we-are-finishing-it-2490021443843 https://apnews.com/article/un-us-budget-dues-trump-payment-7d68c072d470f989006b7d674ba85aaa https://www.pressherald.com/2025/01/21/king-votes-against-hegseth-for-defense-secretary/ https://www.pressherald.com/2025/01/14/king-questions-hegseth-during-contentious-hearing/ https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/trumps-case-for-war-with-iran-faces-growing-scrutiny-96648cb9 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-is-shooting-at-some-of-the-worlds-busiest-airports-bb660b8e https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-international-law-war-aggression-6f0b57efff5e62e5c8fbc1acca4a3199 X: atrupar/status/2028544448532013284 allenanalysis/status/2028627916393939016 tedlieu/status/2028617022394044427 Bluesky: meidastouch.com/post/3mg3lfpaxlk2a iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social/post/3mg43xmo4b22p Share

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