Under Trump, Year Two: 2026-2027

As hard as it is to believe, the second year gives every indication of being worse than the first.

Year One, 2025-2026 is here: http://tony-silva.com/undertrump

Week Fifty-Two: January 19 - January 25

‌ Happy 1-year anniversary, Trump. You broke everything.

One year after President Donald Trump took the oath of office for the second time, his fragile ego and blatant refusal to follow the laws of the United States has destroyed the safety and security Americans once held.

Rather than reflecting on how he could improve his abysmal approval rating, Trump instead spent the days leading up to his one-year anniversary in office doubling down on his least popular policies, threatening heightened tariffs against countries opposed to his imperialist desires - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/466MiDg

‌ Trump’s First Year Could Have Lasting Economic Consequences

Much more so than in his first four years in office, Mr. Trump has begun his second term with what amounts to an all-out assault on many of the institutions and policy paradigms that have long been seen by leaders of both major political parties as the foundations of American economic strength.

He has sought to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve, fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency that collects key economic data, and cut funding to the universities that conduct much of the country’s cutting-edge scientific research. He has intervened in private business deals, taken stakes in private companies and threatened corporate executives who do not adequately embrace his policy priorities. He has sharply restricted immigration, questioned the value of America’s alliances and imposed punishing tariffs on friends as well as adversaries.

Many of those actions are being challenged in the courts, and future presidents could reverse course on at least some of the current administration’s policies. But economists from across the ideological spectrum warn that Mr. Trump is setting the country on a path that will, in the long run, leave the economy less dynamic, the financial system less stable and Americans less prosperous in the decades ahead.

“We’re weakening the special sauce that made America so great,” said Kimberly A. Clausing, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qy3Osg

‌ ‘God Is Very Proud’: Trump Marks Anniversary With a Victory Lap

His staff had printed out a 31-page list of his accomplishments, but President Trump had other ideas for how he wanted to mark the anniversary of his return to office.

Standing at the lectern in the White House’s James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, Mr. Trump flipped quickly through the paperwork and tossed it on the floor.

Then he held court — airing old grievances, attacking perceived enemies, threatening allies — for roughly one hour 45 minutes.

“I think God is very proud of the job I’ve done,” Mr. Trump said as he neared the end of his remarks. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qrP91O

‌ How Trump Has Used the Presidency to Make at Least $1.4 Billion

President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him.

He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency — into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the government to the service of their interests.

A review by the editorial board relying on analyses from news organizations shows that Mr. Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion. We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view. And they continue to grow. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49zBQXj

5 big takeaways from CNN’s poll of Trump’s first year‌

President Donald Trump is one day away from the one-year mark of his second term. Over the past week, CNN has rolled out a series of poll findings on where Americans stand on his performance so far.

It hasn’t been encouraging for Trump. - CNN https://cnn.it/4r573Yc

Oddest moments from Trump's first year in office

(Video) - CNN https://cnn.it/4r573Yc

‌ Trump Exhaustion Syndrome

A year into Trump’s second term, the emboldened president’s maximalist strategy—pushing every norm to its most elastic, and then a bit beyond, and from that new breaking point pushing yet again—conjures the boiling-frog theory, in which a frog placed in boiling water will immediately hop out, but a frog placed in cool water that is slowly heated will complacently boil to death. (And yes, I know that this amphibious metaphor for failing to notice incremental negative changes is apocryphal, but the lesson is still apt.)

Or, as the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon put it to me, the Overton window is moving so far, so quickly, that the more apt way to understand Trump’s strategy is: “Fuck the Overton window.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4b6GGwg

‌ ONE YEAR IN: More Expensive & Less Free

During his first year in office, President Trump and his allies ruthlessly committed to turning the Project 2025 agenda from a plan into reality. The administration committed the single biggest act of union-busting in history, launched a brutal assault on immigrants and communities across the country, and attacked our most fundamental rights, including the freedom of speech. It has ripped health care from millions, made billionaires richer and corporations more powerful, moved to unleash untested artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and dismantled government agencies that provide essential services.

And every day in the Trump economy, working people are struggling to get by. President Trump promised to “make America affordable again,” but instead spent his first year driving up costs, holding down wages and letting jobs disappear.

One year into President Trump’s second term, working people’s lives are more expensive and less free. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/3NxSLAT

Trump ties Greenland takeover bid to Nobel Prize in text to Norway leader‌

Trump’s push to take over Greenland and unleash a trade war with European nations has sparked the greatest transatlantic crisis in generations. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4t7xApN

‌ Trump plans to charge $1 billion for permanent seat on ‘Board of Peace’

Details about the Trump-led board have prompted speculation that it could be a U.S.-led U.N. alternative. Trump confirmed that Russia’s Vladimir Putin has been invited. - WaPo https://wapo.st/49Lymjk

‌ The White House wanted an ICE spectacle. It backfired.

The shooting of Renée Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis may influence public opinion. Nine days prior, a large ICE operation in the same county involved over two dozen officers escorting a single man. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4sUQFve

‌ Trump Links His Push for Greenland to Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Mr. Trump wrote in the message, which was first published by PBS. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NtHfGG

‌ Monday Afternoon News Updates — 1/19/26

This Monday afternoon, I want to bring everyone up to speed on a series of developments that unfolded over the holiday weekend and into Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Trump’s actions, especially in the past 24 hours, have been so deranged that many assumed the stories we have reported on were satire. Unfortunately, they are deadly serious.

Late last night, news broke that Donald Trump sent a message directly to the Prime Minister of Norway threatening the country after it declined to support Trump’s push to seize control of Greenland. The message was so extreme that even renowned journalists initially questioned whether it could be real. It was quickly verified by Norwegian officials and corroborated by Finland’s prime minister.

In the message to Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump explicitly tied his anger to the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming that because he did not receive it, he no longer felt bound to prioritize peace. He went on to assert that Denmark had no legitimate claim to Greenland, dismissed centuries of history, and declared that “the world is not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland.” I understand Trump officials get all made if you say this, but this is the language of dictators. And we will not hesitate to call it out, depsite their threats. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/45lsj3D

‌ Greenland?

It could be a Monty Python skit from 40 years ago: A demented U.S. president demands that Norway award him the Nobel Peace Prize (which he initially spells “Noble,” and which isn’t Norway’s to give anyway), after converting the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, sending troops into American cities, threatening Canada, and abducting the president of a Latin American country by force.

When he doesn’t get the peace prize, he says he’s no longer interested in peace and decides to take over Greenland. When Greenland refuses him, and Denmark and the rest of Europe make a fuss, he goes into a rage, raises tariffs on Europe (which cost Americans dearly), and threatens war on NATO. The president of Russia is delighted.

Can’t you see it? Eric Idle plays the American president — full of himself and utterly off his rocker. John Cleese is the vicious and hapless Latin American president who’s abducted. Terry Gilliam is the baffled, incredulous head of Greenland. Terry Jones plays the righteous leader of Denmark, Graham Chapman a perplexed NATO dignitary, and Michael Palin the wacky but triumphant president of Russia. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3NmRBs1

‌ Today in Politics, Bulletin 289. 1/19/26

… Trump sent this deranged letter to Norway PM Jonas Gahr:

Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4r4UM65

‌ Judge Allows Policy Restricting Lawmakers’ Access to ICE Facilities

A federal judge in Washington declined on Monday to immediately block the Department of Homeland Security from requiring lawmakers to provide seven days’ notice before they try to visit and inspect immigration detention facilities.

Without finding that the policy itself was legal, Judge Jia M. Cobb of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that the group of lawmakers who sued to halt it would need to revise their lawsuit in a way that directly addressed the Trump administration’s latest rationale.

Judge Cobb had blocked an essentially identical policy by the agency in December, citing a provision of the appropriations law that funds the department and requires facilities to be open to congressional oversight. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4a3wfsh

‌ Trump Is Pushing the U.S.-Europe Alliance Onto a Precipice

What happens to an 80-year-old diplomatic alliance when its leading power threatens a military invasion of one member, wages economic war on the others and vows to cultivate political and cultural resistance to their governments?

Is the alliance doomed?

That question is being asked in capitals across Europe as leaders rush to respond to President Trump’s rapidly escalating campaign to acquire Greenland over the objections of the people who live there. At issue most urgently is whether resisting Mr. Trump’s territorial ambitions risks damaging Europe’s relationship with the United States beyond repair. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sQlzES

‌ What to Know About Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza

On Friday, letters went out asking countries to join the newly minted body, among them U.S. allies like Canada, France, Britain and Saudi Arabia. But Russia and Belarus, hardly allies, were also on the list.

And a review of the body’s charter — which governments received alongside their invitations — suggested that Mr. Trump hoped the Board of Peace could get involved in all kinds of global conflicts, not just the one in the Gaza Strip.

Critics reacted furiously, saying the Trump administration appeared to be setting up the board as a potential American-dominated rival to the United Nations, which Mr. Trump has long accused of liberal bias and waste. - NYT https://nyti.ms/464NPtw

‌ Trump Administration Asks Judge to Reject Minnesota’s Call to Block ICE Surge

The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Monday to allow a surge of immigration agents in Minnesota to continue despite a lawsuit filed by state and local officials claiming that the deployment is unconstitutional.

Lawyers for the state and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul say in the suit that the operation violates Minnesota’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. It says that the federal government’s “actions appear designed to provoke community outrage, sow fear and inflict emotional distress, and they are interfering with the ability of state and local officials to protect and care for their residents.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/49u8IAG

‌ ‘An Unbelievable Mess’: Artists Are Stymied by Trump Travel Bans

The travel bans — along with escalating costs and delays in the always-fraught visa application process — represent a looming crisis for the American performing arts sector, as many overseas musicians, theater companies and others face new and seemingly insurmountable obstacles to travel. Some, assessing the risks, are electing to avoid coming here altogether, according to talent agents and the American promoters and producers who are now contemplating holes in their calendars. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Nw8MqW

‌ One Year After Texas Measles Outbreak Began, Experts Consider Another Grim Milestone

It’s unclear whether the United States can keep its designation as a country that officially eliminated the disease. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sQSyc3

‌ In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War

Late last Wednesday night, I was standing on a street corner in the Hawthorne neighborhood in North Minneapolis when I witnessed an extraordinary confrontation. A federal agent marched up a narrow residential sidewalk flanked by modest bungalows, kitted out in gear fit for the battle of Falluja: full body armor, military boots and camouflage fatigues and helmet, with a heavy machine gun slung by his side. His carriage was erect, his gaze fixed straight ahead, seemingly oblivious to the crowd of protesters who blew whistles and shouted curses as he passed, enraged that one week after Renee Good was gunned down by an ICE agent, another civilian had been shot by ICE in their city.

Suddenly, the tense scene dissolved into slapstick. The federal officer slipped on a patch of ice and tumbled to the ground. A raucous roar of laughter and jeers erupted from the protesters surrounding him. He scrambled to his feet and marched on. But a few seconds later one of the protesters shouted, “He dropped his magazine!”

And sure enough, lying on the patch of ice was a fully loaded magazine from his automatic weapon. Dan Engelhart, one of the city’s parks commissioners, was standing nearby. He grabbed the magazine and turned it over in his hands.

“Well, we’re fucking close to civil war,” he told me. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3LTvuZG

‌ I’m the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. This Is Something I Thought I’d Never Have to Write.

When I took my post as secretary general of the Council of Europe just over a year ago, I did not think that I would ever have to write about the possibility of the United States taking military action against a member state.

Yet here we are.

President Trump has vowed to make Greenland — a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, which is a member of the Council of Europe and a founding member of NATO — part of the United States, and that he will do so “the easy way” or “the hard way.”

His statements about the territory have strained relations between states and called into question the rights, consent and democratic choices of Greenland’s people. For now, this remains talk. But recent events in Venezuela show how quickly words can harden into action. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NG4xZX

‌ Trump canceled or stopped enforcement against 166 corporations in his first year. Many of them were donors

A scathing new report from consumer-advocacy group Public Citizen has found that, during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, federal agencies canceled or froze enforcement actions against 166 corporations — many of which have financial, lobbying, or personal ties to the Trump administration. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3YOCBWc

‌ The MAGA Plan to Take Over TV Is Just Beginning

Under Trump, the F.C.C. has used obscure regulatory powers to crack down on network TV. Some conservatives are pushing back. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qsuwCD

‌ Epstein survivor backs bid to appoint court monitor, has 'no confidence' in Trump DOJ

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors who appeared in front of Capitol Hill late last year in support of legislation to release the investigative file urged a federal judge to appoint a so-called special master as a monitor to oversee the release of the files.

Lisa Phillips told a judge that she had “no confidence” that Trump’s Justice Department would comply with federal law mandating the release of the files, “already 30 days late” on the deadline “with no end in sight.” - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4sOpfHf

‌ Letters from an American - January 19, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Late last night, Nick Schifrin of PBS NewsHour posted on social media that the staff of the U.S. National Security Council had sent to European ambassadors in Washington a message that President Donald J. Trump had already sent to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway. The message read:

“Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT”

Faisal Islam of the BBC voiced the incredulity rippling across social media in the wake of Schifrin’s post, writing: “Even by the standards of the past week, like others, I struggle to comprehend how the below letter on Greenland/Nobel might be real, although it appears to come from the account of a respected PBS journalist… this is what I meant by beyond precedent, parody and reality….” Later, Islam confirmed on live TV that the letter was real and posted on X: “Incredible… the story is actually not a parody.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4jYqcsA

‌ Justice Department plans to subpoena Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison

The Justice Department is planning to subpoena Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in a criminal investigation of several state and local officials, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The planned subpoenas are related to an investigation into possible obstruction of federal officers in the state during recent protests, the sources said.

CNN has previously reported Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are also expected to receive federal criminal subpoenas from the US Attorney’s Office in the state. - CNN https://cnn.it/3NDI3bY

‌ Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw

One could observe many things about this document. One is the childish grammar, including the strange capitalizations (“Complete and Total Control”). Another is the loose grasp of history. Donald Trump did not end eight wars. Greenland has been Danish territory for centuries. Its residents are Danish citizens who vote in Danish elections. There are many “written documents” establishing Danish sovereignty in Greenland, including some signed by the United States. In his second term, Trump has done nothing for NATO—an organization that the U.S. created and theoretically leads, and that has only ever been used in defense of American interests. If the European members of NATO have begun spending more on their own defense (budgets to which the U.S. never contributed), that’s because of the threat they feel from Russia.

Yet what matters isn’t the specific phrases, but the overall message: Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of Greenland. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sGDdL8

‌ The Military Is Being Forced to Plan for an Unthinkable Betrayal

The United States is a global superpower, and its military trains for war in every domain. During my years as a military educator, I saw American officers wrestle with any number of scenarios designed to challenge their thinking and force them to adapt to surprises. One case we never considered, however, was how to betray and attack our own allies. We did not ask what to do if the president becomes a threatening megalomaniac who tells one of our oldest friends, Norway, that because the Nobel Committee in Oslo refuses to give him a trophy, he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace” and can instead turn his mind toward planning to wage war against NATO.

As my colleague Anne Applebaum wrote today, Donald Trump’s threatening message to the Norwegian prime minister should, in any responsible democracy, force the rest of the U.S. political system to act to control him. The president is talking about an invasion that would require “citizens of a treaty ally,” as she put it, “to become American against their will,” all because he “now genuinely lives in a different reality.” And yet neither Congress nor the sycophants in the White House seem willing to stop him. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/49GPt5G

‌ Trump, sharing leaked texts and AI mock-ups, vows 'no going back' on Greenland

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there was "no going back" on his goal to control Greenland, refusing to rule out taking the Arctic island by force and rounding on allies as European leaders struggled to respond.

Trump's ambition - spelled out in social media posts and mock-up AI images - to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark has threatened to blow apart the alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades. - Reuters https://reut.rs/4sOqaaF

‌ Volunteers in Minnesota Deliver Groceries So Immigrants Can Hide at Home

Thousands of Minneapolis residents have joined a church-run effort to deliver donated groceries to immigrant families who fear being caught in public by federal agents. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sUwP3a

‌ How Trump Has Used the Presidency to Make at Least $1.4 Billion

President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him.

‌ US tariffs are paid almost entirely by Americans, a German study finds

A favorite tool of President Donald Trump has been costing Americans, according to new study.

The brunt of US tariffs — 96% — have been paid by US buyers, research from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank, found, while about 4% of the tariff burden was paid by foreign exporters.

"American importers and consumers bear nearly all the cost," the researchers said of the tariffs.

The study, published Monday, said that the $200 billion increase in customs revenue that the US government raised in 2025 was a "tax paid almost entirely by Americans." - Yahoo https://yhoo.it/3LJWMBI

‌ Tech workers ask their bosses to ‘call the White House’ over ICE raids

A public letter signed by hundreds of tech workers said CEOs must “pick up the phone” to press Trump to pull back ICE deployments. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4bDqDWY

‌ Trump Issues Awful MLK Day Statement After Uproar Over His Silence

President Trump issued a flimsy, ill-defined proclamation on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at 8:15 p.m., after hours of silence—and criticism from the NAACP. - New Republic https://bit.ly/3LDBXIa

Fox News finally admits Trump's incompetence will impact midterms‌

Fox News has now admitted that President Donald Trump’s lackluster support in public opinion polls could be a drag on Republicans in this year’s pivotal midterm elections and could lead to the party losing control of Congress.

In an article published Tuesday on FoxNews.com, the conservative network cast doubt on Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters’ description of Trump as the GOP’s “secret weapon” ahead of the midterms.

“One year into his second tour of duty in the White House, public opinion surveys suggest many Americans are souring on the president and his agenda,” the Fox article noted, in a rare admission of reality. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3ZpJFbY

‌ ‘F-ck off’: Danish leader has had it with Trump’s Greenland nonsense

Anders Vistisen, a Danish member of the European Parliament, shared his opinion of President Donald Trump’s Greenland aggressions during a debate Monday, making his stance very clear.

“Let me put this in words you might understand,” he said. “Mr. President: Fuck off.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4qziAzh

‌ GOP furious after Newsom gives them taste of their own medicine

Republicans are up in arms after California Gov. Gavin Newsom set a special election to fill a GOP-held House seat for Aug. 4—the latest date he could under state law.

The move ensures that the seat—left vacant when Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa died unexpectedly on Jan. 6—will be open for eight months, thereby robbing House Speaker Mike Johnson of a critical vote in his narrow and unruly majority. - Daily Kos

‌ Tuesday Afternoon News Updates as Trump is Isolated on World Stage — 1/20/26

I’ve been tracking the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland today. I’ll just say it up front: this has been a humiliating day for the United States. Donald Trump’s regime arrived expecting deference. It thought Trump has successfully bullied our allies into kissing the ring. Instead, it was met with open rebuke, cancelled meetings, and growing global resistance. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/49x989r

‌ How Trump Is Remaking America, State by State

When President Trump vowed a “tide of change” in his inaugural address last year, he was not exaggerating.

One year in, those changes are everywhere, often turbulent and polarizing, manifestations of the sharp right turn that Mr. Trump promised for the country and the world.

The president has declared that his power is constrained only by his “own morality.” That sentiment has made itself felt in the aggressive immigration enforcement in Minneapolis and other cities, which has led to one death.

The Times found evidence of change in all 50 states, no place left untouched. This is by no means a complete list.

Then again, Mr. Trump says that he is far from finished. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bahhlt

How Many People Has Trump Deported So Far?‌

The monthly rate of deportations to most countries in the world has increased, even as the rate has actually fallen for some countries in Central America.

The rate of deportations of people with a violent criminal conviction or other criminal record has doubled, while the rate for people with no criminal record has gone up more than six times. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49ywj3h

‌ The Posting Presidency Has Never Felt More Impotent

President Donald Trump has been posting to Truth Social incessantly on Tuesday morning in the lead-up to his flight to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum. He’s sharing AI-generated images about conquering Greenland, he’s called for unnamed officials from the Biden era to be prosecuted for unspecified crimes, and he’s tried to tell the Department of Homeland Security how to post better to win the propaganda war in Minnesota. He’s even shared private Signal conversations he’s had with European leaders.

Every Trump post is a fascist threat that should be taken seriously. But sitting here on Jan. 20, 2026, a year since he was inaugurated for his second term, Trump’s steady stream of posting has never made him look more pathetic. Amid the chaos of his online presence, the desperation emanating from each tweet is perhaps reason to be optimistic that average Americans will prevail in the fight against Trumpism. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/49IOFNG

‌ ICE agents eat at small-town Mexican restaurant — then detain workers

An eyewitness who declined to give a name for fear of retribution, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that four ICE agents sat in a booth for a meal at El Tapatio restaurant a little before 3 p.m. Staff at the restaurant were frightened, said the eyewitness, who shared pictures from the restaurant as well as video of the arrest.

The arrest happened around 8:30 p.m. near a Lutheran church and Willmar Middle School as agents followed the workers after they closed up for the night. A handful of bystanders blew whistles and shouted at agents as they detained the people. “Would your mama be proud of you right now?” one of the bystanders asked. - Minnesota Star Tribune https://bit.ly/3YRhVgb

‌ What Did the White House and Denmark Agree to on Greenland? It Depends Whom You Ask.

The tensions touched off by President Trump’s demand for U.S. ownership of Greenland deepened on Thursday after Denmark and the White House contradicted each other in public about what the two sides had agreed on in a meeting hosted by Vice President JD Vance the day before. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bLqgJT

‌ Trump unloads on allies as Davos showdown looms

U.S. President Donald Trump has made an astonishing series of attacks apparently designed to humiliate allies France, Britain and Canada as the row over Greenland threatens to engulf the Davos forum.

In a flurry of Truth Social posts and comments to reporters a day before he leaves for the elite gathering on Wednesday, Trump leaked apparently private text messages from French President Emmanuel Macron and the head of NATO.

His comments leave the transatlantic alliance in perhaps its most fragile state since World War II -- and underscore that Trump is determined to make a show of power at the meeting in the Swiss ski resort. - AFP/Japan Times https://bit.ly/3LVt1xS?

‌ Takaichi invited to join Trump's controversial Gaza 'Board of Peace'

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has been invited by U.S. President Donald Trump to join a new international body he has proposed to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Takaichi is considering whether to take part in Trump's "Board of Peace," a ministry official said. The board has stirred controversy as some fear its role could be expanded to include other conflicts and that it could eventually be an alternative to the United Nations. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/3NvD4ds?

‌ What Restrains Trump Now?

There are two ways to react to Donald Trump’s latest spurt of mad-king behavior, as he tries to bully and meme his way to the acquisition of Greenland under the threat of a trade war if not a real one.

The first reading is straightforward: This is malignant narcissism flavored with insane Nobel Peace Prize-related self-pity, the usual Trumpian unfitness magnified by the excitement of his Venezuelan intervention and the vicissitudes of old age, with the entire NATO alliance imperiled by the warmongering whims of its leading power’s would-be Caesar.

The second interpretation purports to be more hardheaded and sensible, wiser and world-weary after so many years of watching Trump at work. Isn’t this always how he negotiates? Stake out an absurd-sounding position, freak out all the institutionalists and keepers of consensus, rattle the markets and then use the madman’s leverage to induce other countries to accept an advantageous-for-America deal? You can’t take the wild things he says on social media as the essence of his policy; he’s a performer and a player of games, and while he doesn’t always chicken out, he’s always looking for a way to shake hands at the end.

My own conclusion, deep in the Trump era, is that you need to blend these readings to understand the situation. Trump is an unstable narcissist with a bottomless appetite for attention and a defective moral core, and if you think he’s merely playing a negotiator’s part, you misunderstand him: There is a perfect sincerity to his most absurdist whines and boasts. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bLrUv3

‌ Yes, you are paying most of Trump's tariffs. Here are the receipts

Who's picking up the tab for President Donald Trump's tariffs? Americans, overwhelmingly. A new study released Monday by a group of researchers at the German-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy found that U.S. consumers paid the largest chunk of the tariffs: 96%, to be specific.

"Tariffs are framed as a tool to extract concessions from trading partners while generating revenue for the U.S. government — at no cost to American households," the analysis said. "Our research shows the opposite: American importers and consumers bear nearly all the cost." - Quartz https://bit.ly/4b6FHfy

‌ Trump’s Davos speech renews demand for Greenland, but says he ‘won’t use force’

Trump says he's reached framework deal on Greenland with NATO's chief and that tariffs are no longer needed. - CNN https://cnn.it/4jObowq

‌ Trump Drops Tariff Threat Over Greenland After Assailing Europe

President Trump said he was dropping his threat to impose tariffs on European allies as part of a pressure campaign to gain control of Greenland. Mr. Trump wrote on social media that he had reached an unspecified “framework” of a deal involving Greenland and the broader Arctic region during a meeting with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZozkNr

‌ Canada Flexes on Global Stage With an Eye to Its Own Survival

Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada delivered a stark speech in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, prompting global political and corporate leaders in the audience to rise from their seats for a rare standing ovation.

He described the end of the era underpinned by United States hegemony, calling the current phase “a rupture.” He never mentioned President Trump by name, but his reference was clear.

The speech came as President Trump doubled down on his threats to take Greenland away from Denmark, saying he would slap fresh tariffs on European powers as punishment for their support of Greenland’s sovereignty.

Global leaders have been scrambling to find a unified response. - NYT https://nyti.ms/465znS1

‌ A Surprising Change in Trump’s Behavior

Donald Trump retains the ability to shock; the day he loses that, he will, like the biblical Samson—another man notable for his coiffure—lose his power entirely. When Trump started his second term as president a year ago, however, I doubted whether there was much more to learn about how his mind works. Even before he’d entered politics, Trump was overexposed. Since then, he has become the most scrutinized person in the world. His tendencies and foibles are well known to voters, politicians, and world leaders.

Yet in breaking one of his most entrenched patterns, he has provided perhaps the biggest surprise of the past year. During his first term, Trump was defined by his tendency to back down in any negotiation or fight: As I put it in a May 2018 article, he almost always folded, agreeing to concessions whether he was negotiating on trade with China or a budget resolution with Senate Democrats. More recently, though, he’s been following through, no matter how aberrant his ideas. The exact reason for this is difficult to pin down, though it likely includes the fact that he has more experience under his belt, fewer prudent voices in his ear, and a lame duck’s liberation from having to worry about reelection. In any case, his new determination is forcing countries around the world to reassess how to deal with him. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3YUQYbw

‌ Trump Says ‘You’ll Find Out’ How Far He’ll Go to Get Greenland

Asked how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland, President Trump said, “You’ll find out.” His terse reply, following lengthy remarks about his first year back in office, came as his threats to take over Greenland have imperiled the stability of U.S. alliances. Mr. Trump insisted that he could strike a deal and that Greenlanders who had said they did not want to be part of the United States would be “thrilled” after he spoke to them. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada gave a searing speech in Switzerland about a “rupture” in the world order. - Atlantic https://nyti.ms/3LXpoaE

‌ America’s Would-Be Surgeon General Says to Trust Your ‘Heart Intelligence’

Means is a Stanford Medicine graduate who dropped out of her surgical residency and has since made a career infusing spiritual beliefs into her wellness company, social-media accounts, and best-selling book. The exact nature of her spirituality is hard to parse: Means adopts an anti-institutionalist, salad-bar approach. She might share Kabbalah or Buddhist teachings, or quote Rumi or the movie Moana. She has written about speaking to trees and participating in full-moon ceremonies, both of which drew ridicule by the conservative activist and unofficial Trump adviser Laura Loomer. Her belief in “the divine feminine” (which she doesn’t quite explain) seems to have led her to renounce hormonal birth-control pills for halting the “cyclical life-giving nature of women.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kb0PUB

‌ They ransacked the U.S. Capitol and want the government to pay them back

Yvonne St Cyr strained her body against police barricades, crawled through a broken Senate window, and yelled “push, push, push” to fellow rioters in a tunnellike hallway where police officers suffered concussions and broken bones. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4a2i1rH

‌ Confused Trump’s Struggles Through Disastrous Davos Speech — 1/21/26 Updates

From the moment he arrived, Trump appeared unsteady and disoriented. Our researchers shared a clip of Trump walking unsteadily after landing. It reminded me of when he zig-zagged as he walked to greet Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Immediately, it was clear that Trump was not doing well physically.

That set the tone for an unsteady speech that quickly devolved into confusion, hostility toward allies, open bigotry, and slurring — all as the world watched on both in horror and secondhand embarrassment. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/3LZjLJ3

‌ O Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney received a standing ovation after his speech yesterday at the World Economic Forum. In contrast to Trump’s bloviation today, Carney’s is well worth reading. Here it is in in full, from the official transcript: - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4r7M6Md

‌ Trump Gives a Stump Speech at Davos

“Without us, right now you’d all be speaking German,” Donald Trump scolded European leaders at the World Economic Forum this morning. Perhaps the Germans have a word for the experience of watching your country’s leader embarrass himself and the country on the global stage.

Where does one start in summarizing such a speech? The straightforward racism? The economic illiteracy? The determination to alienate allies? The many moments where the president said things that were blatantly, provably false? And because he rambled through more than an hour, he covered a lot of ground.

The most anticipated section was about Trump’s ongoing effort to acquire Greenland. Trump argued that only the United States could defend the island, which he perplexingly also dismissed as “a giant piece of ice” and accidentally called “Iceland” on a few occasions. He also said Greenland was essential for the “golden dome” missile-defense system he claims he will build. (He denied that the U.S. is after rare-earth minerals in Greenland.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4r6eUon

‌ Trump Wants to Be the New Polk

His interest in the 11th president’s legacy has conjured up the specter of manifest destiny. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4b9huoU

‌ Trump Can Prosecute Anyone Now

A year into Donald Trump’s second term, the Department of Justice has become his private law firm, devoted less to the impartial administration of justice than to blackmailing, intimidating, and persecuting Trump’s foes while selectively enforcing the law to spare allies who break it. The chairman of the Federal Reserve reveals that the Justice Department has been attempting to blackmail him into lowering interest rates with the threat of a federal indictment. The governor of Minnesota, the mayor of Minneapolis, the former head of the FBI, the attorney general of New York, and a member of the Federal Reserve Board all face indictment or investigation for opposing or challenging the president.

The decision to ignore evidence that demands investigation or prosecution can be equally nefarious, as we’ve seen in Minneapolis, where federal authorities refused to investigate a masked government agent for shooting an unarmed mom in the face, and where half a dozen federal prosecutors have since resigned after being pushed to investigate the woman’s widow instead. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4qCwj8p

‌ Trump Administration Starts Immigration Operation in Maine

The operation comes after an enforcement surge in Minnesota, which set off protests. Thousands of D.H.S. officers and agents were deployed there, and their actions have come under scrutiny in the wake of the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis this month by an ICE officer. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jTfNOP

‌ House Panel Votes to Hold Clintons in Contempt in Epstein Inquiry

Still, many Democrats also argued that given the Clintons’ efforts to cooperate with the investigation, including an offer by Mr. Clinton to be interviewed under oath by Mr. Comer and their submission of sworn statements laying out what they would say in testimony, the criminal contempt referrals were inappropriate, particularly for a former president. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZssiHw

‌ The EU pushed back on Trump’s latest tariff threats. Hours later, he backed down

A key group of European Parliament members blocked a vote to ratify a US-European trade deal Wednesday after President Donald Trump threatened to take over Greenland and charge as much as an additional 35% tariff on countries opposed to his ambitions.

Then, hours later, Trump called off his threat. - CNN https://cnn.it/4r7OOBd

‌ Takeaways: Supreme Court signals it will defy Trump to keep Lisa Cook on Federal Reserve

The Supreme Court signaled deep skepticism Wednesday that President Donald Trump had the authority to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve, with several conservative justices joining their liberal colleagues in posing pointed questions of the lawyer defending the president.

By the end of the two-hour argument, many of the justices appeared to be more interested in how the court would side with Cook — not whether it would do so — and how quickly it would resolve her underlying litigation. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rdVmP7

‌ Trump Caves as the World Forces His Surrender on Greenland

So do you remember the words I used to describe Trump in my afternoon news recap today? Don’t worry. I’ll repeat them here: Weak. Deranged. Senile. Slow. Pathetic.

Well, it turns out the world agreed.

Donald Trump has now backed away from his threats to invade or forcibly acquire Greenland, at least for now. And he did it the only way he knows how: by announcing a fake deal to try to save face. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/3NznzkP

‌ Trump repeatedly confuses Greenland for Iceland

President Donald Trump's largely incoherent speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is unlikely to quell the growing questions about his mental fitness after he flubbed the name of the arctic territory he wants to conquer.

On multiple occasions, Trump incorrectly referred to Greenland as Iceland, a nearby country. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4bKA9HM

‌ Media lauds Trump’s Davos speech as ‘very strong’ as world cringes

Mainstream media outlets on Wednesday once again reported on a strange, rambling speech by President Donald Trump as if it were a normal presentation, continuing the tradition of “sanewashing” his rhetoric and misinforming their audiences.

Trump’s presentation before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, had him referring to Greenland mistakenly as Iceland as part of his near-constant fuming about the need for the United States to take over sovereign territory. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/49Dx0bC

‌ Trump's team tries to ruin toy store after owners denounce ICE

A Minnesota toy store whose owners spoke out against Immigration and Customs Enforcement abuses of power is now being targeted by the Department of Homeland Security. The incident is another instance of the Trump administration using the power of the federal government to target speech and dissent.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reported on Tuesday that Mischief Toy Store, located in St. Paul, has been ordered to turn over its employment records to DHS as part of a surprise audit. The company is being told to submit its I-9 forms, which companies use to document the citizenship status of their employees. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3NKNxSl

‌ Death of Cuban Detainee in El Paso ICE Facility Is Ruled a Homicide

An autopsy from the county medical examiner said the detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, was asphyxiated and restrained by law enforcement. Federal officials described his death as a suicide. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4pZapLn

‌ At Yosemite, Rangers Are Scarce and Visitors Have Gone Wild

For decades, visitors to Yosemite National Park have been greeted by green- and khaki-clad rangers, who collect fees and guard the park’s entrance.

But on a chilly morning in December, there were no rangers at the park gates. Tourists descended into the majestic wilderness for free, confused by their apparent good fortune.

In fact, ranger sightings were too rare last year, according to park regulars and advocates. Visitors were far less supervised than they normally were, which had led to the wrong kind of wildness — littering, cliff jumping, drone-flying.

This is Yosemite under President Trump. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rdODoh

‌ Investigations and a Billion-Dollar ‘Shakedown’: How Trump Targeted Higher Education

President Trump had barely returned to power last year when Hector F. Ruiz, a veteran civil rights lawyer for the Justice Department, shared a directive with his team that some found chilling.

He told the team that he had been instructed to open investigations into more than a dozen universities, according to two people with direct knowledge of the meeting. The orders were a sharp break from the department’s norm of collecting facts before proceeding with a formal inquiry, and some investigators viewed the demand as a politically motivated attack.

Within months, Mr. Ruiz and 17 of his team’s lawyers had quit.

Trump officials pressed forward despite the exodus, using the full force of the government to target at least 75 universities with investigations into subjects including antisemitism and student aid fraud. The schools have routinely denied wrongdoing, including those that reached settlements with the government, and federal district courts have ruled that some of the Trump administration’s methods broke the law. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4pXyHFE

‌ Trump’s Rift With Europe Is Clear. Europe Must Decide What to Do About It.

After President Trump aired his disdain for Europe, its leaders will gather in Brussels Thursday to take stock of what comes next. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZxmegR

‌ Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Would Have Global Scope but One Man in Charge

The initiative is the latest example of the president’s dismantling the post-World War II international system and building a new one, with himself at the center. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4r2BMVK

‌ At Davos, a Clash Between Trump’s World and the Old World

For decades, leaders have gathered in Davos to discuss a shared economic and political future. On Wednesday, President Trump turned the forum into a bracing clash between his worldview and theirs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZsyRtE

‌ Court Removes Restrictions on ICE’s Use of Pepper Spray, for Now

The order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit was one sentence long and included no explanation. It granted the Trump administration’s request for an administrative stay of the district court’s preliminary injunction, which was issued on Friday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4a71JxD

‌ Trump’s E.P.A. Has Put a Value on Human Life: Zero Dollars

Government officials have long grappled with a question that seems like the purview of philosophers: What is the value of a human life?

Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, the answer has been in the millions of dollars. The higher the value, the more the government has required businesses to spend on their operations to prevent a single death.

But for the first time ever, at the Environmental Protection Agency the answer is effectively zero dollars. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3YU8PPN

‌ The American Threat: Three Words I Never Imagined Typing

I reached out to Lord Patten, one of the European figures I most respect — a former senior figure in Britain’s Conservative Party, then governor of Hong Kong and later Europe’s foreign policy chief and chancellor of Oxford University. Patten returned my call just as a particularly erratic Trump was telling a press conference that America had never been more respected, and he could hear Trump’s voice in the background.

“You’re listening to those rambling mendacities,” he said, “of the demented leader of the free world.” Those are the words of a temperate British conservative who has been an outspoken fan of America throughout his career, yet who is today aghast at the sight of the United States destroying its soft power worldwide. Patten hopes European leaders will be willing to stand up to Trump because, “sooner or later, he has to be stopped.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4r5E32p

‌ I’ve Covered Police Abuse for 20 Years. What ICE Is Doing Is Different.

I have been covering policing for more than 20 years and have read and parsed a lot of these statements. The Department of Homeland Security’s response after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis this month is something else entirely.

For all their flaws, typical communications from police officials usually include a modicum of solemnity. There are assurances that there will be a fair and impartial investigation, even if those investigations too often turn out to be neither. There’s at least the acknowledgment that to take a human life is a profound and serious thing.

The Trump administration’s response to Ms. Good’s death made no such concessions. There were no promises of an impartial investigation. There was no regret or remorse. There was little empathy for her family — for her parents, her partner or the children she left behind. From the moment the world learned about her death, the administration pronounced the shooting not only justified but an act of heroism worthy of praise and celebration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Nx9qoc

‌ Trump’s Politics Are Not America First. They’re Me First.

I have never trafficked in the conspiracy theories about Donald Trump and Russia. I never thought that he was a Russian asset or that Vladimir Putin had some financial leverage on him or sex tapes to blackmail him with. I have always believed it was much worse: that Trump, in his heart and soul, simply does not share the values of every other American president since World War II when it comes to what America’s role in the world should be and must be.

I have always believed that Trump has an utterly warped value set that is not grounded in any of our founding documents, but simply favors any leader who is strong, no matter what he does with that strength; any leader who is rich and can thus enrich Trump, no matter what the leader does with that money or how he got it; and any leader who will flatter him, no matter how obviously phony that flattery is. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49zfLbg

‌ Trump’s Norway Letter Proves This Isn’t Sustainable

The uncomfortable truth is that the president of the United States is a man with the mind of a spoiled child. His debilitating solipsism is a threat to the stability of the entire world. A functional Congress would impeach and remove him. But the Republican majority is in a codependent relationship with the president, unable to separate his identity from that of their party. And the president’s advisers are either cowed supplicants desperate to please or scheming viziers eager to use his power for their own ends. There is no one, then, to pressure Trump to resign like there was for Nixon. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49zEzjp

‌ China wins as Trump cedes leadership of the global economy

In a long, rambling address that was by turns bombastic, aggrieved and self-congratulatory, President Donald Trump pronounced last rites on American leadership of the liberal democratic order forged by the United States and its allies after World War II. - NYT/Japan Times https://bit.ly/4qHv2wW

‌ Few Voters Say Trump’s Second Term Has Made the Country Better, Poll Finds

Less than a third of voters think the country is better off than it was when President Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with a wide majority saying he has focused on the wrong issues, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University.

A majority of voters disapprove of how Mr. Trump has handled top issues including the economy, immigration, the war between Russia and Ukraine and his actions in Venezuela. And significantly, a majority of Americans, 51 percent, said that Mr. Trump’s policies had made life less affordable for them.

All told, 49 percent of voters said the country was worse off than a year ago, compared with 32 percent who said it was better. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4pXBj6q

‌ Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, memo says

Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.

The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities. - AP https://bit.ly/4qAfMBF

‌ US court allows ICE to arrest and pepper-spray peaceful protesters in Minnesota

An appeals court has temporarily lifted restrictions from a federal judge in Minnesota that blocked ICE agents from pepper-spraying and arresting peaceful protesters.

In a victory for the Trump administration, the eighth US circuit court of appeals on Wednesday granted the justice department’s request for an administrative stay of a preliminary injunction issued last Friday by Judge Katherine Menendez. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4jRFBdX

‌ Procter & Gamble earnings show that tariffs are hitting even the basics

Tide. Duracell. Pantene. Pampers. Cascade. Charmin. Pepto-Bismol. Old Spice. All are brands and properties falling under Procter & Gamble $PG’s umbrella, and they’ve helped to lift the company’s stock more than 10,000% since the 1980s.

But in more recent times, the vaunted conglomerate has struggled to attract the right kind of market attention. While the stock remains on most dividend investors’ radar, its investable star has faded slightly.

Procter & Gamble’s most recent quarterly earnings, released Thursday, are unlikely to meaningful change that status — unless the market starts pricing stability differently. Given the geopolitical picture, it would be far from shocking to see at least some retail and institutional investors seeking such a port amid the storm. But even here, in the laundry aisle and the shampoo aisle, the geopolitical picture intrudes, with tariffs and layoffs forming part of the story. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4b7SoH0

‌ The 7 Crucial Moments in the Minneapolis ICE Shooting

FATS is a life-size video screen connected to a laser pointer firearm where you, the agent traineee (holding said firearm), are part of a two-person team going to do some kind of investigative activity. Maybe you’re looking for a suspect, maybe you’re serving a subpoena, maybe you’re going to effect an arrest. And then, something goes wrong. The suspect runs. Your partner is attacked. A kid comes around the corner during the interview holding a gun. (Seriously, that was one of the scenarios and it still gives me terrible flashbacks.) At that moment, you have to decide what to do. In a matter of seconds, you have to assess the situation, yell commands if feasible, and decide: Shoot or don’t shoot. You know if you made the wrong choice if the entire screen goes red.

One key refrain we were reminded of over and over is this: action beats reaction. That is, the time it takes for your brain to fully process whether the suspect is, say, reaching for a wallet or a weapon is going to be too long if, in fact, it is a weapon and the suspect uses it against you. So in making a decision to shoot, your brain is evaluating a number of factors to assess the threat to your and others safety in usually less than a second — which is why the repetitive training mattered. (We spent about 100 hours on firearms training and fired around 4,000 rounds at Quantico.) FATS training, and our training in Hogan’s Alley, the FBI Academy’s simulated town where we would do live exercises with hired actors, gave me an appreciation for the split-second decision making and tunnel vision that can often accompany a decision of when to use deadly force, and why sometimes a tragic shooting might nevertheless have been reasonable from the point of view of the officer in that moment.

The shooting of Renee Nicole Good was not one of those instances. - Asha Rangappa https://bit.ly/49xYoHS

Shock and awe in Devos

British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once quipped in 1964 that “a week is a long time in politics.” He never experienced Trump II. It feels like three years of events have been crammed into January — and the month isn’t over yet. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4bLL97K

‌ ICE detains four children from Minnesota school district, including 5-year-old

Columbia Heights Public Schools district officials accused ICE officers of using the 5-year-old “as bait.” A 10-year-old and her mother were also detained. - WaPo https://wapo.st/49SduHe

‌ Judge in Minnesota rejected federal attempt to charge journalist Don Lemon

A magistrate judge in Minnesota rejected federal prosecutors’ attempt to bring charges against journalist Don Lemon after he followed protesters into a St. Paul-area church during services, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss court proceedings that have not been made public. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3NyZs5S

‌ Thursday Afternoon News Updates — 1/22/26

Trump’s weakness, deterioration, isolation, and dangerous detachment from reality is now playing out on the global stage. Trump remained in Switzerland after the opening of the World Economic Forum to meet with a group he is calling his “Board of Peace.” That name alone is a lie that could be ripped straight out of the pages of an Orwell novel. ”War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength”

None of America’s traditional allies were present. No NATO countries. No democratic partners. Instead, the group consisted almost entirely of authoritarian regimes, including representatives from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Pakistan, Qatar, and others. Vladimir Putin has reportedly said Russia will be joining as well.

As Trump spoke to the group, his physical condition was impossible to ignore. His left hand appeared severely bruised, discolored, and swollen, worse than the condition previously seen on his right hand. The discoloration became so pronounced that Trump left the event mid-appearance, disappeared for roughly 15 minutes, and returned with heavy makeup applied to his hand. British outlet The Telegraph published before-and-after photos showing the dramatic change. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/45qijWR

‌ Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied: Jack Smith, ICE, and the Cost of Waiting

Jack Smith’s testimony today was both inspiring and painful to hear. He spoke clearly and forcefully about the rule of law and the vast body of evidence showing former President Trump’s efforts to incite an insurrection and overturn the 2020 election. Yet the fact that it took Merrick Garland nearly two years before appointing him serves as a reminder that justice delayed is justice denied.

That truth was impossible to ignore today as special counsel Jack Smith testified before Congress, defending the work he was appointed to do nearly two years after Trump incited the insurrection on January 6, 2021. His appointment came far too late to protect our democracy from Trump because the delay meant that the two indictments he secured against Trump never went to trial.

It was this delay, and not the Supreme Court that saved Trump. As awful as the immunity ruling was, the Court ruled that presidents have absolute criminal immunity only for Article II acts, as for a president’s other official conduct or private conduct that was still fair game. In fact, in a civil case brought by Capitol officers and others against Trump, the D.C. Court of Appeals had already allowed the civil lawsuit to proceed, finding that the plaintiffs had made a prima facie argument that Trump’s speech on January 6 was a private campaign speech because the rally was paid for with campaign money. Smith himself proceeded with his indictments against Trump even after the Court’s immunity decision; he just revised them accordingly. The real problem was timing. By the time the legal questions, all foreseeable, were resolved, the election was around the corner and Trump was elected. We have all suffered as a result. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/3ZvhnwK

‌ The Great Crime Decline Is Happening All Across the Country

What happened in Seattle is happening even more dramatically across the country, as America experiences a once-in-a-lifetime improvement in public safety despite a police-staffing crisis. In August, the FBI released its final data for 2024, which showed that America’s violent-crime rate fell to its lowest level since 1969, led by a nearly 15 percent decrease in homicide—the steepest annual drop ever recorded.

Preliminary 2025 numbers look even better. The crime analyst Jeff Asher has concluded that the national murder rate through October 2025 fell by almost 20 percent—and all other major crimes declined as well. The post-pandemic crime wave has receded, and then some. According to Asher’s analysis, Detroit, San Francisco, Chicago, Newark, and a handful of other big cities recorded their lowest murder rates since the 1950s and ’60s. “Our cities are as safe as they’ve ever been in the history of the country,” Patrick Sharkey, a sociologist at Princeton who studies urban violence, told me. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/469Roi2

‌ What’s Behind the Staggering Drop in the Murder Rate? No One Knows for Sure.

Last year will likely register the lowest national homicide rate in 125 years and the largest single-year drop on record, according to a new analysis of 2025 crime data.

Violence has been falling for several years. But last year for the first time, all seven categories of violent crime tracked by the analysis fell below prepandemic levels. The numbers provide further evidence that the surge in violence in the early 2020s was a departure during a time of massive social upheaval, not a new normal.

The analysis of data from 40 cities, by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, found across-the-board decreases in crime last year compared to 2019: 25 percent fewer homicides, 13 percent fewer shootings and 29 percent fewer carjackings. Between 2024 and 2025, only drug crimes went in the wrong direction, but they were still lower than in 2019. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4pWAn26

‌ Democrat highlights ban Florida judge put on disclosing details in Smith’s classified documents report

Jack Smith defended his decision to obtain non-disclosure orders that prevented lawmakers from learning that their phone records had been subpoenaed by pointing to how election workers had been targeted by President Trump and his alleged co-conspirators.

“I was aware, during the course of our investigation, of targeting of witnesses during the course of the conspiracy itself,” Smith said. “There were election workers who had their lives turned upside down and received vile death threats because they were targeted by Donald Trump and his co-conspirators.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3NJfoSU

‌ White House and China sign off on TikTok deal; Jack Smith defends Trump investigations

The former special counsel previously told lawmakers that his team found "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that the president engaged in a "criminal scheme" to overturn the 2020 election results. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4pZiyiS

‌ This clip is one of the reasons why the White House didn’t want Gov. Gavin Newsom to speak at Davos

Video on Threads. - Vince D. Monroy https://www.threads.com/@vincedmonroy/post/DTznce9ktZN

‌ Conversation with Gavin Newsom, Governor of California | World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026

Video - YouTube https://bit.ly/469RKFo

‌ The Voters Who Have Taken a U-Turn on Trump

When President Trump took office for his second term one year ago, he was — at least compared with his usual polling — relatively popular.

His approval rating was above 50 percent, and he had made enormous breakthroughs among groups that have traditionally voted Democratic, like young, nonwhite and lower-turnout voters. It had some of the markings of a potential political realignment. It even brought a much-noted vibe shift.

One year later, the vibe has shifted back. The results from today’s New York Times/Siena University poll would have looked fairly typical during his first term. Only 40 percent of registered voters say they approve of Mr. Trump’s performance, and the familiar patterns of American politics have returned. The second Trump coalition has unraveled. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qDvqw8

‌ Kash Patel’s FBI Is Making America Less Safe, Current and Former Employees Say

John Sullivan, former section chief in the intelligence division: I assumed Congress would see how uniquely unqualified Kash Patel was for the job. I assumed the Senate would do its due diligence and decide not to confirm him.

Michael Feinberg, former assistant special agent in charge of the field office in Norfolk, Va.: When Kash Patel was nominated, we all knew in our bones that the bureau was going to be a very different environment than any of us had experienced before. He regularly referred to us as government gangsters. He was also the author of three children’s books in which he’s a self-styled wizard who saves King Donald Trump from the evil forces of the Justice Department. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZuTRju

‌ The 4th Axiom for Interpreting Trump

As Trump’s dementia worsens, several axioms are useful for interpreting his increasingly incoherent bloviation.

Axiom #1: Whatever he asserts to be a fact is either a wild exaggeration or a bald-faced lie. Always disregard.

Axiom #2: Whatever he blames on anyone else is something he’s done. He projects like mad, so his accusations are always windows onto what he’s worrying that others will discover about himself.

Axiom #3: Whatever he criticizes as being fake news is a fact he doesn’t want you to know. So pay special attention to it.

Axiom #4: Whenever he attacks some source of information — a survey, poll, or report — it’s come up with some truth he fears. So look at it and share it. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4rcsmqR

‌ Letters from an American - January 21, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this morning, a visibly exhausted president of the United States of America rambled in angry free association in a speech before the world’s leaders. At one point, speaking of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) dignitaries, he told the audience: “Until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me daddy, right, last time. Very smart man said, ‘He’s our daddy. He’s running it.’”

He meant Greenland. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4rcsmqR

‌ Today in Politics, Bulletin 291. 1/22/26

TACO Trump backed down on Greenland while claiming victory again after Europe presented a united front against his threat to impose 25% tariffs on them if Denmark didn’t hand over sovereignty of the territory to the US. CNN: “Trump and NATO Secretary Gen. Mark Rutte reached a verbal understanding about Greenland during their meeting on Wed, but no document has been produced yet memorializing a future deal.” - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4bNjVh4

What matters

Digest of the day's news. - CNN https://cnn.it/4qHoU7R

‌ Trump Chickened Out On Greenland, But The Threat He Poses Keeps Rising

President Trump, somewhat bafflingly, had been escalating tensions with Europe for weeks over his desire to acquire Greenland.

He repeatedly refused to take the use of military force off the table when asked, instead threatening “to do something in Greenland, whether they like it or not,” and saying, in full mob boss mode,

“I would like to make a deal the easy way but if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.”

When confronted with the fact that the United States already has a security agreement with Greenland, Trump scoffed, insisting that “ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document” and made clear that “anything less” than U.S. control of the island nation would be “unacceptable.” - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4pZjbce

‌ ICE goons to America: We don’t need no stinkin’ warrants

If you’re wondering why your attorney friends are just staring into space and disassociating, wonder no more: A secret memo told the secret immigration police that invading homes without a warrant is totally fine, totally cool—just keep it on the down low.

The Associated Press got its hands on an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo that—and this is not hyperbole—absolutely guts Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Actually, that’s the polite, mainstream media way of putting it. What this memo really does is purport to override the Fourth Amendment with no law, just vibes. In other words, it’s unconstitutional as hell. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4bNk5Fc

‌ ‘I won’t be complicit’: Newsom stands against Trump’s bullying

California Gov. Gavin Newsom continued his attacks on President Donald Trump at the World Economic Conference in Davos, Switzerland, during an interview onstage, where he was asked about his aggressive—and at times coarse—resistance to Trump and other Republicans.

“Society becomes how we behave. We are our behaviors, we're not bystanders in this world,” Newsom said. “The world we're experiencing happened on our watch.”

“People need, you know, courage of their damn convictions. We're at the 250th anniversary of the United States of America this year,” he added, warning that our country’s experiment in democracy is clearly in jeopardy.

“There's no rule of law. It's the rule of Don. I hope for Europeans, it's dawning on you.”

Newsom went on to excoriate the GOP’s failure to provide the legislative check envisioned by the Constitution and detailed Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 elections. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/49CIHiF

‌ In Testimony, Jack Smith Defends Decision to Prosecute Trump

Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who twice indicted Donald J. Trump, defended his investigation in a tense and long-awaited appearance before a House committee on Thursday — flatly accusing Mr. Trump of causing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“No one should be above the law in this country, and the law required that he be held to account,” Mr. Smith said in his opening remarks. “So that is what I did.”

His testimony represented the argument he was never allowed to deliver in court: that Mr. Trump “engaged in criminal activity” that undermined democracy and the rule of law.

The hearing posed significant risks to Mr. Smith, who has said he believes Mr. Trump and his appointees will seize on the smallest misstep to investigate, prosecute and humiliate him. House Republicans had made it clear that they would make a criminal referral to the Justice Department if his testimony revealed serious inconsistencies or misstatements. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jXtL28

‌ Democrat highlights ban Florida judge put on disclosing details in Smith’s classified documents report

‌ Detention of 5-Year-Old by Federal Agents Incenses Minneapolis

A 5-year-old boy wearing a Spider-Man backpack and an oversized hat was detained with his father by immigration authorities on Tuesday, one of four students recently apprehended in a suburban Minneapolis school district, school officials said.

The prekindergarten pupil, Liam Conejo Ramos, is pictured in a photo released by the school system as he stands next to a vehicle with an adult’s hand on his backpack. His father is not in sight. The image prompted outrage in the Twin Cities area, where many people have been angered since mid-December by the Trump administration’s surge in deportation operations.

“Why detain a 5-year-old?” Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of schools in Columbia Heights, Minn., asked at a news conference about the episode on Wednesday.

Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, is seen being detained in a photo released by Columbia Heights Public Schools officials that has prompted anger in the Twin Cities. Columbia Heights Public Schools

Exactly what happened during the arrest, on a snow-covered block in Columbia Heights, is in dispute. The small school district and the federal government have given conflicting accounts.

The boy and his father were taken to Dilley, Texas, outside San Antonio, where they are being held at an immigration detention center, according to Marc Prokosch, a lawyer working with the family. The boy and his father came to the United States from Ecuador in 2024, he said, and each has an active asylum claim.

“These are not illegal aliens. They came legally and are pursuing a legal pathway,” Mr. Prokosch said at a Thursday news conference. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49O6RFG

‌ U.S. Formally Withdraws From World Health Organization

Global health experts worry that a lack of international coordination will lead to death and disaster. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45sRukR

‌ Trump administration completes US’ split from the World Health Organization

The US has completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, the US Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday, finalizing a longstanding goal of President Donald Trump.

Trump tried to leave WHO during his first term, then gave notice through an executive order on the first day of his second term that the US would leave the organization. By law, the US must give WHO a one-year notice and pay all outstanding fees before its departure.

The US still owes WHO roughly $260 million, but legal experts said the US is unlikely to pay up and WHO has little recourse.

CNN has reached out to WHO for comment. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ac13qM

‌ Trump Sues JPMorgan, Saying the Bank Closed His Accounts for Political Reasons

President Trump filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase on Thursday, contending that the nation’s biggest bank stopped doing business with him for political reasons after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The lawsuit, which seeks $5 billion in damages, was filed in state court in Florida and also named Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, as a defendant.

In the complaint, Mr. Trump said JPMorgan notified him in February 2021 that it was planning to close his accounts and those of some of his family’s businesses. According to a copy of the lawsuit, which was posted on the CNBC website, the bank’s decision was the result of “political discrimination” against Mr. Trump, his family and their related businesses. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NzMlkM

‌ Takeaways From The Times’s Inside Look at the F.B.I.

Many current and former employees say Kash Patel’s first year as F.B.I. director was marred by vendettas, mismanagement and meltdowns. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45qM4qp

‌ The Carney Doctrine

There will be more twists and turns, highs and lows, but I’m afraid it’s time to recognize a sad reality: It’s over.

This week, two things happened that, taken together, send a clear signal to the United States and the world. The American-led alliance of democracies is in the midst of a rupture; we have broken faith with our allies. And our allies are choosing resistance over submission to Trump’s aggression and greed.

Before we get to the dramatic developments in Davos, Switzerland, let’s set the stage. On Sunday night we learned that President Trump sent the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store, a message that can only be described as deranged and delusional. You may have read it before, but please read it again.

“Dear Jonas,” it began, “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

Trump, incredibly enough, was tying his desire to acquire Greenland to the Nobel Committee’s awarding someone else the Nobel Peace Prize, a decision that he wrongly attributed to the government of Norway.

Making everything worse, even as Trump is behaving in a demonstrably irrational way, America’s vaunted checks and balances are failing. Impeachment and conviction are off the table. There is no chance that Trump’s cabinet of sycophants would invoke the 25th Amendment. Congress is led by invertebrates — with many of them apparently convinced that he’ll subjugate the world in much the same way that he subjugated them, through threats, bluster and the unyielding support of millions in the MAGA mob. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49RR2Op

‌ Man Bites Davos

Frank Bruni: Welcome, Bret, to the second year of Donald Trump’s second residency in the White House. You and he are both marking the occasion in Davos. What’s it like this time around — to be an American in a Europe that he’s doing his demented best to turn from ally to enemy? Must be a chill in the air that has nothing to do with the Alps and the altitude.

Bret Stephens: Regards from the Magic Mountain, Frank. The mother of a friend of mine used to carry around a stack of business cards that read, “I apologize for my husband’s behavior on the evening of__________.” She meant it as a gag. But I think the Americans here in Davos could seriously use something like that: “I apologize for our president’s craziness on the morning/afternoon/night of___________.” Maybe it’ll help convince our European friends that we haven’t all lost our minds.

Frank: How hopeful of you — and how quaint — to cling to the phrase “our European friends.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3LIwLCT

‌ We Asked 300 People About Health Care Costs. The Numbers Are Shocking.

When Congress allowed the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire at the end of December, my monthly health insurance bill went up by about $200 a month. That’s a good chunk of the $25,000 I expect to earn, after business expenses, in 2026.

I am not alone in paying more for health care. More than 300 Times Opinion readers responded to a January invitation to share their experience of rising health care costs. They included a cancer patient who shifted care mid-recovery to a new insurance plan that doesn’t cover all her doctors. A mother who began skipping birthday parties to avoid the cost of a gift. A small-business owner who closed his doors. Many readers shared accounts of relying on retirement funds to pay for insurance. More than one Republican voter said they now regretted voting for that party. I am sharing a selection of these stories below, which have been edited for length and clarity. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45piAt8

‌ Free speech, ICE, and free elections in 2026

President Trump has told us what he sees when he sees millions of Americans rising up in our cities and towns to protest his ICE overreaches: The enemy within. Rebellion. Reasons to use Democratic-run “cities as training grounds for the U.S. military.”

In response to the protests over ICE’s killing of Renee Good, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to stop “agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E.” Over the weekend, Trump put 1,500 soldiers on standby for deployment.

Read more: What Trump can and can’t do with the Insurrection Act.

The ease with which the Trump administration now activates federal troops signals a dangerous new reality: the normalization of state force as a first response to political dissent. Since taking office in 2025, Trump has deployed troops to 10 American cities, exaggerating and blurring concerns over crime and protests to assert control and tamp down his critics.

This is happening as heavily armed, masked federal immigration agents, in numbers that often dwarf state and local law enforcement, conduct raids with alarming levels of aggression and violence across the country. This surge in force is backed by a clear message from the top: By pardoning violent January 6 rioters, Trump has already signaled that political violence is acceptable so long as it serves his agenda. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/3LzDAXo

‌ The funding freeze could force some day care centers to close, putting the welfare of teachers, parents and children in jeopardy, providers say.

The budget at The Mary Crane Center, a Chicago-based day care, has always been tight.

But a freeze on Illinois’ access to $1 billion of federal funding for childcare and family assistance has put the center’s ability to stay open in jeopardy, according to teacher Alice Dryden

“We’re all anxious. We’re all angry. We’re all tired,” Dryden said.

Illinois is one of five states being held back this month from a total of $10 billion in federal funding over what the Trump administration painted as fraud concerns. The cuts will affect around 100,000 families and thousands of licensed child care providers across the state, according to a statement from Gov. JB Pritzker this month.

Without the federal funding, Dryden said the day care might only have a month before it “would really have to make some tough decisions.” - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/3LTFQIV

‌ Congress Saves NASA From Trump's Proposed Budget Cuts, Fully Funds Agency And Its Science Missions

It wasn't all that long ago that NASA looked like it was going to be absolutely gutted by massive budget cuts. However (and here's a sentence you don't hear very often), Congress acted decisively to reject the Trump administration's ambitions. In fact, it's going the other way: in 2026, NASA will have the largest budget it's had since 1998. This basically saves the science missions of the agency, which study everything from the Earth's climate to the furthest stars. And because this is the world we live in now, the new budget also mandates that this money be spent, so the administration can't just choose to not spend what it's been allocated. That sound you're hearing is a sigh of relief from the entire space community. - Jalopnik https://bit.ly/3YSbklP

‌ Election deniers want your data

The Trump administration is in the middle of a massive, unprecedented, and unlawful effort to accumulate your private voter data in advance of the midterms. Since last May, the Justice Department has demanded access to nearly every state’s full, unredacted voter file in an effort to create a central federal database of voter information.

Why does the DOJ want this mountain of data on virtually every voter in the country? It has all the markings of a deliberate effort to manipulate, misconstrue, and even manufacture evidence of supposed election “fraud” — the same playbook President Trump and his allies used to sow doubt about election results in 2016 and 2020.

There’s a common phrase1 in the research world: “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything.” In short, with enough manipulation, you can make a dataset say whatever you like. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4pUeOiA

‌ Letters from an American - January 22, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Vice President J.D. Vance was in Minnesota for the administration today, trying to regain control of the narrative about the violence perpetrated there by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). A new poll out today from the New York Times and Siena University shows that nearly two thirds of Americans, 63%, disapprove of how ICE is handling its job, while only 36% approve. Even among white Americans, 57% disapprove, while only 42% approve. Sixty-one percent of Americans, including 19% of Republicans, think that ICE agents have gone too far.

Just hours after ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed 37-year-old Renee Good on January 7, and long before there was any official investigation of the shooting, Vance was out in front of the news, blaming Good for her own death and claiming that the officer was clearly justified in shooting her.

But even MAGA voters don’t buy it. Podcaster Joe Rogan has compared ICE to “the gestapo,” and Greg Sargent of The New Republic noted that a majority of both young voters and those without a college degree, those who tend to be easy for MAGA to reach, disapprove of ICE enforcement. Media Matters reported that the senior judicial analyst on right-wing channel Newsmax, Andrew Napolitano, called the newly revealed secret ICE memo claiming the right to break down doors to arrest people in their homes “a direct and profound violation of the Fourth Amendment, which expressly says people are entitled to be secure in their homes and that security can only be invaded by a search warrant signed by a judge based on probable cause of crime.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/49Sy3D4

‌ Opening boards

In a recent interview with the Columbia Spectator (from which much of this post is drawn), Michael Thaddeus, professor of mathematics and acting president of the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors, called universities “a microcosm of society” and stressed the importance that governance has for Columbia. “Society is taking this authoritarian turn right now, which is very worrisome,” Thaddeus said. “Do we as a university want to be a mini autocracy, or do we want to be a mini democracy? We need to be a mini-democracy.” - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3YWRTYX

‌ Jamie Dimon criticizes Trump's immigration policy: 'I don't like what I'm seeing'

Jamie Dimon has been a longtime proponent of immigration reform in the U.S., but on stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the CEO of JPMorgan $JPM Chase took issue with how enforcement is being handled in the United States.

Dimon, who has largely avoided criticizing the current White House administration, criticized the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as too extreme.

″I don’t like what I’m seeing, five grown men beating up a little old lady,” Dimon said. “So I think we should calm down a little bit on the internal anger about immigration.”

Dimon added he wanted to know more about the people being taken in ICE raids, questioning whether they were in the U.S. illegally or if they had broken some sort of law.

“We need these people,” he said. “They work in our hospitals and hotels and restaurants and agriculture, and they’re good people.… They should be treated that way.” - Quartz https://bit.ly/3YZaDqP

‌ Minnesota’s General Strike, and America’s

Today, Minnesota is shutting down in solidarity.

It’s the nation’s first general strike in response to Trump’s thuggery.

Across the state, businesses are closed. People are not shopping. Workers have stayed home or called in sick. Labor unions are encouraging work stoppages. Residents are helping one another. It’s an economic blackout.

Organizers are calling it a “Day of Truth and Freedom.”

It could be a model for what the nation as a whole does in coming months, to repudiate the Trump dictatorship. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4jVKyCB

‌ Trump withdraws Carney’s invitation to Board of Peace

President Donald Trump said late Thursday that he had rescinded his invitation to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to join his Board of Peace, an entity that the American leader has promoted as a tool to resolve global conflicts with a scope rivaling the United Nations but that has been met with skepticism from erstwhile U.S. allies. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4bhr7SG

‌ Park Service removes slavery exhibit at Independence Park in Philadelphia

Park staff dismantled an exhibit about George Washington’s slave ownership amid a wider push to remove information on racism, sexism and climate change. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3O0aBMW

‌ US officially out of WHO, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars unpaid

A year ago today, the US informed the WHO of its intent to exit, setting the clock for a one-year withdrawal period mandated in a 1948 joint resolution of Congress. But, in practice, the withdrawal was immediate, with the Trump administration cutting all ties with WHO upon the announcement. In explaining his reasoning for leaving the WHO, Trump referenced his long-standing complaints about the agency’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, dues payments, and alleged protection of China. Trump had attempted to extract the US from WHO during his first term, but the Biden administration rescinded the withdrawal on the first day in office, well before the one-year notice period was reached.

The joint resolution also stipulated that the US would have to pay its financial obligations in full before departing. But, that too has not been honored by the Trump administration. According to Stat, the US owed the WHO $278 million in dues, which are a percentage of each member state’s gross domestic product. That dues payment covered the country’s 2024–2025 membership, as WHO runs on a two-year budget cycle. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4bNmz6u

‌ Friday Afternoon News Updates as Americans Go on STRIKE — 1/23/26

Donald Trump is back in Washington, D.C., and he is clearly losing control. At the same time, a historic moment is taking shape across the United States. A general strike that began in Minnesota is now spreading to other parts of the country, with workers, nurses, and pro-democracy activists coordinating actions that we have not seen at this scale in roughly seventy years. The goal, shared openly by organizers, is to make this the largest general strike in modern U.S. history. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4jUC2nz

‌ Rejecting Decades of Science, Vaccine Panel Chair Says Polio and Other Shots Should Be Optional

Offering a startlingly candid view into the philosophy guiding vaccine recommendations under the Trump administration, the leader of the federal panel that recommends vaccines for Americans said shots against polio and measles — and perhaps all diseases — should be optional, offered only in consultation with a clinician.

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who is chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said that he did have “concerns” that some children might die of measles or become paralyzed with polio as a result of a choice not to vaccinate. But, he said, “I also am saddened when people die of alcoholic diseases,” adding, “Freedom of choice and bad health outcomes.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3O1TMkL

‌ TikTok deal is done; Trump wants praise while users fear MAGA tweaks

“I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok!” Trump said on Truth Social after the deal was finalized. “It will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World, and will be an important Voice.”

However, it’s unclear to TikTokers how the app might change as Trump allies take control of the addictive algorithm that drew millions to the app. Lawmakers had feared the Chinese Communist Party could influence the algorithm to target US users with propaganda, and Trump’s deal was supposed to mitigate that.

Not only do critics worry that if ByteDance maintains ownership of the algorithm, it could allow the company to continue to influence content, but there is now concern that the app’s recommendations could take a right-leaning slant under US control.

Trump has already said that he’d like to see TikTok go “100 percent MAGA,” and his allies will now be in charge of “deciding which posts to leave up and which to take down,” the NYT noted. Anupam Chander, a law and technology professor at Georgetown University, told the NYT that the TikTok deal offered Trump and his allies “more theoretical room for one side’s views to get a greater airing.”

“My worry all along is that we may have traded fears of foreign propaganda for the reality of domestic propaganda,” Chander said. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4pPsZ8x

‌ White House shares an altered photo of arrested Minnesota protester Nekima Levy Armstrong

The White House altered and posted to social media an image of an arrested Minnesota protester on Thursday to make it appear as if she were crying, a senior White House official confirmed to NBC News.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had posted the original image on X of civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong looking ahead calmly as she was taken into custody Thursday. She was one of three people arrested in connection with a demonstration that interrupted a service last Sunday at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, whose pastor they said works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4bNsbxx

‌ Demonstrators Flood Minneapolis Streets as Hundreds of Businesses Close to Protest ICE

Thousands of protesters shut down parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul on Friday as hundreds of businesses closed their doors, and workers and students stayed home to demand an end to the sweeping immigration crackdown that has roiled the Twin Cities for weeks.

The action on Friday, which unfolded in subzero temperatures, was the most widespread and organized demonstration since federal agents arrived in Minneapolis more than six weeks ago. It was aimed at pressuring the federal government to pull thousands of its agents from the streets.

Businesses, many of them locally owned, closed their doors to halt economic activity, saying that losing a day’s revenue was worth the cost to be part of the effort to end the immigration enforcement.

The day of protests followed weeks of clashes between Minnesotans and federal agents, mostly in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas. The immigration operation, which started late last year, has led to some 3,000 arrests, at least two shootings in Minneapolis and chaotic scenes on the streets.

Calls for the ouster of federal agents have grown from residents and local officials, especially after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good, an American citizen, in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Protesters and state officials have also filed lawsuits to restrict the agents’ conduct and to block the surge. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3M4ZRwh

‌ What Is the Scale of the Resistance in Minnesota?

I came to Minneapolis to report on what’s going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is “just what is the scale of the resistance?” After all, we’re all used to the news calling Portland a “war zone” or whatever when it’s just some protests in one part of town.

I got in late last night. First thing this morning, I saw cars following an ice vehicle down the street, honking at it.

Later, we didn’t drive more than three blocks before we found people defending a childcare facility. (The idea that people have to defend a childcare facility… let that sink in)

Half the street corners around here have people — from every walk of life, including republicans — standing guard to watch for suspicious vehicles, which are reported to a robust and entirely decentralized network that tracks ICE vehicles and mobilizes responders.

I have been actively involved in protest movements for 24 years. I have never seen anything approaching this scale. Minneapolis is not accepting what’s happening here. ICE fucking murdered a woman for participating in this, and all that did is bring out more people, from more walks of life. - Kottke https://bit.ly/4a9LIXL

‌ ICE detains family seeking emergency care for child at Portland hospital

Federal immigration agents arrested and detained a Gresham family, including a 7-year-old child, outside a Portland hospital last week as the girl’s parents sought emergency medical care for her.

The arrest at Adventist Health hospital Jan. 16 took place less than 1,000 feet from the medical office parking lot where a Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a couple from Venezuela two weeks ago.

It appears to be the first time in Oregon that Trump administration immigration authorities have detained an entire family unit, and is one of a few rare cases of immigrants being detained while seeking medical care. Until last year, when President Donald Trump rescinded Obama-era protections for immigrants, hospitals, schools and churches were deemed off limits for immigration enforcement. - Oregonian https://bit.ly/4pUoR7m

Trump's new $1 billion gang‌

“Most cases very popular leaders, some cases not so popular.”

This is how President Donald Trump described the motley crew of heads of state and government who signed up Thursday in Davos for his new venture — the “Board of Peace” — an apparent bid to run the world for long after his presidential term ends.

Let’s stipulate that it’s a good thing when presidents seek peace. And if Trump’s big projects in Gaza and Ukraine deliver it, he’ll save thousands of lives.

Still, since he spent the week almost destroying the post-World War II order with his absurd bid to claim ownership of Greenland, his qualifications for serving as a kind of global supremo for life seem rather questionable. - CNN https://cnn.it/4sRk21f

‌ The Trump Administration’s Affordability Messaging Is Confusing Americans

At a rally in Detroit earlier this month, Donald Trump told the crowd that his upcoming speech at the World Economic Forum would tackle one of his core issues: affordability. But the address he delivered in Davos yesterday was not quite what he’d telegraphed.

In what my colleague David A. Graham described as a “stump speech,” the president strayed from that focus, roaming from Arctic defense to the Minnesota fraud scandal to the policies of “Sleepy” Joe Biden. When he returned to the topic of affordability, he claimed that grocery prices are “going down” (they’re not) and that drug prices have declined by “2,000 percent” (they haven’t). Although Trump campaigned on the economy, weak polling has recently spurred new plans to make life in America more affordable.

At one point, Trump plugged a plan to curb predatory lending practices by capping credit-card interest rates at 10 percent—but the deadline (proposed on Truth Social) for the policy to go into effect had passed the day before. Trump also used his speech to promote his plan to lower housing costs, which he recently unveiled in an executive order. The policy is aimed at preventing corporations from buying up single-family homes, and has bipartisan support. These proposals were a blip in his 80-minute speech before he quickly pivoted. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bM4qWH

‌ Trump Is Screwing with the Midterms. Will He Succeed?

With ICE terrorizing Minneapolis, the Justice Department giving murderers a pass while investigating the Fed Chair, and Trump now threatening to attack our allies over Greenland, only one question matters: How do we stop him?

The GOP could, of course. Along with the Democrats, they could vote to impeach him in the House, convict him in the Senate and remove him from office. His cabinet could remove him under the 25th Amendment; his bonkers letter to Norway, in which he justifies going to war with NATO for not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, would suffice to find him unfit to hold the office of president.

There is no indication Republicans will find their spine and do any of this. Democrats can throw sand in the gears by withholding funding or attaching conditions to it, but so long as they are out of power, they can’t do much to rein in the President himself.

That leaves it to the people, namely, the voters. The November midterm elections seem an eternity from now, but 2025 is now behind us, and we made it this far, albeit not without significant trauma. As we look ahead to our chance to remove the GOP from power and put real checks on this rogue White House, a few nagging questions persist: Will Trump screw with the midterms? Will they be free and fair? Will we even have them? - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/3ZuYHNG

F__k yourself: Ex-officer beaten in Jan 6. riot shouts to GOP lawmaker

Former special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two now-defunct criminal cases against President Donald Trump, defended the integrity of his investigation during a combative hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill. Former police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6 were in the room to watch the hearing, as well as the former leader of the right-wing militia group known as the Oath Keepers. - CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/22/politics/video/fanone-nehls-smith-hearing-digvid

‌ Today in Politics, Bulletin 292. 1/23/26

Trump created another international incident with his mouth as he claimed that the US has never needed to call on our NATO allies. Cadet Bone Spurs: “We have never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan. And they did but they stayed a little back behind the front lines.”

The UK is in an absolute uproar with every media outlet and politician fuming at Trump and, by extension, US citizens for putting him in power again despite what they saw in term one. PM Keir Starmer, who worked hard to try and establish a cozy relationship with Trump, got burned again: “457 of our Armed Services lost their lives in Afghanistan, there were many also who were injured. So I consider Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling.“

UK Armed Forces Undersecretary and highly decorated veteran Alistair Carns: “This is utterly ridiculous. Many courageous and honorable service personnel from many nations fought on the front line. Many fought way beyond it. I served 5 tours in Afghanistan - many alongside Americans. We shed blood, sweat and tears together. Not everybody came home. I’d suggest whoever believes these comments come have a whisky with me. There’s only one worse thing than working with allies, and that is working without them.”

Before long we won’t have anymore allies. Other than maybe Hungary, Israel, Qatar and Argentina. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/3ZvsMwx

‌ UK's Starmer calls Trump's remarks on allies in Afghanistan 'frankly appalling'

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called U.S. President Donald Trump's comments about European troops staying off the front lines in Afghanistan insulting and appalling, joining a chorus of criticism from ‌other European officials and veterans.

"I consider President Trump's remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling, and I'm not surprised they've caused such hurt for the loved ones of those who were killed or injured," Starmer told reporters. - Reuters/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4acG2ML?

‌ Trump Wrecked Climate Policy in a Year. Can We Ever Go Back?

Trump’s attacks on bedrock environmental and climate laws are inherently fragile—and could reflect the president’s preference for political dominance over lasting change. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4sPdKzc

‌ New ICE policy allows officers to enter homes without a judge’s warrant. Here’s what experts say.

With an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo that allows officers to enter homes without a judicial warrant, the Trump administration is seeking to usurp guardrails that are enshrined in the Fourth Amendment and have protected Americans’ civil liberties for centuries, experts in constitutional law and immigration policy told CNN.

Even in an administration that has always pushed an expansive vision of its law enforcement authority, the directive is notable for the way it tosses aside longstanding prohibitions against warrantless searches on private property — a legal concept that predates the creation of the United States and is among the country’s most foundational principles.

“The Bill of Rights, we thought, were the first 10 amendments,” said Mark Graber, a constitutional law scholar and University of Maryland professor.

With the newly discovered memo, he said: “I guess now we’re down to nine.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3ZwEoPU

‌ Republicans are sadists

Nearly two-thirds of registered voters (61%) think Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have gone too far in their tactics as they seek to fulfill President Donald Trump's deportation agenda, a New York Times/Siena University

The same poll found that more than half of Republican voters (56%) think ICE's tactics have been "about right," while another 24% say that ICE has "not gone far enough.”

That means more than three-quarters of Republicans are fine with ICE’s violence in Minnesota and now in Maine, where Trump has sent his goons to carry out his reign of terror.

Let's take a look at the tactics Republican voters think are "about right" or are not forceful enough. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4sVFLVM

‌ Philadelphia fights back against Trump's racism

The city of Philadelphia is suing the Trump administration over the decision to remove an exhibit at Independence National Historical Park depicting the factual history of slavery in the United States.

The suit was filed on Thursday in response to agents from the National Park Service removing the display, which has been in place for 16 years. Video recorded by The Philadelphia Inquirer shows the exhibit, titled “The Dirty Business of Slavery,” being pried off the wall at the park. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/45Xcoso

‌ Kash Patel can’t stop screwing up

You’d think that a dude who was just the centerpiece of a massive New York Times story about how his first year on the job has been “marred by vendettas, mismanagement, and meltdowns” might be engaging in the tiniest bit of self-reflection.

But since that dude is FBI Director Kash Patel, you would be so, so wrong.

Instead, Patel decided to do yet another purge of senior FBI employees for having the gall to investigate President Donald Trump and his supporters for their open, obvious, and well-documented crimes. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/49Z1Ryc

‌ Has Trump Crossed a Line with Brits?

Donald Trump’s latest unhinged verbal attack, this time against NATO allies, was not just another bout of rhetorical carelessness. It was a deliberate insult aimed at countries that bled alongside the United States for two decades—and it landed with particular force in the UK, where memories of Afghanistan are not abstract talking points but graves, amputations, and lifelong trauma—and where the US ‘Special Relationship’ still means something.

When Trump told Fox News that the US had “never needed” NATO and suggested that European forces stayed “a little off the front lines” in Afghanistan, he crossed a line that even normally cautious allies could not ignore. British prime minister Keir Starmer, who has spent months carefully avoiding public confrontation with Trump, called the remarks “insulting and frankly appalling.” That choice of words was unusually blunt—and telling.

Britain lost 457 service personnel in Afghanistan, its deadliest overseas conflict since the Korean War. For years, British troops led the allied campaign in Helmand province, one of the most violent and unforgiving theatres of the war. They did not hover on the sidelines. They fought house to house, patrolled some of the most dangerous terrain on earth, and paid for the alliance in blood.

So did many others. Canada lost more than 150 troops. France lost around 90. Germany, Italy, Denmark, Poland, and dozens of other NATO partners suffered casualties that, per capita, often rivaled or exceeded those of the United States. Denmark alone lost 44 soldiers—one of the highest per-capita death rates in the war. Poland, whose forces operated under constant threat, considers its sacrifice a matter of national honor. These are facts. Trump’s comments erase them. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4q3i0sl

‌ Defund Science, Distort Culture, Mock Education

Joan Brugge has worked for nearly 50 years as a cancer scientist, studying the earliest signs that someone might become sick. Then the Trump administration canceled her lab’s funding. The administration’s attacks on medicine, culture, and education—which include verbal threats and funding cuts—are about more than just budgeting and bravado. Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. She argues that this effort is part of a larger autocratic project to maintain power. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4biuKHQ

‌ The Rumbles Within Trump’s GOP

The president’s fixation on Greenland has posed yet another test for Republican leaders. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45Zzbnm

‌ Demonstrators Flood Minneapolis Streets as Hundreds of Businesses Close to Protest ICE

Thousands of protesters shut down streets throughout Minneapolis-St. Paul to demand that federal immigration agents end their weekslong crackdown. Businesses closed in solidarity. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NEfT0z

Trump’s Turnabout on Greenland Shows the Limits of His Coercive Powers

Even by President Trump’s own mercurial standards, his whipsawing over the past few weeks on Greenland — insisting on the largest land acquisition in American history and then dropping it without explanation, threatening allies and then reversing himself — was a remarkable and revealing exercise in a new era of American coercive diplomacy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Z1Jbsu

‌ F.B.I. Agent Who Tried to Investigate ICE Officer in Shooting Resigns

An F.B.I. agent who sought to investigate the federal immigration officer who fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis this month has resigned from the bureau, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The agent, Tracee Mergen, left her job as a supervisor in the F.B.I.’s Minneapolis field office after bureau leadership in Washington pressured her to discontinue a civil rights inquiry into the immigration officer, Jonathan Ross, according to one of the people. Such inquiries are a common investigative step in similar shootings.

Ms. Mergen’s resignation was only the latest shock wave to have emerged from the Justice Department’s handling of the shooting of Renee Good, an unarmed mother who was killed on Jan. 7 as she was behind the wheel of her Honda Pilot. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NDrWvd

‌ Anti-Abortion March Brings Thousands to D.C., and a Sense of Frustration

At the March for Life, Vice President JD Vance acknowledged “a fear that some of you have that not enough progress has been made.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NMChou

‌ Thousands March Through Manhattan to Protest ICE Crackdowns Across U.S.

Thousands of people withstood freezing temperatures and high winds in New York City on Friday to protest the ongoing crackdowns by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents around the country, including the detention of a 5-year-old boy near Minneapolis this week. The gathering, which began with a demonstration in Union Square in Manhattan, continued with an evening march through the streets. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49PoYuU

‌ Renée Fleming Won’t Perform at Kennedy Center Concerts

The soprano Renée Fleming will not be part of two scheduled performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, according to the center’s website.

Fleming, one of the world’s great opera singers, resigned as an artistic adviser to the Kennedy Center nearly one year ago.

Since the center’s board of directors decided last month to add President Trump’s name to the building, several artists have cut ties. The banjoist Béla Fleck withdrew from performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, saying that playing at the center had “become charged and political,” and the “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz said he would not host a gala there. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3M4dTOI

‌ The Coming Trump Crackup

Last week Minneapolis’s police chief, Brian O’Hara, said the thing he fears most is the “moment where it all explodes.” I share his worry. If you follow the trajectory of events, it’s pretty clear that we’re headed toward some kind of crackup.

We are in the middle of at least four unravelings: The unraveling of the postwar international order. The unraveling of domestic tranquillity wherever Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents bring down their jackboots. The further unraveling of the democratic order, with attacks on Fed independence and — excuse the pun — trumped-up prosecutions of political opponents. Finally, the unraveling of President Trump’s mind. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4biQ2Fh

‌ Letters from an American - January 23, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Tens of thousands of Minnesotans took to the streets today in bitter cold temperatures with wind chills of -20°F (–28°C) to protest the occupation of Minneapolis and St. Paul by federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Status Coup News interviewed a protester walking down the street holding a sign that said: “CLASSIC NAZI BLUNDER: INVADING IN WINTER.” - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/4biQ2Fh

‌ Trump threatens new 100% tariffs on Canada over possible trade deal with China

President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to slap 100% tariffs on Canadian imports if America’s second-biggest trading partner makes a trade deal with China.

The comments threaten to deepen the divide between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, after back-and-forth threats to impose tariffs on Canadian goods, including 10% duties, after Ontario’s ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan’s speech about tariffs.

Trump mockingly referred to Carney as “governor,” a term he has also used for former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, playing off his call for Canada to become the 51st US state. - CNN https://cnn.it/4sTTsEV

‌ Minneapolis Mayor Frey defiant after another fatal shooting by immigration officers

In the moments after Renee Good was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued a combative message. “To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” he said.

A little more than two weeks later, as Frey responded to another killing of a Minneapolis resident by federal agents, he was similarly defiant.

This time, even as he pleaded with President Donald Trump to “act like a leader,” Frey also aimed his message at the American public.

“To everyone listening: Stand with Minneapolis. Stand up for America,” Frey said at a news conference today.

“Recognize that your children will ask you what side you were on. Your grandchildren will ask what you did to act to prevent this from happening again.” - CNN https://cnn.it/49FP5Wu

‌ Minneapolis Live Updates: Federal Agents Shoot and Kill a 37-Year Old Man

Federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident on Saturday morning, the city’s police chief said. The shooting prompted clashes between law enforcement and hundreds of protesters, as Minnesota officials renewed demands that the Trump administration end its immigration crackdown, which has now resulted in two deaths.

Videos analyzed by The New York Times contradict the accounts of Homeland Security officials, who said that the man approached Border Patrol agents with a handgun and the intent to “massacre” them. Footage of the encounter shows the man was holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, when federal agents took him to the ground and shot him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49T9CFT

‌ Videos Showing Aggressive ICE Tactics in Minnesota Fuel a Backlash

Federal immigration agents have broken windows and dragged occupants out of their vehicles. They have forcefully tackled people to the ground. They have pushed and shoved protesters, and deployed pepper spray directly in their faces.

For weeks, residents have documented the scenes unfolding as federal agents pursue President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The videos have circulated widely and intensified outrage and fear among many Minnesotans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4pVyPW0

‌ Demonstrators Flood Minneapolis Streets as Hundreds of Businesses Close to Protest ICE

Thousands of protesters shut down parts of Minneapolis-St. Paul on Friday as hundreds of businesses closed their doors, and workers and students stayed home to demand an end to the sweeping immigration crackdown that has roiled the Twin Cities for weeks.

‌ Saturday Updates: Trump Regime Murders Another Citizen in Minneapolis — 1/24/26

The Trump regime has murdered another citizen. And now they’re lying about it. The cover-up is in full swing. But we have the footage. From multiple angles. We’ve heard from multiple witnesses. And we have cameras on the ground, thanks to our partners at Status Coup.

Early this morning, federal agents shot and killed a man near Glam Doll Donuts on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. Multiple witnesses were on scene. One described it to us as “an execution.” Within minutes, Minneapolis police moved to secure the area. They were blocked by federal agents. According to the Star Tribune, federal officers attempted to order local police away from the scene. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara refused and instructed his officers to preserve the site.

That refusal mattered, because video evidence from multiple angles began circulating almost immediately. The footage shows at least ten shots fired. It shows the victim’s hands appearing empty. It does not show him using a weapon, reaching for one, or threatening anyone. It shows a man shot to the ground and then shot again. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/3Z0ESO7

‌ SHAME ON CNN, CBS, AND ALL OF THEM!!

My heart goes out to the family of Alex Pretti and to the entire Minnesota community who are under attack by Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol terrorist thugs. Pretti was murdered in cold blood by Border Patrol gestapo. He didn’t incite anything or threaten anyone. He was helping female protesters who were getting brutalized by the Border Patrol sickos when he was pepper sprayed and gang-tackled to the ground. He was bludgeoned on the ground before being shot repeatedly and killed.

This isn’t my opinion. This is what happened. This isn’t my perspective. These are the facts.

It does not surprise me that the Trump regime is calling Alex a domestic terrorist who had an agenda to massacre Border Patrol and ICE. This regime is made up of despicable and vile humans who lie about everything. They are terrorists and horrible humans.

What makes me livid, and what should also come as no surprise, however, is the coverage from CNN and CBS and Politico and of course Fox and frankly all corporate news. They have all parroted regime talking points that Alex Pretti was resisting and that somehow having a concealed handgun with a lawful permit made it justifiable to kill him. Alex did not brandish his weapon. He was holding a cell phone. Alex was not resisting; he was attacked and bludgeoned and murdered. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/49GMZ8O

‌ Pete Hegseth Should Stay Out of Minneapolis

By inserting himself into the situation in Minnesota, the secretary of defense is only making things worse. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/49GbuD5

‌ Police and ICE Agents Are on a Collision Course

After another fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis, the rift between local police and federal agents is becoming a rupture. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rgPtAI

‌ A Citizen Murdered for Caring

Today, in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old man, was murdered on the street for trying to help a woman stand up after she was pushed by ICE agents and slipped on an icy sidewalk. A precious life was treated with shocking carelessness by federal agents who seemed to believe they were acting out a role in a mafia-style movie, continuing to fire bullets into his body even after he was lifeless on the ground.

The entire interaction, from the moment Alex Pretti was seen calmly and quietly filming ICE to the moment he was dead, was about sixty seconds. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/3LSF0Mw

‌ Letters from an American - January 24, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

This morning, on a street in Minneapolis, at least seven federal agents tackled and then shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse for the local VA hospital.

Video from the scene shows Pretti directing traffic on a street out of an area with agents around, then trying to help another person get up after she had been pushed to the ground by the agents. The agents then surround Pretti and shoot pepper spray into his face, then pull him to the ground from behind and hit him as he appears to be trying to keep his head off the ground. An agent appears to take a gun out of Pretti’s waistband during the struggle, then turns and leaves with it. A shot then stops Pretti’s movements, appearing to kill him, before nine more shots ring out, apparently as agents continued to fire into his body.

It looked like an execution. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4rcnIsK

‌ Sunday thought: Enough

I believe the shots that killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good are the shots heard ‘round the world that will topple the Trump regime.

From Minneapolis to Davos, people are joining together against Trump’s tyranny.

In Minnesota, they are joining across ethnicity, race, and class against Trump’s gestapo tactics, repression, and murders. Solidarity is spreading to other cities.

In Europe, they are joining across national boundaries against Trump’s threats to their sovereignty, the European Community, and NATO.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in a speech that drew a standing ovation from world leaders at Davos, called on “middle powers” like Canada and Europe to form a new alliance against economic coercion from the world’s great powers (by which he clearly meant Trump’s United States and Putin’s Russia).

Across America and across the world, people are realizing it’s not possible to appease America’s dictator. The only way to deal with him is to stand up to him — and the only way to stand up to him is by joining together against him. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/45verUx

‌ Man Killed by Federal Agents in Minneapolis Was Holding a Phone, Not a Gun

Federal officials sought to portray a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident killed by Border Patrol agents on Saturday as a domestic terrorist, saying he wanted to “massacre” law enforcement, even as videos emerged that appeared to directly contradict their account.

The man, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was an intensive-care nurse described by the Minneapolis police chief as a U.S. citizen with no criminal record. Federal officials said he was armed, but there is no sign in videos analyzed by The New York Times that he pulled his weapon, or that agents even knew he had one until he was already pinned on the sidewalk. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49P1Yxz

‌ Timeline: A Moment by Moment Look at the Shooting of Alex Pretti

Federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, at about 9 a.m. Central time on Saturday morning. A video shared with The New York Times by an eyewitness and her lawyer, as well as other video footage posted on social media, documents the violent scene, where agents appear to fire at least 10 shots in a span of only five seconds.

The footage seems to contradict the Department of Homeland Security’s account of the event, which the agency said began after the victim approached the federal agents with a handgun and the intent to “massacre” them. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jVOt2i

‌ Trump Threatens Canada With Tariffs as Post-Davos Fallout Continues

President Trump said he would impose tariffs if Canada made “a deal with China,” though there is no sign that those countries are discussing a broad trade agreement. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3LNoWfe

‌ Pepper-Sprayed While Pinned Down: A Searing Scene Provokes Outrage

The deployment of thousands of federal agents to Minnesota to round up undocumented immigrants has yielded no shortage of indelible images in recent weeks.

There was the American citizen dragged out of his home in subzero weather in his underwear. And the detention of a 5-year-old boy wearing a Spider-Man backpack and a hat with floppy ears drew outrage from school officials.

But photos of a Border Patrol agent squirting pepper spray in the face of a man who was being pinned down by fellow officers on Wednesday searingly captured why the ongoing immigration operation has been met with furious resistance on the streets of Minneapolis.

Images of the episode drew millions of views online, made the front page of The Minnesota Star Tribune and elicited blistering condemnation from local officials. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rgQ2uk

‌ Democrats Vow Not to Fund ICE After Shooting, Imperiling Spending Deal

Bipartisan legislation to fund a broad swath of the government and avert a shutdown at the end of the week appeared to be in grave danger on Saturday, as key Senate Democrats vowed to oppose it after federal agents shot and killed a Minneapolis resident.

The rapidly escalating opposition to the measure, which includes $64.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, including $10 billion for ICE, amplified the likelihood of a partial government shutdown at the end of the month. The legislation requires the support of Democrats to muster the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster and advance in the Senate.

“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the D.H.S. funding bill is included,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said in a statement, calling what is unfolding in Minnesota “appalling” and “unacceptable in any American city.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jZiJcF

‌ Appeals Court Rejects Justice Dept. Push for Arrest Warrant for Don Lemon

A federal appeals court on Friday turned down an extraordinary request from the Justice Department to force a judge to issue arrest warrants for Don Lemon, the journalist, and four other people in connection with a church protest in Minneapolis last week.

The department’s unusual petition, which was unsealed on Saturday along with other documents arising from the case, was a remarkably aggressive attempt by the Trump administration to strong-arm judges into doing its bidding. It prompted an equally remarkable pushback from the conservative chief federal judge in Minnesota, who called the petition “frivolous” and categorically rejected the administration’s efforts to depict its need for the warrants as what he described as a “national security emergency.”

The dispute also shows the boundary-pushing lengths to which Trump administration officials are willing to go in their efforts to crack down on what they see as criticism of the president’s aggressive immigration measures. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NC6kzi

‌ State Terror Has Arrived

After the past three weeks of brutality in Minneapolis, it should no longer be possible to say that the Trump administration seeks merely to govern this nation. It seeks to reduce us all to a state of constant fear — a fear of violence from which some people may at a given moment be spared, but from which no one will ever be truly safe. That is our new national reality. State terror has arrived.

Please look at this list with me. Since early January, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement expanded its operation in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., federal officers have: killed Renee Good, a white middle-class mother; menaced a pregnant immigration lawyer in her firm’s parking lot; detained numerous U.S. citizens, including one who was dragged out of his house in his underwear; smashed in the windows of cars and detained their occupants, including a U.S. citizen who was on her way to a medical appointment at a traumatic brain injury center; set off crowd-control grenades and a tear gas container next to a car that contained six children, including a 6-month-old; swept an airport, demanding to see people’s papers and arresting more than a dozen people who were working there; detained a 5-year-old. And now they have killed another U.S. citizen, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an I.C.U. nurse with no criminal record. It seems he was white. The agents had him down on the ground, subdued, before they apparently fired at least 10 shots at point-blank range. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bPPaYP

‌ The World Will Remember Trump’s Greenland Outburst

The free world exhaled on Wednesday when President Trump retreated from his administration’s threat to invade Greenland. That relief, however, masks the damage that Mr. Trump has done to America this week. Mr. Trump’s apologists once dismissed his bullying of Greenland as an attempt at humor. Instead, it has been something far darker. His immoral threats against a loyal NATO ally have escalated a crisis in U.S.-European relations, weakened one of history’s most successful alliances and hurt American interests in tangible ways. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rfC77D

‌ The Cruelty Is the Point for ICE

The public face of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a brutal, paramilitary force of masked men who hunt immigrants and terrorize American cities on behalf of the president of the United States.

The not-so-public face is somehow even worse.

ICE operates detention facilities across the country, holding tens of thousands of people arrested on immigration charges. President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill included $45 billion for the construction of new detention space, including facilities with tent-like structures meant to house a growing influx of people seized by ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents.

These facilities, human rights researchers and former detainees report, are cramped, squalid and dangerous. “The food they gave us was not edible,” according to one woman initially detained at a Chicago airport along with her 5-year-old daughter. “We didn’t eat anything for days. They didn’t even give us water to drink.” Eventually, the woman and her daughter were transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, which the woman “described as a living hell.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ribfnI

‌ The Un-American President

Jack Smith’s testimony before Congress on Thursday was a stinging reminder that Trump tried to overthrow the government and wickedly put lawmakers and his own vice president in harm’s way.

“Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, that it was foreseeable to him and that he sought to exploit the violence,” Smith said.

It is heartbreaking that on the cusp of our 250th anniversary, we have a president who is perverting all the values our country was founded on — looking out for one another, respecting one another’s rights. - NYT Jack Smith’s testimony before Congress on Thursday was a stinging reminder that Trump tried to overthrow the government and wickedly put lawmakers and his own vice president in harm’s way.

“Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, that it was foreseeable to him and that he sought to exploit the violence,” Smith said.

‌ Watching America Unravel in Minneapolis

What I saw, as federal agents stormed the city and residents banded together to protect themselves, was a dark, dystopian future becoming reality. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4t0zcBi

‌ Alex Jeffrey Pretti Knew He Wanted to Help Others

The man fatally shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis was Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, officials said.

Mr. Pretti, who was 37, was a registered nurse who worked in the intensive-care unit at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis, according to interviews and public records, and lived in an apartment in Minneapolis a short drive away from where he was killed.

He had a firearms permit, required by state law in Minnesota to carry a handgun, officials said.

Colleagues and acquaintances of Mr. Pretti were stunned by his death, recalling a friendly neighbor and hardworking professional who was devoted to his patients. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rhflfK

‌ IMPORTANT SUNDAY MESSAGE from Meidas Founder

It’s a grim Sunday. There’s no way around that. Sure, Trump’s approval is plummeting to new lows and the regime has never been more detested. But it’s at the cost of a lot of pain, a lot of tears, and a lot of mourning.

Alex Pretti was murdered in cold blood by Trump’s Border Patrol. Pretti was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA. Pretti did nothing wrong at the protest yesterday morning in Minneapolis. He went to offer aid to a female protester who was getting pepper sprayed by Border Patrol agents. The Border Patrol gestapo started pepper spraying Pretti. A group of six to seven Border Patrol thugs threw Pretti to the ground, bludgeoned him on the floor, and shot him 11 times.

Just as it did with Renée Nicole Goode, the Trump regime labeled Pretti a domestic terrorist. It’s the same playbook. It’s the playbook for terror. The Trump regime defamed Pretti and completely lied about what we all saw on video. They repeat the lie over and over and use their state regime news networks like Fox and CBS to repeat the regime propaganda. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/3M3i25y

The global rule of law is not collapsing – Trump is the lone problem and he can be defeated‌

Donald Trump is a monster, and a stupid one at that – as his foul slander of British soldiers who served in Afghanistan shows. His bid to seize loyal ally Denmark’s sovereign territory; his norm-shattering, profoundly ignorant speech in Davos last week; and his contemptuous bullying of UK and EU leaders have definitively demonstrated what an existential, unappeasable, unspeakable menace the 47th US president truly is.

All the post-Davos talk is about what the UK, the EU and Nato must do in future to resist and constrain Trump, and how to counter his attempts to demolish the global rules-based order. Yet a sense of proportion is required. If his policies and posturing are removed from the equation, it’s clear that the unedifying but familiar postwar world of great power rivalries and de-facto spheres of influence remains largely unchanged. Continuities outnumber ruptures. It’s also clear this crisis is not ultimately one Europe can solve.

Trump and Trump alone is the principal, pressing problem. And Trump is a made-in-America monster. It’s up to Americans to un-make him and set things straight – which they surely will, sooner or later. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4abmHvo

‌ The End of Rule of Law in America

The 47th president seems to wish he were king—and he is willing to destroy what is precious about this country to get what he wants. - Google https://bit.ly/4adgqPP

‌ They Keep Lying To Us

Two dead Americans, federal agents running amok, and an impending constitutional crisis. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/3ZsU8U6

‌ Federal agent secured gun from Minn. man before fatal shooting, videos show

Federal agents who were wrestling a man to the ground in Minneapolis early Saturday secured a handgun he was carrying moments before shooting him multiple times, according to a Washington Post analysis of videos that captured the incident from several angles.

As many as eight agents were attempting to detain Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, videos show. One emerged from the scrum holding Pretti’s gun, having removed it from his waistband area. Less than a second later, the first of what appear to be 10 shots was fired. It is not clear from the video whether the other agents realized Pretti — who local authorities believe had a permit to carry the weapon — had been disarmed. - WaPo https://wapo.st/49X5W64

‌ Sunday Afternoon News Updates: The Cover-Up is in Full Swing — 1/25/26

This morning brought another public meltdown from Donald Trump, and another failed attempt by his regime to bury the truth. As the fallout grows from the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the Trump regime’s effort to defame him has not just failed. It has exposed something even darker: a coordinated assault on basic constitutional rights in service of a cover-up. The regime is now spending all their energy slandering Pretti. Every time you think these people hit a new low, they find the basement. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4qFTU80

‌ ‘This is what fascism looks like’: terror in Minneapolis reminiscent of civil war

Wearing helmets, gas masks and camouflage fatigues, the federal agents took aim and prepared to open fire. “It’s like Call of Duty,” one could be heard saying via a TV mic, referring to a first-person shooter military video game. “So cool, huh?”

This was the scene on the streets of Minneapolis on Saturday after armed agents, wearing masks and tactical vests, wrestled 37-year-old Alex Pretti to the ground and shot him dead. The killing took place just over a mile from where Renee Good was fatally shot on 7 January, a scene that itself was less than a mile from where police murdered George Floyd in May 2020.

“How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?” the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, demanded at a press conference on Saturday, referring to the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. An angry crowd gathered and swore profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4r4UqMA

The Trump Administration Is Lying to Our Faces. Congress Must Act.‌

The federal government owes Americans a thorough investigation and a truthful accounting of the Saturday morning shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti on a Minneapolis street. When the government kills, it has an obligation to demonstrate that it has acted in the public interest. Instead, the Trump administration is once again engaged in a perversion of justice.

Mere hours after Mr. Pretti died, Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, declared without offering evidence that Mr. Pretti had “committed an act of domestic terrorism.” Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, offered his own assessment: “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

These unfounded and inflammatory judgments pre-empt the outcome of an investigation, which the Department of Homeland Security has promised. They also appear wholly inconsistent with several videos recorded at the scene.

Those videos showed that Mr. Pretti had nothing but a phone in his hands when he was tackled by Border Patrol agents, and that he never drew the gun he was carrying (and reportedly had a license to carry). Indeed, the videos seem to show that one federal agent took the gun from Mr. Pretti moments before a different agent shot him from behind. Separate analyses by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, CBS News and other organizations all concluded that the videos contradict the Trump administration’s description of the killing. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4k6PiWk

‌ This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 293

Before we break down the details, first some general points that are very important. These are facts on video:

Pretti was filming the police with his phone when they put their hands on him for the first time. He did not initiate contact with officers - they initiated it.
At no time did Pretti ever touch, reach for, brandish or display the firearm he had holstered at his waist.
A federal agent disarmed Pretti while he was on the ground before any shots were fired.
After he was disarmed, he was initially shot 4 times and collapsed. 3 of those shots were in the back.
After he was on the ground and not moving, agents fired 6 additional shots at him for a total of 10.
Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4pYoDvW

‌ Europe's leaders find a way to speak with one voice against Trump

No more fawning praise. No more polite workarounds and old-style diplomacy. And no one is calling Donald Trump “daddy” now.

European leaders who scrambled for a year to figure out how to deal with an emboldened American president in his second term edged closer to saying “no,” or something diplomatically like it, to his disregard for international law and his demands for their territory. Trump's vow to take over Greenland and punish any country that resists, seems to have been the crucible. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4q3C25Y?

‌ How the Trump Administration Rushed to Judgment in Minneapolis Shooting

Not long after federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident on Saturday, senior members of the Trump administration were ready with their conclusions about what had happened and who was to blame.

Stephen Miller, President Trump’s homeland security adviser, called the victim, Alex Pretti, who was filming Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, a “domestic terrorist.” Gregory Bovino, the official in charge of Border Patrol operations, said Mr. Pretti was out to “massacre law enforcement.” The Department of Homeland Security said an agent had fired “defensive shots” because he was “fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers.”

Even as videos emerged that contradicted the government’s account, the Trump administration was in a race to control the narrative around the killing of Mr. Pretti, a registered nurse with no criminal record who was pinned down when immigration agents opened fire and killed him. The rush to blame Mr. Pretti and exonerate the immigration agents — even while officials were still gathering the facts — deviates entirely from the way law enforcement investigations are normally carried out. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4jYnP8V

‌ Killing Prompts Only a Defiant Response From Trump

In the hours after a man was brought to his knees and fatally shot by Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis on Saturday, President Trump was in the Oval Office, where an aide, Natalie Harp, sat close by with a laptop.

Along with input from aides who called throughout the day by phone, the two pumped out several presidential social media posts that blamed local law enforcement officials and the victim for the killing and accused Minnesota officials of covering up an unrelated fraud scandal.

Mr. Trump also spoke with Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff, who called the victim — Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen and I.C.U. nurse who had been using his cellphone to record immigration agents on the street and was carrying a licensed handgun — a “would-be assassin.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rePJ32

‌ Trump Blames Democrats for ‘Tragic’ Deaths as Agents Clash With Protesters

President Trump said in a series of social media posts on Sunday that two American citizens had “tragically” lost their lives amid his administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, but he blamed Democratic leaders for the deaths.

“Democrat run Sanctuary Cities and States are REFUSING to cooperate with ICE, and they are actually encouraging Leftwing Agitators to unlawfully obstruct their operations to arrest the Worst of the Worst People!” he wrote. “By doing this, Democrats are putting Illegal Alien Criminals over Taxpaying, Law-Abiding Citizens, and they have created dangerous circumstances for EVERYONE involved.”

The posts apparently referred to the deaths this month of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens and Minneapolis residents who were shot and killed by federal immigration agents. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZykJ21

‌ Trump Just Proved Carney’s Point

“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Everything Trump has done over the last week has made him look tawdry, addled and small. He began his latest play for Greenland by complaining about being passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize and ended it by disinviting Mark Carney from his “Board of Peace.” For Trump, nothing — not even peace — transcends his brutish transactionalism. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45vJrDI

‌ U.S. officials dig in on Minneapolis shooting narrative, contradicting video evidence

Senior Trump administration officials on Sunday defended the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis even as video evidence contradicted their version of events and tensions grew between local law enforcement and federal officers.

As residents visited a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles in frigid temperatures and snow to mark Saturday's fatal shooting of Alex Pretti — the second shooting death involving federal officers in Minneapolis this month — Trump administration officials stated that Pretti assaulted officers, compelling them to fire in self-defense.

"The victims are border patrol agents," Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol commander-at-large, told CNN's "State of the Union" program. - Reuters/Japan Times https://bit.ly/4tj2cVp

‌ Letters from an American - January 25, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

As the nation mourned the killing of VA ICU nurse Alex Pretti yesterday at the hands of federal officials in Minneapolis, President Donald J. Trump spent last night at the White House at a black-tie private screening of a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump. Amazon paid $40 million for the rights to the film just weeks after executive chair Jeff Bezos dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago following the former president’s reelection and is spending another $35 million to promote the film.

Then, this morning, Trump’s social media account posted a 450-word social media screed complaining about the lawsuit against his addition of a massive ballroom to the White House. Calling the National Trust for Historic Preservation a “Radical Left” organization, the account claimed that the addition “is being done with the design, consent, and approval of the highest levels of the United States Military and Secret Service. The mere bringing of this ridiculous lawsuit has already, unfortunately, exposed this heretofore Top Secret fact. Stoppage of construction, at this late date, when so much has already been ordered and done, would be devastating to the White House, our Country, and all concerned.”

This morning, administration officials doubled down on their insistence that the killing had been justified. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4qAIQcm

Week FiftyThree January 26 - February 1

Week Fifty-Three: January 26 - February 1

The Trump Administration Is Lying to Our Faces. Congress Must Act.

Once Again, Federal Officials Exclude Minnesota From Investigation of a Fatal Shooting

For the second time in three weeks, local and state authorities in Minnesota say they have been impeded from investigating how federal agents shot and killed someone, cutting off access to crucial evidence and basic facts.

In both cases, Minnesota officials said they sought to have their Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which typically takes the lead in police shootings, work in partnership with the federal government.

Yet the Department of Homeland Security has blocked local investigators from reviewing evidence gathered following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti, both Minneapolis residents and U.S. citizens.

Federal authorities shut down an early effort to collaboratively investigate the agent who killed Ms. Good and said that they would handle any investigation into the killing of Mr. Pretti. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bnVXca

For Trump, the Truth in Minneapolis Is What He Says It Is

Twice since the start of the year, federal officers have gunned down protesters in Minneapolis with cellphone cameras rolling, and twice President Trump and his lieutenants have rushed forward with a message to the American people: Don’t believe what you see with your own eyes.

Without waiting for facts, the Trump team has advanced one-sided narratives to justify each of the killings and demonize the victims. Renee Good, a mother of three, was engaged in “domestic terrorism” and “viciously ran over the ICE Officer,” they declared. Alex Pretti, an I.C.U. nurse at a veterans’ hospital, was an “assassin” aiming to “massacre law enforcement.”

The trick is that the Trump versions of reality have collided with bystander videos watched by millions who did not see what they were told. Ms. Good did not run over the ICE agent who killed her; a video analysis suggested she was trying to turn away from him and he continued to shoot her even as she passed him. Mr. Pretti approached officers with a phone in his hand, not a gun; he moved to help a woman who was pepper sprayed and he was under a pileup of agents when one suddenly shot him in the back. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4pYV1yr

Republicans Struggle to Respond to Shooting, Reflecting Political Peril

The fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man by a federal agent in Minneapolis has set off alarm bells among Republicans, fueling worries within the party about a potential backlash to violent tactics by the Trump administration in its immigration crackdown.

Some Republicans came forward on Sunday to vigorously defend the administration and place blame for the death of the man, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a U.S. citizen, on forces on the left who oppose President Trump’s immigration policies. But many party leaders stayed silent, and some G.O.P. lawmakers both in the center and on the hard right raised grave concerns, suggesting a rare moment of dissent over a killing carried out in broad daylight and recorded by bystanders. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46jQ6kH

New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti

A frame-by-frame assessment of actions by Alex Pretti and the two officers who fired 10 times shows how lethal force came to be used against a man who didn’t pose a threat. (video) - NYT https://nyti.ms/46h1jlY

DHS says it has body-cam footage related to Pretti shooting in Minneapolis

President Donald Trump said Monday that he spoke by phone with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), describing it as a “very good” conversation and adding that Frey would be meeting with border czar Tom Homan on Tuesday. “Lots of progress is being made!” Trump wrote on social media.

In the call — which came hours after Trump spoke with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) — Frey said he continued to press Trump to end Operation Metro Surge. “The president agreed the present situation can’t continue,” Frey wrote on X.

Frey said some federal agents would begin leaving Minneapolis on Tuesday and that he would continue pushing for a full withdrawal. He added that the city would cooperate with state and federal authorities on criminal investigations, but not “in unconstitutional arrests of our neighbors or enforce federal immigration law.” - NYT https://wapo.st/4sZn4Rn

Monday Afternoon News Updates as Fallout Grows over Trump Regime's Latest Murder — 1/26/26

Things have gotten very ugly for Donald Trump over the past 24 hours. This weekend was a breaking point for so many Americans after yet another American was murdered by the Trump regime. His name was Alex Pretti. They killed him in cold blood. Then they lied about it. Over. And over. And over again. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4k9pXuS

The unjust killing of Alex Pretti marks a turning point in Trump’s second term

The unjust killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse in Minneapolis, marks a turning point in President Donald Trump’s second term. His mass deportation campaign has been a moral and political failure, leaving American citizens feeling outraged and unsafe. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3ZGbb52

Witnessing Another Public Killing in Minneapolis

“They killed another guy,” someone announced, in my group chat. That message was followed quickly by a link to a video, shot from behind a pane of glass, level with the street. Sadly, you’ve probably seen that video by now: ICE and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis surround a slim young man squirming helplessly on the ground. Then, suddenly, the indifferent crack of a gunshot. The man’s body goes limp and falls to the ground. Someone near the camera starts to shout. “What the fuck,” the voice says. “They killed—did they fucking kill that guy? Are you fucking kidding me, dude? Not again! Are you fucking kidding me? That guy’s dead.” - New Yorker https://bit.ly/3LY21xN

Watching America Unravel in Minneapolis

What I saw, as federal agents stormed the city and residents banded together to protect themselves, was a dark, dystopian future becoming reality. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NUKLdj

Border Patrol commander and some agents expected to leave Minneapolis, AP source says

A senior Border Patrol commander and some agents are expected to leave Minneapolis as early as Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

The departure of Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who has been at the center of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement surge in cities nationwide, comes as President Donald Trump dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to take charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. - Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4rlyoWj

Minneapolis mayor says some federal agents will begin to leave amid growing anger over Alex Pretti death – as it happened

Donald Trump’s efforts to deploy militarized immigration agents in US cities may finally be reaching a reckoning as he faces widespread opposition across the US, dissenting lawmakers in his own party, and impending court rulings after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal officers in Minneapolis. While there is no sign the aggressive tactics used by immigration enforcement are coming to an end, the mayor of Minneapolis said the administration will begin to scale back the number of federal agents in Minneapolis starting on Tuesday, as the president and his team soften their harsh rhetoric about the incident. - Guardian https://bit.ly/45ADRQv

Bovino set to leave Minneapolis, and Border Patrol plans to reduce its presence, officials say

The fatal shooting of Pretti has Trump “concerned” about the sustainability of his administration’s ongoing Minneapolis operations, according to Trump administration officials and allies.

These people acknowledged to NBC News that they needed a strategic shift amid a public uproar over Pretti’s killing, though the White House is still very much focused on its original agenda of cracking down on immigration and fraud. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4sUQ10y

ICE Is Failing the Legitimacy Test

Carrying a concealed handgun in public is now commonplace in much of the country. For many, this is not only a prudent act of personal safety, but an expression of liberty and a bulwark against government overreach. At the same time, America's law-enforcement officers insist they must exercise vigilance while patrolling dangerous streets. When officers make a split-second decision to shoot someone who is carrying a gun, many political leaders, especially on the right, believe they need to be given deference because their lives were at risk.

The tension between these two ideas is acute, putting law enforcement and citizens on a potentially catastrophic collision course. One such collision took place in Minnesota on Saturday. It was fatal for the citizen. And it was potentially delegitimizing for law enforcement. A broader crisis of government legitimacy is imminent in the absence of a change in direction by the Trump administration. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3M37KCi

Welcome to the American Winter

The six-car ICE convoy came to a stop and instantly dozens of people swarmed it, cellphones in hand, while others ran out of nearby houses—I saw a woman in gym shorts in the 20-degree weather—and began surrounding the masked and heavily armed agents who had spilled out of their black SUVs. The fury in the crowd felt almost like a physical force, as real as the cacophony of whistles and honking cars and angry chants: “ICE out! Fuck you! Go home!”

The officers threw a protester to the slushy asphalt and piled on top of them, then cuffed them and dragged them away. The screaming only got louder. With their escape route blocked by protesters and their cars, the agents tossed out tear-gas canisters, the white clouds billowing up into the winter air. An injured man stumbled past me and vomited repeatedly into the snow. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ri3vls

What the Administration Is Signaling to Federal Agents After Minnesota

Perhaps the most disturbing part of the Trump administration’s immigration operation in Minnesota is not just that agents of the state are killing peacefully protesting citizens on the streets. It’s that they’re doing it with the expectation of impunity, backed by top government officials who are brazenly lying about what happened. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4aikgqX

Believe Your Eyes

The work of observers and photographers in Minneapolis right now is as dangerous as it is crucial, because ICE’s presence in Minneapolis is provoking not only physical conflict but an informational conflict. Agents themselves are pulling out their phones during altercations with protesters. According to The Washington Post, the White House has urged ICE to “produce videos for social media of immigrant arrests and confrontations to portray its push for mass deportation as critical to protecting the American way of life.” Last week, President Trump posted on Truth Social that ICE must “start talking about” the people they’re arresting in Minnesota, writing: “Show the Numbers, Names, and Faces of the violent criminals, and show them NOW.” When the footage doesn’t suit the administration, it seems to have no issue doctoring images to suit its alternate reality, as it did on Thursday. Agents had arrested an attorney who was protesting at a local church, and the White House posted a photo of this woman that was altered, presumably by AI, to make it look like she was crying. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4qefXlu

Yes, It’s Fascism

Until recently, I resisted using the F-word to describe President Trump. For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn’t seem to fit. For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action. For yet another, the term is hazily defined, even by its adherents. From the beginning, fascism has been an incoherent doctrine, and even today scholars can’t agree on its definition. Italy’s original version differed from Germany’s, which differed from Spain’s, which differed from Japan’s. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rcJ8WF

Donald Trump Wants You to Forget This Happened

January 6, five years later. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45A8hlU

Chicagoans, Local Leaders Say ICE ‘Must Be Abolished’ After Killing Of Minneapolis Nurse Alex Pretti

Neighbors and city leaders are again taking to the streets to protest federal immigration enforcement after another protester was killed by federal officers Saturday in Minneapolis.

Three emergency protests were called across Chicago Saturday after immigration agents shot and killed Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti that morning. Pretti’s death follows the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Nicole Good, which has since sparked widespread protests and further federal escalation. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4koSqwV

Today in Politics, Bulletin 294. 1/26/26

The theme of the day was Trump trying to do damage control after federal agents murdered VA nurse Alex Pretti while Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino and others continued to make it worse for him politically by making false claims about the victim and lying about what was clearly depicted on the videos. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4q3xpJ0

Chris Madel, a Republican running for Minnesota governor, ends his bid and criticizes ICE

Chris Madel, a Minneapolis lawyer who represented the immigration agent who fatally shot Renee Good, said Monday that he was ending his Republican campaign for governor of Minnesota after a second protester was killed by federal authorities.

“I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state,” Madel said in a video message he posted on social media, “nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4q2XEPS

Videos and witness statements shed new light on moments leading up to Alex Pretti shooting

Just minutes before his fatal encounter with federal immigration agents on Saturday, Alex Pretti was confronted on a Minneapolis street by an officer who was later on the scene of his shooting, video analyzed by CNN shows.

That video, combined with court declarations filed by eyewitnesses, sheds new light on the moments that led up to the deadly incident.

Those moments are facing heightened scrutiny amid escalating rhetoric by Trump administration officials who sought to cast Pretti as a violent agitator involved in a “riot” as federal agents carried out an immigration operation. - CNN https://cnn.it/3LZPKZI

What Trump officials claimed about Alex Pretti — and what the evidence actually shows

Top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have responded to the killing of Alex Pretti by the Border Patrol in Minneapolis on Saturday with a torrent of claims that are either contradicted by video footage or unsupported by any evidence presented so far. - CNN https://cnn.it/4akw244

‘Thank God we have video’: Minnesota’s escalating fights over eyewitness footage

When the Trump administration immediately blamed the victim in Saturday’s shooting in Minneapolis, Gov. Tim Walz reacted by saying, “Thank God, thank God we have video.”

The unrest in Minnesota is further evidence that we live in an era of ubiquitous video, both for better and for worse.

Almost every recent altercation involving federal agents has been captured by multiple cameras, providing angles that sometimes contradict President Donald Trump’s incendiary claims. - CNN https://cnn.it/3ZDxyIs

CNN poll finds majority of Americans say Trump is focused on the wrong priorities

Public opinion on nearly every aspect of President Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House is negative, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds, with a majority of Americans saying Trump is focused on the wrong priorities and doing too little to address cost of living.

A majority, 58%, calls the first year of Trump’s term a failure.

There’s hardly any good news in the poll for Trump or the Republican Party entering a critical midterm year, with the president’s handling of the economy looming as the defining issue in key House and Senate races. - CNN https://cnn.it/49KbRfQ

Crackdown Chief to Leave Minneapolis as White House Distances Trump From Uproar

Faced with broad outcry over the killing of a protester on Saturday in Minneapolis, the White House on Monday pulled a top border official from the city and tried to distance President Trump from the response of his most senior officials, who had immediately characterized the man fatally shot by federal agents as a “domestic terrorist” who was “brandishing” a gun, before video evidence undercut their charges.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, notably did not defend the rhetoric of White House officials, including Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff, and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who were the most vocal in spreading false accusations against the victim, Alex Pretti. Mr. Pretti was shot at roughly 10 times by immigration agents after he was apparently filming them with his camera. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4buSCZ3

Why Is the Trump Administration Demanding Minnesota’s Voter Rolls?

After federal immigration agents shot and killed an American citizen in Minneapolis for the second time this month, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota that outlined what she described as three “simple steps” to “bring back law and order.”

Her final step, however, seemed to have little to do with immigration or the state’s fraud scandal, the stated reasons for the federal government’s presence in Minnesota.

“Third, allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to access voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law,” she wrote. Minnesota’s secretary of state, Steve Simon, a Democrat, swiftly rejected the demand, calling it an “outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. citizens in violation of state and federal law.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4a2AcfE

Democrats Embrace a Shutdown Fight They Wanted to Avoid

Even after federal agents carrying out President Trump’s immigration crackdown shot and killed an unarmed woman in her car and handcuffed a preschooler this month, a solid bloc of Democrats in the Senate had appeared ready to swallow their outrage and vote to fund the Homeland Security Department.

But following the shocking fatal shooting in Minneapolis over the weekend, Democrats have pivoted sharply, and are confident they are now on solid political ground as they draw a hard line against approving any money for the agency that has executed chaotic and violent operations across the country.

Despite the imminent prospect of a second crippling government shutdown in less than three months and the potential for a backlash, Democrats say they believe they have public opinion on their side as many Americans have recoiled from videos of the shooting of Alex Pretti and the earlier death of Renee Good. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tcXoRl

In Trump’s Shadow, India and the European Union Expand Trade Ties

The leaders of the European Union and India announced a trade agreement on Tuesday after nearly two decades of negotiations, striking a deal that has become more urgent for both sides as President Trump continues to upend the global order and test longstanding alliances.

While the final free-trade agreement must still clear legal scrutiny in Brussels and New Delhi, the deal brings together the world’s largest economic bloc and India, the fastest-growing major economy, at a time when the United States is seen as a less-reliable economic partner and China is flooding the world with inexpensive goods. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45AaSMG

As Tech Chiefs Woo Trump, Silicon Valley Seethes Over Minneapolis Shootings

On Saturday evening, top technology executives gathered in Washington to attend a screening of “Melania,” a documentary produced by Amazon about the first lady, Melania Trump. Among them was Andy Jassy, the chief executive of Amazon; Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple; and Lisa Su, the chief executive of chip maker AMD.

Back in Silicon Valley, the scene was very different.

Hours after immigration agents in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, a growing chorus of tech executives, investors and engineers started speaking out against the Trump administration’s deployment of federal officers across American cities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4c47nSy

‘Kristi Noem Needs to Go.’ Three Columnists on ICE in Minneapolis.

Lydia Polgreen: I have never been a fan of the conceit of American journalists covering the United States as if it were a backwater foreign nation, but in Minneapolis last week I could not shake the impulse to compare my experiences in a city I know so well (I spent a chunk of my childhood in the Twin Cities, and my father is from Minneapolis) with my experiences covering civil wars in places like Congo, Sudan, Sri Lanka and more. Watching the video of Pretti’s killing, I thought: If this was happening on the streets of any of those places, I would not hesitate to call it an extrajudicial execution by security forces. This is where we are: armed agents of the state killing civilians with an apparent belief in their total impunity. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49Ndp8U

This May Be the Only Path to Accountability for the Minneapolis Shootings

n the wake of another fatal shooting by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, many people are wondering what can be done. The answer has been right in front of us all along.

Despite the incredulity with which some legal observers meet the idea, state and local prosecutors can prosecute federal officials for violating state criminal laws. Prosecutors should be gathering and securing evidence and seriously considering filing charges — sooner rather than later.

Not every prosecution will succeed, and all will face obstacles that are built into our legal system. But critically, bringing these state and local prosecutions could produce deterrent effects that are so desperately needed now. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rjyvRV

The Trump Administration Now Thinks Clean Air Is Worthless

The Environmental Protection Agency has established a new way to address the country’s pollution problems: Ignore them.

For several decades, the agency has used the best available science to quantify the benefits from regulations that reduce air pollution: averted deaths, hospitalizations, asthma symptoms, heart attacks and strokes, among them. The E.P.A. assigned those health benefits dollar values based on economic models and compared them with the costs imposed on businesses for cutting their pollution. The figures allowed you to see clearly whether a particular regulation was worth it or not. Most were very much worth it.

This evenhanded approach came to a halt two weeks ago, when the agency weakened a proposal to regulate emissions from certain power plants and other industrial facilities. The new, nihilistic E.P.A. position is that environmental safeguards have essentially no benefits. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4alagNG

Impeach Kristi Noem

On Sunday, U.S. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino told CNN’s Dana Bash that no one can say for sure that Alex Pretti was murdered in cold blood by a Border Patrol agent because there must be an investigation first. It would be irresponsible, he said, to speculate before the facts are known.

The problem for Bovino and the rest of mad king Donald Trump’s fascist henchmen is that we have seen the video. We know what happened.

The footage shows Pretti holding his phone, not a gun. It shows him trying to help a woman pepper-sprayed by Trump’s immigration goons. We see him pepper-sprayed as he backs away, not attacking.

It shows Border Patrol agents tackling him, pinning him to the ground, and shooting him multiple times while he was restrained. There is no moment in the video where Pretti threatens an officer, brandishes a weapon, or poses an imminent danger. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4q3KbqY

GOP happy to defend federal agents' latest execution

If you thought Republican lawmakers would finally rein in President Donald Trump's immigration goons after one of them executed an innocent man in broad daylight, you'd be wrong. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4alvScM

Trump 'Defied The Will Of Congress' In Cutting EV Charger Funding: Judge

For the duration of his presidency, Donald Trump has tried to slash EV funding anywhere and everywhere. This includes funds approved by Congress, which the Executive Branch doesn't have the power to cut — a fact that the courts keep having to remind the President. Now, a District Judge in Seattle has done the same. - Jalopnik

Outrage over ICE has spilled into typically apolitical online spaces

The moderator of r/catbongos, an 800,000-member subreddit devoted to videos of people playing their cats like drums, never posted about politics before Saturday. But after watching clips showing Border Patrol agents killing intensive care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the 30-something former professional poker player from Washington state decided to take a stand. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4a3vluT

Philip Glass pulls world premiere from Kennedy Center

The pioneering composer said “the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message” of his Symphony No. 15: “Lincoln” slated to be performed in June by the National Symphony Orchestra. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4bveG5P

U.S. judge orders ICE chief to appear in court, threatens contempt ruling

Minnesota’s chief federal judge has demanded the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personally appear in court Friday, threatening to hold him in contempt for what the judge described as repeated defiance of court orders amid the agency’s enforcement efforts in the state. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4a6FVkM

New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti

A frame-by-frame assessment of actions by Alex Pretti and the two officers who fired 10 times shows how lethal force came to be used against a man who didn’t pose a threat. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4q8uG14

Ilhan Omar Is Attacked During Minneapolis Town Hall on Immigration Crackdown

A man attacked Representative Ilhan Omar during a town hall in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening, hours after President Trump suggested that he might “de-escalate” the aggressive immigration crackdown in Minnesota that has rattled the community and left two protesters dead.

The man sprayed Ms. Omar with a strong-smelling liquid from a syringe before being tackled by security. He was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of assault, said Trevor Folke, a spokesman for the Minneapolis police. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45C0aW9

Trump Throws Greg Bovino Under the Bus: ‘He’s an Out There Kind of Guy’ — ‘Maybe It Wasn’t Good Here’

President Donald Trump called Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino an “out there kind of a guy” on Tuesday, one day after pulling Bovino out of Minnesota.

Trump spoke to Fox News’ Will Cain on Tuesday from Iowa, where he discussed reports of Bovino being reassigned away from Minneapolis following the shooting of Alex Pretti. Federal officials have defended the shooting of Pretti, as they also have with the shooting and killing of Renee Good earlier this month, but Trump said on Tuesday a “shake up” was needed after the “very unfortunate” shooting of Pretti. - Yahoo https://yhoo.it/3ZCuQTt

A Shocked Nation Watches Minneapolis Killings: ‘Something Needs to Change’

Scenes from the violent unrest in Minneapolis played on a loop in many American households over the weekend, prompting reflection about where the nation is heading.

The wintry whiteout that swept across half the United States over the weekend could not erase what the country had just seen unfold in Minneapolis. No amount of snow could block out the images: furious protesters clashing with masked officers, clouds of tear gas wafting through neighborhoods — and for the second time in three weeks, video of an American citizen being shot dead by a federal agent.

And for the second time in three weeks, the Trump administration’s account of a deadly shooting contradicted what many in the country believe they saw. Federal officials described both victims as “domestic terrorists” intent on harming federal agents; critics of the administration, and many others, said such a description was belied by the video evidence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qKzoDc

'The Court’s Patience Is At An End': Judge Takes 'Extraordinary Step' Against Acting ICE Chief

Patrick Schiltz, Minnesota’s chief federal judge, on Monday ordered Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to appear personally before the court Friday, acknowledging that the order marked an “extraordinary step.”

The order stems from the case of a man who has been in immigration detention since he was arrested earlier this month. Schiltz noted that on Jan. 14 the court told the Trump administration to provide the man with a bond hearing within seven days, noting that if they didn’t meet that deadline, the man would have to be immediately released. The judge said the administration did neither of those things and the man remains in custody as of Monday evening. - Huffinton Post https://bit.ly/3LESdbZ

Federal judge blocks the possible deportation of a 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father for now

A Minnesota preschooler detained in Texas with his father cannot be imminently deported, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, was taken away from his family’s suburban Minneapolis driveway last week after federal agents apprehended his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias.

The detention of the child — and a widely-circulated photo of an agent holding a fearful Liam in place by his Spider-Man backpack — has added to the fury of those who are resisting the Trump administration’s massive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, where federal agents have swept up several children and teens. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kfMVQT

Believe Your Eyes

Chances are, you’ve seen Richard Tsong-Taatarii’s photo. Taken Wednesday in Minneapolis, it shows an unidentifiable protester face down on the ground; two Border Patrol agents are on top of him, holding him there, while a third unloads pepper spray into his face from just inches away. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bqhAc2

Trump Casually Denigrates NATO’s War Dead

The president has revised history when it comes to the sacrifices of America’s allies.

Benni Schmidt Pedersen lives on a small farm in Denmark, where it’s quiet and he can hear if anyone is coming down the gravel road to his home. He’s stricken with PTSD from his time as a soldier in Afghanistan, where five members of his 130-person company died in the American-led war against the Taliban.

I called him today to read him a quote from President Trump about America’s NATO allies: “We’ve never needed them,” Trump said in a Fox Business interview at the World Economic Forum, in Davos. “We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines."

First Pedersen laughed. Then he tried to brush it off—classic Trump bluster. “Why doesn’t it surprise me that he’s saying that?”

Finally, his voice dropped an octave. “That’s bullshit,” he said.

It is, indeed, bullshit. The United States invoked Article 5, the mutual-defense clause of NATO’s founding charter, the day after the September 11 attacks. It remains the only time in NATO’s nearly 80-year history that the obligation of common defense has been activated. All 28 members of the alliance at the time sent soldiers to Afghanistan. Many never returned. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4qMvKcb

America’s Real ‘Secretary of War’

Three days into 2026, the United States military seized a foreign leader: Nicolás Maduro. Four days after that, the U.S. health department freed a longtime prisoner of war: saturated fats.

At a recent press conference announcing the publication of the government’s new dietary guidelines, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared two different military operations in the span of less than a minute: The nation would be retreating from its war on fatty steaks and whole milk, he said, and redeploying for another war, this one on added sugars. News about a third campaign arrived a few days later, when the White House shared a dark and menacing photo of Kennedy with the caption “WE ARE ENDING THE WAR ON PROTEIN.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4qGnDOc

Witnessing Another Public Killing in Minneapolis

Inside the White House Screening for Amazon’s ‘Melania’ Doc (Exclusive Photos)

On Saturday night, as a major snowstorm hit much of the United States, and Minneapolis erupted in violence after the ICE shooting of a protestor, First Lady Melania Trump and director Brett Ratner held a private screening of their upcoming doc, Melania, at the White House.

The black-tie event, which was not promoted or advertised, took place in the East Room of the White House and attracted about 70 VIP guests, including Queen Rania of Jordan; Zoom CEO Eric Yuan; Apple CEO Tim Cook; New York Stock Exchange CEO Lynn Martin; AMD CEO Lisa Su; Mike Tyson; socialite and Fiat heiress Azzi Agnelli; self-help guru Tony Robbins; fashion designer Adam Lippes; and photographer Ellen von Unwerth, who shot the poster for the film. - Hollywood Reporter https://bit.ly/46lvA38

Doctors face-palm as RFK Jr.’s top vaccine advisor questions need for polio shot

Early into the discussion, Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, declared, “I don’t like established science,” and that “science is what I observe.” He lambasted the evidence-based methodology that previous ACIP panels used to carefully and transparently craft vaccine policy.

While arguing that he was not anti-vaccine, he said he was merely focused on safety and made false claims about vaccine risks, a common trope among anti-vaccine activists. He falsely linked vaccines to allergies, asthma, and eczema and repeated a claim, without evidence, that COVID-19 vaccines killed children. When pressed by the podcast hosts, he revealed that he put the risk of vaccine side effects on the same footing as the risks from the diseases the shots prevent—despite the fact that disease risks are often orders of magnitude larger than the tiny risks from vaccines.

In response to pushback from the hosts, Milhoan objected to the idea that the measles and polio vaccines reduced the spread of those diseases. He went further, questioning the need for those vaccines as well as routine vaccinations, generally. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/49LdObR

Greg Bovino Loses His Job

Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol “commander at large” and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon, according to a DHS official and two people with knowledge of the change.

Bovino’s sudden demotion is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is reconsidering its most aggressive tactics after the killing Saturday of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents under Bovino’s command. - Atlantic Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol “commander at large” and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon, according to a DHS official and two people with knowledge of the change. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3LU7k1i

The rise and fall of Gregory Bovino, US border patrol’s menacing provoker-in-chief

Critics have called him a would-be Napoleon and mocked his “Nazi” aesthetic, but with Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant surge into Minneapolis, Gregory Bovino seemed to have found the political moment he had long been seeking.

Bovino, 55, a senior US border patrol official, initially rose to prominence as the figurehead of immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities.

But his provocatively unapologetic utterances in Minneapolis after the shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old American citizen, by border patrol officers propelled him to a new level of notoriety that finally exceeded the tolerance even of the Trump administration. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4q8AQOK

Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong

It took only a few minutes before everyone in the church knew that another person had been shot. I was sitting with Trygve Olsen, a big man in a wool hat and puffy vest, who lifted his phone to show me a text with the news. It was his 50th birthday, and one of the coldest days of the year. I asked him whether he was doing anything special to celebrate. “What should I be doing?” he replied. “Should I sit at home and open presents? This is where I’m supposed to be.”

He had come to Iglesia Cristiana La Viña Burnsville, about 15 miles south of the Twin Cities, to pick up food for families who are too afraid to go out—some have barely left home since federal immigration agents deployed to Minnesota two months ago. The church was filled with pallets of frozen meat and vegetables, diapers, fruit, and toilet paper. Outside, a man wearing a leather biker vest bearing the insignia of the Latin American Motorcycle Association, his blond beard flecked with ice crystals, directed a line of cars through the snow. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4a6Jbww

The 48 Hours That Convinced Trump to Change Course in Minnesota

President’s pivot comes after lawmakers and allies raised concerns about what was unfolding in Minneapolis. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4qKoMUR

Homan met with Walz and agreed to 'ongoing dialogue' as Trump reshuffles immigration operation

Trump administration officials and allies told NBC News the president is "concerned" about the sustainability of the operations in Minnesota following Alex Pretti's shooting Saturday. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4k9Laon

The Best Weapon You Have in the Fight Against ICE

We are in a phone war. Ever since cameras became embedded in cellphones, people have been using their devices to bear witness to state violence. But now, the state is striking back.

I don’t think it is any coincidence that Alex Pretti was holding his phone when he was shot to death by federal agents in Minneapolis. Or that Renee Good’s partner was filming a federal agent seconds before he killed Ms. Good. Agents have repeatedly knocked phones out of the hands of observers. They have beaten people filming them and followed them to their homes and threatened them. Of the 19 shootings by federal agents in the past year identified by The Trace, a news outlet that investigates gun violence, at least four involved people who were observing or documenting federal agents’ actions.

Courts have long granted citizens a First Amendment right to film in public. But this right on paper is now being increasingly contested on the streets as federal agents try to stop citizens from recording their activities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZpI5XT

Voters See a Middle-Class Lifestyle as Drifting Out of Reach, Poll Finds

Concerns about the affordability of education, housing, health care, having a family and retirement are driving economic anxieties, a New York Times/Siena poll found. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3M0XTwP

After Donations, Trump Administration Revoked Rule Requiring More Nursing Home Staff

The nursing home industry was on a roll last summer.

It had just won a 10-year moratorium on a rule initiated during President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration to require increased staffing levels in an effort to reduce neglect among residents, which had led to injuries and deadly infections.

Nonetheless, some in the industry, warning that the rule would have substantially increased costs, wanted to make it go away permanently.

So nursing home executives turned to a tool that has proved successful in getting President Trump’s attention: money. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NMqmqO

First wrongful death lawsuit filed against Trump administration over drug boat strikes

The families of two Trinidadian men who were killed in an Oct. 14 strike on an alleged drug boat accused the U.S. in a lawsuit Tuesday of wrongful death and extrajudicial killings. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/3LRA8rd

Personnel shuffles, not policy shifts in Minnesota

President Trump’s decision to distance himself from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino regarding their roles overseeing ICE operations in Minnesota is a positive development, but we must be clear-eyed about the ongoing threat.

Trump is making a tactical retreat amid mounting public pressure.

Responding to the backlash over the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and smearing of both victims as “domestic terrorists,” Trump touted phone calls with Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey, claiming they were on a “similar wavelength” and agreeing to “look into” reducing the number of agents on the ground in Minnesota. Bovino has reportedly been demoted and sent back to his post in California. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/3Z9BAbo

Tuesday Afternoon News Updates — 1/27/26

The fallout continues to grow following the Trump regime’s murder of Alex Pretti, and that fallout only intensified today. Today’s developments cut across human rights, international relations, culture, and domestic repression, all pointing to the same reality: this regime has lost legitimacy at home and credibility abroad. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4tlDCmK

Bondi’s Shakedown Gives Away The Game

Over the weekend, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota an extortion letter. In it, she demanded that he “must restore rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota.”

Never mind who created and continues to sow that chaos.

Bondi demanded that Minnesota turn over its records on SNAP and Medicaid, that it abandon its sanctuary city policies, and (here’s the kicker) provide the DOJ access to the state’s voter rolls. Failure to comply, she implied, would mean the “chaos” would continue.

That last request for voter data caused immediate and widespread alarm among democracy activists and voting rights lawyers. As Democracy Docket’s Marc Elias explained, with such data the Trump regime could cause real mayhem in the midterm elections, undermine confidence in the results and even use it to stay in power. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4a6F1ot

I Just Spoke with Gov. Walz about Trump's Attacks on Minnesota

I spoke with the governor at a moment when the truth is finally breaking through the fog of lies coming out of the Trump White House. Over the past several days, the American people have watched federal agents invade communities, trample constitutional rights, kill Americans — and then lie about it all. The killing of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA hospital, has become a flashpoint because it lays bare what this regime is doing and why it cannot be allowed to continue. It also shows that their gaslighting is no longer working. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4a151S1

Consumer confidence collapses to lowest level since 2014

America’s economic mood deteriorated in January to its lowest level in more than a decade as consumers fretted about geopolitical tensions, affordability and President Donald Trump’s unrelenting trade war.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index for January, released Tuesday, declined 9.7 points to a reading of 84.5, the lowest since 2014, surpassing the lows of last year when Trump unveiled stiff tariffs and the depths of the pandemic recession in 2020.

January’s reading came in much lower than the 91.1 reading economists projected in a poll by data firm FactSet. - CNN https://cnn.it/3MefIZv

Minnesota judge orders acting ICE director to appear in court

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons has been ordered to appear in federal court this Friday to explain why he should not be held in contempt for violating a judge’s order in the case of a man who is challenging his detention.

Judge Patrick Schiltz, the chief district judge in Minnesota, said in a court filing on Monday that the “Court’s patience is at an end,” with the Trump administration, which sent thousands of federal agents to the Minneapolis area for an immigration crackdown. - CNN https://cnn.it/3ZpJXQp

How Trump Has Used the Presidency to Make at Least $1.4 Billion

President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him.

Falsehoods Fueled Trump’s First Year Back in Office

The president has justified many significant moves of his second term with inaccurate claims and overstated boasts.

In the first year of his second term, President Trump has cited an arsenal of falsehoods, baseless claims and distortions to justify significant policy changes on the economy, immigration and deployments of the military.

His case for ushering in a turnaround rests on inaccurate superlatives (the “worst inflation” ever under his predecessor and the “best numbers” now under his presidency), mathematically impossible figures (a “600 percent” decline in drug prices) and evidence-free assertions (the decimation of maritime drug smuggling).

Here’s a fact-check of some of the falsehoods that fueled Mr. Trump’s first year back. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bjYjsB

Today in Politics, Bulletin 295. 1/27/26

Trump said today that the killing of Renee Good was worse to him than the Alex Pretti killing because her parents were Trump supporters: “I’m not sure about his parents, but I know her parents were big Trump fans. It makes me feel bad anyway, but you could say even worse because they were tremendous Trump fans. I guess you could say their daughter was radicalized.”

Palace intrigue inside the Trump admin with knives out between people who want Stephen Miller to take the fall for labeling murder victim Pretti as a domestic terrorist rather than Kristi Noem. Axios citing 4 sources in the admin: “Kristi Noem's language that Alex Pretti wanted to "massacre" federal agents was dictated to Noem and her department by the man most responsible for the controversial operation: Stephen Miller.”

The Atlantic: “Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol ‘commander at large’ and will return to his former job in El Centro, CA, where he is expected to retire soon.” - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4qgqMn6

The president’s retreat in Minneapolis is a stinging defeat for the national conservatives.

Of the many lessons to be drawn from the administration’s retreat in Minneapolis, the most important is that Donald Trump can be stopped.

He spent his first year acting as though the 2024 election were the last time he would ever have to give a thought to public opinion. Now the myth that Trump is invincible has been exploded. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Z58ryc

It Wasn’t Democrats Who Persuaded Trump to Change Course

A flood of GOP statements sent an unmistakable message to Trump: Enough.

The statements from congressional Republicans after Saturday’s shooting of Alex Pretti were relatively mild. Lawmakers said that they were “deeply troubled” or “disturbed” by the second killing of an American citizen by federal immigration officers this month; most called for an investigation into Pretti’s death. But the statements kept coming, one after another, all through the weekend and into yesterday.

The reactions from across the GOP sent an unmistakable message in their volume, if not in their rhetoric, to Donald Trump: Enough. The defining characteristics of the Republican-controlled Congress during the president’s second term have been silence and acquiescence. That so many in his party felt compelled to speak up after Pretti’s killing was a sign that Republicans had finally lost patience with federal agents occupying a major American city—a deportation operation that has soured the public on one of Trump’s signature policies and sunk the GOP’s standing at the outset of a crucial midterm-election year. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4qKrp9b

Top deportation goon gets ejected from Minnesota

On Monday, the mad king Donald Trump cried uncle in Minneapolis, uncharacteristically making nice with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and, for the first time since taking office, appearing to de-escalate his war on Democratic-run cities.

By Monday evening, The Atlantic’s Mick Miroff reported that Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino wasn’t merely being sent out of Minnesota, he was being fully demoted, with his entire social media operation dismantled.

“Bovino became a MAGA social-media star as he traveled the country with his own film crew and used social media to hit back at Democratic politicians and random critics online,” reported Miroff. “Veteran ICE and CBP officials grew more and more uneasy as Bovino worked outside his agency’s chain of command and appeared to relish his role as a political actor.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3NIOcDW

Despite 'concerns,' Susan Collins won't stop ICE from killing citizens

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine claimed on Monday to have "concerns" about federal immigration agents fatally shooting intensive-care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis—but she said she has no plans to alter legislation that funds those agents', in order to prevent more senseless killings. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4rkvvVF

Hakeem Jeffries Tells Me: We Are Ready to Impeach Kristi Noem

Rep. Jeffries has now formally announced that Democrats are prepared to initiate impeachment proceedings against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem if she is not immediately fired.

Finally. Game. On. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/46c9L67

Representative Ilhan Omar Is Attacked at Town Hall in Minneapolis

A man who had been sitting in the front row rushed at the Democratic representative and sprayed her with a strong-smelling liquid. He was removed by security and later booked into jail. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bZK38x

D.H.S. Review Does Not Say Pretti Brandished Gun, As Noem Claimed

An initial report from an internal agency watchdog says the Minneapolis man was shot by law enforcement after resisting arrest, but makes no mention of the allegations leveled by a Trump administration official. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49WEyFa

Board of Peace Set to Hand Trump Sweeping Powers Over Gaza

President Trump would have sweeping powers over the future governance of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and the well-being of its people, under a plan drafted by the new international group he leads, laying out how it would operate. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rcg1my

As Trump Promotes Economy in Iowa, Many Residents Feel Pain

Farmers are critical to Iowa’s economy. They have been battered by President Trump’s tariffs and are not experiencing the “golden age” that the president promised. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rmtCYt

Philip Glass Withdraws From Kennedy Center, as Its Symphony Vows to Play On

On Tuesday, Glass informed the Kennedy Center that he did not want his symphony, based on Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address, performed on its stage. “Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the symphony,” he wrote in a letter asking that the orchestra not play his work. A copy of the letter was shared with The New York Times. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aia3L8

How the Trump Administration Hobbled Federal Labor Unions

‘The Biggest Act of Union-Busting in U.S. History’: Trump’s War on Federal Workers

With 300,000 employees gone and collective-bargaining rights eliminated, the administration has hobbled organized labor. Did it also start a movement? - NYT https://nyti.ms/4t6rtlo

Trump’s Fantasies Are Killing Us

Fantasies have long defined Trump’s approach to politics: the birther lies about Barack Obama, the size of the crowd at his 2017 inauguration, the invocation of “alternative facts,” the suggestion that something must be true if “many people” are saying it, the reimagining of Jan. 6 as a “day of love.” JD Vance let the veil slip briefly during the 2024 campaign, when he said he was willing to “create stories” to harness media attention around his preferred issues (then, it was the notion that Haitian immigrants were eating their neighbors’ pets).

Fantasies are alluring because they are not just about belief; they are about allegiance. The interpretation that suits your side is the one you’ll accept or embrace, no matter video footage that indicates otherwise. When fantasies involve life and death, as in Minneapolis, the stakes only rise, and the cost of abandoning your side seems impossibly high. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46jdIG2

Shaheen and Murkowski: Congress Must Defend NATO From Trump

We just returned from a bipartisan visit to Denmark, and what we saw should concern every American.

As large public protests took place outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, our conversations with Danish and Greenlandic leaders made clear that President Trump’s threats to take Greenland have shaken public confidence in the United States and undermined the foundation of the trans-Atlantic alliance. Mr. Trump’s recent comments that downplayed NATO allies’ contributions in Afghanistan have deepened the crisis of confidence within the alliance and caused understandable public outrage across Europe. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4t6NpwE

G.O.P. Congressman: We Need to Wake Up After Minneapolis

The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this month were tragic and preventable. No matter where you stand on immigration enforcement, the shootings show that what the country has been doing is not working. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4a15MdT

Thomas L. Friedman: America Is at a Boiling Point

Watching the response to ICE in his hometown has the columnist Thomas L. Friedman navigating “a mixture of pride and anguish.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NDhqnP

Letters from an American - January 27, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

The murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday morning at the hands of federal agents has put wind in the sails of those trying to rein in the Trump administration at the same time it has sent the administration scrambling to regain its course. Popular outcry over the killing of a beloved ICU nurse for the VA and popular organization over the general violence of federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol have unleashed pent up fury over the actions of the Trump administration. The outpouring has reached as far as spaces like a subreddit devoted to videos of people playing cats like bongos, as Drew Harwell and Scott Nover of the Washington Post noted. The anger has been so overwhelming that it has changed the course of national politics. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3Mdqu26

Evidence repeatedly contradicts Trump immigration officials’ accounts of violent encounters

U.S. President Donald Trump’s top immigration officials have repeatedly made statements after violent encounters involving federal agents — including two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis this month — that were later contradicted by evidence, a Reuters review found. Trump officials quickly painted the two recently shot dead — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — as aggressors and said the shootings were justified.

But video and other evidence soon emerged that contrasted sharply with these accounts, fueling questions about the credibility of federal officials and doubts about their willingness to fully investigate these and other incidents. - Reuters/Japan Times https://bit.ly/3NIWtru

Trump is flirting with a massive inflation shock

Tariffs on raw inputs are far more inflationary than tariffs on finished luxury goods — they can ripple through the entire supply chain, raising costs at every stage. Meanwhile, a 100% tariff is massive rather than marginal, doubling the price of the tariffed good at the border before any downstream effects. Finally, there’s broad consensus among economists that tariffs raise domestic prices.

All of which makes what happened this past Saturday extra notable — with President Donald Trump threatening to impose 100% tariffs on Canadian good if Prime Minister Mark Carney follows through on Canada's recently negotiated trade agreement with China. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4q9sczn

Tim Cook Wants ‘Deescalation’ in Minneapolis

Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook gifted President Donald Trump a plaque with a base made of 24-karat gold, and attended a White House dinner at which he addressed the room for two minutes, and in that time he repeated the words “thank you” to Trump nine times.

This past Saturday night, he again met with Trump, this time at a screening of a flattering documentary about First Lady Melania Trump. No, Apple didn’t make or even license the movie. Its competitor did, but Cook attended the screening anyway. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4k3pbPL

Release Their Names

In Minneapolis, we watched a man die in front of the world, and yet we still do not know who pulled the trigger. Not by name. Not by badge. Not by face. Not by the accountability that is supposed to define a democratic society.

On January 24, 2026, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by federal immigration agents during a law enforcement operation in the streets of Minneapolis. He had done nothing more than record agents with his phone and was shoved and sprayed with bear spray when he tried to help a woman who had been shoved to the sidewalk. Witness footage shows him disarmed before he was shot multiple times. Yet even now, days later, the identities of the agents involved remain unnamed and unaccountable. That should alarm every person who believes our democracy still functions as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4a0QcPb

Officers involved in Pretti shooting placed on administrative leave, according to DHS

A Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer have been on leave since Saturday, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rdAUh4

Frey says local police won’t implement federal immigration enforcement, cites Giuliani’s NYC policy as precedent

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey reiterated that local police will do their jobs but will not carry out federal immigration enforcement, responding to criticism from President Donald Trump this morning.

“The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws. I want them preventing homicides, not hunting down a working dad who contributes to MPLS & is from Ecuador. It’s similar to the policy your guy Rudy had in NYC. Everyone should feel safe calling 911,” Frey said, referring to Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City. - CNN https://cnn.it/4k3pFW5

The American People Fact-Checked Their Government

The official account was clearly at odds with the best available evidence. Four days after the shooting, the Trump administration is already scrambling to save face, cast blame, and “de-escalate” the ICE presence in Minnesota. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4rlwrck

South Carolina Measles Outbreak Becomes America’s Largest in 25 Years

The South Carolina Department of Public Health reported Tuesday that there have been 89 new cases of measles identified since Friday, bringing the total number of cases in South Carolina’s Upstate outbreak to 789. It’s the largest outbreak in the U.S. since measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in the year 2000, surpassing an outbreak in Texas last year that reached 762 cases before ending in August 2025.

Nationwide, the U.S. has identified 478 cases of measles so far this year, far surpassing the number of cases for the entirety of 2024 (283 cases) and 2023 (63 cases). Last year saw 2,253 cases in the United States. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/45xNtM0

Trump Floats Conspiracy Theory After Man Shoots Liquid at Ilhan Omar: ‘She Probably Had Herself Sprayed’

President Donald Trump suggested that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) orchestrated the incident in which a man sprayed her with liquid on Tuesday night.

Omar held a town hall in Minneapolis, where she called for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency has overseen a brutal crackdown by federal immigration agents in the city. As she spoke, a man approached the lectern and aimed a plastic-looking syringe at the congresswoman and squirted an unidentified substance at Omar.

The man was immediately tackled by security and taken into custody. - Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4qi0tgk

Bruce Springsteen Releases ICE Protest Song ‘Streets of Minneapolis,’ Slamming ‘King Trump’s Private Army’ and ‘State Terror’

In a statement, Springsteen said: “I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free, Bruce Springsteen.” - Variety https://bit.ly/4t513jQ

Where is the Supreme Court’s decision on Trump’s tariffs?

As global markets churn and American consumers anticipate even pricier goods, the question persists: Does the president have this tariff authority or not? And when will the Supreme Court tell everyone? - CNN https://cnn.it/3LEDGwY

Donald Trump, Demolition Man

Destruction followed by stagnation seems to be something of an MO, the likely outcome for some of Trump’s less tangible and visible changes to the federal government. Consider last week’s clash over Greenland. Trump threatened European and Canadian leaders with tariffs and unspecified future consequences, culminating in Trump settling for a tentative deal that appears to closely resemble the existing arrangement, but not before creating bad blood and encouraging Europe to think of the U.S. as not much of a friend. Trump has the capacity to tear down the global international order, but he has neither the plans nor the wherewithal to rebuild anything in its place. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4brDhbw

Deluded Trump declares inflation is 'solved'

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ridiculously declared that inflation is "solved" and that he, our wonderful Dear Leader, has fixed our affordability problems! Hooray!

"Inflation, we’ve solved. It’s done," Trump said in an interview with Fox News ahead of a speech in Iowa meant to gin up support for the Republican Party in the 2026 midterm election. "We have it good where prices are coming way down. ... You notice they don’t mention affordability anymore. That’s like an old-fashioned word." - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4qLVEfX

This ICE has no business at the Winter Olympics

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is going to provide security at the Olympics.

No, silly, not at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles—at the Winter Olympics next month in Milano Cortina, Italy.

As you can imagine, Italians aren’t exactly thrilled to find out that an agency that has transformed itself into a murderous band of masked secret police will now be acting as “security” in their country. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4a2s2Ed

Trump pushes sick conspiracy right after attack on Ilhan Omar

Immediately following a Tuesday night attack on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, President Donald Trump responded with a conspiracy theory about the event. Trump’s coldhearted response was the latest manifestation of his multiyear racist obsession with the congresswoman.

At a town hall event in Minneapolis, a man ran up to Omar and sprayed her with an unknown substance. The man was tackled as Omar prepared to defend herself against the would-be assailant.

“I don't think about her. I think she's a fraud,” Trump said, adding, “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4a3ek3Y

Letters from an American - January 28, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Federal agents continue to rain terror on Minneapolis, Minnesota, and other U.S. cities including Portland and Lewiston, Maine. That violence has made it crystal clear that the goal of attacking immigrants is not simply to create a white nation; it is also to terrorize Americans into accepting the domination of MAGA Republicans.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has delivered the Department of Justice into the service of this project. The Department of Justice is not investigating the killings of Renee Good or Alex Pretti and so evidently intended to cover up information about the shooting of Pretti that a judge ordered its officers not to destroy evidence. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4q5kwhK

The One Promise Trump Has Kept

Are you feeling the “New Golden Age?” Are you enjoying those home and energy prices cut “in half?” How about the satisfaction of having peace throughout the world? And what of his promise to release ALL the Epstein files?

There are so many promises to talk about, you’ll never guess the one promise he actually kept. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4bV6mMI

Trump and Schumer Move Toward Possible Deal to Avert a Shutdown

The president and the top Senate Democrat were discussing an agreement to split off homeland security funding from a broader spending package and negotiate new limits on immigration agents. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4td5fhQ

Judge in Minnesota Says ICE Has Violated Nearly 100 Court Orders

The chief federal judge in Minnesota excoriated Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, saying it had violated nearly 100 court orders stemming from its aggressive crackdown in the state and had disobeyed more judicial directives in January alone than “some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rrMVQl

As Minneapolis Rages, Legislators Move to Restrict ICE in Their States

After the deaths of two American citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents, Democratic legislators across the country, aided by libertarian groups, are redoubling their efforts to restrict and challenge federal immigration tactics in their states. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46nvYy7

America at a Boiling Point: Deaths, Threats, Protests and a Town Hall Attack

The battle for Minneapolis and the killings of two American citizens by federal agents have freshly exposed the dangerous degree to which the nation’s social fabric has frayed, the latest smudging of an already thin line between politics and violence in America.

Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, became the latest target of violence directed at lawmakers on Tuesday evening, when a man charged her at a town hall and used a syringe to spray her with a liquid that smelled like vinegar before he was tackled by security.

That same night the United States Capitol Police released a disturbing report showing a surge in threat cases against lawmakers, their families and staff members: They spiked to a staggering 14,938 last year, up from 9,474 in 2024. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4c1eSK1

Minnesota CEOs issue joint letter urging de-escalation in Minnesota after shooting

More than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies including Target, Best Buy and UnitedHealth signed an open letter posted on the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce website on Sunday calling for state, local and federal officials to work together, as businesses grapple with how to address tensions in the state and across the country following two fatal shootings by federal agents amid a massive immigration enforcement operation that has spurred protests.

“With yesterday’s tragic news, we are calling for an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions,” the open letter reads. - AP https://bit.ly/4qcVcGF

Tim Walz Fears a Fort Sumter Moment in Minneapolis

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz worries that the violence in his state could produce a national rupture. “I mean, is this a Fort Sumter?” he mused today in an interview in his office at the state capitol. The island fortification near Charleston, South Carolina, is where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in 1861. Now it’s federal forces that are risking a breach. “It’s a physical assault,” Walz told me. “It’s an armed force that’s assaulting, that’s killing my constituents, my citizens.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3NLFZyO

Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong

If the Minnesota resistance has an overarching ideology, you could call it “neighborism”—a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from. The contrast with the philosophy guiding the Trump administration couldn’t be more extreme. Vice President Vance has said that “it is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.’” Minnesotans are insisting that their neighbors are their neighbors whether they were born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu. That is, arguably, a deeply Christian philosophy, one apparently loathed by some of the most powerful Christians in America. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/46nwOuL

The Accidental Winners of the War on Higher Ed

The relative obscurity of even the best small liberal-arts colleges may be helping them to avoid the Trump administration’s war on higher ed. But that doesn’t mean that they’re immune from any risk of being targeted. Haverford College, in Pennsylvania, for example, has been made the subject of a civil-rights investigation for allegedly failing to address anti-Semitic harassment against Jewish students. (This is the same charge, and the same government action, that has been directed or threatened against Columbia, UCLA, Stanford, Cornell, Rutgers, and many other big universities.) Haverford may not rely on the federal government for giant research grants, but even just defending itself against investigation would be costly, as would, say, losing federal Pell Grants that subsidize low-income students. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4qIm5Dr

White House is planning to reduce immigration agents’ presence in Minnesota

President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said Thursday that his team is working on a plan to draw down the number of federal immigration enforcement agents they have in Minneapolis, pending cooperation with state and local officials. Homan’s announcement came hours after Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) confirmed that large-scale Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations had ended in her state, as the White House seeks to quiet a growing backlash against immigration crackdowns following Saturday’s fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal immigration enforcement. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4a5CmLE

Kennedy Center's new programming head resigns days after hire was announced

In a Jan. 16 news release, the Kennedy Center announced that Kevin Couch would be its new senior vice president of artistic programming.

On Jan. 22, the center posted the announcement on X.

Not a week later, Couch resigned.

Couch confirmed his resignation Wednesday but declined to comment further. - Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4rgqSvz

Trump Administration Live Updates: Senate Blocks Spending Bill Amid D.H.S. Funding Fight

A spending package that would avert a government shutdown over the weekend failed a test vote in the Senate on Thursday. A handful of Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the legislation amid talks with the White House to rein in federal immigration agents. President Trump said at a cabinet meeting that he was hopeful a shutdown could be avoided. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49Pfr8w

Thursday News Updates as Trump Kicks Press Out of Cabinet Meeting — 1/29/26

Earlier, Donald Trump convened what was supposed to be an open cabinet meeting with members of the press present. Reporters were told he would take questions. Instead, after a few awkward moments, the entire thing was abruptly shut down. The press was ordered out without explanation.

Video from the room shows reporters attempting to ask a question before being told to leave. This all shows how rattled Trump appears to be. Another notable observation to flag: Trump called on various cabinet secretaries throughout the meeting, but at no point did he allow DHS secretary Krsti Noem to speak.

This all came amid a meltdown from Trump on social media that began late last night and continued into the morning. He spent hours posting erratic messages attacking people he sees as enemies, including Alex Pretti, who was murdered by his federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. There’s no bottom to his depravity.

Trump also lashed out at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, blaming him for refusing to cut interest rates and accusing him of harming national security. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4a7iyYn

Shut it down! The US is better off with no government than with the one it has

It took not one but two killings of unarmed white American citizens by immigration enforcement agents for the Democrats to commit to withholding funds from the Department of Homeland Security, the agency of which Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the border patrol – the killers – are part.

After the first killing, seven House Democrats nevertheless voted with Republicans to allocate $64.4bn to the DHS, including $10bn for ICE. The bill they approved contained none of their party’s “commonsense” reforms, such as prohibition of masks and the requirement that agents obtain a judicial warrant before busting down a person’s door – not just an administrative warrant signed by the same agency invading the home. This last “reform”, which the Republican party rejected, is the soul of the fourth amendment, without which no one is safe anywhere from the state’s intrusion.

After the second killing, these Congress members hustled to cover their butts. “I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis,” the New York representative Tom Suozzi said in a statement. He promised to do better next time. The Texas representative Vicente Gonzalez explained, with equal credibility, that his yes vote “was not to fund ICE”, but “to ensure that our agencies here in south Texas were funded”. Would those agencies include the border patrol? He didn’t say. - Guardian https://bit.ly/3LYlyOE

Battles Are Raging Inside the Department of Homeland Security

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared before a bank of television cameras in Washington, D.C., on Saturday night to blame the man who had been shot to death by federal agents in Minneapolis that morning for his own death, claiming without evidence that he had intended “to kill law enforcement” and had been “brandishing” a weapon. Behind her stood the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, sending a silent message of unity.

But behind the scenes, the senior ranks of the Department of Homeland Security were divided. Until minutes before they walked in front of the cameras, Noem and Scott had not spoken to each other that day, even as Noem took charge of her department’s response to the shooting and coordinated with the White House and other officials in Scott’s agency, two people familiar with their interactions told us. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4qajtwW

Haitians Are Vital to U.S. Health Care. Many Are About to Lose Their Right to Work.

Haitians are a vital source of employees for health care providers in many communities. The Trump administration is removing legal status next month for 330,000 of them. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4r1qD7S

The Trump administration has a new mascot: A literal hunk of coal

Mascots are currently enjoying a renaissance. From McDonald’s Grimace to the WNBA’s Ellie the Elephant and Pop-Tarts’ Pop-Tart guy, companies everywhere are leaning on characters to represent their brand values and attract eyes on social media. Now the Trump administration is joining in with its own mascot. It’s a literal lump of coal. - Fast Company https://bit.ly/4qOooES

FBI’s Search of Georgia Election Center Is “Dangerous,” Experts Warn

When the FBI executed a warrant on Wednesday to seize records from the 2020 presidential vote in Fulton County, Georgia, it marked both an extraordinary event in the history of American elections and a significant escalation in President Donald Trump’s breaking of democratic norms, several legal experts said.

Trump has long claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from him and blamed Georgia, in particular, for his loss to Joe Biden. After the election, he famously made a call pressuring the secretary of state to “find” him enough votes to win. About a week ago, in a speech at the World Economic Forum, Trump once again called the 2020 election “rigged” and promised, “People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”

The warrant served on the Fulton County election center sought ballots, tabulator tapes, digital data and voter rolls, which it alleged might constitute “evidence of the commission of a criminal offense.” It cited stiff criminal penalties related to “the procurement, casting, or tabulation” of fraudulent ballots.

“I’m not aware of something like this happening ever before,” said Rick Hasen, a professor at the law school of the University of California, Los Angeles. “The idea that federal officials would seize ballots in an attempt to prove fraud is especially dangerous in this context when we know there is no fraud because the Georgia 2020 election has been extensively counted, recounted and investigated.” - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3Z9VMda

'Batman' blasts Bay Area city council over ICE's involvement in Super Bowl

An unidentified man dressed in a Batman costume angrily confronted Santa Clara city officials during a joint meeting of the City Council, city authorities and the Santa Clara Stadium Authority on Tuesday, using his public comment to condemn the city’s stance on cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. - SF Gate https://bit.ly/4tawwRS

Trump Shrugs Off the Ilhan Omar Attack

The attack on Representative Ilhan Omar on Tuesday was horrifying but depressingly predictable. Not only has the country seen a recent spree of political violence, but Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, has also been a frequent target of death threats.

The suspect, whom police have identified as Anthony Kazmierczak, was arrested after he squirted a combination of apple-cider vinegar and water at Omar during a town hall in Minneapolis, according to court documents. She was apparently not injured in the attack and continued to speak for 25 minutes before being medically screened. Kazmierczak has a long rap sheet, and he also has a long record of social-media posts that support right-wing causes and President Trump. His brother told The Independent that Kazmierczak frequently complained about Somali immigrants and about Omar in particular, who was born in Somalia before immigrating and becoming an American citizen. Court documents allege that he once said someone “should kill that bitch.”

Kazmierczak’s alleged animosity toward Omar didn’t come out of nowhere. A chorus on the right, led by Trump, has worked for years to villainize her. When ABC News reached Trump on Tuesday night, he said that he hadn’t seen the footage of the attack but then baselessly claimed that Omar had staged the incident. “I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud,” he said. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45EbUr2

Noem ending protected status for Venezuelans in U.S. was illegal, federal appeals court rules

A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans. - CBS https://cbsn.ws/46o1egp

Minneapolis' Community-Driven Anti-ICE Organizing Is Showing The Way

All eyes are on Minnesota.

The terror that ICE has wrought on the streets of Minneapolis is violent and tragic, and it has rightfully caught the attention of the entire country.

But it’s not just out of anger. Or the horror of it all. The American people also see a ray of hope in Minneapolis.

As Chris Hayes put it in his conversation Thursday night with Elliott Payne, President of Minneapolis’ City Council,

“There’s something that you are doing here that feels like the antidote to everything that they are doing.”

In a very real way, through organizing and by centering community, everyday Minneapolis residents have discovered the antidote to ICE’s poison. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4qcuZbc

Today in Politics, Bulletin 296. 1/29/26

Tom Homan held his first press conference in MN today after taking over for Greg Bovino and Krist Noem: “This is common sense cooperation that allows us to draw down the number of people we have here. Yes, I said it. Draw down the number of people here.”

Homan took a swipe at his predecessor: “I’m not here because the federal govt has carried out its mission perfectly. I do not want to hear that everything that has been done here has been perfect.”

Q: “Can you be specific about how many ICE and Border Patrol agents are currently operating in the state? Homan: 3,000. They’ve been in theater a long time. Day after day, can’t eat in restaurants, people spin on you, blowing whistles at you. But my main focus now is draw down.”

“In theater” is a military term used to describe a war zone. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/3ZGrn6n

Senate Democrats and White House Reach Deal to Avoid Shutdown

Senate Democrats have struck a deal with Republicans and the White House to pass five spending bills to fund a large portion of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, as well as a stopgap measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks while they continue negotiating guardrails to rein in immigration agents. It is unclear how quickly the House can and will process those funding bills after the Senate passes them. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49Pfr8w

The Trump Administration Has Been Sued 600 Times. Track These Cases.

The Trump administration’s sweeping policy changes face a number of lawsuits — more than 600.

In more than 350 cases, the courts have let the administration’s policies stay in effect even as they remain in active litigation. In more than 150 cases, however, the courts have at least partially halted the administration’s policies either through temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45GEb07

Justice Department bracing for more resignations in Minnesota

The Justice Department is bracing for a new wave of resignations in the Minnesota federal prosecutors’ office over recent immigration enforcement efforts in the state, sources familiar with the matter said.

Prosecutors threatened to resign during a recent meeting in which US Attorney Daniel Rosen had tried to convince his office to get on board with the Trump administration’s efforts in Minnesota, the sources said. His plea so far hasn’t assuaged concerns within the office that the administration is taking potentially unlawful steps.

One of the sources said that if the resignations came to fruition, they could decimate the US Attorney’s office as they are pursuing cases against immigrants and protesters, and pile onto an already thin staff after an earlier wave of resignations over how the Justice Department responded to a federal officer’s shooting of Renee Good. - CNN https://cnn.it/4aasccN

Liam Ramos, detained 5-year-old immigrant, is depressed and lethargic, Texas congressman says | CNN

The 5-year-old boy who with his father was taken last week by immigration agents from their suburban Minneapolis driveway has appeared depressed and lethargic at the South Texas detention facility where the pair is being held, said a congressman concerned for Liam Conejo Ramos’ mental state.

“Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, said in an X post Wednesday. “I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3LYmItu

How Stephen Miller micromanages Trump’s immigration policies

Stephen Miller has sought this week to distance himself from the recent fatal shootings in Minneapolis and the administration’s miscalculated response. But more than anyone, Miller has been the overall architect of Trump’s aggressive deportation push, encouraging heavy-handed operations in blue cities and urging agencies to cast a wide net to meet hefty arrest quotas. - CNN https://cnn.it/4a1Knkz

FBI searches Fulton County elections office as it investigates alleged voter fraud

The FBI served a warrant Wednesday at an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, as it probes alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN the search is related to an effort by the Justice Department to seize election records and search for alleged voter fraud in the county, including Atlanta, which has long been a centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. - CNN https://cnn.it/4bpwbV3

An American Street

In south Minneapolis, snow and ice still blanketed Nicollet Avenue when federal agents fanned out and started tackling heckling protesters on Saturday, about a block away from where Alex Pretti was shot and killed.

“Shame!” the protesters yelled. “Why did you murder another one of our neighbors?” they said. The agents charged, launching gas canisters, yelling at the protesters. “Get back!” “Get out of the street!”

The agents grabbed a protester who had only a painter’s mask covering his mouth and little else to protect himself from the gas. He gasped, choking for air as he was cuffed.

Standing in front of him was a federal agent armed with a grenade launcher, used here for launching tear gas or smoke. The agent also carried a Glock handgun with two spare magazines, a stun gun and a spare magazine for an AR-15-style rifle.

The detritus left behind tells the story of deep-winter protests in subzero weather: a warm hat, a shirt, Kirkland chewy bars and hand warmers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4q5rELb

Nervous Allies and Fox News: How Trump Realized He Had a Big Problem in Minneapolis

The crisis in Minneapolis was not dying down.

The government’s account of the killing on Saturday of Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, was unraveling. Stephen Miller, the mastermind of President Trump’s hard-line immigration policy, had called Mr. Pretti a “terrorist” and told other administration officials, including Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, to call him an “assassin.”

But videos clearly contradicted that story. Mr. Pretti was pinned down when immigration agents opened fire and killed him. Protests and a palpable sense of outrage were growing across the country. Even the president’s allies were alarmed. Many of them wanted to see changes on the ground, and several made a recommendation directly in calls to the president: Send Tom Homan, the White House border czar, to Minneapolis.

Early Monday, Brian Kilmeade, the co-host of “Fox & Friends,” of which Mr. Trump is a loyal viewer, repeated the message three times in two hours.

Twenty minutes later, the president announced on social media that he was sending Mr. Homan to Minneapolis, a tacit acknowledgment that he was losing control of a situation that posed one of the most serious political threats of his second administration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49NxtYI

At the Center of the ICE Uproar, a Familiar Figure: Corey Lewandowski

Nick Corasaniti covered Corey Lewandowski during the 2016 presidential campaign. Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy.

From Day 1, he was Donald Trump’s pit bull.

Corey Lewandowski was a hard-charging political operative who worked for a group backed by the Koch brothers when Mr. Trump put him in charge of a nascent White House campaign with only a handful of staff members in 2015. Untested at the presidential level, he led with a simple mantra: “Let Trump be Trump.”

With an attack-and-never-apologize style that mirrored his boss’s, Mr. Lewandowski could almost always count on Mr. Trump’s eventual support over the next decade, as he ping-ponged from government to lobbying and back again with several scandals in his wake. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3M4WWUf

Putin photo gets place of honor in Trump's White House

Trump is leaving no part of the White House unmolested by his terrible taste. This time, it’s not just his fondness for tacky gold-plated decorations or his penchant for slapping his name on everything. Instead, what’s on display is his fondness for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Yes, visitors who walk through the Palm Room, which connects the West Wing to the White House residence, will be greeted by a large picture of Trump and Putin, taken when the two met in Alaska last August for what was supposed to be a peace summit to end the Ukraine conflict.

An aspiring authoritarian like Trump needs an inspo picture of his good buddy to remind him to keep grinding so that someday he can be just as much of a fascist. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3LJpP8F

Fox News slams its own Trump polling, says Americans are just dumb

Don’t worry, Fox News is still keeping busy pretending that President Donald Trump isn’t royally screwing up everything he touches.

On Thursday, the right-wing propaganda network minimized a recent poll showing widespread dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the economy, with contributor Charles Payne arguing that the public simply doesn’t understand Trump’s brilliant work thus far. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/49PglSp

Trump nominates inflation hawk Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair

Warsh is a somewhat conventional candidate for Fed chair: a former Fed governor who was previously under consideration to be Treasury secretary in Trump’s second term and was a candidate for the top job at the Fed during Trump’s first term. Warsh was appointed to the Fed in 2006 at the age of 35, making him the youngest person to have ever served on the Fed’s powerful board.

Warsh, now 55, has recently shifted his stance on monetary policy. A former inflation hawk, Warsh now favors lower interest rates, according to numerous public statements he’s made in recent months as Trump launched a reality-show-like spectacle for his Fed chair decision. He’s also called for overhauling the central bank’s workforce. - CNN https://cnn.it/45CeuOq

U.S. Trade Deficit Widens Despite Trump’s Tariffs

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services rebounded to $56.8 billion in November, rising 95 percent from the previous month as President Trump’s tariffs continued to cause huge fluctuations in trade, according to data from the Commerce Department released on Thursday.

Exports fell 3.6 percent in the month, to $292.1 billion, led by declining outbound shipments of gold, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and crude oil. Imports rose 5 percent in November, to $348.9 billion, as Americans bought foreign pharmaceuticals as well as equipment to fill new data centers. The combination pushed up the monthly trade deficit, the gap between what the United States imports and what it exports. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rn9i9g

War Threats and Ambiguous Evidence: Trump Again Confronts Iran

When President Trump announced last June that the U.S. military had carried out airstrikes in Iran, he declared that the goal of the operation was nothing short of halting the threat that Iran would ever obtain a nuclear weapon. If Tehran’s leaders did not “make peace,” he said, “future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.”

Mr. Trump reiterated that threat this week, and is now considering another pre-emptive act of war in Iran, a country whose nuclear program poses almost no immediate threat to the Middle East or to the United States. Little has happened in the past six months to indicate that Iran has made significant strides toward rebuilding its capacity to enrich nuclear fuel and fashion a nuclear warhead, according to interviews with U.S. and European officials and independent groups that monitor Iran’s program.

As a result, there are questions about the timing and motives behind Mr. Trump’s saber rattling. Are his threats simply intended to bring Iran back into nuclear negotiations? Would a military strike against the nuclear program be a pretext to weaken or oust Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran? Why have Mr. Trump’s stated reasons for targeting Iran shifted back to the nuclear program, after he initially said he was seeking to defend the protesters who mounted a brief but powerful challenge to the government?

Moreover, if Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was, as Mr. Trump said last June, “completely and totally obliterated,” what might be the targets of a new strike?

A second U.S. military campaign in Iran, depending on its scope or targets, could be far more destabilizing than the first, for a number of reasons. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aksOh3

Kennedy Overhauls Federal Autism Panel in His Own Image

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has overhauled a panel that helps the federal government set priorities for autism research and social services, installing several members who have said that vaccines can cause autism despite decades of research that has failed to establish such a link. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4t8hVGD

The Polls Are Clear. Americans Don’t Want This.

When Donald Trump won re-election in 2024, there was one campaign pledge that voters across the political spectrum felt the most confident he’d make good on: controlling illegal immigration and making the country safer. About 55 percent of Americans approved of Mr. Trump’s approach to immigration upon his return to the White House, my polling found.

One year later, however, the public’s assessment has turned negative, having flipped to 55 percent disapproval in my own most recent polling, whose dates included last Saturday, the day Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qMIEH1

The Border Patrol Is the Problem. It Always Has Been.

The violence, racial profiling and disregard for the Constitution that have burst into public view in Minneapolis are not new or unusual for the Border Patrol. This is how the agency has operated since it was created, though for decades those activities have been hidden in the remote borderlands. If you are uncomfortable with what the Border Patrol is doing in Minneapolis, you are uncomfortable with the Border Patrol, full stop.

While Immigration and Customs Enforcement has become the umbrella term for all immigration agents, the Border Patrol is the larger force with a longer history. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations agents have the job of finding, detaining and deporting people. Border Patrol agents police areas in between ports of entry. Alex Pretti was shot by the Border Patrol; Renee Good was shot by ICE. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4q8dmsY

To Their Shock, Cubans in Florida Are Being Deported in Record Numbers

Cubans had long benefited from legal privileges unavailable to immigrants from other countries. President Trump has changed that.

Heidy Sánchez took her 17-month-old daughter to a routine check-in last April with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tampa, Fla. During the appointment, federal authorities told her that she was being detained and that her husband should pick up their daughter, who was still breastfeeding.

Two days later, Ms. Sánchez, 44, who worked as a home health aide, was deported.

Ms. Sánchez’s story quickly spread across social media, in part because she is Cuban, a group that had long been treated differently than other immigrants, even when they entered the country illegally.

That has changed under President Trump.

He has repatriated more than 1,600 Cubans in 2025, according to the Cuban government. That is about double the number of Cubans who were repatriated in 2024. And in the years that Mr. Trump has been president, he has sent more Cubans back than his three predecessors. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4c1gZNW

Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon Over Minnesota Church Protest

The former CNN anchor Don Lemon and three other people have been arrested on charges that they violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., this month, the Justice Department said on Friday, reviving a case that was rejected last week by a magistrate judge.

The arrests of Mr. Lemon, a second journalist and two protesters came on the heels of their indictment by a grand jury in Federal District Court in Minnesota charging them with a conspiracy to deprive the congregants of the church of their rights and to interfere with religious freedom in a house of worship. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4t8i6Sj

Journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort arrested after Minnesota church protest

Two independent journalists, Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, have been arrested in connection with a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

First Amendment advocates and civil-rights organizations condemned the arrests and argued that President Donald Trump is trying to chill press freedom in the US.

Lemon and Fort were live-streaming as dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters rushed into Cities Church on January 18, interrupting a church service and leading to tense confrontations.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said four people were arrested early Friday “in connection with the coordinated attack” at the church. The other two individuals Bondi named were Trahern Jeen Crew and Jamael Lydell Lundy. - CNN https://cnn.it/45FZ8Zf

Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon Over Minnesota Church Protest

Two reporters taken into custody

Don Lemon was right. "They're going to try again," he said last week after a judge blocked the DOJ's first attempt to charge him in connection with the Cities Church protest back on Jan. 18. "Keep trying," he said, vowing to continue his work.

This week, Lemon flew to L.A. for a live event he was thrilled to cover: This Sunday night's Grammy Awards. But the DOJ did try again, and federal agents took Lemon into custody at a Beverly Hills hotel late last night.

Lemon's attorney, Abbe Lowell, announced the disturbing news in a statement around 8 a.m. ET, around the same time we found out a second independent journalist, Georgia Fort, was also taken into custody at her home in Minnesota. Fort calmly reported on her own arrest by live-streaming it on Facebook. "Federal agents are at my door, arresting me for filming the church protest," she said. - CNN https://cnn.it/4qQlXBV

Operation Trump Rehab

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, says that what’s happening in Minneapolis today—with thousands of armed, masked federal agents terrorizing the community in the name of cracking down on illegal immigrants—is both a “moral abomination” and a “moment of truth for the United States of America.” In the wake of the tragic killings, earlier this month, of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the Maryland Democrat and constitutional scholar Jamie Raskin praises Minnesotans’ “heroic resistance” and “non-stop creative organizing” as not only the right response to the Trump Administration’s excesses but “a template for national popular victory against the autocrats and authoritarians.”

Speaking out on Thursday, the two members of Congress reflected a national Democratic leadership that—finally, belatedly—seems to have found its collective voice in responding to what Donald Trump has unleashed on America since returning to office a year ago. Some of the President’s most fervent opponents now believe, as the never-Trump conservative Charlie Sykes wrote on Thursday morning, that the recent news out of Minnesota marked a breaking point for “patriotic, non-political normies.” Reflecting a political environment that simply did not exist a week ago in Washington, on Thursday a united Senate Democratic caucus refused to vote for a government funding bill before a Friday deadline, because it includes money for the out-of-control immigration agencies that operate within the Department of Homeland Security. On the ground in Minnesota, meanwhile, Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan, announced that he had arrived to dial down the temperature. “President Trump wants this fixed, and I’m going to fix it,” he said.

Is this, then, the inflection point—or whatever you want to call it—that so much of sane America has been waiting for? The beginning of the end of the madness that has gripped our nation?

Would that it were so. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4alQDFc

ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US

Despite protests in small towns and cities across the US, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with the purchase of warehouses it plans to convert into immigration jails in what could be the largest expansion of such detention capacity in US history.

The cost for acquiring two warehouses alone was $172 million. A third in El Paso, Texas, could be among the largest jails of any kind in the country if completed as envisioned, with 8,500 beds. The deals mark the latest turn in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to use as many as 23 warehouses for detaining thousands of immigrants arrested by federal agents in Minneapolis and other cities. Those aggressive enforcement actions have ignited clashes with protesters and led to agents killing two US citizens.

On Jan. 16, the administration paid $102 million for a site near Hagerstown, Maryland, according to a local court filing. A week later, the government paid $70 million in cash for a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona. The price tags — roughly in line with the industry average for the warehouse market — cover just the acquisition of the sites, which are currently empty shells. ICE still has to pay companies to outfit the buildings with toilets, showers, beds, dining and recreation areas and then run them as detention centers. - Bloomberg https://bloom.bg/4rpQu9z

**Trump sues IRS and Treasury for $10 billion over leaked tax records

The case means Trump has again filed a claim for a large amount of money against the government he oversees, putting him on both sides of the potential negotiating table. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4tfsAPY

RFK Jr. Stacks Key Autism Panel With Vaccine Skeptics

Several new members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee have pushed unproven therapies for autism or misrepresented the safety of vaccines. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/46pUkav

Journalists arrested as Trump team sets fire to First Amendment‌

Independent journalist Don Lemon, formerly of CNN, was arrested by federal agents Thursday night for reporting on an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minnesota, making him a target in President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to shut down free speech. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4a96DZZ

Why Trump’s new Fed chair nominee should terrify us all

President Donald Trump continued to flood the zone with horrific news Friday, this time by nominating a hack who got literally everything wrong during the 2008 financial crisis to serve as Federal Reserve chair.

Trump chose Kevin Warsh, a member of the Federal Reserve Board from 2006 through 2011 when the U.S. economy nearly collapsed, to replace Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/49SJ9JN

FCC pushes to punish talk shows as Trump-friendly media gets a pass

After FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced an update to a longstanding rule excluding late-night and daytime talk shows from having to interview both opponents of a political party, late-night clapped back.

“I might need your help again,” Kimmel told his audience this week, referencing his previous battle with the FCC and broadcasters last year.

Kimmel went on to explain how more conservative outlets aren’t being forced by the White House to abide by the revised rules, but the ABC host is because his show uses public airwaves. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4tdkQhb

Nationwide protests begin over ICE in Minneapolis amid mixed messages from Trump

Student organizers called for walkouts and protests across the United States on Friday to demand that federal immigration agents withdraw from Minnesota, where the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens have sparked public outrage.

The planned national ‌day of protest, which saw students and teachers walking out of schools from Arizona to Georgia, came amid mixed messages from the Trump administration on the future of Operation Metro Surge, which has sent some 3,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis area in an immigration crackdown.

The fatal shootings by federal agents of citizens Alex Pretti on Saturday and Renee ⁠Good on January 7 in Minneapolis during the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation have stoked public outrage and fueled ‍calls for more protests. - Reuters / Japan Today https://bit.ly/49PUsSY?

Meet the New Proud Boys

The far-right group’s views and tactics are now emulated by federal agents.

“We’ve kind of gotten what we want, right? There’s no reason to fucking protest,” Enrique Tarrio, a longtime leader of the Proud Boys, told me earlier this week over the phone while he was taking a minute to charge his Tesla. We were speaking about why his group had receded from the streets. His answer: He no longer felt compelled to show up with other Proud Boys to fight left-wing protesters, because the federal government was doing the job itself. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rufIDS

Updates: Millions of Pages of Epstein Documents Released

The Department of Justice on Friday released the largest batch of Jeffrey Epstein files to date, a giant tranche including three million more pages of documents and thousands of videos and images.

The documents shed new light on the disgraced financier’s relationships with several prominent figures, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. They also contain a significant number of uncorroborated tips to law enforcement. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4arfbN2

DOJ has opened civil rights probe into Alex Pretti shooting, Deputy AG says

The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minnesota, US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday.

“All that that means is that (the Department of Homeland Security), as they’ve, as the Secretary has said, is conducting an investigation, as they should,” Blanche said. “And as they do every time there’s a tragic event like this, and the FBI, in their role which is a separate role from DHS, is also take looking into it and conducting investigation.”

CNN previously reported that the FBI is taking the lead on the investigation into Pretti, which was initially handled by DHS’s investigative agency.

The announcement means that the Justice Department is looking into whether the DHS officers who shot Pretti violated the law, and marks an expansion of the federal government’s investigation into the matter. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Mf1Q18

The Melania Trump Documentary Is a Disgrace

The exorbitant film captures the rotten state of the entertainment industry.

Recently, I watched a new documentary about an enigmatic woman of notable charm and courage preparing for one of the most momentous events in her life. That woman is E. Jean Carroll, and the movie is Ask E. Jean, a feature about Carroll’s life and her decision to sue President Trump in civil court for defamation and sexual battery.

In 2019, Carroll alleged that Trump had sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s; Trump promptly denied the allegation while deriding Carroll at rallies and in TV interviews as “totally lying” and “not my type.” Ask E. Jean follows Carroll as she prepares for the trial, revealing why she buried what had happened for so long; it captures, too, her profound discomfort while she’s badgered during depositions by Trump’s legal team, and her eventual victory. (The jury found Trump liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million in compensation; Trump’s appeal is currently awaiting review by the Supreme Court.)

But very few people have seen Ask E. Jean or even heard of it. Streaming platforms and distributors have steered absolutely clear of a movie that so plainly impugns the president, regardless of its obvious relevance and engaging portrait of Carroll, whose decision to come forward was resolutely in spite of everything she knew she’d face as a result. “We all have a lot at stake here. This lawsuit is not just for me; it almost has nothing to do with me,” she explains in one scene to the director, Ivy Meeropol. “It’s for, really, women across the country.” In court, Carroll faced lawyers for a former (now reelected) president, making the case, as she puts it, that Trump was protected by “his scope of employment as president when he called me too hideous to rape.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/45GCBve

Thousands demonstrate in Minnesota and across U.S. to protest ICE

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Minneapolis and students across the United States staged walkouts on Friday to demand the withdrawal of federal immigration agents from Minnesota following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.

Students and teachers abandoned classes from California to New York on a national day of protest, which came amid mixed messages from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump about whether it would de-escalate Operation Metro Surge. - Reuters / Japan Times https://bit.ly/3NOWOcd

U.N. Says It’s in Danger of Financial Collapse Because of Unpaid Dues

The world body warned it would run out of money by July and have to close its New York headquarters if countries, namely the United States, did not pay annual dues that amount to billions of dollars. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tb7zFX

Release of Three Million Epstein Pages Falls Short, Survivors Say

The Justice Department on Friday finished its belated release of investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex trafficker, though officials conceded that the disclosure of more than three million pages was unlikely to put to rest the suspicions that surround the case.

That was quickly reinforced by Democratic lawmakers and some of Mr. Epstein’s victims, who had forced the Trump administration to disclose the documents related to the case. They asserted that the massive tranche still fell short of a full accounting, and that the documents revealed personal information about people Mr. Epstein abused.

Hundreds of prosecutors have spent the last two months reviewing more than six million pages potentially related to the case. As of Friday, around 3.5 million pages had been published in response to a law passed by Congress last November. The latest files also included 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

**The files appeared to contain at least 4,500 documents that mention Mr. Trump, according to an initial review by The New York Times.One was a summary F.B.I. officials assembled last summer of more than a dozen tips from members of the public involving Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein. Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the disgraced financier. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qQUhN4

Protesters Denounce Trump Immigration Tactics in ‘National Shutdown’

They ditched school in Atlanta. Left work in Philadelphia. Blocked traffic in Los Angeles. And closed businesses in New York. Across the country on Friday, protesters marched, rallied and disrupted their everyday routines in solidarity with Minneapolis residents to demand an end to the Trump administration’s immigration tactics.

The actions, including gatherings in cities and towns from Boise, Idaho, to Gainesville, Fla., were part of what groups of organizers called a national shutdown, encouraging Americans to abstain from work, school and shopping “to stop ICE’s reign of terror” and denounce the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

The protests reflected widespread fury at the killings, which have endangered President Trump’s political agenda and threatened a government shutdown. The specter of masked men killing American citizens during protests has raised fears of authoritarianism and talk of resistance, with many residents saying America’s 250-year experiment in democracy is imperiled. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rl3Rru

Spending Deal Leaves Government in Shutdown Limbo for the Weekend

The Senate passed a bipartisan spending package on Friday to fund most of the government and keep the Department of Homeland Security running for two weeks while Democrats and President Trump negotiate restrictions on the administration’s immigration crackdown.

The agreement, the culmination of an intense round of haggling between the White House and Democrats, did not come together in time to avert a brief lapse in federal funding over the weekend, starting on Saturday morning. The House still must clear it for Mr. Trump’s signature, but is not expected to return to Washington to do so before Monday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4brhlNK

Trump Officials Bypass Congress to Push Billions in Weapons Aid to Israel

The move was the third time the Trump administration has tried to expedite arms shipments to Israel by going around the review process for weapons sales. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46b4ziU

Trump Called for ‘De-Escalation’ in Minneapolis. It Didn’t Last Long.

Under fire for the deadly, chaotic federal crackdown in Minneapolis, President Trump this week signaled that he might be open to changing course.

“We’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday, trying to calm a mounting crisis after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in less than a month.

And while Mr. Trump has taken some steps to rein in the tactics of federal agents, he reverted almost immediately to saying he would not pull back the operation, “not at all.” Even amid calls for calming tensions, Mr. Trump issued a social media post at 1:26 a.m. on Friday calling one of the victims, Alex Pretti — a 37-year-old U.S. citizen whom federal agents shot repeatedly — an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ro98ym

President Trump Wants Lower Rates. Warsh Could Have a Hard Time Delivering.

Kevin M. Warsh, whom Mr. Trump tapped to become the next chair of the Federal Reserve, could face fierce resistance if he tries to pursue substantially lower borrowing costs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4k9ogxf

Trump’s Lawsuit Against I.R.S. Creates ‘Enormous Conflict of Interest’

Federal law fiercely protects the confidentiality of Americans’ tax returns. Not only can improper disclosure of tax information carry criminal penalties, but people can also sue the government if the Internal Revenue Service mishandles their data.

Not until Thursday, though, had a sitting president filed such a suit. President Trump’s complaint, filed in federal court in Miami against the I.R.S. and the Treasury Department, created what legal experts said was the unparalleled situation of federal agencies facing a lawsuit from the head of the executive branch. Mr. Trump has demanded at least $10 billion in damages.

“It’s an enormous conflict of interest,” said Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. “His own appointees could turn around and say: ‘Let’s give the Trump family a couple of billion. That’s a fair sell.’” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4br8Dz5

How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are

Agents use facial recognition, social media monitoring and other tech tools not only to identify undocumented immigrants but also to track protesters, current and former officials said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZKo4v2

A Secret Panel to Question Climate Science Was Unlawful, Judge Rules

A federal judge on Friday ruled the Energy Department violated the law when Secretary Chris Wright handpicked five researchers who reject the scientific consensus on climate change to work in secret on a sweeping government report on global warming. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4a3mpWc

The Rot Goes Deeper Than ICE

The renewed calls to abolish ICE are an understandable reaction to an intolerable reality. ICE has become dangerous and unaccountable by design under the second Trump administration, with its deportation quotas, dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants and extrajudicial pronouncements that agents have “absolute immunity.” The assault on Minneapolis has demonstrated what can happen when that toxic mix of incentives is unleashed on a community. ICE has operated more like an invading army than a force for public safety.

But the rot goes deeper at the Department of Homeland Security, the behemoth that controls ICE, Customs and Border Protection (C.B.P.) and myriad other federal agencies, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Secret Service. Since its founding in 2002, a combination of organizational flaws and mission creep has allowed D.H.S. to evolve into the out-of-control domestic security apparatus we have today, one that views the very people it is supposed to protect as threats, not humans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aneXqh

Outcry in Italy as U.S. Says ICE Agents Will Join Olympics Delegation

ICE will accompany the U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics in Italy next month, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Tuesday, stoking a backlash among Italians angered by the conduct of ICE agents in Minneapolis.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will join a security team from the State Department at the Olympics “to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations,” D.H.S. said in a statement attributed to Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49VT9lC

Administration Social Media Posts Echo White Supremacist Messaging

The posts have referred to neo-Nazi literature, ethnic cleansing and QAnon conspiracies, mused about deporting nearly a third of the U.S. population, and promoted lyrics from an anthem bellowed by the far-right militants of the Proud Boys.

Their authors are not on society’s fringe. They are in the offices of the White House and the departments of Homeland Security and Labor, using official government accounts.

To some people, the administration’s posts sound patriotic. Others might sense at most a faint dog whistle to extremists. Some posts may just look odd. But those well-versed in the abstruse codes of right-wing extremism hear klaxons.

This month, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security jointly posted a recruitment ad for Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Instagram, Facebook and X, overlaid with the words “WE’LL HAVE OUR HOME AGAIN.”

That’s also the name of a song, written by members of a self-described “pro-White fraternal order,” that has been embraced by the Proud Boys and other white-nationalist groups. Hundreds of explicitly neo-Nazi and white-supremacist accounts have shared the song on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, since 2020. The white supremacist who killed three Black people at a Jacksonville, Fla., dollar store in 2023 included lyrics from the song in his writing. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bqw1wB

Saturday Afternoon News Updates – 1/31/26

December producer price inflation came in at 3 percent, well above expectations of 2.7 percent. Core PPI inflation jumped to 3.3 percent, also higher than forecast, and now sits at its hottest level since July 2025. These are not abstract figures. Americans feel them every time they buy groceries, fill their gas tanks, or try to pay rent. Prices are up, wages are not keeping pace, and the stress is real.

Trump’s response was to publish an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, claiming his economy is “fantastic.” The White House and official government accounts then promoted the piece as if it were an editorial endorsement written by the paper itself. But guess who the author was? If you guessed Donald Trump, you’d be correct. The Trump-authored op-ed (well, likely written by his handlers), filled with lies, was laundered through official channels to mislead the public.

In that op-ed, Trump insisted that his tariffs have “brought America back” and claimed the burden of those tariffs fell on foreign producers rather than American consumers. That assertion is flatly false. Tariffs function as a tax, and that tax is passed along to consumers. Americans know this because they are living it. Trump also claimed he inherited an economy “ravaged” by Joe Biden and that only twelve months into his second term inflation is “extremely low” and growth is “extraordinarily high.” None of that aligns with reality or with the data released just one day earlier. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4a69Aui

5-year-old Liam Ramos and father are back in Minneapolis after being released from federal custody in Texas

Ecuadorian preschooler Liam Conejo Ramos and his father are back in Minneapolis after being released from a Texas detention facility where they had been held for more than a week, according to Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro.

The 5-year-old and his father, Adrian, were taken by immigration agents from his snowy suburban Minneapolis driveway and sent 1,300 miles to a Texas detention facility designed to detain families.

“Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning. Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack. Thank you to everyone who demanded freedom for Liam. We won’t stop until all children and families are home,” Castro posted on X Sunday. - NYT https://cnn.it/4qb2MBu

Letters from an American - January 30, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Lemon filmed protesters who disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday, January 18. Kiera Butler of Mother Jones reports the ultra-conservative white nationalist church has ties to the Trump administration. One of the church pastors, David Easterwood, is an official from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Jarrett Ley and Samuel Oakford of the Washington Post reviewed the video Lemon filmed at the church protest. They wrote that the video shows that Lemon identified himself as a journalist and followed protesters into the church. Inside for about 45 minutes, he interviewed four parishioners and five protesters. Eight of those nine exchanges appeared calm. The video does not show Lemon participating in the chants with which the protesters disrupted the service. A pastor asked Lemon to leave, and seven minutes later he exited the church. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3MkW6Tz

Today in Politics, Bulletin 297. 1/30/26

DOJ released a massive amount of Epstein files documents today. One section that had numerous specific criminal allegations against Trump was posted and then hours later after people began to post screen shots it was taken down. We have a link to the section about Trump that was deleted, which is here. Later in the day they put it back up but who knows for how long this time.

DOJ disclosed that there are over 6 million documents total, but they are only releasing half of them because they determined the other half were either “irrelevant” or fell under one of the exceptions in the statute. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/45Jq1LJ

Our Free Press Under Attack

In a healthy democracy, journalists are not handcuffed for doing their jobs.

They are not dragged into courtrooms for showing up, asking questions, and bearing witness. They are not treated as threats simply because they point a camera toward power and refuse to look away.

Yet here we are. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4qUoWtd

In Minnesota, America’s Federal System Is Coming Apart

Since the 1960s, a familiar pattern has unfolded when law-enforcement officers kill or brutalize American civilians. State or local police are accused of excessive force; local residents protest, demanding accountability; the federal government steps in to provide a measure of justice and restore calm. Think of George Floyd’s murder in 2020; Rodney King’s beating in 1991; the disappearance of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Mississippi in 1964.

The killings this month of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration-enforcement officials turned this dynamic upside down. And the fight over who will investigate these killings — and if anyone will be held accountable — are part of a growing confrontation between federal and state governments. The balance of power between Washington and the states has been one of America’s central political dramas from the nation’s founding. Now, as it has before at certain dim moments in the country’s history, that delicate system is cracking. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qUP3jD

‘We’ve Fought Side by Side’: Danish Veterans March Against Trump’s Comments

A Danish soldier who fought alongside American troops in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq marched in subzero temperatures through the streets of Copenhagen on Saturday, driven by outrage against President Trump.

The soldier, Lance Cpl. Soren Teigen, was at the front of a group of veterans who had been bused in from all corners of Denmark for the latest demonstration of anti-American anger, after Mr. Trump’s recent comments belittling the support that NATO allies had given the United States in recent wars.

“I don’t blame American soldiers in any way — we’ve fought side by side, and we still do,” Lance Corporal Teigen said. “But when the president says something like this, of course it hurts.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4t3pPkq

Federal Judge Denies Request to Temporarily Block ICE Surge in Minnesota

A federal judge in Minnesota denied a request by the state government and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul on Saturday to temporarily block a surge of federal immigration agents that has led to three shootings, thousands of arrests and weeks of protests.

The judge, Kate M. Menendez, who was nominated to the bench by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., had resisted requests by state lawyers for an immediate ruling on halting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign, known as Operation Metro Surge, which began late last year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tbIfQ3

5-year-old Liam Ramos and father are back in Minneapolis after being released from federal custody in Texas

The 5-year-old and his father, Adrian, were taken by immigration agents from his snowy suburban Minneapolis driveway and sent 1,300 miles to a Texas detention facility designed to detain families. - CNN https://cnn.it/3NJtvI7

Justice Department Complaint Against DC Judge Boasberg Tossed

A federal appeals court threw out the Justice Department’s misconduct complaint that accused the Washington chief federal trial judge of making “improper” remarks about President Donald Trump at a closed-door judiciary meeting last year.

Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dismissed the complaint against Chief Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg, who is overseeing high-profile litigation over the administration’s decision to send alleged gang members to a Salvadoran prison under a wartime deportation authority. - Bloomberg https://bit.ly/4kbxhpN

This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 298.

ProPublica: “The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in govt records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez. The records viewed by ProPublica list Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, as the shooters during the deadly encounter last weekend that left Pretti dead and ignited massive protests and calls for criminal investigations.”

“Ochoa is a Border Patrol agent who joined CBP in 2018. Gutierrez joined in 2014 and works for CBP’s Office of Field Operations. He is assigned to a special response team, which conducts high-risk operations like those of police SWAT units. Records show both men are from South Texas.” - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4aa5aT6

Rage in the U.S.A.

Bruce Springsteen has never sounded angrier than on his new song, “Streets of Minneapolis.”

The first few strums of Bruce Springsteen’s new song make you feel like you’re in for, well, a Bruce Springsteen song—a rollicking sing-along about rough-and-tumble but ultimately hopeful times in some troubled American town. And this song, “Streets of Minneapolis,” is exactly that.

It’s also a response to ICE’s bloody record in Minneapolis. It excoriates, by name, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, and “Trump’s federal thugs.” It memorializes Alex Pretti and Renee Good—the Americans killed by federal agents—and the “whistles and phones” still in use by demonstrators. The song’s considerable power lies in the way it transposes a classic, even hoary, mode of protest rock into the present. Springsteen conveys that we’re living through a time that will be sung about for years to come, and that the future depends a lot on what we do in this moment. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4qX4R5t

European Tech Giant Cuts Off U.S. Subsidiary After Multimillion Dollar ICE Contract

French tech giant Capgemini announced on Sunday that it will immediately divest from its American subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions, following mounting scrutiny over the company’s ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Capgemini was designated as the lead contractor of a new ICE surveillance program for “skip-tracing” immigrants. Skip-tracing is a method often used by debt collectors to locate people who are difficult to find, and it has not been used by ICE before.

As part of the new program, ICE enlisted a handful of nongovernment entities to track down 50,000 immigrants a month, first by identifying where they live and work through “all technology systems available,” and then confirming through “physical, in-person surveillance,” including photographing, according to the Washington Post. The agency awarded contracts to ten companies in December. As part of the contract, the companies could earn more than $1 billion by the end of next year, according to The Intercept. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3LWZhRj

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

The records viewed by ProPublica list Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, as the shooters during the deadly encounter last weekend that left Pretti dead and ignited massive protests and calls for criminal investigations.

Both men were assigned to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement dragnet launched in December that sent scores of armed and masked agents across the city. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3NPSv0i

Trump Says Kennedy Center Will Close for 2-Year Reconstruction Project

The president’s announcement came after the center has been rocked by cancellations and boycotts by performers, contributors and audience members. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3O2TFFE

How Trump Appears in the Epstein Files

The files are peppered with references to Mr. Trump, who had been a close friend of Mr. Epstein’s until the early 2000s. While Mr. Trump has repeatedly downplayed the relationship, the two men bonded over their pursuit of young women. Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection to Mr. Epstein.

Using a proprietary search tool, The New York Times identified more than 5,300 files containing more than 38,000 references to Mr. Trump, his wife, his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, and other related words and phrases in the latest batch of emails, government files, videos and other records released by the Justice Department. Previous installments of the Epstein files, which the department released late last year, included another 130 files with Trump-related references.

Many of the documents released on Friday that mention Mr. Trump are news articles and other publicly available materials that had landed in Mr. Epstein’s email inbox. None of those files include any direct communication between Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein. (Few of the files date back as far as the early 2000s, when the two men were friends.)

Here is what our review of the files has found so far. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aceqX0

U.A.E. Firm Quietly Took Stake in the Trump Family’s Crypto Company

An investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates purchased nearly half of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company last year, making the family business partners with the U.A.E. even as President Trump negotiated foreign policy matters with the Middle Eastern nation.

The investment, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, was confirmed on Sunday by a spokesman for the Trumps’ crypto company, World Liberty Financial.

Days before his father’s inauguration in January 2025, Eric Trump, the president’s middle son, signed the agreement with the investment firm for a $500 million investment in World Liberty, The Journal reported. David Wachsman, a World Liberty spokesman, confirmed the transaction in a statement to The New York Times.

That agreement gave the Emirati-backed firm a 49 percent stake in World Liberty. Two top lieutenants to the U.A.E.’s national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, joined the board of World Liberty. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qbXZja

Trump Has Overwhelmed Himself

Last February I wrote an essay about the Trump administration’s strategy of “muzzle velocity.” Muzzle velocity, in its literal sense, describes the ferocious speed of a bullet at the moment it exits the front end of a gun. The term came from an interview that Steve Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, gave in 2019. “All we have to do is flood the zone,” Bannon said. “Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity.”

Trump world has an affection for analogies that glorify the combination of violence and speed. After Trump’s second Inaugural Address, Taylor Budowich, then one of the White House’s deputy chiefs of staff, tweeted, “Now, comes SHOCK AND AWE.” “Shock and awe” refers to the bombing campaign that launched America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. It was an awesome demonstration of initial force that belied a catastrophic absence of information, planning and wisdom. It was the belief that an immediate show of dominance would lead to a society’s submission rather than its revolt. Both Bannon’s and Budowich’s metaphors have proved more grimly apt than they intended. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aqdC1U

This Is Not a Drill

It’s only February, and the November elections are already in peril.

When I think back to the days and weeks before Jan. 6, 2021, one thing that’s clear is that many of us suffered from a failure of imagination. We knew President Trump’s lies and conspiracymongering were dangerous, but it’s hard to think of a single person who predicted that a MAGA mob would storm the Capitol.

Very few people anticipated the sheer scale and scope of the effort to overturn the election or that an incredible 147 Republicans would vote not to certify Joe Biden’s clear and unambiguous presidential victory. We did not realize that they would go along with something that plainly corrupt and dangerous.

We must not make that mistake again. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qU9NI9

Liam Ramos Was Just One of Hundreds of Children at This Detention Center. Release Them All.

The arrest and detention of Liam Conejo Ramos, the Minnesota 5-year-old in a blue bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack, has drawn the attention — and the ire — of the nation. As an immigration lawyer who has worked with dozens of families at the immigration detention facility in Dilley, Texas, where Liam and his father were detained but were released Saturday following a judge’s order, I know he is far from exceptional. In March 2025, the Trump administration resumed the long-term detention of families, holding them for weeks or months, a practice that the Biden administration had halted in December 2021. I’ve spent the past seven months trying to restore freedom to these families and to give them a fair opportunity to stay in the United States.

Children all across the country are being arrested and detained. They are being arrested at airports, at the border, at immigration courts, at immigration check-in appointments, on their way to and from schools, at parks, on the street and anywhere else they can be found. From January to October 2025, at least 3,800 children under the age of 18, including 20 infants, were arrested and detained by U.S. immigration authorities. Since March 2025, many hundreds of families with children who are minors have been detained in federal immigration custody, with more than 1,700 children in custody since family detention centers reopened. Many have been detained for long periods of time, some for nearly half a year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qQPTO9

Week Fifty-Four: February 2 - February 8

‌Fulton County expected to make new court filing challenging legality of FBI’s seizure of 2020 election records

An official in Fulton County, Georgia, has announced the county will challenge the legality of the FBI’s search and seizure of 2020 election records. Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. said the effort will seek to “force the government to return the ballots taken.” Arrington said that the county’s attorneys are expected to file a motion in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia to fight the action of Trump’s Justice Department and the FBI.

The FBI served a warrant last Wednesday at the Fulton County election office, near Atlanta, Georgia, taking 700 boxes of election materials as it probes alleged voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

“I’ve asked the county attorney to take any and all steps available to fight this criminal search warrant,” Arrington said Monday in a press release. - CNN https://cnn.it/4q9i75B

‌Trump slashes tariffs on India after he says Modi agrees to stop buying Russian oil

President Donald Trump on Monday announced he would reduce tariffs on Indian goods in exchange for, among other things, a promise to stop buying Russian oil.

That will be a tall task: India has been importing roughly 1.5 million barrels of Russian oil each day — even months after Trump placed tariffs on Indian goods as punishment — according to Kpler, a global trade data provider. Russian oil makes up more than a third of India’s overall imports.

Trump said in a social media post that he spoke Monday morning with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who agreed to replace the country’s Russian crude imports with oil from Venezuela and the United States. - CNN https://cnn.it/3LOJtQF

‌Trump’s chaotic governing style is hurting the value of the U.S. dollar

Fallout from the recent Greenland crisis clipped the U.S. dollar, aggravating a year-long decline that has shaved more than 10 percent off the greenback’s value since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3O3Ww13

‌ICE observer says her Global Entry was revoked after agent scanned her face

Minnesota resident Nicole Cleland had her Global Entry and TSA PreCheck privileges revoked three days after an incident in which she observed activity by immigration agents, the woman said in a court declaration. An agent told Cleland that he used facial recognition technology to identify her, she wrote in a declaration filed in US District Court for the District of Minnesota. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4r3fwf2

‌Trump, in an Escalation, Calls for Republicans to ‘Nationalize’ Elections

President Trump called in a new interview for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in the United States, an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters.

During an extended monologue about immigration on a podcast released on Monday by Dan Bongino, his former deputy F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump called for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states, though he did not name them.

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Under the Constitution, American elections are governed primarily by state law, leading to a decentralized process in which voting is administered by county and municipal officials in thousands of precincts across the country. Mr. Trump, however, has long been fixated on the false claims that U.S. elections are rife with fraud and that Democrats are perpetrating a vast conspiracy to have undocumented immigrants vote and lift the party’s turnout. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3O1VwdS

‌Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting

‌Pete Hegseth Delights in Violence

Even before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had declared Alex Pretti a domestic terrorist, Pete Hegseth was online trashing his home state. Hegseth, who grew up north of Minneapolis, took to social media in the hours after masked immigration agents shot the ICU nurse with a stark calculation: “ICE > MN.”

“We have your back 100%. You are SAVING the country,” the Pentagon chief told immigration agents in an X post. “Shame on the leadership of Minnesota—and the lunatics in the street.” Hegseth didn’t define the we. He and fellow Cabinet members? The 1.3 million service members he commands? The troops he put on standby for potential deployment to Minneapolis? He hasn’t said. But if there was any doubt about how Hegseth would wield military might if troops were sent to check unrest or dissent in U.S. cities, there’s your answer. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tggp54

‌The Real Reason ICE Agents Wear Masks

Face coverings may work less to protect federal agents from danger than to make it easier for them to do unconstitutional things.

Masked men with guns are swarming through American cities. They are doing so in the name of enforcing immigration law. There is no justification, however, for federal agents to hide their identity from the public that pays for their weapons. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4acKWbC

‌Trump Made a Bad Bet on the Kennedy Center

One year ago, President Trump conducted a hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center, the venerable Washington, D.C., performing-arts institution. The president said he had never attended a show there, but he was confident that he alone knew what the center needed.

Last night, Trump delivered an implicit admission of defeat, announcing that the center will close on July 4 for two years. Trump brought the same theory to the Kennedy Center that he does to most of his moves: He believes that he knows better than the experts, and that a “silent majority” actually supports his disruptions. That certainty seems to have led him to a bad bet here. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kfOJcv

‌Trump says Kennedy Center will close in July for two-year renovation

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will close for roughly two years to allow for extensive renovations, President Donald Trump said Sunday, a move that comes as the nation’s preeminent arts institution contends with a flood of cancellations. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rl9RjS

‌Fulton County expected to make new court filing challenging legality of FBI’s seizure of 2020 election records

An official in Fulton County, Georgia, has announced the county will challenge the legality of the FBI’s search and seizure of 2020 election records.

Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. said the effort will seek to “force the government to return the ballots taken.”

Arrington said that the county’s attorneys are expected to file a motion in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia to fight the action of Trump’s Justice Department and the FBI.

‌Kennedy Center crumbles under Trump

After several performers announced they would no longer appear at the Kennedy Center—sorry, The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts—because of President Donald Trump’s interference with the beloved venue, Trump announced on Sunday that the center would close for repairs.

Trump posted on social media that the center is “tired, broken, and dilapidated” and that it would close on July 4 for two years and undergo repairs. The center was last renovated in 2019. Trump argued that a temporary closure is needed because construction would impede artists performing there, and that ongoing performances would affect the quality of construction.

Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree was skeptical of Trump’s argument and wrote, “Trump has run the Kennedy Center into the ground, failed artists + workers, and disgraced the memory of JFK. Can’t sell tickets. Can’t book performers. So to hide his utter failure he is shutting it down for ‘renovations.’ I call BULLSHIT.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3LOOHvL

‌Immigration Officers in Minneapolis Will Wear Body Cameras, Noem Says

The change comes as the federal government has provided accounts of fatal shootings that have sometimes conflicted with local officials and witness videos. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qj0OPM

‌Trump Had Unusual Call With F.B.I. Agents After Election Center Search

By any measure, the F.B.I.’s search of an election center in Fulton County, Ga., last week was extraordinary. Agents seized truckloads of 2020 ballots, as President Trump harnessed the levers of government to not only buttress his false claims of widespread voter fraud, but also to try to build a criminal case against those he believes wronged him.

What happened the next day was in some ways even more unusual, The New York Times has learned.

Behind closed doors, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, met with some of the same F.B.I. agents, members of the bureau’s field office in Atlanta, which is conducting the election inquiry, three people with knowledge of the meeting said. They could not say why Ms. Gabbard, who also appeared on site at the search, was there, but her continued presence has raised eyebrows given that her role overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies does not include on-site involvement in criminal investigative work.

What occurred during the meeting was even further outside the bounds of normal law enforcement procedure. Ms. Gabbard used her cellphone to call Mr. Trump, who did not initially pick up but called back shortly after, the people said.

The president addressed the agents on speakerphone, asking them questions as well as praising and thanking them for their work on the inquiry, the three people said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46vaWh4

‌Trump Administration Sued Over Cutting Off Funds for $16 Billion Tunnel

The agency overseeing construction of a $16 billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River sued the federal government on Monday for cutting off the project’s funding and leaving it without enough money to keep building beyond this week.

The agency, the Gateway Development Commission, filed suit in federal court in Washington against the United States for withholding $205 million in payments for work on the tunnel, which would connect New York and New Jersey. The project is critical to avoid a disruption in rail travel around New York City that would have drastic effects on the national economy, its supporters say.

The suit contends that the federal Department of Transportation has breached several grant and loan agreements by suspending funding for the tunnel project. In its filing, the commission raises the concern that the suspension is political, citing statements by “senior executive branch officials” that linked the funding cuts to the project’s status as a “Democratic program.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kkMiWs

‌From ‘Hamilton’ to Issa Rae to Philip Glass: Here’s a List of Kennedy Center Cancellations

Ever since President Trump took office last year for a second term, he has worked to transform the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., into his own.

He purged the board of its Biden appointees; ousted the center’s longtime president; appointed a political ally as the top executive; named himself chairman; hosted the Kennedy Center Honors; and added his name to the building’s facade, which now reads, “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” On Feb. 1, he announced his intention to shut the venue down for two years starting this summer, aiming to turn what he called “a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center” into “the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind.”

All the while, the center has been hit by more than two dozen cancellations and boycotts. Some performers have characterized their withdrawal as a direct rebuke of the president’s overhaul. Others have simply said that they hoped to work with the Kennedy Center again one day.

The number of cancellations is especially stark for the 2026 season. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aapZOa

‌We Were Top Homeland Security Lawyers. You Can’t Wish Away the Fourth Amendment.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reportedly issued a memorandum that authorizes its agents to enter private residences forcibly without a judicial warrant. James Percival, the general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, recently defended the department’s policy and wrote that “deep-state actors in the federal government have for decades told ICE officers that they may not enter a fugitive alien’s home even with a final order of removal and administrative warrant.”

We disagree.

We previously sat in the seat he now occupies, serving in both Republican and Democratic administrations; this is not a partisan issue. We disagree not only with Mr. Percival’s position but also with his characterization of lawyers at the Department of Homeland Security and elsewhere who seek to uphold the rule of law.

It is not the so-called deep state that has restrained ICE from entering homes using only administrative warrants. It is the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution — and the lawyers who took an oath to support and defend it. We worked with thousands of homeland security lawyers. They sought to ensure that the department’s actions are lawful and protect the constitutional rights of the people its agents encounter in day-to-day operations. Attempting to tarnish department attorneys as “deep state” operatives for giving legal advice that is faithful to the Constitution is not only offensive but also dangerous. It sends a message: If you give your best professional advice and urge the department to respect the law, you will be attacked for doing your job. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qafsIT

Could Trump Really “Take Over” the Midterm Elections?‌

We all remember Trump trolling for “enough” votes in Georgia to reverse the outcome in 2020. Last week, the FBI executed a search warrant at a warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia (at the heart of right-wing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election), authorizing agents to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 election, voting machine tabulator tapes, images produced during the ballot count, and voter rolls from that year.

The day after the Georgia search, Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, met with some of those FBI agents — reportedly at Trump’s personal request. Trump himself, on speakerphone, asked questions about their investigation.

This isn’t Georgia in Russia. This is the state of Georgia in America. What the hell is Gabbard — who’s supposed to be worried about foreign meddling in our elections —doing in our Georgia? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4kkB4B1

‌Mountain View police turn off license plate readers, allege unauthorized federal use

The Mountain View Police Department has shut off its Flock Safety cameras after learning federal officials were able to access license plate data without the city’s knowledge.

Police Chief Mike Canfield said in a statement Monday that out-of-state agencies had access to the data by circumventing safeguards that officials believed were in place, a major safety lapse that Canfield called unacceptable. - SF Chronicle https://bit.ly/4qgVbkU

‌How to tear gas children

The day after the second general strike in Minneapolis, the labor unions of Portland, Oregon, marched in solidarity. It was the warmest day that Portland had seen in a while, with sun peeking out from the clouds here and there. Many people had brought their entire families; not just older children, but toddlers in strollers and wagons, too. Some brought their dogs. The chants were typical: “ICE out of Portland” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” But the children were so visible that City Councilor Mitch Green felt a slight twinge of awkwardness. “There’s some other folks saying, you know, ‘Fuck ICE,’ but, like, there’s children in front of me. I don’t want to say the F-word, you know?”

But that was very soon the least of his concerns, as tear gas engulfed the protest at approximately 4:30PM. He and other witnesses recalled hearing six loud bangs; a video posted on social media recorded eight, as well as countless smaller pops. At least eight arcs of smoke flew far over people’s heads, as though aimed at the back of the crowd.

“I know they would do anything, that they would hurt people, that they’ve murdered people and shot them in the back 10 times,” said Cassie Broeker, a Portland resident who came to protest with friends. “I know that intellectually. But I still did not expect them to gas a chill, friendly protest full of nurses and teachers and children and the elderly.” - Verge https://bit.ly/45M2FoN

‌U.S. Manufacturing Is in Retreat and Trump’s Tariffs Aren’t Helping

After tariffs rose to the highest levels in centuries, the U.S. lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs last year. In December, WSJ’s Gavin Bade went inside Detroit to learn why—and meet the winners of the new trade paradigm. Photo Illustration: Ryan Trefes

The manufacturing boom President Trump promised would usher in a golden age for America is going in reverse. After years of economic interventions by the Trump and Biden administrations, fewer Americans work in manufacturing than any point since the pandemic ended.

Manufacturers shed workers in each of the eight months after Trump unveiled “Liberation Day” tariffs, according to federal figures, extending a contraction that has seen more than 200,000 roles disappear since 2023. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4aj1Fdn

‌Trump Says He Wants $1 Billion From Harvard in New Attack

President Donald Trump said he’s seeking $1 billion in “damages” from Harvard University, renewing his long fight with the Ivy League school after a report that his administration was backing off its financial demands.

Trump issued his latest broadside hours after the New York Times reported that his administration had retreated from pressuring Harvard for $200 million to satisfy accusations of wrongdoing. - Bloomberg https://bloom.bg/4cbjLQR

‌CDC Refuses to Take Blame for Measles Spiraling out of Control

Measles is making an unwelcome comeback in the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking to dodge any responsibility for it.

In a recent editorial for the Wall Street Journal, Ralph Abraham, the principal deputy director of the CDC, took aim at people criticizing the government’s response to measles since last year. Abraham argued that measles’ return isn’t America’s fault because other countries have had similar outbreaks lately, too. Left unsaid by Abraham, of course, is that this country’s public health is now actively being led by a man who has openly crusaded against the measles vaccine and other shots for decades, namely Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4kk2l6O

‌US carrier shoots down Iranian drone as tensions escalate and diplomatic talks hit a snag

A US aircraft carrier shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively approached” the ship in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday hours before two gunboats operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps approached a US-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and threatened to board and seize the ship, according to a US military spokesman.

The two incidents occurred days before US and Iranian officials are due to meet Friday for diplomatic negotiations meant to avert a military clash. - CNN https://cnn.it/4cbk4uZ

‌Trump Is Doubling Down on All the Wrong Things

Republicans are worried about the midterm elections, but the president doesn’t seem to be.

Republicans have had a tough stretch. They were defeated in elections in the fall and find themselves at risk of losing control of one or maybe both chambers of Congress later this year. Their standard-bearer, President Trump, has tumbled in the polls and finds himself underwater on his two signature issues, the economy and immigration. There has been unrest in a major American city, and blood shed by Trump’s federal agents. Republicans’ whispers have grown louder in recent weeks: Trump is distracted; he’s focused on the wrong things; the chaos is hurting us. And then a thunderclap from deep-red Texas: a state-Senate race in a district that Trump won by 17 points just over a year ago flipped by more than 30 points over the weekend and elected a Democrat for the first time since 1978.

Now, that is a bad sign for a party in a midterm year. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/49ZA2ai

‌Trump’s New Threats to American Elections

With nine months to go until the midterm elections, President Trump’s campaign to subvert them is escalating. His administration has recently taken a series of steps that have election officials, observers, and administrators deeply and rightfully concerned about the prospects for improper interference with the election process.

In October, I published an in-depth article on how the president could interfere (and already was interfering) with the midterm elections. Since then, the reasons for worry have become more urgent. In the past two weeks, the FBI conducted a search in a major Democratic county in a swing state, in service of debunked theories about fraud in the 2020 election; the Justice Department attempted to extort voter rolls from another Democratic state under threat of armed occupation; and the president floated plans to “nationalize” elections. Trump has tried to subvert an election before, but these efforts are earlier, more organized, and—crucially—employing the power of the federal government to help him achieve his personal political goals.

Yesterday, Trump spoke with Dan Bongino, the podcaster turned FBI deputy director turned podcaster, and called for his party to seize control of voting in states. “These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally,” Trump said, reprising an oft-used and incorrect claim. (Voting by noncitizens is rare and does not amount to enough to swing elections.) “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over’—we should take over the voting in at least, many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked, and they’re counting votes. We have states that I won that show I didn’t win.”

The executive branch has no constitutional or statutory role in states’ election administration, so the call for “nationalization” is an assertion of power that the federal government does not have, a hallmark of other recent White House ploys. Trump’s declaration that “Republicans” could do it may be a suggestion that Congress take action, but it also points to the partisan aims of his attack. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rrlBBy

a Letters from an American - February 3, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Yesterday, the day before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s termination of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation, U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes stopped that termination until a pending court case worked its way through the courts.

At stake first of all were the lives of about 353,000 Haitians living legally in the United States since the catastrophic Haitian earthquake of 2010, whom the termination of that status would render undocumented overnight. The impact on their lives would also affect their families, friends, and employers. Also at stake, though, is Trump administration officials’ rejection of both facts and the rule of law on which the United States was founded in order to advance their white nationalist ideology. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4rrlBBy

‌Trump, Changing Course, Throws Harvard Deal Talks Into Chaos

The potential for a deal between Harvard University and the White House was thrown into doubt after President Trump unleashed a blistering attack on the Ivy League school in a series of late-night social media posts.

Just last week, Mr. Trump privately told negotiators he was willing to drop his demand for a $200 million payment from Harvard to the government if that would secure an agreement to end his pressure campaign against the university, which he views as hostile to conservatives and his presidency. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZNWihd

‌Trump Repeats Call to ‘Nationalize’ Elections, as White House Walks It Back

President Trump doubled down on his extraordinary call for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in the United States, even as the White House tried to walk it back and members of his own party criticized the idea.

Mr. Trump said on Tuesday that he believed the federal government should “get involved” in elections that are riddled with “corruption,” reiterating his position that the federal government should usurp state laws by exerting control over local elections.

If states “can’t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over,” he said in the Oval Office, accusing several Democratic-run cities of corruption. “Look at some of the places — that horrible corruption on elections — and the federal government should not allow that,” he added. “The federal government should get involved.”

Mr. Trump’s remarks came hours after the White House tried to walk back his comments from a day earlier that his party should nationalize elections. And they were the latest iteration of his unsubstantiated claims that U.S. elections are rigged, as Republicans face potentially big losses this fall. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZhOKTW

‌Trump Scolds CNN’s Kaitlan Collins for ‘Not Smiling’

President Trump laced into the CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins in the Oval Office on Tuesday, calling her “the worst reporter” and scolding her for not smiling as she tried to ask about the latest release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

“She’s a young woman — I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile,” Mr. Trump said in a sarcastic tone, while sitting at the Resolute Desk. “I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.”

Ms. Collins noted that she was asking the president about Mr. Epstein’s sexual assault victims, but Mr. Trump interrupted her. “You know why you’re not smiling? Because you know you’re not telling the truth,” he said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZRCWYy

‌Newborn dies after mother drinks raw milk during pregnancy

A newborn baby has died in New Mexico from a Listeria infection that state health officials say was likely contracted from raw (unpasteurized) milk that the baby’s mother drank during pregnancy.

In a news release Tuesday, officials warned people not to consume any raw dairy, highlighting that it can be teeming with a variety of pathogens. Those germs are especially dangerous to pregnant women, as well as young children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems.

“Raw milk can contain numerous disease-causing germs, including Listeria, which is bacteria that can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth, or fatal infection in newborns, even if the mother is only mildly ill,” the New Mexico Department of Health said in the press release.

Raw milk is promoted by anti-vaccine Health Secretary Kennedy. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4knYzcG

‌Reining in ICE

Failure to obey any court order will immediately terminate all funding for ICE or the Border Patrol.

Who can be against this? It turns out, many Republicans in Congress. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4qYjbdM

‌Washington Post Begins Laying Off More Than 300 Journalists

The Washington Post told employees on Wednesday that it was beginning a widespread round of layoffs that are expected to decimate the organization’s sports, local news and international coverage. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4adiGWd (Odd, no mention of that "documentary.")

‌The Murder of The Washington Post

We’re witnessing a murder.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of The Washington Post, and Will Lewis, the publisher he appointed at the end of 2023, are embarking on the latest step of their plan to kill everything that makes the paper special. The Post has survived for nearly 150 years, evolving from a hometown family newspaper into an indispensable national institution, and a pillar of the democratic system. But if Bezos and Lewis continue down their present path, it may not survive much longer. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4qkPUch

‌Bezos’s greatest gift to Trump

The hallmark (the “brand”) of the Washington Post has been accountability journalism. Thus, today’s staff decimation is Bezos’s greatest gift to Trump, so much more valuable than the Melania movie, inauguration money, etc. This disaster began, for real, with the Harris endorsement he killed. Margaret Sullivan @sulliview.bsky.social https://bit.ly/4ko03DM

‌Immigrants’ Recent Effects on Government Budgets: 1994–2023

Recent increases in immigration have rekindled concerns about their effects on government budgets. This paper updates a model of these effects first developed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to shed light on how immigrants, both legal and illegal, and their children affect government budgets. This analysis is the first to estimate the cumulative fiscal effect of immigrants on federal, state, and local budgets over 30 years. - Cato https://bit.ly/4rylV1x

‌Fact check: Trump’s WSJ op-ed was littered with false and misleading claims

The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed on Friday under the name of President Donald Trump. Trump criticized experts who warned that his tariff policies would cause economic destruction, writing that “the spectacular economic numbers coming out every single day” are proof that he was right and they were wrong.

But Trump’s rosy case was based in part on figures that are plain false or highly misleading, using cherry-picked beginning and ending points for various calculations to serve the president’s argument. And some of his qualitative claims were also inaccurate.

Here is a fact check. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kgzMHc

‌Why Trump Wants a Weaker Dollar

The U.S. dollar is getting weaker, and that’s just how the president wants it. During an appearance last Tuesday at the Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa, Donald Trump told reporters that the dollar’s declining exchange rate was “great.”

Trump understands that a weak dollar doesn’t sound good. In his first term, he tweeted, “As your President, one would think that I would be thrilled with our very strong dollar. I am not!” His logic is that the relatively weak currencies of America’s foreign competitors, such as China and Japan, can make their goods cheaper in international markets, and that the United States would do well to replicate their strategy. This theory isn’t unfounded—a weak dollar would boost the economy in certain respects—but the president’s unpredictable foreign-policy and global-trade decisions are threatening to erode America’s economic standing abroad in a far more significant way. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rvL4cW

‌JD Vance’s latest take on Alex Pretti killing will enrage you

During an interview with Daily Mail, Vice President JD Vance refused to say whether he would apologize to the family of Alex Pretti if an investigation found that Pretti’s civil rights were violated when he was shot and killed by federal immigration thugs in Minneapolis.

“For what?” Vance said when asked, before attempting to justify his retweet of the grotesque claim by White House senior adviser Stephen Miller that Pretti was “an assassin,” who “tried to murder federal agents.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4byFDFC

‌Letters from an American - February 4, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Trump ally Steve Bannon said yesterday on his podcast: “You’re damn right, we’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4kgJ5qB

‌Trump Says His Unpredictable Style Gives Him Leverage. But It Has a Cost.

President Trump, who considers himself a master deal maker, has never made any secret of his belief that the secret to winning at negotiation is to keep the other side off balance.

But a year into his second term, his act is starting to wear on both allies and adversaries, some of whom are starting to view him as so mercurial and unreliable that they appear willing to consider waiting him out or turning away from him rather than enduring the abrupt starts, stops and humiliations that can accompany engaging with him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OplEzt

‌Trump’s Call to ‘Nationalize’ Elections Adds to State Officials’ Alarm

President Trump’s declaration that he wants to “nationalize” voting in the United States arrives at a perilous moment for the relationship between the federal government and top election officials across the country.

While the executive branch has no explicit authority over elections, generations of secretaries of state have relied on the intelligence gathering and cybersecurity defenses, among other assistance, that only the federal government can provide.

But as Mr. Trump has escalated efforts to involve the administration in election and voting matters while also eliminating programs designed to fortify these systems against attacks, secretaries of state and other top state election officials, including some Republican ones, have begun to sound alarms. Some see what was once a crucial partnership as frayed beyond repair. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kj9qEo

‌Nike, Accused of Bias Against White Workers, Is Under Federal Investigation

The federal agency that safeguards hiring practices said on Wednesday that it was investigating Nike, the sportswear giant, for diversity efforts that it said amounted to discrimination against white workers.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, born of the Civil Rights Act, said it was investigating “systemic allegations of D.E.I.-related intentional race discrimination” against white employees and job applicants at Nike.

It appears to be the first time that the commission has said diversity, equity and inclusion practices in workplaces can amount to discrimination against white people, and Nike is a high-profile target. The company has sponsorship partnerships with world-famous athletes including LeBron James and Caitlin Clark. It also drew criticism from President Trump during his first term for running advertisements featuring Colin Kaepernick, the football star who knelt during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kpcoaQ

‌“You’re Not Going to Investigate a Federal Officer”

It doesn’t happen often, but local law enforcement can arrest and charge federal agents. Legal experts say there’s a moral obligation to at least try to hold federal immigration officers accountable when they violate the Constitution and the law. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4ks0qx6

‌The Real Story Behind the Midnight Immigration Raid on a Chicago Apartment Building

The Trump administration has claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building. But new documents make no mention of the gang and reveal federal agents had information about “illegal aliens unlawfully occupying apartments.” - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4rabYYf

‌“Capture it all”: ICE urged to explain memo about collecting info on protesters

Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) demanded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirm or deny the existence of a “domestic terrorists” database that lists US citizens who protest ICE’s immigration crackdown.

ICE “officers and senior Trump administration officials have repeatedly suggested that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is building a ‘domestic terrorists’ database comprising information on US citizens protesting ICE’s actions in recent weeks,” Markey wrote in a letter yesterday to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. “If such a database exists, it would constitute a grave and unacceptable constitutional violation. I urge you to immediately confirm or deny the existence of such a database, and if it exists, immediately shut it down and delete it.”

Creating a database of peaceful protesters “would constitute a shocking violation of the First Amendment and abuse of power,” and amount to “the kinds of tactics the United States rightly condemns in authoritarian governments such as China and Russia,” Markey said. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4cjEp18

‌Can Trump Escape the Epstein Files?

We are now into the second month of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, wherein the administration’s downplaying of the Epstein files has angered many in Donald Trump’s MAGA base. This is the first time that we have seen that base break with Trump, even as he seeks to get them to move on to other matters like the crimes of Barack Obama. My anti-Trump friends fall into two categories. One group is obsessed with the Epstein case because they think that it is a path to bringing Trump down. But another group simply isn’t paying attention, because they think that the Epstein scandal is distasteful and not something that educated people should care about. They should be paying attention to more serious issues like the Big Beautiful Bill’s cuts to Medicaid or what’s happening in Gaza. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4aganJj

‌The Right Is Coming For Same-Sex Marriage With An Insidious New Campaign

In his concurrence to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization majority opinion, which overturned Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas famously warned that the Supreme Court “should” revisit—and in his words “correct”—other longstanding precedents, just as they had done with Roe.

Among the decisions Thomas wanted to see on the chopping block are those, like Roe, that dealt with so-called “unenumerated rights.” These include Americans’ fundamental rights to privacy stemming from the substantive due process guarantees of the 5th and 14th Amendments.

Thomas’s logic here is that, hey, if the federal right to abortion is unconstitutional, so is access to contraception, so is the right to have sex with a consenting adult in the privacy of your own home, and yes, so is the right for same-sex couples to marry. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/3MtRXg9

‌Professors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance’

College professors once taught free from political interference, with mostly their students and colleagues privy to their lectures and book assignments. Now, they are being watched by state officials, senior administrators and students themselves. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tmDwuT

‌White House publishes website that rewrites history of Jan. 6 attack

Five years after a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol to stop certification of Joe Biden’s victory, the Trump administration is still fixated on a false narrative. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4rrtzdO

Prime Suspect‌

Hello, I’d like to report a murder. While the plot has been in place for some time, the actual killing just took place today in Washington, DC. I’m reporting the homicide here, in this independent media source, because I’m not at all sure that the Washington paper of record still has anyone on the murder beat. Across local, international, and sports desks, the Washington Post is laying off more than 300 journalists. According to the NYT, “The cuts are a sign that Jeff Bezos, who became one of the world’s richest people by selling things on the internet, has not yet figured out how to build and maintain a profitable publication on the internet.” This point of view assumes that Bezos’ goal in owning the Post was to build a profitable publication on the internet. But it’s been a long time since we’ve seen any signs the Amazonian billionaire’s prime concern was associated with such trifles as achieving a rounding error-sized profit in a vanity project which, at $250 million, cost him roughly half as much as his yacht (which also doesn’t turn a profit). No, this was never about turning bauble into bling. It was about power and access, and sometimes those are best achieved through failure. What could make the current administration happier than the demise of the paper that exposed Watergate? Hence, the decision to go postal on the Post. As Ian Bremmer succinctly explains: “The Washington Post is a political access play for Bezos, it’s not about supporting independent media or promoting democracy. This should have been clear to all for years now. But it’s impossible to ignore today.” Under Bezos’ watch, the Post adopted the tagline, Democracy Dies in Darkness. By now, we all know better. It gets bludgeoned to death in the cold light of day. - Next Draft https://bit.ly/3OqPeod

‌The unfathomable Minnesota transcript that must be read, as it tells the reality of America today

On Tuesday in Minnesota, a lawyer made headlines — including at Law Dork — for her shocking statement in court representing that government that the “system sucks.”

On Wednesday, the transcript first made available online by Minneapolis lawyer Daniel Suitor1 made clear that it wasn’t just Julie Le — an inexperienced litigator who was on a detail from her job at the Department of Homeland Security to help with the increased caseload resulting from Operation Metro Surge — who said a lot that matters on Tuesday.

It is an unfathomable exercise to read lawyers and a federal judge discussing at length the ways in which the rule of law is slipping through our nation’s fingers, but it is an absolutely necessary document to read for anyone who wants to protect the rule of law — and America.

And, though a lot was made on Tuesday of one comment from Le about wanting to be held in contempt so that she could get some sleep, I want to start by sharing the full paragraph, which adds some important context about Le — who had earlier told Blackwell that she had already threatened to leave the assignment. - Law Dork https://bit.ly/4qjQxmg

‌Surge in Immigration Cases in Minnesota Pushes Prosecutors and Judges to Brink

When it all became too much — the crippling case load, the lack of training and, most of all, the immigrants themselves who had been languishing in jail — Julie T. Le let loose in front of the judge.

Ms. Le, a prosecutor for the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, knew that he was angry. She understood that she and her colleagues had violated his orders to release people illegally detained in the state last month. But she had already tried to quit her job, and no one would replace her, so what else could she do?

“The system sucks. This job sucks,” Ms. Le exclaimed. While she wanted to improve things, she was just one person, she explained, working around the clock to grapple with the onslaught of cases stemming from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

“Fixing a system, a broken system, I don’t have a magic button to do it,” she said. “I don’t have the power or the voice to do it. I only can do it within the ability and the capacity that I have.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ceGVpx

‌Trump obliterates an aide’s efforts to downplay his comments – again

At this point, when an aide or adviser to Donald Trump offers to translate something the president has said, you should probably assume they have no idea what they’re talking about.

Trump on Tuesday laid waste to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s efforts to pretend he didn’t say something as controversial as he did. And this has become an altogether familiar exercise.

The controversy du jour in the Trump administration right now is Trump having floated nationalizing elections.

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” Trump told former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino in a podcast episode published Monday. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

This is highly impractical, given the Constitution gives the power to run elections to the states. But it’s also provocative, in that this is the president who tried to overturn an election based on a volume of false voter fraud claims. Imagine that guy commandeering control of an election.

So up stepped Leavitt to suggest that Trump hadn’t actually said what he said. - CNN https://cnn.it/3MqCoWA

‌U.S. job openings fall to 6.5 million, fewest since 2020, as labor market remains sluggish

U.S. job openings fell to the lowest level in more than five years, another sign that the American labor market remains sluggish.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that vacancies fell to 6.5 million in December — from 6.9 million in November and the fewest since September 2020. Layoffs rose slightly. The number of people quitting their jobs — which shows confidence in their prospects — was basically unchanged at 3.2 million.

December openings came in lower than economists had forecast. -AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/4rtM4OS?

‌Bezos guts the Washington Post—just like Trump wanted

Mainstream media is experiencing a major die-off at the hands of its own billionaire owners. On Wednesday, the Washington Post—at the command of Jeff Bezos—announced it would be laying off a third of its staff in the name of cost-saving measures. According to Executive Editor Matt Murray, the major layoffs have to do with the fact that the outlet isn’t pulling a profit anymore. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4rtMbdg

‌‌‘I don’t know’: Trump plays dumb on abysmal approval rating

President Donald Trump told NBC News in an interview released Wednesday that despite the failures of his administration—killing civilians, rising costs—he doesn’t know why his approval ratings continue to fall.

“I don’t believe the polls,” Trump initially said, and argued that “I should be at 100%” in polls since “everybody” understands the border is closed, though it wasn’t open under former President Joe Biden, despite years of right-wing disinformation to the contrary.

Trump then claimed, “I could show you polls where I’m polling at 69% popularity.” Trump’s highest average approval rating in his second term is 52% and that was on Inauguration Day. His approval has steadily declined since then and is currently at 41%.

Trump then asserted “I’m starting to get great polls on the economy,” which is a lie. Llamas pointed out that Trump’s numbers are bad on the economy and when asked why that is the case, Trump responded, “I don’t know, I don’t know.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3ZhIsDL

‌Georgia's always on his mind

You might have noticed that Donald Trump won't let sleeping dogs lie.

His new obsession is the same as the old obsession — non-existent voter fraud. But it's one that threatens to lead American democracy back into danger.

In Trump’s presidency, scandals get overshadowed by other scandals as soon as they erupt. So while foreigners fixated on new twists in the Jeffrey Epstein saga this week, Americans were contending with multiple political storms.

Perhaps the most ominous concerns Trump’s return to fracturing faith in the country’s voting system. He called for the nationalizing of elections, and said Republicans should take over administration of them in 15 places. Not surprisingly, this seems to refer to states or districts where Trump hasn't won.

This, of course, would be illegal. - CNN https://cnn.it/4tjiAVA

‌The Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP

Calling the Trump administration fascist has become a cliché, but some federal departments seem keen on the comparison. Consider the administration’s messaging on social media.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Facebook account recently posted a recruiting notice for ICE under the banner “WE’LL HAVE OUR HOME AGAIN”—the title of a white-nationalist anthem by the Pine Tree Riots (“By blood or sweat, we’ll get there yet”). The Department of Labor recently posted a video montage referencing American battle scenes under the tagline “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American”—a slogan close to the Nazi-era Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4a3SdM1

‌America Is Losing the Facts That Hold It Together

The CIA World Factbook occupies a special place in the memories of elder Millennials like me. It was an enormous compendium of essential facts about every country around the world, carefully collected from across the federal government. This felt especially precious when the World Factbook went online in 1997 (it had previously been a classified internal publication printed on paper, then a declassified print resource), a time when the internet still felt new and unsettled. Unlike many other pages on the World Wide Web, it was reliable enough that you could even get away with citing it in schoolwork. And there was a special thrill in the idea that the CIA, a famously secretive organization, was the one providing it to you.

Memories are now the only place the World Factbook resides. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Zq8CUO

(The CIA World Factbook - older versions - can be seen on The Internet Archive website https://bit.ly/4r3UbCb . For now.)

‌12 Columbia Professors and Students Are Arrested at Anti-ICE Protest

A dozen Columbia University faculty and staff members and students were taken into custody on Thursday after blocking traffic on Broadway for nearly an hour as they protested President Trump’s immigration crackdown and demanded that Columbia provide more protections for international students.

The arrests of the protesters, who sat in a crosswalk and wore matching shirts that said “Sanctuary Campus Now,” took place just before 4 p.m. after repeated warnings from police officers. The calm and deliberate police action was a marked contrast from the overwhelming show of force and rows of riot police that often met protesters outside Columbia during the past two years. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Zm1JUt

‌What’s Really Driving These Bogus Claims of Voter Fraud

When confronted with allegations on noncitizens voting in Utah, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, the state’s top election official, initiated a monthslong review of Utah’s approximately 2.1 million registered voters. She and her team found one “confirmed noncitizen.” Just one. And that one noncitizen, while registered, had never voted.

Idaho, a state of one million voters, ran similar tests in 2024, and they found 36 “very likely” registered noncitizens. That may seem like a lot until you view it in light of claims that statewide elections are altered by such anomalies. Some, but not all, of those 36 people have previously voted, the secretary of state, Phil McGrane, said, but “out of the million-plus registered voters we started with, we’re down to 10 thousandths of a percent” of the overall count — not even close to affecting the outcome. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45S5Mf3

‌Federal workers will be easier to fire under a new Trump administration move

The Trump administration is gearing up to strip job protections from up to 50,000 federal workers.

The final rule is set to be introduced on Thursday by the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government's human resources arm. It will set up a new category for government workers who are charged with carrying out Trump policies.

The change will make it easier to fire these career civil service employees, since they wouldn't be able to appeal firings or disciplinary actions to an independent board as has been the longstanding practice. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3OdyX65

‌The Only Thing That Will Turn Measles Back

Since measles vaccination became common among Americans, the logic of outbreaks has been simple: When vaccination rates fall, infections rapidly rise; when vaccination rates increase, cases abate. The United States is currently living out the first half of that maxim.

Measles-vaccination rates have been steadily declining for several years; since last January, the country has logged its two largest measles epidemics in more than three decades. The second of those, still ballooning in South Carolina, is over 875 cases and counting. In April, measles may be declared endemic in the U.S. again, 26 years after elimination.

When and if the maxim’s second part—a rebound in vaccination—might manifest “is the key question,” Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told me. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4aAZ93a

‌Donald Trump’s War on Reality

Donald Trump’s rise tracks the decline of that thing we once agreed to call reality. He cemented his place in the popular imagination with the advent of reality television, a genre that promised authenticity, even as the supposedly unscripted scenes were carefully manipulated by producers. On The Apprentice, which debuted in 2004, Trump was the embodiment of a culture just beginning to blur the line between what was real and what merely looked like it was.

In his second term as president, Trump—now with the help of artificial intelligence—is completing the revolution that made him. Over the weekend, he posted a video of himself piloting a fighter jet that dumps excrement on protesters. The clip was cartoonish, meant to amuse his followers and outrage his adversaries. This might seem like an ephemeral bit of trollish fun, but it is an example of an alarming pattern. Trump is provoking an epistemic collapse—cultivating the sense that every shard of once-dependable evidence is suspect. He is ushering in an era of distrust and confusion, in which the president molds perception to serve his own interests. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tmwAOu

‌Trump Administration to Make It Easier to Fire 50,000 Federal Workers

The Trump administration is planning to make it easier to discipline—and potentially fire—career officials in senior positions across the government, a move that would affect roughly 50,000 federal workers.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce, issued a final rule on Thursday that creates a category of worker for high-ranking career employees whose work focuses on executing the administration’s policies. Workers who fall into that category would no longer be subject to rules that for decades have set a high bar for firing federal employees. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/3ZmbjXA

‌Layoffs last month marked the worst January since 2009

Employers laid off 108,435 people last month, the highest January number since 2009, according to a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. At the same time, hiring intentions haven't been lower since then.

The number reflects a 118% increase over January 2025 and more than doubles the total layoffs of last December. New hires came in at just 5,306, the lowest number since Challenger began tracking that data point in 2009.

“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January. It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4bFDzvv

‌Trump shares racist video depicting Obamas as apes on Truth Social, then removes it amid bipartisan outrage

President Donald Trump shared a racist video on his social media platform Thursday night that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle, then removed it hours later amid bipartisan outrage, including from a close ally. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ajB67R

‌Trump shares, then deletes video depicting Obamas as apes

A video on President Donald Trump’s Truth Social profile that included a short clip depicting former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes has been deleted from his account — hours after the White House defended the president for sharing it.

Tim Scott, the sole Black Republican in the Senate, called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” - WaPo https://wapo.st/4khmCK0

‌A federal judge schools chaotic Kristi Noem

Shrill but useful — useful because she is so shrill — Kristi Noem has elicited from a federal judge a valuable 83-page tutorial. The secretary of homeland security, her mind as closed as a clam, will not benefit from Judge Ana C. Reyes’s explanation of immigration law. Other Americans will. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4amWvgt

‌Tulsi Gabbard is showing why her job shouldn’t exist

Tulsi Gabbard can do one great service to the country as director of national intelligence: help abolish her agency.

Gabbard’s job is to oversee the 18 sometimes fractious intelligence units that in theory report to her. Because she had no experience in intelligence before taking the job, expectations were low. But she has managed to underperform them. Her most visible role has been as a political commissar, campaigning for President Donald Trump’s agenda of retribution and for his personal attention. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4aFxVYn

‌Trump’s elections Chimera

There’s a three-headed monster heading for our elections.

The combined forces of the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) are shaping up to be the Trump administration’s election subversion Chimera (that’s the fire-breathing lion-snake-goat hybrid creature from Greek mythology) in 2026. While the administration has flagrantly abused the federal government’s law enforcement powers from day one, in the past couple of weeks those abuses have become more explicitly about laying the groundwork for undermining elections. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4a3lrdZ

Trump’s Memecoin Down 95% as Democrats Seek Answers on Crypto ‘Corruption’‌

The crypto market has been in shambles lately, although the price of bitcoin is now back up to around $70,000 after sinking to approximatey $60,000 yesterday. In response, Democrats are mocking Trump’s crypto embrace that began during his 2024 presidential campaign, and the president’s own TRUMP memecoin is now down roughly 95% from the all-time high it hit around the time of his inauguration. Things look even worse for the first lady’s MELANIA memecoin, which is now down 99% from its own all-time high. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4bHYChc

‌Is it unkind to describe our president as a racist pig?

I try to ignore Trump’s posts because every one of them is filled with his noxious bloviation.

But sometimes his posts are so revolting that I can’t just let them pass. The loathsome sociopath in the Oval Office has to be held accountable.

Late last night — which happened to be the fifth day of Black History Month — at exactly 11:44 pm, Trump posted a video that included a depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys.

Now, we all know Trump is a loathsome human being. His insults have become an odious staple of his presidency. You may remember his AI-generated video of himself as a fighter pilot dumping excrement on No Kings Day protesters. Or his AI-generated video of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries as mariachi performers.

This morning, the White House press secretary hurried into the White House press room with her usual pooper-scooper to clean up from last night’s racist post — calling it nothing but “an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” and adding, for good measure: “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

Well, it turns out that plenty of Republican members of Congress were outraged, too — and they didn’t fake it. “The most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” posted South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, the sole Black Republican in the Senate. “A reasonable person sees the racist context in this,” posted Nebraska Republican Senator Pete Ricketts. “Totally unacceptable,” posted Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker. “Wrong and incredibly offensive,” posted New York Republican congressman Mike Lawler. “Offensive, heart breaking, and unacceptable,” posted Ohio Republican congressman Mike Turner.

What happened then? Just before noon today, Eastern Time — some 12 hours after Trump posted his piece of sh*t — the White House said the post had been deleted. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3OcZy37

‌Federal Judge Orders Release Of Evidence In Case Of Woman Shot 5 Times By Border Patrol

Evidence to be released in Marimar Martinez’s case includes about 40 text messages from the phone of the Border Patrol agent who shot her, plus body camera footage, FBI reports and photos of her vehicle leading up to the shooting. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4toWqRO

‌Donald Trump Already Knows the 2026 Election Is “Rigged”

On Monday, President Trump phoned into the podcast of his former deputy F.B.I. director, Dan Bongino, and announced that he wanted to “nationalize” American elections in fifteen “crooked” states—he didn’t say which ones—ahead of the upcoming midterms, in which most people in Washington, D.C., these days, including, apparently, Trump himself, expect Republicans to suffer widespread losses. A federal takeover of elections was necessary, Trump said, because he was the real winner of the 2020 election and also because “these people”—he didn’t say which people, but one can guess—“were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally.”

When asked about the President’s idea, House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican, who owes whatever tenuous hold he currently has on his job to Trump, didn’t say what any states’-rights-loving Southern Republican would have said in the past: Are you crazy? Instead, channelling the boss, he complained about blue-state election practices. “We had three House Republican candidates who were ahead on Election Day in the last election cycle, and every time a new tranche of ballots came in, they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost,” he said. “It looks on its face to be fraudulent.” Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist turned public MAGA ideologue, was even less subtle. “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” he said on his “War Room” podcast. Addressing Democrats, he added, “We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again.” - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4aDa9NC

‌I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This Is Why the West Needs Migrants.

Imagine you’re the leader of a nation, and you face a dilemma. Half a million or so people who are crucial to everyone’s daily lives inhabit your country. They care for aging parents, work at small and large companies, harvest the food that’s on the table. They are also part of your community. On weekends, they walk in the parks, go to restaurants and play on the local amateur soccer team.

But one crucial thing makes these half a million people different from other people in your country: They don’t have the legal documents that allow them to live there. As a result, they don’t have the same rights as your country’s citizens and can’t fulfill the same obligations. They aren’t able to receive a higher education, pay taxes or contribute to Social Security.

What should we do with these people? Some leaders have chosen to hunt them down and deport them through operations that are both unlawful and cruel. My government has chosen a different way: a fast and simple path to regularize their immigration status. Last month, my government issued a decree that makes up to half a million undocumented migrants living in Spain eligible for temporary residence permits, with certain conditions, which they will be able to renew after a year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bCMVbt

‌Newly obtained emails undermine RFK Jr.'s testimony about 2019 Samoa trip before measles outbreak

Over two days of questioning during his Senate confirmation hearings last year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeated the same answer.

He said the closely scrutinized 2019 trip he took to Samoa, which came before a devastating measles outbreak, had “nothing to do with vaccines.”

Documents obtained by The Guardian and The Associated Press undermine that testimony. Emails sent by staffers at the U.S. Embassy and the United Nations provide, for the first time, an inside look at how Kennedy’s trip came about and include contemporaneous accounts suggesting his concerns about vaccine safety motivated the visit. - AP https://bit.ly/3MqRVFQ

‌Trump’s New Tax Law Saved Amazon Billions

First, the law allowed companies to claim immediate deductions for certain capital investments rather than spreading those write-offs over several years. Those upfront deductions are the pieces of the tax law that will have the greatest bang for the buck because they accelerate investment, economists say.

Like other tech companies, Amazon has been investing heavily in data centers, and much of the equipment inside would qualify for the immediate deductions. The company said it spent $340 billion in the U.S. last year, including operating costs and capital investments.

Second, the new law reversed a piece of the prior Republican tax law that companies had been complaining about. The old law required them to spread out deductions for research, starting in 2022. The new law permits immediate deductions for new domestic research and lets companies accelerate previously delayed deductions. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/46eUO3t

‌Trump posts video of the Obamas as apes—and won't apologize

On Friday, the Trump administration defended President Donald Trump’s decision to post a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

On Thursday night, Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account promoting long-debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The video contained a segment with the faces of the Obamas pasted on top of apes along with the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4tl91p8

‌Trump's latest extortion threat should get him impeached

President Donald Trump is once again begging to get impeached after he issued a blatant extortion threat to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

According to multiple reports, Trump said he would release federal funding that Congress already appropriated for the Gateway tunnel—a critical infrastructure project that would add two additional rail tunnels connecting New Jersey and New York—if Schumer agreed to name Washington-Dulles International Airport and Manhattan's Pennsylvania Station after Trump.

Trump canceled the Gateway funding during the government shutdown in October, using the cancellation of the funds as a bargaining chip to get the government reopened. He thought—incorrectly—that canceling the funds would scare Democrats into agreeing to fund the government without getting any concessions from Trump and the GOP.

"The project in New York—it’s billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get—it’s terminated," Trump said at the time. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3LUHt9y

‌The Evangelicals Who See Trump’s Viciousness as a Virtue

The National Prayer Breakfast was founded in 1953, when President Dwight Eisenhower accepted an invitation to join members of Congress to break bread together. Every president since has participated, regardless of party or religious persuasion. It offers an opportunity, according to its organizers, for political leaders to gather and pray collectively for our nation “in the spirit of love and reconciliation as Jesus of Nazareth taught 2,000 years ago.”

Donald Trump never got that memo—or, if he did, he’s found ways to ignore it.

In a rambling, 75-minute speech at the Prayer Breakfast yesterday, we saw the quintessential Trump. His comments were grievance-filled, narcissistic, conspiratorial, factually false, divisive, and insulting. He referred to his critics as “lunatics.” He engaged in projection, comparing them to “dictators” and “the gestapo.” He labeled Republican Representative Thomas Massie a “moron” because he won’t cast legislative votes the way Trump wants. Joe Biden is “Crooked Joe,” while Jacob Frey is “the horrible fake mayor” of Minneapolis. Trump praised El Salvador’s authoritarian President Nayib Bukele—Bukele has referred to himself as “the world’s coolest dictator”—for his “very strong prisons.” (The prison that Trump celebrates, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, known as CECOT, is notorious for its cruel and inhumane conditions.) Trump emphasized that Bukele—who also spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast—is “one of my favorite people.”

Trump took credit for churches “coming back stronger than ever” and for religion being “hotter than ever.” He claimed he has “done more for religion than any other president”—apparently, before the age of Trump, Christians couldn’t say “Merry Christmas” in public—and argued that his predecessors in the White House “bailed out” on religion. “I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat. I really don’t,” he said, adding, “They cheat.”

The spirit of love and reconciliation that Jesus of Nazareth taught 2,000 years ago was not particularly evident in the words of the president. Of course, it never has been. No matter. The audience of some 3,500—the great majority of whom undoubtedly claim to be followers of Jesus—responded to Trump’s remarks with a standing ovation. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/46E9V6q

‌Officials Pressed Schumer to Help Name Penn Station and Dulles Airport for Trump

The Trump administration has sought to pressure Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, to help name New York’s Penn Station and Washington Dulles International Airport after President Trump in exchange for releasing billions of dollars he has frozen for a rail tunnel under the Hudson River.

Top administration officials have told Mr. Schumer in recent weeks that the money would be released if he agreed to name the facilities in Mr. Trump’s honor, according to four people familiar with the private conversations. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the private discussions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3McDi96

‌‘I Didn’t Make a Mistake’: Trump Declines to Apologize for Racist Video of Obamas

President Trump posted a blatantly racist video clip portraying former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, but he insisted he had nothing to apologize for even after he deleted the video following an outcry.

The clip, set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” was spliced near the end of a 62-second video that promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and was among a flurry of links posted by Mr. Trump late Thursday night. It was the latest in a pattern by Mr. Trump of promoting offensive imagery and slurs about Black Americans and others.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Trump said he only saw the beginning of the video. “I just looked at the first part, it was about voter fraud in some place, Georgia,” Mr. Trump said. “I didn’t see the whole thing.”

He then tried to deflect blame, suggesting he had given the link to someone else to post. “I gave it to the people, generally they’d look at the whole thing but I guess somebody didn’t,” he told reporters.

Still, Mr. Trump offered no contrition when pressed. “No, I didn’t make a mistake,” he said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rvNh8m

‌JD Vance Is Booed at Olympic Opening Ceremony in Milan

San Siro stadium in Milan broke out in scattered boos as Vice President JD Vance appeared on huge screens there during the opening ceremony for the Winter Games, an indication of the fury in Italy over the Trump administration’s policies.

Near the end of the ceremony’s lengthy Parade of Nations, the U.S. delegation of athletes, decked out in white Ralph Lauren coats, entered the stadium to cheers and whistles. But the crowd’s mood seemed to shift when the screen switched from the athletes to the stands, where Mr. Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, were waving small American flags.

Their appearance on the screens lasted for only a few seconds but was met with a smattering of jeers and boos that were audible despite the loud music playing for the parade. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rxzM87

‌U.S. Seeks to Expedite Deportation of 5-Year-Old Liam Conejo Ramos

Just days after being released from an immigration detention center in Texas, Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy in a bunny hat whose image rocketed around the world, is facing an escalating effort to deport him and his father.

The federal government wants to have the family’s asylum claims dismissed without a full hearing, and on Friday, a lawyer for Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, appeared before an immigration judge to contest the government’s effort. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OuG7Tu

‌Hegseth Says Defense Department Will Cut Ties With Harvard

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that the Defense Department would sever its academic ties with Harvard University, the latest broadside by the Trump administration in its pressure campaign to force the university to cut a deal with the government.

In a statement and video published on Friday evening, Mr. Hegseth attacked the university in hyperbolic language, decrying it as a politically liberal institution, and said that, beginning in the new school year in September, the Defense Department will “discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs at the school.” Mr. Hegseth added that military personnel who are attending classes will be able to finish those courses of study. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Mi7H5U

‌Trump Is Hosting Governors at the White House, but Only Republicans

President Trump is hosting an annual meeting of governors at the White House this month, but is doing something different this year. He is not inviting Democrats.

The meeting, part of the National Governors Association winter gathering, will only include Republican governors, according to multiple people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss scheduling that was not public. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tnv9zb

‌Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services for Immigration Agencies

After federal immigration agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Google employees lit up the company’s internal message boards with calls for the company to respond.

On Friday, more than 800 employees called on management in a petition to be transparent about how Google’s technology supports federal immigration agencies and urged the company to stop doing business with those organizations. The petition said they were “appalled by the violence” and “paramilitary-style raids” by immigration agents, which they accused Google of aiding.

They also asked the company to take safety measures to protect employees after a reported attempt by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enter the company’s campus in Cambridge, Mass. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aDb28U

‌U.S. Judge Says Trump Cannot Halt Funding for Tunnel Project

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from suspending billions of dollars of funding for a rail tunnel under the Hudson River, pending future arguments in the case.

Construction of the new $16 billion rail tunnel, the biggest transportation infrastructure project in the United States, had come to a halt earlier in the day, four months after the Trump administration suspended its federal funding.

Judge Jeannette A. Vargas of the Southern District of New York ordered the federal government to unlock the billions in federal grants to the program, as the case proceeds through the courts. If the Trump administration complies, the project could soon restart construction. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kHfRBL

‌An Elegy for My Washington Post

Hovering among the song lyrics, sports scores and movie quotes that clutter up my brain, there are a few key texts that I have committed to memory. The Gettysburg Address, for one. Psalm 23. The preamble to the Constitution, plus the first few sentences of the Declaration of Independence. (After “the consent of the governed,” things get hazy.)

And there’s another manifesto rattling around up there, one that I learned some 21 years ago, when I began working at The Washington Post. It is less well known to the world, but no less vital to my worldview.

It is called “The Seven Principles for the Conduct of a Newspaper.”

These principles, about 150 words in total, were the work of Eugene Meyer, the former Federal Reserve chairman who bought The Post at auction in 1933 and whose family would run the paper for four generations. On March 5, 1935, The Post’s new owner issued his seven principles, which addressed the newspaper’s mission, its style, its leadership, its independence — in all, its spirit.

Now, The Washington Post is in crisis: Its newsroom is being decimated and its coverage ambitions curtailed, and all this after its proud, tireless journalists were reduced to the indignity of publicly pleading for their jobs, only to be ignored by an unfathomably wealthy owner. I grieve for The Post, and part of my grief is personal. I worked in its newsroom for many years and forged deep friendships there, and, as a longtime resident of the Washington area, I remain a devoted Washington Post reader. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZjDGpj

‌Trump’s Stifling of Dissent Reaches a New Level

The crackdown on dissent and speech in Minnesota this winter follows a pattern that is common in countries that slide from democracy to autocracy: A leader enacts a legally dubious policy. Citizens protest that policy. The government responds with intimidation and force. When people are hurt, the government blames them and lies about what happened.

The New York Times editorial board published an index in October tracking 12 categories of democratic erosion, based on historical patterns and interviews with experts. Our index places the United States on a scale of 0 to 10 for each category. Zero represents the United States before President Trump began his second term — not perfect, surely, but one of the world’s healthiest democracies. Ten represents the condition in a true autocracy, such as China, Iran or Russia. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qYzUhb

‌Letters from an American - February 6, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Late last night, President Donald J. Trump’s social media account posted a video full of debunked claims about the 2020 presidential election that included an image of former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama with their heads attached to the bodies of apes.

Predictably, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt derided the “fake outrage” over the image, but as Tim Grieve of NOTUS explained, when Republican senators Tim Scott of South Carolina, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, and Roger Wicker of Mississippi called out the racism behind the post, the president deleted the video and a White House official said that a “staffer erroneously made the post,” as if somehow a staffer could post random racist videos from the president’s account in the middle of the night. As soon as they could blame the post on a staffer, Republicans rushed to condemn the post’s racism.

Later tonight on Air Force One, Trump said that he had posted it himself. When a reporter asked if he would apologize, he said, “No, I didn’t make a mistake.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4cgWDAt

‌The US government seems to have a clear message for White nationalists

“America has been invaded by criminals and predators,” according to the recruiting poster pinned to the top of the Department of Homeland Security account on X. “We need YOU to get them out.”

Another social media recruiting poster is in the same nostalgic vein as Uncle Sam, but it relied instead on a phrase with ties to right wing extremism.

A cowboy on horseback, like the Marlboro Man seen from afar, streaks across a mountain valley with a Stealth bomber flying above.

“We’ll have our home again,” is the only text, along with “join.ice.gov,” a website where people can learn a little bit about working at ICE. It repeats the language from the recruiting poster and adds that no college degree is required. - CNN https://cnn.it/3OuGQnG

‌What RFK Jr.’s Unproven Autism Treatment Could Mean for Autistic Patients and Their Families

Last September, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump made a big announcement: The federal government had supposedly uncovered a clear link between autism and mothers taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) during their pregnancy. The proclamation was swiftly lambasted by scientists outside the administration, yet it’s only one facet of the Trump administration’s concerning new approach to autism.

That same day, RFK Jr. stated the Food and Drug Administration would soon approve a new treatment for autism, a form of folate (vitamin B9) known as leucovorin. As with the acetaminophen link, however, the evidence supporting the use of leucovorin for autism rests on shaky ground, to say the least. And many experts worry about what could happen to people with autism and their families if the drug starts to become widely taken.

“The idea of doing this for everyone—we’re going to see side effects, we’re going to see negative outcomes,” Audrey Brumback, a pediatric neurologist specializing in autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions at UT Health Austin, told Gizmodo. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4r5MNpV

‌Washington Post C.E.O. Will Lewis Steps Down After Stormy Tenure

Will Lewis, the embattled chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post, has stepped down, the company announced Saturday, days after the newspaper came under widespread criticism for laying off hundreds of its journalists.

Mr. Lewis said in a statement that he had made the decision “in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post.” His email, which was terse, thanked only Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Post, and did not mention journalists at the newspaper.

Mr. Lewis left three days after the company, facing years of financial losses, undertook a significant round of layoffs that cut 30 percent of the staff — more than 300 journalists — decimating The Post’s local, international and sports coverage. Marty Baron, the celebrated former editor of The Post, called it one of the “darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OdVJL3

‌Top ICE Lawyer in Minnesota Departs as Immigration Lawsuits Overwhelm Courts

The top lawyer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota left the agency in recent days, exiting as a crush of litigation stemming from the immigration crackdown in the state has overwhelmed the court system.

The lawyer, Jim Stolley, the outgoing chief counsel for ICE in the state, has not publicly addressed the circumstances of his departure. Starting this week, emails sent to his government account generated an automated response noting that he had “retired from public service.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rIWHxz

‌At Least 50 Arrested After Protests Escalate Outside Minnesota Federal Building

Local authorities declared an unlawful assembly after protests on Saturday escalated near a federal building just outside Minneapolis, leading to at least 50 arrests, the county sheriff’s office said.

The incident occurred outside the B.H. Whipple Federal Building, a facility that has become both a staging ground for immigration agents and a hub for demonstrations against the crackdown in the Twin Cities.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office noted that while “many individuals” peacefully assembled, “some agitators” hurled chunks of ice at law enforcement, striking a sheriff’s deputy in the head and breaking the windshield of a squad car. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aDaGz5

‌Whistle-Blower Report Involved Intelligence About a Trump Contact

Members of Congress were briefed this week on a whistle-blower report about an intelligence intercept of a call between two foreign nationals discussing a person close to President Trump, according to people familiar with the material.

It is not clear what country the two foreign nationals were from, but the discussion involved Iran. The whistle-blower report was drafted last May, around the time the Trump administration was deliberating about a strike on Iran. Mr. Trump ordered a military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in June.

The identity of the person close to Mr. Trump could not be immediately determined, nor could the content of what the two foreign nationals were saying about the person. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rBrqwj

‌Binance Gives Trump Family’s Crypto Firm a Leg Up

Ties between the exchange and the president’s company, World Liberty Financial, have only strengthened since the president pardoned Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4r5qUa7

‌This Is Just Who Trump Is

The best way to understand the president’s motivations is to find him at his most unfiltered, which is to say, on social media, late at night. And Thursday night, Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account that depicted President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. The clip, which runs for roughly a minute and shows the Obamas at the end, is set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

I try to avoid superlatives in my writing, but there is simply no question that this is the most flagrant display of presidential racism since Woodrow Wilson screened D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” in the White House in 1915. And for a sense of the racism of Griffith’s film, recall that it both reinvigorated the Ku Klux Klan and gave the organization its modern iconography. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cdKUmb

‌Trump’s Obama Derangement Syndrome

It seems etymologically, metaphysically, geologically and ethically impossible that President Trump could reach a new low. But he has.

Every Friday, when I’m planning my column, I find fresh evidence that the president is unfit for his office. He taunts his foes in crude, creepy ways and tries to tattoo his name on everything.

Late Thursday night, a vile clip appeared on Truth Social, depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle cartoon, to the Tokens’ “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” It was at the end of a video filled with baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The man who pushed the despicable “birther” conspiracy is still at it, using a racist meme from a far-right Pepe-the-frog-loving acolyte. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qpe99c

‌Letters from an American - February 7, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Yesterday two right-wing circuit judges signed off on the Trump administration’s new mass detention policy: the extraordinary assertion that vast numbers of noncitizens throughout the country can be arrested and held in detention centers without the right to release until they are deported.

As Steve Vladeck explained in December in One First, this new policy dramatically expanded the number of immigrants suddenly subject to arrest and long-term detention. U.S. judges overwhelmingly rejected the new policy; Vladeck quoted Politico’s Kyle Cheney, who reported that in more than 700 cases, at least 225 judges appointed by all modern presidents—including 23 appointed by Trump—have ruled that the new policy likely violates both the law and the right to due process. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4r3qTTU

Week Fifty-Five: February 9 - February 15

‌'Take the vaccine, please,' a top U.S. health official says in an appeal as measles cases rise

A leading U.S. health official on Sunday urged people to get inoculated against the measles at a time of outbreaks across several states and as the United States is at risk of losing its measles elimination status.

“Take the vaccine, please,” said Dr Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator whose boss has raised suspicion about the safety and importance of vaccines. “We have a solution for our problem.” - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/4qtR8Ca?

‌Americans at the Olympics Can’t Escape the Politics at Home

The 232 Americans competing at the Winter Games have trained for years, traveled thousands of miles and are ready to give their best on the ice and snow in northern Italy. But politics, perhaps inevitably, is intruding on their Olympic moment.

The competition has opened after a year in which the Trump administration denigrated Europe, threatened allies and began an immigration crackdown at home that incited outrage, including in Italy. That opposition has followed the U.S. team as its members compete on the Olympic stage, forcing athletes, coaches and American fans to respond to — or sidestep — the backlash.

Hunter Hess, a skier from Bend, Ore., told reporters last week that he had “mixed emotions” about representing the United States at these Games. “There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of,” he said, adding: “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

The comments drew a furious response from President Trump, who called Mr. Hess “a real Loser” in a post on his social media site, Truth Social, on Sunday. “If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this,” Mr. Trump said.

The president’s remarks came two days after the opening ceremony of the Games in Milan on Friday, when jeers and boos rippled through the San Siro stadium as Vice President JD Vance briefly was shown on huge screens while the U.S. team paraded in waving American flags. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qtRkBo

‌The latest move to make civil servants more vulnerable than ever

The Trump administration has finally delivered on one of its dark first-day promises to destroy the merit-based civil service: A new rule has officially created Schedule Policy/Career (or Schedule P/C, a revived Schedule F). As expected, the new rule wrongly claims that Congress intended for some rank-and-file career civil servants to become at-will employees.

As we’ve seen over the past year, erosion of civil service protections hurt us all by forcing out employees who follow the law, blow the whistle, voice concerns about agency direction, have different political views than those in power, and simply do their job professionally.

This is not the system Congress created, and it is not the system the American people deserve. That’s why we are fighting it in court. Public attention is rightfully focused on this administration’s other attacks on the rule of law and basic decency. But this new regulation shows that the civil service’s independence remains under siege — at a time when we are seeing career civil servants increasingly willing to walk away or speak up when their red lines are crossed. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4tGvT2O

‌The Children of Dilley

ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of what comes next. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4tsnDmH

‌Trump Lawyers WALK OUT Mid-Trial — Judge Blocks Doors, Arrest Threatened

A shocking moment inside a federal courtroom. Trump’s lawyers suddenly walk out mid-trial, forcing a veteran federal judge to order U.S. Marshals to block every exit and warn of possible arrest.What triggered this unprecedented standoff? Was it a legal breakdown — or a calculated power play?

This is not just about one trial.

It’s about whether America’s courts can still enforce authority when politics collides with the rule of law. - Power Line News / YouTube https://bit.ly/3ZZ5BuN

‌Supreme Court Rejects Appeal — Melania’s Next Move Stuns Legal Experts

At precisely 10:03 a.m. Eastern Time this morning, the Supreme Court issued a short but definitive order: “Application denied.” With no dissents and no accompanying opinion, all nine justices unanimously rejected a last-minute emergency appeal, bringing months of legal maneuvering in a major federal case to a close.

The timing of the decision is what makes it particularly notable. It came just 72 hours after Melania Trump’s legal team submitted a proffer agreement to federal prosecutors—an arrangement that outlines evidence she is prepared to provide in exchange for possible immunity. Court filings and official records indicate that she voluntarily waived spousal privilege and offered financial records, communications, and sworn testimony that could have direct consequences for the case. - Rachel Maddow on YouTube https://bit.ly/45Zq9Xz

‌The Mark Kelly Case Is Bigger Than It Seems

Of the many questions posed by those gathered in U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s courtroom last week, the most obvious one of all never came up: Why on earth was anyone here in the first place?

Until now, the military has pursued only a tiny number of criminal cases against retirees for actions that occur after military service has ended. Until now, the idea that the secretary of defense would accuse a lawmaker of treason simply for disagreeing with him would be laughable. Until now, any free-speech debates concerning sitting members of Congress have led to the conclusion that lawmakers ought to have—to borrow from former Chief Justice Earl Warren—the widest possible latitude to express themselves.

And yet there we all were anyway, gathered to see Mark Kelly—the fighter pilot turned astronaut turned U.S. senator—defend his First Amendment rights against an attempt by the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, to silence him and knock down his military retirement rank and pay. - Atlantic

‌‘The Trust Has Been Absolutely Destroyed’

The email that federal law enforcement sent this week to the nation’s top election administrators would have been routine just a few years ago. “Your election partners,” the Tuesday missive from FBI Election Executive Kellie Hardiman read, “would like to invite you to a call where we can discuss preparations for the cycle.”

But multiple secretaries of state who received the document told us they viewed it as a threat, given recent events. The FBI had just seized 2020 election materials in Georgia, and President Trump had announced his desire to “nationalize” elections, a state responsibility under the U.S. Constitution. The Department of Justice has sued more than 20 states to obtain their election rolls, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is conducting an investigation of U.S. voting technology. The upshot is that a yearslong partnership between state and federal authorities—in which the feds have provided assistance on election security and protected state and local voting systems from threats—is now in danger of falling apart. Instead of “partners,” some state authorities now view federal officials involved in election efforts with deep suspicion. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3ZpnBhV

‌Demanding Support for Trump, Justice Dept. Struggles to Recruit Prosecutors

The intermingling of law enforcement and political goals has made the department, long a magnet for platinum legal talent, an unappealing landing spot, according to current and former officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

The number of applications is down significantly from previous years, officials said, even as Trump loyalists have publicized vacancies through official and unconventional channels. Some of those applying are generally not as qualified as those who sought the position in the recent past, they added.

A Justice Department spokesman did not respond to specific questions, but said all of the department’s actions reflected Ms. Bondi’s February 2025 memo requiring all employees to “zealously advance, protect and defend” the interests of Mr. Trump in his role as the nation’s chief executive. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ap8utN

‌Trump calls Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show performance ‘one of the worst, EVER’

President Donald Trump – who skipped the Super Bowl and instead attended a watch party in Florida – denounced Bad Bunny’s halftime performance as “a slap in the face” and said “nobody understands a word” the Puerto Rican rapper was saying.

“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “This ‘Show’ is just a ‘slap in the face’ to our Country, which is setting new standards and records every single day.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3LZguK0

‌Trump calls Olympic skier ‘real loser’ after athlete expresses ‘mixed emotions’ representing the US

President Donald Trump called Olympic skier Hunter Hess a “real loser” on Sunday after the athlete expressed “mixed emotions representing the US right now” in the Winter Olympic Games.

“U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday morning. “If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this.”

Hess, who hails from Bend, Oregon, said during a press availability last week that “just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US.”

“It’s a little hard; there’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren’t,” Hess said. “I think for me, it’s more I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe that are good about the US.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4rBMUsY

‌NBC appears to cut crowd’s booing of JD Vance from Winter Olympics broadcast

The US vice-president, JD Vance, was greeted by a chorus of boos when he appeared at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan on Friday, although American viewers watching NBC’s coverage would have been unaware of the reception.

As speed skater Erin Jackson led Team USA into the San Siro stadium she was greeted by cheers. But when the TV cameras cut to Vance and his wife, Usha, there were boos, jeers and a smattering of applause from the crowd. The reaction was shown on Canadian broadcaster CBC’s feed, with one commentator saying: “There is the vice-president JD Vance and his wife Usha – oops, those are not … uh … those are a lot of boos for him. Whistling, jeering, some applause.” - Guardian https://bit.ly/4ttFslr

‌State Department will delete X posts from before Trump returned to office

The State Department is removing all posts on its public accounts on the social media platform X made before President Trump returned to office on Jan. 20, 2025.

The posts will be internally archived but will no longer be on public view, the State Department confirmed to NPR. Staff members were told that anyone wanting to see older posts will have to file a Freedom of Information Act request, according to a State Department employee who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by the Trump administration. That would differ from how the U.S. government typically handles archiving the public online footprint of previous administrations.

The move comes as the Trump administration has removed wide swaths of information from government websites that conflict with the president's views, including environmental and health data and references to women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community. The government has also taken down signs at national parks mentioning slavery and references to Trump's impeachments and presidency at the National Portrait Gallery.

The White House has also launched a revisionist history account of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has replaced the government's coronavirus resource sites with a page titled "Lab Leak: The True Origins of Covid-19."

The removal of State Department X posts from public view appears to be less about ideological differences with past statements and more about control of future messaging. The directive will see the removal of posts from Trump's first term as well as those under then-Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. - NPR https://n.pr/3ZYfV6m

‌Justice Department moves to dismiss Steve Bannon's criminal case

The Justice Department on Monday moved to dismiss its long-running criminal case against Steve Bannon, tied to his refusal to testify before the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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Bannon, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for a deposition before the House committee that investigated the insurrection and declining to produce documents requested by the committee.

Bannon served four months in federal prison in 2024. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/3ZNTP6J

‌MAGA freaks out as millions of normal people enjoy Bad Bunny

Tens of millions of Americans watched and enjoyed Bad Bunny’s halftime performance during the Super Bowl on Sunday night, but President Donald Trump and other members of the MAGA movement have been bizarrely seething over the joyous event.

“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” Trump fumed on his social media account. He declared the performance an “affront to the greatness of America” and said “nobody understands a word this guy is saying.”

To be clear, more than 41 million Americans speak Spanish, the language that Bad Bunny sang in during his show.

Despite Trump’s anger, the halftime show was apparently the chosen entertainment at Trump’s own Mar-a-Lago resort/estate, despite the availability of Turning Point USA’s “alternative” halftime show. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4aHNujb

‌US Olympians rip Trump's atrocities, infuriating GOP

In yet another sign that the GOP doesn't actually care about free speech, President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers are trashing U.S. Olympians who said they do not support the cruelty that Trump is carrying out back home, calling them un-American and even rooting for them to lose.

Multiple Olympians, including freestyle skiers Hunter Hess and Chris Lillis, have said they do not support Trump's violent and deadly immigration crackdown in the United States.

Hess said at a news conference that "it brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now," and that, "there's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren't. Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S." - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4kN9hcZ

‌Who knew mass government firings would create a mess?

Right around this time last year, President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Russ Vought, and the racist tweens at the pretend Department of Government Efficiency were having a barnburner of a time firing thousands of federal workers based on some combination of vibes and malice. Of course, even a year ago, it was obvious they had no idea what they were doing, when they ended up begging the newly fired to return.

All told, the federal government lost 317,000 employees in 2025 due to firings, agency closures, or retirements—often, forced retirements. But it turns out, you actually need a significant number of people to do the work of government. But now, with agencies so hobbled by cuts, the administration can’t really do much more than move deck chairs around on the Titanic. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4qsqyJy

‌Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

A small group of conservative activists has worked for 16 years to stop all government efforts to fight climate change. Their efforts seem poised to pay off. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rdItou

‌Newly Unbound, Trump Weighs More Nuclear Arms and Underground Tests

In the five days since the last remaining nuclear treaty between the United States and Russia expired, statements by administration officials have made two things clear: Washington is actively weighing the deployment of more nuclear weapons, and it is also likely to conduct a nuclear test of some kind.

Both steps would reverse nearly 40 years of stricter nuclear control by the United States, which has reduced or kept steady the number of weapons it has loaded into silos, bombers and submarines. President Trump would be the first president since Ronald Reagan to increase them again, if he chose to do so. And the last time the United States conducted a nuclear test was 1992, though Mr. Trump said last year that he wanted to resume the detonations “on an equal basis” with China and Russia. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4a91ylH

‌Trump Threatens to Block Opening of New Bridge to Canada

President Trump threatened on Monday to block the opening of a new bridge between the United States and Canada if Canadian officials did not address a long and growing list of grievances, escalating diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

Amid a trade war and a deepening rift between the United States and its northern neighbor, Mr. Trump said that he would “not allow” the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, scheduled to open early this year for traffic between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, “until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve.”

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group, denounced the president’s threat in a statement, writing that “whether this proves real or simply threatened to keep uncertainty high — blocking or barricading bridges is a self-defeating move.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Mqj3Vn

‌Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Review: A History Lesson Full of Puerto Rican Pride

The superstar showcased Puerto Rican pride during a 13-minute set that turned a global opportunity into an intimate, personal performance.

There is perhaps no stage more visible than the Super Bowl halftime show, viewed each year by upward of 100 million people. And there are few, if any, performers in pop more popular and embraced than Bad Bunny, the 31-year-old Puerto Rican superstar who has been one of music’s dominant global innovators for a decade.

It would seem like an ideal match — an epic platform for an epic performer, an alignment of grand-scale ambition and execution.

And yet Bad Bunny did something quite novel with his Super Bowl LX performance in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday night, turning it into an extended presentation on how to make a global opportunity intimate, personal and historically specific. Like his sixth solo album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” which a week ago made history as the first Spanish-language album to win the Grammys’ top honor, and his 31-show residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last summer, he assiduously brought people to him, on his terms. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZwcHXD

‌Trump Administration to Cut $600 Million in Health Funding From Four States

The Trump administration plans to rescind $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats because it finds the grants “inconsistent with agency priorities,” according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The programs slated to be cut are in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. They include grants to state and local public health departments as well as to some nongovernmental organizations. A list of the cuts was shared with relevant congressional committees on Monday.

The funds are administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They include grants given to states for a variety of purposes, including hiring staffs, modernizing data systems and managing disease outbreaks. Some programs are aimed at the needs of specific communities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/45YcMa8

‌Which Bad Bunny Halftime Show Did You See?

Bad Bunny made history at the Super Bowl on Sunday, giving voice to Puerto Rican history and culture, and doing so in Spanish at a time when that alone could get you picked up by masked immigration agents. Though Bad Bunny did not yell “ICE out” or otherwise call out the Trump administration directly, his performance was unapologetically political.

And you know what? It was a party, too, complete with live salsa, perreo dancing and even a wedding. You didn’t have to understand Spanish or know anything of what he was talking about to enjoy it. But if you do speak Spanish, it was so much more.

We knew he would probably use the show to make a statement, but even we weren’t prepared for the emotional roller coaster Bad Bunny, a.k.a. Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, took us on. It felt subversive to see this display of joy, pride and resistance. It often felt as though there were two different shows unfolding — one for America and one for América. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3M6fNP3

‌Office Hours: Is Trump Really, Truly, Finally Losing His Mind?

The blatantly racist video clip Trump posted last Thursday night, portraying former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, was bad enough. Insisting he had nothing to apologize for after deleting the video and pretending he knew nothing about it was in some ways worse.

It’s the pattern one expects from a troubled adolescent who causes parents and neighbors to worry he might damage himself or others. But, my friends, we’re talking about the president of the United States.

This is just the latest in a series of bizarro behaviors from the putative leader of the free world. If you’ve seen his off-script rants, speeches that veer into angry tirades, demands that his name appear everywhere, and aggressively hostile responses to reporters, you know what I’m talking about. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4c699mz

‌Trump FCC investigates The View, reportedly says “fake news” will be punished

The Federal Communications Commission is reportedly investigating ABC’s The View in what FCC Democrat Anna Gomez called an attempt to intimidate critics of the Trump administration.

“Let’s be clear on what this is. This is government intimidation, not a legitimate investigation,” Gomez said in a statement Friday night. “Like many other so-called ‘investigations’ before it, the FCC will announce an investigation but never carry one out, reach a conclusion, or take any meaningful action. The real purpose is to weaponize the FCC’s regulatory authority to intimidate perceived critics of this administration and chill protected speech.” - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4rAg7Ew

‌Trump Administration Claims About Shootings by Federal Agents Unravel in Court

The reporters reviewed court records, police reports and videos and interviewed people who were shot at by federal immigration agents over the last year.

The Trump administration was quick to pin the blame.

Days after a federal immigration agent shot at Phillip Brown, a U.S. citizen, last October at a busy commercial intersection in Washington, D.C., a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security claimed Mr. Brown had made a “deliberate attempt” to run officers down with his car. Mr. Brown, 33, was arrested, charged with a felony — fleeing from law enforcement — and spent three days in jail.

In court, however, the case against Mr. Brown quickly unraveled as a judge found that the government failed to present any evidence supporting its claims. The judge dismissed the charges and said the agent had fired his weapon “for reasons that are completely unclear to me.”

Mr. Brown’s case is among the 16 shootings by on-duty federal immigration agents patrolling in U.S. cities and towns over the past year, including those that took the lives of Minnesota protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46vaj7e

‌Georgia Ballot Inquiry Originated With Election Denier in Trump White House

A newly unsealed affidavit showed that a criminal investigation into the 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., relied heavily on claims about ballots that have been widely debunked. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3O8UzAH

‌The ICE Prisons and Camps Are About To Get A Lot Worse

A federal appeals court in Texas just handed immigration authorities the power to lock people up indefinitely.

In Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the government may hold immigrants in ICE detention without ever providing a bond hearing. In practical terms, tens of thousands can now be jailed for months or even years while their cases wind through the system, with no judge deciding whether continued confinement is necessary.

This is an extreme ruling by two extremist jurists, the most radical pair of judges on the Fifth Circuit, Edith H. Jones and Kyle Duncan. But it does not arrive in a vacuum. The decision adds a legal imprimatur on existing ICE detention centers—really, concentration camps—that routinely fail to provide basic human needs, adequate medical care or timely case resolution.

Once indefinite detention is stacked on top of this, the human misery and civil rights violations will skyrocket. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/46Cxlcj

‌The Trump Phone Looks as Bad as It Sounds

As tempting as it would be to pretend the Trump phone doesn’t exist, whether for your mental health or in the hopes of preserving any paper-thin scraps of hope you have left in high-level ethical standards, it appears we now have photo evidence that it does, sadly, exist.

Here’s a photo of it, but let me warn you: once you see the Trump phone, you cannot unsee the Trump phone. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3OAy0F0

‌FDA refuses to review Moderna’s application for mRNA flu vaccine, company says

The US Food and Drug Administration has refused to accept an application from Moderna to review its first mRNA seasonal flu vaccine, the company said Tuesday, in another setback for the technology that’s been a target of some Trump administration health officials.

The agency told Moderna that its application didn’t contain an “adequate and well-controlled” trial because the control arm didn’t reflect the “best-available standard of care in the United States at the time of the study,” according to a letter dated February 3 that Moderna posted online. It didn’t identify any safety or efficacy concerns, the company said.

Moderna said that the refusal was inconsistent with previous feedback from the agency and that it had requested a meeting with FDA officials to understand how to proceed. - CNN https://cnn.it/402ga0b

‌13 controversial redactions from the Epstein files — and what we’re learning about them

One prominent House Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said Monday afternoon that he had reviewed the unredacted documents and saw “tons of completely unnecessary redactions.”

And the bipartisan lawmakers who forced the Trump administration to release the Epstein files have identified six people whose names, they say, were redacted inappropriately.

As millions of documents have trickled out and been sorted through, one of the major subplots is what DOJ chose to redact. Its redaction decisions in many cases went well beyond what the legislation passed by Congress called for.

Perhaps no redactions have garnered more attention than the suspected co-conspirators who are described in internal Justice Department documents and others who exchanged eyebrow-raising emails with Epstein. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ktR7wF

‌Judges are regularly threatening contempt charges against the DOJ in immigration cases

In some two dozen cases stemming from President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota that CNN has reviewed, federal judges appointed to the bench by Democrats and Republicans have had to use terms like “contempt” and “noncompliance” to get the government’s attention to respond to court orders. - CNN https://cnn.it/3OcDGVE

‌American optimism hits new low

American optimism has hit its lowest point in nearly two decades, according to data released Tuesday by Gallup. The sour feeling months before the midterm elections stands in stark contrast to President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, in which he has dismissed Americans’ concerns about affordability and inflation.

Gallup’s poll found that just 59.2% of Americans in 2025 felt they would have high-quality lives in five years. That is the lowest such rating since the firm first started asking the question in 2009. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4aqBbq5

‌Grand jury declines to indict Democratic lawmakers who urged service members to disobey illegal Trump orders

A federal grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict Democratic lawmakers who posted a video urging service members and intelligence officials to disobey any illegal orders from the Trump administration, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The Justice Department’s case focused on a 90-second video clip that featured six democrats, including Sens. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona. The video, which outraged the Trump administration, had warned that “threats to our Constitution” are coming “from right here at home,” and repeatedly urged the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”

The declination is a rebuke of the administration’s efforts to paint the six lawmakers — all of whom served in either the military or intelligence services — as dangerously undermining the president’s authority as commander in chief. - CNN https://cnn.it/4amAqys

‌Grand Jury Rebuffs Justice Dept. Attempt to Indict 6 Democrats in Congress

Federal prosecutors in Washington sought and failed on Tuesday to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video in the fall that enraged President Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, four people familiar with the matter said.

It was remarkable that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington — led by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump’s — authorized prosecutors to go into a grand jury and ask for an indictment of the six members of Congress, all of whom had served in the military or the nation’s spy agencies.

But it was even more remarkable that a group of ordinary citizens sitting on the grand jury in Federal District Court in Washington forcefully rejected Mr. Trump’s bid to label their expression of dissent as a criminal act warranting prosecution. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rItcvD

‌House Defeats Republican Bid to Block Votes on Trump’s Tariffs

The House on Tuesday rejected a Republican effort to change the chamber’s rules and delay for months any vote on canceling President Trump’s tariffs, as G.O.P. defectors rebuked party leaders who have tried for a year to avoid weighing in on levies that are unpopular with many voters.

The defeat cleared the way for Democrats to immediately force a vote on terminating the emergency Mr. Trump declared more than a year ago that imposed tariffs on several nations and kicked off his global trade war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4r5MpaK

‌Epstein Files Reveal Efforts to Build Ties With Officials in Russia

The Kremlin has seized on the latest release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, saying the lurid details of his ties with leading American and European figures in business, politics and culture underscore the moral depravity of the West.

Yet the files also detail Mr. Epstein’s contacts inside similar circles in Russia, where he cultivated officials and traded favors, including with those he hoped might facilitate a meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rG9ssv

‌F.D.A. Refuses to Review Moderna Flu Vaccine

The vaccine maker’s shots involve the successful Covid vaccines’ RNA technology. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has broadly rejected it, canceling millions of dollars in research projects. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4r9eH47

‌Climate Change Is Erased From a Manual for Federal Judges

In a new attack on the science of climate change, a federal agency has stripped a chapter on global warming from a manual written to help judges understand important scientific questions they may face in their courtrooms.

The chapter was deleted after a group of Republican state attorneys general complained about it to the Federal Judicial Center, a government agency that provides resources to judges. In recent years, judges in the United States have had to contend with a widening array of cases related to climate change, putting jurists in the position of having to understand the complexities of the science and research behind its causes and effects. - NYT https://nyti.ms/400Q5i6

‌Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump International Airport? This Has to Stop.

President Trump is not a renowned reader. But it increasingly feels as though someone at the White House should leave a printout of “Ozymandias” next to his TV remote.

In recent discussions, Trump administration officials reportedly told Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Senate minority leader, that the president would unfreeze billions in funding for a delayed rail tunnel under the Hudson River — if Mr. Schumer would push to rename Penn Station in New York and Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., in Mr. Trump’s honor. Never mind that the president shouldn’t hold hostage billions in congressionally appropriated funding.

Mr. Schumer reportedly refused, thank God. It’s easy to imagine that slippery slope whizzing us to a landscape cluttered with Trump-branded turnpikes, rivers and dams stretching from the Gulf of Trump to the Golden Trump Bridge.

But do not exhale yet. Mr. Trump is still on a renaming crusade that seems aimed not at building a legacy so much as appropriating those of others. He seems to find that approach easier. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cjChqk

‌Trump told police chief ‘everyone’ knew about Epstein, FBI document says

A newly uncovered FBI interview raised new questions about U.S. President Donald Trump's assertion he knew nothing about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, while Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, faced a barrage of questions from lawmakers on Tuesday about his own ties to the financier.

The day's developments underscored how the fallout from the Epstein scandal remains a major political headache for the Trump administration, weeks after the Justice Department released millions of Epstein-related files to comply with a bipartisan bill. - Reuters / Japan Times https://bit.ly/4646Nka

‌Gabbard’s 2020 Election Claims Put Her Back in Favor With Trump

In late January, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was leading a meeting on Syria in the Situation Room, when President Trump abruptly changed course by reminding her of an earlier chat on a subject he regarded as even more urgent.

Ms. Gabbard’s role in reopening and expanding the investigation of the 2020 election.

Now Mr. Trump was ordering Ms. Gabbard to help oversee an F.B.I. investigation of his baseless claims of irregularities in the vote, according to people with knowledge of the meeting.

“You go do that, you get it done,” Mr. Trump suddenly told her.

Days later Ms. Gabbard appeared at a warehouse in Fulton County, Ga., where ballots from the 2020 vote were stored. As the F.B.I. conducted a raid, she observed and oversaw their work. After the operation, Ms. Gabbard met with the F.B.I. agents and put Mr. Trump on speaker phone to address them. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ktdqCq

‌The truth about the jobs report

The latest employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics contained an eye-catching surprise, with January delivering stronger-than-expected job gains. But the concentration of jobs growth in health care (+82,000 jobs) and “social assistance” work (+42,000 jobs) continues existing trends that suggest employment gains concentrated in “necessity” sectors, in which demand is less elastic than discretionary.

In all, these necessity fields account for the vast majority of the January jobs growth detailed in the report released Wednesday morning. The remainder came from nonresidential construction, suggesting that the AI buildout continues to bolster the overall construction sector.

Meanwhile, some white-collar fields — like financial services (-22,000) — showed marked declines. Federal government employment (-34,000) also fell.

All this means that headlines suggesting the January jobs report “smashes expectations” are somewhat misleading. In other words, strength in non-discretionary sectors masked weakness elsewhere — portraying narrow net growth rather than broad-based gains. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4qAqCGZ

‌RFK Jr's Nutrition Chatbot Recommends Best Foods to Insert Into Your Rectum

The Department of Health and Human Services' new Al nutrition chatbot will gleefully and dangerously give Americans recommendations for the best foods to insert into one's rectum and will answer questions about the most nutrient-dense human body part to eat. - 404 Media https://bit.ly/4616O8z

‌FDA refuses to review Moderna's mRNA flu vaccine

The Food and Drug Administration has refused to review Moderna’s application for an mRNA flu vaccine, the company revealed Tuesday.

While the move came as a surprise to the high-profile vaccine maker, it is just the latest hostility toward vaccines—and mRNA vaccines in particular—from an agency overseen by the fervent anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In his first year in office, Kennedy has already dramatically slashed childhood vaccine recommendations and canceled $500 million in research funding for mRNA vaccines against potential pandemic threats. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4aKHztJ

‌The Citizen's Revolt

I can’t emphasize enough how rare it is for a grand jury to refuse to issue an indictment that’s requested by a federal prosecutor, because prosecutors exert so much control over them.

Grand juries aren’t like juries in regular trials. They meet in secret — 16 to 23 citizens summoned from the community. No judge is present. No lawyers who represent defendants are present. No witnesses appear. Prosecutors are in total command — presenting evidence of a crime and asking grand juries to indict. And the evidentiary standard is not whether a crime occurred “beyond a reasonable doubt,” but merely whether there is “probable cause” of a federal crime.

It’s not surprising, then, that federal grand juries have issued indictments in over 99 percent of cases prosecutors bring to them. (For example, in 2010, of 162,000 federal cases federal prosecutors presented to grand juries seeking an indictment, only 11 resulted in grand juries deciding not to indict.) As Judge Sol Wachtler, the former New York jurist, famously said, prosecutors are in such complete control of grand juries that they could get them to indict a ham sandwich.

But in 2025, something odd began happening. Federal grand juries in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Virginia refused to indict. At least seven of these cases involved clashes between protesters and federal officers. A grand jury in Virginia twice refused to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Then came yesterday’s grand jury’s rejection of Trump’s demand that the six lawmakers he targeted be criminally prosecuted. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4txn0bu

‌National Guard troops were quietly withdrawn from some U.S. cities

The deployments encountered repeated legal setbacks that stymied President Donald Trump’s desire for a show of force in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3ZQu3yJ

In rebuke, House opens door to challenging Trump’s tariffs

Three Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting an attempt to block votes that would end the national emergency underpinning the president’s tariffs. ‌ - WaPo https://wapo.st/4rcYzib

‌Grand Jury Rebuffs Justice Dept. Attempt to Indict 6 Democrats in Congress

‌No grand jurors found the Trump DOJ met low probable cause threshold in failed indictment of Democratic lawmakers

None of the D.C. grand jurors who heard the Trump administration’s pitch on why they should indict Democratic lawmakers over a video urging members of the military and intelligence communities to uphold their oaths believed the Justice Department had met the low threshold of probable cause, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

It’s exceedingly rare for a federal grand jury to reject prosecutors’ attempts to secure an indictment, since the process is stacked in the government’s favor. Federal grand juries need a minimum of 16 members to have a quorum, and they max out at 23 members. Just 12 grand jurors need to agree that the government had probable cause to indict, a threshold much lower than the unanimous “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard that a petit jury needs to convict.

In 2016, the Justice Department investigated more than 151,000 suspects, but grand juries returned just six “no bills,” per DOJ statistics. The vast majority of assistant U.S. attorneys will go their entire careers without being rejected by a grand jury like this. As NBC News previously reported, the lawyers who attempted to bring the case are political appointees, not career prosecutors. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4tvlMh1

‌Military’s Use of Anti-Drone Technology Said to Cause El Paso Airspace Closure

Federal Aviation Administration officials were forced to close El Paso’s airspace late Tuesday after the Defense Department decided to try out new anti-drone technology without giving aviation officials ample time to assess the risks to commercial airlines, according to four people briefed on the situation.

Those accounts, offered on the condition of anonymity because the officials were not authorized to comment publicly, challenge the official explanation from the Trump administration. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, along with representatives for the White House and the Pentagon, insisted on Wednesday that a sudden incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels had necessitated a military response, which prompted the F.A.A. to close the airspace. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aeLsHa

‌Bondi refuses questions over Epstein files in contentious House hearing

The attorney general shouted at lawmakers and declined to apologize to victims during the Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday over the DOJ's handling of the Epstein documents. - MS Now https://bit.ly/4rODBGn

‌Letters from an American - February 10, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

After viewing the files briefly yesterday, Raskin told Andrew Solender of Axios that when he searched the files for President Donald Trump’s name, it came up “more than a million times.” Raskin suggested that limiting members’ access to the files is part of a cover-up to hide Trump’s relationship with the convicted sex offender, a cover-up that includes the three million files the DOJ has yet to release despite the requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. One of the files he did see referred to a child of 9. Raskin called it “gruesome and grim.”

Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) added: “There’s still a lot that’s redacted—even in what we’re seeing, we’re seeing redacted versions. I thought we were supposed to see the unredacted versions.”

Material that has come out has already shown members of the administration and their allies are lying about their connections to Epstein. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who lived next door to Epstein for more than ten years, said in October that he had cut ties with Epstein in 2005 after visiting his home and being disgusted. The files show that in fact, Lutnick not only maintained ties with Epstein but also was in business with him until at least 2018, long after Epstein was a convicted sex offender. Members of both parties have called for Lutnick to resign. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4rODBGn

‌Moderna Has a Promising New Flu mRNA Vaccine. Trump’s FDA Wants Nothing to Do With It

The federal government’s crusade against vaccines seems to have been taken up a notch. In a highly unusual move, the Food and Drug Administration has outright refused to review Moderna’s promising experimental mRNA flu vaccine for potential approval.

Moderna revealed the FDA’s refusal Tuesday evening, posting its rejection letter online. In the letter, signed by senior official Vinay Prasad, the FDA claims that Moderna’s Phase III trial data did not include an adequate control group for comparison. Moderna has stated that it followed all the recommendations previously agreed upon with the agency. Prasad reportedly decided to reject Moderna’s application unilaterally, over the objection of FDA scientists.

The FDA’s decision, “which did not identify any safety or efficacy concerns with our product, does not further our shared goal of enhancing America’s leadership in developing innovative medicines,” said Stéphane Bancel, Moderna CEO, in a statement from the company. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4rTOxT7

‌Mexican Cartel ‘Drones’ Near El Paso Airspace Were Actually Party Balloons: Report

Medical emergency evacuation flights heading to El Paso, Texas, were forced to divert to New Mexico on Wednesday after the Federal Aviation Administration shut down all flights in and out of El Paso for 10 days. The order was rescinded after a few hours, but the excuse—Mexican cartel drones breaching the U.S.-Mexico border—doesn’t make any sense, given the fact that drug-smuggling drones do that on a daily basis.

A new report from CBS News suggests that infighting between the FAA and DOD is behind the chaos and confusion around the El Paso airspace. Earlier this week, DOD deployed anti-drone technology to shoot down what were believed to be foreign drones at the border. But at least one of the objects shot down was just a party balloon, according to CBS News. CNN has since reported that it was four mylar balloons. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4r9Z2Sd

Surprise US military plans to use counter-drone laser triggered El Paso airspace closure, sources say‌

A Pentagon plan to use a high-energy, counter-drone laser without having coordinated with the Federal Aviation Administration about potential risks to civilian flights prompted Wednesday’s unprecedented airspace shutdown over El Paso, Texas, multiple sources told CNN.

Two people familiar with the matter said later Wednesday that Customs and Border Protection, not the US military, was in control of the laser technology when it was used this week around El Paso to shoot down balloons. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kCgbRZ

‌Breaking down the evidence DOJ used to justify searching a Fulton County elections office

President Donald Trump’s long-running stolen-election crusade entered a potentially fraught new phase recently, with the FBI search of an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia.

Some fear it could be a precursor to an even more heavy-handed Trump intervention in American elections.

And a big question after the search was how it got the go-ahead from a magistrate judge. After all, searches require probable cause of a crime, and the magistrate judge, Catherine Salinas, was not exactly some reputed judicial extremist or election skeptic; according to Lawfare, she had previously worked for a public defender’s office and clerked for a Clinton appointee. - CNN https://cnn.it/3MwA28x

‌Trump admin removes Pride flag from Stonewall National Monument

The Trump administration has removed an LGBTQ Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, the United States’ first national monument to LGBTQ rights, following a directive restricting what kinds of flags can be flown on National Park sites.

The removal is the latest change to the monument, as the administration moves to alter what is on display at national parks across the country and impose President Donald Trump’s views on other US cultural and historical institutions. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Og7tNd

‌Moderna Has a Promising New Flu mRNA Vaccine. Trump’s FDA Wants Nothing to Do With It

‌Mexican Cartel ‘Drones’ Near El Paso Airspace Were Actually Party Balloons: Report

‌Bondi Faces Anger From Lawmakers Over Handling of Epstein Files

Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to apologize to survivors of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who were seated in the House Judiciary Committee room on Wednesday — and instead demanded that Democrats apologize to President Trump.

Ms. Bondi, imitating Mr. Trump’s tactic of going on the attack when facing tough questions, offered few detailed answers, no admissions of fault but many expressions of fealty and admiration for a president who has exercised direct control over the Justice Department’s actions.

The bitter back-and-forth, during a four-hour hearing before lawmakers, demonstrated the extent to which the Epstein files, once relegated to the conspiratorial outskirts of American politics, have become a defining issue for Ms. Bondi. The topic at times overshadowed her role in subordinating her department into an extension of Mr. Trump’s will and retribution agenda. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tEXxgA

‌Yup, 2025 really was a horrific year for jobs

The U.S. economy added an abysmally low 181,000 jobs in 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Wednesday, revising the annual job total down by a whopping 400,000 jobs to show that virtually no jobs were added in President Donald Trump's first year in office.

The annual job growth was the worst year in decades, and was the result of Trump's idiotic trade policy causing massive uncertainty for businesses, leading them to pull back on growth plans or cut roles altogether.

"2025 was the weakest year for job growth since the pandemic, and before that since the Great Recession," New York Times economics reporter Ben Casselman wrote in a post on X. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4awJ9y7

‌Want to put food up your ass? RFK Jr.'s chatbot can help!

404 Media reported that people quickly figured out you could ask Grok to give you dangerously stupid advice, such as what foods are most comfortable to stick up your butt. Guess there aren’t any guardrails, huh? - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/46MjkZG

‌Pam Bondi loses her sh-t at Epstein hearing

Attorney General Pam Bondi’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday went off the rails shortly after Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington asked Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors in the audience to raise their hands. Jayapal pressed Bondi to apologize to them, accusing her of protecting “powerful predators” in the release of Epstein-related files while also failing to safeguard survivors in the documents. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/466dKRT

‌How Trump Could Break the 2026 Elections

David is joined by Stephen Richer, a former Republican county recorder of Maricopa County. They discuss Stephen’s experience navigating Trump’s 2020 election denial, standing up to pressure from the president, and confronting election denialism within his own party. They also examine the Trump administration’s current activities in Georgia and how they could set the stage for more election denialism in 2026. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4atCXqz

‌What Is Kari Lake Trying to Achieve?

he wanted to be governor of Arizona. She wanted to be a senator from Arizona. She wanted to run Voice of America, to be MAGA’s broadcaster to the world. Then she wanted to shut down Voice of America, after Donald Trump and Elon Musk turned against it. She wanted to play a big role in the MAGA movement, to live up to the phrase she’s used to describe herself: “Trump in heels.” But Kari Lake has achieved none of those things.

Instead, during her 11 months as the de facto leader of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lake has done profound damage to America’s foreign broadcasters, and to America’s ability to communicate with the world. USAGM runs Voice of America and gives grants to, among others, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Open Technology Fund, which helps people access information in places including Russia and Iran. During her tenure, Lake has ceded influence to Chinese and Russian state media all over the world, as their broadcasters have taken over slots from canceled U.S. programs. She has hampered the U.S. government’s ability to inform foreign audiences in times of crisis. She blocked RFE/RL from using USAGM’s transmission equipment, which meant that during mass street protests and an internet blackout in Iran recently, the broadcasters’ Persian-language service, Radio Farda, had to rent from commercial contractors. Voice of America’s Spanish-language service, which once reached tens of millions of people in Latin America, was unavailable during the U.S. military’s intervention in Venezuela because it had been shut down months earlier. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kxynwh

‌What Happened to Pam Bondi?

By the time she faced her first oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Pam Bondi had become a person she never really wanted to be. She had told a reporter once that in college she’d wanted to be a pediatrician, but she ended up becoming a lawyer. She’d said that she wasn’t sure she wanted to actually practice law, but she became a prosecutor. She’d told reporters that she “never dreamed” of running for political office, but she did that too, twice winning campaigns for Florida attorney general. She’d said that when Donald Trump eventually asked her to be U.S. attorney general, she “made it really clear” that she did not want the job. During his first term, she had confided to a friend that she wanted to be ambassador to Italy.

But here she was in a Senate hearing room in October, a person who had once seemed so mild, so warm, so kindhearted that she’d earned the nickname “Pambi,” opening up a folder full of slap-downs, each tailored to a Democratic committee member, with notes on how to deliver them. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4as0pEE

‌Border Officials Are Said to Have Caused El Paso Closure by Firing Anti-Drone Laser

People familiar with the episode said the use of the technology was not coordinated with the Federal Aviation Administration. Officials targeted what they thought was a drug cartel drone, but turned out to be a party balloon, they said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qx5qBN

‌Bondi Faces Anger From Lawmakers Over Handling of Epstein Files

‌U.S. Attorney Chosen to Replace Trump Pick Is Quickly Fired by White House

Federal judges in upstate New York appointed a new U.S. attorney on Wednesday only to see him abruptly fired by the White House, in the latest clash between the Trump administration and the judiciary.

Donald T. Kinsella, 79, was appointed as U.S. attorney in the Northern District of New York in a private ceremony on Wednesday. But just hours later, Mr. Kinsella said, he received an email from a White House official telling him that he was being removed from the post.

Reached by phone on Wednesday evening, Mr. Kinsella said that he did not yet know whether the White House email carried the force of law. He said he would discuss the matter with the district judges in the morning and go from there. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cuiwwh

‌Trump Says He Will Now Invite Democrats to Governors’ Meeting

Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma told Democratic governors on Wednesday that President Trump had reversed course and would now invite them to an annual gathering of the nation’s governors at the White House, after the president had previously moved to exclude Democrats from the meeting.

Hours later, Mr. Trump repeatedly attacked Mr. Stitt, the chairman of the National Governors Association, as a “RINO,” Republican in name only, apparently blaming the governor for the episode after The New York Times reported last week that the president had spurned Democrats from what had traditionally been a bipartisan working meeting with the president and cabinet at the White House. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4quWSeF

‌Trump Orders the Pentagon to Buy More Coal-Fired Electricity

Mr. Trump is trying to revive coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. At the White House, coal executives awarded him a trophy as the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rfSRvL

‌Four States Sue Administration Over Loss of Public Health Funds

Four states led by Democrats sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, aiming to halt deep cuts in federal public health funds that had already been allocated.

Some of the grants were intended to help specific populations, often communities of color or gay and bisexual men. The Trump administration has made it a priority to root out federal funding for work that it believes is “woke” — focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services informed Congress that it was planning to pull back roughly $600 million in funding to the four states: California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ahzKf1

‌U.S. lawmakers accuse Bondi of hiding names of Epstein associates

A Republican U.S. lawmaker on Wednesday accused Attorney General Pam Bondi of concealing the names of powerful associates of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as she faced questions about the Justice Department's handling of investigative files in a charged hearing before a House of Representatives panel.

Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, who helped lead the effort to require the files' release, accused the Justice Department of a "massive failure" to comply with the law as he questioned why billionaire Leslie Wexner's name was redacted in ‌an FBI ‌document listing potential co-conspirators in the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein. - Reuters / Japan Times https://bit.ly/4qBZ2JE

‌The truth about the jobs report

Meanwhile, some white-collar fields — like financial services (-22,000) — showed marked declines. Federal government employment (-34,000) also fell.

‌Democrats Block Funding Bill as Homeland Security Shutdown Looms

Senate Democrats blocked a measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security as lawmakers remained locked in a standoff that could shut down the agency this weekend. The bill contained none of the restrictions on immigration enforcement that Democrats have demanded to fund the department. The vote came after a heated, four-hour Senate hearing with top immigration officials in which Todd Lyons, the acting chief of ICE, acknowledged that two citizens killed by agents in Minnesota, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, did not appear to be domestic terrorists. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rLi8xN

‌Enforcement surge ending in Minneapolis as state and DHS officials face tough questions in Senate

While White House border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday morning the federal immigration surge in Minnesota would be ending, state officials were facing tough questions about the circumstances that led to that crackdown in the first place.

Those officials, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the state’s corrections commissioner, Paul Schnell, in turn blasted the Trump administration for the way it has conducted itself in their state.

The testimony devolved into yelling matches between Ellison and two Republican senators who accused him of contributing to the violence in Minnesota and suggested he should be jailed over its expansive fraud scandal. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ago5gr

‌Trump allows Democratic governors at White House meeting after initial snub

President Donald Trump has backed down from his decision to exclude Democratic governors from an annual White House meeting that has long been bipartisan, according to the National Governors Association. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3MIjRFi

‌El Paso airport closed after military used new anti-drone laser to zap party balloon

On Tuesday night, the Federal Aviation Administration closed airspace up to 18,000 feet above the El Paso International Airport in Texas, saying the restrictions would be in place for 10 days. Then, less than 10 hours later, the federal agency reopened the airspace, allowing planes to land and take off at the busy airport.

About an hour after lifting the restrictions, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, whose responsibilities include overseeing the FAA, explained the unexpected closure by saying, “The FAA and DOW acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion.” (The Trump Administration refers to the Department of Defense as the Department of War, or DOW, although its legal name remains the former.)

Not everyone agrees with Duffy’s account. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/405XpsO

‌The tragic end of CBS News

Producer Alicia Hastey departed CBS News Wednesday, saying the work she came to do was “increasingly becoming impossible,” as stories were now evaluated “not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”

Whose ideological expectations was Hastey referring to? Would it be impertinent for me to suggest it’s the sociopath in the Oval Office? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4qx5NfH

‌Judge Temporarily Blocks Hegseth from Punishing Kelly for Video

Judge Richard J. Leon found that attempts to discipline Mark Kelly for a video that warned against following illegal orders would violate the senator’s First Amendment rights. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4czzFEK

‌Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

President Trump on Thursday announced he was erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.

The action is a key step in removing limits on carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases that scientists say are supercharging heat waves, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather.

Led by a president who refers to climate change as a “hoax,” the administration is essentially saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong and that a hotter planet is not the menace that decades of research shows it to be. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4saXkjN

‌Trump delivers a deadly blow to EPA’s ability to regulate climate pollution

The Trump administration delivered a deadly blow to longstanding US climate policy on Thursday, finalizing rules that revoke the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate climate pollution.

First issued in 2009, the endangerment finding determined that six greenhouse gases could be categorized as dangerous to human health under the Clean Air Act. It has underpinned the EPA’s authority to limit planet-warming pollution from the oil and gas industry, power plants and vehicles since the Obama administration and is considered the federal government’s most powerful tool to tackle climate pollution and the country’s contribution to the global crisis.

“We are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding,” President Donald Trump said on Thursday, calling the policy “disastrous.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3Mbr1BV

‌Government Loses Hard Drives It Was Supposed to Put ICE Detention Center Footage On

The legal saga over surveillance footage from within an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in suburban Chicago has reached new levels of Kafkaesque absurdity, with the federal government losing three hard drives it was supposed to put footage on, refusing to provide footage from five critical surveillance cameras, and delivering soundless video of a highly contested visit from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

We have repeatedly covered an abuse lawsuit about living conditions within the Broadview detention facility. The federal government has claimed that 10 days of footage from within the facility, taken during a critical and highly contested period, was “irretrievably destroyed” and could not be produced as part of the lawsuit, which was brought by people being held at Broadview in what were allegedly horrendous conditions. It later said that due to a system crash, the footage was never recorded in the first place. The latest update in this case, however, deals with surveillance camera footage that was recorded and that a judge has ordered the federal government to turn over. - 404Media https://bit.ly/4qDSdHo

‌Evidence Shows Feds Lied To Justify Shooting Marimar Martinez, Lawyer Says

Body-camera footage shows Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum yanking his steering wheel toward Marimar Martinez’s car, hitting her car, before getting out of his car and shooting her.

Newly released evidence calls into question the federal government’s narrative about a Chicago woman shot five times by a Border Patrol agent while also indicating agents ignored use-of-force practices from their own training.

Marimar Martinez was shot multiple times by federal immigration agents during an October clash in Brighton Park. Agents alleged Martinez chased them and rammed her car into an agent’s car, claims Martinez and her attorney disputed.

Martinez was charged with assaulting, impeding and interfering with a federal law enforcement officer. The U.S. Attorney’s Office dropped the charges after Martinez’s lawyer argued that body camera footage contradicted Border Patrol’s version of events. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/3OuuqfH

‌Facebook Removed Chicago’s Most Popular ICE Sighting Page. Now, Its Founder Is Suing

The founder of one of the Chicago area’s most popular pages for reporting ICE sightings filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Thursday against top Trump officials, claiming they pressured Facebook into removing the page last year.

Attorneys for Kae Rosado, a jewelry seller from suburban Cicero, wrote in a complaint that her First Amendment rights were violated when Facebook disabled “ICE Sighting-Chicagoland” in October “without notice.”

The page — which swelled to more than 80,000 members in one of the most active months of “Operation Midway Blitz” — encouraged residents to post photos, videos and reports of federal immigration agents across the city and suburbs. It was taken down two days after right-wing activist and fierce Trump ally Laura Loomer posted on social media that the page was “getting people killed,” and shortly before U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed online that the page had been used to “dox and target” agents. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4kE8TgK

‌Zelensky Makes His Pitch to Trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is making a pitch to Donald Trump in terms the American president can understand: If Trump wants to cement his legacy as a peacemaker and improve his chances of winning the midterm elections, he should seize this moment to end the war in Ukraine, already the deadliest Europe has seen in generations.

“I think there is no greater victory for Trump than to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine,” Zelensky told me yesterday, in his office in Kyiv. “For his legacy, it’s No. 1.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ax0mHx

‌Trump Just Blew American Climate Policy to Smithereens

President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the repeal of the endangerment finding, the legal bedrock for the agency's actions against planet-warming pollution. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4twQbeR

‌ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next

Federal records obtained by WIRED show that over the past several months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have carried out a secret campaign to expand ICE’s physical presence across the US. Documents show that more than 150 leases and office expansions have or would place new facilities in nearly every state, many of them in or just outside of the country’s largest metropolitan areas. In many cases, these facilities, which are to be used by street-level agents and ICE attorneys, are located near elementary schools, medical offices, places of worship, and other sensitive locations. - Wired https://bit.ly/4kCulT3

‌Judge Ends Deportation Case for Mexican Father of 3 U.S. Marines

An immigration judge has terminated the deportation case against an undocumented father of three U.S. Marines who was detained by federal agents last year while landscaping in Southern California, paving the way for him to seek legal permanent residency in the United States.

Last June, Narciso Barranco was clearing weeds outside an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana, Calif., when immigration agents approached him from behind, pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him. Mr. Barranco, a 49-year-old Mexican national who has lived in the United States for three decades, was then transferred to a detention center and placed in deportation proceedings. He was released on a $3,000 bond in mid-July and fitted with an ankle monitor. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Mxm1aD

‌EPA reverses long-standing climate change finding, stripping its own ability to regulate emissions

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency is rescinding the legal finding that it has relied on for nearly two decades to limit the heat-trapping pollution that spews from vehicle tailpipes, oil refineries and factories.

The repeal of that landmark determination, known as the endangerment finding, will upend most U.S. policies aimed at curbing climate change.

The finding — which the EPA issued in 2009 — said the global warming caused by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endangers the health and welfare of current and future generations.

“We are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy,” Trump said at a news conference. “This determination had no basis in fact — none whatsoever. And it had no basis in law. On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world.” - NBC https://nbcnews.to/3MwObTl

‌What Happened to Pam Bondi?

How the attorney general became a person who loves telling Trump yes. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rSgZoq

‌Department of Homeland Security on track to shut down with lawmakers leaving Washington and an unresolved ICE fight

A bitterly divided Washington is headed for its third government funding lapse of President Donald Trump’s second term — this time, a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security over the issue of federal immigration enforcement.

With lawmakers leaving town Thursday, funding for the department is set to expire Friday at midnight. GOP leaders sent their members home after the two parties made no concrete progress toward a deal that Democrats are demanding must rein in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations after last month’s fatal shootings by federal agents of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rcc1To

‌A partial government shutdown has hit the Department of Homeland Security. Here’s what that means

The Department of Homeland Security has been ensnared by a partial government shutdown as Congress did not act to fund the agency by the end of Friday. But nearly all DHS workers will remain on the job — even if many won’t get paid until the lapse ends — and the public probably won’t notice much of a change.

DHS is the last federal agency lacking funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, which runs through September 30. Since the record-long shutdown ended in mid-November, lawmakers have passed a series of spending bills for the rest of the government.

The most recent package, approved at the end of January, only funded DHS for two weeks to give Congress more time to negotiate reforms in the agency’s immigration enforcement operations — a demand by Senate Democrats after federal immigration agents fatally shot two US citizens in Minneapolis in January.

But lawmakers left town Thursday without any agreement on how to fund DHS, and the next steps are uncertain. With talks ongoing between the White House and Democrats, the two chambers aren’t scheduled to return to Washington until February 23, though GOP leaders could still call members back if a deal is reached. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rRGSoe

‌Border Patrol official praised agent’s ‘excellent service’ hours after he shot Chicago woman, new evidence shows

Newly released government evidence from last year’s Border Patrol shooting of a Chicago woman revealed body camera footage from the shooting, previously unseen text messages from the agent who shot her and praise from the then-top Border Patrol official just hours after the incident. The documents were released by federal prosecutors Wednesday.

A judge ordered the release last week, clearing the way for key evidence in the case to be made public, including body camera footage, text messages and emails. Charges have been dropped against the woman, but in the wake of two deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis – in which video evidence appeared to contradict some statements made by the Trump administration – she and her attorney say it’s important for the public to see this evidence. - CNN https://cnn.it/4cw6NgF

‌House speaker condemns Trump Justice Department monitoring of lawmakers’ Epstein document review

Attorney General Pam Bondi obtained Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s search history of the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files and even President Donald Trump’s most powerful ally in Congress has a problem with it.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday said the Justice Department’s tracking of lawmakers’ search history was inappropriate, a rare rebuke from the Republican who is usually in lockstep with the administration.

“I think members should obviously have the right to peruse those at their own speed and with their own discretion and I don’t think it’s appropriate for anybody to be tracking that,” Johnson told CNN. “I will echo that to anybody involved in the DOJ.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4ahVcAx

‌Judge says Pete Hegseth is unlawfully retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly over ‘illegal orders’ video

A federal judge on Thursday shut down Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempts to punish Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly over his urging of US service members to refuse illegal orders, ruling that the Pentagon chief’s actions were unconstitutionally retaliatory.

The decision landed two days after a grand jury in Washington, DC, declined to approve charges sought by federal prosecutors against the Arizona senator and several other Democratic lawmakers who taped a video last year warning that “threats to our Constitution” are coming “from right here at home,” and repeatedly implored service members and the intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4rcczIW

‌The ‘You Can’t Fire Me—I Quit’ Presidency

After the administration announced the expansion of its law-enforcement surge in Minnesota early this year, calling it the “largest DHS operation ever,” Donald Trump laid out a series of stinging critiques of the state, which he said had an “incompetent governor,” a huge welfare-fraud problem, high crime, and a corrupt voting system. “What a beautiful place, but it’s being destroyed,” he said.

Today, the White House “border czar” Tom Homan announced the effective end to the mission, promising a “significant drawdown” over the coming week. “I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude,” Homan said. The announcement should be treated skeptically. When Trump ousted the Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino last month, the administration softened its tone but maintained a large and heavy-handed presence in Minneapolis. But Trump has good reasons to back down: The operation has been a political and moral disaster. Officers shot and killed two American citizens, and public opinion has turned against it. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3OfuLms

‌It Wasn’t Democrats Who Persuaded Trump to Change Course

‌Trump Made a Bad Bet on the Kennedy Center

‌Trump's EPA revokes the "endangerment finding" on greenhouse gases, a major reversal in climate policy. Here's what to know.

The greenhouse gases emitted from sources like cars, trucks and power plants, major contributors to climate change, will no longer be regulated by the federal government, following an announcement Thursday by President Trump and Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The administration's action formally repeals what is known as the "endangerment finding," which provides the legal and scientific underpinning for the federal government to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.

Speaking at the White House Thursday, the president called the elimination of the finding the "single largest deregulatory action in American history." - CBS https://cbsn.ws/4tzM7KU

‌Bad news: CBS producer reveals stories are being vetted for ideology

Hastey explains that what she saw as the network’s commitment to telling stories about underrepresented communities and challenging conventional wisdom “is increasingly becoming impossible.”

“Stories may instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations,” Hastey writes. She alleges that this mindset leads to reporters practicing self-censorship or avoiding topics that “might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines.”

The damning memo underscores many of the concerns that were raised when CBS announced in October that Weiss would be taking over. The move occurred after CBS purchased Weiss’ conservative site Free Press and after parent company Paramount paid off $16 million to Trump—which was quickly followed up by the Trump administration approving the company’s merger with Skydance Media. Billionaire Larry Ellison, a Republican donor, recently took over Paramount alongside his son David Ellison. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4tE7JFV

‌Americans Are Paying the Bill for Tariffs, Despite Trump’s Claims

President Trump has frequently claimed that foreign countries were paying for his tariffs, not Americans. But as economists predicted, that is largely turning out not to be the case.

Research published on Thursday by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Columbia University suggests that, through November 2025, 90 percent of the economic burden of the president’s tariffs fell on U.S. companies and consumers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46Rwa93

‌Who, exactly, is ICE arresting, jailing, and abusing?

Trump is lying about ICE arrests. He said his deportation machine would go after only the “worst of the worst.”

According to newly leaked data from the Department of Homeland Security, less than 14 percent of the 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE in the past year have either been charged with or convicted of violent crimes.

The vast majority of immigrants jailed by ICE have no criminal record at all. A few have previously been charged with or convicted of nonviolent offenses, such as overstaying their visas or permission to be in the country. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/467vufw

‌Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

The action is a key step in removing limits on carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases that scientists say are supercharging heat waves, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather.

‌Federal Judge Blocks Trump Plan to Cut $600 Million in Health Funds

A federal judge in Illinois on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to claw back $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats, amid a wider effort by the federal government to pull funding from blue states.

Judge Manish S. Shah of the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois wrote in a two-page order that the plaintiff states — California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota — had provided enough evidence that the cuts were “based on arbitrary, capricious or unconstitutional rationales” to halt what would have been deep cuts in federal public health funding that had already been allocated while legal arguments continue in the case.

It is the latest court ruling staving off deep federal cuts to Democratic-led states, which say they are politically motivated. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OhomY4

‌Agents Suspended After Their Story of Shooting an Immigrant Falls Apart

Two federal agents have been suspended, and criminal charges against a man one of them shot have been dropped, after a prosecutor in Minnesota revealed that the story those agents told about the shooting was not true.

The suspensions and dismissal followed an extraordinary court filing on Thursday, in which Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor, Daniel N. Rosen, asked a judge to dismiss charges against the man who was wounded in that shooting, as well as another man who had been accused of attacking the agent who opened fire.

Mr. Rosen wrote that “newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations” that federal officials made in a charging document and in courtroom testimony. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kzPaP3

‌Guard Troops Fully Withdraw From Chicago, Portland and Los Angeles

All National Guard troops that the Trump administration tapped to support aggressive immigration operations have left Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., according to U.S. military officials.

The demobilizations in those cities, first reported by The Washington Post, were noted on the website of the U.S. Northern Command and followed the Pentagon’s plan late last year to withdraw Guard troops.

Their departure, which according to the Northern Command occurred throughout January, signals the formal end to monthslong deployments that pitted Democratic cities against the Trump administration and tested the limits of presidential authority over the state-based military forces. By the end of the assignments, only skeleton forces of a few hundred Guard troops remained in those cities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aDLF5N

‌Homeland Security Shutdown Draws Nearer as Democrats Block Funding

Senate Democrats refused to move ahead with a spending bill needed to keep the Department of Homeland Security running because it lacked limits they have demanded on federal immigration agents. - NYT https://nyti.ms/409355h

‌N.Y.C. Officials Reinstate Pride Flag at Stonewall After Federal Removal

A group of New York elected officials gathered on Thursday to replace the Pride flag that was removed from the Stonewall National Monument after a directive from the Trump administration, mounting a defiant response to the government’s assault on diversity initiatives at a federal site honoring the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement.

The plan to re-raise the flag in the center of the small park outside the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village had been widely publicized on social media, and hundreds of spectators cheered as its rainbow colors made their way back up the flagpole under a cloudy winter sky.

“We have brought the flag back to a sacred site,” Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president, told the crowd through a bullhorn. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3MrSa3y

‌Trump Says He Wants to Cancel Elections, but Here Is the Real Threat

President Trump has dropped unsubtle hints about his desire to cancel the November elections. “We have to even run against these people,” he said in a speech last month. “I won’t say cancel the election; they should cancel the election.” Mr. Trump didn’t stop there. “When you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election,” he mused a week later.

These remarks have caused understandable concern, but they are empty threats. Mr. Trump’s power depends on the appearance of winning elections, and he knows it. He’s obsessed with convincing the world he won in 2020. And control over elections is dispersed among thousands of officials across the country, making cancellation impossible.

But more to the point, it’s election subversion, not cancellation, that is the real authoritarian move. The goal is to keep elections going but without unseating those in power. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qz4VY9

‌Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts

The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency.

In recent months, Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security, according to four government officials and tech employees privy to the requests. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OiTDcX

‌How the anti-Trump resistance is slowly stirring

Donald Trump, who once claimed, “I have the right to do whatever I want as president,” isn’t always getting it all his own way anymore.

The president hasn’t repudiated his quest for total power. But he’s beginning to hit small but significant pockets of rebellion.

Every week, more people show they are less frightened of the president. That even includes some Republicans. Some of Trump’s most cherished policies and personal goals face increasing disruption from political action, the courts, individual citizens and the inexorable gravity of electoral politics. - CNN https://cnn.it/4aAwha6

‌ProPublica is tracking the historic rise in challenges filed by immigrants claiming their detention is illegal.

As federal immigration agents surge into communities and detain people, the number of cases filed by those claiming their detention is illegal has risen to historic highs. ProPublica is tracking the volume of these cases, known as habeas petitions, as they overwhelm legal advocates and government attorneys.

Immigrants filed more habeas cases in the first 13 months of the second Trump administration than in the past three administrations combined, including his first. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3MMz20d

‌Two top aides to RFK Jr. leaving HHS as part of leadership shakeup

Two top aides to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are leaving the US Department of Health and Human Services, according to three people familiar with the moves.

HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and General Counsel Mike Stuart are expected to soon leave HHS as part of a broader restructuring at the agency ahead of the midterm elections. Trump administration officials have discussed offering them other positions in the government, two people said. - CNN https://cnn.it/4am12Rm

‌Nobody asked: Trump’s DOJ steps up uninvited recommendations at Supreme Court

President Donald Trump’s administration is stepping into high-profile appeals at the Supreme Court without invitation at an unprecedented pace, supporting conservative groups in cases dealing with guns, religion and climate change.

The court regularly invites the Justice Department to offer its view on whether to hear appeals, and recommendations from the solicitor general, the administration’s top appellate attorney, have long carried a special weight at the Supreme Court.

But Solicitor General D. John Sauer’s office is using the relationship more aggressively than in the past, urging the Supreme Court to take on culture war cases that align with the president’s agenda — even when the court has not asked for the Justice Department’s input. The administration has butt into at least five cases without invitation, most recently a potentially significant appeal involving religious preschools. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rS8MR2

‌Kennedy Allies Target States to Overturn Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren

Longtime allies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, have launched a new effort to repeal laws that for decades have required children to be vaccinated against measles, polio and other diseases before they enter day care or kindergarten.

A newly formed coalition of vaccine activists is targeting laws that are considered the linchpin of protection from deadly diseases. States have long mandated childhood immunizations before children can start day care or school, though some exemptions are available. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tVAtuf

‌Department of Homeland Security Shuts Down, Though Essential Work Continues

Funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed early Saturday morning, beginning a shutdown that was not expected to bring most of the department’s work to a halt yet could disrupt travelers, immigration enforcement and disaster relief if it is prolonged.

Department officials have said that its essential missions and functions would continue. During last fall’s government shutdown, more than 90 percent of the department’s employees were required to keep working. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rNDQ4f

‌Trump Erased a Bedrock Climate Rule. Here Come the Lawsuits.

When the Trump administration erased one of the nation’s bedrock scientific principles on climate change this week, it set up a legal battle that’s all but certain to hinge on the Supreme Court.

And not for the first time.

The scientific principle that was killed on Thursday, the endangerment finding, which found that greenhouse gases endanger public health by heating up the world, itself resulted from a Supreme Court decision 20 years ago. The court had ordered the government to study whether greenhouse gases harm human health, and, if so, to regulate them.

But today’s Supreme Court is far more conservative. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZE2cSc

‌Measles Outbreak Hits Florida College

More than 40 measles cases have been reported at Ave Maria University in southwest Florida, the largest outbreak on a college campus in recent history.

The outbreak at the private Catholic college has raised concerns among university leaders and public health experts that measles, which has largely been considered a childhood illness, may present a growing threat to college students who aren’t vaccinated.

Measles has already disrupted several campuses across the country this year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/408nIP4

‌Stop calling it immigration enforcement

At this pivotal moment, we all have a responsibility to stop calling the Trump administration’s deployments of DHS forces to American cities “immigration enforcement” operations when they’re really violent crackdowns. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4aRV7DN

‌DOJ’s targeting of Trump critics ramps up with attempt to indict lawmakers

The Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute President Donald Trump’s critics entered a new phase this week, when federal prosecutors failed to indict six Democratic lawmakers who recorded a video reminding military service members of their duty to refuse illegal orders. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4tEzCxM

‌Don Lemon indictment: Video appears to contradict key claims

Video footage appears to contradict key aspects of a federal indictment’s descriptions of former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s actions at a protest last month inside a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to a review by The Washington Post.

Lemon, another independent journalist and several protesters are all charged with the same two criminal counts. They are accused of conspiring to deprive congregants of their religious rights and of interfering with access to a place of worship. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4aSPKEo

‌ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the country and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of immigrants, according to agency documents provided to New Hampshire’s governor and published on the state’s website Thursday. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4tCjD3f

‌Services cut. Staff laid off. New Trump cuts hit schools in 11 states, D.C.

When more than 400 children returned from winter break last month, their New Haven public school had changed.

The care coordinator who helped families in crisis was gone. A class for parents who were getting certified to work in child care centers had been scrapped. A dance club, where 13-year-old Miguel Gonzalez practices the moves that will hopefully help him get into a performing arts high school next year, was in its final weeks. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4qC3GHm

‌RFK Jr. food pyramid site links to Grok, which says you shouldn’t trust RFK Jr.

Some in the nutrition and health fields have supported Kennedy’s fight against ultra-processed foods. But the bulk of the changes Kennedy made to the dietary guidance and funnel representation relate to glorifying fat and protein, drawing criticism that the updates are harmful and lack supporting evidence.

Among the critics is a notable AI chatbot. Kennedy’s new website, RealFood.gov, prods users to “use AI to get real answers about real food.” Entering a question into a text box and clicking “ask” redirects users to Grok, Elon Musk’s AI tool that has been shown to generate child sexual abuse material.

As for Grok’s take on nutrition, its answers do indeed get real. In short, Grok indicates that Kennedy’s new nutrition guidelines are not based on high-quality evidence—which is true—and that Kennedy is not a reliable source of nutrition information. He is, in fact, not trustworthy on health information generally, according to the chatbot. And when Grok designed a daily meal plan to fit Kennedy’s food funnel, it subsequently admitted that the plan contained excessive amounts of saturated fat and protein while falling short of the recommended fiber intake, which Americans are generally already short on. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3Og9BEN

‌Trump official overruled FDA scientists to reject Moderna’s flu shot

Vinay Prasad, the Trump administration’s top vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration, single-handedly decided to refuse to review Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine, overruling agency scientists, according to reports from Stat News and The Wall Street Journal.

Stat was first to report, based on unnamed FDA sources, that a team of career scientists at the agency was ready to review the vaccine and that David Kaslow, a top career official who reviews vaccines, even wrote a memo objecting to Prasad’s rejection. The memo reportedly included a detailed explanation of why the review should proceed.

The Wall Street Journal confirmed the report with its own sources, who added that FDA scientists attended an hourlong meeting with Prasad in early January, in which they laid out their objections to Prasad’s plans to block the vaccine review. They reportedly told Prasad—a political appointee known for causing turmoil and espousing anti-vaccine rhetoric—that it was the wrong approach. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/46EA8Sq

‌Pam Bondi’s Epstein Testimony Exposed the Whole Game

Liz Plank, on her Substack, describes the nausea and disorientation felt by women realizing this past week that we had all been gaslit yet again. Those of us who cannot even begin to imagine a permission structure that allowed and encouraged passing young girls around, trading insults and articles about them (“your littlest girl was a little naughty”), and bonding over the hysteria of #MeToo can barely comprehend why it was that this class of men always took the gift and the freebie and the shitty watch and the plane trip, because access to yet more of the same somehow became the coin of the realm. What Plank describes as “trust bias”—the psychological tendency to assume that others are operating within the same moral and ethical universe as yourself—means that we are all, once again, annihilated by the fact that America’s shared moral universe is a collective fiction, one that constrains one class of people and merely titillates another. - Slate / Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4bWSodm

‌Trump Is Suing His Own Government

On January 29, Trump, along with the Trump Organization and his sons Don Jr. and Eric, sued the IRS for mishandling his tax information. The group is claiming improper disclosure—that a contractor leaked the president’s and his sons’ tax returns to The New York Times and ProPublica during Trump’s first term. (As part of his 2023 guilty plea for disclosing tax-return information without authorization, the contractor admitted to leaking Trump’s information to the Times.) The president is seeking $10 billion in damages; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed last week that all of it would come from the Treasury General Account, which consists entirely of taxpayer dollars. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kGdcIk

‌Letters from an American - February 13, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

At midnight tonight, most of the agencies and services in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will run out of funding, as popular fury over the violence and lawlessness of federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol made Senate Democrats refuse to agree to fund DHS without reforms. And yet, because the Republicans lavished money on ICE and Border Patrol in their July 2025 budget reconciliation bill—the one they call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—those agencies will continue to operate. The 260,000 federal employees affected by the partial shutdown will come from other agencies in DHS, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), and the Coast Guard. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4qJQz7f

‌Dems Want to Ban Surveillance Pricing at Big Grocery Stores

“This legislation is actually pretty simple: If two people are in the same store buying the same item, they should pay the same price,” Washington State Representative Mary Fosse said in an emailed statement. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4rvnxJy

‌A short note to Kristi Noem

Hello? Kristi Noem?

Robert Reich here. I hear you’re trying to find the names of people who are making negative comments on social media about ICE enforcement.

Look no further. I’ve done it frequently. I’m still doing it. This note to you, which I’m posting on Substack, is another example. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4qCCDMg

‌RFK Jr pledged more transparency. Here's what the public doesn't know anymore

A year ago, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said he wanted to rebuild trust in federal health agencies, and vowed to employ “radical transparency” to do it.

But many types of health information that steadily flowed from the government for years or decades has been delayed, deleted and in some cases stopped all together.

The collection and sharing of information was hurt by sweeping layoffs at federal agencies and the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Officials took down health agency websites to comply with an executive order from President Donald Trump, causing outside researchers to archive federal health datasets and leading to a lawsuit that ended with a judge ordering the websites' restoration.

Ariel Beccia, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said changes in the flow of federal health information have made her angry.

“We pay taxes to hopefully have good, inclusive public health practice and data,” said Beccia, who focuses on the health of LGBTQ youth. “The past year it felt like every single day, something that I and my colleagues use daily in our work has just been taken away” by federal officials. - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/3Ot7Dkl?

‌Once the Americans Warned of the Russian Threat. Now, It’s the Europeans’ Turn.

In Munich, European leaders were also talking about “de-risking” from the United States, citing President Trump’s unpredictability. - NYT https://nyti.ms/468pRhh

‌ICE Tried to Justify a Minneapolis Shooting. Its Story Unraveled.

The collapse of the Trump administration’s version of events in the case was only the most recent instance in which officials gave an account of a shooting that was later contradicted. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tD8z5L

‌Bondi’s Incompetence Is the Latest Insult for Epstein’s Victims

The hearing in the House Judiciary Committee room this week offered a grim tableau of the state of American justice. Sitting in the gallery were victims of Jeffrey Epstein, women who have waited decades for clarity and accountability. Sitting before them was Attorney General Pam Bondi. When offered the opportunity to apologize to these women for the Department of Justice’s disastrous handling of the Epstein files, Ms. Bondi didn’t just decline; she sneered. Instead, she demanded that Democrats apologize to President Trump.

She proceeded to subject committee members from both parties to schoolyard taunts. She called the ranking member a “washed-up, loser lawyer.” She derided Thomas Massie — a Kentucky Republican who helped force the release of the Epstein documents after Mr. Trump and Ms. Bondi had kept them hidden — as a “failed politician.” And at one point, in a bizarre non sequitur, she responded to a question she did not like by boasting that the Dow Jones industrial average had surpassed 50,000 points.

Ms. Bondi’s performance was more than just political theater. It was a final indignity in a process that has victimized Mr. Epstein’s victims all over again. Under the guise of transparency, the Justice Department has managed to expose the victims to further humiliation while shielding the powerful behind a wall of redactions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Ogar4p

‌The One Tiny Problem With Trump’s Affordability Agenda

The people want affordability, and Donald Trump knows it. After initially calling the concept a “hoax,” the president has begun unveiling his own agenda to bring down prices and increase Americans’ purchasing power. Somewhat astoundingly, each of his proposals, if enacted, would be more likely to make the affordability problem worse, not better. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ay79Rp

‌Trump’s Stinging Attack on Israel’s President Touches a Nerve

President Trump’s public excoriation of Israel’s president because he has not yet pardoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his long-running corruption trial has touched a nerve in Israel.

Mr. Trump called President Isaac Herzog “disgraceful” while speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday.

“The people of Israel should really shame him” for not letting Mr. Netanyahu off the hook, Mr. Trump said.

The blatant intervention into Israeli domestic affairs, together with the insulting tone, developed into a rare, open spat between allies over the honor of the Israeli president, who is largely a figurehead. The affront prompted pushback from some senior Israeli officials — including Mr. Herzog — while some staunch supporters of Mr. Netanyahu sided with Mr. Trump. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4avsJWI

‌In Munich, Lawmakers Concede Scars Remain After Trump’s Greenland Threat

U.S. lawmakers left the Munich Security Conference on Sunday confident they had patched the wound inflicted on the trans-Atlantic partnership by President Trump when he toyed with invading Greenland.

But they conceded that his threats had indelibly altered relations with Europe and left scars that Congress would have to reckon with, leading some rising Democrats to chart a path for a more cooperative future beyond Mr. Trump’s “America First” policies.

Senators, and a handful of House members who bought last-minute tickets to Munich after Speaker Mike Johnson canceled their chamber’s official convoy, said Greenland dominated their conversations over the three-day security summit. The Trump administration and European leaders are continuing to negotiate on the issue of America obtaining sovereignty over some part of Greenland, the island territory controlled by Denmark, a NATO ally, for military bases. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46aMOjX

‌After Trump Denies August Flooding Disaster Aid, City Leaders Vow To ‘Get Creative’ To Help Neighbors

Following FEMA’s decision to deny Illinois’ appeal for aid, alderpeople and community leaders are stepping up to help South and West side neighbors, from creating heat maps of flood-prone areas to reviewing sewer lines that need repairs. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4ctE3Fl

Week Fifty-Six: February 16 - February 22

‘Not American Enough’

About two-thirds of U.S.-born Latinos told the Pew Research Center that they feel their situation has worsened over the past year; nearly half of those queried said they feel less safe in their area because of the mass-deportation blitz. Those I spoke with (all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity or allowed only their first name to be used because they fear retribution) said they are changing their habits. They carry photos of their birth certificate or passport and have saved lawyers’ numbers in their phones. They’re sharing videos of Americans being stopped by authorities and are being tipped off about immigration raids by friends and clients. School administrators are preparing for immigration-enforcement operations at pickup and drop-off. One woman told me that her son came home from school upset because he had a Spanish first name. He asked why he wasn’t given an English-sounding name, like his brother. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4kE2Dp6

How Do You Prove Your Citizenship?

The problem is that ICE does not say what it accepts as definitive proof of legal status. Is it a driver’s license? A green card? A folder of immigration documents? Doald Trump’s mass-deportation campaign has swept up U.S. citizens and permanent residents over the past several months, leaving some detained for days despite individuals presenting officers with evidence of their legal status. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3OwK0HD

The Immigration Debate Came to Rural Kansas. Locals Stood by Their Mayor.

A standing-room-only crowd jammed recently into the only courtroom in Comanche County, Kan. Residents came on their lunch breaks, trekked in from their ranches and even closed down a hardware store so they could watch.

They were there for the man at the defendant’s table, Joe Ceballos, who just weeks before had been re-elected mayor of Coldwater in a small-town landslide, with 101 votes to his opponent’s 20. There had been no time to celebrate. Hours before the votes were tallied, Mr. Ceballos, a legal permanent resident of the United States, was charged in state court with voting illegally as a noncitizen.

Now Mr. Ceballos, 55, sat in the high-ceilinged courtroom, glancing downward as a prosecutor from the Kansas attorney general’s office rattled off a list of felony charges that could lead to years in prison: three counts of election perjury, three counts of voting without being qualified. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZDxA3c

Trump’s EPA decides climate change doesn’t endanger public health – the evidence says otherwise

The Trump administration took a major step in its efforts to unravel America’s climate policies on Feb 12, when it moved to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding – a formal determination that six greenhouse gases that drive climate change, including carbon dioxide and methane from burning fossil fuels, endanger public health and welfare.

But the administration’s arguments in dismissing the health risks of climate change are not only factually wrong, they’re deeply dangerous to Americans’ health and safety.

As physicians, epidemiologists and environmental health scientists, we’ve seen growing evidence of the connections between climate change and harm to people’s health. Here’s a look at the health risks everyone face from climate change. - Conversation / Japan Today https://bit.ly/4tZ5EF1?

'Resign or be impeached': Watch AOC wreck Pam Bondi on the world stage

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continued to command the world stage, providing at least one sane emissary from the United States amid the rise of Donald Trump’s chaotic, autocratic movement.

In a wide-ranging interview Sunday at Technische Universität Berlin with German Bundestag member Isabel Cademartori, Ocasio-Cortez took aim at the architects of MAGA’s "anti-cancel culture" movement who are now trying to dodge accountability over the Epstein files—and slammed attorney general Pam Bondi’s pathetic performance before Congress. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4rRd9f1

Trump Risks Igniting a Nuclear Wildfire

The world is entering a dangerous new nuclear age. This month, the New START treaty between the United States and Russia — the last major restraint on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals — expired. In its place, the Trump administration is substituting a policy of vague threats and dangerous brinkmanship that portends an unconstrained arms race not seen since the height of the Cold War.

President Trump’s approach to this new, unbound era is alarming in both its words and its mechanics. Rather than preserving the stability that has held for half a century, the administration is weighing the deployment of more nuclear weapons and, perhaps most recklessly, the resumption of underground nuclear testing.

Times Opinion and this editorial board have spent the past two years documenting the terrifying reality of these weapons in our series “At the Brink.” We explored the catastrophic consequences of a single detonation, the forgotten victims of past testing and the fragility of the systems meant to prevent the unthinkable. The intention of that series was to raise public awareness about the dangers of nuclear weapons. Now that lack of awareness is being exploited to abandon the last of the international agreements that helped keep humanity safe for decades and to pursue an unchecked arms race. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rPh2kG

I Hold Pam Bondi in Contempt

I imagine Pam Bondi getting ready for one of her appearances on Capitol Hill by practicing in front of a mirror. She hones her glare. She perfects her sneer. She rehearses her lines, such as they are.

“Washed-up, loser lawyer!” That’s for Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland. What the phrase lacks in poetry it makes up for in pithiness. It’s just four short words, two of them conveniently conjoined with a hyphen. Even Bondi can remember that much.

“Failed politician!” That’s for Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky. Two words. Insults are all about efficiency.

But it’s not Bondi’s script that matters most. It’s her voice, and the attorney general got the tone of it — the poison in it — just right when she spat those put-downs at those men during her, um, testimony before a House panel last week. She didn’t merely ooze contempt. She gushed it, so that all she communicated during more than four hours of nasty exchanges was how loathsome she found her interrogators. Which was obviously her goal. Her mission. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rhiA7a

The Plan for a Radically Different Supreme Court Is Here

The Federalist Society, the conservative legal organization founded in 1982, is justly famous for providing a right-wing agenda for the courts and for promoting its allies to be judges and justices. The American Constitution Society, its lesser-known liberal counterpart, recently announced new leadership, and a new goal: to expand the use of the courts to oppose President Trump’s agenda.

Phil Brest, the new president of the A.C.S., which was founded in 2001, participated in a largely unsung success of Joe Biden’s presidency: Serving in Mr. Biden’s White House counsel’s office, Mr. Brest, now 38, helped the president nominate and win confirmation of 235 federal judges, which is more than Mr. Trump’s total in his first term.

Those judges — and others appointed by Democratic presidents — have proved that the most effective resistance to Mr. Trump has come not from Democratic politicians but rather from federal judges. In the last several weeks alone, these judges, many of them Biden appointees, have ordered the release from immigration custody of five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father and their return to their home in Minnesota; blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary protections from deportation that had been granted to thousands of Ethiopians living in the United States; and directed the Trump administration to allow members of Congress to make unannounced visits to ICE detention facilities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4anmp4T

Trump claims he’s ‘talking’ about Taiwan arms sales with China’s Xi

Newsweek has contacted Taiwan's de facto embassy in the U.S. for comment via email.

The U.S. is Taiwan's top source of arms, as stipulated by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which calls for Washington to provide sufficient means to help the island "resist coercion" and preserve regional peace. China views Taiwan as its territory, and Xi has repeatedly said unification is inevitable.

Washington's long-held "Six Assurances" to Taiwan include not consulting with Beijing about arms sales to Taipei, meaning Trump may have infringed on the policy depending on the nature of his talks with Xi. - Newsweek https://bit.ly/4qLLgEq

Signs of a white-collar recession are everywhere

Slowing wage growth. Declining job openings. Unemployed workers giving away their LinkedIn passwords and forking over thousands of dollars per month for a shot at that elusive thing: a lucrative corporate job. Or just a job, period.

Beneath the headline employment numbers in BLS reports, the signs of a white-collar recession are mounting. Here's what to know. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4ao96RN

Tricia McLaughlin Is Stepping Down as Homeland Security Spokeswoman

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security known for her combative style and forceful defense of President Trump’s immigration agenda, is stepping down from the agency, according to two officials with knowledge of the decision. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rl9dn3

Colbert Says CBS Pulled Senate Candidate Interview

Stephen Colbert said on his late-night show on Monday that his network, CBS, barred him from airing an interview with a Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate race because of new guidance from the Trump administration about equal airtime for political candidates.

It’s the first time that a late-night talk show has changed its programming to meet the demands of that update from the Federal Communications Commission, which has over the last year ramped up its efforts to crack down on the major media companies for perceived bias.

Mr. Colbert, a frequent critic of President Trump, made it clear he did not make the change willingly. Over six minutes on Monday’s edition of “The Late Show,” Mr. Colbert blasted Brendan Carr, the chairman of the F.C.C. And, in a rebuke of CBS, Mr. Colbert said that “because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZLsfqv

Top private prison companies see profits amid administration's immigration crackdown

The country's largest private prison companies are reporting significant profits amid an aggressive push by the Trump administration to increase immigration arrests and detentions. - ABC https://bit.ly/46ZezvX

What do new files reveal about Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein?

Allies downplay president’s links to Epstein but newly released documents offer slightly more complicated picture - Guardian https://bit.ly/40hxiiy

Senate Democrats Understand The Assignment: Empowering Creators In The Fight For Democracy

Today, we woke up to the news that CBS refused to air Stephen Colbert’s interview with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico due to so-called “equal time” concerns from Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

This is just the latest anti-democratic move by CBS, where Bari Weiss, the recently installed editor-in-chief of CBS News, is leading the once-famed news division into the ground by doing Trump’s bidding. Since taking the reins in October, Weiss has overseen the platforming of Erika Kirk in a flop of a town hall, the quashing of a 60 Minutes story on El Salvador’s Cecot prison, and the hiring (and retention) of Jeffrey Epstein pal Dr. Peter Attia, who appears in the Epstein files 1,700 times, as a CBS contributor.

Just yesterday, Anderson Cooper announced he was leaving 60 Minutes at the end of this season, a development that Status reports is due to his discomfort with Weiss’s rightward tilt at the network. This has echoes of the resignation last April of 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens, who said he “would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it.”

And within just the past month, we’ve seen mass layoffs at Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post and the arrest of independent journalists, including Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, on sham federal charges after they covered an anti-ICE protest inside a church where the pastor had been accused of being an ICE official. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/46cIXmu

Citing Orwell’s ‘1984,’ judge orders Trump administration to return slavery exhibits removed from Philadelphia museum

A federal judge, evoking the dystopian world of George Orwell’s novel “1984,” ordered the Trump administration on Monday to return a long-standing exhibit on slavery it removed from a popular historical museum in Philadelphia.

US District Judge Cynthia Rufe, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, included multiple references to Orwell in her ruling granting the City of Philadelphia’s request to restore the exhibit panels to Independence National Historical Park while litigation over their removal continues.

“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims—to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts. It does not,” Rufe said, referring to the famous novel, which deals with themes of oppression and rigid governmental control. - CNN https://cnn.it/4aLfWzL

Fulton County accuses Justice Department of misleading the judge who approved elections office search warrant

Officials in Fulton County, Georgia, accused the Justice Department of making “serious” omissions in the application the FBI filed to obtain a search warrant for 2020 election ballots last month.

The local officials, who are seeking the return of the election materials, wrote in a court filing Tuesday that “instead of alleging probable cause to believe a crime has been committed,” the FBI’s application “does nothing more than describe the types of human errors that its own sources confirm occur in almost every election—without any intentional wrongdoing whatsoever.”

Fulton County bashed the FBI for not informing the magistrate judge who approved the warrant that the allegations of election “defects” it was putting forward had been previously investigated. The local officials also took the FBI to task for not including information in the application that would cast doubt on the credibility of the witnesses that the federal criminal probe apparently is relying on. - CNN https://cnn.it/3ZLIh3F

A man shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis was charged with assaulting law enforcement. A startling admission ended the case.

Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna was on shift in Minneapolis on a Wednesday evening last month, making deliveries as a DoorDash driver, when he realized he was being followed by ICE agents, his attorney said.

He drove home and was tackled by an agent but broke free and ran into the house where his cousin Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was standing, the attorney said. As he shut the door and was trying to lock it, Sosa-Celis said he was shot in the leg by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Coming just seven days after a federal agent fatally shot Renee Good, the incident spawned renewed protests and heated clashes with police. An account of the events from the Department of Homeland Security soon after the incident conflicted with the narratives from the two men and their family members. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rKgq0l

Censorship Comes for Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert’s Late Show ends in May, and he’s in almost open warfare with his soon-to-be ex-bosses at CBS. Last night, he had planned to broadcast an interview with James Talarico, a member of the Texas state House who is running in a heated Democratic primary for United States Senate. But it was not to be.

At the start of his show, Colbert told viewers that CBS had barred him from airing the interview, citing threats from Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission. (You may remember Carr as the guy who sounded like a cartoon mobster while trying to get Jimmy Kimmel fired—“We can do this the easy way or the hard way”—drawing a rebuke from Senator Ted Cruz.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bZcjbB

CBS forces Colbert to pull segment—and he isn't doing it quietly

CBS prevented late night host Stephen Colbert from airing an interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on Monday night, the latest act of censorship from the increasingly right-wing network in coordination with the Trump administration’s regime at the Federal Communications Commission.

Colbert revealed the details of the plot on the Monday edition of his program, “The Late Show.”

“We were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have [Talarico] on the broadcast,” Colbert explained. “I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly does not want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4kGT8p4

Homeland Security stooge throws in the towel

Tricia McLaughlin is leaving her role as Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs next week, leaving behind an embarrassing legacy as a pathological liar who failed to mislead the public on the Trump administration's disgusting immigration tactics.

In fact, McLaughlin has told so many lies that were easily disproven by video evidence that nothing the Department of Homeland Security says can now be taken at face value.

And even worse for President Donald Trump, the lies didn’t even work.

Trump is now at his lowest approval rating of his second term, and polling shows that the public disapproves of his immigration policy—with a majority of Americans believing that the administration has “mostly lied” about Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4tKyIQj

Republicans, Braced for Losses, Push More Voting Restrictions in Congress

The strict voter identification measure that Republicans have pushed through the House is just their opening salvo in a broader legislative effort aimed at keeping control of Congress this fall and helping to amplify the president’s false claims of mass voter fraud in the event that they lose.

The G.O.P.’s relentless focus on the bill and an even more restrictive measure making its way through the House — both of which face a steep uphill path to becoming law — is aimed chiefly at intensifying pressure within their own ranks to muscle through new voting restrictions and seek to reshape the electorate in their favor. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aKDGE4

Letters from an American - February 17, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Trump’s White House website welcomes visitors with a pop-up that reads: “WELCOME TO THE GOLDEN AGE!” But on this heavy news day a year into Trump’s second term, it is increasingly clear that as his regime focuses on committing the United States to white Christian nationalism, the country is becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the world, and its own economy is weakening.

At the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s endorsement of white Christian nationalism does not appear to have swayed European countries to abandon their defense of democracy and join the U.S.’s slide toward authoritarianism. Instead, as retired lieutenant general and former commander of U.S. Army Europe Mark Hertling wrote, it squandered the strategic advantage its partnership with Europe has given the U.S.

Foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum noted that the word in Munich was that “Europe needs to emancipate itself from the U.S. as fast as possible.” In Germany, Der Spiegel reports plans to bring Ukrainian veterans to teach German armed forces drone use and counter-drone practices the Ukrainians are perfecting in their war against Russian occupation. Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney is working to reduce Canada’s defense dependence on the U.S., ramping up domestic defense production. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3ZI2ojp

Why the hell is Trump threatening war with Iran again?

America is on the brink of a full-scale war with Iran — but no one is willing to say exactly why, including the occupant of the Oval Office.

But there are clues.

The U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, is en route from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East. It should arrive there within days. The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and three guided-missile destroyers are already there. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4rpcBx4

Colbert Says CBS Pulled Senate Candidate Interview

Netanyahu Plays Trump and American Jews for Fools — Again

Let’s stop beating around the bush: Israel’s far-right government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is spitting in America’s face and telling us it’s raining. It’s not raining. Bibi is playing both President Trump and American Jews for fools. And if the U.S. lets him get away with it, we are fools.

While keeping Trump focused on the Iranian missile and nuclear threat — which, though reduced, is still very real and will have to be dealt with diplomatically or militarily — Bibi is fundamentally threatening broader U.S. interests in the Middle East, not to mention the security of Jews all over the world. In what way? I cannot put it any more succinctly than Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, did.

“A violent and criminal effort is underway to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank,” he wrote in an essay in Haaretz this month. “Gangs of armed settlers persecute, harm, wound and even kill Palestinians living there. The rampages include burning olive groves, houses and cars; breaking into homes; and physically assaulting people.” He continued: “The rioters, the Jewish terrorists, storm Palestinians with hate and violence with one objective: to force them to flee from their homes. All this is done in the hopes that the land will then be prepared for Jewish settlement, en route to realizing the dream of annexing all the territories.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3MRVB3B

Trump Is Raising Billions in Federal Funds. That’s Not a Good Thing.

People tend to associate democratic erosion with election interference and violent police crackdowns. But there’s a quieter tell that a democracy is endangered: the dissolution of laws that protect public money.

In Turkey a state-controlled fund now runs one of the country’s main messaging apps. In Hungary the government has used its tax-enforcement powers to harass dissidents. In India companies can discreetly fill the governing party’s campaign coffers in exchange for favorable tax treatment. All these regimes snatched the tax-and-spend power from their legislatures and so gained a blank check to reward friends, punish dissenters and undermine political foes.

It is too late to ask if the same could happen here: It is already happening. Article I of the Constitution clearly states that Congress ought to control how public money is raised and how it’s spent. At startling speed, that essential element is crumbling.

It is difficult to estimate the White House’s off-the-books revenue. There’s no comprehensive public accounting of this money, only dubious assertions from administration officials and President Trump’s social media posts. But by any measure, he is raking in billions of dollars, bypassing Congress and the law. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40l38uQ

Kash Patel’s FBI Is Making America Less Safe, Current and Former Employees Say

Three weeks after winning re-election, Trump named Patel as his nominee for F.B.I. director. On a podcast, Patel had promised to shut down bureau headquarters on his first day in the post and reopen it “as a museum of the deep state.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Os21Ha

Prosecutors Began Investigating Renee Good’s Killing. Washington Told Them to Stop.

Hours after an immigration agent fatally shot Renee Good inside her S.U.V. on a Minneapolis street last month, a senior federal prosecutor in Minnesota sought a warrant to search the vehicle for evidence in what he expected would be a standard civil rights investigation into the agent’s use of force.

The prosecutor, Joseph H. Thompson, wrote in an email to colleagues that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a state agency that specializes in investigating police shootings, would team up with the F.B.I. to determine whether the shooting had been justified and lawful or had violated Ms. Good’s civil rights.

But later that week, as F.B.I. agents equipped with a signed warrant prepared to document blood spatter and bullet holes in Ms. Good’s S.U.V., they received orders to stop, according to several people with knowledge of the events who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The orders, they said, came from senior officials, including Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, several of whom worried that pursuing a civil rights investigation — by using a warrant obtained on that basis — would contradict President Trump’s claim that Ms. Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer” who fired at her as she drove her vehicle. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZI3R9p

*Biology vs. Bullsht at the FDA**

“In the long contest between biology and bullshit, biology is undefeated,” Auchincloss [told Bloomberg]. “The [FDA] commissioner is trying to wage that battle, and it’s going to be patients who lose.” - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4aFdvyB

The Latest Ploy to Help Republicans Win Elections

The SAVE Act is relatively simple to understand: It requires that anyone wishing to vote provide documentation to prove they are a U.S. citizen. On an intuitive level, this might make sense, because noncitizens aren’t permitted to vote. But the bill is a solution in search of a problem. States already have methods of verifying citizenship, and illegal voting by noncitizens is very rare. The bill also threatens to disenfranchise eligible voters. Although some of the bill’s supporters may be sincere, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem committed a classic Kinsley gaffe on Friday, inadvertently revealing the truth of the administration’s push: It’s a ploy to help Republicans win elections. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3MmT2GJ

Letters from an American - February 18, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

The Trump administration has cost Illinois $8.4 billion, Pritzker said, “illegally confiscating money that has already been promised and appropriated by the Congress to the people of Illinois.” Pritzker was clear that this money is not handouts but “dollars that real Illinoisans paid in federal taxes and that have been constitutionally approved by our elected Democratic and Republican representatives in Washington.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4axx63q

As Trump Weighs Possible Iran Strikes, U.S. Military Moves Into Place

The rapid buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East has progressed to the point that President Trump has the option to take military action against Iran as soon as this weekend, administration and Pentagon officials said, leaving the White House with high-stakes choices about pursuing diplomacy or war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bZcaF4

As ICE Buys Up Warehouses, Even Some Trump Voters Say No

Across the country, the Department of Homeland Security’s plans to buy industrial warehouses and turn them into detention centers for immigrants are running into local resistance, including in communities like Surprise that voted for Mr. Trump in the last presidential election.

The pushback is complicating efforts to expand detention capacity to accommodate the tens of thousands of additional immigrants the administration expects to confine, to deliver on its mass deportation drive. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kKZX9p

The MAHA Coalition Is Falling Apart

It’s been a bumpy year for public health. Even so, last week’s precedent-breaking news that the Food and Drug Administration wouldn’t even bother to consider Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine for approval felt like a dark revelation.

Hundreds of millions of dollars had been invested to develop the shot. The clinical trial had been conducted according to terms backed by the agency in 2024, and last year the company reported that the new vaccine showed 26.6 percent greater efficacy than the standard flu shot, which is, of course, the point of these things.

But none of that seemed to matter, at least at first. The official explanation for the decision didn’t pass muster, as the F.D.A. commissioner, Marty Makary, was perhaps acknowledging when he suggested, in response to a public backlash, that the F.D.A. might eventually approve the vaccine — and then confirmed on Wednesday that the agency would, in fact, proceed with a normal review. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qPmS4S

President Trump Is a Wrecking Ball, and He’s Only Getting Started

It took a long time for many Americans to realize just how disruptive Mr. Trump is, but by now it is painfully obvious. The United States is in many ways unrecognizable from what it was 10 years ago when he was first elected. During his first term, Mr. Trump latched onto real, longstanding problems like a broken immigration system, deindustrialization and increasing economic inequality that politicians on the left and right had identified but failed to fix. After he failed to fix them himself, Mr. Trump’s second-term answer has been an increasingly brazen attack on the rule of law, civil liberties and constraints on the presidency. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rubMmV

Economists contradicted Trump on tariffs. A White House adviser wants them 'disciplined'

President Donald Trump's top economist suggested that a group of economists that contradicted the White House on tariffs should face disciplinary action.

In a CNBC interview on Wednesday morning, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett attacked the researchers behind the paper.

"The paper is an embarrassment. It's, I think, the worst paper I've ever seen in the history of the Fed system," Hassett said. "The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined." - Quartz https://bit.ly/4cHvozf

FDA reverses course and will review Moderna’s mRNA flu shot, company says

About two weeks ago, the FDA sent Moderna a letter in which it refused to accept the application to review its first mRNA seasonal flu vaccine — a rare move by the federal agency that raised concern about another setback for the technology that’s been a target of some Trump administration health officials.

The FDA told Moderna that its application didn’t contain an “adequate and well-controlled” trial because the control arm didn’t reflect the “best-available standard of care in the United States at the time of the study,” according to the letter, that Moderna posted online. It didn’t identify any safety or efficacy concerns, the company said.

But Moderna has since met with the FDA and “proposed a revised regulatory approach” with different pathways by age, according to a news release from the company. - CNN https://cnn.it/4aPauff

Trump Could Interfere With the Midterm Elections. You Can Help Defend Them.

Election integrity in the United States can be a fraught subject. Merely raising the prospect that a future election might be compromised makes many democracy experts uncomfortable. It can undermine faith in our reliable, well-run election system and amplify the false claims about fraud that often come from President Trump. Even people who respect the sanctity of elections sometimes malign them. Many Democrats, for example, have wrongly suggested that voter-identification laws undermine the system by causing large declines in turnout.

In truth, American elections have never been more reliable or accessible. For every election, thousands of principled election officials painstakingly update voter rolls, mail information to households, train poll workers, oversee voting and transport ballots with a documented chain of custody. Voter fraud is extremely rare, and voter turnout in the past two presidential elections reached higher levels than in any other over the previous century. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3MJ1FLF

The U.K. arrests Price Andrew. Why shouldn’t the U.S. arrest King Trump, who appears to have done even worse?

America likes to believe we gave up kings almost 250 years ago and adopted a system in which “no one is above the law.”

But Trump’s foreign policy has become a personal tool for him to channel money and status to himself and his closest associates. Since the 2024 election, the Trump family’s personal wealth has increased by at least $4 billion. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4kKThYC

After blasting WHO costs, Trump officials propose more expensive alternative

After pulling out of the World Health Organization, the Trump administration is proposing spending $2 billion a year to replicate the global disease surveillance and outbreak functions the United States once helped build and accessed at a fraction of the cost, according to three administration officials briefed on the proposal. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3OuGmhx

Colleges quietly cut ties with organizations that help people of color

The Trump administration’s objection to a program that helps people of color pursue doctorate degrees has prompted colleges to cut ties with a range of organizations associated with racial minority groups, a Post investigation has found. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4tNvxHF

US trade deficit hits fresh high despite Trump's tariffs

US goods imports continued to outpace its exports last year, sending the country's trade deficit to a new high despite sweeping tariffs introduced by US President Donald Trump.

The gap between the value of goods imported into the US and American products sold to other countries widened by 2.1% compared to 2024, hitting roughly $1.2 trillion (£890bn), official figures show.

The rise emerged despite a sharp drop in trade with China, one of the earliest targets of the tariffs.

The gap runs counter to one of the White House's key aims which is to reduce the deficit, arguing that US reliance on overseas goods has hollowed out the country's production abilities and put national security at risk. - BBC https://bbc.in/3MHuiZG

Trump Deports SICK 2-MONTH OLD After ICE Prison Measles Outbreak

Just when you think Trump’s terror has reached rock bottom, the floor collapses even lower.

Status Coup producer Michelle Dao interviewed Migrant Insider editor Pablo Manríquez on the alarming, heartbreaking, and un-American story of the deportation of a SICK 2-MONTH-OLD newborn boy named Juan Nicolás (watch interview above)

Nicolás, along with hundreds of other children, was detained at the Dilley ICE prison in South Texas (the same ICE prison that recently had a Measles outbreak along with other diseases). Nicolás has been imprisoned there for a month—and sick inside for the last three weeks.

Let that sink in: two-month old newborns are being imprisoned in disease-riddles cesspools…in the United States of America. - Status Coup https://bit.ly/4qNBEsM

Exclusive: DHS admits its website showcasing the ‘worst of the worst’ immigrants was rife with errors

The Department of Homeland Security admitted that its website featuring what it calls the “worst of the worst” arrested immigrants was rife with errors and changed the site this week after receiving questions from CNN about it. - CNN https://cnn.it/4cEi7Ya

Minnesota judge holds federal attorney in civil contempt, a first in Trump’s second term

A federal judge in Minnesota held a Trump administration attorney in civil contempt for “flagrant disobedience of court orders” in the case of a noncitizen swept up in the immigration crackdown there earlier this year.

The contempt finding by US District Judge Laura Provinzino on Wednesday appears to mark the first time a federal attorney has faced court-ordered sanctions during President Donald Trump’s second term.

It comes as judges in the Twin Cities and elsewhere have grown increasingly impatient with the administration’s repeated violations of court orders, particularly in fast-moving immigration cases. - CNN https://cnn.it/4qKYWzh

Trump’s White House ballroom moves one step closer to approval after fast-track vote

The Commission of Fine Arts fast-tracked approval for President Donald Trump’s East Wing renovation plans Thursday, bringing the president’s quest for a new ballroom one step closer to reality.

In a unusual move, the committee, an independent federal agency that advises the president and Congress on design plans for monuments, memorials, coins and federal buildings, voted unanimously not only to approve the concept as presented but to approve the final design, an unexpected acceleration of the approval process through this committee.

The approval came despite the committee’s chair noting the panel received over 2,000 public comments about the project, with over 99% negative. - CNN https://cnn.it/4aHMqe2

Hegseth invited pastor who calls for Christian theocracy to lead Pentagon prayer service

A controversial pastor who supports repealing women’s right to vote and believes homosexuality should be a crime led a worship service at the Pentagon this week, saying he was invited by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. - CNN https://cnn.it/4kLC4ON

Other countries punish their leaders when they're wrong. Not the US.

Meanwhile in South Korea, ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday after he was found guilty of carrying out an insurrection in his country when he declared martial law in 2024 to try to seize control from the opposing political party.

Yet here at home, our so-called president—who also had close ties to Epstein and incited an insurrection of his own in January 2021—is sitting in the White House, violating the Constitution as he carries out impeachable offenses at a dizzying clip.

Indeed at this very moment, Trump appears to be readying to launch a possible war in Iran without congressional approval, despite the fact that the Constitution Trump uses as toilet paper says that it’s Congress that has the power to declare war. Not to mention that Trump has already been carrying out war crimes in the Caribbean Sea, as well as his invasion of Venezuela. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4qZYxte

Trump's inaugural ‘Board of Peace’ meeting was pathetic—and shady

President Donald Trump held his first meeting of his self-described “Board of Peace” on Thursday, and the event was most notable for the absence of major world powers and highlighting Trump’s inability to lead on the global stage. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3Orz3Y2

The Effects of Tariffs, One Year Into Trump’s Trade Experiment

Over the past year, President Trump carried out what was essentially a grand experiment with the U.S. economy, by raising tariffs to levels not seen in a century. It was an exercise that pitted Mr. Trump, a longtime proponent of tariffs, against business owners who paid the levies and mainstream economists who criticized the plan.

America imports trillions of dollars of foreign goods each year, and tariffs are a tax on those purchases. Over the past year, Mr. Trump raised average U.S. tariffs to about 17 percent, the highest level since 1932, in the wake of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Mr. Trump’s stated aim was to reinvigorate American industry and bring jobs back to the United States.

These new surcharges have had a significant impact. They have caused businesses to speed up, delay and cancel purchases, or find new countries to source products from. They have raised a significant amount of revenue for the government, much of it from American businesses. And they have caused the U.S. trade deficit to shrink and prices of American goods to rise. At the same time, they have not yet been the panacea for the factory sector that Mr. Trump had promised.

Here are some of the effects. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46mq1lc

Demanding Support for Trump, Justice Dept. Struggles to Recruit Prosecutors

Chad Mizelle, a former chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi, hung an online help wanted sign for federal prosecutors last weekend that perhaps explained why so many valuable Justice Department staff members have left, and why so few candidates want in.

Assistant U.S. attorneys are not typically recruited, as Mr. Mizelle sought to do, by a former federal employee who asks potential candidates to send a private message to his X account. Nor have they been asked in the past to prove political or ideological fealty.

“If you are a lawyer, are interested in being an AUSA, and support President Trump and anti-crime agenda, DM me,” wrote Mr. Mizelle, a fierce Trump supporter who remains close with Justice Department leaders and senior officials in the West Wing. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4s8Kxyi

Trump’s Board of Peace Promises Billions for Gaza, With Few Details

President Trump convened the first meeting of his new Board of Peace on Thursday, announcing $7 billion in pledges from nine member countries to rebuild Gaza while offering few details about how Hamas can be disarmed or when Israel might fully withdraw from the Palestinian territory.

And in an unexpected foray into European politics that flouted diplomatic protocol, Mr. Trump publicly declared his “complete and total endorsement” for Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, in elections in April. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aZ83b3

MAHA Moms Turn Against Trump: ‘Women Feel Like They Were Lied To’

The MAHA Moms have turned on President Trump.

When Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threw his support behind Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign for the White House, his corps of health conscious, mostly female, followers embraced the president, who pledged to address Americans’ concerns about “toxins in our environments and pesticides in our food.”

Some of the women, who call themselves the MAHA Moms after Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement, abandoned the Democratic Party to vote for Mr. Trump.

But the executive order Mr. Trump issued Wednesday to increase domestic production of glyphosate — a widely used weedkiller and possible carcinogen that has been the target of thousands of lawsuits, including one brought by Mr. Kennedy — stunned and infuriated the activists.

It now threatens to turn the brief MAHA-Trump marriage into a divorce. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kOQgGZ

In 2025, Trade Deficit in Goods Reached Record High

Data released Thursday by the Census Bureau showed the overall trade deficit with the world narrowed, the result of an expanding trade surplus in services. The trade deficit in goods was the highest on record. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aFgMxH

Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Convenes Its First Meeting

To anyone who spent time in the old U.S.S.R., President Trump’s newly hatched “Board of Peace,” which holds its first meeting on Thursday at the newly rechristened Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, evokes worrying echoes. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4s5HKpr

Letters from an American - February 19, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

In Washington, D.C., today, President Donald J. Trump held the first meeting of his so-called Board of Peace at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), newly renamed the “Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace,” a change being legally challenged. Last year, officials from the Trump administration seized the USIP building, which housed an independent entity created by Congress in 1984, and fired nearly all the employees.

Trump has made it clear he wants his new board to replace the United Nations. Twenty-seven countries have said they will participate, but so far none appear to have tossed in the $1 billion that would give them permanent status. The countries participating include Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Egypt, El Salvador, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kosovo, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Trump extended invitations to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, both of whom have been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/4s5HKpr

US economy slowed sharply in the fourth quarter, expanding at a rate of just 1.4%

The US economy grew at a much slower pace in the final months of 2025 as the historic government shutdown weighed on economic activity, ending a year that saw the weakest growth since the pandemic. - CNN https://cnn.it/4u3OHt0

GDP comes in low. Inflation comes in high. And hopes for interest rate cuts take a hit.

The odds of another Federal Reserve rate interest cut fell on Friday morning, after key reports on GDP and inflation. First, the GDP report showed that the U.S. economy slowed pretty dramatically at the end of 2025, in part because of the record-long government shutdown. On an annualized basis, GDP growth fell to 1.4% in the fourth quarter, from 4.4% in the third quarter. Economists had broadly expected fourth-quarter GDP to come in at 3%, so Friday's report landed with an unusual thud.

For the full year, GDP growth came in at 2.2%, down from 2.8% in 2024. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4ro7WLY

Supreme Court rules that Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law when he unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs across the globe, a striking loss for the White House on an issue that has been central to the president’s foreign policy and economic agenda.

The decision is arguably the most important loss the second Trump administration has sustained at the conservative Supreme Court, which last year repeatedly sided with the president in a series of emergency rulings on immigration, the firing of the leaders of independent agencies and deep cuts to government spending. - CNN https://cnn.it/40t44NL

Justices Strike Down Trump’s Tariffs

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that President Trump exceeded his authority when he imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from nearly every U.S. trading partner, a major setback for his administration’s second-term agenda.

The court’s 6-3 decision has significant implications for the U.S. economy, consumers and the president’s trade policy. The Trump administration had said that a loss at the Supreme Court could force the government to unwind trade deals with other countries and potentially pay hefty refunds to importers.

Mr. Trump is the first president to claim that a 1970s emergency statute, which does not mention the word “tariffs,” allowed him to unilaterally impose the duties without congressional approval.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that statute does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rvnAFz

U.S. Economy Grew More Slowly at End of 2025

The U.S. economy slowed sharply at the end of 2025 to cap a volatile year in which consumer spending and an A.I. investment boom helped keep growth on track despite tariffs, uncertainty and the longest government shutdown in history.

Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the final three months of the year, the Commerce Department said on Friday. That was down from a 4.4 percent rate in the third quarter, partly because of the prolonged shutdown.

It was a fittingly messy end to a year in which the economy proved more resilient than many forecasters feared, but fell far short of the revival that President Trump promised on the campaign trail. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rprhwl

A New U.S. Blockade Is Strangling Cuba

Cuba is confronting the United States’ first effective blockade since the Cuban Missile Crisis and running out of fuel fast, pushing the nation toward a humanitarian crisis and its government to the edge of collapse, according to a New York Times analysis of shipping data and satellite images.

Cuban tankers have hardly left the island’s shores for months. Oil-rich allies have halted shipments or declined to come to the rescue. The U.S. military has seized ships that have supported Cuba. And in recent days, vessels roaming the Caribbean Sea in search of fuel for Cuba have come up empty or been intercepted by the U.S. authorities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4s1g6JY

Supreme Court strikes down Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs

The Supreme Court on Friday struck down some of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, dealing a significant blow to his second-term agenda that he quickly vowed to reverse.

In the 6-3 decision on "Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump" issued Friday morning, the high court said the president does not have unilateral authority to impose import taxes. In the majority opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts, it was made clear that tariffs are another form of taxation. The power to tax, the opinion said, belongs to Congress as the legislative branch. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4c7L12Q

South Carolina Hospitals Aren’t Required to Disclose Measles-Related Admissions. That Leaves Doctors in the Dark.

Measles is among the most contagious of viruses. In 2026 so far, almost half of states have reported cases. Yet it’s left largely to each state to decide how much infectious disease reporting to require about it. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3ZTpzHs

Chlorine Dioxide, Raw Camel Milk: The FDA No Longer Warns Against These and Other Ineffective Autism Treatments

The warning on the government website was stark. Some products and remedies claiming to treat or cure autism are being marketed deceptively and can be harmful. Among them: chelating agents, hyperbaric oxygen therapies, chlorine dioxide and raw camel milk.

Now that advisory is gone. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3ZLnqxx

Trump Says He’ll Impose New 10% Global Tariff After SCOTUS Defeat

President Donald Trump held a press conference on Friday to discuss his administration’s surprise defeat at the U.S. Supreme Court on tariffs. To sum it up, Trump is angry at the Supreme Court justices he installed during his first term, who nonetheless voted against him. And he’s going to impose his tariffs anyway, just using different mechanisms than he tried before.

“Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic. They’re so happy. And they’re dancing in the streets, but they won’t be dancing for long. That I can assure you,” Trump said angrily to open his press conference on Friday.

The Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, but Trump insisted Friday that he could use other tariff statutes to essentially get the same outcome. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4av6tNX

Will the Supreme Court’s Tariff Ruling ‘Destroy the United States of America’?

So what now? As expected, the Supreme Court invalidated the Trump administration’s signature economic policy on Friday, ruling that the law did not permit the president to impose trillions of dollars of tariffs on our trading partners across the globe. Back in August, President Trump said that a ruling like this would “literally destroy the United States of America.” Was he right?

The answer: This reversal is definitely bad for the economy, just not for any of the reasons Mr. Trump had in mind. But in the long run, it’s likely a lot better for the economy than where we were otherwise headed. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3MyXhyZ

The Supreme Court Delivers Trump a Humiliating Gift

In the 1630s, King Charles I tried to tax English people without the consent of their legislature. He lost his head.

In the 2020s, Donald Trump tried to tax Americans without the consent of Congress. He just lost his case.

A tariff is a tax. The Trump tariffs imposed in and after April 2025 were projected to raise as much as $2.3 trillion over 10 years. The Constitution assigns authority over taxes, including tariffs, to Congress. It does so for reasons that date back to English constitutional history: An executive who can tax without permission from elected representatives is on his way to becoming a tyrant. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tLTUVY

Get Ready for Zombie Tariffs

The Trump tariffs are dead. Long live the Trump tariffs?

This morning, in a 6–3 opinion, the Supreme Court struck down the bulk of the president’s sweeping global tariffs. The majority ruled that the law Donald Trump had used to carry out most of his trade policies does not, in fact, allow the president to impose tariffs at all. This is a major setback for Trump’s trade agenda, but it is far from a fatal one. The president has several alternatives that he can use to reconstruct his tariff regime, and his administration has spent months putting a plan in place to do so. Those efforts, too, may eventually be challenged in court, but fully litigating them would take years. Unless the president suddenly has a change of heart, Trump’s tariff adventure is far from over. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4soBPMv

Trump administration plans to take Homan’s Minneapolis immigration playbook nationwide

The Trump administration plans to double down on targeted immigration enforcement, taking Tom Homan’s playbook in Minneapolis and applying it to multiple cities nationwide, according to current and former Homeland Security officials.

It’s a marked departure from the highly visible and aggressive tactics employed by top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino. That approach, documented in Hollywood-style social media videos and touted by senior Trump officials at the time, is being tabled, for now, following the scenes that unfolded in Minneapolis, including the shooting deaths of two American citizens.

“No more Bovino bullsh*t. That show is shut down,” a Homeland Security official told CNN. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rvUIwU

Florida lawmakers vote to rename Palm Beach airport after Trump

Florida lawmakers have passed a bill to rename Palm Beach International Airport after President Donald Trump.

The bill to rename the south Florida hub passed the state Senate Thursday with 25 votes in favor and 11 votes against, all from Democrats, two days after Florida’s House of Representatives passed the measure 81-30. - CNN https://cnn.it/4tF2VAa

Hegseth rails against ‘Godless left’ in political speech to Christian convention

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth railed against what he called the “Godless left” and praised “Western Christian” values and traditions in a headliner speech Thursday night at a Christian communicators conference in Tennessee.

“Under the leadership of President Trump, the military once again supports and trains our troops and tends to their spiritual health. You see, we train our troops, we no longer trans our troops,” Hegseth said to large applause from the crowd at the National Religious Broadcasters 2026 International Christian Media Convention in Nashville. - CNN https://cnn.it/4as1768

Trump furious after Supreme Court strikes down sweeping tariffs, upending his economic agenda

The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's far-reaching global tariffs on Friday, handing him a stinging loss that sparked a furious attack on the court he helped shape.

Trump said he was “absolutely ashamed” of some justices who ruled 6-3 against him, calling them “disloyal to our Constitution" and “lapdogs." At one point he even raised the specter of foreign influence without citing any evidence. - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/3MHwXCE?

Supreme Court’s Tariff Ruling and Trump’s Immediate New Levies Add New Uncertainty in Global Trade

A Supreme Court decision on Friday striking down President Trump’s sweeping global tariffs dealt a major blow to his economic agenda and brought new uncertainty to global markets struggling to adapt to his whipsawing trade policies that was compounded when he announced that he was imposing a new across-the-board 10 percent tariff.

The court, in a 6-to-3 decision written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., ruled that Mr. Trump had exceeded his authority when he imposed tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partner last year. The ruling prompted a defiant response from the president: In a news conference at the White House, Mr. Trump excoriated the justices who had ruled against him as “fools and lap dogs” and foreshadowed the new tariffs he announced within hours, to begin on Tuesday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40n4VQ9

The E.P.A. Rescinds a Landmark Finding

Given all that, the decision to terminate the E.P.A.’s finding—which the agency issued in 2009, two years after the Supreme Court ruled, in Massachusetts v. E.P.A., that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act—has to rank as one of the signal moments in America’s descent into idiocracy. Literally every major scientific organization in the world, not to mention every other U.S. President since 1988, and even all the largest oil companies, have acknowledged the dangers of greenhouse gases. The decision is of a piece with the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and its efforts to disconnect satellites and monitoring stations—including, in December, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder—that the world has relied on to track changes in the planet’s chemistry and temperature. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4rvmVUk

Trump pivots to 10% global tariff and new probes after Supreme Court setback

U.S. President Donald Trump moved swiftly on Friday to replace tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court with a temporary 10% global import duty for 150 days and ordered new investigations under other laws that could allow him to re-impose the tariffs.

Trump signed executive orders late Friday to impose new tariffs starting on Tuesday under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, partly replacing tariffs of 10% to 50% under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act that the top court declared illegal, and ending collection of the now-banned duties. - Reuters / Japan Times https://bit.ly/4kWTSXy

After Stunning Setback, Trump Finds Other Ways to Impose Tariffs

President Trump moved swiftly on Friday to resurrect his punishing tariffs and circumvent a stunning loss at the Supreme Court, ordering a new 10 percent tax on all imports along with other trade actions in a bid to preserve his primary source of economic leverage around the world.

Striking a defiant tone in the face of a legal defeat, Mr. Trump asserted at a news conference that he remained unbowed in a global trade war that has come to define his second term in office. The president even signaled that the tariffs he is now pursuing may yet prove more painful and lasting than those they are meant to replace.

“I can charge much more than I was charging,” Mr. Trump declared as he brandished his remaining trade powers, contending at one point that he could still “destroy foreign countries” by other means. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qTbYe5

A Fatal ICE Shooting Occurred in Texas Months Before Renee Good’s Killing

Months before Renee Good’s killing at the hands of an immigration agent in Minneapolis set off nationwide protests, a federal officer shot and killed another American citizen in his car in South Texas, according to internal reports made public this week.

The victim, Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was shot multiple times in South Padre Island by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after he did not follow commands to exit his vehicle, according to internal ICE documents reviewed by The New York Times. ICE’s connection to the shooting was first reported by Newsweek this week. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4s44p5x

Even After Supreme Court Ruling, Trump Insists He Can Do as He Wishes

President Trump’s furious response on Friday to the Supreme Court’s tariffs decision underscored his insistence that he should be granted expansive powers to carry out his agenda as he wishes.

Lashing out after the court decided that he had exceeded his authority in imposing an array of tariffs over the last year, Mr. Trump labeled the justices who ruled against him “fools and lap dogs” and suggested that they had been corrupted by unspecified foreign influence and “slimeballs.”

“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” the president said. He suggested that Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, whom he nominated during his first term, were “an embarrassment to their families” because they sided with the majority against him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46odVIm

Here Are the Countries and Products Subject to Tariffs Now

Imports around the world are set to face a new, 15 percent tariff under President Trump’s latest trade policy, announced Saturday in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that struck down a large slate of his previous duties. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qL4I4d

This Is How an Autocrat Goes to War

I never imagined I’d miss being lied to by George W. Bush and his henchmen.

When the Bush administration wanted to go to war with Iraq, it undertook a full-court press to propagandize the American people. Administration officials leaked false information about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, which turned out not to exist. Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a deceptive presentation at the United Nations. In Congress, many Democrats, succumbing either to relentless public pressure or their own hawkish instincts, joined with Republicans to authorize an invasion.

This mendacious campaign was shameful and despicable, and helped create today’s national atmosphere of corrosive cynicism and nihilistic paranoia. But it was, in retrospect, a tacit acknowledgment that public opinion mattered, that a president couldn’t start a war without convincing Americans it was necessary. It was a manipulation of democratic deliberation rather than a negation of it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46kC4zu

Trump Says He Will Raise Global Tariff to 15 Percent

President Trump said on Saturday that he would raise his new, global tariff to 15 percent, a day after he took steps to replicate some of the punishing duties that had been struck down by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Trump announced the sudden change in a post on social media, and said the policy would take effect immediately, as he signaled that he would press ahead with his aggressive trade strategy despite suffering a major legal setback. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4atfDuq

Divide Among Supreme Court’s Conservatives Could Test Trump’s Agenda

President Trump’s stinging defeat before the Supreme Court on Friday came because the court’s six conservative justices splintered over the legality of Mr. Trump’s tariffs.

That divide underscored differing visions of presidential power and the role of Congress, and has implications for how the court may deal with future cases involving Mr. Trump’s agenda.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the court’s 6-3 majority opinion, which concluded that the president had exceeded his authority by using an emergency statute to impose sprawling tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partner without congressional approval. The chief justice was joined by the court’s three liberals and two of Mr. Trump’s own nominees — Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the president’s third nominee, dissented, along with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., both staunch conservatives. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kRZKRN

Trump Doubles Down on Closing Tax Loophole on Cheap Imports

Hours after the Supreme Court struck down a significant portion of President Trump’s tariffs, the White House announced that another key pillar of his trade agenda will remain in place: the end of a policy that had allowed billions of dollars of low-value imports to enter the United States tax-free.

That policy, known as the de minimis exemption, had let U.S. importers bring in goods valued at under $800 without the sender paying taxes or completing detailed customs paperwork. The loophole allowed millions of packages to come straight from Chinese factories to American homes duty-free. Mr. Trump has said the exemption also enabled deadly synthetic opioids like fentanyl and their ingredients to flow into the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4atWicv

With Tariff Changes, Consumers May Be Stuck in a Waiting Game

The Supreme Court’s ruling striking down many of President Trump’s tariffs on Friday immediately cheered consumers, who hoped it would reduce the cost of imported products.

The tariffs, which Mr. Trump enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, had affected a vast swath of goods made in other countries, including furniture, apparel and electronics.

But some economists cautioned that the ruling would probably not lower sticker prices right away, if at all. Businesses that raised prices to offset higher import taxes are likely to be reluctant to lower them as long as tariff rates remain uncertain.

And just as they did with the struck-down tariffs, companies could be tempted to pass on some of any additional cost to consumers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3MqW1hn

The Supreme Court's tariff decision extends far beyond tariffs

A 6-3 majority of the Supreme Court decided yesterday that Trump cannot take core powers that the Constitution gives Congress. Instead, Congress must delegate any such power clearly and unambiguously.

This is a big decision. It goes far beyond merely interpreting the 1997 International Emergency Economic Powers Act not to give Trump the power over tariffs that he claims to have. It reaffirms a basic constitutional principle about the division and separation of powers between Congress and the president.

On its face, this decision clarifies that Trump cannot decide on his own not to spend money Congress has authorized and appropriated — such as the funds for U.S.A.I.D. he refused to spend. And he cannot on his own decide to go to war. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/46jeZx0

Trump aides struggle with how to spend $500 billion more on military

Trump administration officials have struggled to figure out how to increase U.S. military spending by a whopping $500 billion in their forthcoming budget, slowing the overall White House spending plan, four people familiar with the matter said. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4kN05oJ

The Supreme Court Sides With the Constitution

As a constitutional matter, the issue before the Supreme Court in the case of President Trump’s tariffs was a relatively easy one. If the Constitution was designed to prevent anything, it was economic rule by one-man decree. Declaring a national emergency due to foreign disputes and making the American people pay stiff import taxes as a consequence, without clear legislative authority—as Trump did last year—was never part of the Founders’ plan.

But actually acting on this truth was not so simple, especially for a conservative court majority that faced overt pressure from a president who had appointed three of them. Tariffs are the president’s signature policy and personal obsession. Before the justices listened to oral arguments last November, he had warned them that a contrary ruling “would literally destroy the United States of America.”

For the justices, then, this case posed a test of legal reasoning. But it also posed a test of personal integrity and institutional duty.

Chief Justice John Roberts passed the test. So did Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, two Trump appointees, who, along with the Court’s three liberal Democratic appointees, struck down the tariffs. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/3Olenkx

Amid Mass ICE Arrests, Trump Pardon Recipient Juan Orlando Hernández Given Special Treatment

For months, President Donald Trump has railed against Latin American narcoterrorists flooding the United States with “lethal poison.” He has used the scourge of drug trafficking as a rationale for dozens of military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have left more than 140 people dead.

Last month, Trump cheered a military assault by U.S. forces that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and brought them to the U.S. to face charges related to cocaine trafficking. Maduro, Trump said, led a “vicious cartel” that “flooded our nation with lethal poison responsible for the deaths of countless Americans.”

But when it comes to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was tried and convicted in the U.S. in 2024 and sentenced to 45 years in prison for taking bribes and allowing traffickers to export more than 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S., Trump has taken a decidedly softer tone.

Hernández, he said, has been “treated very harshly and unfairly” — so unfairly that on Dec. 1, Trump pardoned the former president after he served less than four of those 45 years.

But the federal government’s magnanimity did not end there. On the day he was to be released, records show, Hernández had an immigration detainer — a request for law enforcement agencies to hold noncitizens for pickup by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — in place. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4aMUD0I

Trump’s Trade Gamble Will Continue, Despite Supreme Court Rebuke

The Supreme Court may have ruled 6-3 against President Trump’s use of an international emergency law to impose tariffs. But Mr. Trump seems intent on continuing the experiment he has run with the U.S. economy over the past year, in which he has raised tariffs to levels not seen since the 1930s.

In a news conference at the White House on Friday, Mr. Trump made a series of false claims about the economic impact of tariffs and he promised to replace, or even increase, them using laws other than the one the court rejected.

“It’s ridiculous but it’s OK. Because we have other ways, numerous other ways,” the president said. “The numbers can be far greater than the hundreds of billions we’ve already taken in.”

“We broke every record in the book, and we are continuing to do so,” the president said about his tariffs.

By the end of Friday, he said he would impose a new set of levies, including a 10 percent across-the-board tariff. Then on Saturday, Mr. Trump suddenly raised the tariffs to 15 percent, the limit allowed by the new legal provision he was using. “During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs,” he said in a post on Truth Social. - NYT https://nyti.ms/476N3wC

Trump Says He Will Raise Global Tariff to 15 Percent

Divide Among Supreme Court’s Conservatives Could Test Trump’s Agenda

President Trump’s stinging defeat before the Supreme Court on Friday came because the court’s six conservative justices splintered over the legality of Mr. Trump’s tariffs.

That divide underscored differing visions of presidential power and the role of Congress, and has implications for how the court may deal with future cases involving Mr. Trump’s agenda.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the president’s third nominee, dissented, along with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., both staunch conservatives.

The division appears in part to come down to how much deference the justices think a president is due after declaring an emergency, and to their views of how much leeway Congress intended to give a president to conduct foreign affairs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3ZSzgpD

JPMorgan Admits It Shut Trump’s Accounts After Jan. 6 Capitol Attack

For years, President Trump has complained that his personal and business bank accounts were deliberately closed after the Jan 6., 2021, attack on the Capitol.

JPMorgan Chase is now admitting that did happen.

In a response to a lawsuit filed last month by Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization, JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, said for the first time late Friday that it cut off more than 50 Trump accounts in February 2021, shortly after Mr. Trump’s first term ended.

The accounts included those for Trump hotels, housing developments and retail shops in Illinois, Florida and New York, as well as Mr. Trump’s personal private banking relationship that handled his inheritance from his father, according to letters filed to the court.

JPMorgan did not specify in those letters a specific reason for the mass account closings. In one unsigned note to Mr. Trump, dated Feb. 19, 2021, the bank wrote that he would need to “find a more suitable institution with which to conduct business.”

The letter closed with, “Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter” — a phrase that Mr. Trump himself is fond of using. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rD6wxs

Sunday thought: The last best hope on earth

As Abraham Lincoln said in his Second Inaugural: “The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation … We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.” - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4rHASP2

Department of Homeland Security suspends Global Entry as the partial government shutdown drags on

The Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that the Global Entry program would be shut down as long as the partial government shutdown remains in effect.

The announcement comes after the department said Saturday night that it planned to shut down both Global Entry and the Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck program as well, but DHS cancelled the PreCheck closure.

“ As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case-by-case basis and adjust operations accordingly,” the agency said. - AP https://bit.ly/3ZNnf4T

DHS reverses course on TSA PreCheck suspension after confusion

The Department of Homeland Security on Sunday walked back its decision to suspend the Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck program, after initially sparking confusion for travelers when it said it was temporarily halting the popular service.

TSA “will evaluate on a case-by-case basis and adjust operations” according to staffing changes, a spokesperson for the agency told CNN on Sunday.

DHS said in a statement earlier in the day that PreCheck, along with the Global Entry program, would shut down at 6 a.m. ET amid a partial government shutdown. - CNN https://cnn.it/46m109T

The Long Goodbye: A California Couple Self-Deports to Mexico

Enrique Castillejos and his wife stopped at a Winchell’s Donut House. It was part of their after-church routine on Friday nights.

That evening’s sermon had been about finding peace in God in turbulent times, and they felt it spoke directly to them. Enrique, 63, and his wife, Maria Elena Hernandez, 55, were undocumented immigrants. Like millions of others in Southern California, they had been looking over their shoulders as federal agents conducted immigration sweeps.

Freedom, they felt, had become impossible in the land of the free. They had made a decision: Leave America and move back to Mexico. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3MIP8YE

The Long Goodbye: A California Couple Self-Deports to Mexico

Enrique Castillejos and his wife stopped at a Winchell’s Donut House. It was part of their after-church routine on Friday nights.

Freedom, they felt, had become impossible in the land of the free. They had made a decision: Leave America and move back to Mexico. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3MIP8YE

Armed Man Is Fatally Shot at Mar-a-Lago, Secret Service Says

The local sheriff identified the man as a 21-year-old resident of Cameron, N.C. The president was not at his resort in Florida and has not commented on the shooting. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46QLrXO

Trump Aides Project Confidence on Tariffs After Court Loss

The Trump administration signaled on Sunday that it was on track to resurrect many of its punishing tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court, insisting that the new approach would fulfill President Trump’s trade ambitions in a more legally durable way.

Through a new 15 percent global tariff that Mr. Trump announced on Saturday, and a set of coming trade investigations that may result in stiff tariffs on countries in Asia, the administration looked to project confidence that the legal setback would not deter its characteristic brinkmanship on trade.

“The president has been campaigning on tariffs and protecting American industry for many years,” Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” adding, “The policy hasn’t changed.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/40q55pR

Trump Calls on Netflix to Oust Susan Rice From Its Board

President Trump appeared to wade anew into the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, calling on Netflix, one of the suitors, to fire a member of its board, Susan Rice.

“She’s got no talent or skills — Purely a political hack!,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media Saturday evening, sharing an X post by the right-wing agitator Laura Loomer. Ms. Loomer’s post quoted Ms. Rice as saying that companies that took “a knee to Trump” would face accountability from Democrats if that party wins a majority in Congress in the midterm elections in November.

Ms. Rice worked in the Clinton, Biden and Obama administrations. She served as the American ambassador to the United Nations and as national security adviser to President Barack Obama and joined the Netflix board in 2018, then left in 2020 to work in the Biden administration, and then joined again in 2023. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qR935S

They Did Deals With Trump to Get Lower Tariffs. Now They Are Stuck.

It started as a week of trade wins for President Trump.

On Tuesday, Japan committed $36 billion in investments in the United States, and on Thursday, the president of Indonesia signed a deal in Washington to open up critical sectors of the country’s economy to American companies.

The moves were part of trade deals both countries had signed under the threat of huge tariffs, unlike anything they had faced in modern times — up to 35 percent in Japan’s case and 32 percent for Indonesia. Mr. Trump hailed the developments as signs that the United States was “WINNING again.”

But by the end of the week, it was no longer clear who, if anyone, was winning. On Friday, the Supreme Court struck down the legal premise of Mr. Trump’s punitive tariffs. After the ruling, he insisted that many of the deals would stand, although even he acknowledged that some might not. The court’s decision has left the fate of the deals highly uncertain. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46mJ3rC

Supreme Court strikes down Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs

The Supreme Court on Friday struck down some of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, dealing a significant blow to his second-term agenda that he quickly vowed to reverse.

Week Fifty-Seven: February 13 - March 1

Judge Aileen Cannon bars the release of special counsel report on Trump’s handling of classified documents

Special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified records and obstruction of justice at Mar-a-Lago after his first term will not be released, a Trump-appointed judge in Florida ruled Monday.

The decision by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who threw out the case Smith brought against the president before he was re-elected, is a major win in Trump’s efforts to keep the special counsel’s findings forever hidden from public view. - CNN https://cnn.it/3OtLeUg

CDC deputy director abruptly departs agency

Dr. Ralph Abraham is leaving the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where has been serving as principal deputy director, the agency said Monday. It’s the latest in a string of leadership changes that have shaken the health agency during the second Trump administration. - CNN https://cnn.it/4cbuJpI

Tariff chaos is back

Europe hits pause on a trade deal with the U.S., Trump vows the Supreme Court won't stop his tariffs — and stocks fall as trade war volatility returns. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4rxXGkl

The Republican Party Has a Nazi Problem

How did the GOP become a haven for slogans and ideas straight out of the Third Reich?

Over the past few months, during his agency’s chaotic crackdowns in Chicago and Minneapolis, the U.S. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino has worn an unusual uniform: a wide-lapel greatcoat with brass buttons and stars along one sleeve. It looks like it was taken right off the shoulders of a Wehrmacht officer in the 1930s. Bovino’s choice of garment is more than tough-guy cosplay (German media noted the aesthetic immediately). The coat symbolizes a trend: The Republicans, it seems, have a bit of a Nazi problem.

By this, I mean that some Republicans are deploying Nazi imagery and rhetoric, and espouse ideas associated with the Nazi Party during its rise to power in the early 1930s. A few recent examples: An ICE lawyer linked to a white-supremacist social-media account that praised Hitler was apparently allowed to return to federal court. Members of the national Young Republicans organization were caught in a group chat laughing about their love for Hitler. Vice President J. D. Vance shrugged off that controversy, instead of condemning the growing influence of anti-Semites in his party. (In December, at Turning Point USA’s conference, Vance said, “I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform.”) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ryUncA

Trump’s approval rating with independents hits a new low ahead of the State of the Union

Just 32% of Americans now say that Trump has had the right priorities, while 68% say he hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems. That’s the president’s most negative reading on that question to date during either of his terms in office. At the same time, Americans say, 61% to 38%, that Trump’s policies will move the country in the wrong direction rather than the right one. And Trump’s job approval rating among all adults remains mired at 36%. - CNN https://cnn.it/46x4DK3

Training for New ICE Agents Is ‘Deficient’ and ‘Broken,’ Whistle-Blower Says

“For the last five months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program,” Mr. Schwank said at a forum held in Washington by congressional Democrats. “Cutting 240 hours of vital classes from a 584-hour program — classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention and the limits of officers’ authority.”

He added: “New cadets are graduating from the academy despite widespread concerns among training staff that even in the final days of training, the cadets cannot demonstrate a solid grasp of the tactics or the law required to perform their jobs.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4slhGqx

Americans are pissed at the state of Trump's union

Multiple media outlets released polling on Monday ahead of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, all of which had flashing red warning signs for him and the Republican Party.

CNN/SSRS released a poll finding Trump's job approval rating at just 36%. That's the lowest it's been this term, and it’s 3 percentage points lower than the 39% the poll had him at in November 2018—days before Republicans lost the House in a landslide.

But a dig into the poll finds even worse news for Trump and the GOP. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4sd7EaJ

‌All the ways Trump will illegally impose more tariffs

Since Friday’s Supreme Court tariffs decision, we’ve all had a few days to stare into space after watching President Donald Trump somehow manage to project both a sort of woozy crumbliness and terrifying fascism by declaring that men love to kiss him and he’s allowed to destroy other countries and, above all, he’s just gonna still do tariffs.

Trump wasn’t very clear in his explanation of what he planned to do—shocking, right? He’s usually so precise! At the outset of his spittle-flecked ramblings on Friday, it did sound like he was declaring he would just openly defy the court’s order that he could not impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act IEEPA.

But that’s not quite it. Instead, Trump was blusteringly, messily, picking up on what Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in his dissent, was putting down. Kavanaugh helpfully gave Trump a roadmap as to how he could impose “most, if not all,” of his tariffpalooza under different statutes, and that’s definitely what Trump is planning to do. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4qZAhHi

Trump Says Top General Predicts Easy Victory Over Iran; He Says Otherwise in Private

President Trump said on Monday that Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believed that any eventual military action ordered against Iran would be “something easily won.”

But that is not what General Caine has told Mr. Trump and other senior advisers in recent high-level White House meetings on Iran, people briefed on internal administration deliberations said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rB5nq1

Judges Grow Angry Over Trump Administration Violating Their Orders

At least 35 times since August, federal judges have ordered the administration to explain why it should not be punished for violating their orders in immigration cases. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cjun09

What’s Happened Since the Supreme Court’s Tariff Ruling

After the Trump administration’s punishing tariffs were invalidated, the president said he would impose new tariffs using a different authority. It’s been a whirlwind. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ceOFYI

FedEx Sues for Refund of Trump Tariffs Rejected by Supreme Court

The company, which did not specify how much it was seeking, is expected to be one of many demanding compensation for levies ruled unlawful. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3N3FQ9X

Tariff chaos is back

Europe hits pause on a trade deal with the U.S., Trump vows the Supreme Court won't stop his tariffs — and stocks fall as trade war volatility returns. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4aUZgpc

‘I Genuinely Am Upset That Your Kids Are Vaccinated’

Del Bigtree, a longtime ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., isn’t just anti-vaccine. He’s pro-infection.

Over coffee at a Starbucks just outside Austin, Texas, Del Bigtree told me he wants his teenage son to catch polio. Measles, too. He’s considered driving his unvaccinated family to South Carolina, which is in the midst of a historic outbreak, so that they can all be exposed. He prefers pertussis—whooping cough—to the pertussis vaccine, which he later described to me as a “crime against children.” It’s not the diseases that Americans should be afraid of, Bigtree insists: It’s the shots that stop them. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3OwM0zU

You paid for tariffs — but you won’t get a slice of tariff refunds

The government is on the hook to refund $134 billion – and counting – worth of tariff revenue collected from President Donald Trump’s most sweeping tariffs, which were rendered illegal by the Supreme Court last week.

How much of that will consumers, who paid for steep tariffs via higher prices, get back?

Almost certainly nothing. - CNN https://cnn.it/4l0vc0h

In Combative State of the Union, Trump Heralds Economic and Border Policies

President Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address in American history on Tuesday night, insisting that he had overseen a “turnaround for the ages” during his first year back in office, even as voters lose confidence in his handling of the economy.

In his remarks, which clocked in at one hour and 47 minutes, Mr. Trump introduced few new policies and instead appeared to relish the theatrics of the moment. He used the opportunity to berate Democrats as “crazy” for not standing or applauding for his priorities, especially on crime, immigration and the economy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4seoqpW

Fact-Checking Trump’s State of the Union Speech

In nearly two hours of remarks, Mr. Trump sought to persuade voters unhappy with his handling of affordability and immigration enforcement that the economy was “roaring” and that deportations were focused on criminal migrants. And he again sowed doubt in the upcoming midterm elections by repeating falsehoods about “rampant cheating.”

Here are some fact checks of his speech. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4r6ZTCr

Again, Trump Completely Misreads the Law

On Friday, the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s use of an international emergency powers statute to impose broad tariffs on imports from across the world.

He immediately announced that he was relying on a different statute — the Trade Act of 1974 — to impose new, near-universal 10 percent tariffs, which he then raised to 15 percent.

These new tariffs are illegal, too. They are just another attempt by the president to ignore the law and dare the courts to stop him.

Courts should put a halt to the new tariffs — before they disrupt global trade and the domestic economy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rB6hTr

President Trump’s State of the Union Variety Show‌

The longest State of the Union in modern history is now over. Donald Trump held court in the House of Representatives and said little of substance, but substance wasn’t the point. This year, he intended to put on a show, with an array of guest stars and special appearances. He was happy because he was playing the roles he clearly loves: game-show host, ringmaster, emcee, beneficent granter of wishes—and, where the Democrats were concerned, a self-righteous inquisitor.

Trump did his usual rote lying about the economy—pity the fact-checkers who tried to keep up even in the first 10 minutes or so of the speech—along with some of his other greatest hits, including the many wars he stopped and the magic of tariffs. (He referred to the “unfortunate involvement” of the Supreme Court on the tariff issue, as if the justices had barged into his office like interlopers.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40zlIQ1

The White House Urges Republicans to Ignore Trump’s Diversions

Last Thursday, the White House tried to get President Trump to focus on the economic concerns driving the midterm elections. Instead, he issued a 10-to-15-day ultimatum to Iran, claimed that his wife’s documentary was so good that some women had seen it four times, and accused his predecessor Barack Obama of releasing classified information about space aliens.

Few actually watched his 68-minute speech on the economy later that afternoon at the Coosa Steel Corporation in Georgia. But even if they had tuned in, they would have found Trump’s recitation of his economic talking points overshadowed by his banter about wanting to award himself the Congressional Medal of Honor, claims that the FBI found “plenty of stuff” when it raided Fulton County’s election office, or the suggestion, denied by his own advisers, that inflation was no longer an issue: “I’ve won affordability.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sjrL7q

Trump's State of the Union described an economy that isn't real

Based on his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump’s plan to help Americans who are frustrated with the economy is to bore them to death with a torrent of lies.

In his seemingly endless speech on Feb. 24 – one of the top Google searches during it was “How long is the State of the Union” – Trump claimed, “This is the golden age of America.” He said that “inflation is plummeting,” and that “the roaring economy is roaring like never before.” Trump said: “We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting downward.”

He was painting a fanciful picture of an America that doesn’t exist. An America that American voters who wrestle with monthly bills and see their own grocery store receipts know doesn’t exist. - USA Today https://bit.ly/4aJ0aXm

Trump says the economy is 'roaring.' Consumers aren't convinced

President Donald Trump used his State of the Union speech Tuesday night to wave away worries about affordability, touting a “roaring” economy and a country "richer" than ever before. But the data this week suggests that cost of living concerns are still very much front and center for American households. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4r1SIvc

6 Takeaways From Trump’s State of the Union

In an address that was heavy on theatrics, President Trump lashed out at Democrats as “crazy” and unpatriotic.

‘He’s Debased This Country’: The Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s State of the Union

President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, celebrating his record on immigration and the economy. “We’re winning so much,” he said. “Inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising fast. … America is respected again.” Here’s what our writers thought of his speech. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uiiEWr

The State of the Union Revealed a Sad Reality

Donald Trump misused the annual presidential tradition in ways so radical as to call the ritual itself into question.

President Trump’s State of the Union address last night was very like the man who delivered it: divisive, abusive, and childish.

The speech turned reality on its head in many ways. The president who has enriched himself and his family by more than a billion dollars in his first year in office called on Congress to clean up its corruption. The president who has collected about $175 billion in illegal tariffs from the American people falsely told them that he had given them a great big tax cut. The president solemnly condemned political violence—the same president who ended his first term by inciting a mob to sack Congress and overturn an election. Maybe most shocking, Trump demanded that members of Congress rise to agree that it’s the first duty of government to protect American citizens—even as his own government by its brutal police methods has shot American citizens dead on the streets and then tried to deceive the country about how those Americans had been killed and why. Then of course there were the many misstatements of fact about the economy, about crime, and about wars and peace—many of which look like deliberate decisions to deceive the public watching on television.

The most radical fantasy in the speech, though, was its claims of a new golden age of prosperity. That misstatement surely deceived nobody. Prices continue to rise; the job market stagnates. In almost every way that can be measured, Americans are communicating economic anxiety and discontent. Trump insisted that they are all wrong. It is as if the nation were being soaked by a torrential downpour, water rolling over umbrellas and into boats, soaking everyone’s clothes—and the leader whose job it is to lead them through the deluge insists that it is not raining at all, that in fact it is sunny, the sunniest day ever. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4r2sysb

Trump's 2026 State of the Union address, annotated and fact-checked

The State of the Union Address was his chance to recast his unpopular mass deportation effort, explain why US warships are massing for possible military action with Iran, and stare down Supreme Court justices who last week rejected his unprecedented use of tariffs. There were Epstein survivors in the House chamber to push for more transparency and members of the US men’s hockey team to celebrate their victory over Canada at the Olympics. Trump awarded multiple Medals of Honor, two Purple Hearts, a Legion of Merit and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

There was also verbal jousting with Democrats, some of whom shouted or walked out of the chamber. Trump called them “crazy.”

Read Trump’s speech as delivered, annotated with context and fact checks, below, or jump to a topic in the speech. - CNN https://cnn.it/40yAxlR

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump

The vast trove of documents released by the Justice Department from its investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein failed to include some key materials related to a woman who made an accusation against President Trump, according to a review by The New York Times.

The materials are F.B.I. memos summarizing interviews the bureau did in connection to claims made in 2019 by a woman who came forward after Mr. Epstein’s arrest to say she had been sexually assaulted by both Mr. Trump and the financier decades earlier, when she was a minor.

The existence of the memos was revealed in an index listing the investigative materials related to her account, which was publicly released. According to that index, the F.B.I. conducted four interviews in connection with her claims and wrote summaries about each one. But only one of the summaries, which describes her accusations against Mr. Epstein, was released by the Justice Department. The other three are missing. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46YVni0

Anthropic won’t budge as Pentagon escalates AI dispute

Anthropic has until Friday evening to either give the U.S. military unrestricted access to its AI model or face the consequences, reports Axios.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in a meeting Tuesday morning that the Pentagon will either declare Anthropic a “supply chain risk” — a designation usually reserved for foreign adversaries — or invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to force the company to tailor a version of the model to the military’s needs. - Tech Crunch https://tcrn.ch/4l2Qz15

Dozens of FBI records apparently missing from Epstein files, including Trump accuser interviews

Dozens of FBI witness interviews from the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein appear to be missing from the massive trove of files released by the Department of Justice last month, according to a CNN review – including three interviews related to a woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her decades ago.

An evidence log provided to attorneys for Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell includes serial numbers for about 325 FBI witness interview records – but more than 90 of those records, over a quarter of the list, don’t appear to be present on the DOJ website, according to CNN’s review.

Among those missing records are three interviews related to a woman who told agents that Epstein had repeatedly abused her starting when she was approximately 13 years old, and who also accused Trump of sexually assaulting her. - CNN https://cnn.it/40E631O

Trump wanted to eliminate the trade deficit. It hit a record high in 2025

President Donald Trump's all-out effort to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign products isn't going as planned.

New trade data from the Census Bureau published on Thursday shows that the December trade deficit reached $70.3 billion, a 33% increase from the prior month. Scott Lincicome, a trade expert who is vice president of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute, observed on social media that the inflation-adjusted goods trade deficit hit a record last year. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3ZXaNj0

Trump’s Push for Election Power Raises Fears He Will ‘Subvert’ Midterms

Ahead of the midterm elections, an emboldened President Trump has shown an increased eagerness to leverage the full investigative, prosecutorial and legislative powers of the federal government to bend election mechanics to his will.

With his words and deeds, the president — who pushed to overturn his 2020 defeat but declared his 2024 victory legitimate — appears to be undermining Americans’ trust that the midterms will be free and fair. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aVmrQy

Patel Ousts F.B.I. Personnel Tied to Inquiry Into Trump’s Retained Classified Records

About 10 F.B.I. employees, some veteran agents, were dismissed this week for their work on the investigation into President Trump’s retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida, according to five people with knowledge of the move.

The firings are part of a rolling barrage of retribution aimed at those who worked on the two federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump after his first term in office. They came hours after Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, told Reuters that as part of the documents inquiry, the bureau had subpoenaed phone metadata for himself and Susie Wiles, currently the White House chief of staff.

They are not expected to be the last, those people said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/403onkV

What Hath Trump Wrought

For President Trump and his allies, the 2024 election was less a vote for a new administration than it was an enabling act for a new sovereign. The public had done more than give Trump the White House the way it might bless any candidate with presidential power. In their view, the vote was akin to regime change, the start of a new Constitution, a new covenant and a new commandment: Thou shalt have no other laws before Trump.

What followed, in the first year of the president’s second term, was an effort to subordinate the entire society to the whims of one man. He did not do this alone. Rather than defend its prerogatives as the first branch among equals, the Republican-led Congress neutralized itself as a constitutional force, deferring to Trump as he destroyed the federal bureaucracy, subverted the rule of law, targeted opponents and rivals with threats and blackmail and governed by executive decree. And, eager to implement its baroque theories of unlimited presidential power, the Republican-led Supreme Court gave sanction to Trump’s effort to remake the executive branch in his image, even when history, tradition, law and the will of the people through Congress said otherwise.

Worse, in the months before Trump won his second election, this same court freed him from fear of criminal prosecution in an extraordinary declaration of presidential immunity. The court opened the door to rampant corruption and abuse of power, and Trump walked right through it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aHwLNa

Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency

Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4u7BAXN

Time for the States to Gear Up for Trump’s Fake Elections Exec Order

The Post has an article today, an exclusive they say, about a draft executive order purportedly being circulated between the White House and various conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists in its broader circle. The proposed order claims that China has been found to be interfering in U.S. elections — specifically rigged the 2020 election in Joe Biden’s favor — and that as a result of that the president, as commander-in-chief, can and must directly take control of U.S. elections for the midterms and the 2028 presidential elections.

Two points merit saying on this. The first is that these are the rehashed, insane theories that were literally and figuratively laughed out of court in 2020. These are all absurd. Everybody knows they are absurd and false. The legal theory is what demands our attention. The authors of the order believe that if something is an emergency the president can invoke a kind of hidden dictator clause in the Constitution which allows him to assert powers which the Constitution explicitly forbids to him. This is not so. They secondarily believe in what we might call a “because” or “therefore” logic or clause. So because we have found that Threat X exists, the president can do whatever he wants to combat that threat. And as commander-in-chief, he can do anything he wants. This is also not so. - Talking Points Memo https://bit.ly/4sgrToa

Polls show increasing concerns about Trump’s mental acuity

In fact, multiple recent polls show a majority of Americans questioning it in one way or another. And even many Republicans seem to have concerns.

Perhaps the most striking poll came Tuesday, ahead of Trump’s first State of the Union address of his second term, which beat his own record for the longest speech to Congress.

The Reuters-Ipsos poll showed 61% of Americans agreed that Trump has “become erratic with age.” Even 30% of Republicans agreed with that sentiment. - CNN https://cnn.it/4aESV2y

Trump voters' regret hits new high

One in five Americans who voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election now regret their vote, a new Navigator Research survey released on Thursday found. That marks the highest number the polling outlet has registered since it began asking the question.

The share of Trump voters who have buyer’s remorse is up 6 percentage points since early February, when it was 14%, according to Navigator's data.

Twenty-three percent of Republicans who describe themselves as "non-MAGA" regret their vote, as do 13% of self-described MAGA Republicans, who should be the most fervent of Trump’s followers. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/400YaUc

Most Americans say Trump is growing erratic with age, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

Six in ten Americans, including a significant slice of Republicans, think President Donald Trump has become erratic as he ages, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The six-day poll concluded on Monday, the day before the 79-year-old president gives his annual State of the Union address to Congress following a month of angry reprimands of lawmakers and judges.

Overall, 61% of respondents in the poll said they would describe Trump as having "become erratic with age." Some 89% of Democrats, 30% of Republicans and 64% of independents described him this way. - Reuters https://reut.rs/4l5Jv3M

Trump Ally Expands Inquiry of Former Officials Who Investigated the President

A U.S. attorney in Miami appears to be expanding the scope of an investigation into former law enforcement and intelligence officials who were involved in scrutinizing President Trump during his first campaign and term, according to people familiar with the matter.

Subpoenas issued in recent weeks from the office of the prosecutor, Jason A. Reding Quiñones, show that the office is now widening its inquiry to encompass the F.B.I.’s investigation into ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. The subpoenas sought documents related to Russia’s election interference from several former officials who played lower-level roles in that inquiry. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ceTocU

In Trump’s Case for War, a Series of False or Unproven Claims

As they made their public case this week for another American military campaign against Iran, President Trump and his aides asserted that Iran has restarted its nuclear program, has enough available nuclear material to build a bomb within days, and is developing long-range missiles that will soon be capable of hitting the United States.

All three of these claims are either false or unproven. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rIaTHu

Trump Declared Victory in Minneapolis. But What Did He Accomplish?

The Trump administration came under fire for an operation that turned lethal and politically toxic. But the show of force may also have had a bigger purpose: to serve as a warning. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Ox3Nab

Columbia Student Is Released From ICE After Mamdani-Trump Meeting

In a dizzying sequence of events, a Columbia University undergraduate arrested by federal immigration agents in her college apartment Thursday morning was released later in the day after New York City’s mayor intervened directly with President Trump.

It was the clearest sign yet that Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has vocally opposed Mr. Trump on immigration enforcement matters, holds enough sway with the president to bend a highly charged situation through personal relationship and persuasion. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4qZOO64

Mamdani Meets Again With Trump, Emerging With Two Unexpected Victories

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he and President Trump discussed building housing in New York City, and he appeared to secure the release of a Columbia student detained by ICE on Thursday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cClv6b

Mamdani’s Gift for Trump: A Front Page Celebrating the President

It was diplomacy through arts and crafts. It was a master class in political psychology, the specific savvy of one New Yorker who knows a son of Queens’s love of a tabloid front page.

There stood Mayor Zohran Mamdani, relatively straight-faced with just a hint of impish smile. At his side in the Oval Office sat the president of the United States, beaming.

Mr. Mamdani went to Washington on Thursday carrying props: two mock-ups of a Daily News front page, one with the famous headline that recorded President Gerald Ford’s snubbing of New York at a moment of crisis and the other with a new faux headline celebrating the current president.

“Ford to City: Drop Dead” read the headline from 1975. Thursday’s version was tailor-made for a president whose name is emblazoned on New York skyscrapers: “Trump to City: Let’s Build.”

The maneuver was well received. https://nyti.ms/3OPVC8O

Billions are on the line. Who will get tariff refunds?

It’s been roughly 10 months since President Donald Trump announced his “Liberation Day” global tariffs, which he imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. What followed were a series of shifting, country-by-country pronouncements about the specific rates, categories, and effective dates — as well as carveouts, reversals, reclassifications, additional guidelines, and all manner of other changes.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued implementation instructions as details changed, sometimes days or weeks following announcements. Importers, exporters, and trading partners scrambled to price goods, structure contracts, and speed up or delay shipments amid the constantly evolving rules. Investors repriced stocks to reflect new costs created by tariffs. Even as academics and lawyers debated the legal basis of the tariffs, individual companies struggled to mitigate tariff impacts and message those impacts to analysts and shareholders. The Federal Reserve, economists, and government researchers rushed to determine the precise inflationary effects.

Now comes the even messier part. - Quartz https://bit.ly/401OeJW

The First Couple of a Dysfunctional DHS

The book, based on extensive reporting, depicts the Department of Homeland Security as a dysfunctional fiefdom in Trump’s Washington empire—tasked with carrying out the most aggressive immigration crackdown in U.S. history even as the agency’s internal culture is warped by the relationship between an ambitious, attention-thirsty secretary and her domineering right-hand man and alleged paramour. In Ainsley’s account, Lewandowski is involved in nearly every aspect of the agency: who gets heard in meetings, what information reaches Noem’s desk, which contractors get hired, and even what kind of detention facilities are built to hold arrested migrants. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sepY3l

Trump’s Favorite Voter-ID Bill Would Probably Backfire

Congressional Republicans are trying to pass a strict “election integrity” law that seems almost custom-designed to disenfranchise their own supporters. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4u7Dojx

Anthropic Takes a Stand

Earlier this week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sat down with Dario Amodei, the CEO of the leading AI firm Anthropic, for a conversation about ethics. The Pentagon had been using the company’s flagship product, Claude, for months as part of a $200 million contract—the AI had even reportedly played a role in the January mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro—but Hegseth wasn’t satisfied. There were certain things Claude just wouldn’t do.

That’s because Anthropic had instilled in it certain restrictions. The Pentagon’s version of Claude could not be used to facilitate the mass surveillance of Americans, nor could it be used in fully autonomous weaponry—situations where computers, rather than humans, make the final decision about whom to kill. According to a source familiar with this week’s meeting, Hegseth made clear that if Anthropic did not eliminate those two guardrails by Friday afternoon, two things could happen: The Department of Defense could use the Defense Production Act, a Cold War–era law, to essentially commandeer a more permissive iteration of the AI, or it could label Anthropic a “supply-chain risk,” meaning that anyone doing business with the U.S. military would be forbidden from associating with the company. (This penalty is typically reserved for foreign firms such as China’s Huawei and ZTE.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tUf7gx

The Degraded State of the Union

The 2026 State of the Union speech stands in contrast, a speech by a mendacious demagogue who has degraded his listeners by debauching their instincts. If the Republicans listening to it leaped, like a band of trained monkeys, to deliver applause every few sentences, it was because they have been conditioned to do so.

In the past, the State of the Union was a serious affair, in which a president recounted the country’s challenges as much as, or more than, his personal successes. For Trump this was, as ever, an occasion to brag and boast, to lie about his achievements, and to berate and denigrate the opposition party. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4u0VuDG

Anthropic Tells Pete Hegseth to Take a Hike

Anthropic is holding the line. At least for now.

The Pentagon approached Anthropic this week with a demand that it remove guardrails in its AI model Claude to prohibit mass domestic surveillance and fully automated weapons. But Anthropic is refusing to do that, according to a new statement from CEO Dario Amodei, who writes, “we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.”

There’s a lot of money on the line. And it’s anyone’s guess what happens next. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3Na5ee9

The US surpassed 1,100 measles cases in two months. Expect more deaths next

The US has recorded more than 1,100 measles cases so far this year, according to data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s a troubling milestone that has many in public health bracing for the worst.

According to the CDC, out of every 1,000 children who are infected with measles, one may develop encephalitis, which is a dangerous swelling of the brain. Up to 3 out of every 1,000 infected children will die.

The US is on track for another record-breaking year for measles: The number of measles cases reported in the first eight weeks of the year — 1,136 as of February 26, according to CDC data — is already six times more than typical for an entire year. A tracker from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation has tallied an even higher the annual case total than the CDC.

The current US trajectory for measles cases is “disappointing and depressing and ominous,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center — especially because there is a safe and highly effective vaccine available to protect against measles infection and its complications. - CNN https://cnn.it/4cYtBG2

In Trump’s Case for War, a Series of False or Unproven Claims

All three of these claims are either false or unproven. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40xsUw6

Justice Department indicts 30 more in anti-ICE church protest in Minnesota

A total of 39 defendants now face charges in the case that has already ensnared journalist Don Lemon, formerly of CNN. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4u1VFi3

Trump Says US Is Cutting Off Anthropic for Refusing to Drop AI Safeguards

President Donald Trump unleashed an all-caps screed against Anthropic on Friday, threatening criminal consequences for the AI company if it didn’t comply with his demands. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed up with his own tweet making clear that Anthropic will be deemed a “supply chain risk,” a designation that means any contractor with the U.S. government will be banned from doing business with Anthropic.

The president is upset that Anthropic has refused to drop safeguards in Claude that prohibit the Department of Defense from using its AI model for domestic surveillance or completely autonomous weapons systems. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4rTvqIY

The Diplomats Who Carry Trump’s Grievances Abroad

American diplomats are supposed to represent the nation, advocate for the interests and policies of the U.S. government, and stay on generally good terms with the country to which they’re assigned. Even when they are sent to places that have an adversarial relationship with the United States, they are expected to maintain decorum while conveying messages these regimes may not want to hear.

Some of President Trump’s ambassadors, however, are a different type: They seem to think that their job is to carry their boss’s boorishness and petty grievances abroad. Ambassadors are supposed to represent the president, but these incompetent emissaries take that concept to an extreme, and they have managed to get into needless conflicts with America’s friends in France, Poland, Iceland, and Chile, among others, along with pretty much the entire Middle East. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4aRdRDH

U.S. wholesale prices arrive hotter than expected, up 0.5% from December and 2.9% from a year ago

The Labor Department reported Friday that its producer price index, which measures inflation before it hits consumers, rose 0.5% from December and 2.9% from January 2025. Economists had forecast a 0.3% increase for the month and 1.6% year over year, according to a survey by the data firm FactSet.

Excluding food and energy prices, which bounce around from month to month, so-called core wholesale prices rose 0.8% from December and 3.6% from January 2025 — both higher than forecasters had expected. The year-over-year increase in core prices was the biggest since March of last year. - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/4l3gh5w?

Luxury jets for deportations: Kristi Noem's biggest grift yet

Remember how weird it was that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked Congress for $50 million for a fancy new private jet before somehow being allowed to blow $170 million on two fancy new private jets?

Hear us out: What if she got nine instead?

Independent journalist Gillian Brockell, who has doggedly tracked deportation flights, traced many of the fly-by-night companies that have arisen to partake in the deportation industrial-complex’s slush fund. Only by doing that can you see just how many jets your tax dollars are buying.

One of these companies is Salus Worldwide Solutions, which is run by MAGA donor William Walters. Salus landed a nearly $1 billion contract for flights and “concierge services” for people who self-deport. Walters is also behind Daedalus Aviation, which got $140 million from DHS to buy six Boeing 737s for a deportation fleet. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/406fQO7

‌911 calls reveal brutal condition for kids at Trump’s detention centers

Newly released audio of 911 calls made from the immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, reveals extremely young children in physical distress who have required serious medical attention. These incidents are occurring as fallout from President Donald Trump’s push for a mass deportation policy.

NBC News published the calls on Friday and they reveal the human toll of the Trump administration’s actions. In the audio, staffers at Dilley explain a series of dire situations to 911 operators.

For instance, in one case staffers report that that a 17-month-old child is suffering from respiratory distress, while in another call a 22-month-old child was having trouble breathing and had a reported oxygen level of 85%—levels below 95% are abnormal in children and brain activity can be affected at the 80-85% range. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4l47nEH

Live Updates: U.S. and Israel Attack Iran, Threatening Broader Regional Conflict

Israeli strikes killed at least three top Iranian military officials on Saturday, the Israeli military announced, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had also been killed, citing “many indications that this tyrant is gone.”

President Trump, in an interview with NBC News, said he, too, thought that the Ayatollah was dead. “We feel that is a correct story,” Mr. Trump said in the interview.

But Iranian officials dismissed such talk. A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, told ABC News that both Ayatollah Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were “safe and sound.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4b2zNuj

Student Remains in Honduras After ICE Vows to Deport Her Again

A 20-year-old freshman at Babson College in Massachusetts said she would remain in Honduras on Friday, the deadline that a judge had given the Trump administration for facilitating her return to the United States after it violated a court order by mistakenly deporting her.

The government had arranged for a plane on Friday that would have brought the student, Any Lucia López Belloza, back to the United States. But her lawyers said she chose not to board, believing that she would be immediately detained on arrival and deported again. They pointed to a Thursday court filing by the Justice Department noting “ICE’s intent to effectuate” her “final order of removal after she is returned.”

In a tearful video call on Friday with journalists, Ms. López said a representative from Immigration and Customs Enforcement had tried to persuade her to return to the United States by wrongly suggesting that she was likely to be set free upon her return.

“An officer told me again and again that I will be released once I landed in the United States,” she said.

“She asked if she would be freed upon arrival or if she would be detained again,” said Ivonne Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the immigration advocacy group FWD.us, who said she joined a call with Ms. López and the ICE employee. “He said very likely you will be freed, and that the only way to know for sure is to get on the plane.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/40579nf

Trump Orders Government to Stop Using Anthropic After Pentagon Standoff

President Trump on Friday ordered all federal agencies to stop using artificial intelligence technology made by Anthropic, a directive that could vastly complicate government intelligence analysis and defense work.

Writing on Truth Social, Mr. Trump used harsh words for Anthropic, describing it as a “radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about.”

Shortly after Mr. Trump’s announcement, and 13 minutes after a Pentagon deadline, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a “supply-chain risk to national security.” The label means that no contractor or supplier that works with the military can do business with Anthropic. Later on Friday, OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said that it had reached an agreement with the Defense Department to provide its A.I. technology for classified systems.

The Anthropic designation was all but unheard-of, legal experts said. It stripped an American company of its government work by using a process previously deployed only with foreign companies the United States considered security risks. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rGAS1L

The Pentagon Can’t Afford This A.I. Fight

The Trump administration waged its latest war of choice this week when it tried to coerce the tech company Anthropic into giving the military a blank check in how it uses the company’s artificial intelligence technology.

The confrontation sharply escalated on Tuesday when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered an ultimatum to Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei: Lift all safeguards on its technology by 5:01 p.m. Friday or lose the company’s $200 million contract and any future business with the military. It culminated about an hour before that deadline when President Trump publicly declared he was “directing every federal agency in the United States government to immediately cease all use of Anthropic’s technology.”

In typical florid fashion, the president went on to call the company “WOKE” and full of “Leftwing nut jobs” who meant to do the country harm. It’s a striking turn for Anthropic, which in late 2024 became the first major A.I. lab to work on classified U.S. military networks. Although military contracts made up a small percentage of its business, the company’s A.I. model was the most widely used across the American national security complex. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4kYNPBz

Why Trump’s Fearmongering Is Falling Flat With Voters

The lesson for Democrats here is obvious: They need to get over their terror of Mr. Trump’s assumed magic and mastery — they’re ebbing — and their anxiety that the voters who decide elections share his contempt for so many of our fellow Americans. For the next eight months, Democrats must shelve their affection for gloomy self-analysis and needless arguments over which word to pick between “oligarchy” and “authoritarianism.”

Between now and November, their task is to keep the country focused on Mr. Trump’s failures on the issues that elected him: The economy (especially prices) and immigration. They are failures bred by what everyone outside the “Make America Great Again” base knows: Mr. Trump reserves his energies for his own interests and those of his allies. Everyone else — a majority of our fellow citizens — amounts either to an extra he occasionally brings onto the set for his performances or a villain he invokes to make himself the hero of the story.

This is why the Democratic response to Tuesday’s speech, from Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, was in exactly the right key. She summed up this year’s midterm elections in three questions: “Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? Is the president working to keep Americans safe — both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?” That’s it. That’s the campaign. For good measure, Ms. Spanberger explained how voters can tell that Mr. Trump’s focus is not on working Americans. “Who benefits from his rhetoric, his policies, his actions and the short list of laws he’s pushed through this Republican Congress?” she asked. “He’s enriching himself, his family, his friends. The scale of the corruption is unprecedented.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4r6XU11

‌Trump's War - The costs could be catastrophic

The United States is now at war with Iran.

A single person — Donald J. Trump — has released the dogs of war on one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and done it without the consent of Congress or our allies, or even a clear explanation to the American people.

Four days after delivering a State of the Union address in which he boasted of ending eight wars, and spent just three minutes discussing Iran and a preference for “diplomacy,” we are now bombing, maiming, and killing.

Anyone who has doubted Trump’s intention to replace American democracy with a dictatorship should now be fully disabused. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3ZYmi9X

Trump’s Enormous Gamble on Regime Change in Iran

The United States has gone to war against Iran. America has only one ally—Israel—in this operation (the Arab states of the Gulf, which fear the Iranian regime, are targets of Iran, but so far are not participating in the attack), and both Washington and Jerusalem are making claims about “imminent” threats that require “preemptive” strikes. But we should dispense with such statements: Iran is not presenting immediate danger to the United States or Israel. Even President Trump, in a recorded address, didn’t bother overly much with such excuses; instead he presented a farrago of charges and accusations going back a half century that included everything from killing American troops in Iraq to terrorism. These indictments are all grounded in truth, but none presents a rationale for immediate attack. Trump ended by calling on Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government.

This is not a preemptive war. It is a war of choice, a discretionary war. It is a war for regime change. Many of Iran’s 92 million people want the regime removed. But it is far from certain that this will be the outcome. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3N5YG06

War With Iran Has Begun. Where Does It End?

Trump has launched combat operations despite little public support and widespread fears among allies.

More than an hour after missiles began targeting top Iranian officials across downtown Tehran, President Trump for the first time described his goal to the American public: for the most powerful armed factions in Iran to lay down their arms and for Iranians to rise up and risk death by seizing control of their government.

In an eight-minute address on Truth Social that amounted to a declaration of war, Trump also acknowledged the possibility of American casualties. Within three hours of the initial strike, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched ballistic missiles at four nearby U.S. bases, and the sound of air defenses shooting down missiles reverberated across the region. Iranian forces successfully struck inside Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Air defenses appeared to have shot down missiles aimed at Qatar (home to the largest U.S. military base in the region), the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait (which also host American forces), and Israel, which joined U.S. forces in the attack. Jordan, where American aircraft are parked, also said it shot down missiles. In all, Iran launched roughly 300 counter attacks, a U.S. defense official said. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3OOPJZx

The Epic Miscalculations of Trump and Khamenei

“On the eve of each war at least one of the nations miscalculated its bargaining power,” wrote the historian Geoffrey Blainey in his book The Causes of War. “In that sense every war comes from a misunderstanding. And in that sense every war is an accident.”

The U.S.-Iran war—or, to be accurate, its latest and most dramatic iteration—grew from a high-stakes exchange of miscalculations between two men. Donald Trump and Ali Khamenei have little in common except for a vainglorious hubris that has distorted their strategic choices. For Trump, the conflict is a high-risk, high-reward gambit—the ultimate deal, with the Middle East as the table. For Khamenei, whose official compound was targeted by air strikes, it is something simpler and older: a fight for survival. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4uh7RvA

Trump's Iran strikes mark his biggest foreign policy gamble

Trump joined with Israel to plunge into war against Iran, and after a day of airstrikes announced on Saturday that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed, which would mark a major achievement for the operation but also leave unanswered questions about the future of the Islamic Republic. - Reuters / Japan Times https://bit.ly/40HagSo

Iran Says Supreme Leader Killed in U.S.-Israeli Strikes

The death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei raised questions about leadership succession as attacks on Iran, and its responses, continued. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4u2U6Ah

Could the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act Decision Affect the Midterms?

The court is set to decide a major case that could scramble the country’s congressional maps. One crucial factor for this year’s elections is when the ruling lands. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40446f8

Kash Patel’s Girlfriend Seeks Fame and Fortune, Escorted by an F.B.I. SWAT Team

You may never have heard of Alexis Wilkins, but she is one of the best-protected country music singers in the United States. F.B.I. tactical agents have ferried her to a resort in Britain before a dinner at Windsor Castle and to an appointment at a hair salon in Nashville. Last April, agents in two SUVs stood guard outside a senior center in Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home of Dixon, Ill., while she sang for a few dozen young conservatives.

Ms. Wilkins, 27, is the girlfriend of Kash Patel, President Trump’s 46-year-old F.B.I. director, whose personal use of government jets and F.B.I. agents for himself and Ms. Wilkins has led to growing questions even inside the Trump administration. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4u0fR3O

QAnon Faithful See Validation in the Epstein Files

The nearly decade-old conspiracy theory does not align neatly with the facts emerging from the documents. That does not seem to matter. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lcHe6L

Trump’s Attack on Iran Is Reckless

In his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised voters that he would end wars, not start them. Over the past year, he has instead ordered military strikes in seven nations. His appetite for military intervention grows with the eating.

Now he has ordered a new attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran, in cooperation with Israel, and it is much more extensive than the targeted bombing of nuclear facilities in June. Yet he started this war without explaining to the American people and the world why he was doing so. Nor has he involved Congress, to which the Constitution grants the sole power to declare war. He instead posted a video at 2:30 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, shortly after bombing began, in which he said that Iran presented “imminent threats” and called for the overthrow of its government. His rationale is dubious, and making his case by video in the middle of the night is unacceptable. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rUO6Ik

The Folly of Attacking Iran

We Americans have begun another Middle Eastern war based on dubious intelligence claims, and as in 2003, I fear we haven’t thought through the substantial risks and uncertain gains.

President Trump says that the aim of this “massive and ongoing” war is no less than regime change: He has vowed to devastate Iran’s military force, destroy its nuclear program (again) and topple the leadership. Lofty goals. But fundamental questions remain: How likely is it that he can achieve all of this, and at what cost and risk? - NYT https://nyti.ms/4b3UeXN

The President of War

The U.S. military was once a tool of last resort for American presidents.

The tough decision to deploy armed troops for conflict in another country came after diplomacy, political pressure and other peaceful options were exhausted. This clearly doesn’t hold true in the second Trump administration.

In a short video posted on Saturday morning, President Trump stood in a darkened room at a lectern in a white “U.S.A.” hat and announced that the United States military had begun “major combat operations in Iran” and called for the overthrow of its government. He warned that this could be a costly fight, and that American lives could be lost. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3N7glVc

Real Despots Hijack Artificial Intelligence

A.I. is a teenager now, roaring into the world, testing limits, rebelling against authority, itching to usurp the old guard and remake the planet in its image.

Unfortunately, Pete Hegseth is also a teenager. His hormones are raging; his judgment is shaky. Like a repentant frat boy, he had to promise the adults in the Senate that he wouldn’t drink while he is in charge of the military and its 12-figure budget. He certainly lacks the maturity to guide, discipline or even understand the earth-shattering power of an adolescent A.I.

Hegseth should be focused on our nerve-racking duel with Iran. Instead, he spent the week at war with Dario Amodei, the thoughtful chief executive of Anthropic and one of the few in Silicon Valley advocating for humanity. Anthropic is the only A.I. company operating on classified military systems; its clever chatbot, Claude, was deployed by the military to help catch Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NcwuZs

Letters from an American - February 28, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Early this morning, the U.S. and Israel launched a major military assault on Iran. Early reports suggested that Israel targeted senior officials in Iran’s government while the U.S. attacked military targets. The U.S. government named the assault “Operation Epic Fury.” Iran state media reported the strikes killed at least 200 people, including 118 students from a girls’ school, and wounded more than 700.

Iran retaliated with strikes against Israel, where one person was killed and 121 others injured, and with strikes on U.S. bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. U.S. Central Command said there are no U.S. casualties and there has been little damage to U.S. facilities. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4tTCqqO

U.S. Reports American Casualties as Trump Says He's 'Willing to Talk' to Iran

A day after a joint U.S.-Israeli military operation unleashed a bombing wave across Iran and killed Iran’s supreme leader, the attacks intensified on Sunday by land and sea. Iran launched deadly retaliatory strikes against Israel and several Persian Gulf countries, and the United States reported its first casualties of the conflict.

Amid fears of a wider conflagration in the region with no clear endgame, President Trump told The Atlantic magazine on Sunday morning that Iran’s new leadership wanted to speak to him and that he was willing to do so. “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” he said from his residence in Florida. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40AlmIX

Trump, the Self-Declared Peace President, Goes to War Seeking Regime Change

When he first ran for president in 2016, Donald J. Trump disavowed the military adventurism of recent years, declaring that “regime change is a proven, absolute failure.” He promised to “stop racing to topple foreign regimes.”

When Mr. Trump ran for president in 2024, he boasted of starting “no new wars,” and asserted that if Kamala Harris won, “she would get us into a World War III guaranteed,” and send the “sons and daughters” of Americans “to go fight for a war in a country that you’ve never heard of.”

Barely a year later, Mr. Trump is racing to topple foreign regimes, and is sending American sons and daughters to wage another war in the Middle East. The self-declared “president of PEACE” has chosen to become the president of war after all, unleashing the full power of the U.S. military on Iran with the explicit goal of toppling its government. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l3lbPJ

Trump Rolls the Iron Dice

No tears should flow for the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or for his associated butchers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij militia, and the rest of the Iranian security apparatus. The obliteration—or perhaps one should say, re-obliteration—of the Iranian nuclear program is a good thing, as is the elimination or drastic reduction of its arsenal of drones and missiles, and the weakening of its proxy forces. The overthrow of the Iranian regime is a consummation devoutly to be wished, not only for the United States but above all for the Iranian people, most of whom hate a regime that has impoverished, oppressed, and murdered them.

None of that, however, should diminish concern about the fecklessness of the way in which the United States has gone about launching this war. The mood was set by President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, tieless and wearing a goofy baseball hat, announcing the attacks and justifying them on mixed grounds. He accurately described the Islamic Republic’s implacable hostility to the United States and Israel since its inception, and itemized some of its many crimes. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rJRx4L

Trump Has No Plan for the Iranian People

The American bombardment of Iran has been launched without explanation, without Congress, without even an attempt to build public support. Above all, it has been launched without a coherent strategy for the Iranian people, and without a plan to let them decide how to build a legitimate Iranian state. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4u4gg58

The Paradox of Trump’s Iran Attack

When his fantasies unravel, Trump has a habit of abusing power to force his will upon an uncooperative world.

President Trump has launched a war that offers opportunities to the Middle East and threatens constitutional freedom at home. American service members are bravely risking their lives to protect their country from nuclear dangers—and to restore freedom to the Iranian people who have sacrificed so much to reclaim that freedom for themselves. The instinct to rally around the flag is, and should be, strong. It’s also urgent to rally around the principles and ideals for which the flag stands. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4cWeYmJ

Bored of peace? Trump keeps choosing war

On a U.S. late-night television show Saturday, the host played a clip from 2011 of a businessman warning that president Barack Obama "will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate."

That businessman was Donald Trump. Fast-forward 15 years and Trump, now in his own second term as president, ordered huge military strikes on Iran when talks with Tehran brought no breakthrough.

The commander-in-chief has repeatedly declared himself to be a "President of Peace," boasted of his dealmaking ability in ending global conflicts, and complained of being cheated of the Nobel Peace Prize. - AFP/ Japan Today https://bit.ly/4b29PHa?

Israel Strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon as War With Iran Escalates

The explosions outside Beirut ended a yearlong cease-fire and threatened to expand the conflict. In an interview with The New York Times, President Trump said the U.S. plans to keep up the assault on Iran for “four or five weeks.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/401wC0V

Iran Strikes U.S. Military Facilities Across Gulf Region

Iran has struck at least six U.S. military facilities around the Middle East since the United States and Israel began attacking the country on Saturday, according to a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery, verified videos and statements by U.S. military officials.

It’s unclear how many munitions Iran launched at the locations or how many attacks may have been thwarted, but the incidents raise questions about these sites’ abilities to defend against future strikes.

Facilities in Bahrain, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, plus three sites in Kuwait, were hit on Saturday and Sunday. Several structures, including satellite communications equipment, were damaged or destroyed.

U.S. officials said three service members were killed and five seriously wounded in a strike at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, though no visuals of that attack have emerged. The United States has not reported any deaths or injuries at the other five known locations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4u4enFR

Trump Says War Could Last Weeks and Offers Contradictory Visions of New Regime

President Trump said on Sunday that the U.S. military intends to sustain its assault on Iran for “four to five weeks” if necessary, insisting that it “won’t be difficult” for Israel and the United States to maintain the intensity of the battle even as he warned of the possibility of more American casualties.

In a brief telephone interview with The New York Times, Mr. Trump offered several seemingly contradictory visions of how power might be transferred to a new government — or even whether the existing Iranian power structure would run that government or be overthrown. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rNpCkt

Trump Says He Is the ‘Least Racist’ President. But His Term Echoes a Grim Past.

In 1912, the first Southerner to win the presidency after the Civil War was able to garner a groundswell of support from Black voters by making a bold promise.

“Should I become president of the United States,” Woodrow Wilson declared, “Negroes may count on me for absolute fair dealing and for everything by which I could assist in advancing the interests of their race in the United States.”

By the end of his term, it became clear that Wilson’s promises would ring hollow.

He packed his cabinet with white supremacists, whom he allowed to segregate the federal work force and dismiss, demote and demean Black employees. He hosted a screening of “The Birth of a Nation,” a film glorifying the Ku Klux Klan, in the East Room of the White House. And he fomented a climate for Black Americans where “every man who dreams of making the Negro race a group of menials and pariahs is alert and hopeful,” wrote W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the prominent Black leaders who had initially supported him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40Dx8lN

A Tyrant Falls. Dangerous Uncertainty Begins.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei governed Iran with the vigilance and brutality of an autocrat convinced that his own people and the world’s superpower sought to unseat him — and in the end, they did. With President Trump’s announcement that Ayatollah Khamenei, the 86-year-old supreme leader, was killed in joint American and Israeli airstrikes on Saturday, his reign has come to a close, cementing a lost half-century for his nation. As the Middle East confronts an unpredictable void, let us be clear: No one should mourn the death of a dictator who spent decades inflicting misery and bloodshed.

Ascending to power in 1989, Ayatollah Khamenei organized his existence around an obsession with the West. As a ruler, he squelched dissent, labeling demands for reforms as Western “sedition,” and expanded the intelligence apparatus of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to repress his own people. He impoverished his citizens to bankroll foreign interventions and a nuclear program that brought Iran only isolation. When faced with citizens’ protests, he answered with force, including the slaughter of thousands earlier this year. Abroad, his legacy is one of destabilization, having constructed a so-called axis of resistance across Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

It is natural to hope that the decapitation of this regime could lead to the end of Iran’s theocracy. Yet it is also important to consider the context — and the long-term risks that it creates for both Iran and the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l7FPhZ

Pentagon tells Congress no sign that Iran was going to attack U.S. first

Officials from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration acknowledged in closed-door briefings with U.S. congressional staff on Sunday that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack American forces first, two people familiar with the matter said.

The United States and Israel launched their most ambitious attacks on Iran in decades on Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sinking Iranian warships and hitting more than 1,000 targets so far, officials say.

But Sunday's remarks to Congress appeared to undercut one of the key arguments for the war made by senior administration officials. - Reuters/ Japan Times https://bit.ly/4b1PqSQ

3 U.S. Planes Are Shot Down in ‘Friendly Fire’ in Kuwait, U.S. Military Says

“During active combat — that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses,” the statement said.

All six crew members “ejected safely, have been safely recovered and are in stable condition,” Central Command added, extending its gratitude to Kuwait for participating in the operation against Iran. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3MPnXeZ

As Trump Bombs Iran, America’s Allies Watch Fitfully From Sidelines

As American and Israeli warplanes continue to bombard Iranian cities, European allies have been left in a familiar place: on the sidelines. President Trump cut them out of planning for a conflict that has direct implications for their security.

The awkward patchwork of responses from European leaders — a mix of guarded approval and plaintive calls for a return to diplomacy — attest to the complexities of dealing with a United States increasingly untethered to post-World War II rules and norms. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46Dk6s9

More Than 30 Warrantless Midway Blitz Arrests Violated Consent Decree, Judge Rules

A federal judge ruled Friday that dozens of people arrested during Operation Midway Blitz — including two men detained after a controversial South Shore raid last year — must be released because their arrests violated a 2022 consent decree governing warrantless apprehensions.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings on Friday identified at least 32 arrests that violated the Castañon Nava consent decree. That court agreement only allows immigration agents to make warrantless arrests if they have probable cause to believe someone is in the United States unlawfully and is a flight risk. Late Friday, the judge was also taking a closer look at another half dozen additional cases that he did not rule on in court earlier in the day.

Under Cummings’ order, the federal government must release the detainees affected by his ruling by noon Thursday. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4cY3Be1

Week Fifty-Eight: March 2 - March 8

‌Trump's lethal presidency No president in the modern era has ordered more military strikes against as many different countries as Donald Trump.

He's attacked seven nations, three of which — Iran, Nigeria and Venezuela — had never been targeted by U.S. military strikes. He authorized more individual air strikes in 2025 than President Biden did in four years.

Why it matters: Trump explicitly ran as the anti-war candidate. The White House argues he still is — that he always exhausts diplomacy before acting, and that projecting overwhelming force is itself a path to lasting peace. - Axios https://bit.ly/4rPyXbv

‌How to Think About Trump’s War With Iran To think clearly about Middle East wars, you need to hold multiple thoughts in your head at the same time. It’s a complicated, kaleidoscopic region where religion, oil, tribal politics and great power politics interweave in every major story. If you are looking for a black-and-white narrative, you might want to take up checkers. So, here are my four thoughts on Iran — at least for today. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4u8FnDZ

‌Trump’s Shifting Goals for Iran Complicate Military’s Mission The length of America’s military commitment to its confrontation with Iran depends on what the goals are. And they keep changing.

On Sunday alone, President Trump and his allies offered at least two separate objectives for the assault on Iran, muddying Washington’s intentions for ending a conflict that has engulfed the Middle East and killed three American service members.

Early Sunday morning, close Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said reducing the nuclear and missile threat from Iran was the intention, not regime change. The White House later reiterated that point in a statement.

Elaborating in an interview with the Atlantic, Trump said he was open to discussions with Iran’s current leadership that could end the war if U.S. demands were met. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4aNiFKb

‌Losing the War on Truth Lying is an art, and Trump is an artist. But he is an artist of diminishing capacity; and he has now chosen to apply his art to war, a subject he finds appealing but about which he knows nothing except that he likes it.

Trump seems lost as to which lie he wants to tell. Lies are always parasitical upon truth, in the sense that you have to have some idea of what is true in order to say what is not true. But we are now in a realm where Trump knows only his own pleasures.

If we accept that nothing is true, we find ourselves among aspiring and real dictators who have good stories and media monopolies. But even if lying works in politics, truths about the world do not cease to be: civilians slain stay dead, airplanes shot down crash, actions lead to unpredictable reactions. Post-truth fascists will wander into terrains of ignorance and find themselves trapped. - Timothy Snyder https://bit.ly/3MFPcsr

‌How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance On Friday evening, amidst fallout from a standoff between the Department of Defense and Anthropic, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that his own company had successfully negotiated new terms with the Pentagon. The US government had just moved to blacklist Anthropic for standing firm on two red lines for military use: no mass surveillance of Americans and no lethal autonomous weapons (or AI systems with the power to kill targets without human oversight). Altman, however, implied that he’d found a unique way to keep those same limits in OpenAI’s contract.

“Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems,” Altman wrote. “The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement,” he added, using the Trump Administration’s preferred name for the Defense Department, the Department of War.

Across social media and the AI industry, people immediately began to challenge Altman’s claim. Why, they asked, would the Pentagon suddenly agree to these red lines when it had said — in no uncertain terms — that it would never do so? - Verge https://bit.ly/4u7Pau8

‌'One year of failure.' The Lancet slams RFK Jr.'s first year as health chief One of the world's leading medical journals has issued a scathing rebuke of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to mark his first year leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The editorial — titled "Robert F. Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure" — appears in the latest issue of the Lancet.

A quote from the piece marks an otherwise blank front cover: "The destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair, and there is little hope for US health and science while he remains at the helm." - NPR https://n.pr/4cWSKRw

‌The 'peace' president goes to war President Donald Trump spends a lot of time bragging about how many wars he has ended, on account of what a peaceful guy he is. He’s ended eight wars! (Spoiler alert: he has not ended eight wars.) So why did he just start an entirely illegal, brutal attack on Iran? For peace!

“The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” Trump shared on his Truth Social on Saturday afternoon. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4r72ImY

‌Trump Has Given America a Constitutional Dilemma Congress should not have to argue over whether to trigger the War Powers Resolution, and certainly not in the midst of conflict. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/404BKkT

‌Hunkered at Mar-a-Lago, Trump makes his club a makeshift Situation Room As gala-goers in gowns and tuxedos were dancing the night away inside Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom Friday evening, a very different scene was unfolding on the other side of the rambling estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Out the gilded doors, past layers of security and behind a set of black curtains, the country’s top national security officials were convening in anticipation of a long night. - CNN https://cnn.it/3NfaUUc

‌How Trump Decided to Go to War President Trump’s embrace of military action in Iran was spurred by an Israeli leader determined to end diplomatic negotiations. Few of the president’s advisers voiced opposition.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel walked into the Oval Office on the morning of Feb. 11, determined to keep the American president on the path to war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l2gDco

‌Letters from an American - March 2, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson 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. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/4l2gDco

*Trump Hasn’t a Fcking Clue What He’s Doing ‌** Trump said Monday that the United States would continue attacking Iran for “whatever it takes.”

But what’s the “it” in that sentence?

He also said: “We’re destroying Iran’s missile capability” and “annihilating their navy” and ensuring that “this sick and sinister regime” in Iran “can never obtain a nuclear weapon.”

But how will we know when we’ve achieved any of this?

American intelligence officials say Iran has not tried to rebuild its main nuclear sites since the U.S. attack in June. Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium are still buried deep under rubble. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says his agency has found no evidence that Iran resumed enriching uranium since June. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3N33Yta

‌Big Change Seems Certain in Iran. What Kind Is the Question. The death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a watershed moment in the 47-year existence of the Islamic Republic. The scenes that followed — throngs of Iranians taking to the streets to celebrate, others turning out to grieve — signal the deep uncertainty about what comes next.

There are now three key questions: How will protesters respond to President Trump’s call to take over the government? Can Iran’s authoritarian system survive? And could the attack unleash a chaotic battle for power? - NYT https://nyti.ms/4u3Vvql

‌Trump Administration Abandons Efforts to Impose Orders on Law Firms The Trump administration on Monday abandoned its attempts to impose potentially crippling executive orders against law firms that refused to capitulate to the president, walking away from its appeal of victories the firms had won against the White House.

With a brief due this week, Justice Department lawyers told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that they were no longer interested in pursuing the cases and were voluntarily asking the court to dismiss them.

The decision is the White House’s most significant acknowledgment that the executive orders cannot be successfully defended in court. The move is particularly striking given that some firms opted to reach deals in a bid to head off executive orders that President Trump’s Justice Department said it would no longer stand behind. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aR0Cmq

‌The Idea That Trump Was Antiwar Was Always Delusional In 2023, JD Vance, then a freshman senator from Ohio, endorsed Donald Trump for president in a Wall Street Journal column, headlined “Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars.” It suggested that despite his impolitic rhetoric, Trump was a statesman who understood that “the U.S. national interest must be pursued ruthlessly but also carefully, with strong words but great restraint.”

If Vance really believed his own words — with him, it’s always impossible to say — he shared the strangely widespread delusion that Trump was antiwar. So, evidently, did Tulsi Gabbard, who once sold “No War With Iran” T-shirts. Endorsing Trump in 2024, Gabbard, now Trump’s director of national intelligence, said she was “confident that his first task will be to do the work to walk us back from the brink of war.”

The ludicrous idea of Trump as a promoter of peace — a notion his 2024 campaign leaned into — rests on a deep, willful misunderstanding of Trump’s record and character. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uaYZYd

‌Stocks recoup some losses but close lower as Middle East conflict stirs up volatility Global stocks closed lower Tuesday after a volatile day that saw the Dow briefly tumble by more than 1,200 points as concerns linger among investors that the widening conflict in the Middle East could escalate further.

The Dow closed lower by 404 points, or 0.83%, paring earlier losses. The S&P 500 sank 0.94% and the Nasdaq moved 1.02% lower, partially recovering from earlier declines of nearly 2.5% and 2.75%, respectively.

Wall Street’s fear gauge, the VIX, was up 10% after briefly rising as much as 31%. The VIX settled at its highest level in just over three months. - CNN https://cnn.it/3N34jMs

‌Witnesses Describe Horror Scene After “Double-Tap” Bombing Kills Over 20 at Popular Tehran Square TEHRAN, IRAN-As groups of families and others gathered Sunday evening at cafes around Niloofar Square-a middle-class area in eastern Tehran-after breaking their fast for Ramadan, a series of explosions struck the area, leveling several buildings and killing over 20 people, according to witnesses at the scene and later reports from local news sources. Witnesses who spoke to Drop Site said two explosions hit the area—a smaller strike in the vicinity, followed by a larger one that devastated much of the neighborhood, a tactic known as a "double tap" strike that is used to inflict maximum casualties. - Dropsite https://bit.ly/4cucbBe

‌To anyone who thinks Trump can bring peace and equality to Iran – I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Going cheap. Donald Trump says Keir Starmer has damaged the special relationship by not helping him more in the US-Israel war on Iran. But you have to remember that when you do help, Trump pretends you didn’t anyway, and also pisses on your war dead. Still, what could be more enticing than the Americans trying to sell you a timeshare on a war in the Middle East? - Guardian https://bit.ly/3ON21Sk

‌White House rationale for war keeps shifting As an expanding Middle East war entered its fourth day, the Trump administration gave shifting rationales for its decision to attack Iran, even as U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports said they saw no sign the country had posed an imminent threat to the United States. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4btfJBF

‌Can Donald Trump Win a War with Iran If He Can’t Explain Why He Started It? In the two and a half days since Donald Trump unleashed a new war in the Middle East, the President and his Administration have come up with an astonishing array of different, even contradictory, rationales for the American military attack on Iran. By my count, and I’m sure I’ve missed a few, these include outright regime change, assistance to the oppressed peoples of the Islamic Republic, stripping Iran of “the ability to project power outside its borders,” stopping future Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks while exacting revenge for past ones, preëmptive action against an imminent Iranian threat to attack U.S. forces, preëmptive action to block Iran from building ballistic missiles that could hit the U.S. mainland, and preëmptive action to stop the Iranian nuclear program that Trump had, as recently as last week, claimed was “obliterated.” Many of these explanations are based on false premises; some already seem to have been abandoned.

All of which raises perhaps the most urgent question thus far about the most dramatic military action undertaken by the United States since the 2003 invasion of Iraq: Can the U.S. win a war of its choosing when it cannot explain why it chose to fight or what, exactly, victory would mean? - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4r9PHZS

‌U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.

From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night. - Jonathan Larsen https://bit.ly/4lajn7P

‌Explosions sound in the Iranian capital as war with US and Israel enters a fifth day Explosions sounded in Iran’s capital city Wednesday as its war with the U.S. and Israel entered a fifth day following earlier strikes on an Iranian nuclear site and retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Republic across the Gulf region.

Iranian state television reported explosions around Tehran as dawn broke. Meanwhile, Israel said its air defenses were activated due to incoming missile fire from Iran.

Five days into a war that U.S. President Donald Trump suggested would last several weeks or longer, nearly 800 people have been killed in Iran, including some Trump said he had considered as possible future leaders of the country. - AP https://bit.ly/4rh2Osj

‌Kash Patel’s latest firings ousted agents with expertise in Iran When FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen FBI agents and staff last week for their role in the classified documents investigation of Donald Trump, he targeted an elite counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran, according to more than a half dozen sources with knowledge of the firings.

The firings came as Patel claimed — without evidence — that the team of FBI agents who investigated Trump’s hoarding of top-secret records at his Mar-a-Lago club had engaged in improper investigative steps.

But his gutting of the global espionage unit, known as CI-12, also came days before Trump launched Operation Epic Fury, a series of bombing strikes on Iran that killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A previous bombing strike on Iran ordered by Trump in his first presidency was followed by a series of Iranian operations on U.S. soil to try to assassinate Trump and some of his aides. - MSNOW https://bit.ly/40b0Hes

‌Trump Administration, in Reversal, Tries to Continue Fight Against Law Firms The Trump administration indicated on Tuesday that it planned to renew its defense of executive orders that it had leveled against law firms, a sharp reversal a day after asking a court for permission to abandon the fight.

In a motion filed with the appeals court in the District of Columbia, where the cases are playing out, the Justice Department formally asked to withdraw its request on Monday to dismiss the cases against four law firms. It was not immediately clear how the court would respond; the department is scheduled to file a brief in the case on Friday.

The Justice Department did not comment. The White House declined to comment. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4up1yGm

‌Iran’s Strategy: Expand the War, Increase the Cost, Outlast Trump The Islamic Republic of Iran’s first priority is to survive. To do that, its leaders will want to drive up the cost of the war for President Trump — in terms of American casualties, energy costs and inflation — to try to persuade him to declare victory and go home.

Faced with the overwhelming firepower of the United States and Israel, diplomats and analysts say, Iran is working to enlarge the battlefield from its own territory to the broader region. The goals are to damage oil and gas infrastructure in neighboring countries, shut the Strait of Hormuz to shipping and curtail air traffic — all to disrupt the economies of the Persian Gulf and drive up global energy prices and inflation. Iran will also be trying to exhaust the number of expensive missile interceptors held by its enemies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4l4YoTG

‌Congress Splits Over Iran War as Senate Faces a Vote A divided Congress is deeply split over the Trump administration’s large-scale military campaign against Iran on the eve of a Senate vote on the matter, after President Trump and top officials have offered a head-snapping series of shifting justifications for the conflict.

Members of the House and Senate emerged from classified briefings with top administration officials on Tuesday with divergent assessments of the case they had made for war, falling almost entirely along party lines.

Democrats said the president and his team had failed to articulate an imminent threat to justify acting without consulting Congress, while Republicans largely rallied behind the president’s decision — though some warned their support could waver should the conflict expand. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d8a7Pk

‌‘Cheap’ and ‘Appalling’: Trump’s Ballroom Plans Receive a Flood of Negative Comments “Gaudy and cheap.” “Monolithic.” “Appalling.”

A flood of messages from across the country has poured into the National Capital Planning Commission, which is holding a public comment period before its vote on Thursday about whether to move forward with President Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom project.

The commission has received about 32,000 comments in all. Suffice it to say: Many people are not happy with what Mr. Trump is doing to the White House. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47jLjjF

‌The Iran War Is Trump’s War Let’s think about the Iran war in the light of Donald Trump’s career to date. What has made him so historically significant, so effective as a politician in spite of all his sins and faults, so enduring and dominant in the American political landscape? One thing especially: an incredible instinct for the weaknesses of enemies and rivals, a willingness to tear away what looks like strength to reveal the rot beneath, an eye for the main chance and an appetite for conquest. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lalmZP

‌The S&P 500 gave back all of its 2026 gains as war rages in the Middle East Wall Street woke up to an old-fashioned reminder that the global economy still runs on pipes, not PowerPoints. By late morning Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down more than 2% and sitting at its lowest level in more than two months, wiping out all of its 2026 gains and leaving it roughly 4% below its late-January record.

Meanwhile, the Dow was off about 1,084 points, and the Nasdaq $NDAQ +1.99% was down about 2%. The headline moves look a lot like a simple risk-off day. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4rc7Y8K

‌OpenAI, Anthropic, and the fog of AI war So the company that got blacklisted and the company that got rewarded appear to have secured functionally similar terms. The difference is most likely politics, or more precisely, the perception of obedience this administration seems to require from the private sector. OpenAI’s president gave $25 million to a pro-Trump super PAC last year. Anthropic hired Biden administration officials and lobbied for AI regulation.

As one former military AI official from Trump’s first term put it: Anthropic is paying the price for not bowing down.

What we don’t know is worse than what we do. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4snvb8S

‌‘MAGA is Trump’: President fires back at right-wing mutiny over Iran As President Donald Trump directs military strikes on Iran, he’s also fighting online attacks at home from some of the loudest voices in his MAGA political movement.

“This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war,” former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Tuesday on his weekly political podcast. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4sqit9F

‌Kristi Noem Misled Congress About Top Aide’s Role in DHS Contracts Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem misled Congress on Tuesday about the powers of her controversial top aide Corey Lewandowski, according to records reviewed by ProPublica and four current and former DHS officials.

Lewandowski has an unusual role at DHS, where he is not a paid government employee but is nonetheless acting as a top official, helping Noem run the sprawling agency. For months, members of Congress have asked the agency to detail the scope of his work and authority.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asked Noem whether Lewandowski has “a role in approving contracts” at DHS. Noem responded with a flat denial: “No.”

But internal DHS records reviewed by ProPublica contradict Noem’s Senate testimony. The records show Lewandowski personally approved a multimillion-dollar equipment contract at the agency last summer. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3OQkGN1

‌The Great White Supremacy Unmasking A few weeks ago, we featured a Q&A with author Christopher Mathias, whose new book To Catch A Fascist documents the inside world of far-right white nationalism. It’s a movement that, by no accident, has grown in influence over the past 10 years with the rise of Donald Trump.

Throughout his political career, Trump has offered both tacit and explicit endorsements of white supremacy. In the process, he has created a permission structure for his followers to openly and honestly display their own white nationalist ideology. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/3MUijZ3

‌The rationale for striking Iran was already a mess. Trump just made it worse. The Trump administration’s stated justifications for going to war with Iran were already a jumbled and self-contradictory mess.

But on Tuesday, Trump made it even worse — laying waste to the administration’s confusing explanation from Monday. - CNN https://cnn.it/3OQkP31

‌The Meaning of Anthropic vs the Pentagon There is something deeper about the damage done by the government, too. The Anthropic-DoW skirmish is the first major public debate that is truly about where the proper locus of control over frontier AI should be. Our public institutions behaved erratically, maliciously, and without strategic clarity. Our political leaders conveyed little understanding of their own actions, to say nothing of the technology and its stakes. They got off on an extraordinarily bad footing with leading AI companies, and it is hard to imagine their ever recovering, because they do not seem to care about improvement. The machinery of our current republic seems to be in such disrepair that it is hard to see how it lasts. No one knows what comes next, but I strongly suspect that whatever it is will be deeply intertwined with, and enabled by, advanced AI. It is with this that we will rebuild our world, as Tyler Cowen advised in a recent post. As we do, and as we have future debates about the proper nexus of control over frontier AI, I encourage you to avoid the assumption that “democratic” control—control “of the people, by the people, and for the people”—is synonymous with governmental control. The gap between these loci of control has always existed, but it is ever wider now.

No matter what world we build, the limitations imposed in the law on what we know today as “the government’s” use of AI will be of paramount importance. We really do want to ensure that mass surveillance and autonomous weapons/systems of control cannot be used to curtail our liberties—at least we want to try. So I applaud the AI labs for caring about these red lines. Over the coming years and decades, I expect that our liberty will be in greater peril than many of us comprehend.

Each of us gets to choose which futures we wish to fight against, which we can live with, and which we will fight for. As you make your choices, I suggest ignoring the din of the death rattle and trying to think with independence. Do not process this with the partisan blinders of 20th century mass politics; one way or another, you are entering a new era of institution-building in living color.

Before you get to all that, though, take a moment to mourn the republic that was. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/46DvJiJ

‌'Corporate Murder': Even Trump's Former AI Advisor Thinks the Pentagon's Fight Against Anthropic Is Bad Before he spoke with the Atlantic, Ball laid out his case in a Substack post where he explained in very morbid terms that America is not doing well: “I don’t know where we are in the death process, but I know we are in the hospice room. I’ve known it for a while, though I have sometimes been in denial, as all mourners are wont to do.” - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4coR5nJ

‌A split Senate votes against measure to constrain Trump's authorities in Iran A resolution to require President Trump to seek congressional approval for any further action in Iran failed to advance in the Senate, five days after the U.S. and Israel launched a military campaign against the Iranian regime.

The vote was 47-53, largely along party lines. If passed, the resolution would have blocked further U.S. military action in Iran without congressional approval under the 1973 War Powers Act. That legislation passed during the Vietnam War to give Congress a legal check on executive war authority. The 1973 act also requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying U.S. forces into hostilities and to end the deployment within 60 days unless Congress authorizes or extends it. - NPR https://n.pr/4udeA9H

‌House Oversight panel votes to subpoena AG Pam Bondi in Epstein probe The Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena US Attorney General Pam Bondi for testimony about her role in the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files as part of the committee’s probe into the late convicted sex offender.

GOP Rep. Nancy Mace moved to subpoena the attorney general and it passed 24-19, with bipartisan support. Mace was joined by Democrats and fellow Republicans Tim Burchett, Michael Cloud, Lauren Boebert and Scott Perry. - CNN https://cnn.it/4sc3DUF

The American King Goes to War‌ America has been at war for nearly a week, but the president who started the war can’t explain why.

Either Iran’s nuclear program needed to be destroyed because Iran was “probably a week away” from having the material for a bomb, according to the Trump adviser Steve Witkoff, or Iran was “not enriching” uranium, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, or maybe Iran was threatening the United States and its allies bases in the region, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. One adviser told CNN that there was “evidence” Iran was preparing to strike U.S. forces in the Middle East, but Rubio later said Iran was an “imminent threat” because it would respond if attacked by Israel, which is not what “imminent threat” means. The U.S. is going to war to force regime change in Iran, or maybe it isn’t—it depends who you ask and when. The operation will be short—or maybe it won’t be.

A simpler explanation is that the administration did not plan well before attacking another country and igniting a regional conflagration in the Middle East, nor has it planned for what comes next. The potential consequences are devastating, including both the cost in individual human lives and the long-term implications for the region and its people. The economic aftereffects, given Iran’s oil production and its control over the Strait of Hormuz, could be also substantial. The American government had no plan for evacuating its citizens from the region, let alone for who would take over Iran once its leadership had been deposed or killed. No one has any idea what the fallout here will be, nor does anyone in a position of authority seem to be particularly concerned. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rfYt8H

‌Pete Hegseth Treats Fallen American Soldiers as a PR Problem This morning, the defense secretary gave a briefing on the war that quickly degenerated into Trumplike bombast. (Wisely, the Pentagon scheduled this at 8 a.m. eastern time, when most of the country is either sleeping or busy starting their day.) Hegseth apparently prefers to sound more like a Call of Duty player leading a raid than a sober and judicious secretary of defense: “Death and destruction from the sky all day,” he said, along with other empty phrases such as “We’re playing for keeps.” (As opposed to what, exactly?) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40dqRxe

‌House Oversight panel votes to subpoena AG Pam Bondi in Epstein probe The Justice Department’s release of the files so far has prompted complaints from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with critics saying they believe the files were overly redacted and demanding greater transparency.

The House Oversight Committee, meanwhile, has sought testimony from a number of of high-profile figures as part of its ongoing probe. - CNN https://cnn.it/40xLkNv

The Coming Invasion of Iran ‌ The U.S. and Israel are arming Kurdish groups to stage an incursion. What could go wrong?

Days after the United States and Israel killed Iran’s leader, the war is set to enter a dramatic new phase. Thousands of Iranian Kurdish militants are gathering in Iraqi Kurdistan, set to receive American and Israeli financial and military support to launch a major attack on Iranian territory, according to several people with close knowledge of the plan. Other armed militants, such as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an exiled opposition group that has long carried out violent operations inside Iran, and Baloch militias that operate on Iran’s southeastern border with Pakistan, are also rumored to be involved. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ri1iWS

‌Senate Republicans Block Limits to Trump’s War Powers Senate Republicans voted against a Democratic bill that would have required President Trump to obtain congressional authorization to continue waging war against Iran. - NYT

‌U.S. Court Takes First Steps Toward Ordering Tariff Refunds A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to take the first steps toward issuing more than $100 billion in potential tariff refunds, ratcheting up a legal battle over a roster of sky-high duties that the Supreme Court deemed illegal.

The order, issued by Judge Richard K. Eaton of the United States Court of International Trade, amounted to an early victory for the thousands of businesses that have already sued to recover the taxes they paid, plus interest, now that President Trump’s global tariffs have been struck down. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Trump could not use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose tariffs on U.S. trading partners.

Many trade lawyers said they were still deciphering the scope of the judge’s three-page directive. But they generally agreed that its mandate could prove short lived, with the Trump administration expected to quickly challenge it. Judge Eaton has scheduled a hearing in the case for Friday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d20LEO

‌59% of Americans Oppose the Military Action in Iran Three high-quality polls taken after the United States and Israel launched their attack on Iran on Saturday show that a majority of Americans are not on board with the military action.

About 60 percent of Americans disapproved of the attacks, according to a CNN poll conducted immediately after the strikes. Two other polls, by Reuters/Ipsos and The Washington Post, had similar results. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40L8gsm

‌House Panel Votes to Subpoena Pam Bondi Over Epstein Files A key House committee voted on Wednesday to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to compel her to testify about the Justice Department’s investigation of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and its release of investigative material about him, after Republicans sided with Democrats to insist on it.

Over the objection of the panel’s Republican chairman, Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, five Republicans on the Oversight Committee joined Democrats to force approval of the subpoena, which was introduced by Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina.

The vote, 24 to 19, was a striking rebuke of a top Trump administration official by members of President Trump’s own party at a time when the Republican-controlled Congress has generally marched in lock-step with him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3MKYLGz

‌Letters from an American - March 4, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson Buried in the cascade of news this week, Sadie Gurman and Caitlin Ostroff of the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that 47,635 files are missing from the Epstein files documents that the Justice Department has made public. A spokesperson for the Justice Department told the reporters that the files were “offline for further review and should be ready for reproduction by the end of the week.”

The news that even the documents that have been released have extensive gaps suggests the department is covering up for individuals involved in Epstein’s crimes, including President Donald J. Trump, whose name appears frequently in the files. We know at least one of the missing files contains allegations that Trump sexually assaulted a thirteen-year-old girl. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/3MKYLGz

‌Documents Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate ProPublica is releasing a trove of disclosure records that detail the finances of more than 1,500 Trump appointees, including former lobbyists, industry executives and at least a dozen officials who declined to identify former clients. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4cpr6fU

‌OpenAI’s President Gave Millions to Trump. He Says It’s for Humanity. OpenAI’s president and cofounder Greg Brockman doesn’t consider himself political, which is surprising, because he was one of President Trump’s biggest individual donors of 2025.

Greg and his wife, Anna Brockman, gave $25 million to MAGA Inc—a super PAC that supports President Trump—in September of last year. The pair also gave $25 million to a bipartisan AI super PAC, Leading the Future, which says it plans to oppose politicians that jeopardize Americans’ “ability to benefit from AI.” The Brockmans have pledged to give an additional $25 million to Leading the Future in 2026, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

According to Brockman, these political donations are in service of OpenAI’s founding mission: to develop highly capable AI systems and distribute the benefits to all of humanity. - Wired https://bit.ly/4u7KfJP

‌Anthropic's Claude overtakes ChatGPT in App Store In the battle for AI supremacy, Anthropic’s Claude has just managed to dethrone OpenAI’s ChatGPT in Apple’s App Store, claiming the #1 spot as the most-downloaded free app in the United States, leaving ChatGPT in second and Google’s Gemini a distant fourth. This sudden surge in the rankings is almost certainly due to public backlash at a recent announcement by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, released on X, that they would work with the Department of Defense (unofficially titled the Department of War) to deploy artificial intelligence through its classified networks. - Mashable https://bit.ly/4l7qUnG

‌The Pentagon's fight with Anthropic is a threat to America's entire AI boom The ongoing feud between Anthropic and the Department of Defense has been covered as a tech story, a political soap opera — culture wars meet AI policy. But the real story is arguably even larger: Can the U.S. win an AI arms race against China when its own government attacks the American companies doing the racing? - Quartz https://bit.ly/4b9UMvg

‌Large demonstrations in support of the Iranian government continued for a fourth night across cities and towns in Iran. Crowds gathered to mourn the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemn the war against their country, and show support for Iranian troops. - DropSite on X https://bit.ly/4sjKb7K

‌The No-Explanation War To date, the only explanations offered by the Administration have been confusing more than anything else. “We didn’t start this war,” the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, said at a press conference on Monday, pointing out that President Trump, Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, and the special envoy Steve Witkoff—evidently, the Iran negotiating team—had “bent over backwards for real diplomacy.” He also said that Iran had a “conventional gun to our head,” reiterating that America had no choice but to go on the offensive.

But he also struck a tone of nihilistic defiance. “No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars,” Hegseth said. “We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives.” In other words, all the old patriotic and moral justifications for our forever wars no longer applied. We just do it because we want to “win,” even if we can’t really tell you what we’re winning. On Wednesday, Hegseth fired up the cliché factory again, saying, “Death and destruction from the sky all day long. We’re playing for keeps.” If you don’t like that, well, then, Hegseth and the Trump Administration are telling you that they don’t care. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4cvRiWm

‌How Trump is Paying for His War AND Giving a Huge Tax Cut to the Rich Trump has launched us into what could be another costly and deadly forever war. It is costing the U.S. at least $1 billion a day.

Meanwhile, he and Republicans are slashing taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

How are they doing both? By making devastating cuts to food assistance programs that help millions of people — and lying about what these programs actually do. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3PiGJvW

‌Thousands of public comments slam Trump’s ballroom: ‘I did not vote for this’ A Post analysis of submitted comments found more than 97 percent were critical of the planned 90,000-square-foot addition. The White House has defended it as necessary. - WaPo https://wapo.st/46H3bF0

‌Trump fires Noem as frustrations build among White House officials, GOP lawmakers President Donald Trump said Thursday on social media he was firing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and would name Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace her.

Trump thanked Noem for her service, saying in his Truth Social post she “has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!)” and that she “will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere.” - CNN https://cnn.it/47l6dz1

‌States Sue to Stop Trump From Reviving Steep Tariffs A coalition of two dozen states sued President Trump on Thursday over the new 10 percent tariff that he has imposed on imports from around the world, a move that will send the administration back to court to defend the legality of its punishing trade war.

The lawsuit, led by the Democratic attorneys general from Oregon, New York, California and Arizona, claimed that Mr. Trump did not have the power to impose that tax and “sidestep” the Supreme Court, which delivered the administration a stunning blow last month when it struck down the president’s original slate of withering duties. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lg2msW

‌Two Big Things Trump Doesn’t Want You to Know or Even Think About.

The affordability crisis. It’s worsening.

Prices were rising even before Trump and Netanyahu invaded Iran — which was one reason for him plunging America into war. He wanted to remove “affordability” from the news (he called it a “Democratic scam”) .

But Trump’s war is causing prices to rise even faster.

Epstein

The other thing Trump wanted to deflect our attention from is the Epstein files. But it won’t go away, either.

After the Wall Street Journal earlier this week identified more than 40,000 files that appeared to be missing from documents posted to the Justice Department’s website, a Justice Department spokeswoman today admitted that “47,635 files were offline for further review” and “should be ready for re-production by the end of the week.”

Further review? Sure looks like a cover-up. The withheld files include F.B.I. notes on a series of interviews a woman gave to agents in 2019 in which she alleged sexual misconduct by both Trump and Epstein when she was a minor in the 1980s. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3MOuuGV

‌Trump Cannot Achieve Iran Goals With Bombing Alone, Expert on Airpower Warns Less than a week after the U.S. and Israel launched a major joint assault on Iran, President Donald Trump has offered mixed messages about the war’s eventual aims and objectives.

When announcing the beginning of Operation Epic Fury in the early hours of Saturday morning, the President framed the war as necessary to stop Iran from attaining nuclear weapons, but also implied a goal of regime change when he urged Iranians to “take back your country.”

Days later, he said the goal was to destroy Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, navy, and stop its support for proxy groups in the region, with a broader goal of protecting the U.S. and its allies from attacks. - Time https://bit.ly/3MZ73KZ

‌Trump fires homeland security secretary Kristi Noem Donald Trump on Thursday announced he was replacing Kristi Noem as the homeland security secretary, capping weeks of bipartisan complaints about her leadership after immigration agents killed two US citizens and reports emerged that she was involved in a personal relationship with a top deputy.

Noem’s firing was the first major personnel shake-up of Trump’s second term. The president made it public in a post on Truth Social, in which he said Markwayne Mullin, a Republican Oklahoma senator, would take over from Noem starting on 31 March. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4d807FP

‌US customs agency works on tariff refund process after pressure from judge A federal judge ruled that the US government must begin paying out more than $130 billion in tariff refunds to US businesses in another setback for the Trump administration after the Supreme Court struck down the president's wide-reaching "reciprocal" tariffs.

More than 2,000 companies, including well-known names like Costco (COST) and FedEx (FDX), have filed lawsuits seeking refunds for the illegal tariffs they paid. On Friday, the US Customs agency said it is preparing a process for importers to electronically file and receive tariff refunds, and that the system will be ready in the next 45 days. - Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4cz20eI

‌Anthropic CEO says refusal to pander to Trump caused Pentagon blowup. Anthropic CEO says refusal to pander to Trump caused Pentagon blowup.

In a scathing 1,600 word memo to employees sent on Friday, CEO Dario Amodei suggested Anthropic’s relationship with the government soured because, unlike OpenAI or its executives, “we haven’t donated to Trump” and “we haven’t given dictator-style praise to Trump.”

The leaked remarks could complicate Amodei’s last-ditch efforts to salvage the company’s relationship with the US military and prevent it from being iced out of defense work. - Verge https://bit.ly/47oHfi7

‌How Kristi Noem Lost Her Job Kristi Noem’s autobiography includes the harrowing story of her decision to put down her dog, Cricket. The ill-fated pet had first ruined a hunting foray by going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life,” and went on to kill several chickens belonging to a neighbor. Noem then decided she had to shoot Cricket. “It was not a pleasant job,” she recounts, “but it had to be done.”

After Noem’s latest public-relations fiasco, a shambolic session before Congress this week, President Trump found himself facing a similarly difficult choice. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/46OzORk

‌Trump’s Unauthorized War A president does not have the constitutional authority to send the country to war on his own. Trump is, as he writes in his letter, the commander in chief of the U.S. military, but the Constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to declare war. That design choice represented a radical break from the monarchies of Europe, where kings and queens had the ability to decide when to mobilize their countries to war. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4b08zEo

‌Trump Has Lost the Plot in Iran Like many of his predecessors over the past five decades, Donald Trump risks having his presidency hijacked by Iran. The 1979 revolution and subsequent hostage crisis ended Jimmy Carter’s presidency. The Iran-Contra affair tainted Ronald Reagan’s. Iranian machinations in postwar Iraq sabotaged George W. Bush’s. The Iran nuclear deal—and the bitter partisan fight over it—consumed the second half of Barack Obama’s presidency. The October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, a member of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” triggered a brutal war that subsumed Joe Biden’s. Trump may have envisioned a second term spent striking deals to resolve wars, but Iran has now sucked him in, too.

What Trump seems to have hoped would be a Venezuela redux—a quick decapitation of the regime followed by a swift deal with the leader’s successor—has deteriorated into a regional war. Tehran telegraphed that this would happen, but it still apparently caught Trump by surprise. Now the United States is approaching a quagmire as news reports suggest that the CIA is arming Kurdish groups inside Iran. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4aXdhUM

‌The Humiliation of J. D. Vance If J. D. Vance promised one thing during the 2024 presidential campaign, it was that America would not enter into a war with Iran of the kind that is currently raging. “America doesn’t have to constantly police every region of the world,” Vance told the comedian Tim Dillon on his podcast. He continued: “Our interest, I think very much, is in not going to war with Iran. It would be a huge distraction of resources. It would be massively expensive to our country.” In another podcast interview, with Shawn Ryan, in September 2024, Vance even said that a war between Israel and Iran was in fact “the most likely and most dangerous scenario” for provoking World War III.

These arguments look farcical now that President Trump has chosen—months after bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities and pronouncing its enrichment efforts “completely and totally obliterated”—to join Israel in launching a war on the Islamic Republic. The ensuing conflagration now involves a dozen countries in the Middle East. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rflxnS

‌Kristi Noem fired You can get away with a lot as a member of the Trump administration. You can be objectively bad at your job—looking at you, U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro. You can be stupid enough to discuss military operations on Signal and not notice a journalist is there—howdy, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But the one thing you cannot do, ever, is put the blame on Trump. When it comes to being under fire, you’re on your own, kid.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem seems to have forgotten this important lesson, and it cost her the Cabinet slot she was never qualified for in the first place. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is preparing to fire Noem after her disastrous appearance before Congress earlier this week. Only a few minutes later, news of Noem’s ouster was confirmed when Trump announced on Truth Social that he would be replacing Noem with Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3P5b29j

‌The ‘peace’ president can’t stop starting wars While all eyes are on the war in Iran, which is rapidly spiraling out of control with no real plan for what comes next, the Trump administration decided that now is a great time to kick off another war.

Sure, it kind of looks like we might run out of munitions in Iran, but why should that stop the administration from the fun and excitement of bombing yet another country? - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4b9KFXj

‌‘The Most Dangerous Man in the World’ Mojtaba Khamenei, a candidate to succeed his father as Iran’s supreme leader, is no reformer.

Iran still has not formally announced the identity of its new supreme leader. The new guy will be, according to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, “an unequivocal target for elimination.” Israel’s success in this department raises the possibility of certain efficiencies for Iran’s cash-strapped government: serving, as in Hamlet, the remains of the new supreme leader’s inaugural banquet as cold leftovers at the same man’s funeral the next day. Most likely, the Assembly of Experts charged with appointing the supreme leader will delay the announcement in order to consider how best to protect the designee’s life and prepare for smooth succession if it cannot. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4biDPyW

‌Who Is the U.S. Actually at War With Right Now? Donald Trump campaigned on the idea that electing him was the best way to avoid wars. He has referred to himself as the “peace president,” going so far as to complain that he hadn’t won a Nobel Peace Prize.

Yet Trump has governed as a hawkish interventionist whose approach better aligns with his neoconservative secretary of state, Marco Rubio, than with the anti-interventionists in his administration, such as J. D. Vance and Tulsi Gabbard. The United States is now enmeshed in so many conflicts that its foreign policy is closer to “world police” than “America First.”

The newly launched war against Iran is the most significant. Operation Epic Fury begins less than a year after the United States and Israel partnered to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. At the time, Trump declared that operation a success, and Vance defended it by stating, “I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements … But the difference is that back then, we had dumb presidents and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national-security objectives. So this is not gonna be some long, drawn-out thing.”

The Trump administration has now launched a “long, drawn-out thing” in Iran with no end in sight. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4cDICxb

‌U.S. Capabilities Are Showing Signs of Rot On multiple occasions after President Trump launched a massive air campaign against Iran this past weekend, retaliatory attacks by simply constructed Iranian drones have penetrated American defenses with serious results. For example, at least six U.S. soldiers died, and others were wounded, in an Iranian strike Sunday on a command facility in Kuwait. CNN reported that the Americans received no warning of the incoming drone. According to CBS News, the fortifications around the facility protected it from car bombs but not from a direct overhead strike. “We basically had no drone defeat capability,” an unnamed military official told the network. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4swKRa5

‌First 100 hours of war with Iran cost the US $3.7 billion, report estimates The first 100 hours of the US military campaign against Iran is estimated to have cost $3.7 billion — more than $890 million a day — according to analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies released on Thursday.

Less than $200 million of that total estimate are operational costs already included in the Pentagon budget. In turn, the $3.54 billion rest of the estimated cost “will likely require additional Department of Defense (DoD) funding, either through a supplemental appropriation or another reconciliation bill,” the CSIS analysts said. - CNN https://cnn.it/4cyoRqB

‌Trump’s and Hegseth’s awkward comments about US troop deaths in Iran war From the start of his war with Iran, President Donald Trump took care to acknowledge the ugly headlines that could result. It would be a much more significant operation than his previous military strikes, he said in a video posted shortly after the military action began, and that meant likely US deaths.

The specter of troop deaths — there have already been six — is indeed a somber variable that appears likely to test Americans’ limited tolerance for a war that they don’t seem particularly keen on.

But it’s especially a problem for Trump. He has many talents as a politician, but speaking about dead and wounded service members is decidedly not among them. In fact, it’s a real blind spot. - CNN https://cnn.it/3OVaSkT

‌Trump finds he needs Europe now that he’s waging war in Iran For years, Europe has endured U.S. President Donald Trump’s complaints that it is a complacent continent hiding under America’s security umbrella. Now, as he launches the first open-ended military campaign of his presidency, its leaders find themselves holding something he still needs: their bases, airspace and strategic geography. - Bloomberg / Japan Times https://bit.ly/3OLqWFY

‌Bulletproof Vests and Rolex Watches: The Rise and Fall of Kristi Noem The display of a Rolex at a notorious prison in El Salvador. A self-promotional advertising campaign for mass deportations. The lingering story of the killing of her dog.

Kristi Noem never appeared able — or particularly keen — to step out of the spotlight during her time leading the Department of Homeland Security. But even for a White House familiar with political crises, Ms. Noem’s streak of controversies, handling of government funding and flair for theatrics might have proved too much for President Trump. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47iU0uF

‌Justice Dept. Releases Missing Interviews With Woman Who Made Claims Against Trump The Justice Department released F.B.I. documents on Thursday describing several interviews with a woman who made an accusation against President Trump. The pages had been previously withheld from the vast trove of documents related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because of what officials called a mistaken determination that they were duplicates.

The typewritten notes recounted multiple interviews the F.B.I. conducted in 2019 with the woman, who said she had been sexually assaulted by both Mr. Epstein and Mr. Trump. She came forward shortly after Mr. Epstein was arrested that summer on charges of federal sex trafficking. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rVAlJt

‌Pentagon Officially Notifies Anthropic It Is a ‘Supply Chain Risk’ The Defense Department has officially informed Anthropic that it has labeled the artificial intelligence company a “supply chain risk,” which could prevent it from doing business with the U.S. government.

In a statement posted to the internet on Thursday, Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, confirmed that the company had received a formal letter from the Pentagon. As the company previously said, he vowed to fight the designation in court.

“We do not believe this action is legally sound,” he wrote. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4b67if5

‌Feeling the Effects of 260,000 Federal Jobs Lost One year in, assessing budget cuts to federal climate and science jobs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lhc8eb

‌The US economy lost 92,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% Hiring at US businesses unexpectedly plunged last month as employers shed an estimated 92,000 jobs, according to new data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate edged higher to 4.4% from 4.3%. - CNN https://cnn.it/47x1SJ5

‌RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies are "unreviewable," DOJ lawyer tells judge A lawyer for the Trump administration told a federal judge Wednesday that anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has such ample authority over the country’s vaccine policies that he is “unreviewable.” His unfettered powers even allow Kennedy the freedom to recommend, if he chose to do so, that people ditch vaccines and actively expose themselves to infectious diseases, the lawyer argued, according to Reuters. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4rUYFLA

‌Virginia moves to forbid schools from teaching that Jan. 6 was peaceful Virginia lawmakers have passed a bill that prohibits schools from teaching that the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was a peaceful demonstration or that there was massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election, the first Democratic state to try to shape how such events are taught. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4ldwmWd

‌Pete Hegseth’s Moral Unseriousness CERTAIN MOMENTS are worth paying attention to because they reveal something essential about a person. They act as windows into an individual’s psychological state, their ethics, the orders of their loves and their hates. Such occasions are crystallizing.

That’s been true of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon briefings since the war against Iran began. We haven’t learned anything we didn’t already know about Hegseth in these briefings. But the press conferences have reminded the world why he is exactly the wrong person to hold the position he does. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3OPDnR7

‌Jobs report shocks with unexpected loss of 92,000 jobs in February as unemployment rate rises The US economy lost 92,000 jobs in February, Labor Department data released Friday showed, sharply missing economists' expectations and stalling the nascent hiring growth that started the year.

The unemployment rate edged up to 4.4%, while the share of people who have been without work for 27 weeks or more as a percentage of all unemployed hit 25.3%. - Yahoo https://yhoo.it/3OQqZAk

‌Why Trump Changed His Mind on Kristi Noem Congressional questions about contracts, ads, and extramarital sex ended her tenure.

Kristi Noem played “Hot Mama” as the walk-up song for her formal introduction at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in January 2025. President Trump had put her in charge of his signature campaign promise—the largest mass-deportation campaign in U.S. history—and Noem took a fast, flashy approach to the job. She dressed as a Border Patrol agent and an ICE officer, and rode horseback at Mount Rushmore in ads. She flew to El Salvador and posed in front of a prison cell crammed with tattooed inmates. She made no apologies for aggressive enforcement tactics on American streets, even those that likely broke the law, or for the deaths of two U.S. citizens who opposed her approach.

But it wasn’t the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year that finally cost Noem her job today, making her the first ousted Cabinet secretary of Trump’s second term. Instead, it was her self-promotion. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4swMogl

‌Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.

Some files have not been made public despite a law mandating their release. These include what appear to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, as well as notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor. - NPR https://n.pr/3N0ywvR

‌Chaos sown by Iran's attacks across the Persian Gulf is key to its strategy For years, Iran's theocratic government warned it would blanket the Middle East with missile and drone fire if it felt its existence was threatened.

Now, the Islamic Republic is doing just that.

Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war Saturday and killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has unleashed thousands of drones and ballistic missiles targeting Israel, American military bases and embassies in the region, and energy facilities across the Persian Gulf. Iranian fire has even been directed over its borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan. - PBS https://to.pbs.org/4aVnMId

‌If Trump can depose a regime, why can’t he rig an election? A week ago, the president unilaterally launched a full-scale war to kill Iran’s leadership and overturn the Iranian regime.

Our country’s founders would be horrified. The Constitution was designed to prevent an unchecked, imperial leader from dragging the country to war on a whim. Congress was supposed to share warmaking powers with the president to prevent exactly this scenario. (Read about why: The founders gave the first branch war powers for a reason.)

Our constitutional system of checks and balances over warmaking is functionally dead. With Congress abdicating on Iran, the president is unbound and acting like it. Donald Trump wants you to believe he is already an imperial ruler able to shape the world to his whim.

So are we — and our democracy — already screwed? - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/3NmHNOU

‌Yes, Trump’s economy really is as bad as it seems The wheels have really fallen off the wagon this week for President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, with the economy losing 92,000 jobs in February, oil and gas prices surging, the stock market posting steep declines, and the war in Iran quickly spiraling out of control with no end in sight.

The spate of bad news is the exact opposite of what Trump promised to do if voters returned him to the White House. And if things remain this bad, November will be an annihilation for the GOP at the ballot box.

A delve into the economic data shows just how grim things really are. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4ulNVaY

‌Leaked GOP group chat pushes extreme racism Remember last fall when a group chat of Young Republicans leaders leaked, revealing their use of a breathtaking array of slurs? If you thought that embarrassing event would stop other conservatives from starting their own bigoted group chats, you were wrong.

Enter Abel Alexander Carvajal, the secretary of Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party.

That very same fall, he started a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University, according to the Miami Herald, which obtained leaked texts from the WhatsApp chat. In less than three weeks, it was overrun with racist, antisemitic, and homophobic slurs, including reportedly over 400 uses of the N-word and its variations.

While the chat did have FIU students in it, its members weren’t random young conservatives with no standing in the Republican community in Florida. Besides being started by the county party’s secretary, it reportedly included the head of FIU’s Turning Point USA chapter, Ian Valdes, as well as the former recruitment chair of the College Republicans, Dariel Gonzalez. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/40dHj0t

‌GOP lawmakers push for charges against former White House aide for Jan. 6 testimony Republicans on Capitol Hill are asking the Justice Department to consider bringing criminal charges against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide in President Donald Trump’s first administration who became a star congressional witness about the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, according to two sources familiar with recent developments.

GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk made a criminal referral of Hutchinson to the Justice Department in recent days, the sources said. He accused Hutchinson of lying to Congress in her summer 2022 testimony when she alleged Trump was aware of the potential for violence on January 6, 2021, and forged ahead with his attempts to rile up his supporters.

Loudermilk has long attempted to reframe the public perception of the events at the Capitol, including by scrutinizing the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot and found Trump was “directly responsible” for the riot. Loudermilk’s referral was co-signed by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, who chairs the committee under which Loudermilk is running a probe of January 6. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rlqnAi

‌One week into Iran war, the dangers for the U.S. and Trump multiply One week into the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran that has plunged the Middle East into turmoil, U.S. President Donald Trump faces a growing list of risks and challenges that raise questions about whether he will be able to translate military successes into a clear geopolitical win.

Even after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's longtime supreme leader, and devastating blows against Iranian forces on land, at sea and in the air, the crisis has quickly widened into a regional conflict that threatens a more prolonged U.S. military engagement with fallout beyond Trump’s control. - Reuters / Japan Times https://bit.ly/4b6qYB3

‌Live Updates: Strikes Across Iran With No Compromise in Sight President Trump met on Saturday with the families of the first six U.S. soldiers killed in the Iran war as their bodies arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Half a world away, the United States and Israel pressed on with their bombardment of Iran, while Iran fired retaliatory missiles at Israel and its neighbors with U.S. bases.

Earlier, Mr. Trump had vowed in a morning social media post that the week-old onslaught on Iran would escalate and could expand to target new “areas and groups of people.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bw7iq4

‌Justice Department Denounces Federal Judges in Fight Against Law Firms The Department of Justice on Friday attacked the federal judiciary, accusing judges who ruled against the Trump administration of undermining President Trump’s authority while continuing to fight a case that it had signaled it was ready to abandon earlier this week.

Its attack came in a court filing in its appeal of four district court rulings that had struck down Mr. Trump’s executive orders attempting to bar prominent law firms from government business.

“Courts cannot tell the president what to say,” the 97-page legal brief began, adding that four federal judges had “bent over backwards” to rule against Mr. Trump and were “encroaching on the constitutional power of the president,” in what the document described as “a grave error for the district courts.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bA4DuH

‌With Iran, Trump Takes the U.S. to War Without the Public’s Support President Trump likes to assert that he has accomplished things no other president has. With the opening of his military assault against Iran, he has achieved another distinction: He is the first president in the era of modern polling to take the United States to war without the support of the public.

Traditionally, Americans stand behind their president when he first orders troops into battle, generally sticking with him unless it drags on, casualties mount and victory seems increasingly elusive. With Mr. Trump’s war against Iran, the public has skipped the rally-around-the-president phase this time. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bA4KGD

‌Jobs Evaporated Unexpectedly, a Troubling Sign for U.S. Economy Hiring fizzled in February, a sign of unexpected weakness in the labor market that sent warning signs flashing through the broader economy.

Employers slashed 92,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported on Friday, with losses cutting across nearly all major sectors. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent.

The report dimmed the picture of the labor market, injecting a surprising note of caution into an economy already reeling from chaos in energy markets brought on by the war in Iran and fresh unknowns over trade policy. And it all but foreclosed the prospect of a swift resurgence in job growth after an anemic year of hiring that was weighed down by economic uncertainty. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uij2E3

‌U.S. Gas Prices Jump Again as Oil Tops $90 for First Time in Years Gasoline prices in the United States jumped again on Friday, the latest in a series of increases that has pushed up the price of a gallon by 34 cents, or about 11 percent, since the start of the war led by the United States and Israel against Iran.

The average price of unleaded gas hit $3.32 per gallon on Friday, the highest since September 2024, according to the AAA motor club. A surge in oil prices suggests that prices at the pump may continue to rise. The U.S. crude benchmark settled on Friday at $90.90, up 12.2 percent for the day and 35.6 percent for the week.

That’s the highest price for a barrel of oil since September 2023. Back then, gasoline averaged about $3.80 a gallon, well above the current average price. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47ibSG2

‌Top National Symphony Leader Quits in New Blow to Kennedy Center The executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra announced Friday that she was stepping down, the latest blow to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as it struggles with declining audiences, artist cancellations and the departure of its opera company in the wake of President Trump’s effort to put his imprint on the center. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OU55Mw

‌Trump’s Fantasy Is Crashing Down In Donald Trump’s fantasy world, America is invincible and impregnable.

Its military is so advanced and skillful that it can pluck a sitting head of state from a hostile country and deposit him in a New York City jail cell without losing a single soldier. It can slap punitive tariffs on any nation it likes, abandon longstanding alliances on a whim, bomb any country at any time and freely blow up boats it may suspect of carrying drugs. America’s awesome power means it is unfettered by any rules, untroubled by any consequences. As an unfathomably rich and sprawling nation, blessed by geography and protected from its enemies by two vast oceans, why shouldn’t it do what it will?

Over the past six days, as Trump plunged the United States into a war with Iran, that fantasy of omnipotence has come crashing into reality. Undertaken for unexplained and perhaps unexplainable reasons, the war is being waged in a central node of the global economy against a disciplined, well-armed opponent with nothing to lose. America and Israel killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a dozen Iranian leaders on the first day of fighting, but Trump has clearly given little thought to what comes next. Recklessly, he has ignited a widening conflagration with no obvious end in sight. The death toll has already surpassed 1,000 people. - NYT https://nyti.ms/40lIgDV

‌Target beats low earnings expectations as markets crater Tuesday was set for an ugly market open, with S&P 500 futures sinking more 1.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 800 points. “Safe haven” trades were surging, with investors piling into gold and inflows on track to break last year’s record.

The rare bright spot? Target $TGT +0.36%. The retail giant released fourth-quarter results that weren't as bad as expected, and amid the deepening and market-rattling U.S. conflict in Iran, that was enough to pass for good news. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4lki9a7

‌Trump signals he will escalate war today, hit "areas and groups" not previously targeted Even as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in an apparently prerecorded statement Tehran would halt attacks on its Gulf neighbors several reported new strikes.

The launches were some of the largest since the war began and coincided with the one-week anniversary of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s killing in strikes by the United States and Israel.

In what were the highest-level de-escalatory comments so far from Iran, Pezeshkian apologized to his neighbors for days of strikes that sparked panic in areas once thought safe. - CNN https://cnn.it/40CwqFL

‌Six Days of War, 10 Rationales The administration has laid out a buffet of reasons for Operation Epic Fury—take your pick.

On the third day of the war in Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Operation Epic Fury the “most-precise aerial operation in history.” A difficult claim to fact-check. More difficult still has been parsing statements from the White House and the Pentagon to figure out, with any exactitude, why we are at war in the first place. So far, the Trump administration has offered at least 10 separate rationales in just six days. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3ONpC5s

Wednesday’s briefing, for example, featured the usual Hegseth hubris, strutting, and cockiness. “I stand before you today with one unmistakable message about Operation Epic Fury: America is winning decisively, devastatingly, and without mercy,” he said. He declared that, four days into the mission, Iran is “toast, and they know it. Or at least soon enough they will know it.” He compared the Persian nation’s predicament to that of a football team: “They don’t know what plays to call, let alone how to get in the huddle and call those plays.” There was not even a hint of the challenges that might lie ahead in the conflict with Iran, a nation of 90 million people that borders seven countries—challenges that might include internal fragmentation and chaos, a dangerous insurgency, humanitarian crises, regional destabilization, and global economic disruption. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ldA95Q

‌The Economy’s Warning Light Is Flashing Yellow A soft labor market, persistent inflation, a potential oil crisis—what could go wrong?

The job market is weakening, inflation is still too high, and we’re at serious risk of a once-in-50-years oil shock. This is almost the exact set of conditions that triggered the stagflation of the 1970s, which at the time was America’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. At the moment, the economy is still far from that kind of doomsday scenario, but the direction of travel is disquieting. The economy’s warning lights might not yet be flashing red, but they are certainly flashing yellow.

The jobs report released this morning showed that the U.S. labor market lost 92,000 jobs in February, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 4.4 percent. The numbers for the previous two months, which had suggested decent job growth, were also revised downward: January now showed fewer job gains than initially estimated and December showed overall job losses. These new numbers continue the trend of last month’s revisions, which showed that the economy had added just 181,000 jobs in all of 2025, a tenth of the jobs that had been added the year prior. Taken together, the numbers suggest that 2025 appears to have had the most months with negative job growth since 2010—the midst of the Great Recession—and that 2026 is off to a similarly slow start. The Trump administration sometimes claims that weak job numbers are the by-product of deporting undocumented workers, but the native-born unemployment rate has risen by half a percentage point since Trump took office. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4b7q4Tn

‌We texted 1,000 Americans about U.S. strikes in Iran. Here’s what they said. How many Americans support the airstrikes against Iran that President Donald Trump ordered this weekend? Do they think the strikes should continue? How concerned are they about a full-scale war with Iran? The Washington Post texted 1,003 Americans on Sunday to ask. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4lmlC8e

‌Intel report warns large-scale war ‘unlikely’ to oust Iran’s regime A classified U.S. report doubts that Iran’s opposition would take power following either a short or extended U.S. military campaign. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4d3S0du

‌Long-delayed Jan. 6 plaque honoring police installed in Capitol at 4 a.m. The police officers were taunted and beaten. Some were knocked unconscious and dragged down stone steps, tear gas stinging their throats, to chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!” on Jan. 6, 2021, as hundreds, then thousands, swarmed the citadel of American democracy. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3ONEuAP

U.S. and Israel Launch Punishing Attacks as Iran Says New Leader Is Close‌ The United States and Israeli militaries bombarded Iranian military targets and vital energy infrastructure on Sunday, as Iran tried to project stability by announcing that top clerics were finalizing their selection of a new supreme leader.

Burning fuel depots shrouded Tehran in dense, oily clouds after overnight strikes. Those strikes and other attacks on water desalination plants in Iran and on the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain underscored the threat that damaged infrastructure posed to the lives of millions of people across the Middle East. And there was no sign of an offramp for the fighting.

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4aYHZgh

‌How D.H.S. Retreated on Immigration Tactics After Minneapolis After months of high-profile, militarized immigration raids in major American cities, the Trump administration has scaled back its deportation strategy, leading to a dip in arrests last month, according to three federal officials and internal government data.

In recent weeks, immigration agents have focused on conducting more targeted enforcement operations, rather than indiscriminate street sweeps, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.

Those arrests have been less visible and chaotic than the campaign that led to violent clashes with protesters — including the fatal shootings of two American citizens in January — and generated intense political blowback against President Trump. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lf6wkB

‌Immigration Agents Detain a Reporter in Nashville Emily Cochrane covers the American South and lives in Nashville. Hamed Aleaziz covers immigration from Washington.

On Tuesday, Estefany Maria Rodriguez Florez, a journalist for a Spanish-language news outlet in Nashville, reported on four immigration-related arrests in Middle Tennessee.

On Wednesday, Ms. Rodriguez was herself being tracked by immigration agents and then was taken into custody, accused of violating the conditions of her visa.

The arrest of Ms. Rodriguez, an immigrant who was seeking asylum in the United States after she said she received threats for her reporting in her native Colombia, prompted an immediate outcry in Nashville and beyond. And some wondered whether her work documenting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown had made her a target.

“We’re concerned one of the motivating reasons could be that she’s a journalist,” said Alejandro Medina III, Ms. Rodriguez’s husband, in an interview. Ms. Rodriguez had applied to obtain a green card after marrying Mr. Medina, an American citizen, in January. Her lawyer has challenged her detention in court, and in a filing on Friday said that he believed there were indications Ms. Rodriguez had been targeted because of her reporting. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bfjvhR

‌Judge Voids Mass Layoffs at Voice of America A federal judge on Saturday ruled that the appointment of Kari Lake, the head of Voice of America’s oversight agency, was invalid, voiding mass layoffs that she had carried out at the federally funded news group last year.

The decision from Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was a major rejection of President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the storied government-funded news group, which was founded to combat Nazi propaganda.

If upheld by higher courts, Judge Lamberth’s ruling would allow more than 1,000 journalists and support staff members at the news group to return to their jobs. Ms. Lake, who had been leading the U.S. Agency for Global Media, V.O.A.’s parent agency, said that she would appeal the decision. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sCgBuE

‌Iran Could Retrieve Uranium at Site U.S. Bombed Last Year, Officials Say American intelligence agencies have determined that Iran or potentially another group could retrieve Iran’s primary store of highly enriched uranium even though it was entombed under the country’s nuclear site at Isfahan by U.S. strikes last year, according to multiple officials familiar with the classified reports.

Officials familiar with the intelligence said that Iran can now get to the uranium through a very narrow access point. It is unclear how quickly Iran could move the uranium, which is in gas form and stored in canisters.

U.S. officials have said that American spy agencies have constant surveillance of the Isfahan site and have a high degree of confidence they could detect — and react — to any attempt by the Iranian government or other groups to move it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4swo7Hd

‌In War’s First Week, a Punishing Military Campaign With No Coherent Endgame The U.S. and Israel have pounded Iran’s leadership and undercut its defense capabilities, but President Trump has offered wildly different explanations for what he hopes to achieve. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ujt481

‌War in the Middle East Threatens Global Food Production The longer the conflict in the Middle East continues, the greater the likelihood that people around the globe will pay more for food. And those in the most vulnerable countries could face hunger.

The Persian Gulf is a dominant source of fertilizer. Though the region is best known as a prodigious source of oil and natural gas, its abundance of energy has spurred the development of factories that make the raw materials for many types of fertilizer, especially those that deliver nitrogen.

Nitrogen fertilizers are essentially natural gas reconfigured as plant nutrients. They nourish crops that yield roughly half the world’s food supply.

For now, most factories in the Gulf that make nitrogen fertilizers are continuing to produce them. But delivering their wares to farmers is suddenly impossible, given the effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel linking the Gulf to the Indian Ocean. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4un07bq

‌This Is Just Who Trump Is What motivates President Trump?

Not what motivates Trumpism, whatever that is. Not what motivates his MAGA supporters. Not what motivates the infrequent and marginal voters who delivered him his victories in 2016 and 2024.

No. What specifically motivates Donald J. Trump? What brought him into national politics? What drives him as a national political figure?

His allies say a love of country, but this is betrayed by his indifference to the nation’s ideals, traditions and symbols. It is unclear whether Trump has even read the Constitution, and there’s no evidence that he understands its history and significance to the nation he leads. (It would be unfair to ask whether he’s read the Declaration of Independence — we all know he hasn’t.)

‌Letters from an American - March 7, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson At 8:50 yesterday morning, President Donald J. Trump posted on social media: “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. ‘MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).’ Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

As Alex Leary and Vera Bergengruen of the Wall Street Journal observed, the demand for unconditional surrender was quite a shift from Trump’s original promise to the people of Iran that the future is “yours to take,” or even his early claim that he was hoping to knock out Iran’s nuclear facilities. Trump’s shift highlighted that there appears to have been very little planning for what would happen after U.S. and Israeli bombs began to rain on Iran. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4un0frq

‌‘We Need to Do McCarthyism to the Tenth Power’ Conservative influencers are pushing for a return to the dark days of 1950s inquisitions.

For decades, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s name has been used as shorthand for the opposite of the aspirational ideal of civilized American politics. In the way that Kleenex has become interchangeable with tissue, McCarthyism, for many, is an eponym for the unjust, reprehensible use of political power. Indicating that anything resembled the tactics and smears of the late senator from Wisconsin has been enough to suggest that such behavior was out of bounds, with no rightful place in our modern politics. But now comes a small, influential group of hard-line right-wingers who believe that, in the words of one popular meme in such circles, McCarthy was right.

McCarthyite revivalism has flitted around the edges of American conservatism since the senator fell from grace during his conspiratorial anti-Communist campaign in the 1950s. In 1954, the conservative patron saint William F. Buckley Jr. and his friend and fellow conservative thinker L. Brent Bozell Jr. defended the senator in their book, McCarthy and His Enemies, as a sometimes-misguided figure unfairly maligned for his justified quest to root out Communist influence in government. Buckley called himself a “critic friendly to McCarthy” in 1959 and continued to defend the senator for decades. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40klagV

‌Iranian supreme leader’s son takes country’s top job, cementing hardliners’ grip on power When millions of Iranians poured into the streets in 1979 to end the rule of the former shah, their revolution seemed to have put an end to the practice of passing power from father to son. Not so.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been elevated to the position his father held for nearly four decades until his death in US-Israeli air strikes. He now sits atop a system badly weakened after the 88-member Assembly of Experts did what many Iranians had hoped it would never do, turning the Islamic Republic into a dynasty.

US President Donald Trump said last week that Khamenei’s appointment as his father’s successor would be “unacceptable” to him. - CNN https://cnn.it/4sDrMDo

‌Iran’s New Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei’s Son, Is a Mysterious Figure Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the recently killed supreme leader, as his father’s successor, according to a statement from top clerics published on state media early Monday local time, signaling the continuity of hard-line theocratic rule as Israeli and U.S. airstrikes pound the country.

Mr. Khamenei himself, though, is something of a mystery even within Iran.

He is a son of the recently killed supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and has been an influential figure in the shadows of power, coordinating military and intelligence operations at his father’s office. He is known to have very close ties to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and was considered their favored candidate.

Unlike his father, Mr. Khamenei, 56, carries the full religious credentials as an ayatollah at the moment of his ascension. He was known for teaching popular Shiite seminary classes.

But his personality or politics outside of his father’s tight inner circle are not known. He seldom speaks or appears in public. And now he will take the helm not just as Iran’s new religious and political authority, but also as the commander in chief of its armed forces. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Nofa3S

‌The One Variable That Could Decide the War When General Mark Milley outlined the U.S. Army’s future priorities in 2017, he said that new long-range missiles, improved tanks, and better-armed, better-trained infantrymen were vital to America’s domination of the next major conflict. But those plans, the then–Army chief and soon-to-be chairman of the Joint Chiefs said, came with an important caveat: The upgrades would be useless unless the military came up with a more effective air defense. “None of the above,” he noted, “will matter if you are dead.”

The Trump administration is finding out just how much air defense matters in its war with Iran. The open-ended campaign poses the biggest-ever test of America’s 21st-century sky shield, a network of weapons to protect against incoming missiles, drones, and ordnance.

So far, that system has mostly held up against the barrage of drones and missiles that Iran has fired at U.S., Arab, and Israeli targets since Saturday morning. But that won’t remain true indefinitely. U.S. military leaders may soon be forced to choose between protecting troops and civilians near Iran and maintaining U.S. combat readiness against larger, more consistent threats from Russia and China. Even though President Trump and other officials have suggested that the war could last at least four or five weeks, and maybe longer, the conflict in some ways has already become a race to weaken Iran’s missile-launch capacity before Tehran can deplete Washington’s finite air-defense supplies. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40TRqYo

‌Trump’s ‘roaring’ economy meets a rough start to 2026: What the latest numbers show President Donald Trump promised that 2026 would be a bumper year for economic growth, but instead it has kicked off with job losses, rising gasoline prices and more uncertainty about America's future.

In his State of the Union address less than two weeks ago, the Republican president confidently told the country: “The roaring economy is roaring like never before.” The latest batch of data on jobs, pump prices and the stock market suggests that Trump's roar has started to sound far more like a whimper. - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/4bgEi4v?

‌Letters from an American - March 8, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson Yesterday, President Donald J. Trump was among the dignitaries who attended the dignified transfer returning the remains of the six U.S. soldiers killed in the military action against Iran to the United States for burial. At the transfer, Trump wore a white USA baseball cap for sale in his campaign store.

Recognizing that Americans would recoil from seeing Trump wear a baseball cap at a dignified transfer, the Fox News Channel declined to show how he had looked yesterday and aired old footage of Trump from his first term without the hat. Caught in their lie, the Fox News Channel admitted they had shown the wrong footage but claimed it was inadvertent. They did not, however, show the real footage from yesterday, showing Trump wearing his merch. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3NgLUvL

Mr. Khamenei himself, though, is something of a mystery even within Iran. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rqmNVw

‌Trump Wants to ‘Take Over’ Elections. These States Are Prime Targets. Facing the possibility of big losses for Republicans in the midterm elections, President Trump has reiterated his unfounded assertions of electoral fraud. He has also begun speaking of the need to “nationalize” elections, and for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in parts of the country.

This rhetoric is often vague, coming across as a hint of plan, rather than an actual one.

But a map of potential targets may be coming into focus and includes the swing states Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona. Voting experts, government officials and others have identified a host of conditions that could make those places ripe for meddling from the Trump administration or its allies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46QT9kV

‌The Dow is having its worst week since October. Gas prices are soaring. Welcome to war. The market has spent the week remembering that geopolitics is a lot less abstract when it starts showing up on highway signs. Gas prices have logged their sharpest weekly jump since March 2022, crude has ripped higher as the Strait of Hormuz stays choked amid war in the Middle East, airline stocks have been getting kneecapped by rising fuel costs, and Friday’s weak jobs report turned an oil scare into something nastier: a full-blown stagflation scare with opening-bell receipts.

By Friday’s opening bell, the Dow was down 2.1% for the week — on pace for its worst weekly performance since October — and then opened another 320 points lower after the February jobs report showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq $NDAQ -0.46% opened down 0.9% and 1.44%, respectively, days after the S&P 500 gave back all of its 2026 gains.

The market came in worrying about inflation and found a growth scare waiting at the door. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4roQqqd

‌The jobs market is getting worse and white-collar layoffs piling up The information sector lost 11,000 jobs — or double its average monthly loss over the prior year. Federal government employment fell by another 10,000, extending a decline that has now erased more than 300,000 positions since October of 2024.

The number of people facing what the BLS terms “long-term unemployment” — meaning those jobless 27 weeks or more — has climbed by 400,000, to 1.9 million from 1.5 million a year ago. This alone suggests that those who lose jobs struggle to find new ones.

The fresh BLS report likewise revealed greater weakness in recent months, as revisions to previous data were announced. December's payroll number was revised from a gain of 48,000 to a loss of 17,000, meaning that month was actually a job-losing period that we are only learning about now.

This pattern of downward revision has become a recurring feature of recent labor market data. Ditto the gap between headline numbers and the underlying picture in white-collar employment. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4bewD6R

‌Seventh US service member killed in Iran war is identified as Army sergeant A US soldier died after sustaining injuries during an attack last week in Saudi Arabia, the military said, bringing the number of American troops killed in the Iran war to seven.

The military on Monday identified the service member as Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky. Pennington, who was injured at Prince Sultan Air Base, was assigned to 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, a unit within Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

“Last night, a U.S. service member passed away from injuries received during the Iranian regime’s initial attacks across the Middle East,” US Central Command said Sunday on X. “The service member was seriously wounded at the scene of an attack on U.S. troops in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on March 1.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4dbHr88

‌Monopoly Round-Up: Will the Iran Price Shock Break the World? Lots of monopoly news, as usual. Five Senators introduced legislation to break up the big meatpackers, Ticketmaster faced heat as its business practices were put on the stand in front of a jury, there was a terrible jobs report, and Hollywood is having trouble opposing the Paramount-Warner deal, though it may fall apart because of financing woes.

Before getting to the full round-up, I want to do some analysis of the economic effects of the current conflict in the Middle East. Because that’s obviously the biggest news story going on. - BIG https://bit.ly/4d9aZ6n

‌Justice Department and Live Nation reach settlement over illegal monopoly case The Justice Department said Monday it has tentatively settled its antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation Entertainment, striking a deal to ultimately lower ticket prices for consumers and end an illegal monopoly over live events in America.

But some states signaled they won’t join the deal and will continue an ongoing trial.

After the Justice Department announced an agreement that ends its participation in the Manhattan federal court trial, Judge Arun Subramanian called it “entirely unacceptable” that nobody told him about it until late Sunday after a term sheet outlining the deal was signed Thursday. - AP https://bit.ly/4ulremY

‌Karoline Leavitt doesn’t rule out a draft. How about the answer is NO DRAFT AND NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND because we campaigned on NO MORE FOREIGN WARS OR REGIME CHANGE!!!

Liars every single one of them!

Not my son, over my dead body!!!!! - Marjorie Taylor Green on X https://bit.ly/4sv8pvT

‌Anthropic sues the Trump administration after it was designated a supply chain risk Anthropic is suing the Department of Defense and other federal agencies on Monday over the Trump administration’s decision to label the AI company a “supply chain risk.”

The lawsuit is the latest development in an ongoing standoff between the Pentagon and one of world’s most prominent AI companies as the White House attempts to boost AI adoption in the government.

The supply chain risk designation is usually given to firms associated with foreign adversaries, and it impacts how Anthropic can do business with companies working with the Defense Department. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ljPD8x

‌After slashing federal jobs, Trump administration ramps up hiring A year after Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency allies purged hundreds of thousands of federal employees, the Trump administration is ramping up hiring — a reversal that reflects a quiet retreat from one of the president’s defining early priorities and marks a new phase in efforts to reshape the bureaucracy in his image. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3Nf1OqD

‌Israeli officials are growing concerned A few senior officials in Israel are starting to voice concern about the escalating, open-ended attack on Iran — and suggesting possible exit ramps that might halt the war before it further damages the region and the global economy. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4lgJIky

‌Trump officials are using this new tactic to detain immigrants Jose Avendano tried explaining to the immigration officer yanking him out of his car that he had permission to be in the United States. The 62-year-old dishwasher had fled El Salvador decades ago and had a valid work permit and one of the few temporary statuses offering protection from deportation that the Trump administration wasn’t revoking. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4b2HVw0

‌Anthropic sues US government, with good reason Earlier in the week, a coalition of tech industry groups, including TechNet, Business Software Alliance, and the Software Information Industry Association, urged the Trump administration to reconsider the designation, arguing in a letter that singling out an American company as an adversary rather than an asset would have a chilling effect on US innovation. The groups represent major technology companies including Apple, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, IBM, Salesforce, and Oracle. Another coalition of high-profile technologists and former national security advisers sent a similar letter to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, warning that "the use of this authority against a domestic American company is a profound departure from its intended purpose." The letter demanded that Congress establish clear policies on the use of Al for domestic surveillance and autonomous lethal weapons systems. Signatories included former CIA director Michael Hayden, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, former Andreessen Horowitz partner John O'Farrell, former undersecretary of the Army Brad Carson, and several former or retired militarv admirals. - Gary Marcus https://bit.ly/4bi6XpU

Week Fifty-Nine: March 9 - March 15

Everyone Sees It But Us

On January 30, 2026, the United States Department of Justice released three million pages of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. It was the largest document release in the history of American sex trafficking cases. Hidden cameras. Cloned hard drives. Storage units. Flight logs. Names.

Every country that read them did something. Except one. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/40ixFK1

Trump's war spikes gas prices—and gets Iran a worse leader

Seven American service members are dead, dozens of Iranian children were murdered by a U.S. missile strike, oil is raining from the skies to poison the air for thousands of people living in Iran following an Israeli missile strike, and oil and gas prices worldwide are surging as the war has led to the blockade of a critical waterway used to transport oil.

But hey, at least we have a new Iranian leader who is in some ways worse than the murderous oppressor whom the United States killed a little over a week ago! - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4rY5X17

A draft for Trump's Iran war? White House says it's 'on the table.'

A ground invasion of Iran and a possible military draft are controversial issues that remain “on the table” according to an interview with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt that aired on Sunday. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/40V70Db

No one is illegal—except for Kari Lake

There’s a lot of bleak stuff out there right now, but here’s a bright spot: Kari Lake is out of her job at the Voice of America. But more than that, her destruction of the venerable institution was also reversed.

In a little Saturday news drop, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Lake was never eligible to be the acting chief executive officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent company. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4luXr7t

War With Iran Becomes World’s Latest Economic Hazard

Fuel prices could soar, and stay elevated for months. That could make groceries and other shipped goods more expensive. And consumers and businesses, stung by the rising costs, could choose to spend less, constraining economic growth.

In the eyes of economists, that is the increasingly real and dire picture from the U.S.-led war with Iran, now in its second week. It may be a conflict of President Trump’s making, but it is becoming the world’s latest economic headache, one that has sent foreign leaders scrambling for ways to contain the possible fallout. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sDoWhv

Fragments of U.S.-Made Missile Seen in Photos Taken by Iran Near Deadly School Strike

Mangled missile fragments purporting to be from the deadly strikes that hit a naval base and elementary school in southern Iran on Feb. 28 bear the markings of an American cruise missile, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

Photos of the fragments were posted to Telegram by Iran’s state broadcaster and were characterized as showing “the remains of the American missile that landed on the children of Minab school.”

The debris is displayed on a table near the shell of the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, most of which was destroyed in a precision strike, according to an earlier analysis by The Times. At least 175 people, most of them children, were reportedly killed. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sHcvRX

Trump Again Suggests Without Evidence That Iran Struck Elementary School

President Trump on Monday continued to suggest without evidence that Iran bombed an elementary school in the southern part of the country on the first day of the war, killing 175 of its own citizens, many of them children.

Video evidence verified by The New York Times shows a Tomahawk cruise missile striking a naval base beside the school in the town of Minab on Feb. 28.

Tomahawk missiles were developed by the United States and are being used by its forces in the current conflict; the United States has not sold that weapon to Iran. Only two U.S. allies are known to have Tomahawk missiles, and they did not carry out strikes on Feb. 28. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cyTZ9v

Trump Threatens to Crowd Out Republicans’ Midterm Message

House Republicans flocked to President Trump’s golf club near Miami on Monday for their annual policy retreat, seeking to carve out a legislative agenda that could blunt the strong headwinds they are facing in the midterm elections.

But that effort was unfolding in the shadow of an unusual challenge: their own president, who stood before them and renewed his threat to hold those efforts hostage by refusing to sign any legislation until Congress passes strict voting restrictions, undercutting their political message. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4szX3qD

U.S. Solar Installations Fell in 2025 as Trump Attacked Clean Energy

Solar power installations declined in the United States last year, as the Trump administration sought to impede the growth of renewable energy, according to an industry report released on Tuesday.

Solar energy maintained its position as the largest source of new electricity generation added to the electric grid, but the amount added was 14 percent lower than in 2024, according to the report and data published by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rnuhbS

In Scathing Ruling, Judge Says 3 Trump Prosecutors Are in Unlawful Roles

A judge on Monday declared the three-person leadership team of the New Jersey federal prosecutor’s office to be unlawful and said President Trump’s insistence on handpicking U.S. attorneys showed that the White House cared more about personal control than public safety.

The judge, Matthew W. Brann, was ruling on whether the three prosecutors who have led the New Jersey office since December were doing so lawfully. He also addressed the national trend in which the Justice Department fires judicially appointed prosecutors as soon as they take office.

Using italics that demonstrated the heightened tenor of his ruling, he wrote that the Trump administration had shown through its statements and actions that it cared far more about who was running the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office “than whether it is running at all.”

Judge Brann pointedly said that the president’s continued reliance on unlawful mechanisms to appoint top federal prosecutors meant that “scores of dangerous criminals could have their cases dismissed or convictions eventually reversed.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rr8AaX

Trump Has No Idea How to End the War With Iran

My guess is that this regime will break only from the top, which will be a process that will start only after there is a cease-fire.

The best that the Trump-Netanyahu bombs-away strategy can do is start that process; just tilting Iran onto a better track where it is less of a threat to its own people and neighbors would be a significant achievement. The worst the strategy can do is so devastate Iran with endless aerial bombardments that it becomes ungovernable for anyone. That would be a disaster of incalculable proportions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rti2dL

A Resistance Is Deepening in Iran

After shifting among different explanations for waging war on Iran, the Trump administration appears to have settled on the goal of regime change. Its strategy seems to be to first turn Iran into a failed state — or, as President Trump has put it, “go in and clean out everything.” At the end of all this, he said, he wants Iran to have good leaders. And he wants to decide who they should be.

What’s capturing the president’s imagination as a model for Iran seems to be not the U.S.-imposed change of leadership in Venezuela but the one in Syria. Perhaps he is envisaging skipping over Syria’s long civil war to get straight to state collapse and an Iranian version of Ahmed al-Shara, the onetime leader of a Qaeda-allied group who metamorphosed into Syria’s America-friendly president.

But Iran is not about to surrender to Mr. Trump’s plans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46NoRzp

Letters from an American - March 9, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

It has become clear that Trump had no plan in Iran other than to strike it, knock out the leaders he didn’t like, and hope the Iranian people would rise up and put in place new leaders he could deal with. It was supposed to look like what happened in Venezuela in January, when U.S. forces launched a surprise military strike that enabled them to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, leaving in his place the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who promises to work with Trump and has given him access to the country’s oil resources.

Andrew Egger of The Bulwark explains that the Trump administration didn’t bother to have a theory for why the U.S. was going to war with Iran, or to explain to the American people why such a war would be a good thing, because they didn’t think there was going to be a war, just a fast, hard strike that would enable the U.S. to put a new Iranian leader in place. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4b73cor

Americans are Now a Target in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

A WSJ investigation tracked the U.S. citizens caught in the crosshairs of an aggressive government campaign to detain and demonize dissenters

After he and other federal agents arrived at the jail, they spotted 44-year-old Sidney Lori Reid, who was recording them on her phone. Reid moved for a clearer view, and an agent grabbed her. He pinned Reid to a wall while a man was escorted from the jail to a government vehicle.

Reid was one of the targets in an aggressive public-relations tactic in the Trump administration’s war on illegal immigration, an enforcement campaign praised for record-low southern border crossings but widely criticized for its treatment of U.S. citizens.

Protesters, observers and passersby taken into custody by federal agents were declared terrorists and attackers in hundreds of social-media posts by U.S. officials and departments since the start of the immigration sweeps in cities. This includes Minneapolis, where two citizens were excoriated by officials after they were killed by federal agents in January.

The Wall Street Journal found that the Department of Homeland Security, created in 2002 to protect Americans, has turned its force against citizens. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4sbilLw

ICE Detention of Teen Musicians Roils Texas Mariachi Community

Last June, two teenage brothers from South Texas and their high school mariachi bandmates traveled to Capitol Hill. They had been invited there by their congresswoman, Monica De La Cruz. She was going to recognize the band on the House floor for winning a state mariachi competition.

“Your community is so so proud of your hard work, your talent and your dedication,” Ms. De La Cruz, a Republican, told the students.

Nine months later, the brothers, Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, along with their parents and younger brother, are in ICE detention and facing deportation.

The family’s detainment has drawn concern and criticism from Texas lawmakers, who have raised questions about the kinds of people the Trump administration is targeting in its mass deportation campaign. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rwGD1g

Attempted suicides, fights, pain: 911 calls reveal misery at ICE’s largest detention facility

The calls to 911 poured in from staff at Camp East Montana in Texas, the nation’s largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, at a rate of nearly one a day for five months, each its own tale of pain and despair.

A man sobs after being assaulted by another detainee. Another bangs his head against the wall after expressing suicidal thoughts. A pregnant woman complained of severe back pain and also had coronavirus.

“Every day felt like a week. Every week felt like a month. Every month felt like a year,” said Owen Ramsingh, a former property manager in Columbia, Missouri, who spent several weeks in the camp before his deportation in February to the Netherlands. “Camp East Montana was 1,000% worse than a prison.” - AP https://bit.ly/4bhCpV7

Fox News apologizes for showing old video of a hatless Donald Trump at a dignified transfer ceremony

Fox News apologized for airing old video of a hatless President Donald Trump during coverage Sunday of his attendance at the dignified transfer ceremony for U.S. soldiers killed in the Middle East war, insisting it was an honest mistake.

In a polarized time, some online critics suggested without evidence that it wasn’t an error — that the network was trying to make Trump look better by not showing him wearing a baseball cap during what is considered one of the most solemn duties of a commander in chief. The return of the bodies of six soldiers took place Saturday at Dover Air Force Base.

But Fox News said archival footage of Trump at an earlier ceremony was inadvertently pulled up by a staff member and used on two Sunday morning telecasts. A spokeswoman noted the correct footage was used at other times, including on Saturday.

“We regret the error and apologize for the incorrect footage,” Fox said in a statement. - AP https://bit.ly/3P4qX80

Trump bought Netflix and Warner Bros bonds at height of bidding war with Paramount

U.S. President Donald Trump bought more than $1.1 million of Netflix bonds over the last three months as the streaming giant unsuccessfully fought Paramount Skydance to buy Warner Bros Discovery, according to ‌government disclosures.

Trump bought more than $500,000 of Netflix's bonds in two transactions on December 12 and December 16 and another more than $600,000 ‌across two more trades on January 2 and 20, the disclosures show. The White House disclosed a range, rather than exact amounts, of between just over $1.1 million and $2.25 million. - Reiters / Yahoo https://yhoo.it/3NA5HGH

GOP restrainers say Trump abandoned them

First, conservatives opposed to military intervention overseas put their trust in President Donald Trump as he swept back into power.

Then, the faction in his inner circle that backed the administration’s “peace through strength” motto looked to Vice President JD Vance and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth as their champions.

Now, as all three men are supporting the war in Iran, the pro-restraint wing of the Republican Party is searching for fresh leadership.

The fissure within Trump’s foreign policy community, described by seven White House allies, threatens to splinter a key element of the administration — particularly as it faces pressure to execute the Iran war while keeping American troops from entering the country. - Politico https://politi.co/4rpghOD

Iran begins laying mines in Strait of Hormuz, sources say

Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy chokepoint that carries about one-fifth of all crude oil, according to two people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue.

The mining is not extensive yet, with a few dozen having been laid in recent days, the sources said. But Iran still retains upward of 80% to 90% of its small boats and mine layers, one of the sources said, so its forces could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which now effectively controls the strait along with Iran’s traditional navy, has the capability to deploy a “gauntlet” of dispersed mine-laying craft, explosive-laden boats and shore-based missile batteries, CNN has reported. - CNN https://cnn.it/4b5Im8W

Trump Can’t Decide Whether the Iran War Is Still Going On

The Trump administration can’t say why the United States went to war with Iran, and it can’t say what the goal of the war is. Now it can’t even decide whether the war is still going on.

During an interview with CBS News yesterday afternoon, President Trump all but declared victory. “I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” he said.

This statement is so self-contradictory and confusing that one might be tempted to write it off as just riffing, except that he reiterated it at a press conference later in the day. “We’re achieving major strides toward completing our military objective, and some people could say they’re pretty well complete,” he said, apparently referring to himself. All that was missing to complete the parallel to the Iraq War was a flight suit, an aircraft carrier, and a Mission Accomplished banner. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4uw1wws

Six Days of War, 10 Rationales

The administration has laid out a buffet of reasons for Operation Epic Fury—take your pick.

The U.S. Built a Blueprint to Avoid Civilian War Casualties. Trump Officials Scrapped It.

Images from the missile strike in southern Iran were more horrifying than any of the case studies Air Force combat veteran Wes J. Bryant had pored over in his mission to overhaul how the U.S. military safeguards civilian life.

Parents wept over their children’s bodies. Crushed desks and blood-stained backpacks poked through the rubble. The death toll from the attack on an elementary school in Minab climbed past 165, most of them under age 12, with nearly 100 others wounded, according to Iranian health officials. Photos of small coffins and rows of fresh graves went viral, a devastating emblem of Day 1 in the open-ended U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/46RH52Q

Trump contradicts himself on Iran repeatedly in just a few hours

President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the war with Iran has been confusing and contradictory since well before the first strikes began.

But on Monday he managed to say some very different things about the same subjects in the span of just a few hours. - CNN https://cnn.it/4bE9UCl

‘A shell of our former self’: How Trump and Musk’s spending cuts are hampering US government readiness amid the Iran war

President Donald Trump began his second term with a promise to cut “billions and billions of dollars” in government spending, empowering Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate programs and fire workers it deemed wasteful.

One year later, cuts to programs and personnel at federal agencies that had been declared unneeded mere months ago have hampered the US government’s abilities to prepare for domestic emergencies; monitor terror threats; guard against cyber-attacks; broadcast US information into Iran; and quickly help US citizens stranded abroad, current and former government officials told CNN. - CNN https://cnn.it/3P6agJp

Mariachi-playing brothers and their parents are released from ICE custody

Two promising young mariachi musicians and their parents, who were being held in ICE detention for nearly two weeks after they were detained by the Department of Homeland Security in Texas, have been released, according to an X post from US Rep. Joaquin Castro, who met two of the brothers during their trip to Capitol Hill last year.

Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, and Joshua Gámez-Cuéllar, 12, had been held with their parents at the South Texas Family Residential Center, a facility in Dilley.

Their brother, Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, was also released after being held at a separate facility in Raymondville, Texas. He appeared at a news conference Monday with US Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Texas Republican, outside the facility. - CNN https://cnn.it/3OXNCTx

US Tomahawk struck Iranian base next to school destroyed in deadly attack, video appears to confirm

Footage has emerged that appears to show a US missile targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base adjacent to the school where Iranian state media say scores of children were killed.

A new video, posted on Mehr News, a semi-official Iranian news agency, is the first to show missiles striking the area in Minab, southern Iran, on February 28.

The footage, which was filmed from a nearby construction site, shows a munition that experts said is consistent with an American BGM or UGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) striking a location inside the IRGC base. - CNN https://cnn.it/4cFtmzN

CNN poll: 59% of Americans disapprove of Iran strikes and most think a long-term conflict is likely

Nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of the US decision to take military action in Iran, as most say a long-term military conflict between the two nations is likely, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

The poll, fielded shortly after US and Israeli attacks launched the war with Iran, finds majorities express doubts about President Donald Trump’s handling of the situation. Most say they lack trust in Trump to make the right decisions about US use of force in Iran, with 60% saying they do not think he has a clear plan for handling the situation and 62% saying he should get congressional approval for any further military action.

Just over a quarter (27%) feel that the US made enough of an effort at diplomacy with Iran before using military force, with 39% saying the US did not try hard enough at diplomacy first and 33% unsure. - CNN https://cnn.it/417ghYN

The End of “Legitimacy." The United States has forfeited its moral high ground.

As far back as I can remember, I always assumed that I was on the side of the good guys. The Cold War meant, at core, democracy against authoritarianism. The wars of the ‘90s were sometimes a bit far-fetched but, in a pinch, they could be construed as demonstrating the reach of American benevolence—willing to launch a bombing campaign for the Kosovar Albanians! The Bush wars of the 2000s were obviously pushing things, but the administration did take the trouble of going to the UN to provide a justification for what it was doing—stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and removing a dictator.

All of that might have been a bit threadbare, but there was an attempt to provide a fig leaf of respectability to the exercise of raw power. With the attack on Iran, that is gone—and likely gone for good. We move from an era of seeing the United States as the “leader of the free world” constraining authoritarianism—and as the broker of a “Pax Americana” protecting the edges of an international order—to seeing the United States simply as a hegemon throwing around the considerable weight it has in competition with other hegemons. A cynic would say that this is always the way it has been—and the cynic would be hard to argue with—but the forms and ceremonies do matter. Once those are gone, it becomes incredibly difficult to legitimate the exercise of power again. The rest of the world will see the future exercise of American power always and only as advancing narrow American geopolitical interests. The moral authority that is needed for coalition-building or for defense of the liberal international order vanishes with unilateral attacks like this one. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4shNqgv

U.S. Says It Struck 16 Iranian Mine-Laying Vessels Near Oil Route

Whether any mines had been laid in the Strait of Hormuz since the war began on Feb. 28 is unclear. The Pentagon said 140 American service members had been wounded, eight severely, in the war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4diut8E

U.S. and Iran Predicted a Very Different War Than the One Now Being Waged

Economic disruption stemming from the conflict is hurting countries worldwide—while providing a windfall to Russia. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4cKYWMv

The G.O.P.’s Latest Voter-Suppression Plan

Ahead of the midterms, Donald Trump is pushing the save America Act, and there are other measures to undermine the electoral system. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4b8dwwv

Trump pushes GOP on voting bill, demanding an end to most mail balloting

President Donald Trump said Monday he won’t sign any other legislation into law until Congress passes a strict proof-of-citizenship voting bill that he says also must end Americans' ability to vote by mail, a startling demand months before the midterm elections.

Trump told House Republicans during their annual retreat at his golf club in Florida that he doesn't think they will win elections unless voting laws are toughened up to prevent fraud — even though mail ballots are popular in many states and federal law already requires that voters in national elections be U.S. citizens, with scant evidence that noncitizens ever try to vote.

The president wants to bolster the so-called SAVE America Act, which the House has already approved, and he pressed the Senate to push past its filibuster rules to send it to his desk. Voting experts have said the bill could disenfranchise some 20 million American voters who don't have birth certificates or other documents readily available, a number that would likely swell with the additional ban on mail balloting that Trump is demanding. - AP / Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4b8tyXb

Extreme Heat Is Making Life Increasingly Unlivable

The number of days where extreme heat makes it too dangerously hot to walk the dog, sweep the porch and engage in other ordinary pursuits has doubled around the world over the past 75 years, according to new research.

Scientists determined that on average, those 65 and older experience a month a year when heat prevents them from routine activities. Parts of Asia, Africa, Australia and North America are becoming unlivable for senior citizens, the researchers said. Younger adults also are losing time as climate-driven heat restricts their lives for 50 hours a year. - Bloomberg https://bloom.bg/4sNpNMR

Letters from an American - March 10, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

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.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3NlClf1

The Biggest, Most Tragic Failure of All

As we reach the 12th day of the war in Iran — with death and destruction rippling throughout the Middle East — it’s important to bear in mind where the real failure of this lies.

So far, at least 2,000 people have been killed, including 175 Iranian schoolchildren, and seven American service members. At least 140 U.S. service members have been wounded, several critically. The final tallies on both sides will almost certainly be far higher.

Soaring oil and gas prices in the U.S. are inevitably hitting the poor and working class much harder than the affluent.

We’re spending huge resources on this war — so far, roughly $1 billion per day, or $41,666,667 per hour, $11,574 per second.

These are resources that could be better spent improving the lives of the American people. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4s7q8d4

It’s Not Just Oil. The Iran War Is Disrupting Many Essential Goods.

The disruption to global commodity prices from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is spreading far beyond energy markets.

From basic plastics and fertilizer made in Saudi Arabia and Oman to sugar from Brazil and helium from Qatar, the conflict has affected the price, supply or production of a variety of commodities that are essential to the global economy.

How severe the disruption becomes will depend largely on how long the conflict drags on. A cease-fire could allow shipping lanes, airports and factories across the world to reopen, easing the strain.

But the outlook is uncertain. President Trump has sent mixed messages on whether the United States will de-escalate the situation, and Iran’s leaders have said they are prepared to continue counterattacks on American allies and threaten shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NbySzP

It’s Trump’s War. We’re Stuck With the Bill.

Nobody knows what the human or strategic costs of President Trump’s war against Iran will be, but the hard dollar costs are mounting by the day.

A week ago, U.S. Central Command said that more than 50,000 troops, bombers, 200 fighter aircraft and two aircraft carriers are participating in Operation Epic Fury. Our military is burning through munitions, striking thousands of targets and using hundreds of sophisticated — and expensive — defense interceptors and missiles. Last week, three American F-15s were downed over Kuwait in an apparent friendly fire incident. The aircrews were OK, but the aircraft would take at least $300 million to replace.

Elaine McCusker, a top Pentagon official during the first Trump administration, told me she estimates that by the end of its sixth day, the war’s cost exceeded $11 billion, including more than $5 billion worth of interceptors. To replenish its arsenal, the Pentagon is expected to ask Congress for an additional $50 billion. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump wants to add $600 billion to the Pentagon’s annual budget, for a whopping $1.5 trillion in the next fiscal year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sj0rWY

Latin Americans Already Have a Serious Partner — and It’s Not Trump

On Saturday, President Trump met with leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean for the so-called Shield of the Americas Summit in Florida. The meeting, which largely centered on the fight against organized crime, was another high-profile attempt by the Trump administration to claim geopolitical primacy in the Western Hemisphere — a goal that made the top of last year’s National Security Strategy and has been referred to as the Donroe Doctrine.

But the event did little more than reveal the limits of Mr. Trump’s regional strategy. The meeting had a deep bench of Mr. Trump’s Latin American allies, like Argentina’s Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele. But the leaders of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia — which together account for more than half of the region’s G.D.P. — were conspicuously absent. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dka5Ed

Exclusive: Russia is giving Iran specific advice on drone tactics, Western intelligence source says

Russia is helping Iran with advanced drone tactics from its war in Ukraine to hit US and Gulf nation targets in the Middle East, according to a Western intelligence official.

Shahed drones, designed by Iran but mass produced by Moscow for use in Ukraine, have been unexpectedly successful in penetrating the air defenses of Gulf nations. Russian intelligence sharing with Iran has until now been reported as general assistance with targeting, but specific tactical advice is a new level of support. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rs7wmU

Pentagon bars press photographers over ‘unflattering’ Hegseth photos

The Defense Department has barred press photographers from briefings on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military conflict with Iran after they published photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that his staff deemed “unflattering,” according to two people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4s8OWBG

Even now, America can’t rally. What has Trump done?

These are supposed to be the most American of days. The United States had a historic showing at the Winter Olympics. This year is the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. And we are at war. In normal times, each would summon national pride and unity. But they’re happening together — the rally-around-the-flag effect should be supercharged. - WaPo https://wapo.st/47JSySf

FDA contradicts Trump admin, declines to approve generic drug for autism

In September, the Trump administration took what it called “bold actions” on autism that included touting the generic drug leucovorin as a promising treatment. In a news release, Marty Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, claimed a “growing body of evidence suggests” the drug could be helpful. And at a White House press event, Makary suggested it might help “20, 40, 50 percent of kids with autism.”

“Hundreds of thousands of kids, in my opinion, will benefit,” he said at another point in the event.

The bold claims were apparently persuasive. A study published in The Lancet last week found that new outpatient prescriptions of leucovorin for children ages 5 to 17 shot up 71 percent in the three months after the Trump administration’s actions.

But it became clear today that the rest of the FDA did not share Makary’s and the other administration officials’ view. In an announcement, the regulatory agency said it had approved leucovorin for a rare genetic condition—but not for autism. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4s9DjKP

U.S. at Fault in Strike on School in Iran, Preliminary Inquiry Says

An ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings.

The Feb. 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part, the preliminary investigation found. Officers at U.S. Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, people briefed on the investigation said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3P4e8KW

The Obvious Is Taking Its Revenge on Trump

The reasons other U.S. presidents avoided war with Iran are becoming all too evident.

In the least charitable—and probably accurate—view, President Trump went to war with Iran out of a delusional faith in himself. He believed that the worst-case scenarios that have deterred past presidents from attacking Iran wouldn’t come true for him, because he is Donald Trump.

In the most charitable—and probably accurate—view, the president had reasons to believe that all of the catastrophic warnings about the most hair-raising consequences of an attack wouldn’t come to pass this time. The 12-day war, which Israel and the United States fought last June, demonstrated that they could strike Iran without provoking catastrophic retaliation. Having endured that assault on the country’s military infrastructure, and then wave after wave of protest by its own citizens, the Islamic Republic was isolated and weak. So why shouldn’t Trump exploit that fragility to land a death blow against a murderous adversary? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3NenQd8

Trump’s Assault on Higher Education Has Hit a Snag

Universities and their allies have been able to block many, if not most, of the White House’s moves in court.

Almost immediately after Donald Trump took office for the second time, the White House and the Department of Education launched a shock-and-awe assault against its perceived foes in higher education, announcing a new investigation or seizure of funding seemingly every week. Their targets appeared overwhelmed by the speed and severity of the offensive. By the end of November, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, and Northwestern had all made deals with the administration to stop the onslaught. Harvard was rumored to be close to reaching a deal as well.

But the aggressive pace that won the administration so many early victories eventually proved to be its great weakness. The government could move so quickly only by skipping almost all of the procedural steps required by federal law. Once universities and their allies recovered from their shock and challenged the Trump administration, they were able to block many, if not most, of the White House’s moves in court. Trump has certainly left his mark on America’s universities. But he has not broken them. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bEGmVc

S&P 500 Slumps in Worst Day Since War Began

Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday, prompting a further move lower in the stock market as investors continued to face the implications of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, its potential to spur inflation, and the eventual drag on the global economy.

The S&P 500, the stock benchmark, slumped to its worst single-day performance since the war began. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4brgcEd

Trump Files Missing in Epstein Release Highlight Justice Dept.’s Missteps

In late July, F.B.I. agents exchanged a flurry of early-morning emails about a sensitive task relating to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

An agent listed the names of 14 prominent men, with President Trump at the top, and gave direct instructions: “Take these names and build out new spreadsheet w all the derog on them,” referring to derogatory information found in the Epstein files.

That morning, agents prepared summaries of the “salacious statements” that tipsters and other interviewees had made against Mr. Trump and others. Their rundown on the president consisted of two bullet points. One was an allegation from a woman who said that he sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager. The other was a claim that Mr. Epstein once introduced a woman to Mr. Trump, saying, “This is a good one, huh?” with Mr. Trump replying, “Yes.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sf25cu

Joe Rogan Says Trump’s Supporters Feel ‘Betrayed’ by Iran War

Joe Rogan, the influential podcast host, said on his show Tuesday that the war in Iran was “crazy” and had left Americans feeling “betrayed” by President Trump, describing the conflict as a sharp reversal from the policies that the president had campaigned on.

“It just seems so insane,” said Mr. Rogan, who endorsed Mr. Trump in 2024 and said he still texted with him on occasion. “He ran on no more wars: End these stupid, senseless wars. And then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4b9GkEI

Trump Administration to Announce New Trade Investigations

The Trump administration is expected to announce new trade investigations as soon as Wednesday into what it considers unfair trading practices by other countries, as it works to resurrect a system of tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The investigations will be carried out under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a law that allows the United States to impose tariffs on other countries in response to certain practices. The administration is required to carry out an investigation of the practices and hold consultations with foreign governments before it can impose the import taxes. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bsafah

Here’s One Boast Trump Won’t Be Making Anymore

For President Trump, lower energy prices haven’t been just a nice bit of relief for American consumers. They’ve been a signature bragging right, proof of concept for his administration’s whole approach to the economy and to America’s position in the world, as well as a valuable counterexample to the higher overall costs that his tariffs brought about.

“Nobody can believe when they see the kind of numbers, especially energy,” he said during his recent State of the Union address. “When they see energy going down to numbers like that, they cannot believe it. It’s like another big tax cut.” A few days later, he boasted about those numbers in Corpus Christi, Texas, where Energy Secretary Chris Wright actually pumped gas. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4s2a7VO

Veterans Who Depend on Mental Health Care Keep Losing Their Therapists Under Trump

As Jason Beaman recounts his long slog searching for mental health therapy last year, he sounds defeated.

The first therapist assigned to him by the Department of Veterans Affairs told him at their initial meeting that she was leaving the agency. A few months later, his second therapist told him she was also leaving. An appointment with a third counselor was canceled with no explanation.

These were huge setbacks for the 54-year-old veteran of the Navy and Army Reserve. Nearly a decade ago, a spiral of depression and anxiety left him homeless and living on the streets of Spokane, Washington. A VA social worker threw him a lifeline, helping him apply for benefits, find housing and get into therapy.

He still needs mental health care, he and his physician say. But bouncing from therapist to therapist has left him exhausted. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3P1T3kl

Exclusive: US intelligence says Iran government is not at risk of collapse, say sources

U.S. intelligence indicates that Iran's leadership is still largely intact and is not at risk of collapse any time soon after nearly two weeks of relentless U.S. and Israeli bombardment, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

A "multitude" of intelligence reports provide "consistent analysis that the regime is not in danger" of collapse and "retains control of the Iranian public," ‌said one of the sources, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss U.S. intelligence findings. - Reuters https://reut.rs/4cK7KCo

UN says 3.2 million displaced in Iran; 40+ senators press Hegseth over Iran school bombing; Drone strikes in Sudan kill dozens of civilians

U.S. and Israeli airstrikes pound Iran for thirteenth day. UN: 3.2 million displaced in Iran. Satellite imagery shows new strike damage at Iran’s Taleghan-2 site. U.S. intelligence says Iran’s leadership remains stable. Iran says drones struck Israeli intelligence and missile-defense sites. Iranian officials say ports operating normally. - Drop Site https://bit.ly/4sz6p5O

How Not To Do Regime Change

It is hard to overstate what a complete shambles American foreign policy has become since Donald Trump launched his war against Iran on February 28. Trump clearly believed that the initial decapitation strike would lead to the collapse of the Islamic regime and its replacement by a new leadership willing to work with the United States. He seems to have had Venezuela on his mind as a model, as he referred to it several times during the war’s first week. He and his associates failed to anticipate Iran’s capacity to strike back, as it launched rounds of missiles and drones at U.S. allies and bases in the region, disrupting Gulf economies and raising gasoline prices in the United States.

What is particularly maddening about this is that anyone who has lived through the last quarter century of U.S. Middle East policy should have understood that war would produce multiple unintended and devastating consequences. - Persuausion https://bit.ly/3NlTmWC

Report: RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda curbed as GOP realizes it’s unpopular

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s relentless anti-vaccine agenda is getting reined in as Republicans warn that further attacks on lifesaving vaccines could harm the party during the midterms, according to a report by The Washington Post.

The Post reported Wednesday that Kennedy’s hand-selected committee of vaccine advisors—who share his anti-vaccine views—have abruptly abandoned plans to attack mRNA vaccines in an upcoming meeting.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scheduled to meet March 18–19. While no agenda has been published for the meeting, a Federal Register notice stated that the meeting would include discussion of “COVID-19 vaccine injuries,” and may include a vote to change the CDC’s vaccine recommendations. Sources close to the committee told the Post that Kennedy’s advisors have been looking for ways to remove mRNA COVID-19 vaccines entirely from federal recommendations. And according to clearly stated goals in a meeting of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine allies earlier this week, the long-term goal is to eliminate all childhood vaccine recommendations and remove the shots from the market. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4lsomAW

Iran’s Islamic Republic 2.0 is coming — and it won’t be pretty

Maybe the answer to the gut question “So how does this end?” in Iran is simple: It doesn’t. Not for a long while.

There will probably be some sort of ceasefire, maybe soon. Tanker traffic will resume through the Strait of Hormuz. Bombing by U.S. B-52s and B-2s will stop. Iran and its proxies will refrain from drone attacks across the Persian Gulf. Tehran may haggle over ceasefire conditions, but that won’t matter much because its military power has mostly been destroyed — at least for now. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4sBUGDG

Maybe DOGE Was Just Looking in the Wrong Places

Efficiency, I said that the phrase was a meme with no real substance to it—Trump claimed DOGE would save money in part by weeding out fraudulent uses of social services, an unrealistic strategy based on an exaggerated problem. Politicians invoked the phrase waste, fraud, and abuse because no one could possibly be against those things, but for the same reason, those things would have been eliminated long ago if they were common and easy to spot.

Three recent stories have forced me to wonder if I was just looking in the wrong places. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4buQrTB

How Trump and His Advisers Miscalculated Iran’s Response to War

On Feb. 18, as President Trump weighed whether to launch military attacks on Iran, Chris Wright, the energy secretary, told an interviewer he was not concerned that the looming war might disrupt oil supplies in the Middle East and wreak havoc in energy markets.

Even during the Israeli and U.S. strikes against Iran last June, Mr. Wright said, there had been little disruption in the markets. “Oil prices blipped up and then went back down,” he said. Some of Mr. Trump’s other advisers shared similar views in private, dismissing warnings that — the second time around — Iran might wage economic warfare by closing shipping lanes carrying roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.

The extent of that miscalculation was laid bare in recent days, as Iran threatened to fire at commercial oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic choke point through which all ships must pass on their way out of the Persian Gulf. In response to the Iranian threats, commercial shipping has come to a standstill in the Gulf, oil prices have spiked, and the Trump administration has scrambled to find ways to tamp down an economic crisis that has triggered higher gasoline prices for Americans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4by5cVQ

How Trump’s War With Iran Changed the World in a Week

Since President Trump launched a new war with Iran, he has portrayed it as a shock-and-awe assault with few lasting consequences, especially for Americans. On Monday in Florida, he called it a “brief disruption.”

Experts say it is rapidly becoming something else entirely: a jolt to the global security order and economy that far exceeds those delivered by other recent conflicts in the Middle East.

Mr. Trump’s war, now nearly two weeks old, is already reshaping travel patterns, energy dependencies, living costs, trade routes and strategic partnerships. Countries typically shielded from regional conflict, like Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates, have faced retaliatory Iranian fire. The fallout could disrupt midterm elections in the United States, tilt the war calculus in Ukraine and force China into a major economic pivot.

Those effects may compound if Mr. Trump presses ahead with the war, particularly if Iran escalates its counterattacks and blocks ship traffic through the critical oil passage of the Strait of Hormuz. Some economists are already invoking a dreaded memory for any U.S. president — the specter of oil-shock-induced stagflation, with growth stalling and prices roaring upward. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cIRLo7

With Disputed Legal Maneuver, Trump Tries to Set Policy Without Legislation

By suing Republican states and making sharp reversals in old cases, the Trump administration is using courts to fast-track major shifts in policy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bl5D5v

Trump Removes Sanctions on Russia to Help Oil Flow Amid Iran Conflict

The United States on Thursday temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil that is currently at sea, allowing it to be shipped to buyers around the world as the Trump administration scrambles to contain energy prices that have been soaring because of the war in Iran.

The exemptions, which were issued by the Treasury Department, will be in place until April 11. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent estimated that freeing Russian oil could add hundreds of millions of barrels of crude to global markets, curbing prices that have been hovering near $100 per barrel as a result of the Iran conflict.

The decision was a significant turning point in America’s effort to punish Russia for its war in Ukraine. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rsHekJ

Oil Shock Sends Tremors Through World Economy: ‘This Really Is the Big One’

Bombs are exploding in Iran and the Middle East, but the fallout is rattling households and businesses in neighborhoods all over the globe.

In Kansas, home buyers saw 30-year mortgage rates edge above 6 percent this week. In Western India, families mourning the death of a loved one discovered that gas-fired crematories had been temporarily closed.

In Hanoi, Vietnam, gas station owners posted “sold out” signs. In Kenya, tea growers and traders worried their exports to Iran would rot on the dock. And across the United States, Canada, Europe, Britain and Mexico, farmers blanched at the surge in fertilizer costs.

The widening war in Iran has delivered a stunning punch to a worldwide economy that has already been walloped by a breakdown of the international trading order, war in Ukraine and President Trump’s chaotic policymaking.

“This really is the big one,” David Goldwyn, a former U.S. diplomat and U.S. Energy Department official, said of the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important choke point for oil. It is the emergency scenario everyone feared, he said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4brfDKL

Mortgage Rates Rise as Iran War Ripples Through Financial Markets

Mortgage rates fell below the critical 6 percent threshold just a couple weeks ago. But they’re climbing again as new inflation concerns have roiled financial markets. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Pils5B

Trump Administration Fires New Shot in Fight Over California Clean Car Rules

The Trump administration on Thursday filed a new lawsuit against California over its strict limits on planet-warming pollution from cars, arguing that the restrictions would unlawfully force a rapid transition to electric vehicles in the state.

The suit comes roughly nine months after the Republican-controlled Congress moved to block California from banning sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035. It targets clean car rules that California has continued to enforce even after the congressional action and, if successful, could reverberate far beyond California. Across the country, 17 states representing more than a third of the American automobile market follow California’s lead on clean car standards. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4seNhKT

Stocks sink as oil prices rise and Middle East conflict deepens

U.S. stocks fell sharply Thursday morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 500 points shortly after markets opened, and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq $NDAQ +1.75% each off about 0.7%.

The culprit? Oil prices, rising as the U.S. war against Iran intensifies and appears set to defy the White House’s prediction of a quick and tidy conflict. - Quartz https://bit.ly/47vTGsC

The Fed's favorite inflation gauge was already hot. That was before war sent oil soaring

The Bureau of Economic Analysis on Friday published January's Personal Income and Outlays report — three weeks behind schedule, a casualty of last fall’s record-long government shutdown. But the delay is just a minor footnote once you get a look at the data, which shows that inflation was coming in hot even before the surprise U.S. attack on Iran.

Worse? It’s reasonable to conclude inflation is set to increase from the January numbers. Steeply rising gas prices alone are enough. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3P7Bmjk

'The largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market'

The war in the Middle East is causing "the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market," the International Energy Agency said in its monthly oil market report Thursday.

Crude and oil product flows through the Strait of Hormuz have fallen from roughly 20 million barrels a day before the war to almost zero, the IEA said. With storage filling up and tankers unable or unwilling to load at port, Gulf producers have collectively cut at least 10 million barrels a day of total oil production, including at least 8 million barrels a day of crude and a further 2 million barrels a day of condensates and natural gas liquids. Major production reductions are concentrated in Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4cOwFVu

“A nice little database” of “domestic terrorists”

On January 23, Colleen Fagan stood in a parking lot in Maine and watched federal agents conduct an immigration operation. Fagan, who would tell you with great pride that she is a “lifelong Mainer,” didn’t interfere. She didn’t block anyone. She recorded what she saw — something Americans have an unambiguous constitutional right to do.

A masked man started recording her back. She asked why.

“Cause we have a nice little database,” he sneered. “And now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.” - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4cOwKZi

The Shit Hits the Fan

Three separate developments yesterday rocked Homeland Security, the Pentagon and the White House itself.

First, after Kristi Noem’s disastrous congressional testimony earlier this week—where she not only likely perjured herself but actually pointed the finger at Trump to cover her own ass—her long-expected firing finally arrived.

Second, after Pete Hegseth came under renewed criticism for his callous treatment of dead U.S. service members, the Pentagon must now answer for why it leveled a girls’ school in Iran, killing 175 people, mostly students.

Finally, the White House is sweating the release of three formerly undisclosed FBI Form 302 reports, in which a victim interviewed four times by authorities described how Trump sexually assaulted her when she was a teenage girl. - Status Kuo https://bit.ly/4rvvQnU

All 6 crew members aboard refueling aircraft killed in Iraq crash, US military says

All six crew members aboard a refueling aircraft were killed in a crash in Iraq. US gas prices are at a 22-month high, reaching $3.63 a gallon, due to the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. (Summary) - CNN https://cnn.it/40sZzTJ

Federal judge quashes Justice Department subpoenas of Fed Chair Jerome Powell

The ruling is a major blow to President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized Powell for not lowering interest rates, and an embarrassing setback for the DC US attorney, Jeanine Pirro, who launched the probe. Pirro slammed the opinion in a hastily scheduled news conference Friday, saying she plans to appeal.

US District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg wrote in the new opinion that a “mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning.”

“On the other side of the scale, the Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime; indeed, its justifications are so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual,” Boasberg said. - CNN https://cnn.it/4sKX1wa

The Pentagon’s Lawyers Are Now Under Review

A new Hegseth initiative could consolidate the ranks of JAGs, targeting those who act as legal guardrails.

One of Pete Hegseth’s first actions after taking charge at the Pentagon was to fire top lawyers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force—senior officers who the defense secretary said functioned as “roadblocks” to the president’s orders. The former National Guardsman has a history of hostility toward military lawyers and the legal restraints they impose on the use of military might. They are known as judge advocates general. Hegseth calls them “jagoffs.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4br4Tfq

Trump’s Assault on Higher Education Has Hit a Snag

Universities and their allies have been able to block many, if not most, of the White House’s moves in court.

The Iran War Has Four Stages. We’re in the Second.

Regime change appears a lost cause, so what endgame are the U.S. and Israel pursuing? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40rZmA9

A Police Report About a House Candidate Surprised the White House

A woman’s allegations of rape against a Republican House candidate have put Trump in a bind.

Three days after President Trump announced his “Complete and Total Endorsement” of the Louisiana congressional candidate Blake Miguez, the Republican contender posted a video from outside the West Wing boasting of his close relationship with Trump and his team. “I just got done having some great meetings with the White House,” he told his supporters on February 7.

What he did not say—either publicly or to Trump’s advisers at the time—was that there was a political bombshell about to drop on his campaign for Louisiana’s deep-red Fifth Congressional District. Months earlier, when Miguez was running for the U.S. Senate, a 2007 police report had surfaced that showed that Miguez’s former girlfriend had accused him of rape and other abusive behavior, including locking her in bedrooms, taking away her keys, and holding her down. The Miguez campaign denies the claims. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4uz5tjW

Kennedy Center’s President Is Leaving After Tumultuous Year

Richard Grenell, a close ally of President Trump, is leaving his position as head of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after a tumultuous year that included an exodus of artists and audiences from the Washington cultural institution. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lr9kv0

Pete Hegseth wanted an ‘American Crusade.’ Now he’s leading a war in the Middle East

In the war the US launched on the Islamic Republic, the US secretary of war, as he prefers to be called, likes to talk about how the Christian God is on his side.

During an interview with CBS News that aired Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran should not doubt US resolve because it is backed by the higher power.

“Our capabilities are better. Our will is better. Our troops are better. The providence of our almighty God is there protecting those troops, and we’re committed to this mission,” he said. - CNN https://cnn.it/4sFzqwJ

The US economy grew just 0.7% last quarter, ahead of a potentially destabilizing war with Iran

The US economy was on shaky footing even before President Donald Trump plunged the United States into a war with Iran, a battery of new data released Friday showed.

At the end of last year, economic growth was anemic, the Commerce Department said Friday, dragged down by the historic government shutdown. Economists widely expect most of those losses to be recouped in the current quarter stretching from January through March.

But America still has an inflation problem, according to January figures released Friday — one that will likely worsen if the Iran war continues to disrupt global energy markets. Consumers are already taking notice of higher prices at the pump, set to weigh on America’s already-weak economic mood.

The crosscurrent of intensifying price pressures and ongoing fragility in the labor market puts Federal Reserve policymakers in a difficult spot as they’re set to convene in just a few days to set interest rates. - CNN https://cnn.it/40w5U0I

Exclusive: ‘Rescuers were flying blind’: Inside the crucial $200,000 contract Kristi Noem’s team let lapse

As deadly tornadoes tore through the Midwest and Plains last weekend, state and local search-and-rescue crews rushed to the devastated areas to look for survivors. It wasn’t until the teams deployed that they realized they were operating without a critical tornado-tracking tool typically provided by FEMA.

That left responders with a less precise picture of where to search first, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN.

The mapping tool pinpoints a tornado’s path of destruction within minutes of touchdown, helping responders focus on the hardest-hit neighborhoods as quickly as possible. Even in storms where FEMA itself doesn’t respond, state and local rescuers rely on the mapping tool, which is provided to them through the agency.

But it wasn’t available this time, because FEMA’s roughly $200,000 contract with the company that provides the data expired in February, and the agency’s request to renew it is still moving through Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s strict spending-approval process, according to the two sources and internal documents reviewed by CNN.

“Rescuers were flying blind, having to drive around or use news reports to figure out where the impacts were,” one of the sources told CNN. “And when a tornado hits in the middle of the night, every moment counts.” - CNN https://cnn.it/47yNno9

Trump administration underestimated Iran war’s impact on Strait of Hormuz

The Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump’s national security team failed to fully account for the potential consequences of what some officials have described as a worst-case scenario now facing the administration, the sources said. - CNN https://cnn.it/4scNApu

A Test for Trump’s Most Faithful

Some Republicans are indeed openly upset about the war. Marjorie Taylor Greene, famous for her early association with Trump and her more recent split from MAGA, has called supporters of the Iran war “blood thirsty maniacs.” Tucker Carlson, a consistent critic of foreign intervention, has now devoted multiple episodes of his show to critiquing the conflict. And Megyn Kelly, another right-wing media personality who split off from the Fox contingent, said last week that “no one should have to die for a foreign country.” Even America’s most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan—who endorsed Trump in 2024 but has said that he doesn’t identify with either political party—described the war as “insane” in the context of the president’s campaign promises.

But these public instances of anger have not actually swayed Trump’s base. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4uvLTVs

The Biggest Myth About Trump’s Base (And Why Many Believe It)

To judge by recent accounts, Donald Trump’s intervention in Venezuela has imperiled his standing among his own supporters. Traditional-media outlets have warned of a MAGA schism, as have some high-profile right-wing influencers. “President Trump seized control of the Republican Party on an anti-interventionist ‘America First’ platform,” The New York Times reported on January 4, but his removal of Venezuela’s leader “threatened to open a new rift within the political movement he has built.” The former Trump strategist Steve Bannon told the paper that the president’s messaging “on a potential occupation has the base bewildered, if not angry.” Two months before the U.S. military captured Nicolás Maduro, the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson warned against American intervention and suggested that efforts to oust the Venezuelan dictator were part of—I am not making this up—a “globohomo” conspiracy to bring gay marriage to the country.

The theory of a MAGA rupture over Venezuela has a certain surface plausibility. It’s also completely contradicted by what masses of Trump’s backers are telling pollsters. Two days after the Maduro operation, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 65 percent of Republicans supported it, compared with just 6 percent who didn’t. Another poll, by The Washington Post, pegged that support at 74 percent. And a subsequent YouGov/CBS survey recorded even more striking results: 89 percent of Republicans backed Maduro’s ouster, and for self-described “MAGA Republicans,” the number was 97 percent—a level of enthusiasm that would make even the election-rigging Maduro blush. Days after the Times quoted Bannon fretting about the GOP base’s alleged upset over Venezuela, the paper spoke to its own yearlong panel of Trump backers and reported, with characteristic understatement, that such “skepticism may not be shared by many rank-and-file Republican voters.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4uvM03k

Judge Smacks Down Trump’s Investigation Into Jerome Powell

A federal judge has quashed the Justice Department’s subpoenas directed at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

In a scathing 27-page opinion, Judge James Boasberg said Friday that the government has produced “essentially zero evidence” to substantiate its criminal case against Powell. - New Republic https://bit.ly/413XkWW

Anti-Semitism Is Becoming Mainstream

Hypocrisy is not an altogether bad thing. So long as our society has hypocrites, we have not totally lost our moral bearings. The hypocrite pretends to be good because the hypocrite believes that society admires good and condemns wrong. It’s time to worry when the hypocrite disappears—because that is the moment when wrongdoing has acquired impunity. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sKZ9UG

A new low: Trump team says First Amendment doesn't apply to journalism

As part of ongoing court proceedings between the Times and the Pentagon, the administration argued that the Washington Post’s web-based request for news tips goes over the line by asking readers to “help us report on the Pentagon” and requesting information related to “changes within the Pentagon and throughout the U.S. military.”

The Trump administration has imposed a host of extremist policies throughout the armed services, including banning transgender troops, erasing history, and even ordering Scouting America to embrace bigotry.

It’s a basic tenet of journalism to solicit information, which can then be investigated and possibly turned into a news report.

The opposition to the Post’s tip request is even more glaring because the Pentagon made clear in November that it’s fine when a pro-Trump figure makes a similar request. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4djkKPt

Hegseth confesses plan to turn CNN into MAGA propaganda

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth admitted Friday that the Trump administration is looking forward to Trump ally David Ellison taking over CNN’s parent company, Warner Discovery, because the network’s news content will be more friendly to the administration. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4bkgcHv

Judge Quashes Justice Dept.’s Subpoenas of Fed, Crippling Its Pursuit of Trump’s Rivals ‌

A federal judge in Washington threw a major roadblock into a criminal investigation of Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, quashing grand jury subpoenas issued to the central bank by federal prosecutors over renovations underway at its headquarters in Washington.

In a blistering 27-page decision unsealed on Friday, the judge, James E. Boasberg, derided the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington for pursuing a case against Mr. Powell, delivering a serious setback to President Trump in his effort to use the criminal justice system to punish political foes or pursue his agenda. Mr. Powell has long resisted calls from the White House to significantly lower borrowing costs, prompting a litany of attacks that has also included an effort by the president to fire another top official, Lisa D. Cook.

“There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the president or to resign and make way for a Fed chair who will,” Judge Boasberg wrote.

He continued, “On the other side of the scale, the government has offered no evidence whatsoever that Powell committed any crime other than displeasing the president.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ltF2rN

Jared Kushner Solicits Funds for His Firm While Working as Mideast Envoy

Jared Kushner, one of the U.S. government’s chief negotiators in the Middle East, is trying to raise more money for his private equity firm from governments in the region.

Mr. Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, has spoken with potential investors in recent weeks about raising $5 billion or more for Affinity Partners, his investment firm, according to five people with knowledge of the talks who were not permitted to speak publicly about the discussions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/416s6hW

The Trump Administration Floats a New Way to Humiliate the Legal Profession

For presidents, broadly speaking, lying is not against the law. For lawyers pursuing a president’s agenda, however, it’s a very different story.

Like all other lawyers licensed to practice in the United States, if they violate legal ethics rules, they can face sanctions in court or professional discipline, up to and including the permanent loss of their license to practice. Efforts to overturn the 2020 election foundered in court more than 60 times, before judges of both parties, in part because lawyers arguing President Trump’s case often feared telling a court the same extravagant lies that he was telling the American people.

That was then. Now, under pressure to ignore a range of ethics rules, a large number of Department of Justice lawyers have quit, opting to lose their jobs but save their careers. Between these departures and a purge of legal staff members seen as insufficiently loyal to the president’s agenda, the department has lost thousands of lawyers. It shows: Briefs are riddled with errors. Lawyers come to court grossly unprepared. Worst, court orders stand violated — in some cases, it seems, because there weren’t enough lawyers available to ensure they were carried out.

To fill those empty seats, the department has begun an increasingly desperate effort to recruit hires. (“Don’t be scared off by the transcript requirement,” a conservative law school reportedly told its students. “G.P.A. is not a strong factor.”) Even so, it seems too few lawyers are willing to take the chance. So the Trump administration last week offered up a different solution: a proposed rule that aims to shield Department of Justice lawyers from independent ethics investigations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/419uC72

Trump Will Destroy Washington if It’s the Last Thing He Does

President Trump’s attempt to hugely expand the White House is lumbering forward. It suffered the tiniest of setbacks when the National Capital Planning Commission decided to postpone a vote on the project to its next meeting, on April 2. But it is highly unlikely that the commission, which has been stocked with Trump appointees, will not ultimately sign off on this enormous, banal box in a vaguely classical style that, if it goes forward, will overwhelm the White House and block the view between the White House and the Capitol that has been one of Washington’s signature vistas for more than two centuries. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47KMfOh

Trump faces a ‘personal Vietnam’ in Iran

Donald Trump is lost in his fog of war. He compounds confusion with improvised fabrications as his naive expectation of a lightning victory has been sunk in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, he felt certain, would easily follow the “perfect scenario” of Venezuela, accede to naming a leader who would instantly do his bidding, and there would be no disruption of the oil markets – “a strong game plan”, stated Karoline Leavitt, his White House press secretary, who defends each of his changeable excuses with equal ferocity.

There may be few if any facts underlying the delusions upon which Trump constructs his vapid explanations and evanescent strategies. The belief that coherent sense can be made out of Trump’s shuffling words is a weakness of the rational mind that refuses to accept the impulses of the inveterate demagogue for what they are. Searching for reason in the jungle of Trump’s tales may compel hopelessly sensible people to superimpose logic where there is none in order to satisfy the need for some semblance of soundness.

Trump’s erratic efforts to reframe his rationale further expose his incompetence and unintelligibility, utterly predictable but now lethal on a global scale. His stream of sputtering remarks has, however, clearly established the ground that should be explored by congressional inquiries into the war’s origins, planning and conduct. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4blD9bN

Fund-raising Email Features Trump at Ritual for Soldiers Killed in Iran War

The email from the group Never Surrender seeks donations for President Trump from those who want access to “private national security briefings” from him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lxRrLp

Is There Method to Trump’s Madness?

On Tuesday, I spoke on a panel about the 1965 Voting Rights Act at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. During the reception after the event, someone asked me what I thought of President Trump’s recent actions at home and abroad. What did I make of his self-destructive decision to launch an unprovoked war in Iran? How did I understand the constant chaos and dysfunction coming out of the White House? In short, was there a method to the apparent madness?

My short answer to my interlocutor was “no,” although I of course said a bit more than that. And my slightly longer answer to you, reader, is “No — there isn’t.” I got at this somewhat in my column this week, but there is no available evidence to support the idea that Trump is capable of thinking beyond the short term. We see this with the war in Iran, where it is clear that Trump expected more or less instant success — a short conflict followed by regime change and another victory under his belt. The idea that there might be unintended consequences — and the fundamental reality that the Iranian government has both agency and the capacity to act — does not seem to have either troubled the president’s mind or figured much in the calculations of his closest advisers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/46XS1fo

The Pete Hegseth Exception

Nearly a year after a national-security scandal erupted on my iPhone, no one in the Trump administration has faced consequences.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice serves as the criminal-justice framework for America’s armed forces. It covers offenses recognized by civilian law as well as crimes and infractions unique to the military, from insubordination to cowardly conduct. The code contains 158 articles; the Manual for Courts-Martial itself runs nearly 1,000 pages. It is an obvious truth that discipline, morale, and order can be maintained in military formations only if everyone—from four-star generals to the youngest “boot” privates—is held equally accountable for their actions. - NYT https://bit.ly/4sLKdpk

‘I Run the Country and the World’

Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bGbrId

The Last Days of the Pentagon Press Corps

The first person I saw when I walked into the Pentagon for the final time was Jimmy. I don’t even know his last name, but I know his story. Before he started work at the labyrinthine headquarters of America’s armed forces, he was a medic with the Marines. For the past 21 years, he has been a building police officer and an unofficial, affable greeter. Jimmy only told me about his military career in 2021, the morning after 13 troops were killed in a suicide bombing at the entrance of the Kabul airport amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Everyone talked about the 11 Marines killed that day, but Jimmy remembered the one Navy corpsman among them, a medic who, like him, had been assigned to travel with the unit, just in case.

For nearly two decades, Jimmy stood guard beside two large mosaics showing the faces of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks. The displays came down during the pandemic, a symbol of a nation that had moved on from the War on Terror and was beginning to focus on new threats. Last month, President Donald Trump told troops that the country’s adversary was “the enemy within.”

Nearly all of the Pentagon press corps is leaving the building this week, barred from working there under restrictions imposed by the Trump administration. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/47KEzeS

Pete Hegseth Delights in Violence

I’ve covered every secretary of defense since Bob Gates, who served George W. Bush and Barack Obama. No Pentagon chief then or since has embraced the jocular yet intimidating rhetoric that Hegseth has employed about the military’s use of violence. At times, uniformed leaders have spouted off in public. Jim Mattis, the retired Marine general whom Trump referred to as “Mad Dog,” made tough-guy quips about how “it’s fun to shoot some people” and the need to “have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” But Mattis turned out to be a check on—rather than an accelerant of—Trump’s most disruptive instincts. Pentagon leaders have almost always publicly couched the military’s use of violence in decorous euphemisms designed to show the solemnity of lethality. Insurgents are “eliminated” or “taken off the battlefield.” Public gloating, in an institution as storied and upright as the U.S. military, is viewed as unseemly.

Not so for Hegseth. His tone and vocabulary regarding the use of force are gleeful, juvenile, and crude. He has posted doctored children’s-book covers that show a turtle named Franklin hanging out of a helicopter, shooting at drug boats. He embraced a phrase that the White House is now touting as Trump’s doctrine for the use of force: fuck around and find out. And he has celebrated lethal strikes on suspected drug traffickers in small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. After the initial strike in September, he told reporters, “I’d say we smoked a drug boat and there’s 11 narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean—and when other people try to do that, they’re gonna meet the same fate.” In November, hours after The Washington Post reported that commanders had killed two survivors of that strike, Hegseth posted, “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.” Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing by the military and has not announced any internal investigations or reviews. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/47u4Lug

The Trump Administration Is Publishing a Stream of Nazi Propaganda

Government social-media managers have transformed official feeds.

The U.S. Labor Department is embracing Nazi slogans and tropes, the Pentagon’s research office is deploying neo-Nazi graphic elements in its social-media feeds, and the Department of Homeland Security recently posted lyrics mimicking a popular song by a band with ties to an ethno-nationalist social club.

The official social-media channels of the Trump administration have become unrelenting streams of xenophobic and Nazi-coded messages and imagery. The leaders of these departments so far refuse to answer questions about their social-media strategies, but the trend is impossible to miss: Across the federal government, officials are advocating for a radical new understanding of the American idea, one rooted not in the vision of the Founders, but in the ideologies of European fascists. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/415bzed

There’s a 92 Percent Chance Trump Is Making It Up

President Donald Trump likes to use a big number to anchor his point, especially when he wanders off on a tangent. Often it seems that a specific figure is on the tip of his tongue.

At this year’s ceremonial turkey pardon, Trump praised a farmer from Wayne County, North Carolina, for raising two “record-setting” birds, but then pivoted to his own electoral margin of victory: “I won that county by 92 percent.” (In fact, he won it by 16 percentage points.) At a McDonald’s corporate event last month, Trump claimed that the United States controls 92 percent of the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico (the Gulf of America, as he calls it). It’s really about 46 percent. Trump won the veterans’ vote, he said on Veterans Day, with “about 92 percent or something,” and in July, he said he won farmers—well, “by 92 percent.” (More accurate estimates of the portion of the electorate he won would be 65 percent of veterans and 78 percent of voters in farming counties, according to exit polls and election data.)

His fixation on the number between 91 and 93 has been a feature for a while. In April, Trump claimed that egg prices had fallen by 92 percent. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics said 12.7 percent.) And at a rally shortly before last November’s election, while railing against journalists and the media, he allowed that “not all of them” are “sick people.” Just “about 92 percent.” That one, admittedly, is difficult to fact-check. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3PE05vC

Pete Hegseth’s Worrisome Press Briefing

If you want to believe the Iran war is going as planned, don’t listen to the defense secretary.

However well or poorly you think the excursion in Iran, as President Trump calls it, is going, you might want to lower your assessment after Pete Hegseth’s press conference today.

The defense secretary, who calls himself the “secretary of war” but might need to change his title to “excursion secretary,” addressed the public after CNN reported that the administration had erroneously assumed that Iran would keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Since the war began, Iran has mined the strait, fired on ships, choked off traffic, and caused the price of oil and other commodities to soar.

Hegseth’s response is that we shouldn’t worry our pretty little heads about a minor body of water. “They are exercising sheer desperation in the straits of Hormuz,” he said. “Something we’re dealing with. We have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/40RAQst

Sunday thought: Who’s Winning from Trump’s War? Follow the Money

Today I want to talk about who’s getting the most out of Trump’s war.

That war is costing the U.S. about $1 billion a day. The Pentagon’s budget is around $1 trillion this year, and Trump wants an additional $500 billion. Because of the war, the cost of oil has topped $100 a barrel, and the price of a gallon of gas at the U.S. pump now averages $3.67 — up from $2.92 before the war.

The strain on the federal budget has given Republicans an excuse to demand further cuts in federal assistance to people in need. JD Vance recently kicked off a “war on waste and fraud” by announcing suspension of Medicaid payments to Minnesota, charging that the program is rife with fraud perpetrated by “bad actors in our society … [who] decide to make themselves rich.”

But if you want to find real waste and fraud, look no further than Pete Hegseth’s “Department of War.” - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4swMbdH

Why Minnesota Matters More Than Iran for America’s Future

The last year has been one of the most depressing of my nearly 50 years as a journalist. It’s not just that I’ve had to watch the Trump administration destroy cherished alliances, like ours with Western Europe and Canada, that have upheld freedom, democracy and global trade since World War II. It’s also been the stunning cowardice and boundless greed with which leaders of big law firms and Big Tech have bent their knees to King Donald and indulged a cabinet of clowns — not one of whom they’d hire in their own businesses.

But then I spent time in my native state, Minnesota, after something else that I’d never seen in nearly 50 years: a spontaneous uprising of civic activism propelled by a single idea — I am my neighbor’s keeper, whoever he or she is and however he or she got here.

It was one of the most courageous battles ever fought by American men and women not in uniform. It was led by moms ready to donate their breast milk to strangers and dads ready to drive someone else’s kids to school because the parents, terrified of ICE agents, were too afraid to go out outdoors. It was neighbors ready to hit A.T.M.s to help out neighborhood restaurants and businesses deciding not to open — thus forgoing their income — for fear that masked ICE agents might drag away their cooks or dishwashers or desk clerks.

And the best part was this: At a time when we have a president so shameless that he insists on putting his name on every public building he can, these good Samaritans of all colors and creeds acted without fanfare. “There were hundreds of leaders of this movement,” Bill George, a longtime Twin Cities business executive, said to me, “and I don’t know a single one of their names.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4748zlN

Letters from an American - March 13, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Despite reports that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence that permits it to target U.S. forces in the Middle East, late last night the Trump administration lifted sanctions on shipments of Russian oil until April 11, permitting it to be sold to buyers around the world for the next month. The U.S., along with the rest of the Group of Seven (G7) nations with advanced economies, has maintained sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has been eager to get those sanctions dropped because oil sales will help the flailing Russian economy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the move is necessary to help ease oil prices, which are skyrocketing because Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the attack by the U.S. and Israel. But German chancellor Friedrich Merz said the heads of the G7 had urged Trump not to ease the sanctions, saying “[t]here is currently a price problem, but not a supply problem.” He added that he “would like to know what additional motives led the US government to make this decision.”

After Trump lifted sanctions on Russian oil that was already in ships, Democrats cried foul. At a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting yesterday, Senator Angus King (I-ME) said: “There is a clear winner in this war. The clear winner is Vladimir Putin and Russia. Estimates released a few hours ago are that Russia has reaped $6 billion of benefit from this war since it began just two weeks ago. That’s about $400 million a day from the increase in oil prices and the easing of sanctions, which is somewhat puzzling to me…. I just think the record should show that the real winner so far is Vladimir Putin to the tune of $6 billion in two weeks.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4bec2kn

Letters from an American - March 15, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Today, as the country enters its third week of war against Iran, President Donald J. Trump was on the golf course, illustrating the observation of journalist E.J. Dionne in the New York Times that “from the very beginning of this war, we got a sense that there wasn’t a great deal of serious thought put into it by the president of the United States about how it might end, what our objectives were, what needed to be done to protect Americans who are in the Middle East, what might happen to oil in the Strait of Hormuz.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4rBbzNZ

Trump’s Stupidest Cabinet Member

At a press briefing on Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth complained about a CNN report that the Trump administration had underestimated Iran’s ability to disrupt global oil traffic by closing the Strait of Hormuz.

“Patently ridiculous,” Hegseth told reporters, adding — even as the strait’s blockage was proving to be Iran’s most powerful leverage in the war — we “don’t need to worry about it.” He also denied that the U.S. bombed the school where some 175 children were killed. Hegseth added that, as to CNN, “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

These remarks are remarkably stupid, on several levels. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4rBbHNt

Trump demands that 'about 7' countries join coalition to police Iran's Strait of Hormuz

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has demanded about seven countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but his appeals have brought no commitments as oil prices soar during the Iran war.

The president declined to name the countries heavily reliant on Middle East crude that the administration is negotiating with to join a coalition to police the waterway where about one-fifth the world’s traded oil normally flows. - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/471JnfI?

Two weeks into war with Iran, Trump has been knocked back on his political heels

He's grown more agitated with news coverage and has failed to find a way to explain why he started the war — or how he will end it — that resonates with a public concerned by American deaths in the conflict, surging oil prices and dropping financial markets. Even some of his supporters are questioning his plan and his overall poll numbers are declining. - AP/ Japan Today https://bit.ly/4rvjo7J?

Entering War’s Third Week, Trump Faces Stark Choices

Two weeks into a war against Iran that he chose to launch, President Trump faces a stark choice — stay in the battle to achieve the dauntingly ambitious goals he has set, or try to extract himself from an expanding and intensifying conflict that is generating damaging military, diplomatic and economic shock waves. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lw7c5t

Oil Holds Above $100 a Barrel as Supply Worries Persist

Oil prices hovered near multiyear highs and stocks were mixed on Monday on persistent concerns that surging energy costs stemming from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran could drive inflation higher across the world. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Pcb9Ab

We Have Reached End-Stage Polarization

Does anyone think a healthy nation with a healthy political culture would elect a man like Donald Trump not once, but twice?

The eternal return of President Trump is a sign of our national sickness, and a recent Pew Research Center study shows us exactly what that sickness is. We despise each other, and demagogues rise when hatred increases. It’s as predictable as night following day. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rvwzWb

The economy limped to the finish line to end 2025

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to a revised estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis — a downward revision of 0.7 percentage point from the agency's earlier reading.

The revised figure came in well below the consensus forecast of 1.5% and marks a steep deceleration from the 4.4% pace recorded in the third quarter, according to CNBC. Growth for the full year 2025 came in at 2.1%, down 0.1 percentage point from the prior estimate and below the 2.8% pace recorded in 2024. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4sTr5pD

Week Sixty: March 16 - March 22

‌Trump Says He Wants to Delay Visit to China Because of Middle East Conflict

President Trump on Monday afternoon said he had asked to postpone a planned visit to Beijing at the end of the month to meet with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, saying: “We’ve got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here.”

Mr. Trump had said on Sunday that he might not make the trip if Beijing did not contribute warships to help escort merchant vessels in and out of the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil route that Iran has largely blockaded. Iran, however, sells oil to China and is allowing Chinese ships to transit the Gulf safely, giving Beijing little incentive to go along with the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rLX7Ty

‌Trump’s Mass-Detention Campaign

Even with Kristi Noem gone, the Administration’s immigration agenda shows no signs of flagging—in fact, it is leading toward a new humanitarian and legal crisis. - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4doEFfU

‌To Address Farm Labor Shortage, Trump Administration Turns to Migrant Workers

The Trump administration has changed the criteria of the H-2A agriculture visa program to increase the influx of foreign workers into a flagging labor supply.Rachel Woolf For The New York Times

As the president’s immigration policies squeeze an already tight supply of farm labor, the Trump administration is making it cheaper to hire foreign farmworkers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PdcpmI

‌FCC Chairman Threatens to Revoke TV Licenses Over Iran Coverage

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is back on the broadcast media’s throat. This time, he is unhappy with the way broadcasters have been covering the war with Iran.

In an X post on Saturday, Carr quote-tweeted a Truth Social post by President Trump in which the president claimed that news coverage of the Iran war was “terrible” and “intentionally misleading” and accused traditional media organizations of actually wanting the U.S. to lose the war. In his own post, Carr threatened to revoke licenses if coverage doesn’t change in a way the Trump administration would approve of. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/40wOhxI

‌Trump lashes out as Iran war spirals out of control

President Donald Trump thought that his regime-change "excursion" in Iran would be quick. Do a little bombing, take out the supreme leader, and have the remaining leaders in Iran come crawling back to him to negotiate a more favorable power structure.

But more than two weeks later, it's clear that Trump badly miscalculated.

Iran fought back. It bombed both the United States’ and its allies' military and oil assets in the Middle East, and it blockaded a critical waterway that transports much of the world's oil supply, thus driving up prices and threatening the global economy.

And Trump is now publicly crashing out, lashing out at United States' allies for refusing his pleas to bail him out, all while he warns the press that it could face consequences if it dares to report factually about the war. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4sl48eY

‌Not even the Pope can tolerate Trump and Vance

Trump has so thoroughly surrounded himself with sycophants that he likely thinks that the gaudy, garish, self-aggrandizing events he has lined up are the hottest tickets in town, everyone clamoring for the chance to celebrate the Semiquincentennial with the president.

It was likely not a super-pleasant surprise for Trump or Vance to have the first American pope turn down this incredible offer. It was likely even less pleasant to learn that, rather than coming to watch Trump yell about trans athletes or how he won the 2020 election or whatever, the pontiff would instead be spending Fourth of July at Lampedusa. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4uyuMSZ

J. D. Vance Learns What Mike Pence Already Knows ‌

The vice president is realizing that signing on with Donald Trump might seem like a shortcut to the top, but it’s actually a guarantee of humiliation. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bpqMLW

‌Trump Says He Will Have the ‘Honor’ of ‘Taking Cuba’

President Trump raised the possibility of the United States “taking” Cuba on Monday, telling reporters at the White House, “I do believe I will be having the honor of taking Cuba.”

“Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it,” he said. “They’re a very weakened nation right now.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bg87n6

‌Trump Administration Said to Tell Cuba That Its President Has to Go

As U.S. and Cuban officials negotiate over the future of the Communist-ruled and economically besieged Caribbean island, the Trump administration is seeking to push President Miguel Díaz-Canel from power, according to four people familiar with the talks.

The move would topple a key figurehead while keeping in place the repressive Communist government that has ruled Cuba for more than 65 years. The Americans have signaled to Cuban negotiators that the president must go, but are leaving the next steps up to the Cubans, the people said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lu7LfS

‌War Isn’t the Only Thing on Trump’s Mind

For about the first 10 minutes, Mr. Trump did speak about the war — reiterating calls for U.S. allies to join in the effort to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, while also saying that the United States did not actually need any help. He did not mention the 13 U.S. service members who have died since the war began.

But for the next half-hour, he veered from topic to topic: He spoke about his track record as a project manager and his coveted ballroom under construction. He detailed the private medical history of Representative Neal Dunn, Republican of Florida. He discussed the breast cancer diagnosis of his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who had revealed it publicly less than an hour before. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bzhWLN

‌With Threats and Claims of ‘Treason,’ Trump Pressures Media on the War

The goal seems to be pressuring journalists to back off critical coverage of the war effort, or to at least encourage the public to second-guess reporting that runs counter to the administration’s preferred narrative. And the effort has gone well beyond words. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cRTB6c

‌Judge Strikes Down Kennedy’s Vaccine Policies

In a severe blow to the Trump administration’s health agenda, a federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked the government from implementing a series of decisions on vaccines made over the last year by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The ruling also reversed, at least for the time being, all decisions made by the panelists that Mr. Kennedy appointed to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations on which vaccines Americans should take. The court decision will prevent the committee from meeting later this week, as it was scheduled to do.

The judge’s ruling brought an abrupt halt to the major changes that Mr. Kennedy, who has long been skeptical of vaccines, had set in motion, upending national vaccine policy and making sweeping revisions to the recommendations for what shots are given and when. Those included cutting down the number of diseases covered by routine immunization, and restricting access to Covid vaccines, two pillars of Mr. Kennedy’s vaccine agenda. - NYT https://nyti.ms/419cPwP

‌Trump Is Trying to Bully America Into Supporting His War. It Won’t Work.

Rarely in modern history has an American administration made such blatantly authoritarian efforts to subdue its critics. Such naked coercion is a screaming sign of democratic breakdown. But we shouldn’t lose sight of how Trump is failing to bend the country to his will. Even as he’s wrecking American institutions, Trump is revealing the limits of his cultural influence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sOquFt

‌Consumers are getting more worried as war in the Middle East drags on

Americans are becoming more dour about the economy, pushing the University of Michigan’s preliminary sentiment index down to 55.5 for March.

The index dropped about 2% from February, hitting its lowest point this year. According to the University of Michigan, interviews done before the military action showed sentiment was improving, but answers collected in the next nine days erased those gains. The survey took place from February 17 to March 9, with about half of the interviews happening after the conflict started.

Consumers reported declines in expectations for their personal finances, with a 7.5% drop nationally. The survey’s director, Joanne Hsu, said in a statement that higher gasoline prices had the most immediate effect on respondents, though the extent to which those costs would pass through to other prices remained uncertain.

The index measuring current economic conditions went up to 57.8 from 56.6, while the expectations index fell to 54.1 from 56.6. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4bOsUyc

‌The Fed's favorite inflation gauge was already hot. That was before war sent oil soaring

Worse? It’s reasonable to conclude inflation is set to increase from the January numbers. Steeply rising gas prices alone are enough. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4bgVng3

‌‘Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation’: Trump-appointed intelligence official resigns over Iran war

A senior US intelligence official appointed by President Donald Trump abruptly announced he is stepping down from his post on Tuesday, citing misgivings about the administration’s war with Iran.

“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today,” Joe Kent wrote in a post on X.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent added in the resignation letter he attached to the post. - CNN https://cnn.it/479BKUG

‌Joe Kent, a Top U.S. Counterterrorism Official, Resigns Over the Iran War

One of the United States’ top counterterrorism officials resigned on Tuesday, citing his opposition to the war in Iran and what he said was Israel’s influence over the Trump administration’s policies, a sign of emerging divisions in the Republican coalition.

The official, Joe Kent, is the first senior member of the administration to quit over the war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4utKv5P

‌Admiral’s Comments Undercut Pentagon’s Cluster Munition Policy

The first Trump administration defended cluster munitions as “legitimate,” but on Monday, Adm. Brad Cooper condemned them as “inherently indiscriminate.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bgVDM3

‌I Wrote Research Funding Announcements for NIH for 22 Years. This Year They’ve Published 14

For decades, the National Institutes of Health published between 650 and 850 Notices of Funding Opportunities each year. These announcements tell the research community which diseases need study, which populations are underserved, which scientific gaps need filling. They are how NIH directs resources toward problems that won’t get solved by waiting for whatever grant applications happen to arrive.

In 2024, NIH published 756 funding announcements.

In 2025, it published 120.

In 2026, as of March 15, it has published 14. - Elizabeth Ginexi https://bit.ly/4cYjgdz

‌Britain is ready to admit it has an America problem

Washington’s unquestioned leadership of the West’s postwar alliance system is dissolving.

It’s not often someone says “No” to Donald Trump. And to receive a polite but firm “No” from Britain’s most courteous of prime ministers, Keir Starmer, when it comes to using the United Kingdom’s bases for his Iran offensive, appears to have particularly shocked the American president. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4rESv1s

‌RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine changes to CDC vaccine guidance blocked by judge

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked most of the damage that anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to federal vaccine guidance in his time in office. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/47Ke6Oz

‌House Oversight chair subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi for deposition in Epstein probe

Comer wrote in the subpoena cover letter that his panel is investigating the “possible mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation” into Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

“The Committee has questions regarding the Department of Justice’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates and its compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Comer wrote, referring to the law passed by Congress last year mandating the Justice Department’s release of the files. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ddmgD1

‌The Disappearing Off-Ramp in Iran

The window for Donald Trump to end the Iran war by simply declaring victory and walking away is rapidly closing. Soon he will face a stark choice: He can take greater risks in pursuit of a decisive tactical success, prepare the country for a prolonged conflict that could last for many months, or seek a negotiated settlement that involves a real compromise with Tehran. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4uBDCPW

‌Trump said he spoke to a former president about bombing Iran. Four denials suggest otherwise.

President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that one of his predecessors told him he wished he had been the one to bomb Iran.

It appears he did not speak to any of the four former presidents. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4lBbisN

‌What’s in the voting bill that Republicans are pushing to the Senate floor

Legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship for new voters has become a rallying cry for President Donald Trump, who claims that passage of the bill will “guarantee the midterms” for his Republican Party in November.

The bill, which the Senate took up on Tuesday, would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register and to present approved identification when they go to the polls, among other new rules that Trump and his most loyal supporters are pushing as part of an effort to assert more federal control over elections. - AP https://bit.ly/3N7KaoQ

‌The Crisis in Cuba, Explained

The Caribbean island nation of Cuba went dark—again.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines posted on social media on March 16 that its National Electric System (SEN) suffered a “total disconnection,” without providing details as to the cause of the electrical grid collapse or how long until all of the country’s 10 million inhabitants are expected to have power again. The blackout became the third major one in the country over the past four months.

Efforts are underway to restore power, but such electrical grid collapses have become more common in Cuba, which has been, for decades, ravaged by an economic crisis that has seen acute shortages of food, fuel, and electricity. The situation has been aggravated by longstanding sanctions from the U.S., in a bid to topple Cuba’s communist regime. - Time https://bit.ly/4rz6K7L

‌‘Trump is aiming for dictatorship’. That’s the verdict of the world’s most credible democracy watchdog

The US is no longer a democracy. One of the most credible global sources on the health of democratic nations now says this outright. The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at Gothenburg University reaches the alarming conclusion in its annual report, that the US is hurtling towards autocracy at a faster rate than Hungary and Turkey.

“Our data on the USA goes back to 1789. What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever in the country,” says Staffan Lindberg, founder of the institute. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4rCLNJa

‌Trump Officials Weigh New $1 Billion Deal to Stop Offshore Wind Farms

The Trump administration is considering a new strategy for throttling the country’s offshore wind industry, after federal judges blocked its five previous attempts to stop wind farms under construction off the East Coast.

Senior administration officials are drafting settlement agreements that would pay nearly $1 billion to TotalEnergies, the French energy company behind two wind farms off New York State and North Carolina, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times, including copies of the agreements. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NKBzZh

‌The Dangerous Logic of the Joe Kent Letter

When Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned today in protest of the Iran war, he blamed everyone except the person who launched it. In his resignation letter, addressed to President Trump, Kent portrays the president as a passive figure manipulated by others—“high-ranking Israeli officials” and “influential members of the American media”—rather than the most powerful person imposing his will upon the world. Again and again, Kent casts Trump, a two-term president, as someone swept up in events rather than driving them. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4spoJis

‌Everyone but Trump Understands What He’s Done

Allied leaders know that any positive gesture they make will count for nothing.

Donald Trump does not think strategically. Nor does he think historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. He does not think about how his behavior in one place will change the behavior of other people in other places.

He does not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and impulse, and when he changes his mind—when he feels new whims and new impulses—he simply lies about whatever he said or did before. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bPAN6v

‌Trump Is Learning That His Bullying Has Consequences

Two months ago, when President Trump was threatening to annex Greenland, I spoke with Danish and other European officials who warned of lasting damage to the system of alliances that the United States created after the Second World War, above all NATO.

At the time, this seemed like a theoretical proposition. Denmark and other allies had come to the aid of the United States after the September 11 attacks, sending soldiers to fight in the American-led war in Afghanistan; these same countries, officials and experts hypothesized, might be less inclined to help in the future. But the possibility that the United States would actually require European assistance, especially in the Middle East, appeared faint. After all, Trump had promised to curtail military adventures, in order to refocus on American interests in the Western Hemisphere.

The decision to wage war against Iran changed all that. Despite his earlier claims that the American military had already vanquished Iran and didn’t need partners to join the fight, Trump is now actively soliciting the help of other countries to reopen shipping lanes. And, sure enough, allies that once might have been eager to assist the United States in an area of mutual concern are reacting with, at best, a shrug—and in some cases with outright contempt. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bvhPAD

Trump lashes out after he fails to convince European allies to help in war with Iran‌

Donald Trump’s brief and aggressive attempt to corral an international coalition to police the Strait of Hormuz concluded in disappointment on Tuesday, leading the president to lash out at European nations that rejected his demands to help with his war against Iran.

“We don’t need too much help,” a frustrated Trump said in the Oval Office, where he was hosting Ireland’s taoiseach for St. Patrick’s Day. “We don’t need any help actually.”

It was a striking turnabout for the president, who had spent the last several days ardently insisting other countries send their warships to the strait to escort oil tankers. Iran has effectively shut the waterway, a key shipping lane for about 20% of the world’s oil, sending global energy prices soaring. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rElYZ5

‌Former judges side with Anthropic and raise concerns about Pentagon’s use of supply chain risk label

Nearly 150 retired federal and state judges have filed an amicus brief on Tuesday supporting AI company Anthropic in its lawsuit against the Trump administration for designating it a “supply chain risk,” CNN has learned.

The former judges, appointed by both Republicans and Democrats, join a growing list of Anthropic supporters that includes industry organizations and former senior national security government officials, as well as Microsoft and staffers from competing AI companies.

The amicus brief underscores concerns raised in the tech, legal and national security community over the precedent the situation could set regarding government influence over private companies. For Anthropic, the stakes could be significant; the “supply chain risk” label could affect the company’s contracts with the vast ecosystem of private-sector firms that do business with the military. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Pm9fNl

‌Trump team doesn’t care if Iran war breaks your bank

“The fact is the U.S. economy is fundamentally sound and if [the war] were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt this economy very much at all. It would hurt consumers—and we would have to think about what we would do about that—but that’s really the last of our concerns right now,” Hassett said. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4bzlhKB

‌Trump fumes at NATO for refusing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, and embraces going it alone

President Donald Trump said Tuesday NATO and most other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, grousing that he has been unable to rally support behind his war of choice in Iran that he insists he’s conducting for the good of the world, even if it doesn’t appreciate his effort.

Trump, who has been pressing allies to help safeguard the critical waterway to ease a chokepoint on the region’s oil exports, fumed that the U.S. is not getting support “despite the fact that we helped” NATO “so much,” and said that it was in allies’ interest to prevent Iran from securing a nuclear weapon.

Trump’s indignant response to allies’ refusal to get involved in the war underscored that the conflict — now in its third week and causing reverberations across the global economy — is one the international community is looking to the U.S. leader to sort out himself after he launched it without consultation. - AP https://bit.ly/3NzSGwL

‌Trump lies about chat with 'former president' to justify Iran war

“I’ve spoken to a certain president—who I like, actually. A past president, former president. He said, ‘I wish I did it. I wish I did.’ But they didn’t do it. I’m doing it,” Trump said before a Kennedy Center board meeting.

People close to each of the four living former presidents—George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden—all denied that the former commanders-in-chief had spoken with Trump since the war began, NBC News and The New York Times. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4sOuohI

‌The Biggest Pro-Trump Mega-Media Monopoly Ever (it’s already distorting war coverage)

On Sunday, CBS’s erstwhile flagship newsmagazine “60 Minutes” opened with an extended adulatory interview of Reza Pahlavi, son of the late exiled Shah of Iran, whom Trump presumably is auditioning to be Iran’s post-invasion leader.

Although Pahlavi is in Paris and hasn’t lived in Iran for nearly a half-century, CBS’s Scott Pelley fed the exiled prince softball questions and allowed him to avoid talking about his father’s record of brutal repression. Pelley even added, in a wishful voiceover, that “Pahlavi told us that there are units within the military and the police that would turn on the hard-line government. He says that many but not all troops could be given amnesty in a process of national reconciliation.”

This isn’t news. It’s pablum from the White House. “60 Minutes” was once a reliable source of tough reporting. Now it’s becoming a shill for the Trump regime.

It soon could get far worse. CBS News is on the verge of becoming part of the largest pro-Trump media monopoly in America. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4lGJbJ0

‌Letters from an American - March 17, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Yesterday, President Donald J. Trump continued to demand that other countries help the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz for tanker traffic, but one by one, they declined. It is a dangerous business, and since Trump launched the war without consulting anyone, they don’t seem inclined to help him out of the mess he created. For his part, Trump has told reporters that “numerous countries” have told him “they’re on their way” to help enable ships to transit the strait, but he has also threatened to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) over allies’ unwillingness to help clear the strait. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4dxiN20

‌Trump Alone

Trump is alone.

That’s different from the United States being alone.

We — that is, the vast majority of Americans who were against Trump’s war from the start, and who support NATO and the United Nations Charter and the post-World War II system of alliances and rules — are not alone.

Most of the people of the United States stand with most democracies of the world.

When Trump’s call to America’s traditional allies for assistance clearing the Strait of Hormuz was rebuffed by those allies, those allies didn’t rebuff the United States. They rebuffed the person in the Oval Office who didn’t even consult with them before launching this war.

He didn’t consult with us, either. He didn’t explain why it was necessary. He didn’t even consult with Congress. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4stNI4c

‌Judge Orders Voice of America to Restart All News Operations

A federal judge on Tuesday nullified nearly all actions that the Trump administration took to shutter Voice of America, a federally funded news organization that broadcast to countries with limited press protections, including Iran, China and Russia.

Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered more than 1,000 full-time journalists and support staff at the news group to return to work by March 23 and to resume broadcasting operations. The judge’s decision excludes contracted employees. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uMM7bd

‌Chief Justice Says Personal Attacks on Judges Are ‘Dangerous’ and Must Stop

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Tuesday denounced personal attacks aimed at judges and justices, calling them “dangerous.”

“It’s got to stop,” he said.

The comments, part of a wide-ranging conversation with the chief justice at Rice University, were his first public remarks since President Trump castigated the six Supreme Court justices who ruled against his sweeping tariffs last month as “fools and lap dogs.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d4ce77

‌The US Grossly Undercounted Covid Deaths Early On, Updated Toll Shows

The covid-19 pandemic was perhaps the greatest natural disaster to befall America and the world in modern times. Research out today, however, indicates that we’re still underselling just how deadly it truly was.

Researchers at Boston University and others examined national death certificate data collected in the first two years of the pandemic. They estimated that the official tally missed nearly 20% of covid-related fatalities between 2020 and 2021, amounting to 155,536 uncounted deaths. These missing cases were more common among minority and disadvantaged communities, likely reflecting longstanding disparities in how deaths are investigated in the country, the researchers say.

“These findings suggest that the U.S. death investigation system undercounted COVID-19 deaths unevenly, hiding the true extent of inequities,” they wrote in their paper, published Tuesday in Science Advances. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4rDyg41

‌Trashing American Allies Turns Out to Be Bad for National Security

After a decade of trashing American allies as freeloaders, President Trump is begging for their help in opening the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway adjacent to Iran sometimes referred to as the “jugular” of the world economy.

Those allies aren’t exactly jumping at the chance to join Trump’s war on Iran—not a single one has taken the offer. That leaves the president trapped in a needless war of choice that he started and is unable to finish. Iran’s leverage over the global economy is increasing as oil prices rise and the strait remains closed to the U.S. and its allies.

Now, basically anyone could have told Trump that spending the past few years antagonizing allies with aggressive tariffs, belligerent arm-twisting, and imperial dismissiveness would hurt him when the time came to ask those same allies for help. But this isn’t a simple strategic miscalculation or even a typical Trumpian incompetence—it’s the result of a particular ideological fantasy of American independence from foreign alliances, one that is oblivious to how those alliances long served American interests. Americans are learning the hard way that the economic costs of the autarky pursued by Trump are far worse than those of the “globalism” he opposes. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bBTadQ

Americans still don't believe her research

In November, the Stockholm Prize in Criminology Foundation named Kubrin and Vanderbilt University professor Mark W. Lipsey, a scholar on effective rehabilitation methods, as recipients of an annual prize for deepening the world's understanding of crime, what and who cause it, and effective and humane ways to respond. In Kubrin's case, she was being recognized for rigorous research that demonstrated in place after place, decade after decade, that immigration to the U.S. does not cause crime to go up; it may even push it down. - MSN https://bit.ly/4bo9zDS

‌Russia Is Sharing Satellite Imagery and Drone Technology With Iran

Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Tehran’s targeting of U.S. forces in the region, people familiar with the matter said.

Russia is trying to keep its closest Middle Eastern partner in the fight against U.S. and Israeli military might and prolong a war that is benefiting Russia militarily and economically. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4cZy9Mz

‌Cheap drones are reshaping modern warfare — and catching the U.S. off guard

Over the Gulf region right now, relatively cheap Iranian drones are being taken out by costly and difficult-to-manufacture U.S. interceptor missiles. A typical Shahed-136 costs Tehran roughly $20,000 to $50,000, while interceptors, such as the Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), cost millions. That disparity has allowed Iran to drive up the cost of the conflict for the U.S., according to Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, a think tank aimed at enhancing international peace and security.

And after just a few weeks of fighting, there are already indications that the U.S. may run out of interceptors before Iran depletes its drone supply. Early in the war, U.S. officials who were not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that they are concerned about a lack of missile interceptors, and may have to draw from stockpiles outside the region. U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, did not immediately respond to NPR for comment.

The drone attacks have been relentless. - NPR https://n.pr/4lFFLpD

‌Trump Promised the ‘World’s Lowest’ Drug Prices. We Checked the Numbers.

President Trump and top federal health officials have repeatedly claimed that their new website, TrumpRx, offers Americans the world’s lowest prices on prescription drugs.

“I took prescription drugs, a very big part of health care, from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest,” Mr. Trump said during his State of the Union address last month.

That is not true, according to a review by The New York Times and the German news organizations Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR.

The drugs listed on TrumpRx can cost American patients up to hundreds or thousands of dollars, while a patient walking into a German pharmacy pays next to nothing. The German health system foots the bill, and records show that, more often than not, it pays less than what the Trump administration negotiated for Americans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4smCuhP

‌Trump’s tariffs are hurting American manufacturers instead of helping them

Jay Allen is a fan of President Donald Trump, and voted for him on the belief that the Republican would cut taxes and trim regulations, helping his manufacturing business in northeast Arkansas.

But the tariffs at the core of Trump’s economic agenda have wreaked havoc on his company, Allen Engineering Corp., which makes industrial equipment used to install, finish and pave concrete. The import taxes have raised the costs of engines, steel, gearboxes and clutches made abroad that Allen needs to build power trowels that can sell for up to $100,000 each.

Allen’s experience embodies a growing body of evidence that the tariffs that Trump said would help American factories are, in fact, squashing many of them. The problem could get worse as the administration scrambles to craft new tariffs to replace the emergency import taxes that the Supreme Court ruled illegal in February. - AP https://bit.ly/40HBVTu

‌The Lesson of Tulsi Gabbard’s Flip-Flop

After ordering the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani killed in 2020, Donald Trump claimed that the military officer had been “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.” But that justification didn’t pass muster with then–Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard.

Gabbard had long been explicit in her insistence that a president cannot unilaterally decide to attack another country in anticipatory self-defense. She’d even co-sponsored the No More Presidential Wars Act in 2018, which stated that the president must “seek congressional authorization prior to any engagement of the U.S. Armed Forces against Syria, Iran, or Russia.” It was not surprising when, in spite of Trump’s determination that Soleimani had posed an imminent threat, Gabbard insisted that the president had “committed an illegal and unconstitutional act.” Gabbard also warned that a war against Iran in particular would be “so costly and devastating” that it would make the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan “look like a picnic.”

Yet now that Gabbard serves as director of national intelligence to a president waging war on Iran, she is using her position to defend Trump’s unilateral intervention. The president’s recent determination of an imminent threat in Iran seems to be enough for her: Posting to social media yesterday from her official government X account, she wrote, “Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the American people” and “as our Commander in Chief, he is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people and our country.” Gabbard repeated this argument in a Senate hearing on worldwide threats today. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4byHW9Z

‌Trump's new DHS pick suffers vicious confirmation hearing

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin's confirmation hearing to be President Donald Trump's new homeland security secretary quickly went off the rails when a top Republican laced into Mullin over his past conduct.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican in charge of Mullin’s confirmation hearing, asked him to explain his recent comment suggesting that Paul deserved the violent assault he suffered in 2017 at the hands of a neighbor.

“I was shocked that you would justify and celebrate this violent assault that caused me so much pain and my family so much pain,” Paul said. “I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/476oTmc

‌Richard Grenell is as awful as you'd imagine

“There was a story he got fired; he didn’t get fired,” Trump said Monday to reporters. “He was here for a short period of time, for a year, figuring it out with Matt and everybody else. And Matt now is going to take over.”

But in the wake of his new position change, Grenell isn’t bidding adieu gracefully. Instead, it seems, the special envoy to the president is using his social media to attack anyone asking questions. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/41fn7LV

‌Letters from an American - March 18, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Back on February 23, Daniel Ruetenik, Pat Milton, and Cara Tabachnick of CBS News reported on a newly uncovered document in the Epstein files showing that beginning in December 2010 under the Obama administration, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was running an investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and fourteen other people for drug trafficking, prostitution, and money laundering.

The document showed the investigation, called “Chain Reaction,” was still underway in 2015. But the investigation disappeared, although the document suggested that it was a significant investigation and that the government was on the verge of indictments.

As soon as the story broke, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said: “It appears Epstein was involved in criminal activity that went way beyond pedophilia and sex trafficking, which makes it even more outrageous that [Attorney General] Pam Bondi is sitting on several million unreleased files.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/40DNueq

‌‘Not our war': Europe says no to Trump

For a self-described transatlanticist like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the language has been unusually blunt.

When President Donald Trump asked countries to join a global effort against Iran and deploy ships to pry open the Strait of Hormuz, whose near closure has held the global economy in a vice, he was rebuffed by some of America's closest allies.

Merz told German lawmakers on Wednesday he agreed Iran must not be allowed to pose a threat to its neighbors but expressed doubts about the rationale behind the U.S.-Israeli war.

"To this day, there is no convincing plan for how this operation could succeed. Washington has not consulted us and did not say European assistance was necessary," he told lawmakers.

"We would have advised against pursuing this course of action as it has been pursued. Therefore, ‌we have ‌declared that as long as the war continues, we will not participate in ensuring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, for example, by military means." - Reuters / Japan Times https://bit.ly/3NACQlI

‌Bondi Doesn’t Commit to Deposition With House Panel Over Epstein Files

Attorney General Pam Bondi would not explicitly commit on Wednesday to appear for a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and its release of material about him, telling lawmakers only that she would follow the law.

During a private briefing Wednesday on the Justice Department’s investigation into Mr. Epstein and its handling of files on him, Democratic lawmakers pressed Ms. Bondi whether she still planned to appear for a deposition.

Under the committee’s rules, the panel’s Republican chairman, Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, issued a subpoena to Ms. Bondi requiring her to appear, a move that was forced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers over Mr. Comer’s objections.

After being asked repeatedly, Ms. Bondi said that she would follow the legal requirements, several Democratic lawmakers told reporters afterward.

“I made it crystal clear, I will follow the law,” she told reporters after the hearing.

After the hearing, Mr. Comer said that he would proceed with trying to schedule the deposition. “That’s what we plan on doing,” he said.

But Mr. Comer would not say whether he would pursue holding Ms. Bondi in contempt if she did not agree to appear, and he acknowledged that he sent the subpoena reluctantly. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NsRdsi

‌Following Trump, Republicans in Congress Propose to Ban Most Voting by Mail

Republicans in Congress are pressing to effectively ban mail-in voting, following President Trump’s exhortation to do away with a practice that he says is “rigged” but that has become increasingly common in U.S. elections and is the chief method of voting in multiple states.

The Republican-written voter identification measure that passed the House and is under consideration in the Senate could place severe limits on mail-in voting. But a proposal by a bloc of hard-right Republicans would go even further, by prohibiting universal vote-by-mail with narrow exceptions for military service, travel, disability, and medical issues and other hardships. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rLL5t8

‌How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues

Dr. Adam Ratner hovered over a gravely ill infant in a New York City intensive care unit on a grim day in 2022. The 3-month-old girl spiked a fever two days earlier and had become lethargic. Soon she was having seizures and struggling to breathe.

She didn’t register Ratner’s towering frame or the bright hospital lights. Her eyes stared up and to the right, eerily frozen.

He ran his hand over the soft spot on her head, which should have been flat. Instead, it bulged, a sign that too much fluid was building up inside her skull.

The baby’s life was in danger, and Ratner needed to figure out why. He worried the culprit was bacterial meningitis, an infection of the membranes that protect the brain.

What came back on her lab tests was something out of the history books.

The infant’s meningitis was caused by invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib, a type of bacteria that used to kill nearly 1,000 children a year in the U.S. A shot introduced in the late 1980s was so effective that Ratner, a veteran pediatric infectious disease doctor, was among the generations of physicians who had never seen a case. But the baby’s parents, Ratner learned, had chosen not to vaccinate her.

Disheartened, he told his colleagues, “This should be a never event.” - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4bmLvBt

‌The Trump Administration’s “Disturbing” New Legal Strategy to Prosecute Border Crossers Is Taxing Courts and Testing the Law

One man, who admitted he had entered the U.S. illegally and was ready to be deported, sat in jail for 40 days over unfounded allegations of trespassing on military land. The Justice Department keeps pursuing similar cases, puzzling legal experts. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4sUvXdV

‌Trump Jokes About Pearl Harbor in Meeting With Japan’s Leader

“We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise,” he said. “Who knows better about surprise than Japan, OK? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK? Right?”

There was some laughter from the officials and journalists gathered in the room. “You believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us,” he added.

As Mr. Trump spoke, Ms. Takaichi widened her eyes and appeared to take a deep breath. She kept her arms crossed in her lap and did not speak. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rGXE8U

‌Trump Is Betraying Iran’s Pro-Democracy Protesters

He toyed with their hopes, raising expectations he never meant to fulfill.

In January, Donald Trump uttered the most idealistic words of his presidency. As protesters filled Iran’s streets, he told them, “Help is on the way.” How well they heard him through the regime’s internet blackouts is unclear, but his message was that their sacrifice might be worth it—that the world’s most powerful man was backing them.

Those protesters now have good reason to feel betrayed. Before the Islamic Republic began murdering their fellow pro-democracy demonstrators by the thousands, Trump barely lifted a finger to support them. This month, soon after he launched strikes in the name of ousting the regime that committed these atrocities, he told the protesters, “When we are finished, take over your government.” But he quickly retracted any such notion by suggesting that he would happily strike a deal with a faction of the existing regime. In other words, Iranian democracy was never really the point. Then, on Friday, he dismissed the protesters’ chances of overthrowing the regime. “I think that’s a big hurdle to climb,” he told Fox News. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4bUvJOg

‌Trump makes Pearl Harbor joke in front of Japan's Prime Minister

President Trump made a joke about Pearl Harbor sitting next to the prime minister of Japan in the Oval Office. The joke came in response to a question from a Japanese reporter who asked why Trump didn't inform Japan about the initial attack on Iran. (video) - CNN https://cnn.it/3PmyoaG

‌What’s Going on With the IRS?

Etched into the facade of the Internal Revenue Service’s headquarters, just above a trio of limestone arches, is a quote from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.” But today’s IRS, weakened by the Trump administration’s budget cuts, may not be well-equipped to collect.

The office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, a federal watchdog, put out a memo in January highlighting its “concerns” about the IRS’s readiness for the 2026 filing season, most of which are downstream from staffing. The agency had more than 100,000 staffers (accountants, lawyers, customer-service specialists, and more) toward the end of 2024; a year later, firings and buyouts had lowered that number to about 81,000. That it lost nearly a fifth of its employees will likely affect its ability to tackle existing problems, such as backlogs of returns and outdated technology, and introduce new ones that will slow it even further. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sNYRME

‌The Trap Always Closes

History’s traps don’t care how world leaders walk into them. Once they’re inside, all that matters is how things rather predictably will go.

Donald Trump now finds himself in a trap that has ensnared other presidents, most similarly Lyndon Johnson. And recent events in the war in Iran, now in its third week, illuminate how steely that trap can be. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4uUXApc

‌At Trump's Pentagon, it's America last

The quagmire President Donald Trump started in Iran is growing as the nation chokes off a critical oil transport route and continues retaliatory strikes on oil and gas facilities in the Middle East—the consequences of which are spiking fuel prices across the globe.

With no off-ramp in sight, Trump's Pentagon is now seeking over $200 billion—yes, with a B—to fund the conflict, according to The Washington Post. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4uIP10i

‌Letters from an American - March 19, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

After yesterday’s revelation that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is blocking the release of a memo related to a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and 14 co-conspirators, Attorney General Pam Bondi added more evidence to the idea that the DOJ is engaged in covering up the relationship between members of the Trump administration, including President Donald J. Trump himself, and Epstein. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4t3KtAm

‌The REAL Reason Trump is Trapped in Iran

Yesterday, Trump said that he’d do whatever is necessary to ease the oil crisis. He also assured America that the crisis “will be over soon.”

Bullshit.

The problem isn’t just that Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz. It’s also that Iran, Israel, and the United States have all inflicted — and continue to inflict — serious damage to the oil and gas infrastructure of the Middle East. This damage will take months if not years to repair. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4uF5anw

‌Oil soars near $120 a barrel as the Iran war turns to energy sites

Brent crude climbed as high as $119 a barrel Thursday after Iran launched missile strikes on energy facilities across the Gulf region, marking a significant escalation in the war and raising fears of prolonged damage to global energy infrastructure.

By mid-morning in European trading, Brent was up roughly 10% at $118.50 and had gained 65% over the month. West Texas Intermediate was trading near $95 to $96 a barrel. European natural gas prices jumped 26%, with the Dutch TTF benchmark briefly touching 70 euros per megawatt-hour — the highest in more than three years, according to Reuters. - Quartz https://is.gd/RFFVK2

‌Using Charm and Restraint, Japan’s Leader Mostly Avoids Trump’s Wrath

Office on Thursday well aware that things could go badly, given President Trump’s repeated complaints that America’s allies are not helping with the war in the Middle East.

But she managed to get through the visit to the White House — her first as prime minister — largely unscathed, avoiding the scorn that Mr. Trump has unleashed on European allies and highlighting areas of cooperation, including up to $73 billion in Japanese investments in energy projects in the United States.

Ms. Takaichi leaned on charm, the tactic she has used consistently with the president. She heaped praise on Mr. Trump. “I firmly believe it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world,” she said. She held her tongue through his jokes, including an eyebrow-raising one about Pearl Harbor. And she tried to highlight common interests in trade and defense. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bDZNMK

‌Judge Rules That R.F.K. Jr. Overstepped on Transgender Care

A federal judge in Oregon ruled on Thursday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had overstepped his legal authority when he declared last December that providers of gender-transition medical treatments for minors “do not meet professionally recognized standards.”

The decision, a setback for the Trump administration, gives temporary relief to hospitals, clinics and health professionals who provide such treatments. In the weeks after Mr. Kennedy issued his written declaration, the Department of Health and Human Services indicated that it would investigate institutions that continued to prescribe medication to minors for gender transitions and would potentially bar them from receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funds.

Twenty-one states, all led by Democrats, had filed a lawsuit over Mr. Kennedy’s issuing of the 12-page declaration, claiming that the statement interfered with the power of states to regulate the practice of medicine within their borders. The declaration states that it “supersedes” statewide or national standards of care and that “sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sHnVWl

‌A Gift From Trump to the Supreme Court

“We don’t work as Democrats or Republicans,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in 2016.

At his confirmation hearing in 2017, Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was nominated by President Trump, echoed the chief justice.

“I do not see Republican judges, and I do not see Democrat judges,” he said. “I see judges.”

Political scientists and the public see something different. Social science data shows a significant correlation between justices’ partisan affiliations and their judicial work. And public confidence in the Supreme Court is testing new lows partly because of the perception that politics is warping the justices’ work.

On Sunday night, Trump offered an intemperate critique of the Supreme Court and its decision to reject his beloved tariffs program, in a social media post that inadvertently made the case for the court’s independence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uJ2iGl

‌Pentagon Seeks $200 Billion to Fund Iran War

The Pentagon has asked for $200 billion in funding for the war in Iran, according to a military official and an administration official, a significant sum adding to the costs of an already divisive campaign.

The request has been sent to the White House, the military official said, which will review it before any request for funds is formally submitted to Congress. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the proposal. The request was reported earlier by The Washington Post. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4boODwH

‌Democrats Demand Answers on Jared Kushner’s Mideast Business Dealings

A pair of senior Democratic lawmakers on Thursday demanded answers from the White House about efforts by Jared Kushner to raise billions of dollars from Middle East governments for his private-equity fund while also serving as an envoy in the region for the Trump administration.

Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the most senior member of his party on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a pair of letters to the White House and to Mr. Kushner’s firm that they had “serious concerns about whether the White House is letting Mr. Kushner use his influence for personal financial gain.”

“Just as seriously,” the Democrats continued, “these actions raise the potential for Mr. Kushner to be subject to conflicts of interest which could threaten the security of the American people.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/47hItMm

‌24 States Sue the E.P.A. for Renouncing Its Power to Fight Climate Change

A coalition of 24 states, along with a dozen cities and counties, sued the Trump administration on Thursday over its decision to relinquish the government’s legal authority to fight climate change.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. It is expected to be consolidated with a case that environmental groups filed in February, making for one of the largest legal challenges to date against the Trump administration’s unraveling of federal climate policy.

The states are arguing that the Environmental Protection Agency acted illegally when it rescinded a 2009 scientific conclusion that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. That determination, known as the endangerment finding, formed the legal basis for the E.P.A. to regulate emissions from automobile tailpipes, power plant smokestacks, oil and gas wells, and other sources. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cVZeQP

‌Trump Has Only Himself to Blame

President Trump has created the conditions for another quagmire in the Middle East, and the question is whether American military excellence can rescue him from his own impulsiveness and incompetence.

Here is the present situation, in a nutshell: The United States and Israel have established absolute air dominance over the nation of Iran. In a few short days, our combined forces have destroyed Iran’s ability to protect its own airspace, have killed much of Iran’s senior military and civilian leadership, and have sunk much of Iran’s navy.

At the same time, the United States and Israel are damaging Iran’s nuclear program from the air, and they are destroying Iran’s ability to manufacture and deploy ballistic missiles. They are also attacking the internal security forces that maintain the Iranian regime’s hold on the population. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rItQZO

‌Trump’s Hypocrisy on Religious Freedom

The Trump administration holds itself up as a defender of religious freedom. It has created a Religious Liberty Commission, increased funding for faith-based schools and changed vaccine policies to allow more religious exemptions. It ordered a Christmas Day missile attack in Nigeria on what President Trump described as a terrorist group that was killing Christians. The administration has punished universities in the name of preventing antisemitism. “I’ve done more for religion than any other president,” Mr. Trump claimed at the National Prayer Breakfast this year.

Yet there is an exception to this effort. Mr. Trump and his Republican Party appear uninterested in protecting the religious rights of Muslims. Instead, they are often hostile to Islam.

Their words are odious. As a presidential candidate, Mr. Trump called for a “Muslim ban” on entry to the United States, and a version of it remains in effect. “I think Islam hates us,” he has said. Several other Republican politicians have made similar statements in recent months. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lCJ15a

‌As Trump Demands Voter Data, This Fiercely Independent Red State Says No

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane is one of about a dozen Republicans nationally to resist the administration’s efforts to gather sensitive voter data ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, in the face of litigation threats from the Justice Department.

In a state that Trump won in 2024 by one of the largest margins in the country, an effort that the administration touts as essential to weeding out noncitizen voters has tested the limits of what a committed Trump stronghold will tolerate when it comes to privacy and federal power. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3PlQXvS

‌RFK Jr. has destroyed over a quarter of health dept’s expert panels

In his role as health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a long-time anti-vaccine activist with no background in science, medicine, or public health—has made headlines for his thorough perversion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel.

In June, Kennedy fired all 17 independent experts who made up the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. The panel sets federal vaccination guidance that dictates insurance coverage and influences state school requirements. Kennedy then repopulated ACIP with mostly unqualified allies who share his anti-vaccine views. The corrupted board went on to hold several chaotic meetings in which they voted, without scientific backing, to change vaccine policies to align with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine agenda.

The blatant undermining of ACIP led a federal judge this week to temporarily block Kennedy’s installed ACIP members and the anti-vaccine changes they made to CDC guidance. But while ACIP’s corruption has drawn the spotlight, it’s far from the only advisory committee Kennedy has destroyed or corrupted. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4bqjE3a

‌Brendan Carr is aiming for more than just censorship

FCC Chair Brendan Carr has ordered the American media to rally around the flag of war.

Citing Donald Trump’s anger over Iran War media coverage, Carr threatened to revoke broadcast licenses unless broadcasters “correct course before their license renewals come up.” He did not specify which outlets the FCC is threatening, directing his aim at the media generally.

This threat is as outrageous — and un-American — as it sounds. So much so that Republican former FCC commissioners, chairs, and senior staff called on Congress to step in and stop Carr’s abuses. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4rDBoNf

‌People of Twin Cities awarded JFK Profile in Courage Award over resistance to ICE surge

The people of Minneapolis-St. Paul are being honored with a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for their response to the federal immigration enforcement operation this winter, the JFK Library Foundation announced Wednesday.

The award recognizes residents who risked their lives to protect neighbors and immigrant community members during what the Department of Homeland Security described as the largest federal immigration enforcement action in U.S. history, according to the foundation. - CBS https://cbsn.ws/4bWzsec

‌Stocks, bonds and gold slump while Iran war rages

US stocks and bonds fell, oil prices rose and gold had its worst week in four decades as the Iran war continues to ripple through financial markets.

The Russell 2000, an index of smaller companies more sensitive to interest rates, fell 2.26% Friday and closed in correction territory, down 10.3% from its January peak. A “correction” is a Wall Street term for when a stock or index falls 10% or more from its most recent peak.

The Dow fell 444 points, or 0.96%. The S&P 500 fell 1.51%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped 2.01%. Wall Street’s fear gauge, the VIX, surged 11%.

The Nasdaq during trading dipped into correction territory before paring some losses heading into the closing bell. The Nasdaq is down 9.65% from its peak in late October, putting the index on the verge of a correction. The Dow is down roughly 9.2% from its peak on February 10, and the S&P 500 is down 6.77% from its peak in late January.

The S&P and Nasdaq on Friday each closed at their lowest level since September, erasing six months of gains. The Dow closed at its lowest level since October.

The war with Iran is sending energy prices soaring, raising concerns about inflation and complicating the outlook for central banks across the globe. Uncertainty about the duration of the conflict, and the prospect of higher-for-longer interest rates to combat inflation, are dimming the outlook for stocks. - CNN https://cnn.it/4d2qtt4

‌Pentagon policy limiting independent press access is unlawful, judge rules

A federal judge on Friday voided various parts of a restrictive press policy rolled out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year, ruling that they trampled on the constitutional rights of reporters who seek to cover the US military from within its sprawling headquarters.

The ruling from senior US District Judge Paul Friedman is a major blow to Hegseth’s effort to exert greater control over press coverage and comes as reporting on the Defense Department has ramped up amid the war in Iran and the US operation earlier this year in Venezuela.

It voids several provisions of the new policy that enabled the Pentagon to suspend or revoke credentials based on reporting, but leaves in place other parts of the policy that had been in effect in earlier iterations and were not subject to the legal challenge.

“A primary purpose of the First Amendment is to enable the press to publish what it will and the public to read what it chooses, free of any official proscription,” Friedman, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote in a scathing opinion.

“Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation’s security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech,” the judge added. “That principle has preserved the nation’s security for almost 250 years. It must not be abandoned now.” - CNN https://cnn.it/40Ienhl

‌Trump Proposes a 'Light Touch' National Framework for AI Policy

The Trump administration has announced its long-awaited national policy framework for artificial intelligence, guidelines for Congress on how to regulate the emerging technology. While it was released in a three-page document, it probably could have fit on a Post-It Note.

The framework offers some broad-stroke guidelines for lawmakers, encouraging Congress to implement laws to accomplish goals like protecting minors and combatting censorship. Those recommendations are in line with the type of tech industry-friendly policies that are already being pursued, which makes sense given how much money the big players in the space have spent lobbying and sucking up to the administration. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4lGpO2x

‌10:30 a.m. CST, March 20, 2026 Thousands more US Marines are deploying to the Middle East, officials say

Thousands more US Marines and sailors are heading towards the Middle East as the war with Iran is about to enter its fourth week. The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Boxer Amphibious Ready Group have had their deployment rerouted and accelerated and are now expected to go to the Middle East, two US officials told CNN. - CNN https://cnn.it/4bYne4H

‌Fox News freaks over Democrats’ ‘revenge agenda’

Faced with the prospect of Republicans losing power in the midterm elections, Fox News is attempting to rally its viewers by fearmongering about Democrats following a “revenge agenda” if they win.

In an article published Friday, titled “Democrats vow political reckoning if they win midterms”—along with a graphic of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries captioned, “Revenge Agenda”—Fox News broke down the supposed plans to address abuses by the administration and Trump-aligned companies. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4br5XBb

‌CBS News chief continues quest to ruin the news

Mainstream media is saying goodbye to another longtime staple, asCBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss made the call to shutter its legendary CBS News Radio, effective March 22.

This includes the “World News Roundup,” the longest-running newscast in the U.S. Weiss’ decision won’t just end a historical newscast, though. CBS Radio also provided radio coverage for 700 local affiliates across the nation, leaving a gap in coverage. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4t2iqRH

‌Denmark Was Ready to Blow Up Airfields to Stop a U.S. Invasion of Greenland

The Danes brought blood supplies, explosives and live ammunition to Greenland as part of contingency plans in case President Trump acted on his threats to seize the island. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4t0XwlZ

‌Measles Is Roaring Back. We Are Not Ready.

This year, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist and the Trump administration’s choice to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, argued on a podcast that the necessity of vaccines for diseases like measles and polio should be re-evaluated today because modern medical care and sanitation have improved infection and survival rates. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ssciCo

‌Surprise, embarrassment, unease in Japan over Trump's Pearl Harbor comments

Senior U.S. and Japanese officials tend to shy away from anything but very careful public comments about Japan's 1941 sneak attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor. So there was embarrassment, confusion and unease on Saturday in Japan after President Donald Trump casually used the World War II attack to justify his secrecy before launching the war against Iran.

The Japanese discomfort was compounded by the fact that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was sitting awkwardly at Trump's side as he spoke. - AP/Japan Today https://bit.ly/4uLA9hY?

‌Trump Is Finally Eyeing an Exit From Iran. But Will He Take It?

Ever since President Trump began what he now delicately calls his “excursion” into Iran, Washington has been consumed by the question of when he would call it a day — even if many of his war goals remain unaccomplished.

On Friday evening, as he headed to Florida, Mr. Trump seemed to be designing that much-discussed exit. But he clearly has not yet decided whether to take it.

And there is mounting evidence — average gas price approaching $4 a gallon, infrastructure in ruins across the Persian Gulf, a decimated Iranian theocracy digging in and American allies at first rebuffing and now struggling with demands to patrol hostile waters — that the repercussions of Mr. Trump’s excursion may outlast his interest in it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4brQy3A

‌Trump Is Hiding the Truth About the War in Iran

From his first announcement of the attack on Iran on Feb. 28, President Trump has issued a stream of falsehoods about the war. He has said Iran wants to engage in negotiations, though its government shows no sign of it. He has claimed that the United States “destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability” when Tehran continues to inflict damage throughout the region. He has said the war is almost complete even as he calls in reinforcements from around the globe.

Lying is standard behavior for Mr. Trump, of course. His political career began with a lie about Barack Obama’s birthplace, and he has lied about his business, his wealth, his inauguration crowd size, his defeat in the 2020 election and so much more. A CNN tally of Mr. Trump’s falsehoods during one part of his first term found that he averaged eight false claims per day. Many people are so accustomed to his lies that they hardly notice them anymore.

Yet lying about war is uniquely corrosive. When a president signals that the truth does not matter in wartime, he encourages his cabinet and his generals to mislead the country and one another about how the war is going. He creates a culture in which deadly mistakes and even war crimes can become more common. He makes it harder to win by hiding the realities of conflict and by making allies wary of joining the fight. Ultimately, he undermines American values and interests. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PT1let

‌The $1.3-Million-a-Minute War

Let’s ponder for a moment the vast sums that we’re pouring into the war with Iran.

The Pentagon has requested $200 billion (more than $1,400 per American household) to fund the war, but even that understates the total cost.

Linda Bilmes, a Harvard expert on financing war, told me that most of the costs will arrive later. For example, any soldier who develops a medical disorder or aggravates an existing one will receive lifelong benefits and medical care. If today’s troops claim such benefits at the same rate as those who participated in the 1990-91 gulf war, that alone would eventually cost at least $600 billion, Bilmes said. Not to mention, of course, the human toll of all of this.

All told, she expects this Iran war to cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NRDxXW

‌ICE to Aid Airport Security Amid Partial Shutdown, Border Czar Says

Tom Homan, the White House border czar, confirmed on Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be deployed to U.S. airports on Monday, casting the operation largely as an effort to ease long lines that have caused frustration among travelers during one of the busiest travel seasons.

President Trump announced the measure on Saturday, first as a threat aimed at pressuring congressional Democrats to agree to a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, and then as an aggressive operation. He said agents would “do security like no one has ever seen before,” which would include “the immediate arrest of all illegal immigrants who have come into our Country.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/40N0SNs

‌Mullin Explored Bipartisan Deal to Rein in Immigration Crackdown

Senator Markwayne Mullin, the Oklahoma Republican chosen by President Trump to be the next homeland security secretary, surprised some lawmakers this week when he broke with the administration and signaled that he would be willing to require judicial warrants for immigration agents to enter private homes.

It was a concession that Democrats had sought for weeks as a condition of reopening the Department of Homeland Security, which has gone without funding for more than a month amid a fight over immigration tactics, and one that the White House had repeatedly rejected.

What some of his colleagues may not have known is that well before the hearing — and before Mr. Mullin had been nominated to head the department — he had been quietly working with a House Democrat to hash out a compromise on immigration enforcement that offered substantially more ground than the White House had publicly given in talks aimed at reopening the agency, according to two people familiar with the discussions. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41jnFR1

‌Letters from an American - March 22, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

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.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4rTH71v

‌Takaichi weathers Trump, but China challenges linger

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has largely been praised for her handling of U.S. President Donald Trump during her first visit to Washington as Japanese leader. But a raft of challenges remain — namely improving Japan’s relationship with China and convincing Trump not to make a deal with Beijing that leaves Tokyo in the lurch. - Japan Times https://bit.ly/4t94K7z

‌Donald Trump Is Nothing Like Robert Mueller

Robert Mueller III was a Bronze Star Marine veteran, an FBI director, and an American citizen. When the president of the United States heard the news that Mueller died today, he put it this way: “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.”

Mueller was honored for his service in Vietnam, and served presidents of both parties as the director of the nation’s top law-enforcement agency. Donald Trump, whose diagnosis of bone spurs kept him from being sent to that same war, has repeatedly denigrated the American war dead as “losers” and “suckers,” and has expressed disgust in the presence of wounded troops (“No one wants to see that, the wounded,” Trump once complained to the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).

Trump has never tried to be the president of all Americans. That deficiency was on grotesque display as he celebrated the death of someone who devoted his life to the country Trump now leads. Of course, Mueller spearheaded the investigation into whether there was collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. Trump never forgave him.

Even by the low standards that Trump has set, cheering the death of another man is abhorrent. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Pog556

‌‘I’m Far Angrier’

A touch of annoyance flashes across Cory Booker’s face as we talk about fighting. “Why do people preemptively, continually, mistake kindness for weakness?” he asks. By “people,” he means, at this moment, me. I had just brought up the festering concern, expressed by fans and critics alike, that he is simply too nice to win the presidency. Booker has been trying to convince me that he’s tough enough for this uncivil American era—that a pathologically genial New Jersey Democrat who preached love in his (mostly unloved) 2020 campaign could, if called to, knock a guy on his ass. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Nl504b

‌Why He’ll Surrender Soon

No one knows what Trump is going to do from minute to minute, least of all Trump. But it’s looking ever more likely he’ll be exiting Iran within days, declaring his “excursion” into it (as he’s termed his war) a major victory — and then changing the subject.

On Friday, Trump posted on his social media site that “we are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.”

Today, Monday, in a post written in all caps, Trump said the U.S. and Iran had “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.” He said “they want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal too.” - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/47fo0b4

‌Americans are still stuck in inflation's daily grind

Americans don’t need another inquiry into whether inflation is cooling. They can feel the answer in everyday life — the grocery run that’s finding new ways to drain their paycheck, the gas pump that’s wrecking moods before that first sip of coffee, the utility bill that’s sent with all the warmth of a collections notice. The hottest headlines — “Uh-oh, here comes INFLATION!!!” — may have cooled, but for many consumers, each day still feels like too much of a shakedown.

The average consumer is tired. Tired of spending too much on eggs, tired of pricing roulette, tired of the monthly bill stack, tired of ordinary life requiring this much math. The University of Michigan’s preliminary March sentiment reading fell to 55.5 — its lowest so far this year and down 2.6% from a year ago. And Bankrate’s latest emergency-savings report found that 54% of Americans are saving less for unexpected expenses because of inflation or rising prices; consumer prices overall are 26% higher than they were in December 2019. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4d1eP1u

‌Trump's attacks on Fed Chair Jerome Powell are backfiring

The White House could install a new Federal Reserve chair within months if a criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell launched by the Department of Justice was dropped. That's not happening.

Instead, both sides are digging in and ensuring a standoff with enormous significance for the future of monetary policy drags on with no end in sight. Powell's term might end on May 15 with him staying on as "chair pro tempore" — the opposite of what Trump set out to achieve.

The latest salvo came Thursday when Trump suggested Powell was engaged in "criminality" over ongoing renovations at the Fed's aging Washington headquarters. The president had long attacked Powell since last year over the Fed not slashing interest rates more quickly to accelerate economic growth.

"He’s a stubborn, incompetent person… and he may be a dishonest guy," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

But there are signs that Trump's long-running campaign to pressure the Fed into compliance is backfiring and throwing the confirmation of his Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh into limbo. - Quartz https://bit.ly/41n2BJk

‌Trump Has Made a Fundamental Miscalculation about Iran

I have plenty of complaints about the war I served in two decades ago: the Iraq war was ill-conceived, hubristic and marred by poor leadership at the highest level. But I did know why I was there. What exactly do our service members think we’re trying to do in Iran?

The justifications for the war have been stunningly incoherent. Maybe the war is about regime change, about Iran’s nuclear program, about the narrow military objectives of degrading their ballistic missile and drone capabilities, or perhaps it was because Israel was about to attack and we’d be at risk, or because the United States was under imminent threat from Iran, or to achieve peace in the Middle East, and so on. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4spikn7

‌Trump Has Detained the Parents of More Than 11,000 U.S. Citizen Kids

Incidents like this, involving the arrest and detention of immigrant parents with American citizen children, occurred twice as often after President Donald Trump returned to office, according to an analysis of a new nationwide Immigration and Customs Enforcement dataset shared exclusively with ProPublica. In the first seven months of his second term, authorities arrested and detained parents of at least 11,000 U.S. citizen children — a number that, if the pace held up, will have roughly doubled by now. That’s an average of more than 50 U.S. citizen kids a day with a parent pulled into detention. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4uN5UHp

‌ICE Is Deploying To Airports. TSA Agents Say Its a Bad Idea

Starting on Monday, the Trump administration will be sending ICE agents to airports across the country, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced on Sunday.

Funding for both ICE and TSA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, lapsed on February 14 after the Senate could not pass a funding bill for the Department.

Democrats have refused to sign off on a DHS funding bill without modest changes made to the rules governing ICE in its crackdown on immigrants, especially in light of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents.

The lapse in funding has put a huge financial strain on TSA workers who are expected to work without pay for the second time in six months, with the first one being during the longest full government shutdown in U.S. history.

A third of TSA agents working at half the busiest airports across the nation called out of work on Saturday. With airports working in reduced capacity, travelers have been met with incredibly long lines at security checkpoints. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3Nl6z23

Week Sixty-One: March 23 - March 29

‌American Aviation Is Near Collapse

The American commercial-aviation system is a modern marvel. On any day of the week, a passenger can get to and from nearly any two cities of decent size and to destinations on five other continents, for a relatively affordable price and with exceptional safety.

Or at least all of that was true until recently. Today, the system seems near collapse. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3NJvAnJ

Market fluctuates as Trump claims talks and Iran immediately denies it ‌

In recent days, markets have painted a picture of textbook panic. Gold just posted its worst weekly drop since 1983, erasing all of its 2026 gains. Brent crude briefly topped $110 a barrel, up more than 50% since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began in late last month. Across the globe, bond values have fallen by over $2.5 trillion, with yields spiking in turn, suggesting that markets broadly expect a sharp increase in inflation.

The cause of the panic is not mysterious. Goldman Sachs $GS -2.40% has called the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz the largest-ever “supply shock” to global crude markets. The IEA compared it to both 1970s oil crises and the 2022 Russia gas shock — combined. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4t9vHI8

‌Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran Was Almost Up. Then He Found an Offramp.

President Trump seized on initial contacts between Iranian and American officials to back away on Monday from his threat to strike power plants in Iran, declaring that the countries had begun “productive conversations” for the first time since the war began more than three weeks ago.

Iranian officials publicly denied that any negotiations about terms to end the war were underway, and American officials said the contacts were in a very early stage and not substantive. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dgjKvG

‌Trump, Who Calls Mail-in Voting ‘Cheating,’ Just Voted by Mail

President Trump, who has long railed against mail-in voting — including on Monday, when he called it “mail-in-cheating” — used the method himself in a Florida special election scheduled to take place on Tuesday.

According to voter records on the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections website, Mr. Trump voted by mail in Palm Beach County, home to his Mar-a-Lago Club. Records show he has been registered to vote there since 2019 — and that he mailed his ballot at least one other time, in 2020.

The website noted that Mr. Trump’s voter status was “by mail ballot” and that it had been counted in the special election that will determine whether Democrat Emily Gregory or Republican Jon Maples, whom Mr. Trump endorsed, will represent Mr. Trump’s district in the Florida state house. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4rZcdos

‌‘Don’t Make Any Deal’: Trump Tells Republicans to Hold Firm on Shutdown Talks

President Trump said on Monday that Republicans should stop negotiating with Democrats to end the partial government shutdown and instead focus on passing voting legislation, even as Transportation Security Administration agents work without paychecks and lines at some airports stretch for hours.

“I’m suggesting strongly to the Republican Party, don’t make any deal on anything,” Mr. Trump said during a crime reduction event in Memphis.

He suggested that he would use the standoff over funding for the Department of Homeland Security as leverage to pass his voter ID bill, which he says is necessary to combat voter fraud by noncitizens — something that is exceedingly rare. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41xF2xx

‌Letters from an American - March 23, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Shortly after the close of the U.S. stock market on Friday, President Donald J. Trump appeared to try to address the losses it had sustained since his February 28 attack on Iran by posting that the war was “winding down.” This reassurance appeared designed to calm market fears over the weekend.

But then, at 7:44 Saturday evening, Trump 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”

Aside from the fact that attacking civilian infrastructure is a war crime, this threat against Middle East oil infrastructure made the market teeter again, especially after Iran threatened to strike power plants in Israel and other Gulf states.

Then, at 7:23 this morning, Trump posted: “I AM PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, 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, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”

The five-day period in which Trump promised to hold off on this particular threat—the war itself continues—coincides with the days the stock market is open.

According to The Kobeissi Letter, which analyzes the stock market, the S&P 500 surged upward by 240 points. The price of Brent crude oil dropped to $96 a barrel.

Then Iran denied Trump’s claims and said its leaders had had “no direct or indirect contact” with Trump’s people. Iran’s foreign ministry suggested Trump was trying “to reduce energy prices and to buy time for implementing his military plans.” It said that countries in the region had approached Iran to begin negotiations and that “our response to all of them is clear: we are not the party that started this war, and all such requests should be directed to Washington.”

The S&P fell 120 points and the price of Brent crude rose to about $100 a barrel. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4m0br9A

‌A Report You Need to Read

The Wall Street Journal — hardly an outpost of left-wing propaganda — reported yesterday on the results of an investigation conducted by the Journal’s Hannah Critchfield and her team.

I’m summarizing it below because it deserves your attention.

Critchfield and her team found that 279 people have been accused online by the Trump administration of assaulting federal ICE and Border Patrol agents, and more than half of these people — 64 percent — are American citizens.

Of the 181 American citizens that the Trump administration has accused of attacking federal ICE and Border Patrol officers, close to half have never been charged, and none have been convicted at trial. But the public charges alone have caused them significant harm. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3NW0HMG

‌New wireless routers now banned from sale in the US, but you can still use yours

Almost every new wireless router for use in US homes is now banned from sale within the country under a new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling. - 9 to 5 Mac https://bit.ly/3NSoqxt

‌How an Afghan man who aided U.S. military forces died in ICE custody in Texas

Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, died March 14 in a Dallas hospital, the day after ICE arrested him outside his home. He was the 24th person to die in ICE custody since last October. - Houston Public Media https://bit.ly/48dviMC

‌Trump is paying a French energy giant $1 billion to ditch wind for gas

French energy company TotalEnergies has agreed to abandon two Atlantic offshore wind projects after the Trump administration offered to buy out its federal leases for close to $1 billion, with the money to be redirected into fossil fuel development.

The agreement covers two lease areas — one off the New York coast and one off North Carolina — that TotalEnergies acquired during the Biden years. The federal government will reimburse the company $928 million, the amount it originally paid to acquire those leases, according to the Guardian. Developers had estimated the combined output of the two wind farms at over 4 gigawatts. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4bCIaOJ

‌Minnesota sues Trump administration over evidence related to shootings, including deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good

Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for access to evidence they say they need to independently investigate three shootings by federal officers, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

The lawsuit claims that the federal government reneged on its promise to cooperate with state investigations after the surge of federal law enforcement in Minneapolis, and are seeking a court order demanding that the Trump administration comply.

“We are prepared to fight for transparency and accountability that the federal government is desperate to avoid,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty told reporters. - CNN https://cnn.it/4lWkd8t

‌The economic risks of the U.S. war on Iran just keep mounting

As the U.S.-Israel war on Iran stretches into its fourth week, the economic damage is quickly accumulating, darkening the global economic picture. Energy-industry CEOs are just one party among many warning that most people still haven't yet grasped the full scale.

On Monday, the national average gas price hit $3.97, up from $2.92 just one month ago — a 36% increase in 30 days. As of Tuesday morning, Brent crude is trading at around $98 a barrel, up a staggering 63% since the year began. This makes it an extra interesting time for the CERAWeek energy conference to kick off in Houston this week. Widely considered the Davos of the energy markets, the conference is put on by S&P Global $SPGI -1.51% and draws the leading lights of energy markets, typically including the heads of Aramco, Chevron $CVX +1.62%, ExxonMobil $XOM +3.36%, all major national oil companies, the IEA, and OPEC, as well as U.S. energy officials.

The fact that the Saudi Aramco CEO and UAE minister both canceled their appearances this year to deal with the war fallout is itself newsworthy, signaling how serious the situation is. When the people who would normally be keynoting the world's biggest energy conference are too busy managing a crisis to attend, that’s a major indicator of disruption in the field.

But that’s also just the tip of the iceberg — or the oil field, said speakers who were able to keep their conference schedules intact. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4ccbUSD

‌Around 2,000 U.S. Paratroopers to Be Sent to the Middle East

The Pentagon has ordered about 2,000 soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to begin moving to the Middle East to give President Trump additional military options even as he weighs a new diplomatic initiative with Iran, two Defense Department officials said on Tuesday.

The combat forces would come from the division’s “Immediate Response Force,” a brigade of about 3,000 soldiers capable of deploying anywhere in the world within 18 hours. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PzWzmd

‌The U.S. Said It Helped Bomb a Drug Camp. It Was a Dairy Farm.

The military strike appears to have destroyed a cattle and dairy farm, not a drug trafficking compound, according to interviews with the farm’s owner, four of its workers, human rights lawyers and residents and leaders in San Martín, the remote farming village in northern Ecuador where the strike took place. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uRqAhn

‌New York Times Accuses Pentagon of Defying Court Order

The New York Times accused the Defense Department on Tuesday of defying a federal court ruling that had declared major parts of the department’s press rules unconstitutional.

The company said in a legal filing that the department sought to fashion an “end run” when it issued revised media rules on Monday.

The revised policy, The Times said, was “nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to flout this court’s ruling and prevent journalists and news organizations whose editorial viewpoints defendants dislike from engaging in independent, protected news gathering and reporting at the Pentagon.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m7fzof

Senate Democrats Urge Kennedy to Stop Hindering Key Health Panel ‌

Nineteen senators sent a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday, urging him to stop hindering the work of a key preventive health panel.

The group, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, normally meets three times a year to make recommendations on preventive health services like mammograms and diabetes screenings. Those recommendations have a huge effect on Americans’ access to health care because almost all insurance plans are required to cover services that the panel recommends. - NYT https://nyti.ms/48h2MtB

‌The One Question Trump’s Judicial Picks Refuse to Answer

A vivid illustration of the way that President Trump has degraded the nation’s political discourse will be on view when the Senate Judiciary Committee holds its next hearing on Wednesday on his nominees to the federal courts. As has become his custom, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, will ask prospective judges virtually the same simple question and will, in all likelihood, receive virtually the same astonishing answer in return.

In one recent enactment of the ritual, Mr. Blumenthal asked Andrew Davis, a nominee to the Western District Court in Texas, the question, which concerned the presidential election of 2020: “Who won the popular vote in 2020?”

“Senator, in 2020, President Biden was certified and served four years as president,” Mr. Davis said.

The other witnesses on the panel, all nominees to federal judgeships, answered the same way. They said Mr. Biden was “certified” the winner in 2020, but none would acknowledge either that Mr. Biden actually won the election or that Mr. Trump lost it. Since Mr. Blumenthal and others began asking versions of the same question, 37 and counting of President Trump’s nominees to the federal bench have recited the “certified” catechism or merely stated that Mr. Biden “served” as president, thus refusing to state or by extension acknowledge the fact of Mr. Biden’s victory in 2020. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PBs0fT

‌Iran’s ‘Nuclear’ Option

There are two obvious reasons to have a nuclear weapon. The first is to dominate or overawe your nonnuclear-armed neighbors, to make them submit to you because they fear incineration at your hands. The second is defensive — to deter a more powerful enemy from attacking you, to persuade them that the price of their victory will be too awful to be borne.

The American and Israeli war against Iran is motivated by a fear of the first scenario — a Middle East remade by Iranian nuclear blackmail. But the conflict to date has made the second scenario more relevant, by demonstrating that Iran already possesses a kind of nuclear-esque deterrent, a credible threat of mass destruction that may place limits on what its opponents can reasonably risk. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PyOdva

‌America Has Become a Dangerous Nation

We had a good run — some eight decades or so — but it is clear by now that the United States has ceased to be the leader of the free world. A successor for that post has not been named, and it appears unlikely that the European Union, or NATO, or whatever constitutes “the West” these days will promote from within. The job might even be eliminated, one more reduction in force courtesy of President Trump.

Rather than leading the free world, the United States is striding across the globe seemingly free of restraint, forethought or strategy, exerting its power because it can. In a matter of months, the Trump administration has captured Venezuela’s president and tossed him into jail in Brooklyn and has pummeled Iran’s theocratic leadership in a war that is ricocheting across the Middle East and upending the global economy; now the president says he will have “the honor of taking Cuba” next. Trump in his second term is like Michael Corleone in “The Godfather,” settling all the family business. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3O2LWrD

‌Republicans Are Quietly Throwing Trump Under the Bus

Everyone knows that the key to surviving the first electoral backlash every presidency receives is by telling voters to not reelect members of your own party. It’s just smart politics.

“It’s something that I think there is almost unanimous agreement among Republicans on the policy,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said the day after Trump posted this edict. “But the idea that we have to guarantee its passage in order to fund the government, I think you all know that’s not realistic.”

That, my friends, is the Republican atop the Congressional food chain publicly telling the president that his demands are “not realistic.” You can coat yourself in as cynical a shell as you want and believe that Teflon Don is invincible and nothing ever happens, but we are a little less than eight months out from an election Republicans look increasingly distressed about, and we have already reached the “the president is to blame” stage of this mess. One of the best ways to have hope in this age of hopelessness is to remember 2006 and 2008, and understand that the dumbest Republicans you have ever seen in your life completely wrecking the entire world do actually face consequences sometimes. I can feel 2006 around the corner. I can smell it on the air. It’s coming with a 20th anniversary present, and Republicans can feel it too. - Jezebel https://bit.ly/4uWiF2n

‌Letters from an American - March 24, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

This morning, economist Paul Krugman came right out and said it: “People close to Trump are trading based on national secrets.” Another word for that, he said, is “treason.” The evidence for such a claim is the sudden and isolated jump in trading volume in S&P 500 and oil futures about 15 minutes before Trump suddenly announced that the U.S. and Iran were in negotiations to end the war—an announcement that turned out to be false.

The oil futures trade alone was worth about $580 million, the Financial Times estimated. As Krugman notes, exploiting confidential information for financial gain, otherwise known as “insider trading,” is illegal. But exploiting confidential information about national security for private financial gain is something else again. It puts profit-making above Americans’ safety.

“I’d very much like to know exactly who was making those trades yesterday morning,” Krugman wrote. “Were they people directly in the know, or billionaires/traders who paid people in the know for tips?” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4bR4Uct

‌Is Trump's team abandoning its original goals in Iran?

The Trump administration is moving the goalposts for what they'd consider a victory in the Iran war, the clearest sign yet that President Donald Trump and his team knows they need to make it look like starting the conflict wasn’t a massive blunder.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that no longer do U.S. security officials believe that Trump’s war will ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon. Neither do security officials believe the war will rid the adversarial country of its oppressive theocratic regime, which has subjugated women and violently cracked down on dissent.

Instead, The Washington Post reported that the administration's new objective for the war is to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz oil passageway, the closure of which has led to global oil shortages and has caused gas prices to rise by an average of more than $1 per gallon in the U.S. over the past month. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3Q5lG0g

‌Trump Cannot See That the Opposition Is Real

If you can set aside both the unconstitutionality and the immorality of President Trump’s unprovoked war on Iran and focus on the operation itself, it is hard not to be bewildered by the utter lack of real planning or even basic strategic thinking that has gone into it.

Trump and his aides, according to recent reporting, did not plan for Iran to target shipping and close the Strait of Hormuz. They also do not seem to have planned for serious and sustained retaliation against America’s gulf state allies. They did not plan for an energy crisis and the potential disruption to the global economy, and they did not plan for America’s European allies to, by and large, reject their call for support.

To read about the administration’s decision-making process is to learn that it did not really plan for or expect much in the way of anything that now defines the war. This raises two obvious questions: What did they plan for? And what exactly did they expect to happen? - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tfh2LF

‌Trump claimed talks happened. Iran denied them. But the discrepancies go even deeper.

On Monday morning, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social in all caps that “The United States of America, and the country of Iran, have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities.”

That is, he claimed direct talks between the two countries. He further claimed that resolution was at hand. Stock-market futures jumped wildly on the supposed news.

Trump’s post continued to say that that he had "instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions."

Thirty minutes later, sources in Iran flatly denied any talks had taken place. - Quartz https://bit.ly/484fpIr

‌More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.

When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned.

“If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.”

But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.

About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones. - ProPublica https://is.gd/0l8CtY

‌Men propelled Trump to the White House. Now they're turning on him.

President Donald Trump's job approval rating is now at the lowest level of his second term, but beyond that topline is an even grimmer reality for Trump and the Republican Party: Men, the lifeblood of the GOP coalition, are souring on the president.

As Americans express frustration with the struggling economy and his military quagmire in Iran, Trump’s approval rating is now 16 percentage points underwater, according to The New York Times’ polling average.

And multiple new polls show Trump now underwater with men, a group that backed him by a 12-point margin in 2024, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Trump’s high support among men helped him overcome the gender gap, in which women voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris by a smaller 7-point spread.

If men shift away from Trump—even modestly—it could be devastating for his party in the November midterm elections. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3O9SO6x

‌Trump’s new Homeland Security chief is worse than you thought

After an embarrassing confirmation hearing, GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma was appointed Homeland Security Secretary Monday night, replacing the catastrophically corrupt Kristi Noem.

Like his boss, Mullin first gained political attention as a promoter of the racist birther conspiracy theory, and he hasn’t built a better reputation since. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3O4DvMs

‌Gregory Bovino’s Final Days: Harsh Words and Few Regrets

Gregory Bovino has only a few regrets.

“I wish I’d caught even more illegal aliens,” he said in a recent interview. “I mean, we went as hard as we could, but there’s always a creative and innovative solution to catching even more.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sOAChV

‌Inside the Turmoil at RFK Jr.’s CDC, as Told by Current and Former Employees

(Summary)

The Trump administration’s first week in office brought significant changes to the CDC, including the removal of references to diversity, equity, and inclusion from the agency’s website. This led to confusion and delays in public health programs, as staff members were unsure of how to proceed. The administration also imposed strict communication guidelines, limiting CDC staff’s ability to engage with the public and hindering their ability to respond to public health emergencies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dQdTgJ

‌Whatever happens with the SAVE America Act, here’s what happens next

The White House is pressuring Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, the omnibus voter suppression bill that aims to swing the midterms by mass-disenfranchising voters.

To say Trump is obsessed with this bill is perhaps an understatement. Just this week, the White House has fomented airport chaos by blocking TSA funding as leverage to try to jam the SAVE America Act through, told senators to skip Easter to pass it “for Jesus,” and argued “we won’t have a Country any longer” if it fails. (All while voting by mail himself in Tuesday’s special elections in Florida.)

The SAVE America Act is going to fail. It doesn’t have anywhere close to 60 votes to clear the filibuster. So why is the president pushing so hard?

Trump is obsessed because, at its core, the SAVE America Act is not just an election subversion strategy in itself. It is also part of a pretext for a much broader strategy to undermine the midterms. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/41uXiYu

‌A new nightmare awaits Americans at the airport

American citizens who thought they were immune from reckoning with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been rudely awakened by the newest travel nightmare: ICE is in the airport.

As if the prospect of playing high-altitude roulette weren’t stressful enough, now some of the nation’s busiest airports are staffed by ICE agents, purportedly to fill gaps left by more than 450 Transportation Security Administration officers who, largely unpaid since mid-February, have called it quits and gone home. As of Monday, more than 3,200 TSA officers, or nearly 11 percent of the force, didn’t show up for work. Those still at their jobs are working without pay — and we thank you for your service. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4lU2v5o

‌War with Iran drives US mortgage rates higher for fourth-straight week

The US housing market was supposed to turn a corner this year, but economic uncertainty and a jump in mortgage rates fueled by the US-Israeli war in Iran are complicating affordability for American homebuyers.

After years of sluggish sales, economists expected 2026 to bring lower mortgage rates and more homes for sale, breathing new life into the market after home transactions fell to 30-year lows last year.

But the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.38% this week, climbing for the fourth-straight week to levels not seen in more than six months, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac.

It’s the largest one-week jump in mortgage rates since April 2025, when markets were rattled due to President Donald Trump’s initial tariff announcement. - CNN https://cnn.it/3O2MYnv

‌Trump says it's up to Iran to convince US to end the war

President Donald Trump cast doubt on the prospect of a peace deal with Iran, warning Thursday that it’s up to Iranian leaders to convince him to halt the war.

“They are begging to work out a deal,” Trump said. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that. I don’t know if we’re willing to do that.” - CNN https://cnn.it/410Vc2j

‌Where Trump Has Installed Election Deniers in Government

His administration is stocked with people who have questioned the legitimacy of elections, including some who have claimed that the 2020 presidential race was stolen. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PBttmp

‌Critics Have a New Way to Describe the Trump Administration

Critics have used many phrases to describe Donald Trump’s presidency, some of them unprintable. Scholars and journalists have debated whether Trump’s approach is “authoritarian,” “white supremacist,” or “fascist.” More recently, however, a growing number of people have begun referring to the “Trump regime.”

“The Trump regime has proven over and over,” The New Republic’s Michael Tomasky wrote, that its morality is “the advantage of the stronger.” A fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute complained that oversight tools “were effectively destroyed by the Trump regime last year.” And a writer for The Nation called for Democrats to “launch a ‘Nuremberg Caucus’ to investigate the crimes of the Trump regime.”

Google Trends shows that although the phrase was occasionally deployed during Trump’s first term, it has become far more common over the past year. These usages are meant to tell us something about the state of contemporary politics in the United States—although exactly what is not always clear. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4dgn8Xq

‌Yes, It’s Fascism

Over Trump’s past year, what originally looked like an effort to make the government his personal plaything has drifted distinctly toward doctrinal and operational fascism. Trump’s appetite for lebensraum, his claim of unlimited power, his support for the global far right, his politicization of the justice system, his deployment of performative brutality, his ostentatious violation of rights, his creation of a national paramilitary police—all of those developments bespeak something more purposeful and sinister than run-of-the-mill greed or gangsterism.

When the facts change, I change my mind. Recent events have brought Trump’s governing style into sharper focus. Fascist best describes it, and reluctance to use the term has now become perverse. That is not because of any one or two things he and his administration have done but because of the totality. Fascism is not a territory with clearly marked boundaries but a constellation of characteristics. When you view the stars together, the constellation plainly appears. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4rW8Xu9

‌RFK Jr. Is Losing His Grip on the CDC

Today, Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya said something that no other prominent health leader in the Trump administration has. “I think it is vital that every kid in this country get the measles vaccine. Absolutely vital,” he told CDC staff at a meeting this morning.

That declaration went further than Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s previous tepid endorsement of the vaccine did—and is in line with what past CDC directors have said about immunization. In fact, the whole point of the meeting seemed to be to signal a turn toward normalcy, away from the more extreme elements of Kennedy’s agenda. Bhattacharya told the CDC’s beleaguered employees that the agency needed to “move on” from the chaos of the past year. He encouraged employees to “remove politics” from their work and “focus on what we know how to do.” He echoed Kennedy’s slogan while acknowledging the limits of his position, but also seemed to contradict it, saying, “You can’t just snap your fingers and make people healthy again.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tbWTpD

‌Early Wildfires Are Surging Across the US—and Trump’s New Fire Agency Isn’t Ready

It’s not even April, and large wildfires are already erupting across the United States, marking an early start to what experts warn could be one of the worst fire seasons on record. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s new wildfire agency is still coalescing, raising concerns about federal preparedness. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/41yD3sR

‌Trump says he will sign order instructing DHS to "immediately pay” TSA agents

President Donald Trump said today that he is instructing the Department of Homeland Security to “immediately pay” Transportation Security Administration agents in a bid to reduce long lines at airports.

“I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports,” the president wrote on Truth Social. - CNN https://cnn.it/4rYAdYY

‌Trump Says He Will Order T.S.A. Agents Paid as Funding Deal Stalls

President Trump said on Thursday that he would sign an emergency order to pay Transportation Security Administration agents who have gone without compensation for weeks, as senators struggled to strike a homeland security funding deal that could end the intensifying crisis at airports.

Mr. Trump did not provide any details, but the administration was expected to use funds provided to the Department of Homeland Security last year as part of his tax cut and domestic policy law, according to a senior administration official and another person familiar with the plan, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it.

No executive order, emergency or otherwise, would be required to access those funds, which were enacted into law last summer, but Mr. Trump appeared eager to claim credit for releasing them. It was not clear why he had waited more than five weeks after the Department of Homeland Security was shuttered to direct that they be used to pay T.S.A. employees. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bRn9id

‌No way out?

“I’m the opposite of desperate,” Donald Trump said Thursday. “I don’t care.”

The president is fuming at reports that he’s fixated on a way to get out of the war on Iran.

But Trump doth protest too much. It's obvious he's grappling for an exit after breaking a cardinal presidential rule: Don't launch new wars without defining how they will end.

Trump's war leadership has been plagued by contradictions, threats, red lines and deadlines. He incessantly declares that the war is won — but if that's the case, why is he sending thousands of US troops to the Middle East?

And he’s constantly insisting that Iran wants a deal, though the Islamic Republic — which seems to enjoy holding the global economy hostage after closing the Strait of Hormuz — keeps rebuffing his demands. - CNN https://cnn.it/4sA5YbT

‌The War With Iran Is Exposing Big Problems for the Military

American and Israeli operations over Iran have been, on the whole, remarkably effective and efficient. Whether they will bring about the desired ends (assuming both countries have a clear idea of what those ends should be) is uncertain. But the lessons drawn even from success should be sobering. A war against a more capable opponent, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, could be far, far more painful than this one. John Paul Jones famously declared that he intended to sail into harm’s way, and then he did, winning an epic sea fight but losing his ship, the Bonhomme Richard. His successors must be robustly equipped to dare, and if necessary suffer losses, in the same way. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lYMlYK

‌US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting for now

A U.S. judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over ‌AI safety on the battlefield.

Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. - Reuters https://reut.rs/3NtTnbe

‌Trump’s Signature Is Set to Be Added to America’s Currency

President Trump’s signature will appear on U.S. dollars later this year, the Treasury Department said on Thursday. The decision to have Mr. Trump’s John Hancock on America’s paper currency represented an unprecedented change, one that the department said was being made in honor of the United States’ 250th anniversary.

Mr. Trump is set to become the first sitting U.S. president to have his signature on the greenback. His name will appear alongside that of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. As a result, the U.S. treasurer, whose name has been on the currency for more than a century, will not appear on the currency. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47ZAKTi

‌Standoff With Iran Raises Fresh Doubts About Trump’s Freestyle Diplomacy

President Trump’s war with Iran is testing the limits of his unorthodox diplomatic style as he grasps for a deal to end the conflict shaking the Middle East and the global economy.

As the war stretches longer than Mr. Trump seems to have anticipated, he appears to be casting about for a diplomatic offramp even as he threatens to escalate the conflict.

In a social media post on Thursday, Mr. Trump seemed confounded by the challenge, calling Iranian officials “very different and ‘strange’” and claiming that they were “begging” for a deal while insisting that they “better get serious soon.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PyQWoo

‌‘Because I’m President’: Trump Defends His Use of Mail Voting

President Trump on Thursday defended his use of mail-in voting, saying he cast a ballot by mail recently “because I’m president” and “I had a lot of different things” to do, even as he tries to restrict the practice for most Americans.

Mr. Trump voted by mail in a special election in Florida this week, despite previously saying that mail-in voting amounted to “cheating.” Mr. Trump has called for some exceptions to allow for the practice, such as when voters are ill, disabled, traveling or in the military. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dlPrDX

‌D.H.S. Funding Lapse Leads to Longest Partial Shutdown in History

What began as a budget stalemate in February has become the longest partial shutdown on record, which has frozen funds for the Department of Homeland Security for more than a month. If the shutdown continues after this weekend, it will be longer than any previous shutdown, partial or full. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bR7W0l

‌Judge Stays Pentagon’s Labeling of Anthropic as ‘Supply Chain Risk’

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily stopped the Department of Defense from labeling Anthropic as a security risk, in a reprieve for the artificial intelligence start-up and its work with the federal government.

In a scathing 43-page ruling, Judge Rita F. Lin of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said Anthropic would not be restricted from continuing with its federal contracts for now. The ruling is not a final decision, as the case continues.

“The record supports an inference that Anthropic is being punished for criticizing the government’s contracting position in the press,” Judge Lin wrote in the order granting the preliminary injunction against the government. “Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lXQ8Wc

‌The Trail of Clues Leading to Iran That Binance Missed

The world’s largest crypto exchange is under fire after investigators found accounts moving $1.7 billion to entities linked to Iran. Clues about those accounts were in plain sight for over a year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PC17bI

‌It’s Not Trump. It’s America.

Like a lot of other Americans, I’ve oscillated in these dark times between two emotional poles. At points, I tell myself that Donald Trump is a uniquely malevolent figure who has seized levers of power that no previous president had ever dared to grasp. The story doesn’t stop state violence in the streets or illegal military operations abroad. Yet it has its comforts. Once Trump passes from the scene — as the laws of nature, if not politics, require — some kind of restoration of the American democratic and constitutional project can take place.

On darker days, I find myself turning to a more thoroughgoing narrative: that Trump is the fulfillment of what America has always been — a self-satisfied nation, granted license by its myths about providence and exceptionalism to do whatever it wants. Trump didn’t come from nowhere, after all. His two victories were forged by choices made by Americans and the leaders they elected. If he had not existed, history would have invented someone like him. This explanation offers its own consolation. At least it is something a rational mind can grasp. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47wHSX7

‌As RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine ways turn toxic to GOP, CDC director is hard to find

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t had a director since August, and now it’s without even a temporary one after the Trump administration blew through a federal deadline on Wednesday to nominate someone for the permanent role.

According to federal law, there’s a 210-day limit on a Senate-confirmed position being filled by someone in an acting capacity. The clock started when anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Susan Monarez from her Senate-confirmed role as CDC director in late August—allegedly after she refused to rubber-stamp changes to CDC vaccine recommendations. Until yesterday, Jay Bhattacharya, who heads the National Institutes of Health, had stepped in to also be the acting director of the CDC. But he can no longer hold the position officially.

The void of leadership comes as the Trump administration is working to restrain Kennedy after finding his relentless anti-vaccine agenda is widely unpopular and potentially harmful to Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4s6JQoB

‌Senate unanimously moves to fund most of DHS, except ICE and border patrol, in rare overnight session

The Senate unanimously moved to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and part of Customs and Border Protection, in a rare overnight session.

The agreement would fund other parts of the department, such as the Transportation Security Administration and US Coast Guard, but the House will need to act before funded agencies within the department can reopen. The move is meant to alleviate long lines at airports, while lawmakers continue to debate possible reforms to federal immigration enforcement. - CNN https://cnn.it/4tiGoIA

‌The Third Gulf War Follows Directly From the Last Two

Time has a way of compressing history. The Hundred Years’ War was a series of three separate wars that must have felt as distinct to its contemporaries as the World Wars feel to us now. But those three wars were a long time ago, so we lump them together into one conflict. Besides, we are wise. We have seen the direction of History and know they were all fought over the unresolved question of England’s rivalry with France.

I suspect future historians will apply the same compression to the three Gulf Wars of the unipolar era. While 1991, 2003, and 2026 are distinct in many ways, they all revolve around repeated attempts by the hegemon to impose its order on a region that it appears to understand less and less each time. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/47qarWm

‌The Countdown to a Ground War

Donald Trump announced this week that the United States and Iran had made significant progress in negotiations, and he was allowing five days to reach a deal. Tehran denied that it was talking with Washington at all. This is not, in any meaningful sense, a negotiation: It is a countdown.

The timing is not coincidental. Thousands of Marines and much of the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne are en route to the Middle East. Trump may intend the talks to act as cover for an escalation decision already made. Even if he doesn’t, the structural reality is the same: When the deadline expires, he will be close to having significant ground-combat capability in the region and a collapsing diplomatic process to justify using it.

The gap between the two sides makes the collapse of talks likely. The American framework is, in essence, a demand for Iran’s surrender. The administration’s 15-point proposal, delivered to Iran via Pakistan, requires Tehran to dismantle its entire uranium-enrichment infrastructure, surrender its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, sever all ties with proxy forces across the region, and accept strict limits on its conventional military. In exchange, Washington is offering sanctions relief and support for a civilian nuclear-energy program. The proposal is very similar to the deal that the United States put on the table before the bombing campaign began.

Iran’s counter-framework reflects a regime that does not believe it is losing. Tehran is demanding binding guarantees that neither the United States nor Israel will strike again, reparations for the damage already inflicted, and formal recognition of its control over the Strait of Hormuz. On enrichment and proxies, Iranian negotiators have shown no willingness to move. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/47v8IyT

‌‘Just drinking the Kool-Aid’: Inside the White House divide on Iran

Nearly one month after the U.S. began strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump is sending thousands of troops to the Middle East to potentially fight in a war he said he has “already won.”

That contradiction has frustrated some senior White House aides and outside allies, three of whom spoke to MS NOW about the president’s public messaging. They described it as confusing, internally inconsistent and increasingly detached from battlefield reality.

Trump calling the war already won is “mostly hyperbole,” said a senior White House official granted anonymity to speak candidly about the administration’s thinking. “It’s part [of Trump] just wanting to declare victory and move on.”

That impulse, the official said, has become more pronounced in recent days.

“[Trump] is getting a little bored with Iran,” the official said. “Not that he regrets it or something — he’s just bored and wants to move on.”

A second White House official who was granted anonymity for the same reason said that Trump has begun to “move on” from the conflict and has started shifting conversations and personal focus toward the economy, domestic issues and the upcoming midterm elections.

The White House’s public communications have suggested a similar detachment, presenting the conflict less as an ongoing war with human lives at stake and more as a cultural moment that generates online content.

That has emerged as a major, if mostly quiet, point of dissension among White House staffers and Trump allies. - MS NOW https://bit.ly/4bWvMbi

‌Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals, a highly unusual move that has prompted some senior military officials to question whether the officers are being singled out because of their race or gender.

Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials said.

Mr. Hegseth had been pressing senior Army leaders, including Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, for months to remove the officers’ names, military officials said. But Mr. Driscoll, citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused.

Earlier this month, Mr. Hegseth broke the logjam by unilaterally striking the officers’ names from the list, though it is not clear he has the legal authority to do so. The list is currently being reviewed by the White House, which is expected to send it to the Senate for final approval. A few female and Black officers remain on the list, military officials said.

It is exceedingly rare that a one-star list draws such intense scrutiny from a defense secretary. The battle highlights the bitter rifts opened by Mr. Hegseth’s campaign to reverse policies that he says are prejudiced against white officers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4syzGy0

‌U.S. uses hundreds of Tomahawk missiles on Iran, alarming some at Pentagon

The U.S. military has fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in four weeks of war with Iran, burning through the precision weapons at a rate that has alarmed some Pentagon officials and prompted internal discussions about how to make more available, said people familiar with the matter. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3PtNf3k

‌Biden’s Save student loan plan is dead. Borrowers will have to quickly pivot.

The Trump administration is giving student loan borrowers enrolled in a Biden-era repayment plan an ultimatum: switch to another federal plan or automatically be placed in the most expensive one.

There are more than 7 million people in the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, commonly known as Save, which offers lower monthly payments and a faster path to loan forgiveness than other income-driven repayment plans. Nearly half of those borrowers have incomes that are low enough to qualify for zero-dollar monthly payments. If they fail to act, their loans will be moved to the standard plan with fixed payments over 10 years, which could lead to whopping increases in their monthly bills. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4lWxxd9

‌Iran images appear to show land mines scattered by U.S. forces, a first in years

Images posted to social media Thursday show what experts said are U.S. land mines dispersed across a residential area in southern Iran, in what appears to be the first instance in more than two decades of American forces using the weapons. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4bRaA6h

‌Trump imagines negotiation with Sharpie maker for $5 signature pens

Trump told a lengthy story about negotiating over the price of Sharpie pens. The company says it has no record of any such conversation. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4tiGujt

‌Once again, Trump claims victory in Iran war, while Iran war drags on

It's becoming a familiar spectacle. Major stock-market index futures are down, with the S&P 500 set to open down 0.7% and the Dow down 300 points. With the market a few hours from its official open, Trump takes to Truth Social to make strongly worded victory-is-nigh claims about the war with Iran. At the same time, news reports point to a deepening quagmire with few or no viable off-ramps. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4uXXWeD

‌All the Justice and FBI employees who investigated Trump have left, deputy attorney general boasts

Every Justice Department or FBI employee who worked on the criminal investigations into President Donald Trump has been fired, resigned, or took early retirement, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Thursday.

“There is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions,” Blanche said during a fireside chat at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.

At the Justice Department, Blanche said, that number amounts to “over 200” people. CNN has not independently verified that number. - CNN https://cnn.it/47tZR0s

‌Funding for TSA workers likely to come from Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, sources say

President Donald Trump plans to pay Transportation Security Administration workers who are going without paychecks by using funding from the sweeping legislation he signed last year known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, according to two people familiar with the plans. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Nx4d09

‌The Catastrophe of Trump’s War

Sorry to intrude on you again, but as we near the end of the fourth week of Trump’s war with no end in sight, I want to make sure you are aware of what he said today, and its implications.

After Tehran dismissed his 15-point ceasefire plan, Trump claimed today that Iran is “begging to make a deal” and that he wasn’t the one pushing for negotiations. (Earlier, he told Tehran to “get serious soon” about negotiating an end to the war.)

“They’ll tell you, ‘We’re not negotiating,’” Trump said. “Of course, they’re negotiating. They’ve been obliterated.” He said Iran is allowing some oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as a “present” to show how serious it is about negotiating to end the war.

He rejected reports that he was looking for an exit ramp. “I read a story today that I’m desperate to make a deal,” Trump told reporters. “I’m the opposite of desperate. I don’t care.”

Is he naive? Ignorant? Stupid? Or does he think we’re so stupid as not to see that he’s making this up as he goes, that he has no plan, no exit strategy, no way out?

Trump — and Pete Hegseth and anyone else who may be advising him — have already blown this. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/40WxMv4

‌Letters from an American - March 25, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Yesterday Trump told reporters that Iran “gave us a present and the present arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money,” he said. “It wasn’t nuclear-related, it was oil and gas-related,” he added.

Today Katherine Doyle, Courtney Kube, and Dan De Luce of NBC News reported that U.S. military officials have kept Trump up to date on events in the war on Iran by showing him a two-minute montage video of “the biggest, most successful strikes on Iranian targets over the previous 48 hours,” or, as one put it: “stuff blowing up.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4uUN4y4

‌Letters from an American - March 26, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Singapore’s minister for foreign affairs, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, put in bald language the change in the world order instigated by President Donald J. Trump.

“For 80 years,” Balakrishnan explained, “the US was the underwriter for a system of globalisation based on UN Charter principles, multilateralism, territorial integrity, sovereign equality.” That system “heralded an unprecedented and unique period of global prosperity and peace. Of course there were exceptions. And of course, the Cold War was still in effect for at least half of the last 80 years. But generally, for those of us who were non-communists, who ran open economies, who provided first world infrastructure, together with a hardworking disciplined people, we had unprecedented opportunities.

“The story of Singapore, with a per capita GDP of 500 US dollars in 1965. Now, [it is] somewhere between 80,000 to 90,000 US dollars. It would not have happened if it had not been for this unprecedented period, basically Pax Americana and then turbocharged by the reform and opening of China for decades. It has been unprecedented. It has been great for many of us. In fact, I will say, for all of us, if you look back 80 years.

“But now, whether you like it or not, objectively, this period has ended…. Basically, the underwriter of this world order has now become a revisionist power, and some people would even say a disruptor. But the larger point is that the erosion of norms, processes, and institutions that underpinned a remarkable period of peace and prosperity; that foundation has gone.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4bNghDP

‌What the Markets Tell Trump

On Friday, after almost a full month of bombing Iran, Donald Trump offered a glimpse of the end. American military operations in the country, he said, could soon be “winding down.” A day later, he swerved, giving Iran an ultimatum: Should its leaders refuse to lift their effective blockade on the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, unfreezing much of the world’s oil, he would “obliterate” the nation’s energy infrastructure. Then, yesterday morning, another swerve: Following “productive” diplomatic talks, Trump would postpone the deadline until Friday. Never mind the fact that Iran has denied that any such talks took place.

The president hasn’t always been clear about what he wants from this war—or how he plans to mitigate the energy crisis it has created. At one point, he suggested that the spike in oil prices might actually be a good thing, because “we” could stand to “make a lot of money.” That’s true for oil producers, although not exactly a counter to all of the negative effects of a global energy shock. But the timing of this ultimatum and the timing of its subsequent deferral are revealing in their own way. Oil-futures markets don’t trade from Friday to Sunday evening. Because Trump’s threat to Iran arrived on a Saturday night, speculators had a short buffer—a little less than a day—to assess the potential price impact before trading resumed. And the reprieve, which lasts exactly five days, will conclude as markets head into the weekend pause. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4t6gEyM

‌Is Trump Actually Having ‘Very Good’ Talks With Tehran?

Early this morning, with Asian markets sharply down and oil tankers idling in the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump offered Iranian leaders a familiar mix of threats but also a reprieve. What had been, only days earlier, a 48-hour ultimatum—reopen the strait or face the destruction of energy infrastructure—softened into something more elastic: a five-day extension for what he described as “very good and productive” talks with Tehran.

The contours of the talks were not immediately clear, though Trump suggested while leaving Palm Beach this morning that both he and “the ayatollah, whoever the ayatollah is” should control the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. He boasted of “major points of agreement” and assured reporters that Iran, like the United States, wants “very much to make a deal.” Otherwise, he added, “we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.”

It was, by his telling, progress. By Tehran’s account, it was fiction. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4uZbFln

‌Pete Hegseth turns the bigot spigot to full gush

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just blocked the promotion of two Black and two female Army officers to the rank of one-star general. Now, it isn’t clear our boy Pete even has the authority to do this, but steely man of merit that he is, he did it anyway. Bold man, bold action, bold racism.

Per The New York Times, Hegseth had been haranguing Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll to remove the four names, presumably for the crime of being Not Pete Hegseth. However, Driscoll refused time after time.

In case you’re wondering if Driscoll is some woke diversity hire placed in the military by the deep state, just know that he got the gig because he knows Vice President JD Vance and worked on President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. But Driscoll isn’t nearly as much of a failure as Hegseth, so he apparently wasn’t threatened by the mere prospect of a non-white, non-male person getting a star.

However, Driscoll was already crosswise with Hegseth’s chief of staff, Ricky Buria, because Driscoll had the unmitigated gall to choose a Black woman, Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, to command the Washington military district. Buria reportedly told Driscoll that Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3O4JYHe

‌Judge Agrees to Drop Charges Against Officers in Breonna Taylor’s Death

A federal judge agreed to drop the remaining criminal charges against two Louisville, Ky., police officers who were involved in drafting the no-knock search warrant that led to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by police officers in 2020.

Judge Charles R. Simpson III of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky approved a request by the Justice Department to dismiss the charges with prejudice — meaning that the two officers, Kyle Meany and Joshua Jaynes, cannot be charged in the same case later. He made the ruling in a one-page order, without explanation.

Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency room worker, was watching movies in the apartment she shared with her boyfriend when plainclothes officers battered down the door looking for illegal drugs. Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, believing the intruders were robbers, fired a single shot at them with his licensed handgun, and the unarmed Ms. Taylor was killed in the hail of return fire from the officers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cdgtfq

‌We Refused to Seat Two Election Deniers. A Judge Tried to Punish Us for It.

Every official responsible for the conduct of this fall’s midterms faces a simple test: Will you defend the lawful and fair administration of elections? Or will you stand aside while President Trump and his loyalists cast doubt on the results of past elections in an effort to cast doubt on future ones?

Last year, we confronted this question directly. As members of the Fulton County, Ga., Board of Commissioners, we voted against seating two nominees to the county elections board who are among those who have cynically helped to perpetuate the delusion that Georgia’s 2020 presidential election was stolen from Mr. Trump. The county G.O.P. sued us, and a judge held us in contempt, ruling that we were required to vote for these nominees. A week ago, we won our case on appeal.

Despite the favorable outcome, this episode should serve as a warning to all Americans. The right of every citizen to have his or her vote counted accurately and election results respected is the only way our system works. Yet too many Republicans remain committed to the thoroughly bogus idea that Mr. Trump’s loss was really a win. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uXZ9CH

‌JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

JD Vance says that UFOs aren’t aliens visiting Earth from distant planets. The Vice President thinks they’re actually demons. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4bRn8up

‌Letters from an American - March 28, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Almost exactly a year ago, on March 27, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order asserted that “[o]ver the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”

The order claimed, as Trump did in his first term, that “historical revision” was reconstructing “our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness…as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.” Trump has claimed since his first term that a “left-wing mob is trying to demolish our heritage, so they can replace it with a new oppressive regime that they alone control.” He told his followers that they are in “a battle to save the Heritage, History, and Greatness of our Country.”

Embracing the idea that there is a perfect past currently being destroyed, Trump echoes twentieth-century fascists who promised to return their country to divinely inspired rules that, if ignored, would create disaster. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3O8UzAT

‌‘No Kings’ Protests Decry Trump and His Agenda

Thousands of organized demonstrations stretched across the country. Minnesota was a focal point of the protests after a tumultuous immigration crackdown.

In the Twin Cities, a sea of people converged on the State Capitol, invoking the memories of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Demonstrators swarmed intersections in Portland, Ore., motivated by what one called a “national crisis” that had “escalated to a whole other level.” In Little Rock, Ark., where more than 2,000 people marched across the Arkansas River, one woman carried her own MAGA sign: “Morons Are Governing America.”

Protesters filled streets and town squares across the United States on Saturday at thousands of rallies, the third in a sequence of nationwide, loosely coordinated demonstrations under the banner of “No Kings.” They came to denounce President Trump and much of his second-term agenda, wielding signs and chants about issues such as mass deportation, restrictions on voting, attacks on diversity and two matters that have suddenly moved to the fore: the war in Iran and the soaring gas prices that have resulted from it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sHIbad

‌G.O.P. Rift Leaves Congress With No Clear Path to End the Shutdown

Eight months away from elections that will decide if they keep control of Congress and preserve their governing trifecta, House and Senate Republicans have identified the enemy — and it is one another.

A meltdown in relations between the two G.O.P.-led chambers caused the embarrassing collapse on Friday of a Senate-passed proposal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security before lawmakers raced out of town on a two-week recess. It left no clear path for resolving the crisis that has led to airport chaos and workers without paychecks.

And with President Trump seemingly cheering on the intraparty squabble from the White House, it also highlighted an undercurrent of tension and division coursing through Republican ranks that has burst to the surface at the least politically opportune time. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3O9hQTl

‌Record Number of T.S.A. Employees Called Out on Friday

The Trump administration has moved to bypass Congress to restore the pay of airport safety screeners, who have missed two full paychecks, but relief has yet to arrive for travelers.

On Friday, more Transportation Security Administration employees called out of work than on any other day of the partial government shutdown.

Conditions in airport security lines have deteriorated since Feb. 14, when Congress allowed funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees T.S.A., to lapse during an impasse over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since then, T.S.A. employees have been forced to work without pay, leading thousands of workers to call out and hundreds to quit altogether.

With staffing slashed, wait times for security have stretched on for hours at some airports. Lines have spilled outside terminals. Desperate travelers have missed flights. And that was before Friday set a new record.

More than 3,560 T.S.A. employees — above 12 percent of the agency’s work force — called out on Friday, the highest number since the partial government shutdown began, Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. Friday’s call outs broke the record of just under 12 percent that had been set the previous day.

“During this time, over 500 officers have quit, and thousands more have been forced to call out because they can’t afford basic necessities like gas, child care, food, or rent,” Ms. Bis said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4thQ8Tj

‌F.B.I. Said to Dig Up Old Investigative Files on Democratic Lawmaker

Trump administration officials have ordered F.B.I. agents to gather documents about a decade-old investigation into a Democratic congressman and his ties to a suspected Chinese spy, according to people familiar with the matter.

The effort has alarmed law enforcement officials who said they feared the material could be released publicly to smear the lawmaker, Representative Eric Swalwell, a prominent critic of President Trump who is now running for governor of California.

The investigation dates from more than a decade ago, when F.B.I. counterintelligence agents looked into a Chinese woman, Christine Fang, or Fang Fang, who assisted Mr. Swalwell with fund-raising. The F.B.I. concluded the investigation, and the Justice Department did not bring any criminal charges. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uPu6sC

‌Everything With Trump’s Name, Likeness and Signature

As anyone who has ever seen his buildings knows, Donald Trump has always liked to see his name displayed prominently. It’s become a hallmark of his presidency, to the point that the Treasury Department announced on Thursday that President Trump’s signature will appear on U.S. dollars later this year, a first for a sitting U.S. president.

The move is the latest reflecting a push to imprint his personal brand on Washington and the nation in ways that could outlast his presidency.

In total, since the start of Mr. Trump’s second term, there have been more than a dozen instances of his name, image or signature emblazoned on a variety of American initiatives and institutions. Some changes seem as if they could be lasting, some are caught up in the courts, and others may never get off the ground. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sQYfGs

‌Stephen Miller’s Latest Low

The latest front in Stephen Miller’s personal and political war on the 14th Amendment, which began last January with President Trump’s executive order targeting birthright citizenship, centers on the equal protection clause.

In 1982, in Plyler v. Doe, a 5-to-4 majority of the Supreme Court held that it was a violation of the equal protection clause for states to deny to undocumented children the free public education they provide to legal immigrants’ children, who are themselves citizens. As Justice William Brennan wrote in his opinion for the court, “The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is not confined to the protection of citizens.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PCVhH3

‌Trump Does Anything He Wants — and More

Donald Trump used to brag about grabbing women by the crotch. Now he’s grabbing the world by its axis.

He still believes he has the right to swoop in with a transgressive attack. He has simply expanded his targets.

“When you’re a star,” he once said, “they let you do it. You can do anything.”

His approach in his second term can best be described as manhandling, abetted by his cabinet of lackeys and congressional Republican bootlickers. Mike Johnson pathetically conjured an “America First Award” for Trump out of thin air. The House speaker called the “beautiful golden statue” of an eagle appropriate to “the new golden era in America.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cc6qY1

‌The Manosphere Turns on Trump

About half an hour into Episode 694 of the Flagrant podcast, and after a lively debate over manscaping methods, Andrew Schulz leaned back into the couch and brought the chin-wag to a screeching halt. “Are you guys, like—do you feel existential anxiety about the war?” he asked his co-hosts. Schulz seemed to be feeling some. “Americans can’t fucking afford health care,” he said later. “They don’t care about what’s happening in Iran!” War hawks have been angling for years for this war, he added. With President Trump, “they found a guy stupid enough to do it.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4lYq5hm

‌5 Takeaways From the ‘No Kings’ Rallies as the Midterms Heat Up

Thousands of demonstrations against the Trump administration unfolded across the country on Saturday, the third round in a nationwide series of loosely coordinated “No Kings” rallies.

The day of protest, the first since October, came as the midterm election season takes shape, and as Democrats work to capitalize politically on the unpopular war with Iran. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4lVxcau

‌There Are Now Over 50,000 American Troops in the Mideast

The arrival of 2,500 Marines and another 2,500 sailors is keeping the number of American troops in the Mideast region at over 50,000 — roughly 10,000 more than usual — as President Trump decides on his next step in his month-old war in Iran.

While it is still unclear just what the Marines, from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, will be charged with, U.S. officials say the president is weighing whether to try a larger attack, like venturing to seize an island or other ground as part of Mr. Trump’s effort to open the Strait of Hormuz. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4s6fyT0

They’ve Been Accused of Running a ‘Covert’ Operation in Greenland. It’s No Secret.‌

Members of President Trump’s circle, working in plain sight, have caught the eye of Denmark’s intelligence services for trying to make friends and cut deals on the Danish territory. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dcnOwW

‌New U.S. Missile Hit Iranian Sports Hall and School, Analysis Shows

The Pentagon used missiles untested in combat in a deadly attack that struck civilian sites near a military compound on Feb. 28, according to visual evidence examined by The Times and weapons experts. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bSaziC

‌New Political Group to Push Trump’s A.I. Agenda in Midterms

The group, Innovation Council Action, says it plans to spend at least $100 million. It will be led by a former administration official. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4v4F0uU

‌Here's What Trump is Turning the U.S. Economy Into

When he ran for president again in 2024, Trump made three promises to the American public:

(1) He said he’d “secure” the southern border. Most Americans now believe he’s gone too far in this.

(2) He’d avoid foreign wars. He said: “We’ve spent $8 trillion in the Middle East, and we’re not fixing our roads in this country? How stupid. How stupid is it? And we’re not fixing our highways, our tunnels, our bridges, our hospitals, even.” Umm. How well has this promise turned out?

(3) His third promise was to bring prices down and create more jobs. He said: “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods.”

In fact, Trump has pushed prices way up. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4816OWW

Week Sixty-Two: March 24 - April 5

‌Hegseth, Trump had no authority to order Anthropic to be blacklisted, judge says

“Classic First Amendment retaliation.” That’s how US District Judge Rita Lin described the Department of War’s effort to blacklist Anthropic and designate it a supply-chain risk.

By all appearances, “these measures appear designed to punish Anthropic,” Lin wrote in an order granting Anthropic’s request for a preliminary injunction.

Officials seemingly had no authority to take such extreme actions without considering less restrictive alternatives or offering any evidence that Anthropic posed an urgent risk to national security, Lin said. Instead, “the Department of War’s records show that it designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk because of its ‘hostile manner through the press.’”

“Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation,” Lin said. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4bJjCn9

‌Kristi Noem’s fall from grace is far from over

We all know that former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was tossed because she flew too close to the sun, tempting fate by trying to get more attention than President Donald Trump. However, her unceremonious departure is also an opportunity for the administration to try to hang all the unseemly excesses of DHS around her now-departed neck.

And, of course, she’s also got the House Oversight Democrats poking around in her contractual business, investigating the incredibly corrupt contracts some lucky vendors landed under Noem’s watch.

“Krisit Noem and her blankie” by Nick Anderson

No, this isn’t about the $220 million ad campaign contract that felled Noem. The Democrats have already begun sharing tidbits about that one, including the exposure of Noem’s very special—and expensive—makeup and horsey needs.

That contract was bad enough, but the latest indignity Noem must suffer is a Democratic look-see into how Salus Worldwide Solutions, a company that had never once landed a federal contract, managed to land one from DHS for nearly $1 billion right out the gate. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/47xaI9T

‌GOP wants to cut health care funding to pay for Iran war

As the war in Iran stretches into its fifth week, congressional Republicans are looking for ways to help fund the quagmire President Donald Trump created in the Middle East. And it appears they have settled on an option that could make their approval ratings and chances in the midterm elections sink to new lows.

House Republicans are throwing around an idea to make cuts to the Affordable Care Act in order to find the $200 billion Trump needs to get himself out of the mess he created in Iran, Axios reported on Monday.

Per Axios' report, House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington wants to cut ACA subsidies in order to fund the war. If the Republican Party went through with the plan, 300,000 Americans would likely go uninsured, and millions of others would pay more for their annual insurance premiums—all so that Trump can try to bomb his way out of the disaster he unleashed in Iran. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4cg3OZk

‌Pete Hegseth Is Vice Signaling

The term virtue signaling refers to an annoying moral peacocking that has less to do with politics than with self-gratification. It’s the dinner guest who feels compelled to comment on the climate impact of every course. It’s the guy who annoys his colleagues during meetings with constant bits of civic guidance. (The author Richard Russo, in a 1990s satire of academic life, created a character whose nickname was “Orshee” because when anyone in a faculty meeting used he as a generic pronoun, the fellow would chirp “Or she” as a correction.)

But Donald Trump and his administration have embraced the Mirror Universe version of virtue signaling. They’ve pioneered the practice of “vice signaling,” or saying insulting or odious things both as attention-seeking behavior and as a way of showcasing their supposedly transgressive political views. They aim to demonstrate strength by being willing to appall other people, much as schoolyard bullies insult their classmates to gain the approval of other bullies. It’s the same peacocking, but with uglier feathers.

Few people besides the president himself have done more to advance the cause of vice signaling than Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a man who honed his communication skills at Fox News, where the hosts routinely say outrageous things as a way of showing their viewers how eager they are to own the libs. Hegseth, for example, has long stewed about the fact that women occupy positions of leadership in the U.S. military, and he has hammered on the idea of “merit” as a way of implying that minority officers have been promoted because of their race rather than their talent. He put those beliefs into action almost immediately upon arriving at the Pentagon by pushing for the firing of one Black and several female senior officers who were then replaced with white men. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ciJSow

‌Trump’s Justice Department Dropped 23,000 Criminal Investigations in Shift to Immigration

In the first days after Pam Bondi was appointed attorney general last year, the Department of Justice began shutting down pending criminal cases at a record pace.

The cases included an investigation into a Virginia nursing home with a recent record of patient abuse; probes of fraud involving several New Jersey labor unions, including one opened after a top official of a national union was accused of embezzlement; and an investigation into a cryptocurrency company suspected of cheating investors.

In total, the DOJ quietly closed more than 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of President Donald Trump’s administration, abandoning hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime, drugs and other offenses as it shifted resources to pursue immigration cases, according to an analysis by ProPublica.

The bulk of these cases, which were closed without prosecution and known as declinations, had been referred to the DOJ by law enforcement agencies under prior administrations that believed a federal crime may have been committed. The DOJ routinely declines to prosecute cases for any number of reasons, including insufficient evidence or because a case is not a priority for enforcement.

But the number of declinations under Bondi marks a striking departure not only from the Biden administration but also the first Trump term, according to the ProPublica analysis, which examined two decades of DOJ data, including the first six months of Trump’s second term. ProPublica determined the increase is not the result of inheriting a larger caseload or more referrals from law enforcement.

In February 2025 alone, which included the first weeks of Bondi’s tenure, nearly 11,000 cases were declined, the most in a month since at least 2004. The previous high was just over 6,500 cases in September 2019, during Trump’s first administration. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4dmbrOY

‌Trump Reveals New Look for White House Ballroom After Times Article

Architects and preservation organizations have warned that little scrutiny has been given to the design plans. They say the ballroom will overwhelm the executive residence in size, alter the White House grounds, and block the symbolic axis between the Capitol and the White House in the 1791 city plan by Pierre Charles L’Enfant. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sM7oAl

‌Employee Lawsuit Against Fox News Is Dismissed

A reporter who claimed the network had fired him for challenging its coverage failed to prove retaliation and discrimination, a federal judge said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PEpeGQ

‌States Plow Ahead With A.I. Regulation, Defying Trump

States ranging from California to Utah are taking steps to place guardrails on the technology even after the president ordered them to stop.

This month, President Trump warned states not to get involved in regulating artificial intelligence. In a set of policy guidelines, the White House said a “patchwork of conflicting state laws would undermine American innovation and our ability to lead in the global A.I. race.”

But on Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, defied Mr. Trump by issuing an executive order that requires safety and privacy guardrails for A.I. companies contracting with the state. He also said he would fight to preserve California’s laws that provide safeguards against A.I.-related catastrophic harms, scams and risks for children. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cmvxqj

‌‘I Think That MAGA Is Dying’: Inside the Youth Movement at CPAC

As the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference wound to a close, the audience inside the airplane-hangar-size ballroom had dwindled as Nick Shirley, the headline speaker, mumbled his remarks. Mr. Shirley, a 23-year-old content creator and recently minted right-wing celebrity, had been tapped by the conference’s organizers to bring a youthful jolt of energy to the proceedings.

But youths themselves, and their conservative energy, were nowhere to be seen among the rows of empty chairs, as Mr. Shirley made halting reference to Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech.

Just outside the hall, 20-somethings in rumpled suits were gathered in clusters, debating the merits of a ground invasion in Iran, the conservative backlash against those who were “J-pilled” (far-right slang for skepticism of Israeli influence), the backbreaking costs of American life, and what they saw as the slow demise of the Trump era.

“The majority of us, we don’t necessarily come to these types of events for the speakers because generally they dish out the same slop over and over,” said Jack Moore, 19, a board member of the Georgia Teen Republicans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sLNWni

‌Trump Will Gladly Do the Jitterbug on Your Grave

There are many signs of President Trump’s deterioration, but on one front he has indisputably grown sharper and faster.

He’s at his peak when maligning the dead.

He used to be more shambolic about it. After John McCain’s death in August 2018, the aspersions that Trump cast on the Arizona senator were feeble and fitful, with Trump’s summary judgment — “I never was a fan” — coming more than six months later. That statement was as needless as it was tactless. Trump had made his disdain for McCain clear all the way back in 2015, when he mocked McCain’s five and a half years as a prisoner of war, suggesting that winners don’t get captured and tortured. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47Ciijv

‌MAGA Was Supposed to Be Antiwar. Nope.

President Trump, who once said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters, is now confronting a twist on that boast: What if, instead, he bombed Tehran?

The message coming from some of the most prominent MAGA voices is clear. Representative Lauren Boebert, former Representative Matt Gaetz and the commentators Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson all have indicated that going to war with Iran was at odds with Mr. Trump’s “America first” platform.

The data, however, says something different. A recent CBS News poll found that 92 percent of MAGA Republicans expressed support for military action against Iran, compared with only 70 percent of non-MAGA Republicans.

This might come as a surprise, given that Mr. Trump returned to office pledging to avoid forever wars. But it tells me that America first means pretty much whatever he says it means — and that it might be time to ditch some of our common assumptions about Republicans. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4e15CXg

‌Across Asia, Trump’s War on Iran Is Dangerous for Everyone

When I was a girl, my dad would ride his bicycle to the local ration shop in Chennai with a large plastic container, which he would have filled with kerosene.

For decades, state-subsidized kerosene was an essential fuel for cooking in Indian homes. Not ours. We used it as a cheap way to boil the buckets of water needed by the three women in our house to wash their knee-length hair each week. I remember the glug-glug as dad poured the kerosene into our stove, fumes rising like a genie escaping its bottle.

I watched, fascinated and afraid. Kerosene was stigmatized as fuel for the poor. But its pungent fumes also bore a sinister association — it was the fuel of choice in bride burnings, the immolation of women by their husbands or in-laws for failing to bring a large enough dowry, produce male heirs or simply for talking back.

In 2014, the government began phasing out kerosene in favor of cleaner-burning liquefied petroleum gas. Dirty kerosene stoves disappeared, ushering in cleaner, safer kitchens, less drudgery for the poor and, probably, fewer dead brides. We were so done with kerosene.

President Trump’s war on Iran has turned the transition to L.P.G. into a vulnerability. Roughly 60 percent of India’s liquefied petroleum gas is imported — and until a month ago, most was shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. With the war slowing shipments to a trickle, millions of Indian families are scrambling to keep their kitchens running. It’s gotten so desperate that the government is even reviving use of the hated kerosene. This is what unhinged American power can do when exercised without regard for the consequences — it can reach into kitchens in countries that have no part in U.S. wars and switch off the stove. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dV609R

‌Oil jumps back to $115 a barrel as the Iran war widens again

Oil prices spiked anew on Monday, with Brent crude trading at almost $116 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate reached about $102. The price surge followed a weekend of escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran as the conflict entered its second month: Iran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen launched ballistic missiles at Israel, while an additional 3,500 U.S. troops deployed to the region, according to NBC News.

President Donald Trump said Monday on Truth Social that the U.S. is in talks with what he called "a new, and more reasonable, regime" in Iran. In the same post, Trump threatened to obliterate Iranian power plants, oil wells, Kharg Island, and possibly all desalination plants if negotiations collapse and the Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint accounting for roughly 20% of global oil flow — stays blocked. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3NSKc4c

‌Trump's Magical Thinking

Mr. Trump, may I have a word?

Bad enough for you to insist — in the face of all evidence to the contrary — that you won the 2020 election.

But it’s another thing for you to pretend — in the face of mounting deaths and injuries, ballooning expenses, and rising prices — that you won, or are winning, the war with Iran you began on February 28.

“Let me say, we’ve won,” you told a rally in Kentucky on March 11.

“I think we’ve won,” you said on the White House South Lawn on March 20.

“We’ve won this war. The war has been won,” you said in the Oval Office on March 24.

“We are winning so big,” you told a fundraising dinner on March 25.

“We’ve had regime change,” you told reporters three days ago. “The one regime was decimated, destroyed, they’re all dead. The next regime is mostly dead.” Iran has now moved onto its “third regime,” and American negotiators are now speaking to “a whole different group of people” who have “been very reasonable,” you said.

You’re making all this up. In fact, you’re losing your war. And so is America and much of the rest of the world.

After a month, your war has already cost 13 American lives, cost American taxpayers at least $30 billion, cost American consumers at least a dollar more per gallon of gas than they paid a month ago, pushed up food prices and mortgage rates, and pushed down the value of 401(k) retirement plans. It’s mangled supply chains for industries that rely on items such as fertilizer to grow food or helium to make computer chips. It’s also wreaked havoc across the Middle East with at least 1,574 civilians killed in Iran, including 236 children, and at least 50 killed in Iran’s attacks on other Gulf nations. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4sJeQfr

‌What $4 gas is doing to U.S. households — and why the economic pain is likely to last

Gas at an average of $4 a gallon represents a cost of living shock for tens of millions of America. Here's how to understand the pain

It's a painful moment to fill up your car. Gas just topped $4 a gallon per AAA's nationwide average — up nearly 40% in just over 30 days.

For households across the U.S., the immediate math is straightforward and far from pleasant. In recent years, households have spent around $200 a month on gas. A 40% increase raises the monthly cost by around $100.

This matters because, according to the Bank of America $BAC +3.22% Institute, nearly one in four U.S. households — about 24% of the total — spend over 95% of their income on necessities like housing, groceries, utilities, childcare, and gas, leaving little or nothing left over. That’s about 31 million households, or around 75 million people.

So, for these financially vulnerable individuals and families, the rising cost of gas is a major increase in the cost of living. Finding an extra $100 a month isn’t easy, and yet gas isn’t a purchase consumers can effortlessly cut back on. It takes time to find alternative ways to work and school, all the more so in areas with little public transportation. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3Nzrezy

‌Rehearsing Fascism from the CPAC Stage

Last Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche addressed CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, in Grapevine, Texas. He asked the crowd a deliberately provocative question: “Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places?” Blanche pointed out that if “illegals” can’t and shouldn’t vote, then why worry about ICE at the polls? He added, “You all probably had to show your ID five times since you came into this place. It baffles me.”

Blanche is not an online influencer or random MAGA podcaster. He is the second-highest law enforcement officer in the nation. Yet he was endorsing actions that would violate the law he took an oath to uphold. Under 18 U.S.C. § 592, entitled “Troops at polls,” with legal roots going back to Reconstruction, it is a crime for any civil or military officer of the U.S. to order or keep troops at any place where an election is being held, unless necessary to repel armed enemies of the U.S.

Should we be concerned? Blanche’s CPAC appearance was, at least in the conventional reading, a performance. The annual conservative gathering has been described as a pep rally, a tent revival, a “political rally, networking mixer and MAGA Comic-Con.” Some observers argue that the typical hyperbole, the religious zeal and the “outrage Olympics” on display are mere political warm-up acts, not the real show. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4s8nm6H

‌The People Trump Pardoned Are on a Crime Spree

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.

Worst of all, Mr. Trump granted clemency 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. About 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters received a clean slate, regardless of their actions.

The results have been disastrous. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4v7MZr2

‌The Trump team’s ever-changing list of 4 goals in Iran

The Trump administration keeps suggesting that the Iran war could wrap up soon. The reason? Because it’s accomplishing its goals.

“We are going to achieve our objectives in a matter of weeks, not months,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told ABC News on Monday.

But when it comes to precisely what those goals are, the administration has been remarkably inconsistent.

Officials have regularly listed four objectives, but they’ve often changed depending upon the date and who’s providing them.

And even the frequently mentioned ones have been adjusted and scaled back.

Let’s recap. - CNN https://cnn.it/3PLwNeM

‌Federal judge rules Trump order ending NPR and PBS funding was unconstitutional

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that a key part of President Trump’s executive order targeting NPR and PBS was unconstitutional, blocking the administration from denying federal funds based on editorial viewpoint.

The ruling will not reverse the Trump-led campaign to strip NPR and PBS stations of federal funding. Last summer, Republicans in Congress rescinded federal support over objections from public media advocates.

Nevertheless, the ruling is a First Amendment victory. “Today’s ruling is a decisive affirmation of the rights of a free and independent press — and a win for NPR, our network of stations, and our tens of millions of listeners nationwide,” NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ton7FK

‌Judge rules that White House ballroom construction ‘has to stop!’

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump from moving ahead with any further work on a massive new $400 million ballroom on the former site of the White House East Wing.

“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!” Judge Richard Leon wrote.

Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said he was delaying implementation of his ruling for two weeks to allow the government to appeal. But he warned that “any above-ground construction over the next fourteen days that is not in compliance” with his ruling “is at risk of being taken down depending on the outcome of this case.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4sJA9gS

‌Here’s what the shutdown looked like for agents and passengers

A partial government shutdown restricting funding to the Department of Homeland Security has caused a ripple effect for airports across the country, worsening airport lines amid an incredibly busy spring break travel season. - CNN https://cnn.it/4m8m4r6

‌Behind the scenes and in front of cameras, Hegseth serving as top cheerleader for military power in Iran war

In the immediate lead-up to the first bombs being dropped on Iran last month, President Donald Trump met with a small group of advisers to discuss options. He made it clear that he wanted to launch a military campaign alongside Israel, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

It was at that moment, before an operation, that prior defense secretaries would typically stress to the president that there were potential downsides to such a move. In the case of Iran strikes, those would include the likely economic fallout should Tehran retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz and the limits of a military air campaign when it comes to destroying the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium or in fomenting regime change.

But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth not only validated the president’s idea to move forward, he also downplayed the inherent risks of the conflict spiraling out of control, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Nobody in the room during that critical meeting emphasized the potential risks of starting the war.

Sources insisted that Hegseth didn’t push the war on Trump, but once it was clear what the president was going to decide, Hegseth served as one of the biggest cheerleaders. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ciDzRW

‌Trump and Hegseth scream at the world as their war spirals

The Trump administration is lashing out at America’s allies in Europe after their refusal to help President Donald Trump clean up the global mess he created by attacking Iran.

Early Tuesday morning, Trump assailed the United Kingdom for declining to help him launch strikes on Iran, writing, “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 claimed that “the hard part” of the conflict is now over and that Iran “has been, essentially, decimated.” Trump argued that the U.K. should go to the Strait of Hormuz and “TAKE” oil, concluding, “Go get your own oil!” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4tltREb

‌Trump’s ‘Regime Change’ Swerve

With his comments this weekend, Trump is casting regime change as a mark of progress in the war. He is signaling—perhaps in the hope of calming down oil markets—that the United States has already achieved an important victory. At the same time, he’s dramatically escalating the conflict in other ways, threatening the complete destruction of some of Iran’s most crucial energy infrastructure as the Pentagon prepares for weeks of ground operations. But regime change hasn’t actually happened. Although American and Israeli attacks have taken out key Iranian leaders, their replacements are still very much part of the existing system. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3NRDag7

‌Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order at Supreme Court Splits Conservative Scholars

For generations, most legal experts and the courts have agreed that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to nearly all babies born in the United States.

But ever since Donald Trump issued an executive order to eliminate so-called birthright citizenship for the infants of undocumented immigrants and temporary residents, some conservative legal scholars have begun re-examining the history of the 14th Amendment, long understood as the source of the birthright guarantee.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the legality of Mr. Trump’s executive order, and some conservative legal experts say that, in light of new scholarship, it might be a closer call than once thought.

“A lot of people, when Trump first started talking about it, thought this is crazy,” said John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, who was a top lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. “But in the intervening years, a lot more serious people are taking it seriously.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3O0w6xJ

‌Stocks have their worst quarter since 2022, raising doubts about Trump's economic playbook

Stocks surged Tuesday, with the S&P 500 closing up 2.9% while the Nasdaq rose 3.8% and the Dow gained 1,125 points.

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But this very good day capped off what was a very bad month for U.S. equities. The S&P 500 fell 5.09% in March, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 4.75%.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow, Iranian controlled waterway through which a fifth of the world's crude oil typically transits every day, weighed heavily on markets throughout the month.

Tuesday was also the end of the first quarter of the year, one when the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their worst annual starts since 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine rocked markets.

For the first quarter, the S&P 500 dropped 4.6% and the Nasdaq declined 7.1%.

Oil prices, meanwhile, soared over the past month, driving up the cost of fuel and triggering a domino effect of higher prices around the globe. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/47WF6eb

‌Judge Orders Construction Stopped on Trump’s White House Ballroom

A federal judge ordered on Tuesday that construction be halted on President Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, to be built in place of the demolished East Wing, saying work must come to a stop until the project receives a go-ahead from Congress.

The decision delivered the first meaningful setback to the president’s increasingly audacious efforts to redesign the White House and Washington. It came after months of litigation in front of Judge Richard J. Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush, who had previously declined to step in.

In a 35-page opinion, Judge Leon wrote that Mr. Trump likely did not have the authority to act without consulting Congress to replace entire sections of the White House — changes that could endure for generations.

In an opinion punctuated by 19 exclamation points, Judge Leon also reiterated concerns he had raised for months in court: that from the start, the administration has provided shifting and questionable accounts of who was in charge of the project and under what authority private donations could be accepted to fund it. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sMpcLF

‌Trump Says U.S. Will Be Out of Iran Within Two to Three Weeks

President Trump said on Tuesday that the United States would wrap up its military campaign in Iran in two or three weeks, and the White House said he would address the nation about the war on Wednesday evening.

“We will be leaving very soon,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

It was not immediately clear what message Mr. Trump intended to deliver in his national address, and he has left open the potential for escalating military action. But he and top aides have increasingly been suggesting that he sees justification for claiming to have achieved his main objectives and would like to extricate the United States from the conflict.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Trump would be providing “an important update” on the war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4v5gDwR

‌Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From Penn

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m36CfP

‌Trump Signs Order Seeking Federal Control of Mail Voting as He Promotes False Claims

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/419v2KQ

‌Trump’s Executive Order on NPR and PBS Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules

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.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4m5eTQh

‌The ‘God Squad’ Waives Environmental Rules for Offshore Drilling

A powerful panel of Trump administration officials voted unanimously on Tuesday to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from measures to protect endangered whales and other imperiled species.

The panel, the Endangered Species Committee, a high-level group that is often called the God Squad because it essentially holds the power to decide whether a species lives or dies, adopted the move during a brief, closed-door meeting at the Interior Department.

Until Tuesday, the God Squad had convened only three times, and never in the past three decades.

It was the Trump administration’s latest move to weaken the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock environmental law intended to prevent plant and animal extinctions. In November, the administration proposed to relax restrictions on drilling, logging and mining in critical habitats for endangered species across the country. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4diiGYa

‌Trump Is Trying to Override Our Voting System

In the decade since President Vladimir Putin of Russia directed a sweeping campaign of hacking and social media messaging to try to tilt the 2016 presidential election toward his preferred candidate, the United States has rightly focused on shoring up our elections against foreign meddling.

But I fear that foreign interference is no longer the most pressing danger to our elections. It is increasingly evident that the greatest threat now comes from inside our own government.

For months, President Trump has made his intentions clear. He has called for the federal government to “take over” elections, impose national rules and override state authority. Now we are beginning to see how he may plan to do this. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dVeiOW

‌Letters from an American - March 31, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

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.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3PFXNwl

‌RFK Jr. wants Americans to use peptides that were banned over safety risks

Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has long dismissed reams of data on lifesaving vaccines as being insufficient to prove safety—is pushing the Food and Drug Administration to lift restrictions on over a dozen injectable peptide treatments. The treatments have little to no efficacy data behind them and were previously banned by the FDA for posing significant safety risks. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3PXuEwx

‌Why Trump might regret his historic visit to the Supreme Court

In perhaps the most difficult exchange for the administration, Chief Justice John Roberts pressed Sauer on its claims about so-called “birth tourism,” or traveling to US soil to deliver a child so they can be a citizen. When Roberts noted that wasn’t a problem when the 14th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War, Sauer responded that “we’re in a new world now.”

To which Roberts shot back: “Well, it’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4m2k838

‌Now the scumbag Jan. 6 insurrectionists want you to pay them

President Donald Trump’s mass pardon of his pet insurrectionists wiped their slates clean, freeing them of any consequences for their treasonous assault on democracy.

But of course, that’s still not enough.

Three insurrections have just filed a class action lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act, claiming that the police used indiscriminate and excessive force against them—and the only remedy is cash, cash, cash. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/48iNYdV

‌More than 30 countries, including Japan but not U.S., to plan ways of reopening Strait of Hormuz

Almost three dozen countries will meet Thursday in an effort to exert diplomatic and political pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route that has been choked off by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the virtual meeting chaired by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper “will assess all viable diplomatic and political measures we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and to resume the movement of vital commodities.”

Iranian attacks on commercial ships, and the threat of more, have halted nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe’s oceans, shutting a critical path for the world’s flow of oil and sending petroleum prices soaring.

The U.S. is not among the countries attending Thursday's meeting. Trump has said securing the waterway is not America’s job, and told U.S. allies to “go get your own oil.” - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/3POILUW?

‌5 Takeaways From Trump’s Address on Iran

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mcMKac

‌Placing U.S. Troops in Middle East Hotels May Violate Laws of War

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4s6GzWf

‌Lawsuits Are the New Trump Tactic in the Fight to Overhaul Education

Again and again, the Trump administration has been blocked in court over repeated attempts to force schools to bend to its will. Now, the executive branch is bringing its own lawsuits to force colleges and school districts to comply.

For the past year, the administration has tried coercing universities into adopting portions of President Trump’s agenda, opening civil rights investigations and cutting essential federal research funding until they agreed. Recently though, the pressure campaign has struggled to produce the head-turning results Trump officials envisioned.

Federal judges in California and Massachusetts have ruled that the administration’s aggressive tactics broke the law. And after the administration signed deals with six elite universities last year, there have been none in the past four months. Now, the government is testing a new strategy, filing or joining 10 lawsuits in the past five months against universities, school districts or states over education issues. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47CsFns

‌Trump Has Discussed Firing Attorney General Pam Bondi

President Trump has discussed firing Attorney General Pam Bondi in recent days as he grows frustrated with her leadership at the Justice Department and her handling of the Epstein files, according to four people familiar with the conversations.

Mr. Trump has floated the idea of replacing Ms. Bondi with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations by the president. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OiP7eO

‌D.H.S. Inspector General Inquiry Focuses in Part on Top Noem Aide

An expansive inquiry by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general into the handling of contracts under the agency’s former secretary, Kristi Noem, is scrutinizing her senior adviser Corey Lewandowski’s interactions with companies seeking federal business, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation.

The inquiry comes as administration officials have fielded complaints from companies about their dealings with Mr. Lewandowski, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. They and others familiar with the inquiry spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tpbnT5

‌Here’s How Major Markets Are Moving

The price of oil jumped and stocks sank on Thursday after President Trump, in an address from the White House the day before, said the war against Iran was “nearing completion” but failed to offer a concrete timeline and committed to more attacks.

In the 19-minute address, Mr. Trump said U.S. forces would hit Iran “extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”

Investors hoping for clearer signals of a de-escalation to the conflict, along with concrete plans for getting oil and gas in the region moving again, were left disappointed. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4v1A2ih

‌Trump Officials Try to Fight Foreign Disinformation They Once Dismissed

The Trump administration is scrambling to respond to a global information war with adversaries like Russia, China and a battered but defiant Iranian government.

The information warfare around the conflict in Iran is just one instance in which administration officials appear increasingly worried that a growing number of anti-American narratives are taking root worldwide, according to current and former government officials.

The State Department ordered every American embassy and consulate this week to do more to push back against foreign influence campaigns, warning that they fueled hostility toward U.S. security interests. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4c1WFL0

‌Medical Examiner Rules That a Rohingya Refugee’s Death Was a Homicide

The medical examiner in Buffalo has ruled that the death of a nearly blind man left alone by Border Patrol agents on a frigid night was a homicide, a finding that could lead to criminal charges.

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, died in February after the agents dropped him off outside a closed Tim Hortons doughnut shop. His death triggered outrage in Buffalo and around the nation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PXweyw

‌Trump Will Lose the Birthright Citizenship Case. But in a Way, He’s Already Won.

If anything was clear during Wednesday’s Supreme Court oral argument in the birthright citizenship case, Trump v. Barbara, it’s that President Trump is going to lose. The justices’ questions were skeptical enough to suggest that somewhere between six and eight of the justices will hold that Mr. Trump’s executive order purporting to limit birthright citizenship is unlawful, whether because it violates an immigration statute Congress enacted in 1940 and updated in 1952, the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, or both.

In retrospect, and despite efforts by some right-wing commentators and scholars to muddy the waters, this has always been an open-and-shut case under almost any approach to constitutional and statutory interpretation.

What may get lost in the discussion of such an outcome is the uniquely twisted procedural path that this case took to the Supreme Court — one that, along the way, made it much harder for lower federal courts to block lawless executive action. That distinction won’t end up mattering here; whatever the Supreme Court ultimately decides about birthright citizenship will necessarily have nationwide effect. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bPX5oM

‌The Birthright Con

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Trump v. Barbara, the case that will decide the fate of the birthright citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment.

On his first day back in office, President Trump issued an executive order that tried to redefine birthright citizenship to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants, despite the clear and expansive language of the amendment.

Backing Trump as he tries to rewrite the Constitution by executive fiat is much of the Republican Party and a collection of conservative legal scholars who rushed, in the wake of his decree, to try to give substance to the president’s thin, unpersuasive argument. Against Trump is the weight of Supreme Court precedent, historical consensus and the plain words of the clause itself.

There are few lines in the Constitution that are as straightforward as the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment: “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.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NFrhd9

‌Maybe Trump Should Not Have Given This Speech

His address raised more questions than it answered about the war in Iran.

Americans have been waiting for their president and commander in chief to address the nation and explain why the country is at war. For weeks, Donald Trump has offered only snippets and sound bites about his decision to lead the United States into another conflict in the Middle East; his prime-time address this evening was, one assumes, aimed at informing and reassuring the American public.

Maybe he’d have been better off not trying. Trump’s critics (including me) have castigated him for refusing to go on television and provide a comprehensive explanation of the war to the American people. But given his performance this evening, perhaps he had the right instinct. His address did not come across as a wartime speech but instead was a disjointed series of complaints, brags, and exaggerations (along with a few outright lies) delivered by a man who looked and sounded tired. After his 19 minutes on the air—brisk by Trump’s standards—Americans could be forgiven for being even more concerned now than they were only a few days ago. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4c7KVqd

‌Trump’s Absurd Citizenship Arguments Went Nowhere

As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments today about birthright citizenship, Donald Trump was watching from the courtroom—an apparent first for a sitting president. He listened silently as the justices pelted skeptical questions at Solicitor General John Sauer, who tried to defend a Trump executive order purporting to deny citizenship to the U.S.-born children of certain immigrants. Not long into arguments by Cecillia Wang, the ACLU lawyer representing Trump’s challengers, the president got up and left.

The odd scene reflected the administration’s approach to the matter of birthright citizenship: Simply declare you are right, and then ignore arguments to the contrary. Yet if Trump intended his presence to pressure the justices into siding with him, he failed. Most of the justices, even among the conservative supermajority, seemed inclined to strike down his policy. Still, the fact that this case got as far as it did—and that the justices had to consider it seriously enough to spend their time rebuking it—is itself a scandal. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sMCurj

‌Trump’s Fateful Choice

The military is waiting for the president’s go-ahead for high-risk ground operations in Iran.

As thousands of additional U.S. troops arrive in the Persian Gulf, military officials are planning for two potential ground assaults in Iran: one on Kharg Island, the hub of the country’s energy industry, and the other to seize enriched uranium to hobble Iran’s nuclear-development program, according to three people familiar with the matter. They just need the go-ahead from President Trump.

Putting troops in Iranian territory would rank among the most dangerous missions of either of Trump’s terms. And neither operation would guarantee the end of the war within weeks, as Trump has promised—nor the collapse of the regime that the United States has described as an imminent threat, nor the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the closure of which has gripped the world’s energy markets, said those familiar with the options, who, like others we spoke with, did so on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive military plans. Trump has said negotiations are under way with the regime to find a peaceful solution, and the prospect of a land assault may be designed to pressure the regime to seek a settlement. A failed operation could escalate and prolong the conflict rather than force negotiations. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4v7J8ds

‌Letters from an American - April 1, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

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. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4sQmu83

‌Public Anger Is Rising

For a brief moment last week, Congress started to do something productive. The Senate, after weeks of bickering and fruitless negotiations, unanimously approved legislation to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, taking a small but meaningful step toward resolving one of the many crises that have sprung up like targets in a game of whack-a-mole during President Trump’s second term. All that stood between tens of thousands of federal employees and their paychecks was a similar vote in the House.

But House Republicans would not agree. Instead of considering the DHS bill, Speaker Mike Johnson denounced the bipartisan compromise and then sent the entire chamber home for a two-week Easter recess. The move all but guaranteed that the government’s third-largest department would remain unfunded indefinitely as the nation wages war against Iran. Meanwhile, as lawmakers enjoy time with their families—or jet off on vacations and taxpayer-financed junkets overseas—millions of Americans are struggling with a spike in gas prices caused by the war. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3PQ4mMM

‌Supreme Court appears skeptical of Trump's attempt to limit birthright citizenship

Tackling one of President Donald Trump's most provocative policies, members of the Supreme Court expressed skepticism Wednesday about the lawfulness of his proposal to limit the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship for people born on U.S. soil. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4sf4Ucy

‌The Trump Library Symbolizes His Presidency Perfectly

Plans for a new Miami skyscraper reveal a monument fit for a real-estate mogul.

The architect Cass Gilbert once said a skyscraper is a machine to make the land pay.

It’s hard to imagine a more finely tuned machine than the Trump Presidential Library, a glass-walled Miami tower whose video renderings were released by the president’s son Eric on Monday night. The project has a balance sheet that would make a developer blush. The land side of the ledger is already taken care of: Miami Dade College surreptitiously transferred the Biscayne Boulevard parcel to the state of Florida last year, which then donated it to the president’s library foundation, a giveaway of a waterfront site that one of the college’s former presidents recently called “unimaginable.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3PDONrA

‌Can Donald Trump singlehandedly withdraw the US from NATO?

Yet despite Trump’s claims that he can withdraw the United States from the alliance, a law passed by Congress in 2023 says the move would require the advice and consent of the Senate, with two-thirds of senators in agreement, or an act of Congress.

The bill was co-sponsored by then-Sen. Marco Rubio, who is now the US secretary of state, and Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. It was later passed as part of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

The requirement for congressional approval means that even if all Republicans voted with Trump to withdraw the United States from NATO, it would require several Democrats — at least 14 if all Republicans are present — to join them to pass the legislation. - CNN https://cnn.it/4v1CIwl

‌Trump Has a Way Out of the War

If it wasn’t clear before, it is undeniable now. President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel started a war with Iran assuming that they would trigger quick and easy regime change. They vastly underestimated the staying power of Iran’s surviving leadership and its military capacity not only to inflict damage on Israel and America’s Arab allies but also to close off the most important oil and gas shipping lane in the world.

This is imposing serious harm on the global economy, including the U.S. stock market, and Trump has no clue how to get out of the mess that he has created by starting a war without thinking through the implications. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tnopk7

‌Lions Led by Donkeys

The U.S. is fighting Iran under the worst wartime political leadership America has ever had.

The trope that the British soldiers of World War I were “lions led by donkeys” is somewhat unfair. But the phrase can and should be applied to the current Iran war, at least insofar as the United States is concerned. The U.S. is waging a struggle against an unquestionably malign enemy, using a military that is highly competent but in some respects under-equipped, and with the worst wartime political leadership America has ever had. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4md0dyK

‌Remember the Oil Shocks of the ’70s? This Is Going to Be Worse. Much Worse.

Sri Lanka and Myanmar are rationing fuel. The Philippines has instituted four-day workweeks to conserve gasoline and electricity. Bangladesh briefly closed its universities to reserve power for homes and businesses. Across India, families and restaurants are cooking over wood fires for want of gas. Airlines are canceling flights.

As painful as the first phase of the energy crisis set off by the war with Iran has been, what comes next will be worse. This week, the final deliveries of oil and liquefied natural gas to Asia that passed through the Strait of Hormuz before it was closed are expected to arrive. The last tanker shipments to Europe should land by mid-April. After that, many countries’ reserves of gasoline, diesel, liquid petroleum gas and natural gas will dwindle. The price of oil could soar as high as $200 a barrel if the war drags on.

Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, has called this “the greatest global energy security threat in history” — much worse than the 1970s oil crisis, the Covid pandemic or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This conflict has disrupted a bigger share of the global oil and gas trade, and there is no way to quickly fill the gap. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4c0hS7Y

‌Bruce Springsteen Brings Fiery Speeches and Songs to Minneapolis

The E Street Band opened its Land of Hope and Dreams tour on Tuesday night, where the musician asked the crowd to choose “unity over division and peace over war.”

Bruce Springsteen has a rare talent for capturing cultural flash points and crystallizing them in song. The proud son of New Jersey did it in 2001 with “American Skin (41 Shots),” about the killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Black man, by police. He did it in 2002 with “The Rising,” an album about recovery and resilience after the attack on the World Trade Center, and again in 2006, when his performance of songs including “We Shall Overcome” and “My City of Ruins” in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina brought the audience at the Jazz & Heritage Festival to tears.

And in 2026, he has tapped the zeitgeist with “Streets of Minneapolis,” a Dylanesque ode written and released just days after ICE officers fatally shot Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in the Twin Cities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4v6TB93

‌One year ago, President Donald Trump ushered in a revolution from the Rose Garden. On April 2, he proclaimed the arrival of “Liberation Day” and described a nation plundered by foreign trade that could only reclaim its riches through double-digit tariffs imposed on almost every country on Earth.

“This will be, indeed, the golden age of America,” Trump said in pushing for the rebirth of American industry. “It's coming back.”

Investors shared neither his confidence nor optimism. Financial markets plunged. A Treasury bond sell-off led to a spike in yields that compelled Trump to pause the reciprocal tariffs for three months.

In the end, the Supreme Court nixed them, in a case that upheld limits on the executive branch’s ability to unilaterally apply tariffs on foreign governments. The scorecard is in and the results, with some exceptions, aren’t encouraging: Inflation has risen while the U.S. manufacturing sector has shed jobs for 10 months in a row.

“The evidence shows the tariffs were not reciprocal, did not generate the promised investment boom, raised less revenue than projected, and contributed to higher prices,” economists Erica York and Emily Kraschel wrote in a blog post for the right-leaning Tax Foundation. - Quartz https://bit.ly/48qLwCa

‌Trump Fires Pam Bondi as Attorney General

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.

In a social media post, Mr. Trump said he was replacing Ms. Bondi with Todd Blanche, her deputy, on an interim basis. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3NGKoUc

‌Trump Ousts Attorney General Pam Bondi

President Trump ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi, ending a yearlong tenure atop the Justice Department marked by failed efforts to prosecute his favored targets and a view by the president and his advisers that she mismanaged the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump wrote on social media on Thursday afternoon. The president said Bondi would soon transition to a “much needed and important new job in the private sector.” He didn’t provide details on her new job. -WSJ https://on.wsj.com/41dycNO

‌Company backed by Trump sons looks to sell drone interceptors to Gulf states being attacked by Iran

A drone maker backed by President Donald Trump’s two oldest sons is trying to sell to Gulf countries while they are under attack by Iran and dependent on the U.S. military led by their father.

The sales drive by Florida-based Powerus – which announced a deal last month to bring aboard Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. – positions the company to potentially benefit from a war that their father began.

“These countries are under enormous pressure to buy from the sons of the president so he will do what they want,” said Richard Painter, a former chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush. “This is going to be the first family of a president to make a lot of money off war — a war he didn’t get the consent of Congress for.” - AP https://bit.ly/4sdgGEk

‌Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Compares Him to Jesus at Easter Event

Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain compared the president to Jesus Christ during an Easter lunch at the White House Wednesday afternoon.

“Jesus taught so many lessons through his death, burial, and resurrection. He showed us great leadership, great transformation requires great sacrifice. And Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life,” White-Cain said with the president standing behind her. “You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It’s a familiar pattern that our lord and savior showed us. But it didn’t end there for him, and it didn’t end there for you.” - New Republic https://bit.ly/4c07U6A

‌C.D.C. Pauses Testing for Rabies and Pox Viruses

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Qjskjz

‌Trump says he’ll order all DHS workers be paid as Senate bill to fund department sits with House

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he will order that all Department of Homeland Security employees be paid, as Congress again took steps toward ending the longest-ever partial government shutdown.

The move would expand Trump’s earlier directive for DHS to unilaterally pay Transportation Security Administration workers in a bid to alleviate travel backlogs at understaffed airports. The money for the broader payments is also expected to come from last summer’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” according to an Office of Management and Budget official. - CNN https://cnn.it/4mdNcF1

‌‘We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care’: Trump’s ill-timed rant

President Donald Trump delivered one of his most extensive sales pitches for the Iran war in a primetime address on Wednesday night.

But comments he delivered in a closed-door Easter lunch just hours earlier epitomize why he has utterly failed to make the sale.

In rambling hourlong remarks — video of which was briefly posted on YouTube by the White House and preserved by a reporter for Business Insider — Trump riffed on how the federal government should focus more on funding defense and less on health care and day care, which should be left to the states. - CNN https://cnn.it/4doTOOs

‌John Roberts told Donald Trump exactly what he thinks

When Chief Justice John Roberts and the eight associate justices took the Supreme Court bench on Wednesday for a fundamental debate over American identity, they did not acknowledge the presence of Donald Trump in the courtroom.

That was not unexpected: Wednesday marked the first time in modern history that the president of the United States attended an oral argument. But Trump was there as a litigant and spectator, not in any formal role.

Then, in a move that was surprising, Roberts showed his hand.

The chief justice can be cagey during arguments. In high-profile cases, he often sends mixed signals and keeps his options open.

But during the momentous session, Roberts made plain his skepticism for the Trump position that would upend more than a century of constitutional history and tradition. The chief justice cast doubt on the Trump administration’s alternative view of the reach of the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship guarantee.

Roberts particularly dismissed US Solicitor General John Sauer’s contention that contemporary immigration problems require a revision of the understanding that virtually all children born on US soil become American citizens, irrespective of their parents’ immigration status.

Echoing Trump assertions, Sauer argued that “a sprawling industry of birth tourism” has led to “uncounted thousands of foreigners from potentially hostile nations” arriving in the US to have their children here.

“We’re in a new world now,” Sauer told Roberts, “where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who’s a US citizen.”

“Well, it’s a new world,” Roberts rejoined. “It’s the same Constitution.”

The tone was especially biting for a chief justice known for his measured public comments. He was aware that the case was drawing inordinate interest. Television and radio networks aired the arguments live. All the courtroom seats, and extra chairs in the alcoves, were filled. Among the people in a special section reserved for spouses and guests of the nine justices was actor Robert De Niro, a Trump critic. - CNN https://cnn.it/4doCysH

‌Trump urges Bruce Springsteen boycott in social media rant; calls him 'dried up prune'

Donald Trump told his followers Thursday to boycott Bruce Springsteen in an angry rant against the rock icon who has emerged as a fierce critic of the U.S. president's often harsh immigration crackdown.

Calling Springsteen "a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon," Trump said his right-wing supporters should keep away from the singer's concerts.

The shows are "overpriced" and "suck," 79-year-old Trump wrote on his Truth Social site in a post filled with his trademark insults and boasts about his record as president.

Springsteen, a major U.S. rock figure for more than half a century and winner of 20 Grammys, has been outspoken against Trump's bid to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants. - AFP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/4sjqpsT?

‌Hegseth Fires Army Chief Amid Battle With Its Leaders

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/48cG4CU

‌Pam Bondi Fired as Attorney General

President Trump has been souring on Attorney General Pam Bondi for months, especially because of her handling of the Epstein files, which has become a political liability for Mr. Trump. Ms. Bondi, the second cabinet member to lose her job in recent weeks, said she would be taking a job in the private sector. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Q0F1zK

‌Pam Bondi fired

President Donald Trump has fired Attorney General Pam Bondi after he was apparently displeased with her performance in using the Department of Justice to pursue his personal vendettas.

Trump is reportedly planning to replace her with current Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, a Trump loyalist known for pursuing a pro-pollution agenda.

President Donald Trump welcomes Pam Bondi before she is sworn in as Attorney General by Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump welcomes Pam Bondi before she is sworn in as attorney general on Feb. 5, 2025.

Bondi wasn’t Trump’s first pick to serve as attorney general. The original plan was to install former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, but a sex-trafficking scandal pushed him out, forcing Trump to pivot to Bondi.

Under Bondi, attempts have been made to pervert the criminal justice system to go after Trump’s ideological enemies. Charges were filed against figures like New York Attorney General Leticia James—who successfully prosecuted Trump—and former FBI Director James Comey—who exposed Trump’s role in the pressure campaign that led to his first impeachment. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4dyQDUB

‌Trump says it's 'not possible' for the U.S. to pay for Medicaid, Medicare and day care: 'We’re fighting wars'

The president’s remarks were delivered to attendees at a private Easter luncheon at the White House, where Trump also accused Democratic-led states of fraud.

He went on to say that he told Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought: “Don’t send any money for day care, because the United States can’t take care of day care. That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of day care. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care. You got to let a state take care of day care, and they should pay for it too.”

Later in his remarks, the president added that states would have to raise their taxes to pay for child care costs and that the federal government “could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up” for it. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4sdhVU0

‌The Next Attorney General Has an Impossible Job

Throughout his first term, Donald Trump serially fired and replaced members of his Cabinet as they displeased him. In his second, he seemed to be trying to break this pattern—keeping top aides even after their missteps and humiliations that would have sunk careers in any other administration. But now the president is back to his old ways. Last month, he fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Today, he announced the departure of Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Trump’s Truth Social post about Bondi is warm, despite his habit of insulting ex-employees: “We love Pam,” he wrote. But reportedly, the president had become frustrated with what he perceived as Bondi’s failures to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies, and with her clumsy handling of the ongoing fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Unfortunately for Trump, these are not issues that can be fixed by appointing a new attorney general. Whoever holds the position next will be confronted with exactly the same problem: Trump is asking his attorney general to do the impossible. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4doDj51

‌Johnson Wavers on Ending the Shutdown, Reflecting His Weak Hold on Power

The House speaker first panned, then endorsed, then punted on, then pitched and now is delaying a bill to reopen the Homeland Security Department, showing his vulnerability in the face of party rifts. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bPX18y

‌Bad, Very Bad and Much Worse: Pick a Forecast for the War and Economy

The war in the Persian Gulf has already been bad for the markets and the global economy. There’s no question about that.

But from a purely financial standpoint, another issue looms: By the time all the fighting ends — whenever it ends — how big will its impact be? The best anyone can do at this stage is make educated guesses.

President Trump’s from-the-gut decision-making, combined with Iran’s resilient ability to close shipping lanes and wreak damage on Gulf energy production, means that the range of possibilities for this war is still staggeringly broad.

New forecasts come out continuously. Most scenarios go from bad to very bad — and much worse. It’s difficult to rule anything out. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dXg5mI

‌The One Thing Trump Wanted That Pam Bondi Failed to Deliver

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41NFZC2

‌Trump Has No Idea How to Clean Up His Own Mess

In a functioning American democracy, the president would deliver an Oval Office address at the start of a new military conflict. Donald Trump, however, decided to wait until a month into his war with Iran to give a speech about it to a skeptical public.

In the run-up to his address, experts speculated about what he was going to announce. A ground invasion? De-escalation? A petulant withdrawal from NATO because no one wants to help him open the Strait of Hormuz? It was none of these. Instead, a slurring Trump rehashed a bunch of his Truth Social posts, alternately boasting about America’s military progress while threatening war crimes. His speech told us very little, at least explicitly, but revealed quite a lot. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sSHsmI

‌No Plan. No Allies. No End in Sight.

President Trump stood at a lectern on Wednesday night, in his first prime-time address to the nation since the war in Iran began, and declared the monthlong air campaign to be a success.

“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.”

For all his tough triumphalism, however, the president failed to provide any evidence of a plan to resolve the two crises that now define the war and that have the potential to reshape the balance of power in the Middle East and the world economy for years to come. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4doV2Jy

‌Feds Broke State Law By Targeting People Near Chicago Courts, Public Defender Says

Federal immigration agents have directly violated Illinois law at least five times by entering or waiting outside county court buildings in Chicago to make arrests, officials with the Cook County Public Defender’s Office said Thursday.

The latest instance occurred around 11 a.m. Thursday when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse, 555 W. Harrison St., with the intention of apprehending someone with an active court date, officials and rapid responders said. As of Thursday evening, local officials said they were unaware if an arrest had been made.

Out of five instances reported since the end of February, three people have been arrested, officials said. Illinois passed the Court Access, Safety, and Participation Act in December, outlawing civil arrests by federal agents in courthouses in the state.

All five of those “brazen” instances are in direct violation of the law, Deputy Public Defender Sharlyn Grace said at a Thursday press conference.

“The fact that the Trump administration and federal immigration officials continue to use our state courts to target people for arrest and abduction [is] in violation of county policy, court order and state of Illinois law,” Grace said. “What we are seeing is lawlessness and disregard for those protections by the Trump administration.” - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/3O8WKnY

‌White House Seeks $1.5 Trillion for Defense in New Budget Request

The huge proposed increase would be partly offset by steep cuts to domestic programs, some of which the Trump administration describes as wasteful. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4e2j518

‌Memories of Vietnam - LIes, Arrogance, and Stupidity

This is starting to feel a lot like the Vietnam War.

This morning, Iran shot down a U.S. F-15E fighter jet over Iran, according to U.S. and Israeli officials. The fate of the plane’s crew is unclear. A rescue effort has recovered one crew member. American officials are scrambling to mount a search and rescue operation for the second.

Anyone recall that this was how the Vietnam began to escalate? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4maIVSx

‌Who's the Biggest Money Behind the Throne?

It’s important that we demonstrated against Trump’s assertion of royal powers.

It’s at least as important to follow the money — and learn the identities of America’s billionaire royalty who crowned Trump in the first place. They’re now spending another regal fortune to keep Congress under his control.

Today I’m going to name names. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4dySwRb

‌Trump’s Purge May Be Just Beginning

After Pam Bondi’s ouster, other top administration officials could be in jeopardy.

After Pam Bondi’s ouster today, which followed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s firing last month, Cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials were anxiously eyeing their phones, wondering whether they’d be next. One top official didn’t have to wait long: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed the chief of staff of the Army, General Randy George. Several people familiar with the White House’s plans told us that there are active discussions about others leaving the administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters, said that the timing is uncertain and that President Trump has not yet made up his mind. But what was once an unofficial motto of the second Trump term—“no scalps”—no longer applies. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4t1HfNZ

‌Bondi's out, Blanche is in—for now

Todd Blanche, the current deputy attorney general, will step in as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi got fired from the role on April 2.

And since being rewarded with a job at the Department of Justice, Blanche has really made a name for himself. Not a good name, but a name nonetheless.

Let’s start with Blanche’s very normal and cool and lowkey view of federal judges. During the Federalist Society conference last year, Blanche declared a “war” against the judiciary and called on baby lawyers to join him in fighting “activist judges.”

You see, Blanche doesn’t really believe that judges should be able to stop Trump—and that’s not hyperbole.

At the same conference, he complained about “what a travesty it is when you have an individual judge be able to stop an entire operation or an entire administrative policy that’s constitutional and allowed just because he or she chooses to do so.”

That stupid Constitution with its stupid checks and balances, am I right? - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4sedVT6

‌The most transparent administration in history strikes again

Under President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice is attacking the real enemy: recordkeeping requirements.

Yes, Trump just got his pet at the Office of Legal Counsel, T. Elliot Gaiser, to whip up a very aggro opinion saying that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional.

Such a great look to have a presidential appointee just baldly declaring that the law requiring the president to keep records is unconstitutional because Congress has no right to tell the president to keep records. It intrudes on his authority to make him do so, and there’s no legislative purpose, and it's burdensome, and on and on and on.

This sort of thing was inevitable once the DOJ became fully captured by Trump. Not just that he would begin treating the OLC like his own personal legal opinion factory, there to spit out whatever he likes, regardless of actual law, but that he would go after the PRA specifically.

The PRA was enacted in the wake of Watergate and requires that presidential and vice-presidential records be available to the public. So, the president and vice president have to maintain records created during their tenure and leave them behind when they go, at which point they are transferred to the archivist.

During his first term, Trump routinely violated the PRA by tearing up and throwing away records. Upon leaving office after his first term, he insisted that the PRA meant he could keep whatever presidential records he wanted, forever. You will note that is pretty much literally the opposite of what the law says. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4m8EM1w

‌Trump's America, an impossible ally?

Europe's frustration over Donald Trump's digs at NATO was laid bare this week when French President Emmanuel Macron lashed out at the U.S. leader with some of his strongest language to date.

During a visit to Seoul, Macron — who has maintained a good working relationship with Trump — accused the U.S. president of harming NATO by speaking too much.

"Alliances like NATO derive their value from what is left unsaid, namely the trust that underpins them," he said Thursday. - AFP / Japan Times https://bit.ly/48w3i79

‌Trump Seeks $152 Million to Begin to Turn Alcatraz Back Into a Prison

President Trump is asking for $152 million from Congress to try to transform Alcatraz, the popular tourist attraction, back into a maximum-security prison.

The request, included in a 2027 fiscal year budget proposal released on Friday, is the most concrete step the president has taken so far to realize an idea he first mused about last year on social media, when he said he wanted the island in the San Francisco Bay to be enlarged and rebuilt “to house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.”

But the plan faces immense political and practical roadblocks. It has generated enormous pushback in San Francisco, where tourism is one of the biggest industries and Alcatraz is at the top of many visitors’ itineraries.

And Alcatraz, which has not housed an inmate in more than 60 years, is largely in ruins. It has no running water or sewage system. Much of the island, known as “The Rock,” is covered in bird droppings. All supplies must be brought in by boat. - NYT https://nyti.ms/48w3kvN

‌No One at Waffle House Remembers FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported In

Gregg Phillips, who is in charge of responding to fires and floods, says the hand of God suddenly and mysteriously moved him to a 24-hour breakfast spot in Rome, Ga. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4c8l9SG

‌Trump Directs Officials to Pay All D.H.S. Employees

The memorandum calls for paying employees at the Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who have gone without pay during a record-long shutdown. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dvt7YA

‌‘Under Protest,’ Raw Dairy Farm Recalls Cheddar Linked to 9 E. Coli Cases

For weeks, the Food and Drug Administration has been asking a raw-dairy farm in California to recall its Cheddar cheese, which the agency has linked to nine E. coli illnesses in California, Texas and Florida.

On Thursday, the dairy farm, Raw Farm LLC, finally complied, though it said it was doing so “under protest” as it continued to deny that its cheese was the cause of the outbreak. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PTkixM

‌Trump Has Lost Control of Events in Iran

When presidents go on television in wartime, they do not merely describe events. They try to impose meaning on them. On Wednesday night, President Trump presented the war with Iran as a stern but necessary undertaking that is nearing a favorable conclusion.

The threads of this victory narrative have been coming together since the United States launched Operation Epic Fury in late February. Elements of it are undoubtedly true: American and Israeli forces have been dominant from the air, able to penetrate the Islamic republic’s porous defenses almost at will. They have degraded not only Tehran’s military capabilities but also the industrial base producing its missile and drone fleets. The attacks have also once more exposed Iran’s substantial intelligence vulnerabilities, allowing the targeting and killing of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, among other senior military and political leaders, at the campaign’s outset.

But the central question in this war was never whether Iran could be hurt. It was whether pain would translate into submission. So far, it has not. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PSnmKD

What Trump Is Doing to the English Language‌

I have observed a set of patterns in the way Mr. Trump speaks and writes over his two terms in office that reveal how the president uses verbs to evade responsibility and even proclaim a new form of leadership. Perhaps surprisingly, this is true even when Mr. Trump is proudly, if also prematurely, declaiming military successes.

“Win” and a set of other forceful action verbs and verb phrases — tell, hit, crush, destroy, knock out, kill, obliterate — account for much of the rock-ribbed, informal quality Mr. Trump invokes in his speech, which he did even before the country was at war with Iran. He whips up enormous rhetorical energy not from a large or sophisticated vocabulary but from the repeated use of dynamic verbs. The drama and emotion in his speech boil up largely from his choice of verbs — including the way he praises violent actions.

This reached a bizarre, vulgar crescendo in a late-night Truth Social post he made on March 13. “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years,” he wrote of the Iranians, “and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”

This could be read as mad ravings, or maybe as just a bad attempt at gallows humor. Certainly it is unusual — and possibly unprecedented — for a president to make light of actions that have left thousands dead and injured, including children and other civilians. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4to8Fxb

‌Trump Went to the Supreme Court to Make It About Him

I should start on a light and friendly note, I know, but I confess that the birthright citizenship case is making me feel trolled. President Trump began his term with an executive order professing to end the right of citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and foreign residents with temporary visas, among others. I understand the politics — light up the base and then torch the court if it stands in the way. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41fOqWz

‌Their tiny church is on the cover of JD Vance’s new book. They don’t know him.

The modest church on the cover of Vice President JD Vance’s new memoir unpacking his Catholic faith has a tiny but loyal congregation.

What it doesn’t have, members said: any connection to Vance or Catholicism. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4vhWPH0

‌The war’s economic impact could get worse for Americans

Amazon is adding a fuel surcharge to its e-commerce deliveries. Mortgage rates have risen to their highest mark in seven months. And consumers may soon see higher prices for soda bottles and detergents. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3PRb7Ov

‌Trump gloats on possible war crimes in Iran, but punishment distant

Threatening to destroy Iran's electricity grid and to reduce the country of 90 million to destitution, US President Donald Trump is shattering precedent by not just accepting but gloating about acts seen as potential war crimes. - AFP https://bit.ly/41fOMwn

‌Hegseth has intervened in military promotions for more than a dozen senior officers

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, some of whom are seen as having been targeted because of their race, gender or perceived affiliation with Biden administration policies or officials, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process. - NBC https://nbcnews.to/4mf2MQM

‌Trump Escalates Threat to Hit Iranian Power Plants After U.S. Rescues Downed Airman

President Trump used an expletive-laden social media post to taunt Iranian leaders, saying that the United States would attack if they did not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dsRdmH

‌Trump Pledged a Quick End to the Iran War, but He Hasn’t Explained How

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 to explain how the war will end, short of the U.S. military’s 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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41mpjl0

‌Judge Pauses Trump Demand for Student Race Data in 17 States

A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration could not demand detailed student admissions data from public colleges in the 17 states that are suing over the demand, pending a further decision in the case.

The ruling, issued by Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the Federal District Court in Boston, extends an earlier order that temporarily blocked the Education Department from enforcing a deadline for the colleges to provide student application data on race, gender, test scores and other information from the past seven years. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sU2i4R

‌New Attorney General, Same Albatross: Trump’s Quest for Retribution

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/486JyqP

‌Trump Slashed Science Funding. Now the U.S. Could Face a Costly Brain Drain.

The White House’s attacks on academia and budget cuts for research have provided an opening for other countries to poach leading scientists. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dyKjfE

‌Trump not immune from civil claims from Jan. 6 speech, judge rules

A federal judge is allowing a civil suit brought against President Trump for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, to proceed in court, a victory for Democratic lawmakers and U.S. Capitol Police officers who brought the litigation.

The late Tuesday ruling from U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that Trump’s speech on the Ellipse that day was not covered by the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, determining it could not be considered a core presidential act.

He also determined the phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) asking him to “find” more votes was clearly an effort “to alter the outcome of Georgia’s election.” - The Hill https://bit.ly/4t1Wc2A

‌Trump administration unlawfully revoked status of migrants who used Biden-era app, US judge rules

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered ‌President Donald Trump's administration to reverse the termination of the legal status of thousands of migrants who had been allowed to temporarily live in the United States after using an appointment app utilized by Democratic President Joe Biden's administration.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston ruled, opens new tab that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully in April 2025 when it sent mass emails notifying many of the more than 900,000 people who had entered the country using the CBP ⁠One app that it was "time for you to leave the United States." - Reuters https://reut.rs/4sXvOXu

‌Trump Revels in Threats to Commit War Crimes in Iran

Power plants, desalination stations, oil wells, roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

They are the foundations of civilian life in Iran, and their destruction by American and Israeli forces would cause widespread suffering among the country’s 93 million people — and in most cases would be considered a war crime under international law.

Yet President Trump has repeatedly threatened to do exactly that, with the aim of sending Iran “back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” as he put it in a speech on Wednesday. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4bXtD0h

‌Stephen Miller Is Still Pursuing His Immigration Agenda, but More Quietly

The architect of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign 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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4vbsslv

‌Trump Is Reportedly Going Full Steam Ahead with the Golden Dome

The Pentagon has picked two companies to build prototypes for the key technology in Trump’s controversial Golden Dome plan, a report says.

Satellite startup Impulse Space and defense tech company Anduril were tapped to develop prototypes for the space-based missile tracking and targeting technology that will make up the Golden Dome, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources.

The Golden Dome is the Trump administration’s ambitious plan to create a network of space-based satellites to detect and thwart any potential aerial attack on American soil, something that is not a particularly looming, urgent threat to be resolved, considering that a successful military attack on American soil has not happened since World War II. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3PSnABv

‌The Real Intelligence Failure in Iran

The intelligence community was accurate and consistent in its prewar judgments about Iran’s capabilities and intentions to attack the United States and its allies. Contrary to what President Trump has said to justify his decision, the intelligence showed that the Iranian regime was not preparing to use a nuclear weapon; it did not have ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States; and in response to a U.S. military attack, Iran was likely to strike at neighboring countries in the Persian Gulf and try to close the Strait of Hormuz, precipitating a global economic crisis. All of this was known before the war and presented to President Trump. This was an intelligence success.

Trump’s “excursion,” as he calls the biggest U.S. military operation of his second term, has unleashed a parade of horribles. Iran now controls the strait, where it plans to charge vessels a toll and can govern global flows of oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and chemicals that are crucial for manufacturing. A regime that Trump claims to have replaced still remains in the hands of hard-liners, whose repression of the Iranian people will be strengthened for having survived a decapitation strike by the world’s only superpower. And neighboring countries in the Gulf, whose livelihoods depend on exporting energy and creating safe places for people to visit, live, and work, will amass new weapons and reconsider their strategic partnerships with the United States. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4trXFyR

Hegseth’s War on America’s Military‌

Someone needs to explain the Pentagon purges to the American people.

The United States is in the middle of a major war, but that didn’t stop Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday from firing General Randy George, America’s most senior Army officer. George was the Army’s chief of staff, and he was cashiered along with another four-star general, David Hodne, and Major General William Green Jr., the top Army chaplain, in what has been a rolling purge by Hegseth of senior officers—particularly those close to the secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll.

Why were these men fired while U.S. forces are fighting overseas? The Defense Department has given no official reason for their dismissals, but likely they are the latest victims of Hegseth’s vindictive struggles with the Army, which he feels treated him poorly—the service “spit me out,” he said in his 2024 book—as he struggles in a job for which he remains singularly unqualified. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mieSbZ

‌Trump’s Absurd Citizenship Arguments Went Nowhere

‌Everyone but Trump Understands What He’s Done

Week Sixty-Three: April 6 - April 12

‌Letters from an American - April 5, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

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 Fckin’ Strait, you crazy bstards, 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.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4trXFyR

‌Trump, in expletive-laden message, threatens to rain 'hell' on Iran if Strait of Hormuz stays shut

In another post laden with expletives, Trump told Iran to open the Hormuz waterway, the conduit for around a ⁠fifth of the world's oil and natural gas supply that has been largely shut down since the war began five ⁠weeks ago.

"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, ⁠and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran," he said on his Truth Social platform, threatening to hit energy and transport infrastructure that critics ‌say would violate international law.

"There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F...’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to ⁠Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP" - Reuters / Japan Today

‌A Harrowing Race Against Time to Find a Downed U.S. Airman in Iran

This account of the weapons officer’s fight for survival and rescue is based on interviews with about a dozen current and former military and administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4skgkMe

‌Stephen Miller Is Still Pursuing His Immigration Agenda, but More Quietly

‌ICE Agents Detain Newlywed Spouse of Soldier Training to Deploy

A U.S. Army staff sergeant and his wife arrived at his base in Louisiana last week, expecting to begin their life together as newlyweds.

The couple checked in at the visitor center, identification in hand, ready to complete the steps that would allow her to move into his home on the base.

Within hours, that plan had unraveled.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the base and detained his wife, an undocumented Honduran immigrant who was brought to the U.S. as a toddler. By nightfall, she was in a detention facility with hundreds of women facing deportation as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The detention came just days after Annie Ramos, 22, a college student with no criminal record, and Matthew Blank, 23, celebrated their marriage with family and friends. Sergeant Blank, who enlisted more than five years ago, is assigned to a brigade at Fort Polk, La. that is set to begin training at the end of the month for deployment. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4voWUZp

‌Trump Revels in Threats to Commit War Crimes in Iran

The president said he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages.” Until this administration, American leaders had insisted they were trying to follow international law in war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tMGqJ4

‌Trump’s Lesson From Risky Rescue: Threaten to Go Harder at Iran

In an expletive-laced social media post, the president said Iran should open the Strait of Hormuz or he would bomb bridges and power plants. https://nyti.ms/3Q1g7Ac

‌The Real Intelligence Failure in Iran

Final Thought: He's Seriously Out of His Mind‌

I was bullied as a kid. The way I knew I was winning against the bullies was when they started to scream and swear and rant and rave at me. That’s when I knew they felt powerless. They’d done everything they could to beat me down, and yet they couldn’t. I was tougher than their fists. They went nuts.

Is there any other explanation for Trump’s outburst? Many of Trump’s posts are really intended for domestic consumption. Perhaps he wanted to sound tough for his American followers?

That’s unlikely. Just Wednesday night he told America that the U.S. doesn’t “need” the strait to be open. If we don’t need it open, why threaten to blow up Iranian power plants (most likely war crimes) if Iran doesn’t open it? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3Okuijg

‌There's 'Nothing In There', They Said...

Eleven days before police raided Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion in 2005, a private investigator named William Riley sent a memo to Epstein’s criminal defense attorney. Attached was an inventory of items Riley had removed from the house. Three desktop computers. Dozens of telephone directories. Photographs of naked women. Sex toys. Pornography. Riley categorized them as being of “potential evidentiary value.”

When police arrived, the computers were gone. The Department of Justice (DOJ) never obtained them. Twenty-one years later, no law enforcement agency has seen what is on those hard drives. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/41sBiO8

‌Holy Shit

In a continued move toward the reunification of church and state, the Trump administration celebrated Easter by going full resurrection in a series of religious posts from various departments. But an Easter morning they hoped would commemorate a rising, served instead as a stark reminder of the depths of our descent. In his own unhinged, religion-charged post, the president of the United States threatened 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.” (Anyone remember when Trump told Iranian protesters HELP IS ON ITS WAY?) What’s the big deal? It’s just Trump being Trump. It will all get lost in the news cycle anyway. Well, it is a big deal for several reasons. It’s yet another crazy, terrible hit on American leadership, in which most of our allies have already lost faith. It’s a signal to our enemies that the rules of war are no longer in play. It’s a message that could potentially galvanize the Iranian people against American efforts, even those predisposed to support efforts to rid their country of a terrible regime. It’s a detriment to American service personnel who are being associated with, and potentially being ordered to commit, war crimes. And it’s a reminder that the most powerful country on Earth is being run by a lunatic, and no matter how offensive he is or how serious a threat he poses, his enablers will continue to enable him. NYT(Gift Article): Trump Revels in Threats to Commit War Crimes in Iran. “The American president has been unambiguous in his disdain for international law. In a two-hour Oval Office interview in January with The New York Times, Mr. Trump declared, ‘I don’t need international law.’ When asked whether there was any limit on his global powers, he said, ‘Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality.’” Let’s hope America can resurrect itself from that.

“As former uniformed military lawyers who advised targeting operations, we know the president’s words run counter to decades of legal training of military personnel and risk placing our warfighters on a path of no return.” Just Security: When War Crimes Rhetoric Becomes Battlefield Reality.

NYT (Gift Article): On Iran, Trump Keeps World Off Balance With Ever-Changing Threats. (Off balance. I guess that’s one way to put it.)
- Next Draft https://bit.ly/4vrygr2

‌Supreme Court sides with Steve Bannon in bid to dismiss Jan. 6 conviction

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared a path for Stephen K. Bannon’s effort, backed by the Justice Department, to dismiss his conviction for defying a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4mqxs1j

‌What Happens When Trump Feels Cornered

In an earlier, somewhat more innocent era of Donald Trump’s social-media posting, one could still chuckle darkly at his 2017 declaration that his approach “is not Presidential - it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL.” But as the war in Iran bogs down, his communication has far surpassed the merely bizarre and become entirely unhinged. When Trump feels cornered, I have written, he lashes out most fiercely—which might explain the wild statements and actions emanating from the White House over the past few days.

The nadir (for now) was an Easter-morning Truth Social missive in which Trump threatened that “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.”

Trump reiterated the threat during a press conference this afternoon, saying, “The entire country could be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.” Targeting civilian infrastructure such as power plants and bridges is likely illegal. Trump would not be the first U.S. president to flout international law, but he would be the first to advertise it ahead of time on a social-media site he owns. The threat is also strategically dubious. Installing a more pro-American regime in Tehran would require the existence of some authority that is both able to govern and willing to work with Washington; these sorts of strikes, or even threats, make that less likely. (Trump insisted that he’s heard pleas from inside Iran to continue bombing.) And using the threat of martyrdom to scare the religious zealots currently in charge seems possibly counterproductive. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4dD9NIS

‌NY Times once again caught sanewashing Trump’s unhinged rhetoric

The New York Times has once again been caught red-handed editing commentary from President Donald Trump that makes his commentary seem less unhinged than it truly is.

On Easter Sunday, Trump sent out a Truth Social post reading, “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”

But in its initial report on Trump’s post, the comments had been edited by the Times.

The Times told its millions of readers about Trump’s comment that it would be “power plant day and bridge day” but removed his statement about him wanting Iran to “open the Fuckin’ Strait.” The report gave the impression that Trump’s unhinged post was far more level-headed and sane than it truly was.

After online commentary noting the striking omission, the expletive was added in later revisions to the story. But no editor’s note or correction was added, leaving the false impression that the entirety of Trump’s remarks had always been in the story.

The process of “sanewashing” Trump’s remarks has been practiced for years by the mainstream media. This is the practice of reporting on what Trump said, but removing the consistently strange, sexist, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and otherwise offensive context to his remarks. This isn’t merely the process of editing out verbal tics, but instead leaving an impression of Trump that is far different from the person he truly is. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4t2GQuB

‌‘I Love Viktor’: Trump and Vance Cheer on Orban in Hungarian Race

The American leaders slathered on the praise for the nationalist standard-bearer just days before an election he could lose. https://nyti.ms/4cGdZGE

‌Trump Administration Pulls Out of Civil Rights Settlements Backing Trans Students

The Education Department said there was no precedent for the federal government terminating settlements stemming from civil rights investigations into schools. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cjOwkX

‌Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Undermines ICE Account

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. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4c4YesO

‌Trump has really, seriously, frighteningly lost his mind

Trump told reporters yesterday 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 makes it a war crime to destroy 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 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 if 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. “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? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4mmZtqC

‌Letters from an American - April 6, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

“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.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4ssk3Y4

‌Trump Is Putting America’s Weaknesses on Display

The Trump administration’s handling of the Iran conflict has exposed vulnerabilities in U.S. military capabilities, particularly in dealing with modern warfare tactics like drones and anti-ship missiles. This has implications for U.S. relations with allies and rivals, potentially emboldening China in its strategic calculations regarding Taiwan. The administration’s lack of contingency planning and strained alliances further exacerbate these concerns. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3OdKPWe

‌After court loss, RFK Jr. gives himself more power over CDC vaccine panel

Dr. Robert Malone speaks during a meeting of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at CDC Headquarters on December 4, 2025 in Atlanta. Credit: Getty | Elijah Nouvelage

Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has amended the charter of a federal vaccine advisory panel to seemingly grant himself more power to hand-pick members and loosen membership requirements, according to a notice published today in the Federal Register.

The changes come after a federal judge last month temporarily blocked advisors Kennedy had hand-selected, following his firing of all 17 experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The judge, US District Judge Brian Murphy, ruled that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine-leaning picks largely lacked expertise in relevant fields as required under the current charter. They also failed to meet broader federal regulations that advisory committees be “fairly balanced” in representing the views within relevant fields.

“A committee of non-experts cannot be said to embody ‘fairly balanced… points of view’ within the relevant scientific community,” Murphy wrote. “It is more accurate to say that they do not represent points of view within the relevant expert community.”

The ruling has suspended all activity of the ACIP panel. It also temporarily reverses all the changes Kennedy’s ACIP had made to federal vaccine policy, including dropping recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines and a birth dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine. Both were widely decried by medical and public health organizations.

The updated charter published today may be Kennedy’s next move to restore his vision for ACIP, which he had largely stocked with allies that share his anti-vaccine views. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4cCIygu

‌Trump to Iran: “A whole civilization will die tonight”

U.S. and Israeli airstrikes pounded targets across Iran overnight and into Tuesday. Railway infrastructure targeted in Iran after Israeli threat. Explosions reported on Kharg Island. Petrochemical facilities struck in Iran and Saudi Arabia, including a critical hub for plastics and fertilizer. IRGC warns no more restraint if bridges, energy plants bombed. - Drop Site https://bit.ly/41wruCA

‌Trump Threatens to Destroy an Entire Nation

The president’s position is that if he wants to wipe out a “whole civilization,” then that is his decision to make. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4200wDA

‌The World Simply Does Not Trust America

The truth of the matter is that the United States has never been as isolated as it is today. Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, has made some supportive noises in the current crisis, but that was done out of cynical calculation. No sane European leader can think that support for the United States today will be reciprocated by a Trumpist United States down the road. And while American actions have greatly benefited rivals like Russia and China, they can hardly delude themselves that the United States will reliably serve their interests in the future. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/47WMeXM

‌Trump threatens a “whole civilization will die tonight.”

I don’t know how better to put this than to say Trump’s threat this morning to “wipe out a whole civilization” of Iran puts America into a new immoral universe.

He is directly threatening a war crime. And every one of us is complicit in it, in the sense that this threat comes from the president of the United States, threatening to utilize our nation’s military power to exterminate an entire people. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3QhrbZV

‌How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran

In a series of Situation Room meetings, President Trump weighed his instincts against the deep concerns of his vice president and a pessimistic intelligence assessment. Here’s the inside story of how he made the fateful decision. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4szZdpM

‌U.S., Iran and Israel Agree to Cease-Fire

The deal came shortly before President Trump’s deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face devastation. Israel said the cease-fire did not include Lebanon. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4801Jye

‌Strait Shooter

In between posting that “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 bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah” and announcing that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” the president of the most powerful country in the world stood next to the Easter Bunny and shared some thoughts about Iran. Donald Trump may not have yet been able to bomb open the Strait of Hormuz, but he has blown his strait jacket clean off. We are in uncharted territory, with an unhinged president repeatedly threatening war crimes and a cast of enablers unwilling to stand up to the monster they helped create. I’m no expert on mental illness, even though I’ve been forced to confront its symptoms plastered across the news since that fateful Trump Tower escalator ride. But I’d imagine that if you were a cornered, frustrated, attention-addicted malignant narcissist with flourishing sociopathic tendencies, you’d be getting off bigly right now as a whole civilization waits to see if you’ll destroy it. I hope this manifestation of unbridled symptoms proves to be bluster or leads to some kind of deal and that the civilization in question does not die. In the meantime, American civilization is dying a little more with each passing day. - NextDraft https://bit.ly/4dG17Bu

‌Iranians Voice Shock and Defiance in Face of Trump’s Looming Deadline

With President Trump’s deadline to unleash mass destruction on Iran just hours away on Tuesday, Iranians faced the threats with a mix of indifference, defiance and bewilderment.

Mr. Trump has vowed to level power and desalination plants, oil installations and bridges if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping route, by 8 p.m. Eastern time. On Tuesday morning, he warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if a deal is not reached.

“The first thing that came to my mind is that I think Trump is under a lot of pressure, and that he has lost his mind,” said Lili, who works in the arts scene in the Iranian capital, Tehran. She asked not to use her full name out of fear of repercussions for speaking to foreign media. - NYT https://nyti.ms/48027Nc

‌What Tucker Carlson’s big break with Trump means

Twenty-one months ago, Tucker Carlson told the 2024 Republican National Convention that Donald Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt amounted to “divine intervention” — that God had chosen to save Trump because he had a plan for him to lead the country.

“Something bigger is going on here,” Carlson said.

Today, Carlson is offering an almost polar-opposite argument about Trump. He seemed to intimate during his show Monday that Trump might be the antichrist.

That rhetorical flourish capped Carlson’s harshest public criticism of Trump to date. While the former Fox News host has been highly critical of the Iran war before — and somewhat more gently critical of Trump the man, at least publicly — the gloves were off on Monday like never before.

The result was perhaps the biggest break thus far between Trump and a leading conservative influencer. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ekp9Ch

‌Is that legal? Trump threatens bridges, power plants and a ‘whole civilization’

There’s nothing in the military’s 1,200-page Law of War Manual about whether it’s legal to end a civilization, perhaps because nobody could have imagined an American president would make such an apocalyptic threat.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday morning, referencing his 8 p.m. deadline for Iran to cry “Uncle” to the US and open the Strait of Hormuz. Trump later Tuesday announced he’d agreed to a two-week ceasefire on the condition that Iran agree to reopen the critical waterway.

Ever the reality TV showman, Trump timed his deadline for Iran to prime-time TV hours in the US — and announced the two-week pause with less than two hours to go before his deadline. - CNN https://cnn.it/4vxOyii

‌Denying the enemy ‘quarter’ may sound like tough talk, but it would be a war crime

At a March 13 news briefing about the US-Israeli war with Iran, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proclaimed: “We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.”

Of the Oxford English Dictionary’s few dozen definitions for “quarter” — covering units of measurement, physical locations and particular parts of things — several are linked to militaries. “Quarter” is slang for the rank of quartermaster. It can mean lodging for soldiers or the act of housing troops, as in the Third Amendment’s proscription “in time of peace” on allowing troops to “be quartered in any house” without the owner’s permission. “Close quarters” can refer to fighting at short distances; a “quarter of assembly” was once a point of rendezvous for troops. - CNN https://cnn.it/3PYuZzl

‌Donald Trump has completely lost his political mind

President Donald Trump is one of the most corrupt, amoral, and vacuous human beings on the planet. Yet he was successful at running for office because, for all of his many faults, he had good political instincts and knew how to exploit Americans’ fears and desires.

But now, more than a year into his second term, it's clear that juice is gone.

Time after time, Trump has made mind-bogglingly stupid decisions and taken such obviously unpopular positions that he is now flirting with approval ratings not seen since former President George W. Bush after he crashed the economy in 2008. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4ta3CB2

‌New DHS Secretary Threatens to Sabotage America’s Biggest Airports

New Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin wants to punish “sanctuary cities” for refusing to cooperate with Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda by stripping them of customs and immigration services. - New Republic https://bit.ly/3PY4utQ

‌The Farm Labor Shortfall Bites

U.S. workers applied for only 182 of 415,000 jobs advertised last year. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/48tVJ0M

‌How Much Humiliation Can Vance Take?

At a closed-door Easter luncheon at the White House, President Trump decided to entertain the crowd by humiliating his understudy.

Mr. Trump demanded an update on Iran peace negotiations from Vice President JD Vance. “How’s that moving?” Mr. Trump asked, in a video of the event the White House seemed to have accidentally posted online.

“It’s going good, sir,” Mr. Vance replied from the audience. Mr. Trump cut off the rest of his response.

“Do you see it happening?” the president asked, about a successful end to the war.

“Uh,” the vice president replied, “we’re going to brief it to you.”

Then Mr. Trump delivered his punchline. “So, if it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance,” he said, to laughter. “If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

Does Mr. Vance still not realize that the joke is on him? - NYT https://nyti.ms/4srWDC3

‌Trump Finds His Offramp With Iran. But the Causes of War Remain Unresolved.

President Trump’s short-term intimidation may have worked, but the fundamental divides with Iran are as sharp as they were in February. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ta4upi

‌‘D.E.I.’ Was Erased From N.Y.C. Racial Equity Plan to Avoid Conflict With Trump

Just hours after Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a long overdue and legally mandated plan to eliminate racial inequity in New York City government, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department weighed in on social media.

“Sounds fishy/illegal,” Harmeet Dhillon wrote on X on Monday. “Will review!”

The 375-page Racial Equity Plan included examples of how city agencies are developing goals and measures to address longstanding inequities. But the Mamdani administration also took care to avoid using the term “diversity, equity and inclusion” in the report, fearing it would antagonize Trump officials. - NYT https://nyti.ms/47YlS7S

‌Vance picks fight with Europe over Orban in vote endorsement

U.S. Vice President JD Vance went to Budapest to criticize the European Union for allegedly meddling in the Hungarian election. Then he endorsed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a model of leadership for the continent days before the make-or-break vote.

Speaking alongside Orban on Tuesday, Vance said “the amount of interference that’s come from the bureaucracy in Brussels has been truly disgraceful.” He provided no evidence for his claims. No EU leader has campaigned alongside the Hungarian opposition in Budapest. - Japan Times https://bit.ly/47XuNX6

‌Ceasefire Is a Big Word for Backing Down

It’s difficult to think of a day with quite the same anxiety as April 7, 2026. Doing his best Darth Vader imitation, Donald Trump announced via Truth Social that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” sparking what the Wall Street Journal called a “frantic global guessing game over his real intentions.” Even if the presumption was that this was a version of “mad dog” diplomacy, with the unusual twist that Trump seemed to be the one just barely holding himself back on the leash, the day had the uneasy quiet of the lead-up to the Iraq War—the whole world just waiting for something really terrible and irrevocable to happen.

So, needless to say, the sudden and unexpected announcement of a ceasefire is an immense relief to everyone involved. Trump has apparently found his “offramp with Iran,” as The New York Times put it, and the fatal collision course between two powers—with the world’s energy markets held hostage in the exchange—has, for the time being, been averted. - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4t7xnSJ

‌Cease-Fire Tested by Confusion Over Strait and Strikes on Lebanon

The day-old cease-fire between the United States and Iran was being tested on Wednesday by uncertainty over the status of the economically vital Strait of Hormuz and disagreement over whether the truce applied to Lebanon, where Israel continued to carry out punishing attacks.

Iran, which said Lebanon was included in the cease-fire, accused the United States of not upholding its end of the deal. And Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Washington had to choose between a cease-fire or continued war via Israel, and “cannot have both.” Pakistan, which mediated the truce, said the deal covered Lebanon, a claim disputed by the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OCJUyD

‌Trump's Defeat in Iran

Last night, 90 minutes before Trump said he’d cause the death of a “whole civilization” if Iran didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz, an Iranian official said the shipping channel would be reopened for two weeks if the United States stopped bombing Iran. The U.S. has now stopped bombing Iran.

So we’re back to the status quo before Trump began his war. Only now, Iran can credibly threaten to close the strait if it doesn’t get what it wants from Trump, because it controls the strait — thereby causing havoc to the U.S. (and world) economies. Trump’s only remaining bargaining leverage is the threat of committing war crimes.

In other words, last night’s showdown was a clear victory for Iran and a clear defeat for Trump (although he’ll frame it as a victory). - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4dJPN7x

‌A New Geopolitical Reality Is Here

America’s adversaries are uniting as its own coalition falls apart. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4dLIWub

‌Trump declares victory after making Iran more powerful than ever

After the U.S. and Iran announced a ceasefire on Tuesday night, many of the details appeared to favor Iran’s cause, giving that nation more power in the Middle East than it had before President Donald Trump’s decision to engage in a bombing campaign. Despite this, the Trump administration took a victory lap that seems detached from the reality of the situation.

Both countries said they had agreed to a ceasefire though it is unclear to what degree hostilities have actually ended. Early signs are that following an end to hostilities, Iran will now be allowed to control access to the Strait of Hormuz. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/48HHp4Q

‌GOP senator fails history to defend Trump’s war crimes threat

In his zeal to provide cover for Trump, Scott ended up highlighting Democratic success in commanding a war effort. Perhaps Scott, a millionaire with a history of ethical violations, should stick to making excuses for increasing gas prices under the president he so faithfully supports. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4tKlYs6

‌An eclectic, bipartisan group suddenly calls for removing Trump using the 25th Amendment

Lawmakers have repeatedly floated the method for removing a president, as laid out in the Constitution, in recent years. And Donald Trump’s Cabinet apparently discussed the option more earnestly than many initially realized after the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

To successfully remove Trump, a majority of his Cabinet and his vice president would have to be supportive. And there are no indications any Cabinet officials are considering it right now, or that Vice President JD Vance would be on board. But Trump’s comment Tuesday morning that a “whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran makes a deal spurred increasing calls — among a somewhat odd amalgamation of voices — to invoke the amendment. - CNN https://cnn.it/41wozd7

‌The Trump Administration Is Trying to Erase Its Own History

Legal opinions tend to be dry, wordy, and intentionally vague. One issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel earlier this month is none of these.

“You have asked whether the Presidential Records Act of 1978 (‘PRA’ or ‘Act’) is constitutional. We conclude that it is not,” Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser declares. The law, passed after Watergate, is designed to ensure a reliable and accessible public record. It makes presidential documents public by law, and governs how and when they must be preserved.

If the opinion stands, it will allow Trump to destroy the records of his administration’s actions, or take records with him at the end of his term. Combined with alleged violations of PRA in his first term, this could make Trump the most poorly documented president since at least Richard Nixon, and perhaps going back even further. (As my colleague Henry Grabar writes, the actual library part of his planned presidential library is an afterthought at best.) Yet Trump’s habit of making policy without deliberation, and often with stream-of-consciousness speeches and posts on social media, means that his administration is a paradox: simultaneously one of the most transparent and most opaque in American history. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sxuGcb

‌Trump agrees to 2-week ceasefire with Iran, delaying threat of large-scale bombing campaign

President Trump said Tuesday he has agreed to a "double sided CEASEFIRE" with Iran, less than two hours before his deadline for Iran to either cut a deal with the U.S. or face massive strikes on its power plants. - CBS https://cbsn.ws/4mrAa6V

‌Iran Releases 10 Points It Says Are Basis for Cease-Fire Talks

The plan, which reasserts Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz and maintains the country’s right to nuclear enrichment, is not the same as the one President Trump said was a “workable basis” for negotiations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tPcUT0

‌Trump Made a Deal That Gives Him Nothing He Wanted

President Trump said he went to war to ensure that Iran never acquired a nuclear bomb. The war ended—for now, at least—with a demonstration that Tehran possesses an arguably more powerful weapon of deterrence against future attacks, one that is cheaper to use, gives Iran enormous sway over the global economy, can bring in revenue, and can’t be negotiated away: the Strait of Hormuz. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sAnU5s

‌America Looks Like a Paper Tiger

Last night, Iran, the United States, and Israel agreed to a two-week cease-fire. The central element appears to be a 10-point proposal by Iran that President Trump called “a workable basis on which to negotiate.” The New York Times published the points, which include removing all sanctions on Iran, ceding control of the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, and allowing Iran to charge tolls whose proceeds would be split with Oman.

If these are indeed the conditions under which the war is concluded, the U.S. emerges from the conflict in worse strategic shape than it started, and Iran emerges in better condition in the long run. Although the U.S. demonstrated tactical and operational excellence throughout the conflict, it was not sufficient to provide a real victory. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mr9bIB

‌Trump Says He ‘Exceeded’ His Objectives in Iran. But What Did He Accomplish?

President Trump went to war on Feb. 28 pledging to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, destroy its missile capability, break its regional proxies, eliminate its navy and create an opening for regime change.

After five weeks of bombardment, Mr. Trump agreed to a cease-fire with none of those goals clearly accomplished. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tKgvBp

‌A Cease-Fire for Now in Iran, but a Blow to American Credibility

Critics wonder if this is America’s “Suez moment,” when a leading power signals the start of its international decline. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mp12V4

‌Federal Court Denies Anthropic’s Motion to Lift ‘Supply Chain Risk’ Label

A panel of federal judges on Wednesday denied a motion from Anthropic to stop the Department of Defense from labeling it a security risk, a setback for the artificial intelligence company in its battle with the Trump administration over how A.I. should be used in warfare.

In a four-page ruling, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Anthropic had “not satisfied the stringent requirements” for a stay of the security risk label. - NYT https://nyti.ms/424d5xH

‌Pete Hegseth Is Trying to Resegregate the Military

Service in wartime has long been a reliable path for Americans denied full citizenship to secure their rights. Black troops’ contributions to the Union cause during the Civil War helped convince Abraham Lincoln of the righteousness of extending suffrage to Black men. Women’s work on the home front during World War I persuaded a reluctant Woodrow Wilson to urge passage of the Nineteenth Amendment as a “war measure.” The military’s repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was followed a few years later by the Supreme Court’s recognition of the marriage rights of same-sex couples.

Perhaps the Trump administration is hoping the process works just as well in reverse. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4t2pdv0

‌After Trump pauses war, Iranians fly flags of victory, not surrender

Amid fierce disagreements, the dramatic, last-minute decision to halt attacks seems less like an exit ramp than a rest stop for all sides. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4mukQGE

‌CDC delays publishing report showing covid vaccine benefits

The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has delayed publication of a CDC report showing the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to two scientists familiar with the decision. The scientists spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4ss6YOr

‌Supreme Court remade by Trump ushers in historic defeats for civil rights

The court is the first since at least the ’50s to reject claims in a majority of cases involving women and minorities, an analysis conducted for The Post shows. - WaPo https://wapo.st/41y9gAJ

‌The truth about Harmeet Dhillon, Trump's likely pick for attorney general

The Justice Department has just launched a criminal investigation of Cassidy Hutchinson. Remember her?

Hutchinson was the young, courageous former White House aide whose testimony before Congress implicated Trump in the violence that erupted at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Not surprisingly, her testimony enraged Trump. So, the Justice Department is now accusing Hutchinson of having lied to Congress, which is a criminal offense.

It’s just the latest example of Trump’s vindictive and perverse use of the Justice Department to go after people he perceives to be his enemies. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4virh3w

‌Automatic military draft registration takes effect in December. Here’s how it would work.

Young, eligible men will be automatically registered for the military draft pool starting in December as part of a measure tucked into the annual defense policy bill Congress signed into law late last year.

Men ages 18 to 26 must already register for selective service in case a draft is required. The last time a draft was in effect was February 1973, during the Vietnam War.

Automatic registration is already in place in 46 states and territories, according to the Selective Service System’s 2024 report. The SSS proposed a rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs late last month to implement the practice nationwide. - CNN https://cnn.it/41v9Dw0

‌Dire straits

Donald Trump this week threatened that Iran’s millennia-old civilization would “die” unless its rulers opened the Strait of Hormuz.

The next day, he blinked. The US president agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Tehran on the condition that the critical waterway, a transit point for 20% of the world’s oil, would be completely, safely and immediately opened.

The strait is still effectively closed, as Iran permits passage for only a trickle of the 100 to 150 ships that normally transit per day. As a result, the Islamic Republic is still holding the global economy hostage. - CNN https://cnn.it/48McVia

‌Unless you’re a billionaire, Trump just raised your taxes

Donald Trump and his Republican allies have portrayed themselves as champions of tax cutting for middle- and working-class Americans, but millions have seen their taxes increase from a year ago—unless you’re a billionaire.

An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that, for all income groups except the richest 5% of Americans, taxes have gone up. The poorest Americans (those making between $0 and $27,000) had the largest average increase at 3.1%, while the wealthiest people (those making over $916,000) experienced a 0.4% cut. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4mraCGZ

‌Stop the steel: Bribe-loving Trump strikes again

The saga of the big dumb bribe palace of a ballroom at the White House honestly just keeps getting worse. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4ehJBng

‌U.S. Government Moves Toward Automatic Registration for Military Draft

The government agency that keeps a list of draft-eligible men will begin automatically registering names later this year, abandoning a decades-old requirement that they register themselves.

The Selective Service System, an executive branch agency that is separate from the Defense Department, has required men ages 18 to 25 who are eligible to be drafted to register with the government since 1980.

Failure to do so is a felony, which carries various penalties that include a maximum five years in prison and being unable to receive certain federal benefits, like government loans.

But government officials, bracing for what experts say are potential confrontations with China or Russia while military recruiting has slumped, plan to comb other federal databases to bolster the list. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OcAQAt

‌Trump Lashes Out at Prominent Conservatives Over Iran War Criticism

In a lengthy social media post, the president attacked Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and others in starkly personal terms. He also criticized the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Q9NhgW

‌Judge Rejects Hegseth’s Second Attempt to Restrict Reporters at Pentagon

A federal judge gutted a set of rules that were adopted after the court declared an earlier press policy unconstitutional, in a case brought by The New York Times. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mrHi3b

‌Trump Is Tearing at the Soul of the American Military

On Tuesday, President Trump attacked the soul of the American military.

At 7:06 a.m., he posted, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran did not agree to open the Strait of Hormuz. The principal target of that message was the Iranian regime and the innocent men, women and children who would suffer if Trump acted on his unconscionable, reprehensible threat.

But there was another more subtle target for his words: the men and women of the United States military. The president was placing a choice before them. Do you serve Trump, or do you serve the Constitution? Do you serve Trump, or do you serve an even deeper law than the Constitution — the universal moral imperative to protect the innocent and the vulnerable? - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tKQ5Qc

‌Letters from an American - April 9, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

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. - Cox Richardson https://nyti.ms/4tKQ5Qc

‌Immigrants ‘Wasting Away’ At For-Profit Michigan Detention Center Months After ICE Arrests

In a Michigan detention center, Chicago-area immigrants face difficult conditions amid mounting challenges to defend their immigration cases, they said. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4ciHayd

‌Iran war oil shock pushes US inflation to 3.3%. It’s expected to get worse

A war-driven jump in gas prices helped push US inflation to 3.3% in March, marking the fastest annual pace in nearly two years, new Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed Friday.

On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9%, triple the 0.3% pace seen in February, when inflation was 2.4%, the latest Consumer Price Index data showed.

Gasoline prices, which rose a record 21.2% during the month, accounted for nearly three-quarters of the overall monthly increase. - CNN https://cnn.it/4sBNneX

‌CPI report: US inflation tripled last month on record spike in gas prices

Affordability is now further out of reach than before the

This is just the start of an inflation rebound — even if the ceasefire holds. - CNN https://cnn.it/4clbEj9

‌Inflation surges as Iran war spirals

Inflation rose nearly one full percentage point in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, a jump that is entirely thanks to skyrocketing gas and other fuel prices created by the war President Donald Trump started in Iran.

The 0.9% jump was the biggest monthly increase since June 2022, when pandemic shortages and the war Russia launched in Ukraine led to a major spike in costs.

Ultimately, inflation now stands at 3.3%, far higher than the Federal Reserve Bank's 2% target and high enough to wipe out any corresponding wage increase American workers received. That means that thanks to Trump’s war-fueled price spikes, Americans’ weekly earnings went down in March. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4dF8JnQ

‌Trump admits his right-wing backers are 'nut jobs'

President Donald Trump has turned on his biggest supporters in the world of right wing media, calling them out for being attention-obsessed hucksters who promote falsehoods and disinformation.

But Trump was perfectly happy with this collection of dishonest propagandists when they were in alignment with his cause.

Right-wing media figures have publicly dissented from Trump over the Iran war, which runs counter to the narrative that he and his cohorts pushed for years in opposition to “forever war.” And as they have on so many issues, Trump clearly expected silence and acquiescence. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4cLIxpF

‌Trump Fans Are Livid He’s Attacking Former Allies Over Iran

Donald Trump just drove a wedge into the MAGA movement.

The president reamed out several of his longtime acolytes Thursday, smearing ex-Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, as well as far-right influencers Candace Owens and Alex Jones. The quartet had each issued their own condemnation of Trump’s warmongering rhetoric, slamming the president’s various promises to completely annihilate Iran as vile and unpresidential. - New Republic https://bit.ly/4ekWVax

‌Trump Gas

Trump gas — like Trump shoes, Trump cologne, the Trump Bible, Trump NFTs, Trump crypto, Trump resorts, Trump University, and everything else he’s tried to sell as a good deal — is turning out to be a ripoff.

The average cost of gas tracked by the AAA was $4.17 a gallon yesterday. The station at the end of my street is selling it for over $5 now. If you drive (as I do) a Mini-Cooper, which demands premium grade, you’re shelling out well over $6.

To put this in perspective, the average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. the day before Trump launched his war was $2.98. Between then and today, the U.S. has experienced the largest increase in gas prices in 60 years.

Despite the tentative cease-fire in the Middle East, a gallon of gas is expected to cost at least as much for quite a while. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4msCGJZ

‌Fareed Zakaria on the Moral Cost of Trump’s War

A few weeks back, we did a show on whether the Iran war would break Trumpism. What we’ve seen over the past week is more specific: The Iran war is breaking Trump.

At 8:03 a.m. on Easter Sunday, Trump posted this to 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

That is even crazier when you read it aloud. But Trump followed up with another post on Tuesday that began:

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.

It didn’t happen. Trump backed down, agreeing to a two-week cease-fire with Iran. Then on Wednesday he wrote:

The United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change!

In the course of days, even hours, Trump has oscillated from threatening an apparent genocide to then excitedly musing about partnering with Iran to charge tolls to ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and giving them relief from sanctions and tariffs.

This is not the art of the deal. This is behavior that should trigger a wellness check. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tkMUPa

‌Trump Friend Asked ICE to Detain the Mother of His Child

Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent and a longtime Trump ally, was in a custody battle over his son. An ICE official agreed to help. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4t4oXvz

‌World Leaders Push to Save Iran Talks Amid Israel’s Attacks in Lebanon

Even as Air Force Two carried Vice President JD Vance toward Pakistan for weekend talks with Iran, President Trump’s shaky cease-fire with Tehran was in growing jeopardy as world leaders hastened efforts to prevent a return to all-out war.

For a third day, work to prop up the cease-fire, which was announced on Tuesday, focused on Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. Iran says the continued assault violates its deal with Mr. Trump to stop U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran in exchange for safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has resisted international pressure to halt his country’s related campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dF9qgW

‌New Evidence Further Implicates U.S. Missiles in Strikes That Killed 21 Civilians in Iran

Additional images and video build on an earlier analysis, which the Pentagon has disputed, showing Precision Strike Missiles, or PrSMs, hit a sports hall and residential areas in the Iranian city of Lamerd. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4c6WAqC

‌The Oil Shock Is Worse Than You Think

On Tuesday, before President Trump said the United States and Iran had reached a cease-fire agreement, a commonly cited price of Brent oil, the European one, was about $109 a barrel. That was well below highs reached in 2022, when that price briefly topped $130, without adjusting for inflation.

But in the market where energy companies buy and sell liquid oil transported on ships, the price was almost $145 a barrel, a record and more than double the price before the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, according to Argus Media, a company that tracks commodity prices. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cmg35j

‌The Trump Administration Is in a Psychotic State

It has been clear for a long time that President Trump is a person with a disorganized mind and a disordered personality. What the past few months and especially the past few weeks have brought into focus is how his pathologies have cascaded downward and outward through his administration. They have become institutionalized. The reason the administration so often does not act coherently is that it cannot. The world faces something new and baffling and frightening in Mr. Trump’s second term: a psychotic state.

This does not mean that every individual in the government is emotionally or psychologically unstable. Nor is it a clinical diagnosis of the president. The issue is that the administration as a whole lacks a consistent attachment to reality and the ability to organize its thinking coherently. Mr. Trump’s grandiosity, impulsivity, inconsistency and outright breaks with reality have become state policy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4vrdN5t

‌Supreme Court remade by Trump ushers in historic defeats for civil rights

The sharply conservative Supreme Court that President Donald Trump’s three appointees remade is the first since at least the 1950s to reject civil rights claims in a majority of cases involving women and minorities, according to a detailed analysis conducted for The Washington Post. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3OD1oef

The United States is destroying itself ‌

The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled. All this is common knowledge, but because it dribbles out in news stories about this specific incident or department, the reports never adequately describe an administration sabotaging the functioning of the federal government and also trashing the global economy, international alliances and relationships, and the national and global environment in ways that will have downstream consequences for decades and perhaps, especially when it comes to climate, centuries. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4mrjP21

‌U.S. to Blockade Ships From Iranian Ports

The blockade on ships “entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas” will begin on Monday, U.S. Central Command said. But U.S. forces will not impede vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, a step back from President Trump’s earlier vow. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4vtDWk6

‌Judges Fired After Blocking Deportations of Pro-Palestinian Students

The Trump administration has fired two immigration judges who dismissed high-profile deportation cases against international students who had advocated for Palestinians.

The firings of the judges, Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, marked the latest efforts by the Trump administration to reshape the country’s immigration courts.

The administration has dismissed dozens of immigration judges and, according to those on the bench, has put judges under pressure to deny asylum claims and order deportations. Unlike federal judges in the independent judicial branch, immigration judges work for the Justice Department and are hired and fired by the attorney general. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tjK6Sz

Pentagon Asks Court to Keep Its Restrictions on Journalists ‌

The Pentagon on Friday asked a federal judge to allow it to continue requiring escorts whenever journalists enter the military complex, a restriction that it argues is essential to guarding against national security leaks.

Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has twice tossed out major parts of the department’s restrictions on reporters, saying they were unconstitutional, after The New York Times challenged them in a lawsuit. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mAd668

‌How the Hell Did We Get to This Point?

The past terrifying week has caused me to wonder: How did America ever get to a point where one man, backed by the military might of the United States, could credibly threaten death to an entire civilization?

I’m also wondering how 19 super-rich American households could have added $1.8 trillion to their wealth in just the last 24 months — roughly the size of the economy of Australia — while the rate of child poverty in the U.S. has more than doubled, from a low of 5.2 percent in 2021 to over 13 percent now?

How have we come so perilously close to climate catastrophe, with spring temperatures in the Western United States already shattering records — and yet governments are spending over a trillion dollars a year subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and banks have channeled over $3 trillion to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement, while there are almost no funds to protect living ecosystems?

How have we allowed artificial intelligence, the most powerful technology the world has ever seen, to threaten millions of jobs; make vulnerable the software that runs our financial, energy, and defense systems; and potentially destroy the human race — while allowing it to amass so much political power that it eludes all guardrails and regulations? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4ct2MIx

‌Hungary Just Ousted the Unoustable

Friends danced on one another’s shoulders. Fathers embraced their children. A teenage girl wept. Beer flowed. After 16 years, Hungarians had voted their strongman leader, Viktor Orbán, out of office. “I knew it was possible,” Balázs Nagy, a warehouse worker, told me this evening in Budapest, on the banks of the Danube. “Hungarians are stubborn, and we don’t give up on each other.” To his wife, Szilvi, the evening’s results had reaffirmed a truth less geographic than metaphoric. “We’re in the heart of Europe, and that’s where we belong,” she said.

The couple stood in a throng of people waiting for Péter Magyar, who led the opposition to victory. Three hours after the polls closed in national elections, they watched as he marched through the crowd holding a Hungarian flag. “Fellow Hungarians, countrymen: We have done it,” he said. “Together we have replaced the Orbán system. Together we have liberated Hungary.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tbxxJ2

‌Goodbye, Viktor.

Today, the good people of Hungary brought to an abrupt end 16 years of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian rule.

Nearly 78 percent of eligible voters turned out, an unequivocal mandate whose repercussions are already echoing from Budapest to the European Union, to Moscow, and to Washington.

As I wrote yesterday, Trump and Putin pulled out all the stops to help Orbán. JD Vance stumped for him in Budapest last weekend “because of the moral cooperation between our two countries” — each engaged in a “defense of Western civilization” based on their common adherence to “Christian civilization and Christian values.”

It was all rubbish. The Hungarians evidently saw through it. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4c9H5OK

‌Letters from an American - April 12, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

By the end of 2024, inflation in the U.S., which had soared in the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdowns, was almost back to the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2%. Even so, during the 2024 presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump promised he would bring prices down on Day One, beginning with energy prices, thanks to new high tariffs, business deregulation, and tax cuts.

It was a year ago today, just ten days after President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, that Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro told the Fox News Channel that “90 [trade] deals in 90 days is possible. The boss is going to be the chief negotiator. Nothing’s done without him looking very carefully at it—he has such a fine attention to detail.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4245a3k

‌Trump Budget Cuts Essential Air Service Funding in Half

A proposed federal budget plan from Donald Trump is set to sharply reduce funding for the Essential Air Service (EAS), a move that could significantly reshape regional air connectivity across the United States. - Airguide https://bit.ly/3OeqPmn

‌Trump attacks Pope Leo, calling him 'weak' on crime and 'terrible'

U.S. President Donald Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV late on Sunday following the pontiff's criticism ‌of his foreign and immigration policies.

"Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Leo, who last year became the first U.S.-born ‌pope, has emerged as an outspoken critic of the U.S.-Israeli ⁠war on Iran that began on February 28. He previously ⁠questioned the Trump ⁠administration's approach to immigration. - Reuters / Japan Today https://bit.ly/41ry79n?

‌Trump declares victory, no matter what. The Iran war is the latest example of that

In the January 2004 pilot of “The Apprentice,” Donald Trump said something he would never admit now.

“It wasn’t always so easy,” he said in a voice-over, noting that by the late 1980s, “I was seriously in trouble” and “billions of dollars in debt.”

It is one of the few times Trump has ever publicly acknowledged failure. Even then, he was reading a script meant to promote an against-the-odds credentials for viewers — previewing the combative charisma that propelled a political career a decade later.

In his telling now, Trump never loses.

Even when he clearly has been defeated — as he was in the 2020 election — Trump declares victory so often that his supporters believe him. He knows the power of repetition.

“The world for him is divided into winners and losers. And he’s always a winner,” said John Bolton, who was one of Trump’s national security advisers during his first term. - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/4msJFCU?

‌Trump’s blockade of Iran ports risks dangerous escalation cycle

U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz after talks with Iran collapsed over the weekend risked widening a war now entering its seventh week, lifting oil prices and raising the prospect of further economic pain around the globe.

The U.S. military said it would implement a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports at 10 a.m. on Monday Washington time, adding that it would allow other vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz if they’re not stopping in the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s military on Monday called the move illegal and amounted to piracy. - AP / Japan Times https://bit.ly/4tFd8fa

Trump Attacks Pope Leo as Too Liberal and ‘Weak on Crime’ ‌

Pope Leo XIV is one of the world’s most powerful critics of the U.S. war with Iran. In recent days, he has condemned the worship of mortals and money, the pitfalls of arrogance, and the “absurd and inhuman violence” unleashed by fighting that has further destabilized the Middle East.

His many admonishments over the past week appear to have reached President Trump, who responded to those calls for peace by scorching the first American-born pontiff on social media and then taking personal credit for Leo’s ascension to the papacy. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cFy00a

‌Four Ways Trump’s War Is Weakening America

When President Trump attacked Iran on Feb. 28, we called his decision reckless. He went to war without seeking congressional approval or the support of most allies. He offered thin and contradictory justifications to the American people. He failed to explain why this naïve attempt at regime change would end better than earlier attempts by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

In the six weeks since, the recklessness of his war has become clearer yet. He has disdained careful military planning and acted on gut instinct and wishfulness. After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel predicted to Mr. Trump that the attacks would inspire a popular uprising in Iran, the director of the C.I.A. countered that the notion was “farcical,” The Times reported. Mr. Trump proceeded nonetheless. He was so confident that he assembled no plan to respond to an obvious countermove available to Iran: causing a spike in oil prices by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Nor did he develop a feasible strategy for securing the enriched uranium that Iran can use to rebuild its nuclear program. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4256cfy

‌A New Era of World War Has Arrived

By the time the war in Iran began on Feb. 28, the world was already fighting. The past two years brought more war — both within and between countries — than in any years since the end of World War II. A new normal of rising conflict had arrived.

Now, as the war in Ukraine drags on and the American and Israeli war against Iran is paused under a fragile cease-fire, we are watching another unwelcome phenomenon return to the global stage: the world war. Two large conflicts on different continents have become theaters for strategic competition between major powers. Each war’s dynamics have had a direct impact on the other’s, and both have dragged ancillary states into the fray. And while the combined scale and intensity of the conflicts falls far short of the two devastating world wars fought last century, they have arisen from the same dangerous reflex: competing nations fully embracing military force as the first and primary means of exerting power. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ekcrU6

‌Judge tosses Trump’s Wall Street Journal defamation lawsuit, gives him chance to refile

A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on a lewd birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name.

US District Judge Darrin P. Gayles ruled that Trump failed to plausibly allege the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper acted with “actual malice” when it reported the story. - CNN https://cnn.it/4t7XTeJ

Week Sixty-Four: April 13 - April 19

Inside Trump’s Effort to “Take Over” the Midterm Elections

ProPublica scrutinized what happened the last time Trump lost a national election. Some of that happened in plain sight: After a cascade of defeats in court, Trump began pressuring state and local officials to overturn the results. But more happened behind the scenes, like the meeting that helped persuade Barr to hold the line.

Our reporting uncovered previously undisclosed aspects of a federal effort to safeguard the results of the 2020 vote, which involved at least 75 people across several agencies. Today, nearly all of those people are gone, having resigned, been fired or been reassigned, particularly in the departments of Justice and Homeland Security. That included the cybersecurity specialists who had established that the Antrim County allegations were false and reported their findings to Barr.

The people we identified as resisting attempts to overturn the 2020 results have been replaced by roughly two dozen people Trump has installed in positions that could affect elections. Ten of them actively worked to reverse the 2020 vote, and the rest are associates of such people. In some cases, ProPublica found, officials have been hired from activist groups that are pillars of the election denial movement. Experts warn that shows the movement has merged with the federal government.

These new officials could influence how Trump reacts to the upcoming midterms as polling shows Republicans are approaching what could be a significant electoral loss, with the president’s approval rating nearing record lows, and public concern growing about the weak economy, the administration’s mass deportation effort and the war on Iran. Seemingly in preparation to head off such a blow, Trump has stepped up his efforts to “nationalize” the 2026 elections, saying that Republicans need “to take over” the midterms. Democrats who monitored Trump’s attempts to block his 2020 loss have begun to question whether he will allow a “blue wave,” particularly if it flips control of a House of Representatives that impeached him twice in his first term. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4dQ5FoY

‌ “A Slap in the Face”: Trump’s DOJ Plans to Settle Predatory Lending Case Without Compensating Victims

Three years later, the Trump administration and Colony Ridge are on the verge of resolving the case. But the $68 million proposed settlement provides no money for victims of the alleged scheme. Instead, it sets aside $20 million for policing and immigration enforcement — a provision that may be used to target the very people who were victimized by the developer, according to former government officials who worked on such cases.

“I’ve never seen a settlement like this, with a complete misalignment between what you’re settling and what the resolution is,” said Elena Babinecz, who led fair lending investigations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for 12 years under the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, before leaving in October.

“It’s a slap in the face to the individuals that were harmed; that the Justice Department acknowledges were harmed,” said Babinecz, who was at the bureau when it joined the Justice Department in filing suit against Colony Ridge. “It’s a complete misjustice, and it’s not at all why these civil rights laws were passed.” - ProPublica https://bit.ly/488Bzte

‌ How to Impeach the Bastard, for Real

Until recently I thought impeaching Trump and convicting him in the Senate was a pipe dream. I was concerned that even talk of impeachment at this stage might distract attention from the affordability crisis brought on by Trump and could even fortify Republican charges of Democratic “extremism.”

No longer.

The president of the United States is stark-raving mad. He’s a clear and present danger to America and the world. The American public is beginning to see it. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3O7V8v2

‌ Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate

President Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments in recent days and weeks have turbocharged the crazy-like-a-fox-or-just-plain-crazy debate that has followed him on the national political stage for a decade.

A series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane statements capped by his “a whole civilization will die tonight” threat to wipe Iran off the map last week and his head-spinning attack on the “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” pope on Sunday night have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OAC9cq

‌ Vance Says Pope Leo Should Stay Out of U.S. Affairs

Vice President JD Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in the federal government, said in an interview on Fox News on Monday that the pope should stay out of American affairs.

Mr. Vance, a convert to Catholicism who is about to publish a book detailing his turn to the faith, brushed off a backlash among Christians across the political spectrum to President Trump’s attacks against Pope Leo XIV. He said “that in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality.” Mr. Trump has clashed with the pontiff over matters of war and immigration, and on Sunday attacked him as “weak on crime.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OMLXAg

‌ Judge Dismisses Trump’s Suit Against The Wall Street Journal

A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal over its report of his lewd birthday greeting to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Judge Darrin Gayles in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida said in his decision that Mr. Trump had not “plausibly alleged” that The Journal published the article with “actual malice,” a legal standard meaning that it knew what it was publishing was false or had acted with reckless disregard as to its accuracy.

Judge Gayles dismissed the complaint without prejudice, allowing Mr. Trump to bring the same claim again. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QiRsqP

‌ Pride Flag Can Fly at Stonewall After Trump Administration Reversal

The settlement ends a symbolic attack on the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement and deals a blow to the administration’s assault on diversity initiatives. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41FxdGk

‌ Oil rises back above $100 and stocks slump as Trump threatens to blockade the Strait of Hormuz

Peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran broke down over the weekend, sending oil prices back above $100 a barrel on Monday as the U.S. Navy moved to blockade Iranian ports.

By Monday morning, oil benchmarks were sharply higher, with WTI for May delivery gaining close to 8% to hover around $104 a barrel and June-delivery Brent adding more than 7% to reach roughly $102.50 a barrel. - Quartz https://bit.ly/48O9XcX

‌ Caught in the Crackdown: As Arrests at Anti-ICE Protests Piled Up, Prosecutions Crumbled

The National Guard soldiers in desert camo piled out of unmarked vans in East Los Angeles last June, cordoning off East Sixth Street, a residential street lined with single family houses, and blocking a nearby road leading to an elementary school.

A squad of federal agents moved in flinging flash-bang grenades — explosives designed to disorient — into a small home before storming inside. They’d come for Alejandro Orellana, a Marine Corps veteran and UPS employee accused of being a central figure in a secret confederacy of insurrectionists. A news video had shown the 30-year-old distributing water, food and face shields to people protesting the Trump administration’s immigration roundups in Los Angeles.

    -  -     -     -

Within weeks, the prosecutor’s marquee case would quietly fall apart. Agents who searched Orellana’s house found little that could be considered incriminating, and prosecutors never charged anyone else as part of the supposed conspiracy. By late July, they moved to have the charges dismissed.

It wouldn’t be the only such case. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/3OpUb1e

‌ Everything JD Vance touches turns to sh-t

JD Vance’s official title is vice president. But it looks like grim reaper might be a more apt label.

On multiple occasions, Vance has met with or campaigned alongside prominent world leaders and figures, only for those figures to meet a bleak end. There was Vance’s infamous encounter with Pope Francis in 2025, who died hours after spending time in Vance’s company.

But his anti-Midas touch really ramped up this past week. On Tuesday, Vance campaigned with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—the autocrat and Vladimir Putin ally who sounds uncannily like the cartoon villain Gru. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4tejcvf

‌ Pope Leo swats away Trump’s blasphemous meltdown

Pope Leo XIV, the first pope born in the United States, showed off his Chicago roots on Monday by refusing to stoop to President Donald Trump’s level after Trump attacked the pontiff in an unhinged late-night social media frenzy.

“I’m not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the Church works for,” Leo told reporters.

The pope has repeatedly denounced Trump’s war in Iran, rooting his criticism in the Bible’s opposition to killing and unjust war. Previously, Pope Leo noted, “God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.” He has also condemned “absurd and inhuman violence” and “the blasphemy of war.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4ckpnbe

‌ Pope says he has ‘no fear of Trump administration’ after president slams his Iran war criticism

Pope Leo XIV on Monday strongly pushed back against criticism from US President Donald Trump, defending his position of seeking peace and rejecting violence amid the Iran war.

“I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do,” the pontiff told reporters aboard his plane as he started a 10-day trip to the African continent.

“We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective (as) he might understand it,” he continued. “But I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4eoQraI

‌ Trump is feuding with a pope — again. Why it’s different this time

Few demographics were more important to President Donald Trump’s 2024 win than Catholics. While Catholics usually split close to 50-50, the data shows Trump won between 55% and 59% of them — apparently the most of any presidential candidate in decades.

Just 17 months later, Trump is clashing with a pope … again.

This time, it might have a more lasting impact. - CNN https://cnn.it/4sHzNGP

‌ Trump's God Complex Is Getting Even Worse

Late Sunday night, Trump posted on Truth Social the most grandiose depiction any U.S. president has ever made of himself.

I’ve reproduced it above. Take a look, and remember: It came from Trump.

What kind of a president would post this of himself?

Today, Trump told reporters that he posted it because he thought it depicted him as a physician. “I thought it was me as a doctor,” he said, adding that news organizations had misinterpreted the image. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better, and I do make people better,” he said.

There’s something fundamentally wrong with the man. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4tC5BOR

‌ AI Jesus Might Be the Thing That Finally Breaks MAGA’s Faith

Donald Trump picked a fight with the Pope on Sunday night, claiming he was “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy,” among a host of other wild accusations. The president immediately followed up his Truth Social post with an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ, setting off a fierce debate among the MAGA faithful who are now struggling with the idea that their favorite president seems to be calling himself God.

Posting an image of yourself as Jesus Christ healing the sick is a bizarre thing for anyone to do, let alone the President of the United States. And it appears to be breaking through on conservative social media, even if right-wing TV wouldn’t touch it. Trump posted the AI Jesus image late Sunday, but Fox News didn’t mention it during its most popular morning shows on Monday. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4mzF4Pr

‌ The Parable of the President

Many people get the Sunday scaries, but most of them are not a sitting president facing self-inflicted global chaos and the growing possibility of a bruising midterm election in a few months. What feels like a weekly social-media crashout from the president of the United States usually starts some time on Sunday and continues into the early hours of the next morning. Given the failure of negotiations with Iran on Saturday, the likelihood of elevated gas prices for months, and the resounding defeat of Trump’s ally and role model Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Donald Trump had plenty of fuel for a freakout last night.

But the most notable subject in this week’s edition was Pope Leo XIV, who has been critical of Trump’s attack on Venezuela and war in Iran. The posts illustrate that Trump views religion much the way he views everything else: as something that can serve him but does not create any obligations on him. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4vCP8Lx

‌ Harmeet Dhillon Is Not Wasting Any Time

Born amid the civil-rights movement, the division that Dhillon now leads is often called the “crown jewel” of the Justice Department. It earned that reputation because of its mission to protect and defend people who find themselves in positions of powerlessness. For nearly 70 years, its attorneys have investigated hate crimes and police abuses, worked to combat discrimination, and enforced the protections enshrined in statutes such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. The division is responsible for civil enforcement as well as criminal law: Civil Rights Division attorneys led the prosecution of Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the 1964 murder of three civil-rights advocates during the Mississippi Freedom Summer. As time went on, Congress assigned the division responsibility to protect the rights of other groups, such as immigrants, disabled people, and military service members.

On Dhillon’s watch, this commitment to civil rights has been turned upside down. Consistent with Trump’s stated belief that “white people were very badly treated,” the new Civil Rights Division seems primarily concerned with correcting the perceived wrongs of past civil-rights enforcement. Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has worked to transform the Department of Justice into his personal law firm, a machine for manifesting his will and producing the policy outcomes his MAGA base dreams of—and Dhillon has devoted herself to reshaping the Civil Rights Division in this image. Her ambition may soon propel her up the ranks of a Justice Department thrown into chaos by Trump’s recent firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Dhillon’s name has circulated as a potential candidate for associate attorney general—the department’s third in command—or even for the top job itself. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sKHrQB

‌ Letters from an American - April 13, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Today Péter Magyar, the man who will replace Orban after winning the election in a blowout, revealed that Orbán was using government money to finance CPAC. Orbán has clearly been working for the benefit of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, and just days before the election, news broke that last October, Orbán told Putin, “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service.”

So it appears that CPAC was funded by a foreign government that was working closely with Vladimir Putin. In a speech today, Magyar told reporters that the outgoing foreign minister, who has been accused of working closely with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, was shredding confidential documents.

The influence of Orbán on the U.S. right wing marked a change in Republican politics. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3OKt1SM

‌ Hungary Just Ousted the Unoustable

‌ JD Vance mocked over weekend of failures in Iran and Hungary: ‘On a historic roll’

Vice President JD Vance is being roundly mocked after a disastrous weekend in which he presided over unsuccessful peace talks with Iran and saw his candidate in Hungary’s election, Viktor Orban, driven from office after 16 years in power.

Vance was in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday for 21 hours of talks between U.S. and Iranian negotiators on ending the devastating conflict in the Middle East, which finally concluded without agreement. - Independent https://yhoo.it/4sGKTfm

‌ To Open the Strait of Hormuz, Trump Wants to Blockade Iran. Experts Are Skeptical.

In announcing a complete U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, President Trump took a drastically new approach to trying to achieve what he has wanted for weeks — opening the Strait of Hormuz to global traffic.

The president seems to be hoping that the blockade will heap new pressure on Iran after direct talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in Pakistan over the weekend failed to end the war, and he suggested that other countries would join the effort.

But on Monday, there were few volunteers, with only Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel publicly supporting the idea. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QiT6sv

‌ Trump deletes post with AI image of himself as Jesus-like figure after outcry

Less than a year after signing legislation that will pull nearly 12 million Americans off health insurance by gutting Medicaid, Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself to Truth Social on Sunday depicting him as a Jesus-like figure, with divine light emanating from his hands as he heals a stricken man in a hospital bed with a demon from hell floating in the background.

The president has since deleted the post, which also followed a lengthy tirade about Pope Leo XIV on the site the same day in which he called him “weak on crime” and blamed the head of the Catholic church for being influenced by Barack Obama strategist David Axelrod. Trump refused to apologize to the pope, saying: “He went public. I’m just responding to Pope Leo.” - Guardian https://bit.ly/48WKE8H

‌ Pope Leo responds to Trump's criticism, saying he has 'no fear' of US administration

Pope Leo XIV on Monday responded to criticism from President Donald Trump, telling reporters while traveling to Algeria that he has "no fear" of the White House.

"I have no fear of the Trump administration, nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel," the pontiff said on Monday, as he began a dayslong visit to four African nations. "That's what I believe in. I am called to do what the church is called to do."

The pope on Saturday called for an end to conflict, without explicitly mentioning the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. "Enough of war," Leo said during a peace vigil in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

The pope also suggested "delusion of omnipotence" is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, imploring the country leaders to come to a peace agreement. - ABC https://bit.ly/3QctwFH

‌ Trump’s Latest Meltdown

On many recent nights, Donald Trump has been posting obsessively on his Truth Social site into the wee hours. The president, of course, has never been one for a solid night’s sleep—or restrained and temperate commentary on social media—but his 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.

Judging from those posts, the commander in chief is in distress. No one can say for sure what is causing the president’s bizarre behavior. Perhaps Trump’s narcissistic insistence that he is always successful in everything he undertakes is feeling the sting and strain of multiple public failures, including the collapse of his campaign to dislodge the Iranian regime, plummeting approval ratings, the decline of the U.S. economy, and, on Sunday, the crushing defeat of one of his favorite fellow authoritarians, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.

But whatever is driving this decline in Trump’s self-control, Americans must not shrug off the president’s latest implosion. They should recover their ability to be outraged; more to the point, they must demand that their elected representatives ask questions about the course of the war and whether Trump still has the capacity to fulfill his constitutional duty as commander in chief. Too much is at risk to dismiss his outbursts as just another idiosyncrasy: U.S. forces have been at war for almost six weeks, and China is reportedly helping Iran rearm. Even if all other problems, including the economy, were holding steady—and they are not—America cannot keep ignoring the dysfunction of the commander in chief, the sole steward of the codes to a massive nuclear arsenal. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tSDz11

‌ Hegseth’s Unholy War

“The devil,” William Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, “can cite Scripture for his purpose.” As we’ve seen in recent weeks, so can Pete Hegseth.

Late last month, during the first Christian worship service at the Pentagon since the Iran war began, the secretary of defense cast the conflict as essentially religious and spiritual in nature. The focus of his remarks was less the righteousness of our side of the war than the necessity of mercilessly inflicting vengeance and pain on the other. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tYeZfq

‌ The View From Inside Trump’s DHS

Trump won re-election after a campaign in which he called the migrant surge the “greatest invasion in history.” From 2021 to 2023, more than seven million people tried to cross the border illegally, and about 3.3 million were released into the country. Early in his term, Biden backed a Democratic bill with a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented people, but Republicans refused to bring it to a vote. In 2024, Trump helped kill a bipartisan bill on border security to keep the political pressure on Democrats ahead of the election. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dQ9gDu

‌ The Return of Family Detention

In early February, Elora Mukherjee, who runs one of the country’s leading immigrants’-rights clinics, at Columbia Law School, told me about a client of hers who was detained in South Texas. The client, Mukherjee explained, was in the midst of a life-threatening medical crisis. What’s more, she was eighteen months old. Baby Amalia, as Mukherjee called her, had been sent to a San Antonio hospital with critically low oxygen levels. She’d spent more than a week in intensive care, where she and her mother were watched by ICE agents. After being discharged from the hospital, the toddler had been sent back to the place where she had nearly died: the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, where many children had severe respiratory illnesses. “The doctors prescribed Amalia a medication by nebulizer,” Mukherjee told me, but, when the child and her mother returned to Dilley, “the officers took those meds.” (A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that any claims that Amalia “did not receive her medication or proper medical treatment” are false.) - New Yorker https://bit.ly/4tUL0oC

‌ A Holy War Is Brewing Inside the White House

No one would accuse Donald Trump of being a religious zealot. But it’s no accident that his cabinet is riddled with them. Trump is well aware of the political benefits of basking in the reflective glow of true believers, particularly since he fails to live up to any objective standard of piety himself.

This dynamic has taken on new salience in his second term as he has elevated two zealous adult converts, JD Vance and Pete Hegseth, to positions of power in the administration. Their respective religious traditions inform not just their politics, but also how they perform their roles in government. Trump may be seeking to benefit from their religious bona fides, but in a deep irony, he also appears to have set off a holy war between two incompatible theories of religious power. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4u00989

‌ How Trump Purged Immigration Judges to Speed Up Deportations

As the Trump administration asserts control over the immigration courts, it has dismissed more than 100 judges, including Carla Espinoza, Jeremiah Johnson and Shuting Chen.New York Times Photographs By Jamie Kelter Davis, Cayce Clifford, Laura Morton And Eric Lee

Judges are ordering an unprecedented number of people deported after coming under significant pressure from the administration to do so or risk losing their jobs.

The Trump administration has systematically pressured the nation’s immigration judges, threatening them with disciplinary action if they do not deport more people and firing those seen as insufficiently supportive of the president’s aggressive enforcement agenda, a New York Times investigation has found. https://nyti.ms/48asD6F

Vance Says the Pope Should Be More Careful When Talking About Theology ‌

Vice President JD Vance invoked World War II on Tuesday to defend the U.S. bombing of Iran from criticism by Pope Leo XIV, extending the Trump administration’s spat with the Catholic Church and underlining the White House’s struggle to justify an unpopular war.

Mr. Vance, who is Catholic, told a conservative audience at the University of Georgia that the pope was wrong to say that disciples of Christ are “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

“Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis?” Mr. Vance said after referring to the pope’s comment. “I certainly think the answer is yes.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sKH6xA

Trump’s Blockade Risks Upending an Emerging Détente With China ‌

When China declared on Monday that the U.S. blockade of Iranian oil leaving the Strait of Hormuz was “dangerous and irresponsible,” it was a brief window into President Trump’s latest challenge: how to keep the Iran conflict from upending an emerging détente with China.

Mr. Trump is expected to land in Beijing in four weeks, in what was imagined as a carefully planned, highly orchestrated effort to recast the relationship between the world’s two largest economies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4myZasW

‌ Takeaways From The Times’s Look Inside D.H.S.

For the past 15 months, the Department of Homeland Security has carried out the harshest crackdown on illegal immigration since the 1950s. To understand what it has been like at the center of this effort, we interviewed more than 80 former and current department employees for our magazine article, including agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement tasked with executing President Trump’s campaign of mass deportations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4esPhLd

‌ Here’s How to Defeat Trumpism

Peter Magyar’s landslide victory in Hungary this week offers inspiration to Americans hoping to overcome President Trump’s corrupt, authoritarian approach to politics. The key question is precisely how Mr. Magyar conducted such a successful opposition campaign. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sMK3xz

‌ The Iran war has 'halted' global economic momentum, the IMF warns

The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global growth to 3.1% in 2026, down from 3.3% projected in January, warning that war in the Middle East has halted economic momentum and raised the risk of a near-recession if the conflict drags on.

At 3.4% in 2025, last year's pace now looks stronger than what the fund expects this year. Alongside the growth downgrade, the IMF pushed its global inflation estimate for 2026 to 4.4%, a notable step up from both the 4.1% recorded in 2025 and the 3.8% the fund had penciled in for this year back in January.

In a blog post tied to the report's release, IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas offered a blunt diagnosis: "War in the Middle East has halted this momentum." Elsewhere in the same post he wrote that "the global outlook has abruptly darkened following the outbreak of war in the Middle East." - Quartz https://bit.ly/3Q8MVHB

‌ Fact check: Trump’s false claims about NATO, NASA, taxes and immigration

President Donald Trump made false claims about NATO, NASA, foreign policy, taxes, immigration and other subjects in a Fox Business interview that aired Wednesday morning. - CNN https://cnn.it/4etYRh1

‌ Trump says he’ll fire Powell next month if he stays in his role at the Fed

President Donald Trump said he will fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell if he does not step aside when his term at the helm of the central bank expires next month.

“Then I’ll have to fire him,” Trump told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo Wednesday in response to a question about Powell staying on at the Fed.

The timing of Powell’s departure from the Fed has been complicated by the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation into the Fed chair that accuses Powell of lying to Congress in testimony last year about the Fed’s $2.5 billion-dollar renovation of its Washington, DC, headquarters. It’s a subject the Trump administration has zoned in on as part of its repeated criticism of Powell’s leadership of the Fed. - CNN https://cnn.it/4tUQCPI

It’s Not Just Iran. Trump Is Flailing on Multiple Fronts. ‌

You’ve heard the joke: The White House is going to start talking about the Epstein files to distract from how badly the Iran war is going.

Except that this reverse “Wag the dog” is based on bizarre truth: First Lady Melania Trump did bring the disgraced financier up, unprompted, late last week in an effort to distance herself from the scandal (in a move that, predictably, only shifted it back into the spotlight once again). Meanwhile, as negotiations with Iran stumble forward, the Strait of Hormuz is still in Tehran’s hands and now President Trump has authorized a risky naval blockade that will likely send prices soaring further. Moreover, Trump’s poll numbers have continued to fall, Republicans worry that both houses of Congress could be lost in November, and the president threw away a remarkable amount of geopolitical capital trying to support his now-defeated illiberal buddy Viktor Orbán of Hungary. Oh, and Trump deeply offended adherents of the world’s two largest religions in one week’s time. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sM0sCv

‌ Filled with excuses, Trump admits failure in his plot to rig midterms

In a Fox interview that aired on Wednesday, President Donald Trump effectively admitted that the ongoing Republican campaign to rig electoral maps in their favor to avert a wipeout in this year’s midterm elections has been a spectacular failure. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4cvx7G3

‌ DOJ moves to erase convictions of Proud Boys, Oath Keepers leaders who led Jan. 6 attack

The Justice Department moved Tuesday to wipe out the seditious conspiracy convictions of the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were found guilty of organizing key aspects of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Though President Donald Trump pardoned the majority of people who joined the mob at the Capitol that day, he opted only to commute the sentences — some of the lengthiest handed down by judges in Washington — of about a dozen ringleaders who prosecutors said were uniquely responsible for the chaos. - Politico https://politi.co/4ckzGw8

‌ Jared Kushner’s Mysterious Role in the Trump Administration

Is the president’s son-in-law carrying out the public’s business or pursuing his own private interests? - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3ObFvml

‌ Stephen Miller's Strait of Hormuz

His crackdown on immigrants is assumed to be good for America as long as it causes immigrants more pain than it does us. Same "logic" as Trump is using in Iran. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3Q84Ga1

‌ He is Seriously, Frighteningly, Utterly, and Completely Losing His Mind

It’s a catastrophe on the way to becoming a cataclysm.

Trump is rapidly going stark-raving mad. He’s a clear and present danger to the United States and the world.

Yesterday he lashed out at The New York Times after its chief White House correspondent questioned his mental health and stability and pointed to his “erratic behavior and extreme comments.” - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/48Ok0ib

‌ Done and Dusted? Trump’s Portrayal of the War in Iran Collides With Reality.

President Trump is trying to cast his Iran war as all but over, a done-and-dusted success.

But after years of trying to impose his own reality on the world, he has now run into a crisis that is not bending to his narrative. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tSKk2T

‌ Trump and Meloni Split Amid Growing Dispute Over Pope and Iran

For years, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy enjoyed leverage as the right-wing leader who could bridge the gap between Europe and President Trump.

This week, though, she seems to have decided that Mr. Trump is a bridge too far.

After suffering major political setbacks because of her association with Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Italy and seen as the cause of rising gas prices, Ms. Meloni seized on an opportunity to extricate herself from a relationship that had grown domestically and internationally poisonous. After Mr. Trump launched a broadside on Monday against Pope Leo XIV, Ms. Meloni rallied to the American pontiff’s defense, saying, “I find President Trump’s remarks about the Holy Father unacceptable.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tuFDMM

‌ Lawyer John Eastman Disbarred for Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the lawyer John Eastman disbarred for his role in seeking to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Eastman had concocted a legal strategy to put forward fake electors for Mr. Trump in several swing states that the candidate had lost in order to have Congress block or delay certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.

He also promoted what a lower court judge called a “wild theory” that Mike Pence, Mr. Trump’s vice president, could unilaterally declare Mr. Trump the victor during a certification proceeding that day. Since then, Mr. Eastman has insisted that the 2020 election was stolen, that he did nothing wrong and that he was simply representing Mr. Trump.

On Wednesday, the court ordered Mr. Eastman’s name “stricken from the roll of attorneys.” He was also asked to pay $5,000 to the State Bar of California. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4myWiMC

‌ This Is Not a Man in Control of Himself

To have spent any amount of time observing President Trump over the last month is to conclude that he is in far over his head.

The president is struggling with the consequences of his actions, raging in protest of the fact that for all its firepower, the United States cannot bomb Iran into submission. When Trump launched his “short-term excursion,” he assumed that it would be — in the words of a Pentagon official in the last Republican administration to launch a Middle East war — a “cakewalk.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dTYTyD

‌ How the Giant D.C. Arch Would Compare to Others Across the World

The federal Commission of Fine Arts on Thursday preliminarily approved plans for a hulking 250-foot “triumphal arch” to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, one of several construction projects President Trump has conjured up in an effort to leave his aesthetic mark on Washington.

Despite the preliminary approval, the panel’s vice chairman suggested major changes, including the removal of a winged statue on top of the arch that makes up the final third of the 250 foot height Mr. Trump desired.

The Trump administration was asked to return with updated drawings before a final vote by the panel, which is stacked with Trump allies and holds only an advisory role. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tM7lo0

‌ ICE Arrests 85-Year-Old French Widow Who Married Her G.I. Sweetheart

A few years ago, Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé reconnected with a man named Bill Ross, whom she had met when she was a young secretary and he was stationed in France for the U.S. military. Both widowed and in their 80s, the two fell in love, and last year she moved more than 4,000 miles to Anniston, Ala., to marry him.

But the continent-spanning love story soured in January after Mr. Ross died, setting off an ugly inheritance battle between his two sons and Ms. Ross-Mahé, 85. This month, immigration agents arrested her in her nightgown at her late husband’s home — and a county probate judge overseeing his estate said that one of his sons was responsible for the arrest.

Ms. Ross-Mahé is now in a detention center hundreds of miles away in Louisiana, her own three children back in France unable to reach her and fearing for her health. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4etu6c0

‌ Why a President Should Never Pick a Fight with a Pope

You’ve got to hand it to Pope Leo, who used a speech today in Cameroon to express “woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”

I can’t imagine who Leo was talking about, can you?

In case there was any doubt, the pope added: “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.”

The tyrant in the Oval Office has been trying to portray his war in Iran as a “just war” backed by the will of God and Jesus Christ. Pope Leo disagrees. Jesus, he says, “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.” - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3QKwHV4

‌ Trump Voters Are Over It

A shocking number of the president’s supporters have turned against him.

Tomas Montoya has sold festival foods—funnel cakes, burgers, hot dogs—across the American Southwest for years. But lately, business has been rough. Costs are up, so he’s increased his prices. Employees are begging for hours he can’t give them. In Arizona, where he lives, Montoya pays $6 a gallon to fill up his food trucks with diesel. This summer, he may have to skip the California leg of his festival route because fuel is even more expensive there.

“It’s Trump,” Montoya told us outside a popular Hispanic grocery store in Casa Grande, Arizona, much of which sits in one of the most evenly divided House districts in the country. Montoya voted for President Trump in 2024, but now, well, frustrated doesn’t begin to cover how he’s feeling. The president is bragging about the economy, even though everyone Montoya knows is hurting; he promised to stop wars, but started one in Iran. “When Trump opens his mouth, three-quarters of what he says is stories, lies,” Montoya said. He’s planning to vote in the midterm elections this fall. But he may not choose a Republican. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4vy4HEl

‌ President Picks C.D.C. Nominee Who Has Backed Vaccines

President Trump said he would nominate Dr. Erica Schwartz, whose views on vaccines are more conventional than those of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to lead the Centers for Disease Control. Mr. Kennedy appeared for two sometimes-combative hearings before House committees about the president’s budget on Thursday, with Democrats confronting the secretary on a wide variety of topics. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4vz69WU

‌ Trump fails on another promise: Giant tax refunds

President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have been boasting that Americans received large tax refunds this year due to the “One Big Beautiful Bill” the GOP passed last year.

“This is a tax season unlike any other because three big things are happening: lower taxes, bigger refunds, and more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans,” House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote Thursday morning in a post on X. “Thanks to Republicans’ Working Families Tax Cuts, Americans’ tax rates are reduced permanently.”

However, this year’s tax refunds were actually far smaller than expected, according to an analysis from Heather Long, the chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/48WTHGH

‌ Pope slams warmongering ‘tyrants’ after Trump team told him to shut up

Pope Leo XIV clearly believes he answers to a higher authority than the president of the United States. On Thursday, he defied demands from Donald Trump and others in his presidential orbit, and once again weighed in on world affairs.

During a visit to Cameroon, the pope warned that the world is “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants.” The leader of the Catholic Church also noted, “Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/41CNr35

‌ Pentagon Approaches Automakers, Manufacturers to Boost Weapons Production

The Trump administration wants automakers and other American manufacturers to play a larger role in weapons production, reminiscent of a practice used during World War II.

Senior defense officials have held talks about producing weapons and other military supplies with the top executives of several companies, including Mary Barra, chief executive officer of General Motors, and Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor, according to people familiar with the discussions. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4cR7kcR

‌ Pope James David Vance the First

The vice president has decided he’s a more accomplished theologian than Leo XIV.

The Trump administration doesn’t seem to have many rules, but one of them is that once the president picks a fight, his posse must show up to support him, no matter how ill-advised the conflict. And few senior officials are more eager to back up the boss in every embarrassing beef than Vice President Vance, who recently seems to have decided that he, and not Pope Leo XIV, is the true arbiter of Catholic doctrine. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3OsbIG0

‌ Pope says ‘world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ amid feud with Trump’s White House

Pope Leo XIV has said that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” who spend billions on war, in comments that will be seen as another sharp escalation in his almost week-long feud with the White House over the US-Israel war on Iran.

The first American-born pontiff did not mention Donald Trump by name, but used his speech in Cameroon on Thursday to denounce world leaders that invoke religion to justify violence against other nations. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4sEwosg

‌ Pete Hegseth Reads Tarantino’s Fake Bible Quote From ‘Pulp Fiction’ at Prayer Service

Pete Hegseth — always ready to get medieval on someone’s ass — quoted a fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction while leading a prayer service at the Pentagon on Wednesday.

The Secretary of War cited an iconic and not-actually-biblical monologue from Quentin Tarantino’s beloved 1994 film. It’s the speech given by fearsome hitman Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) to his victims right before he murders them. - Hollywood Reporter https://bit.ly/4e0iddD

‌ Israel and Lebanon begin ceasefire, Trump says Iran may meet US over weekend

A 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect on Thursday and President Donald Trump said the next meeting between the United States and Iran may take place over the weekend, adding to optimism that the Iran war could be nearing an end. - Reuters https://reut.rs/4mClTEl

‌ Trump’s ‘Triumphal Arch’ Draws Backlash, Even From an Expert Who Proposed It

The Commission of Fine Arts, which is filled with Mr. Trump’s appointees, is scheduled on Thursday to consider Mr. Trump’s plan to build a 250-foot arch on the other side of the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.

But Mr. Trump’s push to build the giant arch — more than quadrupling its size from original plans — has alienated early proponents of the project, classical architects and veterans groups who say it will diminish nearby Arlington Cemetery.

It has even alarmed Catesby Leigh, an architecture critic who encouraged Mr. Trump to build a triumphal arch, most recently in a 2025 article in The American Mind, an online magazine of the Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41KF8Ce

‌ Letters from an American - April 14, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

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?”) - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4cA909i

‌ Less than a year after being fired, former FEMA chief is set to be reinstalled by Trump

President Donald Trump plans to nominate Cameron Hamilton to lead FEMA less than a year after he was unceremoniously fired from the disaster relief agency, three people familiar with the decision told CNN. - CNN https://cnn.it/48K6j3V

‌ 10-Day Cease-Fire Between Israel and Lebanon Goes Into Effect

The pause in the fighting between Israeli forces and Iranian-allied Hezbollah militants may help smooth the way to a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41DinQG

‌ Acting ICE Director Says He Plans to Resign in May

Todd Lyons said he would leave to spend more time with his family. He has spoken about a surge in threats against ICE officers, saying that he knew the reality firsthand. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eBajY6

‌ White House Shrugs Off Shaky Economy as War Exceeds Trump’s Timeline

Roughly seven weeks into the war with Iran, investors have shrugged off the sky-high price of oil, sending the S&P 500 this week to a fresh record high.

That exuberance on Wall Street has offered a sharp contrast with the hardships facing many Americans, who are feeling the financial blowback of a conflict that President Trump once promised would be brief but seems to have no end in sight.

With high gas prices cutting deeply into many families’ budgets, the U.S. economy is under increasing strain, raising the odds that inflation will worsen, unemployment will rise and growth will slow this year. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OA3Wtz

‌ ICE Arrests 85-Year-Old French Widow Who Married Her G.I. Sweetheart

Ms. Ross-Mahé is now in a detention center hundreds of miles away in Louisiana, her own three children back in France unable to reach her and fearing for her health. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cSrfbq

‌ Trump to Pick Ousted FEMA Head to Lead Agency Again

President Trump intends to nominate Cameron Hamilton to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency after he was pushed out as acting leader nearly a year ago, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Mr. Hamilton, who has limited disaster management experience, is a former Navy SEAL who worked for a defense contractor and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Virginia before taking over FEMA.

Mr. Hamilton was ousted from that position after he told members of Congress that the agency should not be eliminated. Mr. Trump had said early in his second term, “I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away.” But when Congress pressed him on the agency’s future in a hearing last May, Mr. Hamilton contradicted that outlook.

“I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Mr. Hamilton said on May 7. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sM27rA

‌ White House Declines to Offer Congress an Estimate of Iran War Cost

The White House declined to estimate the cost of the war with Iran at a congressional hearing on Thursday, prompting some Senate Democrats to criticize the Trump administration for its lack of transparency.

In a second appearance on Capitol Hill this week, Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, sidestepped questions about the price tag of the U.S.- and Israel-led conflict. He said the “fluctuating” nature of the war made it hard to calculate either the expenses incurred to date or the amount that the president would seek soon in new military funding.

Pressed at one point to supply even a general range of the cost, Mr. Vought told lawmakers, “I’m not going to give you a range because I don’t want to be inaccurate.” He said the administration would furnish those details in a fuller request to Congress soon. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sGH3mc

‌ Court Rejects Trump Administration Climate Lawsuit Against Hawaii

A federal judge has dismissed a highly unusual lawsuit, filed last year by the Trump administration, that sought to pre-emptively block Hawaii from filing its own lawsuit against oil companies over their role in climate change.

Hawaii went ahead with its lawsuit the very next day. And at the time, a range of legal experts described the Justice Department’s strategy, of suing to try to prevent someone else from suing, as weak.

In a ruling on Wednesday, Senior Judge Helen Gillmor of the U.S. District Court in Hawaii agreed. She found that the Justice Department had no legal standing to bring the case because it could not demonstrate any actual harm. The government’s claims revolved around an “abstract, theoretical future harm” that could not form a valid basis for a lawsuit, she wrote. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OLRSpi

‌ Kennedy Shifts Tone on Vaccines in Congressional Hearing

In a sharp break with his past rhetoric, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered a qualified embrace of the measles vaccine on Thursday, as President Trump named a new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention whose views on vaccination are more conventional than Mr. Kennedy’s.

In back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill, Mr. Kennedy testified that the measles vaccine is safe and effective “for most people” and agreed it was safer than getting measles. Under questioning, he also allowed that the vaccine might have saved the lives of two unvaccinated children who died of measles in Texas earlier this year.

His comments, while carefully couched, stand in stark contrast to his previous statements about vaccination. Coupled with Mr. Trump’s announcement of Dr. Erica Schwartz, a deputy surgeon general in his first administration, as his new pick for C.D.C. director, they provided the latest evidence yet that Mr. Kennedy is trying to publicly put his efforts to overhaul American vaccine policy behind him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tmCNtr

‌ Executive Override

For the first time in modern American history, the machinery of the federal government — which is meant to serve our democracy — is being turned against our elections.

2026 will be different from any election in modern American history. The Trump administration is now wielding the full power of the federal government against our own elections. The administration’s goal is not simply to control the machinery of the elections, but also to silence the voices of those who oppose them. Even so, our electoral system is strong, run by state and local officials in all 50 states. If people in key roles follow the law, we will be able to protect the 2026 election. - Protect Democracy https://bit.ly/4tZDwAM

‌ Executive Override

Why talk about threats to the midterms? - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4sSwLji

‌ Trump administration deepens quest to stamp out the events of Jan. 6

Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, his administration has enthusiastically — and steadily — embraced his campaign to try to rewrite the story of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4tlBZ7W

‌ Iran Had a Doomsday Weapon All Along

President Trump has said that he went to war to stop Iran from ever having a nuclear bomb. Unfortunately, the war he launched led Iran to discover that it already had an extremely effective doomsday weapon—one that promised the economic equivalent of mutual assured destruction. The Strait of Hormuz has always been vulnerable; the United States has always known that Iran might try to close it if attacked. But neither Washington nor Tehran imagined how easy it would be for Iran to do so, how hard it would be for the U.S. to reopen it, or how widely and rapidly the economic effects of a closed strait would fan out. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sM2DWy

‌ Republicans are speeding toward doomsday scenario in Texas

Republicans know that nominating scandal-tarred Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Senate primary runoff would be a disaster, putting the GOP seat in play in what’s expected to be a bad midterms cycle for Republicans across the country.

But that doomsday scenario is looking like a reality for Republicans, with a new poll released by Texas Public Opinion Research Friday showing Paxton leading incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn by 8 points.

The poll also found that, even if Trump endorsed Cornyn—for which Cornyn has been begging Trump to do for months to no avail—Paxton would still lead Cornyn in the primary, 45% to 42%. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3Quqf4w

‌ Trump keeps screwing up—and it could cost Republicans the Senate

The economic hangover effects of President Donald Trump’s war in Iran are starting to bite at the wallets of frustrated voters, according to the latest data analysis from nonpartisan political media organization VoteHub. Rising consumer prices and shaky financial markets have combined to put Americans in a foul political mood—and they blame Republicans by a nearly two-to-one margin.

Republicans were already facing the prospect of a political nightmare in this year’s midterm elections, but voters’ accelerating move away from the GOP has become so acute that the Cook Political Report now projects that Democrats are favored to win two critical Senate races in North Carolina and Georgia. One big reason? Democrats have finally connected the soaring cost of “Donald Trump’s war” to the affordability crisis hammering millions of regular Americans. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4mA27JH

‌ Texas Restaurants Are Forcing a Reckoning Over Immigrant Labor

Restaurant operators say labor shortages, rising costs and worker fear have prompted an unusual alliance of industry and political leaders in Texas to call for legal pathways to hire immigrants. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Qh5Dg8

‌ Trump’s Dispute With Pope Leo Deepens Divisions on the Right

President Trump’s dispute with Pope Leo XIV has inflamed Republican tensions, with conservative media figures quarreling over the pontiff’s leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and some of the party’s vulnerable midterm candidates rebuking the president.

Days after Mr. Trump first lashed out at the pope, who has been one of the most prominent critics of the war in Iran, the showdown continued to consume conservative media. On Thursday, the Fox News host Sean Hannity said on his program that Leo was “seemingly more interested in spreading left-wing politics than the actual teachings of Jesus Christ,” and was “twisting religion to specifically attack only President Trump.”

Earlier, on his podcast last week, Mr. Hannity asked rhetorically whether Leo had “even read the Bible,” drawing the attention of Tucker Carlson, a vocal conservative critic of the war.

“It does take a kind of cable news mentality to say of the pope: Hey, you ever read the Bible?” Mr. Carlson, a former Fox News host, said in an episode of his podcast released Thursday, adding that the pope’s criticism of the conflict in the Middle East was “pretty conventional.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tjJpZr

‌ Prosecutor Withdraws From Trump Team’s Investigation of Ex-C.I.A. Chief

A senior federal prosecutor in Miami has withdrawn from an investigation into John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, over concerns about the legal viability of a politically charged case Trump administration officials have tried to fast-track, people familiar with the matter said.

The prosecutor, Maria Medetis Long, is a career official who oversees national security investigations for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida. The top prosecutor there, Jason A. Reding Quiñones, is an ardent Trump loyalist who has been leading a far-ranging inquiry into the president’s perceived political adversaries, including Mr. Brennan. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eqgRZG

‌ Why We’re Concerned About Trump’s Fed Choice

Kevin Warsh looks great on paper. President Trump’s pick to serve as the next chair of the Federal Reserve is a former Fed governor with extensive experience in the financial industry. He has many admirers both on Wall Street and in Washington.

But Mr. Warsh has a credibility problem. Central to the Fed’s mission of managing the American economy is the institution’s independence. The Fed’s board, like the Supreme Court, is composed of a group of experts who are chosen by presidents but who do not take directions from the White House. That operational freedom allows the central bank to make policy decisions that are in the nation’s economic interest, even when those decisions are politically unpopular. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ckFyp8

‌ The birth of the Supreme Court’s shadow docket has long been a mystery.

Secret memos obtained by The New York Times illuminate the origins of the court’s now-routine “shadow docket” rulings on presidential power. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4vVBaET

‌ We Disagree on a Lot. But We Know This Law Must Change.

We disagree on many issues. One of us is a longtime Democrat, the other a conservative Republican. But both of us are deeply concerned about warrantless government surveillance of the American people.

On Friday, Congress passed a brief 10-day extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was originally enacted in 2008 to allow the government to gather vital intelligence about foreign governments, terrorists and spies.

The problem is that it has also allowed agencies like the F.B.I. and the National Security Agency to regularly gather and search through the private communications of American citizens without a warrant. That is a clear violation of rights protected by the Constitution. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cxixhj

‌ Exclusive: Justice Department removes lead prosecutor from probe of Trump critic John Brennan

The Justice Department has removed the career Miami federal prosecutor leading the investigation into John Brennan, after she resisted pressure to quickly bring charges against the former CIA director and prominent critic of President Donald Trump, according to people briefed on the matter.

Maria Medetis Long on Friday notified attorneys representing people involved in the case that she was no longer handling the investigation, the people familiar with the matter said. She has led the politically sensitive probe for months amid demands from Trump to prosecute Brennan and other critics. - Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4cDS5Tz

‌ The Worst Justice Ever

I’ve long assumed that Samuel Alito was the worst.

Alito — who authored the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the case that ended constitutional abortion rights by merely asserting that the high court’s prior opinion in Roe v. Wade (1973) was wrongly decided; who accepted a 2008 luxury fishing trip to Alaska, including private jet travel, from hedge fund billionaire and GOP donor Paul Singer yet failed to disclose it on Alito’s financial forms and didn’t even recuse himself from decisions involving Singer’s subsequent business before the Supreme Court; who hoisted an inverted American flag outside his Virginia home shortly after the January 6 Capitol riot, a symbol of support for Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election — has the moral and intellectual stature of a poisonous toad.

But I’ve come to revise my view of the court’s worst Justice.

Clarence Thomas is 77 years old. He has now served on the Supreme Court for over 34 years, making him the longest-serving member of the court. He is a bitter, angry, severe hard-right, intellectually dishonest ideologue. After reading his latest thoughts on America, I’ve concluded Thomas is even worse than Alito. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4vYD47J

‌ Trump, When Asked About White House Meeting with Anthropic’s Dario Amodei: ‘Who?’

Trump walked out to a runway press scrum and answered a handful of reporters’ questions, mostly about the Iran War. Before turning and walking away, one reporter (It’s not clear which), asked “Did Anthropic have a meeting at the White House, sir?”

Trump’s reply: “Who?”

The reporter clarified, “Anthropic?”

The president then gave one of his famous wing-flap shrugs and said “I have no idea.”

To refresh your memory, the Trump Administration is still in the middle of a strange and unprecedented power struggle with Anthropic—arguably the tech leader in artificial intelligence right now, even if it’s not as valuable a company as OpenAI. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4exfCrx

‌ The Trump team’s puzzling ‘all is well’ message on the economy

After spending the early part of the Iran war trying to sell Americans on an economic message of short-term pain for long-term gain, President Donald Trump and his team have increasingly reverted to their previous posture: that of Kevin Bacon in “Animal House.”

Remain calm, they’re effectively saying. All is well.

It was a puzzling and dicey political message before the war; it’s even more puzzling and dicey now.

They used a version of this message in the fall. Even as affordability concerns increasingly lingered as a problem for Trump, he set about arguing that prices were actually down — and substantially so — even though they weren’t.

Today, the message is more: Despite what voters are hearing (or seeing at any local gas station), things are actually quite good. And besides, the situation could’ve been way worse.

“To be honest, we are doing so well,” Trump told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo in an interview that aired Wednesday, citing a resilient stock market.

When Bartiromo pushed back a little, Trump argued that $92-per-barrel oil wasn’t so bad when you consider some were talking about $200 per barrel.

“And you know what?” Trump added. “I’m very happy.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4mD95h0

‌ The worst hour of Donald Trump’s presidency just happened

Two massive clouds that have been hanging over Donald Trump’s presidency for months broke open almost simultaneously on Tuesday afternoon – and poured rain all over the President.

Between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern time, two narratives – both disastrously bad for Trump – emerged:

Paul Manafort, the man who spent five critical months leading Trump’s campaign in 2016, was found guilty of eight financial crimes. On the 10 other charges brought against Manafort, the jury couldn’t reach a unanimous conclusion and the presiding judge declared a mistrial on those counts.
Longtime Trump personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen agreed to a plea deal with the Southern District of New York in which he admitted guilt on eight charges and acknowledged that he had discussed or made hush payments to two women alleging affairs with Trump in order to keep damaging information from becoming public, at the direction of and in coordination with a candidate for federal office. That candidate, although Cohen didn’t name him, is obviously Donald Trump.

Either of these developments could make for a disastrous week for the President of the United States, who has watched special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian 2016 election interference draw ever closer to him as it has gone along. But for both Manafort to be found guilty and Cohen to not only plead guilty but to implicate Trump in a payoff that violates campaign finance law is, literally, catastrophic for the Trump White House. - CNN https://cnn.it/3OSPXPI:

‌ Rupert Murdoch Knees Trump in the Balls While He’s Doubled Over Coughing Up Blood

The message from the Murdoch-owned New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News is clear: Pack your bags, bitch. You’re done. - Vanity Fair https://bit.ly/4sJJMeC

‌ Iran fully closes Strait of Hormuz over U.S. blockade and fires on ships

The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz escalated again Saturday as Iran reversed its reopening of the crucial waterway and fired on ships attempting to pass, in retaliation after the United States pressed ahead with its blockade of Iranian ports.

The strait is closed until the U.S. blockade is lifted, Iran's Revolutionary Guard navy said Saturday night, warning that “no vessel should make any movement from its anchorage in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and approaching the Strait of Hormuz will be considered as cooperation with the enemy” and be targeted. - AP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/4tma1sG?

‌ Letters from an American - April 18, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

And, just like that, President Donald J. Trump’s triumphant boasting that the Strait of Hormuz had been permanently reopened has unraveled in less than 24 hours. Citing the continuing U.S. blockade, Iranian officials announced they were closing the strait again. Reports say Iranian forces fired on two ships trying to cross the strait. Iranian media said: “Until the United States ends its interference with the full freedom of movement for vessels traveling to and from Iran, the status of the Strait of Hormuz will remain under intense control and in its previous state.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4mJaEKy

‌ U.S. Installs a Trump Loyalist to Lead ‘Grand Conspiracy’ Case Into Trump Foes

As a sprawling inquiry expands into whether former federal officials committed crimes in investigating President Trump, two unusual factors could ease the way toward securing the indictments he craves.

A former lawyer for Mr. Trump’s campaign, Joseph diGenova, has been selected to lead the inquiry after a career prosecutor in Miami was removed from that post this week, a senior law enforcement official said on Saturday.

And at least part of the investigation appears to be using a grand jury based in Fort Pierce, Fla., overseen by a federal judge, Aileen M. Cannon, who issued rulings favorable to Mr. Trump during the classified documents case against him, the official added. Mr. diGenova is expected to split his time between Miami and Fort Pierce.

Together, the moves show how the Justice Department under Mr. Trump’s control has been willing to embrace politically charged tactics and unorthodox personnel decisions in its efforts to satisfy his demands to prosecute his perceived foes — even as other prosecutors loyal to him have encountered forceful pushback from courts against his wide-ranging retribution campaign. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sIXqPe

‌ The FBI Director Is MIA

Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

On Friday, April 10, as FBI Director Kash Patel was preparing to leave work for the weekend, he struggled to log on to an internal computer system. He quickly became convinced that he had been locked out, and he panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to nine people familiar with his outreach. Two of these people described his behavior as a “freak-out.”

Patel oversees an agency that employs roughly 38,000 people, including many who are trained to investigate and verify information that can be presented under oath in a court of law. News of his emotional outburst ricocheted through the bureau, prompting chatter among officials and, in some corners of the building, expressions of relief. The White House fielded calls from the bureau and from members of Congress asking who was now in charge of the FBI.

It turned out that the answer was still Patel. He had not been fired. The access problem, two people familiar with the matter said, appears to have been a technical error, and it was quickly resolved. “It was all ultimately bullshit,” one FBI official told me. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3QxFABm

‌ It’s Not Just Iran. Trump Is Flailing on Multiple Fronts.

You’ve heard the joke: The White House is going to start talking about the Epstein files to distract from how badly the Iran war is going.

Donald Trump has long ruled by fear. He demands complete fealty from fellow Republicans; he pushes around world leaders. He’s a political escape artist. But this time, he has boxed himself in without an obvious way out. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mFAf7d

‌ Trump Administration Demand for Ballot Info Rebuffed by Michigan

The Department of Justice is seeking ballots and other materials from the 2024 election. Michigan officials call it election interference. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tXa3Hx

‌ Oil Prices Jump and Stocks Waver on Renewed Iran Conflict

Oil prices shot higher and stocks wobbled on Monday after a weekend of renewed conflict around the Strait of Hormuz dampened hope that the waterway might soon reopen.

On Sunday, a U.S. Navy destroyer attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that President Trump said had tried to evade the U.S. blockade on ships traveling to and from Iranian ports. And on Saturday, a day after Iran’s foreign minister declared the strait open, the country reversed course, reasserting “strict control” over it and attacking two Indian-flagged vessels.

This is set to be a pivotal week in the war, now in its eighth week, with the cease-fire between the United States and Iran set to expire within days. Mr. Trump said the United States was sending a delegation to Pakistan for further negotiations with Iran, though it was not clear that Iran was on board. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ezIdMV

Week Sixty-Five: April 20 - April 26

‌The long line for Trump tariff refunds is now open

U.S. Customs and Border Protection began accepting applications Monday for refunds on tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down in February, opening an online portal through which importers can submit claims on more than $166 billion in duties collected from about 330,000 businesses. U.S. Customs and Border Protection began accepting applications Monday for refunds on tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down in February, opening an online portal through which importers can submit claims on more than $166 billion in duties collected from about 330,000 businesses. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4mMafH6

‌FBI director Kash Patel files $250M defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic

FBI director Kash Patel has sued The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over a story that alleged Patel has “alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”

The defamation suit, filed Monday morning in US District Court in the District of Columbia, seeks $250 million in damages.

The Atlantic called the suit “meritless.”

“We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” a spokesperson told CNN. - CNN https://cnn.it/4ubJGxH

‌Trump picks qualified, normal health leader to head CDC; experts still cautious

President Trump on Thursday announced his third nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Dr. Erica Schwartz, a well-qualified former public health official and board-certified physician in preventive medicine, who has publicly supported vaccination and followed evidence-based medicine.

The uncontroversial pick comes amid concern within the administration that the aggressive anti-vaccine agenda from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has no medical, science, or public health background—has become a liability for the party in the lead up to the midterms. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/3P2x2Cb

‌Iran’s Hard-Liners Flex Their Muscle With a U-Turn Over Hormuz

Iran’s quick reversal of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz has laid bare a rift between the country’s political leaders and the military hard-liners who have deepened their hold on the government since the war began.

A day after the country’s foreign minister announced that the strait was open, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired on at least two commercial ships in the Gulf for the first time during the cease-fire—and broadcast warnings to mariners that the waterway remained closed, causing ships that were attempting the transit to turn back. Ships would be targeted if they moved, it said. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4tJAPmQ

‌Trump Blocked From Iran War Plans After Screaming at Aides for Hours

Donald Trump’s erratic behavior has gotten him exiled from critical peace negotiations with Iran.

The president was removed from such talks by his own aides last month, who feared that his unpredictable style could hamper the discussions, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The decision was informed by the president’s behavior during the search and rescue operation for the aircrew of the downed F-15 fighter jet late last month, when the president reportedly screamed at his aides for hours.* As a result, his aides “kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful, instead updating him at meaningful moments,” a senior administration official told the Journal. - New Republic https://bit.ly/4cLk9V4

‌Trump Administration Takes Steps to Refund $166 Billion in Tariffs

When President Trump unveiled his sprawling global tariffs last spring, he boasted that they would generate windfall profits and “make America wealthy again.”

But after suffering a significant Supreme Court defeat, Mr. Trump is about to pay the money back.

The Trump administration on Monday took its first steps toward returning more than $166 billion collected from tariffs that were struck down in February. Just over a year after imposing many of the duties, the government began accepting requests for refunds, surrendering its prized source of revenue — plus interest. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OJKhra

‌The 27-Year-Old Diplomat Waging Trump’s Cultural War With Europe

When Samuel Samson, a senior adviser at the State Department, sat down privately with far-right German lawmakers in an office just steps from the White House, he was breaking with history.

For eight decades after World War II, America’s foreign policy establishment had usually steered clear of Germany’s hard-right parties, seeking to ensure that they never seized power again. That changed under President Trump, leading last September to Mr. Samson’s meeting with Beatrix von Storch and Joachim Paul of Alternative for Germany, or AfD — a party designated as a suspected extremist organization by German intelligence. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3P2xmkn

‌Hundreds of Fake Pro-Trump Avatars Emerge on Social Media

The artificial-intelligence-generated fake influencers have surged on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube in an apparent bid to hook conservative voters.

In the months leading up to the midterm elections, hundreds of A.I.-generated pro-Trump influencer accounts have emerged on social media, featuring avatars posting at a rapid pace about the “radical left” and “America First.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4vO0uMM

‌Labor Secretary Steps Down Amid Misconduct Investigation

Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Trump’s embattled labor secretary, stepped down on Monday as multiple scandals and investigations closed in on her. An internal investigation into her leadership was reviewing allegations of widespread misconduct, including the use of department resources for personal trips and having an affair with a member of her security team. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cNqCik

‌F.B.I. Director Sues The Atlantic Over Article Claiming Excessive Drinking

The F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, sued The Atlantic on Monday, accusing it of defamation over an article that claimed his excessive drinking and unexplained absences were putting his job in jeopardy.

The article, under the headline “The FBI Director Is MIA,” was published on Friday and detailed Mr. Patel’s behavior in his role leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation, citing more than two dozen anonymous sources. The author, Sarah Fitzpatrick, wrote that Mr. Patel’s conduct had “often alarmed officials at the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice.” The article said he “has also earned a reputation for acting impulsively during high-stakes investigations.” - NYT The F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, sued The Atlantic on Monday, accusing it of defamation over an article that claimed his excessive drinking and unexplained absences were putting his job in jeopardy.

‌The Aides Keeping the President in the Dark

Earlier this month, top officials in the Trump administration were facing two problems—one distant and acute, one near and chronic.

The first was that two American airmen were missing inside Iran after their jet had been shot down. Commanders were scrambling to create and execute an operation to rescue both. The second was the president’s temperament. As plans developed and went into effect, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend, “aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful, instead updating him at meaningful moments, a senior administration official said.”

It’s a stunning bit of news: During a national-security crisis, top advisers decided the commander in chief’s presence was a liability. This incident is only the latest example of how Trump’s aides have been trying to keep him in the dark and build a protective bubble around him.

A president whom aides do not view as reliable and steady is a danger in any situation, but the war in Iran has brought many of these issues to the fore. In the lead-up to the war, which Trump launched without consulting Congress, making a case to the American people, or assembling allies, many of his aides believed that Trump was not taking seriously the risks and trade-offs involved, according to Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times. (The fact that these aides have voiced none of these concerns publicly but said enough privately that the comments leaked later does not speak well for the Cabinet’s judgment or courage.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4cNOaDu

‌Ukraine Has Finally Given Up on Trump

For more than a year after Donald Trump returned to the White House, Ukraine held out hope—at least publicly—of winning him over. Trump, who revealed his affection for Russia’s Vladimir Putin again and again, largely halted American military aid to Kyiv. He insulted Ukrainian leaders regularly, personally berating President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in February 2025. Nevertheless, Ukraine diligently took part in Trump’s peace negotiations, which were tilted to reward Putin’s invasion and turned out to be fruitless. Zelensky agreed to mineral deals that supposedly promised to enrich Americans. He even lavishly praised Trump himself. Despite Ukrainian leaders’ growing doubts, they calculated that speaking sweetly of the American president would do no harm and just might gain his favor.

But now Kyiv appears to have given up on the United States. It is aggressively seeking new diplomatic and military partners—for instance, by sharing its hard-won expertise in drone warfare with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates and forging arms-production agreements with Germany. Ukraine has sent drones to attack oil-export facilities near St. Petersburg, deep inside enemy territory, in defiance of what Zelensky called “signals” from unspecified “partners” to avoid striking Russian energy infrastructure.

Using language that would until recently have been unthinkable, Zelensky has indicated that he no longer views the United States as a reliable ally and, even more astonishingly, that all of Europe needs to start moving on from the transatlantic relationship. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sYCbt4

‌Lori Chavez-DeRemer out as Labor secretary

Chavez-DeRemer’s brief tenure has been one marked by turmoil as she’s come under internal investigation following complaints within the department about her conduct. The New York Times previously reported that her husband had been banned from the department’s headquarters amid sexual assault allegations. A criminal investigation into that matter has been closed.

In March, two of her top aides were forced out amid an investigation into misconduct at the agency.

For months, the Labor Department’s Inspector General’s Office has been investigating a complaint that Chavez-DeRemer was having a sexual relationship with a member of her security team, as well as other allegations of inappropriate behavior, such as sending staff to pick up liquor and attempting to use business trips as excuses for personal travel, according to a Department of Labor source with knowledge of the situation. - CNN https://cnn.it/4u2YjmO

‌Goodbye and Good Riddance, Madam Secretary of Labor

Sorry to impinge on your email for a third time today, but I want to make sure you know that Lori Chavez-DeRemer has resigned as secretary of labor [translated: she was told to resign by the White House], after facing investigations by the department’s inspector general into multiple allegations of misconduct.

She’s alleged to have been drinking during the workday from a “stash” of alcohol in her office, arranging official trips for herself that were extended vacations, taking subordinates to an Oregon strip club while on one such trip, showing no interest in the work of the department, and having an affair with a member of her security team.

Sources have described Chavez-DeRemer as the “boss from hell,” saying she demanded staffers run personal errands for her or perform other menial tasks unrelated to their government jobs. More than two dozen department employees from across the political spectrum described in interviews with The New York Times a toxic workplace characterized by an absentee secretary, hostile aides, and a deeply demoralized staff.

In other words, Chavez-DeRemer was turning the great department I once headed and loved into shit. And I hold Trump responsible because he appointed her. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3OEY7eE

‌Kash Patel swears he’s not a drunk—and he’s suing to prove it

FBI Director Kash Patel, recent star of a viral video as he chugged beer with the victorious U.S. Olympic Hockey team, is suing The Atlantic magazine for reporting on his drinking and how it purportedly affects his job performance.

Patel’s suit alleges that the publication defamed him and seeks $250 million in damages.

Attribution: Clay Bennett/Tribune Content AgencyCartoon by Clay Bennett

The article, which was published on Friday, cites about two dozen anonymous sources and details fears within the agency and federal government that Patel’s “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” are affecting his ability to do his job. Sources told The Atlantic that Patel is frequently “away or unreachable” and that his inaccessibility is “delaying time-sensitive decisions needed to advance investigations.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4cvGt6a

‌Trump forced to launch tariff refund site

With little fanfare or publicity, the Trump administration launched a new portal on Monday to begin the process of paying back businesses with the tariff funds collected under President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.

Dubbed the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries program, unlike other initiatives from the Customs and Border Protection Agency like immigration raids and drug busts, the tariff repayment program wasn’t spotlighted in a release in the newsroom section of the agency’s website. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4u9hMlM

‌Trump’s Memphis Crime Task Force Arrested Over 800 Immigrants, Records Show. Only 2% of the Arrests Were for Violent Crimes.

And despite casting violent criminals as the task force’s primary target, the operation has swept up more than 800 immigrants whom law enforcement deemed to be unlawfully present in the United States. Of those, just 2% — or 17 — were also arrested for violent crimes, our analysis found. Being unlawfully present on its own is a civil, not a criminal, offense. - ProPublica And despite casting violent criminals as the task force’s primary target, the operation has swept up more than 800 immigrants whom law enforcement deemed to be unlawfully present in the United States. Of those, just 2% — or 17 — were also arrested for violent crimes, our analysis found. Being unlawfully present on its own is a civil, not a criminal, offense. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4cKlD1P

‌Labor Secretary Steps Down Amid Internal Investigation

Lori Chavez-DeRemer was facing multiple scandals and an internal inquiry into charges of misconduct. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mNQmzo

‌F.B.I. Director Sues The Atlantic Over Article Claiming Excessive Drinking

The F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, sued The Atlantic on Monday, accusing it of defamation over an article that claimed his excessive drinking and unexplained absences were putting his job in jeopardy.

‌An Extra-Embarrassing White House Correspondents’ Dinner

These aren’t the best of times for White House correspondents or, for that matter, the First Amendment. And this year’s gala figures to be even more awkward and embarrassing than usual.

After declining all invitations to the event throughout his years in office, President Trump informed the White House Correspondents’ Association last month that he would be attending this year’s dinner. His surprising decision sets up a bizarre dynamic: On Saturday night, the president will break bread with the same people he’s spent a decade calling “fake” and “enemies of the people.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mWjGnK

‌Another Trump Cabinet Member Departs in Scandal

When Lori Chavez-DeRemer was nominated, she had a chance to be a pathbreaking secretary of labor, supposedly tasked with shepherding the Republican Party in a more worker-friendly direction. Instead, she turned out to be a typical Trump Cabinet member: disempowered and disgraced. Now she has added dismissed to that list.

Chavez-DeRemer’s departure was announced yesterday evening in an X post from White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who said she would “take a position in the private sector.” He said that Keith Sonderling, the deputy secretary, will be acting secretary. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4sUJ1iY

‌Trump’s Purge May Be Just Beginning

‌Trump Extends Cease-Fire With Iran

The pause in hostilities had been set to expire within hours. The president said Pakistan, which is trying to mediate an end to the war, requested he hold off any attacks. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mRcdWV

‌Trump Brags That Tim Cook Would ‘Kiss My Ass’ as the Apple CEO Steps Aside

President Donald Trump praised Tim Cook in a Tuesday morning post on Truth Social. Trump had very nice things to say about the Apple CEO, who announced on Monday that he’ll be stepping down from the role, but will stay on in a new position that includes “engaging with policymakers.” But Trump also couldn’t stop himself from talking about how Cook was kissing his ass during his tenure leading the Cupertino giant.

Trump wrote that he’s “always been a big fan of Tim Cook,” just like he was of Steve Jobs. And recounted the first phone call he got from Cook during Trump’s first term. Trump said that Cook has a “fairly large problem” that only the president could fix and that most people would’ve just paid a consultant millions of dollars to address it. Instead, Trump insisted, Cook went to the president.

“When I got the call I said, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!) calling, how big is that? I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to ‘kiss my ass,'” Trump wrote Tuesday. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4u9jyTY

‌Why We Don't Know What the Hell Is Happening in Trump's War

The fog of war is getting thicker.

According to The Washington Post, a “U.S. delegation was expected to depart Tuesday for a second round of face-to-face peace talks with Iran” but “was delayed for ‘additional policy meetings’ involving Vice President JD Vance.”

So, the reason for the delay was additional policy meetings in Washington?

Not quite. According to The New York Times, Vance’s trip was “suspended because Tehran did not respond to American negotiating positions.”

Well, not really. The Wall Street Journal reports that plans for negotiations are “in flux” because “Tehran hasn’t yet decided on sending a delegation.”

Wait. According to CNN, Iran isn’t participating in peace negotiations because of “contradictory messages, contradictory behaviors, and unacceptable actions by the American side.”

These are just the latest in a series of confused reports. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4cPP9Dm

‌Trump is pressuring companies not to seek tariff refunds: 'I'll remember'

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will "remember" companies that opt not to seek refunds for tariffs that the Supreme Court ruled were illegal — remarks that came a day after the government opened a portal for businesses to file claims.

Asked on CNBC whether companies such as Apple $AAPL and Amazon $AMZN had avoided submitting refund requests out of concern about offending him, Trump said, "Brilliant if they don't do that." He added: "If they don't do that, I'll remember them." - Quartz https://bit.ly/4sRPOu1

‌Letters from an American - April 20, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Late Saturday evening, Josh Dawsey and Annie Linskey of the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was so unstable and angry after learning on April 3 that Iranians had shot down an American jet that his aides kept him out of the room as they received updates, simply telling him what was going on at important moments.

The journalists describe an erratic president who entered the war after Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced him the Iranian people would support such strikes and after his successful extraction of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Celia Flores convinced him the military could pull off another quick victory. He seemed to believe that if his gamble worked, he would be saving the world. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4u9GxOH

‌Trump’s statements on Iran increasingly contradict each other

The president has made conflicting comments on questions both large and small related to the war. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3QxFz0n

‌Trump keeps lying about inflation as his economy fails

As economic conditions continue to erode under his presidency, Donald Trump is grasping for straws and pushing new lies about inflation.

Appearing on CNBC on Tuesday morning, Trump was asked to address rising inflation by host Joe Kernen, who has made a name for himself at the network as a Trump apologist. Kernen noted that inflation had begun to decrease in former President Joe Biden’s last year in office and Trump interrupted him midsentence.

Kernen: By the time he was leaving, [inflation] was down to about where it is now, about 3%—

Trump: No it wasn’t. It was down to 5%. It wasn’t down to 3%—

Kernen: Not a single person—

Trump: And the reason it was down was because I had won the election and it started falling after I won the election and I started getting prices down from right after Nov. 5.

This is a lie. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/48p2dy3

‌Hundreds Of Veteran Journalists And Groups Urge WHCA To “Speak Forcefully” About Trump’s Attacks On Media As He Attends Annual Dinner

When Donald Trump attends the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner for the first time as president on Saturday, the pressure will be on the journalists’ organization to make some sort of a statement about the president’s relentless attacks on the media, which he has labeled the “enemy of the people.”

On Monday, a group of hundreds of veteran journalists and press associations sent a letter to the WHCA, urging them to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”

“The dinner has long served as a symbol of the vital and irreplaceable role of a free press in American democracy and a celebration of the First Amendment and the journalists who uphold it,” the group wrote in the letter. “President Trump’s systematic, sustained and unprecedented attacks on the free press … render his presence at such an event a profound contradiction of its purpose.” - Deadline https://bit.ly/4mMdZs8

‌Trump's messaging on Iran grows increasingly erratic

With his sensational statements on Truth Social and serial phone chats with individual journalists, President Donald Trump has only added to the confusion surrounding his plans for Iran in recent days.

The U.S. president has been commenting on the conflict almost in real time in seemingly off-the-cuff exchanges with reporters, including from AFP, who call his cell phone.

Twice in recent days the White House has had to correct statements the 79-year-old billionaire made in the calls. - AFP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/4tACjA1?

‌Trust Trump? Iran’s Doubts Shadow Peace Talks.

President Trump and Iran’s leaders have wide differences on many issues, from nuclear technology to the Strait of Hormuz. But their main obstacle to striking a lasting peace agreement may be a matter of trust.

Always wary of the United States, Iranian officials consider Mr. Trump particularly treacherous. They remember the way, during his first term as president, Mr. Trump simply abandoned a nuclear deal Iran had struck with the Obama administration and other world powers after nearly two years of negotiations. Mr. Trump did not claim that Iran was violating that deal; he simply didn’t like it.

When the Biden administration tried to coax Iran into a similar agreement a few years later, Iran’s leadership demanded a guarantee that a future Trump administration would not simply tear it up again, according to former U.S. officials. They had no way of providing one. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sRj049

‌U.S. Abruptly Rescinds Subpoenas It Had Just Issued in John Brennan Inquiry

In a reversal, prosecutors who are trying to establish a perjury case against John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, have rescinded subpoenas issued just days ago that had required witnesses to testify before a grand jury in Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.

The withdrawal on Monday night of the subpoenas, which the Justice Department had issued over the weekend, was a shaky start for a new phase of the investigation. The department last week removed a career prosecutor who had been overseeing the matter, Maria Medetis Long, who was said to have objected to moving forward with it.

The department brought in an outspoken Trump loyalist, Joseph diGenova, 81, to take over the inquiry into Mr. Brennan, which is part of a larger effort to investigate former officials who have scrutinized President Trump. Mr. diGenova was formally sworn in on Monday morning, and it is not clear whether he played a role in the issuing of the subpoenas over the weekend. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4w9s5bF

‌Kevin Warsh says he won't be Trump's 'sock puppet' as Fed chair

Kevin Warsh told lawmakers on Tuesday that he would be "an independent actor" if confirmed as chair of the Federal Reserve, pushing back against suggestions that he would defer to President Donald Trump on interest rate decisions. - Quartz https://bit.ly/3OJOATm

‌Tucker Carlson Says He Is ‘Tormented’ by His Past Support for Trump

Tucker Carlson, who was often at Donald J. Trump’s side during the 2024 presidential campaign, is now expressing remorse for that support, saying he will long be “tormented” by his role helping Mr. Trump return to the White House.

Mr. Carlson, a titan of conservative media who has broken sharply with Mr. Trump over the war with Iran, acknowledged that he was part of the “reason this is happening right now,” referring to the conflict.

“It’s not enough to say, well, I changed my mind — or like, oh, this is bad, I’m out,” Mr. Carlson said in an episode of his podcast released Monday.

“It’s a moment to wrestle with our own consciences,” Mr. Carlson said on the podcast, speaking with his brother, Buckley, a former speechwriter for Mr. Trump. “We’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sULoSU

‌Trump Blinks First, Extending Ceasefire with Iran as Hormuz Deadlock Continues

The future of U.S.-Iran negotiations remains in doubt after President Donald Trump and Tehran’s leaders staked out opposing positions on the Strait of Hormuz. “Diplomacy is a tool to secure national interests and security,” said Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a briefing in Tehran on Wednesday. “Whenever we conclude that the necessary and logical grounds for using this tool to realize national interests and consolidate the achievements of the Iranian nation in thwarting the enemies from reaching their evil goals are prepared, we will act.”

On Tuesday night, a senior Iranian official told Drop Site that Iran would move forward with a second round of talks in Islamabad only if Trump extended the ceasefire and ended the U.S. naval blockade. “The Pakistani side indicated that they expect Trump to lift the naval blockade of Iran,” the official said. “If that happens, and the ceasefire is extended, a new round of talks will be held on Thursday.” - Dropsite https://bit.ly/3QzOlLi

‌CDC won’t publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits

A report showing the efficacy of the covid-19 vaccine that was previously delayed by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been blocked from being published in the agency’s flagship scientific journal, according to three people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The report showed that the vaccine reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3OM3tVo

‌Most Americans want to impeach Trump—for the third time

Since retaking office more than a year ago, the amount of corruption and lawlessness President Donald Trump has engaged in has been truly staggering.

Between his grifts and profiteering off of the presidency, his pay for play pardons, his use of the Department of Justice for political retribution, and his shredding of the Constitution to impose tariffs, launch wars, and commit war crimes without congressional approval, Trump is committing impeachable offenses at a fast clip.

And now, a majority of Americans agree it’s too much, with a new Verasight/Strength in Numbers poll finding that 55% of Americans say Trump should be impeached for a third time. Another 37% opposed and another 8% said they were unsure. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4u4o6eh

‌Trump administration doesn’t want you to know the COVID vaccine worked

A peer-reviewed scientific report showing that the COVID-19 vaccine reduced the likelihood of hospital visits for recipients is being suppressed by the Trump administration. The decision to hold back the report is the latest anti-science maneuver occurring under Secretary for Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a notorious anti-vaccination crusader.

The Washington Post reported on the decision in a report published on Wednesday. The COVID-19 report was previously scheduled to be published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and had been delayed by Jay Bhattacharya, head of the National Institutes of Health.

The agency told the Post that it purportedly had concerns about the methodology used for the study, but experts told the publication this excuse didn’t make sense. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4u32jUm

‌US military says it seizes another oil tanker associated with Iran

The U.S. military on Thursday seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, ratcheting up a standoff with Iran a day after its paramilitary Revolutionary Guards took control of two vessels in the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

The Defense Department released video footage of U.S. forces on the deck of the oil tanker Majestic X, which was seized in the Indian Ocean.

“We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate,” a Pentagon statement said. - AP https://bit.ly/4cJlWtE

‌Trump Is Said to Be in Talks to Send Afghans Who Aided U.S. Forces to Congo

After halting a U.S. resettlement program for Afghans who helped the American war effort, President Trump is in talks to send as many as 1,100 of them to the Democratic Republic of Congo, an aid worker briefed on the plan said Tuesday.

The group includes interpreters for the U.S. military, former members of the Afghan Special Operations forces and family members of American service members. More than 400 children are among them.

The Afghans have been living in limbo in Qatar for over a year. They were taken there after being evacuated by the United States for their own safety because they supported American forces during the war against the Taliban that began in 2001. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cLwgBc

‌Navy Secretary Is Fired as Infighting Roils Pentagon

Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired on Wednesday after months of infighting with senior Pentagon leaders and disagreements over how to revive the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding program.

Mr. Phelan is leaving the Pentagon and the Trump administration effective immediately, wrote Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, in a terse statement.

In his role leading the Navy, Mr. Phelan had championed the “Golden Fleet,” a major investment in new ships including a “Trump-class” battleship. But Mr. Phelan’s leadership was marred by feuds with senior leaders in the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, Pentagon and congressional officials said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mSpoH8

‌Iran Again Tightens Its Grip on Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz

The number of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz has become a barometer of how the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is affecting the global economy.

On Tuesday, after nearly eight weeks of war, that number was one, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Then Wednesday, more ships tried and Iran attacked two cargo vessels in the strait.

“They are reminding us that their threats to attack ships are genuine, and that’s enough to suppress traffic through the strait,” said Rosemary Kelanic, a director at Defense Priorities, a research organization focused on foreign affairs. Ships linked to Iran have passed through the strait, ship tracking data shows.

The latest attacks show that Tehran still has a stranglehold on the strait that allows it to ratchet up the pain on the global economy, even though the U.S. military has struck some 13,000 targets in Iran and set up a naval blockade against it. This strategic move gives Iran leverage in any talks with the United States to end the war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4twMo0C

‌A 60-Day Deadline Could Pressure Trump on Ending the Iran War

Over nearly eight weeks of war in Iran, Republicans in Congress have turned back repeated efforts by Democrats to halt the operation and force President Trump, who began the conflict without congressional authorization, to consult with lawmakers on the military campaign.

But some in the G.O.P. have signaled that a key statutory deadline in the coming weeks could be an inflection point when they will expect the president to either wind down the conflict or seek congressional approval to continue it.

Democrats have tried and failed several times to invoke a provision of the 1973 War Powers Resolution, a law aimed at curbing a president’s ability to wage war without congressional approval, to challenge the conflict in Iran. The latest defeat came on Wednesday, when Senate Republicans blocked such a measure for the fifth time since the war began.

Yet the law also establishes a set of deadlines, the first of which is coming on May 1, that could increase the pressure on the Trump administration in the coming days. Here is what the law says about how long a president can continue to direct U.S. forces in a conflict without congressional approval. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42qfNhc

‌The Bigot says He's Sorry

Why should anybody believe you when you say you’re now “tormented” and “sorry” for misleading people about Trump if you express no remorse for supporting his blatant lies about the 2020 election, for backing the rioters at the Capitol, for justifying the murders of protesters, and for poisoning America with your bigoted screeds?

Tucker, we know you’d like to be the Republican candidate for president in 2028 and you think distancing yourself from Trump on his idiotic war is the way to do it — especially with JD Vance as your likely opponent in the primaries.

Well, I have news for you, Tuck. You’re not fooling anyone with your newfound conversion. You’re the same intolerant, dogmatic, puerile fanatic you always were. And just as dangerous for this country and the world as ever. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4cOlXwu

‌Justice Department watchdog to review handling of Epstein files

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog is launching a review into the DOJ’s production of files and documents related to Jeffrey Epstein as controversy continues over the handling of the case of the convicted sex offender.

The Inspector General will focus on “the DOJ’s identification, collection, and production of responsive material,” it said in a statement Thursday, as well as “processes for redacting and withholding material” and how the Justice Department addressed issues following the release of Epstein documents. - CNN https://cnn.it/48jNFjo

‌Operation Epic Failure

Trump and “War” Secretary Pete Hegseth say Operation Epic Fury has destroyed Iran’s military capacity.

“We’ve taken out their navy, we’ve taken out their air force, we’ve taken out their leaders,” Trump said Tuesday.

At a Pentagon briefing on April 8, shortly after Trump declared a ceasefire with Iran, Hegseth said, “Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield, a capital V military victory.” He added, “By any measure, Epic Fury decimated Iran’s military and rendered it combat ineffective for years to come.”

But CBS News’s Jennifer Jacobs, Eleanor Watson, and James LaPorta report a very different reality. They interviewed “multiple officials with knowledge of intelligence,” who say the Islamic Republic of Iran “maintains more military capabilities than the White House or Pentagon has publicly admitted.”

According to three of the officials, about half of Iran’s stockpile of ballistic missiles and its associated launch systems were still intact as of the start of the ceasefire in early April. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/3P3Kupk

‌RFK Jr. won’t back CDC director on vaccines as agency scraps positive data

While the Trump administration has reportedly tried to rein in Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s widely unpopular anti-vaccine agenda, the political strategy is not working when it comes to words or actions. Kennedy on Tuesday suggested he would continue to meddle with federal vaccine policy, and news broke Wednesday that his political appointees have discarded scientific data that conflicts with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views.

In a Congressional hearing Tuesday, Kennedy refused to commit to supporting evidence-based vaccine policy from the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, he refused to say that he wouldn’t interfere with the agency’s recommendations. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/48mJ5kn

‌Why are White House journalists partying with Trump?

“It’s akin to a fire department inviting arsonists to a gathering aimed at celebrating firefighting,” wrote Oliver Darcy in his media newsletter, Status.

One journalists’ organization has attempted to balance the scales, and make their position clear, by urging attenders to wear pocket squares touting the first amendment. Nice try, but I don’t think that it makes much of a dent. Meanwhile, an ad hoc group of prominent veteran journalists is urging the organizers to include a strong speech in defense of the first amendment that would cite Trump’s attacks on the press. It’s a good idea.

The New York Times has a tradition for more than a decade of not attending the event, except to cover it. Huffington Post, which has long attended, pulled out this week, as its editor refused to “share laughs with a ruler who holds such a dreadful record”. The Guardian is hosting several press-freedom advocates at its table, in addition to a few reporters. - Guardian https://bit.ly/42t7oth

‌Trump, his 'low IQ' slur and the right's race obsession

When U.S. President Donald Trump this week attacked Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, two of America's most prominent Black figures, he chose a particularly pejorative insult: "low IQ person."

Trump insults people all the time -- online, in speeches, in official statements and directly to the faces of some reporters.

But the "low IQ" jab, with distinct racial overtones in the United States, is especially jarring.

Trump attacked Jackson -- a double Harvard graduate and the first Black woman on the Supreme Court -- on Wednesday as "that new, Low IQ person, that somehow found her way to the bench."

He has similarly assailed ethnic minority Democratic lawmakers, including Jasmine Crockett, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Al Green, Rashida Tlaib and Maxine Waters.

While personally targeting Ilhan Omar -- a Minnesota representative born in Somalia -- the president has also broadly branded immigrants from the Horn of Africa nation as "low IQ people." - AFP / Japan Today https://bit.ly/48p5NrZ?

‌Seriously, Tucker Carlson? Come On.

Pity poor Tucker Carlson. Watching Donald Trump’s war in Iran—which Carlson has branded “the single biggest mistake” by a U.S. president in his lifetime—he is ruing his strong support for Trump in the 2024 election.

“It’s a moment to wrestle with our own consciences,” Carlson, long the most prominent media personality in the MAGA movement, said this week on his podcast. “We’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people.”

Or, even better, don’t pity Carlson. He is one of several media figures who are having second thoughts about Trump—and in some cases, receiving praise for it. But these pundits deserve no amnesty. Their second thoughts are wise, but to have erred so badly, when so many other commentators and journalists saw the truth, disqualifies them from being taken seriously on politics again. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4mTJfpt

‌Finally, Someone Said It to Joe Rogan’s Face

Recently, I felt a great disturbance in the world of podcasts, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in horror and were suddenly silenced. Someone had been on Joe Rogan’s show and pointed out that getting your opinions entirely from stand-up comics, Bigfoot forums, and various men named Dave might not be the optimal method for acquiring knowledge. Rogan fans were appalled at this disrespect.

The culprit was the British writer Douglas Murray, who confronted Rogan earlier this month over the podcaster’s decision to platform a series of guests with, shall we say, minority views on the Second World War. The obvious example is Darryl Cooper, a “storyteller” who has lately taken a sharp turn into Nazi apologism. “I’m just interested in your selection of guests, because you’re, like, the world’s number-one podcast,” Murray told Rogan. This kind of direct challenge is quite simply not how things are done in the anti-woke sphere, which is brutally hierarchical. Free-speech absolutism does not include lèse-majesté. “Principleless hacks,” the libertarian podcaster Clint Russell posted on X afterward, referring to Murray and those who support him. “And that’s assuming this is genuine and not a paid op, which would be even worse—disreputable mercenaries.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4ttxAjn

‌Trump reclassifies state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug in a historic shift

President Donald Trump’s acting attorney general on Thursday signed an order reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug, a major policy shift long sought by advocates who said cannabis should never have been treated like heroin by the federal government.

The order signed by Todd Blanche does not legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use under federal law. But it does change the way it’s regulated, shifting licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I — reserved for drugs without medical use and with high potential for abuse — to the less strictly regulated Schedule III. It also gives licensed medical marijuana operators a major tax break and eases some barriers to researching cannabis.

The Trump administration also said it was jump-starting the process for reclassifying marijuana more broadly, setting a hearing to begin in late June.- AP https://bit.ly/4e5h8RJ

‌Trump orders US military to ‘shoot and kill’ Iranian small boats choking Strait of Hormuz

President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, announcing the move Thursday a day after Iran again displayed its ability to thwart traffic through the channel. - AP https://bit.ly/3OESmxw

‌Summoning the Golem: The Secret Shadow Docket Memos

Chief Justice John Roberts corrupted the Court’s emergency docket 10 years ago. Now his creation is destroying the entire system. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4e9JFWq

‌RFK Jr once cut penis off ‘road-killed raccoon’ in New York, new book reveals

Robert F Kennedy Jr once cut the penis off a road-killed raccoon in an incident that is just one of several involving dead animals that the controversial US health secretary has been involved in.

A new book called RFK Jr: The Fall and Rise was published this week and reveals a diary entry for Kennedy that describes the prominent vaccine critic and leader of the “Make America healthy again” (Maha) movement stopping his car on a New York highway on 11 November 2001.

“I was standing in front of my parked car on I-684 cutting the penis out of a road killed raccoon, thinking about how weird some of my family members have turned out to be,” Kennedy wrote in the journal.

He added: “My kids waited patiently in the car.” - Guardian https://bit.ly/4cxbXsD

‌Things aren’t going well for Kash Patel

Poor Kash Patel. The beleaguered FBI director can’t catch a break—but all his problems are really of his own making.

The day after he filed a big, splashy defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic for a painfully detailed and obviously well-sourced piece about how his party-bro lifestyle is wrecking the FBI, his other defamation lawsuit over a one-off remark about his party-bro lifestyle got thrown out. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/41XLmPj

‌'Permanently Wiped': Trump Has A Full-Blown Freakout In 1:13 A.M. Social Media Rant

President Donald Trump posted and reposted a wild series of messages in the middle of the night, with more than a dozen shared on Truth Social after 12 a.m. on Friday.

He demanded that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) “resign.” He shared a post calling for an end to the filibuster to push his agenda through the Senate. He shared multiple posts accusing former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State ― and 2016 campaign rival ― Hillary Clinton of treason. In yet another, he shared a meme calling for arrests.

And he posted a rant at 1:13 a.m. suggesting that the 2020 election results “be permanently wiped from the books and be of no further force or effect!” - Huffington Post / Yahoo https://bit.ly/4efngXL

‌Iran War Has Drained U.S. Supplies of Critical, Costly Weapons

Since the Iran war began in late February, the United States has burned through around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile. The military has fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly 10 times the number it currently buys each year.

The Pentagon used more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles in the war, at more than $4 million a pop, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles, leaving inventories worrisomely low, according to internal Defense Department estimates and congressional officials.

The Iran war has significantly drained much of the U.S. military’s global supply of munitions, and forced the Pentagon to rush bombs, missiles and other hardware to the Middle East from commands in Asia and Europe. The drawdowns have left these regional commands less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China, and it has forced the United States to find ways to scale up production to address the depletions, Trump administration and congressional officials say. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d4UNma

‌Disapproval of Trump Hits Highest Level of His Second Term

Disapproval of President Trump has climbed to the highest level of his second term, according to The New York Times polling average, which found that 58 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s job performance while only 39 percent approve.

That is the highest disapproval rating Mr. Trump has faced since the end of his first term, in the aftermath of his re-election campaign loss and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Mr. Trump’s weakening poll numbers come as the war in Iran has sharply driven up gas prices, and as a growing number of Americans are expressing concerns about the economy. Many Democrats are trying to make the midterm elections a referendum on Mr. Trump’s presidency, and some of Mr. Trump’s former allies in the conservative media, including Tucker Carlson, have turned against him in recent days. - NYT https://nyti.ms/41Vq4Ss

‌There Is Much More to Pope vs. President Than Meets the Eye

The feud between the pope and the Trump administration over the justice of the Iran war may be the most important theological debate of my lifetime. It reveals the moral bankruptcy of the war, it illuminates the risks to our alliances and it exposes the hollow core of the new right’s Christian nationalism.

When push comes to shove, there’s not much Christianity in Christian nationalism. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eIsWti

‌Trump’s Justice Department is bringing back firing squads for federal executions

The Justice Department announced Friday it is continuing to clear the way for expediting federal death-penalty cases, including by expanding the manners of execution to include death by firing squad.

Under President Joe Biden, the Justice Department reversed much of the work done under President Donald Trump’s first administration related to expanding the death penalty in federal cases, which the Justice Department has been peeling back.

“Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized during the first Trump Administration,” the Justice Department said in a release Friday, “expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4eI64dl

‌Trump's DOJ drops its criminal probe of Fed Chair Jerome Powell

The Department of Justice on Friday said it had ended its widely criticized criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, eliminating the primary obstacle that was preventing Kevin Warsh from receiving Senate confirmation to succeed Powell as head of the central bank.

Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., said Friday on X $TWTR 0.00% that she had referred the matter to the Fed's inspector general, citing what she called billions of dollars in cost overruns on the central bank's Washington headquarters renovation. "Accordingly, I have directed my office to close our investigation as the IG undertakes this inquiry," Pirro said. She added that she would "not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so." - Quartz https://bit.ly/4cyEyxM

‌RFK Jr.’s rejection of germ theory debunked in Senate hearing

In a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) directly confronted anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his rejection of germ theory—the unquestionable scientific idea that specific pathogenic microbes cause specific diseases. After Kennedy defended his fringe view, Senator Bill Cassidy fact-checked and debunked Kennedy’s denialist arguments in real time.

The exchanges mark a rare instance in which Kennedy’s dismissal of germ theory has been raised in such a high-profile public setting, in this case, a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Kennedy, who has no background in science, medicine, or public health, is well known as an ardent anti-vaccine activist and peddler of conspiracy theories. But his startling rejection of a cornerstone theory in biomedical science has mostly been underreported. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4d78dy0

‌Disapproval of Trump Hits Highest Level of His Second Term

That is the highest disapproval rating Mr. Trump has faced since the end of his first term, in the aftermath of his re-election campaign loss and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d202TL

‌Jeanine Pirro drops criminal probe of Jerome Powell

The Trump administration’s extraordinary criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is over, removing significant uncertainty that had been clouding the future of the world’s most important central bank.

Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, announced on X Friday that she is closing the probe. In the investigation’s place, the Fed’s inspector general has agreed to scrutinize the significant cost overruns at the central bank’s ongoing multibillion-dollar renovation project at its Washington, DC, headquarters.

After the inspector general completes his report, Pirro said her office will review it and could restart its criminal probe if warranted. - CNN https://cnn.it/4cNVDCw

‌Today in Politics, Bulletin 355. 4/23/26

Sleepy Don fell asleep again during a press event today about prescription drug prices, dozing off multiple times as his sycophants RFK Jr, Dr. Oz, Lutnick, Vance and others droned on and on about how wonderful he is. - Meidas+ https://bit.ly/4mO3THg

‌2026 is nothing like 2020

Imagine it’s back in November 2020: With the winner of the presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden still uncertain, the Department of Justice (DOJ) writes to election officials in Michigan to request “all ballots (including absentee and provisional), ballot receipts, and ballot envelopes.” If local election officials don’t comply, DOJ threatens to go to court to get the records. What would have happened?

We avoided this question in 2020 — but only because DOJ refused Trump’s demands to seize election materials. There was no credible evidence of fraud, and partisan Trump loyalists had not fully consolidated control over the department.

Last week, more than five years after the 2020 election was certified, current DOJ officials delivered this exact request to election officials in Wayne County, home to Detroit.

And that’s a perfect illustration of why, when we look ahead to the 2026 election, we don’t expect it to play out just like 2020.

On the surface, the threat to the 2020 and 2026 elections looks similar: A would-be autocrat in the White House, facing the prospect of a sharp rebuke at the ballot box, laying the groundwork to try to overturn an unfavorable election.

But there’s a big difference between 2020 and 2026: This time, the entire apparatus of the federal government will be turned towards the goal of aiding Trump’s election interference. Even as the threat is more dangerous, though, we don’t need to let it succeed. - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4tfDMLf

‌Virginia redistricting referendum passes. Trump officials ousted. Kash Patel goes nuclear.

On Tuesday, Virginia voters went to the polls and, by a margin of 51.5%-48.5%, passed Democrats’ redistricting referendum. This allows the legislature to redraw Virginia’s congressional maps to net Democrats as many as 4 new seats in Congress, shifting the partisan makeup of the state’s congressional delegation from 6D-5R to 10D-1R. Virginia’s Democratic Governor, Abigail Spanberger, declared, “Virginia voters have spoken, and tonight they approved a temporary measure to push back against a President who claims he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress. Virginians watched other states go along with those demands without voter input — and we refused to let that stand. We responded the right way: at the ballot box.”

The day after the vote, Tazewell County Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley, a GOP appointee, blocked the certification of the vote, ruling that the referendum and the legislation that triggered it, were illegal and void. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones vowed to appeal the ruling, saying, “Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote. We look forward to defending the outcome of last night’s election in court.” - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/3ONOr1f

‌Unfounded Health Concerns Are Powering a Solar Backlash

Restrictions on solar development are proliferating nationwide, “often rooted in misinformation or unfounded fears,” including ones that involve “potential environmental and human safety risks,” according to an article published late last year in the Brigham Young University Law Review.

To generate electricity, solar projects harvest energy from the sun. “And that’s really not that different from what a field of corn or alfalfa does,” said Troy Rule, the Arizona State University law professor who authored the article. “In fact, arguably, it’s even more environmentally friendly.” - ProPublica https://bit.ly/4u9pcWa

‌‘Don’t rush me’: Trump compares Iran war timeline to Vietnam and Iraq

President Donald Trump lashed out at reporters on Thursday in the Oval Office, after they asked him how long he is willing to give Iran to respond in the stalled negotiations to end the boondoggle of a war Trump mired the United States in.

“Don’t rush me,” Trump said in the Oval Office, adding, “We were in Vietnam for like 18 years, we were in Iraq for many, many years. We’re in for all the, I don’t like to say World War II because that was a biggie, but we’re four-and-a-half almost five years in World War II. We were in the Korean War for seven years. I’ve been doing this for six weeks and we’re, their military is totally defeated.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/42uIBoM

‌Trump’s Dreams for a Battleship Led to His Navy Secretary’s Ouster

President Trump wanted one thing, more than anything else, from his secretary of the Navy, John Phelan: a new class of battleships.

“They’ll be the fastest, the biggest and by far — 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Mr. Trump boasted at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate and resort in Florida a few days before Christmas. Mr. Phelan, a billionaire investor who has a home near the club, stood next to the president as he made the announcement.

Mr. Phelan’s job was to deliver the first of Mr. Trump’s battleships by 2028.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump fired Mr. Phelan, who had struggled to come up with a plan to deliver the ships on the nearly impossible timeline that Mr. Trump has demanded, senior defense and administration officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters. - NYT https://nyti.ms/48inmdm

‌The ‘Lasting Damage’ of Pirro’s Abandoned Fed Investigation

The Justice Department’s criminal investigation of the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome H. Powell, appears to be over. But the ramifications for the central bank are likely to prove much longer lasting.

Nine months after President Trump made a hasty visit to the Fed’s Washington headquarters and promised to “take a look” at a costly renovation, the administration has concluded its inquiry with seemingly nothing to show. Far from the criminal charges that they once pursued, prosecutors left in their wake a dark cloud over the institution and the person Mr. Trump has chosen to next lead the central bank.

The about-face has removed, for now, the immediate threat of a further escalation against the Fed. It has also potentially cleared a path for Mr. Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, Kevin M. Warsh, to succeed Mr. Powell, whose term ends on May 15.

What will be far harder to recoup is confidence in the Fed’s ability to operate independently from a White House that has shown little restraint in its efforts to bully the central bank into slashing interest rates. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QvtWXW

‌Trump Says He Dislikes Prediction Markets. His Family Invests in Them.

When a U.S. soldier was indicted on Thursday on charges of using classified information to place prediction market bets, it seemed to confirm President Trump’s lament just hours before that “the whole world unfortunately has become somewhat of a casino.”

“I was never much in favor of it,” Mr. Trump said from the Oval Office, when asked about concerns that federal employees might be leveraging insider information on the prediction markets. “I don’t like it conceptually. It is what it is. I’m not happy with any of that stuff.”

Yet Mr. Trump and his family stand to profit from the very same industry.

The president’s publicly traded media company unveiled its own prediction market product last year. And the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has ties to two of the industry’s top firms, including Polymarket, the platform that prosecutors say was used by the soldier for well-timed bets.

The result, ethics experts say, is a jarring juxtaposition between Mr. Trump’s public comments and his family’s private business. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mOMnTv

‌Appeals Court Says Trump’s Ban on Asylum Claims at Border Is Illegal

One of President Trump’s key assertions of presidential power over the southern border was ruled unlawful by a federal appeals court on Friday.

In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld an earlier ruling by a district court judge that Mr. Trump had to adhere to requirements outlined in the Immigration and Nationality Act and could not categorically deny asylum claims from people crossing from Mexico into the United States.

Existing immigration law “does not allow the president to remove plaintiffs under summary removal procedures of his own making,” Judge J. Michelle Childs wrote for the majority. She rejected the administration’s view of the law, which would allow it to “unilaterally and heedlessly return individuals even to countries where they will most certainly face persecution.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sRW3hr

‌Trump fought to keep the ballroom fundraising contract secret. Here’s what’s in it.

The Trump administration’s contract governing hundreds of millions of dollars in private donations to build President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom shields donors’ identities, excludes the White House from conflict of interest protections and was disclosed only after a lawsuit and a judge’s order, records obtained by The Washington Post show. - WaPo https://wapo.st/49bHNZE

‌Letters from an American - April 25, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Since he entered the political arena, Trump has denigrated the press and even urged supporters to attack journalists, but in his second term his administration has gone further, trying to silence the press with lawsuits or threats of them against media outlets and individuals, blocking access to the White House and the Pentagon for journalists Trump dislikes, personally attacking female journalists, arresting independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, and raiding the home of Washington Post political correspondent Hannah Natanson. Inviting him to address the press at a fancy dinner seemed to normalize his attacks on the First Amendment.

While it is customary for a president to attend at least one WHCA dinner, where traditionally a comedian roasts him, Trump has always refused to attend. This year, though, he agreed (although a mentalist was engaged to perform instead of the usual comedian). With his job approval numbers plummeting and the administration mired in a war in Iran that Trump appears to have started on a whim, along with the economy stumbling, there was plenty of speculation about what he would say at the event and how journalists should react if he used the opportunity to insult them. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4cOKtNS

‌Last Night's Correspondents Dinner

Most of the time, Washington is a stage on which actors take on roles and dress up for assigned parts. I remember wearing an uncomfortable tuxedo to the White House Correspondents Dinner, trying to make pleasant conversation with people who had skewered me that very morning.

The glamor and swish of the event was at such sharp odds with the hard daily slog of my job that the event seemed strangely disembodied, as if everyone had been given a script that they knew was total bullshit.

Trump has changed much of this. He has brought a grim hostility to the jobs of doing the public’s work and reporting on those who do the public’s work. This was the first White House Correspondents dinner he agreed to attend, and by all accounts he was prepared to give the media pure hell in his remarks.

And then hell erupted in the form of another crazed gunman. As I write this, it appears that one Secret Service agent was injured but none of the luminaries was hurt. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4sXYAXh

‌

‌Firm Building Trump’s Ballroom Got a Secret No-Bid Contract for a Nearby Job

The National Park Service increased the value of the contract several times over and then awarded it to Maryland-based Clark Construction, in a process that experts said was highly unusual.

To build his mammoth White House ballroom, President Trump last summer chose Maryland-based Clark Construction. Since then, Mr. Trump has repeatedly sung the company’s praises, even saying he wanted it to refurbish projects all over Washington.

In January, government documents show, the Trump administration secretly gave the company a no-bid contract to do another job at a sharply inflated price. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OOEOPT

‌Trump Fires Board Members of Group That Oversees U.S. Science Funding

The Trump administration on Friday dismissed members of an independent board that oversees the National Science Foundation, which finances much of the public scientific research in the United States.

On Friday afternoon, National Science Board members received a terse email “on behalf of President Donald J. Trump” that said their position was “terminated, effective immediately.”

The dismissals are the latest in Mr. Trump’s clash with scientific research organizations, as his administration cuts funding to its lowest level in decades. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ebe5Yg

‌Measles Is Back. What Comes Next Will Be Worse.

The resurgence of measles — a terrible disease that can swell the brain and cause permanent disabilities or death — is alarming enough on its own. There have been more than 1,700 cases reported in the United States already this year, up from about 70 per year in the early 2000s. Three children died last year.

The rise of measles may also be a harbinger of something even worse, public officials say. “Measles is basically a canary in the coal mine for our entire system,” says Dr. Scott Harris, the state health officer in Alabama’s Department of Public Health. “When it surges like this, it signals that our vaccination programs are starting to fail, and that other diseases won’t be far behind.” Already, cases of whooping cough have surged, too. And after two Florida children died of Hib, a bacterial infection, epidemiologists worry that disease is resurgent. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4sVDLM0

A Shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner‌

Trump had initially mistaken the sounds in the ballroom for a dropped serving tray, he recounted. And after he was escorted out, he said that he “fought like hell” to continue with the program. But his security personnel convinced him that it wasn’t safe, and his staff told him that his jokes might not land in the aftermath of the shooting.

Trump lavished praise on the Secret Service, saying he had spoken with one agent who was shot but survived because of a bulletproof vest. More unusual, the president also commended the roomful of reporters who covered the event. (He had been attending his first White House Correspondents’ Association dinner as president, having skipped previous years.) His plan, he said, had been to be rough with the press tonight, but he said he might not be able to be so rough at the do-over. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3P0PFq8

‌The Posting Will Continue Until Morale Improves

On Monday morning, CNN reported that the United States and Iran had been on the verge of striking a deal to end the war when Donald Trump made a series of comments to reporters and on social media that undermined the talks. “The Iranians didn’t appreciate POTUS negotiating through social media and making it appear as if they had signed off on issues they hadn’t yet agreed to, and ones that aren’t popular with their people back home,” complained one source, who apparently pleaded with his boss to stop.

This was Trump’s signal to begin binge-posting about the Iran negotiations. The Iranians may not have appreciated Trump’s stream-of-consciousness messaging, and apparently their American counterparts did not either. But one very important person did.

Trump can’t seem to refrain from touting his genius, especially when the subject is dealmaking, his professed speciality. And so, in a torrent of commentary, the president made the case that he is winning very greatly. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/3Qp1l6y

‌The 85-Year-Old Widow Snagged by Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé was in bed at home in Anniston, Ala., when she was startled awake by banging. Men had surrounded the bungalow where Ms. Ross-Mahé, a French citizen, had lived with her American husband until he died in January. They were knocking loudly on the windows and doors.

When Ms. Ross-Mahé, 85, opened the door, they pushed inside, saying they were the immigration police, she said in an interview. They handcuffed her and took her to an unmarked car before driving her to a jail cell. She was still in her bathrobe, pajamas and slippers, she said.

“I didn’t know what was happening to me really,” she told me in France this week, in her first interview since being deported after a 16-day incarceration. “It was very humiliating. My hair had not even been combed. I was just getting out of bed.”

After her arrest on April 1, Ms. Ross-Mahé was swallowed into the country’s sprawling immigration detention system, where, she said, she was chained by her wrists and ankles to other inmates and loaded onto buses and a plane “like a potato sack.” After two weeks in detention in Alabama and Louisiana, she said, she feared she might die. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uafov6

‌Iran and U.S. Sink Into Awkward Limbo of ‘No War, No Peace’

With plans for U.S.-Iran peace talks derailed, at least for now, Tehran and Washington are sinking into an awkward limbo of neither peace, nor war, each hoping to outlast the other in a standoff with drastic stakes for the global economy.

Iranian officials seem confident they can withstand economic pain caused by war longer than President Trump, analysts say. But they are still concerned that without the momentum of negotiations, they will remain trapped under the persistent threat of U.S. or Israeli attacks. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4912N5l

‌We Will Be Paying for the Iran War for a Very Long Time

America’s spending on the war in Iran will far outlast active combat. The U.S. government has already made contracts and other commitments to repair damaged bases, field counter-drone platforms, feed and shelter thousands of troops and replenish munitions.

Even if President Trump signs a deal ending the war tomorrow, we will harden bases in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, by reinforcing aircraft shelters, building blast walls around fuel and communications nodes, replacing destroyed satellite communications equipment and installing layered defense systems to defeat Iranian drones — the kind that killed six Americans in Kuwait. We will monitor for years Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and the Strait of Hormuz with carrier strike groups, destroyers and intelligence assets. Also, the U.S. military will have to replenish its munitions stockpiles: The war has burned through U.S. supplies of offensive missiles such as Tomahawks, used to strike Iranian ground targets, and defensive Patriot and THAAD interceptor systems, deployed to halt an onslaught of thousands of Iranian drones. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QAWrTZ

‌Don't bank on tariff refunds

For the vast majority of Americans, the tariff refund check won't be in the mail. Don't expect a check at all.

The U.S. government proceeded this week to launch a new digital portal designed to refund $166 billion in tariffs that the Supreme Court decided were illegal two months ago. Now the businesses that paid up are getting in a queue that's managed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

There is a catch: Chances are you don't qualify for a refund. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4uh04x2

‌DeSantis proposes new US House map for Florida aiming to flip four seats for Republicans

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed a new map for US House districts that appears to show Republicans gaining an advantage in four seats now held by Democrats.

His proposal, released one day before the Florida Legislature opens a special session, targets a Tampa-area district held by Rep. Kathy Castor as well as an Orlando-area district held by Rep. Darren Soto. It also redraws districts in South Florida for Republican advantage. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Qy5wNo

Week Sixty-Six: April 27 - May 3

‌Trump’s War on Iran Is Really Messing Up the Tech That Runs Modern Life

President Donald Trump launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28, seemingly convinced he could declare a quick victory and the world would move on. But the war has seriously disrupted the supply chain for materials that power our lives, including the printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in virtually all of our electronic devices.

Reuters has a new report about the disruptions, and things are looking pretty bleak. PCB prices have jumped roughly 40% in April compared to a month earlier, driven by surging material costs. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/3RbX8mN

‌The Pentagon May Not Be Telling Trump the Full Picture About the War

In closed-door meetings, J. D. Vance has repeatedly questioned the Defense Department’s depiction of the war in Iran and whether the Pentagon has understated what appears to be the drastic depletion of U.S. missile stockpiles.

Two senior administration officials told us that the vice president has queried the accuracy of the information the Pentagon has provided about the war. He has also expressed his concerns about the availability of certain missile systems in discussions with President Trump, several people familiar with the situation told us. The consequences of a dramatic drawdown in munitions reserves are potentially dire: U.S. forces would need to draw from these same stockpiles to defend Taiwan against China, South Korea against North Korea, and Europe against Russia. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4dgrEog

‌Iran offers to reopen Strait of Hormuz if US lifts its blockade and the war ends, officials say

Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, two regional officials said Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to go to war on Feb. 28. And U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out any deal that excludes Iran’s nuclear program.

“We can’t let them get away with it,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview Monday. “We have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.” - AP https://bit.ly/4t9ciqy

‌Trump Seeks to Abolish Iran’s Atomic Stockpile, a Problem He Helped Create

As President Trump struggles to negotiate or intimidate his way out of the war he began with Iran, he is confronting the complicated legacy of his decision, eight years ago, to cancel what he has called “a horrible, one-sided deal.”

That Obama-era agreement suffered from flaws and omissions. It would have expired after 15 years, leaving Iran free after 2030 to make as much nuclear fuel as it wanted. But once Mr. Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, the Iranians went on an enrichment spree much sooner, leaving them closer to a bomb than ever before.

Now, Mr. Trump’s negotiators are dealing with the consequences of that decision, which he made over the objections of many of his national security advisers at the time. Underscoring the challenges, Mr. Trump abruptly called off on Saturday a round of nuclear talks with Iran in Pakistan. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4w2orQG

‌Kash Will Soon Be Out on His Ass

You can be Secretary of Defense (War) and cause the mightiest military in the world to be brought to its knees, and still keep your job in the Trump regime.

You can be in charge of public health and cause measles to reemerge as a major hazard to Americans, and still keep your job.

You can be illegally enriching yourself and your family as Commerce Secretary, and still keep your job.

But you’ll be fired for actively and unnecessarily getting bad press.

A few days ago, a senior White House official told Politico that FBI director Kash Patel’s bad press was “not a good look for a Cabinet secretary” and had frustrated Trump. “It’s only a matter of time,” they said, before Patel is canned.

Like Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Patel has been his own worst press agent. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4uja0py

Trump Stats

7 TIMES FLEW ON EPSTEIN'S PLANE.

97 TIMES PLEADED THE FIFTH.

34 FELONY CONVICTIONS.

91 CRIMINAL CHARGES.

26 SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS.

6 BANKRUPTCIES.

5 DRAFT DEFERMENTS.

4 INDICTMENTS.

2 IMPEACHMENTS.

2 CONVICTED COMPANIES.

1 FAKE UNIVERSITY SHUT DOWN.

1 FAKE CHARITY SHUT DOWN.

$25 MILLION FRAUD SETTLEMENT.

S5 MILLION SEXUAL ABUSE VERDICT.

$2 MILLION FAKE CHARITY ABUSE JUDGMENT
S93 MILLION SEXUAL ABUSE JUDGEMENTS.
$400+ MILLION.FRAUD JUDGMENT. - Jim Finley on Threads https://bit.ly/4efNKZ7

‌The Trump Administration Aims to Penalize Disabled Adults Who Live With Their Families

A rule change pushed by White House officials would slash benefits or end support for as many as 400,000 Supplemental Security Income recipients with Down syndrome, dementia and other disabilities whose parents or relatives receive SNAP benefits. - ProPublica https://bit.ly/426a8wO

‌Trump Is Dissatisfied With Iran’s Plan to Reopen Strait of Hormuz

President Trump has told advisers he is not satisfied with Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, according to multiple people briefed on discussions in the White House Situation Room on Monday.

The proposal also called on the United States to end its naval blockade but would have set aside questions about what to do with Iran’s nuclear program, according to U.S. and Iranian officials familiar with details of the negotiations.

Iran has repeatedly rejected American proposals to suspend its nuclear program and hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

It is not clear precisely why Mr. Trump is not satisfied with the proposal, but he has repeatedly insisted that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons. A U.S. official also said that accepting it could appear to deny Mr. Trump a victory. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cUNex5

‌Political Violence Is Reprehensible. That Doesn’t Make Trump Less Depraved.

Cole Tomas Allen, who was arrested during an attempt to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, may be America’s first normie liberal terrorist.

The right, naturally, sees Allen as part of a pattern, lumping him in with figures like Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired on Donald Trump in 2024, grazing his ear; Ryan Wesley Routh, who carried a semiautomatic rifle to one of Trump’s golf courses a few months later; or Tyler Robinson, charged in the killing of Charlie Kirk last year. But all those men had weird or heterogenous politics. Crooks was a nihilistic Republican misfit. Routh had a history of violence and a delusional fixation on Ukraine, where he reportedly tried to join the war effort. Robinson seems to have cooked his brain in online fetish subcultures.

But Allen, who on Monday was charged with attempting to assassinate the president, seemed to be a man with remarkably ordinary political opinions. Social media posts that appear to come from him suggest that he despised ICE, cared a lot about Ukraine, and, like the majority of Americans, wanted to see Trump impeached. Far from a radical leftist, he reposted criticisms of pro-Palestine protesters and the left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. He wasn’t exactly a standard Democrat — he was registered to no political party, and at least at one point was an evangelical Christian — but from what we know so far, before he showed up at the Washington Hilton, he had fairly mainstream beliefs. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4t966yJ

‌By Week’s End, Trump’s War Will Be Plainly Illegal

President Trump’s war with Iran is almost certainly illegal: Congress hasn’t declared war or authorized it by statute, and it wasn’t precipitated by an imminent attack or a national emergency. If the war continues through Friday without congressional approval, it will clearly be illegal, having passed the 60-day threshold and the 48-hour notice period that the president is given, under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, to conduct this kind of military operation.

Whether you support or oppose this war — or, as Mr. Trump has called it, this “excursion” — time will be up. And it is the obligation of the federal courts to say so.

The resolution, often called the War Powers Act, was adopted during the Vietnam War. It applies when American troops are engaged in hostilities or in situations in which hostilities are impending — such as during this war with Iran. https://nyti.ms/4n4aFsG

‌Judge Says Maurene Comey Can Sue the Trump Administration for Firing Her

Ms. Comey, a former federal prosecutor who handled cases against Jeffery Epstein and Sean Combs, claimed in her suit that she was fired for political reasons. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cUOL6j

‌Trump being ‘humiliated’ in Iran talks, Germany’s Merz says

The U.S. is being “humiliated” by Iranian leaders as U.S. President Donald Trump struggles to negotiate an end to the war, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in comments that risk driving a further wedge in transatlantic relations.

In unusually candid terms, the German leader said he didn’t see “what strategic exit the Americans are now choosing,” adding that Tehran’s negotiators are proceeding “very skilfully — or indeed very skilfully not negotiating.”

The result is that an “entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, particularly by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,” Merz told a group of students at a secondary school in western Germany on Monday. - Bloomberg / Japan Times https://bit.ly/49j2CCq

‌Adopting Trump’s Voice, Justice Dept. Asks Judge to Let Ballroom Proceed

The Justice Department filed a remarkable motion late Monday, written in President Trump’s recognizable online voice, explicitly linking the security breach at the White House correspondents’ dinner to the lawsuit over the president’s ballroom project.

The motion, signed by the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, and submitted by Stanley Woodward Jr., attacks the litigation against the ballroom the same way Mr. Trump has on social media. It asks Judge Richard J. Leon to backtrack and allow construction on the project to continue. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3PesE30

‌Trump Administration Secures New Indictment Against Comey

The case, which centers on an image of seashells that Mr. Comey posted on Instagram, is the latest salvo in the department’s tortured efforts to satisfy the demands of President Trump to go after longtime targets of his wrath. Under the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, the department has sought to accelerate Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign after the president fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, in part, over his dissatisfaction with her effectiveness in bringing cases against his perceived enemies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/48sHTMo

Trump moves to accelerate deportations of migrant children in US custody‌

The Trump administration is taking steps to accelerate the deportations of migrant children in US custody amid White House pressure to quickly move kids through the system, according to administration officials and lawyers for the children.

Immigration hearings, where a judge will eventually decide whether a child can stay in the US or be deported, are being moved up by weeks or even months, making it more difficult for attorneys to obtain immigration relief for kids in an already-cumbersome process.

Children as young as four years old are being forced to repeatedly appear in court and provide updates on the status of their case, at times without legal help, within a matter of weeks. - CNN https://cnn.it/4tNXYoo

‌US to issue passports featuring Trump’s picture to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary

The US will soon begin issuing passports featuring an image of President Donald Trump inside, a State Department official said Tuesday.

The official said that the passport “will be the default passport out of the Washington Passport Agency when available” for those who renew their passports in person at that location.

“Online options or other locations will maintain existing passport design,” the official said. - CNN https://cnn.it/4tENjMD

‌F.C.C. Orders a Review of ABC’s Broadcast Licenses

Federal regulators on Tuesday ordered a review of all station licenses owned by ABC, an extraordinary move to pressure a major television network whose programming has frequently angered President Trump.

The agency overseeing the review, the Federal Communications Commission, said in a filing that the action was related to an investigation into ABC’s diversity and inclusion policies. But it came in the middle of a fight this week between Mr. Trump and the network’s late night host, Jimmy Kimmel, that prompted the president to demand that ABC fire Mr. Kimmel.

The license review represented an escalation by the Trump administration and the president to punish major media outlets for their coverage. Mr. Trump has personally sued several news organizations, including The New York Times, and the Pentagon has tried to sharply restrict news media access. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3P8qylj

‌Trump Tests the Limits of His Most Faithful Supporters

Mr. Jones said that the president was already on “shaky ground” with Catholic voters well before he attacked the pope, the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. After weeks of war with Iran, Mr. Jones added, Mr. Trump is “underwater” with both white and nonwhite Catholics — a majority of whom oppose the war.

A February poll by Pew showed that the president had a 23 percent approval rating among Hispanic Catholic voters, who represent about 45 percent of American Catholics. Among white Catholics, Mr. Trump has a 52 percent approval rating. By contrast, Pew found that some 84 percent of Catholics had a favorable opinion of Leo.

Disapproval of Mr. Trump has climbed to the highest level of his second term, according to a New York Times polling average. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cJHWG0

‌The Evolution of Trump’s Corruption

Seven years ago, during a marginally more innocent time, the Trump administration announced plans to hold the 2020 G7 summit at Donald Trump’s resort in Doral, Florida. The backlash was fierce, and somehow the then–Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s dismissive attitude—“Get over it”—failed to quell concerns, including among Republicans. Two days later, Trump gave up and moved the event to Camp David. (In the end, it was canceled because of COVID.)

Things are different in Trump’s second term. Later this year, the United States will host the G20 summit—an offshoot of the G7 that includes approximately 20 leaders of the world’s largest economies—and the president has selected Trump National Doral as the location. A few days ago, The Washington Post reported that Trump even intends to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin, a global pariah, to the meeting. But the Doral G20 has gotten nowhere near the same amount of attention, and much less backlash. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/42Ji5rK

‌Kimmel roasts Trump family’s attempt to censor him

Jimmy Kimmel isn’t bowing to pressure from President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, who have both called for the comedian to be censored and removed from hosting his late-night show on ABC.

Melania Trump falsely alleged in a social media post that a joke from Kimmel about her being an “expectant widow” was pro-violence, and cited as evidence the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which occurred two days after Kimmel’s broadcast.

In the opening monologue to his Monday show, Kimmel described the Trumps’ demands as part of a “Twitter vomit storm” and noted that his joke “was about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/48x3tPK

‌Trump Seeks to Abolish Iran’s Atomic Stockpile, a Problem He Helped Create

President Trump withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear accord in 2018, saying it was the worst deal ever. But Iran responded with an enrichment spree that haunts the negotiations to this day. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eThgnF

‌Trump administration challenges ABC station licenses amid Kimmel controversy

As the Trump administration pressures ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel, the Trump-aligned FCC is challenging the network’s station licenses, setting up a legal battle with ABC’s parent company Disney.

“Disney’s ABC is hereby directed to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days — in other words, by May 28, 2026,” the agency said in an order published Tuesday afternoon.

The order will not affect the local stations right away. It is just the start of a protracted legal process, and ABC has broad legal protections.

Nevertheless, the FCC order is an extraordinary escalation by the Trump administration.

While the FCC asserts that the license review is related to an ongoing probe into Disney’s diversity initiatives, it is being widely viewed as a form of government retaliation for airing Kimmel’s show and resisting Trump’s pressure. - CNN https://cnn.it/3QFvcrq

‌US Justice Department indicts former FBI Director Comey a second time, source says

The U.S. Department of Justice has brought a new criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey, a ‌source familiar with the case said on Tuesday.

The specific charges were ‌not yet clear, nor was it clear where the case would be brought.

Fox News, citing unnamed sources, reported the case was about a social media post Comey made last year that Trump allies interpreted as threatening. The post, which was published on Comey's Instagram page in May 2025, showed an image of seashells arranged to show the ‌numbers "86 47."

In U.S. parlance the ⁠number 86 can be used as verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly, ⁠and 47 is code for Trump, the 47th president. U.S. officials investigated Comey in the days following the post, which Comey later deleted.

Comey at the time said he assumed the post was a "political message."

"I didn't realize some folks associate those numbers ‌with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down," Comey said. - Reuters / Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4ukEVlA

‌Meet the New Leader of the Free World

A remarkable thing has happened on the world’s battlefields. Ukraine — a nation that was supposed to dissolve within days of a Russian invasion — has fought Russia to a stalemate, revolutionizing land warfare in the process. It has become an indispensable security partner in the Western alliance, including in the war against Iran.

Now, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, is taking the next step, one that would have been unthinkable even as recently as 2024. By word and deed, he’s showing Europe and the world how the post-American free world can preserve its liberty and independence. This is what happens when, as Phillips Payson O’Brien wrote in a piece for The Atlantic, “Kyiv appears to have given up on the United States.”

If that is true — and it looks as though it is — it may be worse news for the United States than it is for Ukraine. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42GgByy

Hegseth: Flu Vaccine Optional‌

Annual influenza vaccines are no longer mandatory, said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in a video posted today on social media.

"The notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member, everywhere, in every circumstance, at all times, is just overly broad and not rational," the secretary said. "Our new policy is simple: If you, an American warrior entrusted to defend this nation, believe that the flu vaccine is in your best interest, then you are free to take it; you should. But we will not force you." - U.S. Department of War https://bit.ly/422eSn4

‌Exclusive: Former FBI Director James Comey indicted over alleged ‘threat’ against Trump

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Tuesday over a photo of seashells officials said threatened President Donald Trump, marking the administration’s second attempt to prosecute one of his biggest political opponents, three sources first told CNN.

The charges, approved by a grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina where Comey allegedly took the photo, include making a threat against the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, according to court documents. - CNN https://cnn.it/4w8iEcu

‌Beneath King Charles’s Jokes and Decorum, Some Subtle Rebuttals to Trump

King Charles III quoted Oscar Wilde, joking that the British have everything in common with America “except, of course, language.” President Trump said the morning’s gloomy rain reminded him of a “beautiful British day” and noted that his mother thought young Prince Charles was “so cute.” Both men waxed poetic about the bonds between their countries.

And yet, on the first full day of a state visit focused on the shared history between the United States and Britain, the king sprinkled in some ever-so-subtle rebuttals to Mr. Trump. Charles spoke on Tuesday of the value of the trans-Atlantic alliance, the importance of checks and balances and his passion for the environment. He even spoke of his time in the Royal Navy, after Mr. Trump belittled British naval capabilities in recent weeks.

The king tucked his rejoinders into a mostly lighthearted speech to Congress on Tuesday afternoon and during evening remarks at a formal banquet at the White House. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tI39pI

‌Trump Administration Secures New Indictment Against Comey

Mr. Comey vowed to fight the case.

“I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go,” he said in a video statement posted online. Mr. Comey urged Americans to “keep the faith.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QyD3qO

‌White House Urges House to Quickly Fund D.H.S.

The White House on Tuesday urged the House to immediately pass a stalled bipartisan spending bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which Republicans have refused to take up since the Senate passed it nearly a month ago.

The request, in a memo sent to members of Congress by the White House’s budget office, amounted to a rebuke of Speaker Mike Johnson, who has delayed action on the measure even as the homeland security shutdown has dragged into its 10th week. It came a day after he suggested that he wanted to make modifications to the measure that could further slow its path to enactment.

In the memo, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, the Trump administration appeared to dismiss Mr. Johnson’s idea, calling for the “immediate passage” of the measure “as passed by the Senate.” That bill contains no funding for immigration enforcement after Democrats refused to support that without restrictions on federal agents’ tactics and conduct, which the G.O.P. would not agree to.

The White House also directed the House to quickly approve a Republican budget blueprint that would pave the way for a filibuster-proof bill that would establish a $70-billion multiyear fund for immigration enforcement, which Republicans view as a key component of ending the shutdown. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cYZXio

‌Second Strike Scrutiny Obscures Larger Question About Trump’s Boat Attacks

Congress is focusing on two deaths in one strike. But nine other people died in that same attack, and the United States has killed 87 in all. Were any of those killings legal? - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tN3o34

‌White House Encouraged Agents To Act Recklessly During Operation Midway Blitz, State Panel Finds

An October traffic stop “changed everything” for the family of Rabia Amin, whose immigrant father was detained by federal agents during the stop last year and later deported to Pakistan.

And Marimar Martinez said her life flashed before her eyes after being shot by immigration agents last year, a shooting that her attorney and a newly uncovered witness said was unjustified.

Amin and Martinez were among a chorus of voices Tuesday urging accountability for immigration officers’ actions during last year’s Operation Midway Blitz. They and others joined a second day of testimony in front of a state commission that’s readying a report on its probe of last year’s federal incursion in the Chicago area.

The Illinois Accountability Commission — set up by Gov. JB Pritzker to create a public record of the federal government’s actions last year — held its second of two scheduled public hearings Tuesday and concluded that the Trump administration encouraged agents to violate constitutional rights, act recklessly and disregard public safety. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4vZeYJO

‌Drone pilot makes US rescind no-fly zones around unmarked, moving ICE vehicles

Civil liberty concerns spur FAA to revise drone no-fly zones near ICE vehicles. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4mXzhmI

‌Anti-Trump Instagram pic of seashells now enough to indict ex-FBI directors

In 2025, Comey posted to Instagram an image of shells arranged in the shape of two numbers: “86 47.”

Trump, our 47th President, has long harbored a grudge against Comey, going back to Comey’s investigation of Trump’s possible Russian ties. Trump famously fired Comey in 2017—then, for good measure, fired his prosecutor daughter in 2025.

Trump has been clear for years about his desire to use the power of the federal government to make life more difficult for Comey, and federal officials in his second term have been willing to comply.

Fortunately, they have also been pretty stupid. Through a series of staggeringly incompetent actions, the administration already had its first Comey indictment tossed out in Virginia—a loss so epic that it got Trump’s interim US attorney for Virginia booted, too.

Today, on completely new and unrelated charges, the Department of Justice has indicted Comey again, this time in North Carolina. The charge is nothing less than a threat to murder the president.

And it’s all based on that single seashell image. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/42F1lSx

‌Voting rights groups coin "Alito map" to slam opinion

“This decision today by the Supreme Court is a slap in the face of those who work so hard to push our country closer to its ideals. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is the crown jewel of the civil rights movement. Without it, I quite literally would not be standing here today in front of you as a voice in the United States Senate for the people of Georgia,” he said.

The Georgia Democrat warned that the Congressional Black Caucus’ ranks could be decimated, particularly in the South, amid the flurry of redistricting. - CNN https://cnn.it/4w328u0

‌FCC orders review of ABC licenses after Kimmel joke offends Trump and first lady

The Federal Communications Commission today opened an unusual review of ABC’s broadcast licenses, one day after President Trump and the first lady called on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a recent joke in which he said Melania Trump looked like an “expectant widow.”

There are no TV station licenses for any company up for renewal until 2028, and the legal process for revoking licenses is so difficult that it’s been described as nearly impossible. But the FCC today issued an order instructing ABC owner Disney to file early license renewal applications for all of its licensed TV stations by May 28. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4dlyrvZ

‌Middle East War to Spark Biggest Energy Price Surge in Four Years

Energy prices are projected to surge by 24% this year to their highest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as the war in the Middle East sends a severe shock through global commodity markets, according to the World Bank Group's latest Commodity Markets Outlook. Overall commodity prices are forecast to rise 16% in 2026, driven by soaring energy and fertilizer prices and record-high prices for several key metals.

The shock will have serious implications for job creation and development, the analysis indicates. - World Bank Group https://bit.ly/4ujCpMf

‌Former FBI Director James Comey surrenders and appears in court over alleged threat against Trump

Former FBI Director James Comey surrendered Wednesday to law enforcement before his first appearance in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Comey, who is charged with making a threat against President Donald Trump by photographing seashells on a North Carolina beach, was allowed to leave court with no conditions of release after a brief hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes.

“I don’t see why they’d be necessary this time,” Judge William Fitzpatrick said, noting that there were no conditions set when the Justice Department first attempted to bring a case against Comey last year.

Comey’s latest indictment, which was brought Tuesday, comes as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has picked up the pace in bringing cases that the president has publicly jockeyed for.

The new case represents a reinvigorated effort to satisfy Trump’s demands to investigate his foes, including Comey, who he sees as a key leader in the perceived effort to “weaponize” the justice system against him. - CNN https://cnn.it/4efb4WS

‌Feds Dropping Conspiracy Charges Against 4 Broadview Protesters, Attorneys Say

Prosecutors are expected to drop federal conspiracy charges against four protesters accused of impeding immigration agents at a protest outside the Broadview immigration processing center last year.

Federal prosecutors said during a court hearing Wednesday morning they planned to drop the conspiracy charges against Kat Abughazaleh, Michael Rabbitt, Andre Martin and Brian Straw, according to court records and attorneys for the defendants. The Sun-Times was first to report the news Wednesday.

Prosecutors said they would soon file new case documents focusing on the misdemeanor charges against Abughazaleh, Rabbitt, Martin and Straw, according to media reports. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4ug5xnx

‌Supreme Court Updates: Justices Further Weaken Voting Rights Act, Igniting Political Scramble

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a voting map in Louisiana, and with it dealt a blow to a landmark civil rights law and opened the door for other states to redraw their congressional maps in ways that could affect elections for years to come.

It is unclear how the decision, which split 6-3 along ideological lines, will impact November’s midterm elections amid redistricting battles that have raged in multiple states, but several are moving to draw new congressional maps in time. The decision is likely to create new Republican districts across the South for future elections, for the presidential election in 2028 and beyond.

“To be honest, this feels like a betrayal,” said Marc Morial, president of the Urban League.Maansi Srivastava for The New York Times

For some civil rights leaders who have watched what they describe as the rise and fall of the Voting Rights Act over time, the Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday felt like an abrupt end to decades of political progress.

Though the court’s conservative majority did not strike down the provision in question, known as Section 2, liberal justices argued the decision effectively hollowed out one of the most important civil rights laws in American history. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cFkvO8

‌Supreme Court Deals a Death Blow to the Voting Rights Act

The Supreme Court’s six-to-three Republican-appointed majority issued a staggering ruling on Wednesday essentially killing the remaining protections of the Voting Rights Act, dealing a death blow to the country’s most important civil rights law. The majority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito in Louisiana v. Callais strikes down the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana and in so doing narrows Section 2 of the VRA to the point of irrelevance, making it nearly impossible to prove that a gerrymandered map violates the right of voters of color.

“Because the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority-minority district, no compelling interest justified the State’s use of race in creating SB8, and that map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” Alito wrote. “The Constitution almost never permits a State to discriminate on the basis of race, and such discrimination triggers strict scrutiny.” - Mother Jones https://bit.ly/4cS8QM9

‌US supreme court ‘demolishes’ Voting Rights Act, gutting provision that prevented racial discrimination

The US supreme court has ruled that Louisiana will have to redraw its congressional map, in a landmark decision that effectively guts a major section of the Voting Rights Act.

In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the court rendered ineffective section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining powerful provision of the 1965 civil rights law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 has long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting. - Guardian https://bit.ly/4cWTSmJ

‌Ex-Official Warns of Mass Exodus as Trump Weaponizes DOJ

Justice Department attorneys are decamping from the Trump administration, leaving behind an enormous staffing void within the nation’s top law enforcement agency.

Thousands of experienced attorneys and staff have left the DOJ since Donald Trump returned to office, choosing a hasty exit over the possibility of being forced to prosecute unconstitutional cases at the president’s behest.

“What’s happening is long-term prosecutors are resigning because they’re refusing to go along with vindictive prosecutions, which are by their nature unconstitutional,” Stacey Young, an 18-year veteran of the agency, told MeidasTouch’s Scott MacFarlane. “In some cases, when prosecutors say no, they’re fired from their jobs for doing so, illegally.”

“And we’re also seeing people resign because of the culture those types of prosecutions create. So, the effect, the consequences, are devastating. The DOJ is losing countless lawyers because of it, the rule of law is being eroded, and the reputation of the department has really disintegrated,” Young said. - New Republic https://bit.ly/4tKPpdS

‌King Charles praises Nato and urges defence of Ukraine in key speech during Trump visit

King Charles has extolled the importance of Britain’s “special relationship” with the US in a speech to Congress that made pointed reference to the importance of Nato, the defence of Ukraine and the climate crisis.

In a speech that will be read as a veiled plea to Donald Trump to return to the US’s traditional European alliances and restore his country’s role as a defender of liberal values, Charles said: “America’s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more.” - Guardian https://bit.ly/3PdREYb

‌The Pope Goes on an ICE Ride-Along

“Hungry?” the pope asked. He produced a CAVA bag from the depths of his robes. “I got us lunch to share. It is a CAVA bag with food in it. Just food, nothing else.”

The border czar scowled. “I thought you weren’t making political commentary.”

“It’s not a commentary,” the pope said. “It’s lunch.”

“I thought it was a reference to the time undercover agents gave me a CAVA bag full of cash.”

“Undercover agents gave you a CAVA bag full of cash?” the pope said. He made a face. “That’s several Hail Marys, at least.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tJy5WP

‌Calling Trump a Tyrant Is Not a Call to Violence

To describe Donald Trump as a corrupt aspiring authoritarian is not to conclude that he should be murdered.

This ought to be a simple point to understand. Yet it is lost on a large swath of the American right, who insist that calling Trump what he is causes at least some of his opponents—among them, the accused shooter Cole Tomas Allen—to believe that violence is justified against the president.

In an interview with CBS following the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Trump blamed the most recent attempt on his life on “the hate speech of the Democrats,” which he called “very dangerous.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/491S0rC

‌Trump stamp: The president wants taxpayer dollars to put his name all over the place

President Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress, his hand-picked appointees, and all manner of other allies have been doing their best to put Trump’s name, image and likeness all over the place.

Using taxpayer dollars, these efforts differ from Trump’s lifelong effort to put his name on privately owned buildings. They’re controversial in part because Trump is divisive and not currently very popular; his approval rating has recently been stuck in the 30s.

More importantly, the US more traditionally memorializes the dead with such honors. Placing the image of a sitting president on buildings and in such public government displays is often associated with kingdoms or authoritarian regimes.

Democrats, bristling at the Trump stamps, have introduced legislation to ban his name from being added to federal buildings or coins, but those efforts are likely to be stuck in Congress. So will GOP efforts to officially name more things after the president. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Rd0IwZ

‌Takeaways from the Supreme Court’s historic Voting Rights Act opinion and what’s next for the midterms

The Supreme Court on Wednesday kicked yet another leg out from under the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 civil rights law that Chief Justice John Roberts’ court has repeatedly undermined over the years.

Wednesday’s opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito with the dissent from the court’s three liberals, will make it much harder for voters of color to challenge redistricting plans that allegedly dilute the political power of minority communities.

The ruling will bring about major changes to political representation at all levels of government in future elections, starting in earnest in 2028. Many states will either choose to make changes to legislative boundaries or be forced by courts to redraw districts that currently guarantee the ability of minority voters to elect the candidate of their choice. - CNN https://cnn.it/49fsQFV

‌GOP is all in on Florida gerrymander after whining when blue states do it

Republicans on Capitol Hill have once again proven they have one consistent position: The rules apply to everyone but themselves.

After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis released a map that seeks to eliminate as many as four Democrats from the Sunshine State’s congressional delegation, House Republicans rushed to come out in support of the GOP leader’s illegal gerrymander that blatantly violates Florida’s Constitution.

“Florida is overwhelmingly red. It needs to be represented in that way, drawn in that way, not where you draw specific seats to say, ‘Okay, we’re gonna draw this 10-mile stretch that’s as wide as the median of the highway because we want an African American district,’” Florida GOP Rep. Brian Mast told Fox Business. “That’s political gerrymandering. You can’t have that take place. It needs to come to an end anywhere across the country.”

Funny—Republicans had the exact opposite reaction in Virginia, after voters in the blue state passed a ballot measure that suspended the state’s independent redistricting commission to allow the Democratic-controlled legislature to redraw the congressional map. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/3OYZuVr

‌This ABC Showdown Is Different

Perhaps the biggest difference between the September fracas and yesterday’s challenge is that now the FCC is actually taking action, exerting regulatory power against Disney in a way it had only threatened to in the past. In the fall, not doing anything turned out to be an advantage for the agency, legally speaking. “A court can’t review an action you don’t take,” my colleague Gilad Edelman, who profiled Carr in November, told me. But if Disney’s lawyers think the company is being illegally targeted this time, they could sue the administration over it. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tJNVkl

‌Trump Threatens to Pull Troops From Germany as He Lashes Out at Chancellor

President Trump declared on Wednesday evening that he is “studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany,” in what appears to be retaliation for comments by Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, that Iran has “humiliated” the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4mXHF5G

‌What the Royal State Dinner Guest List Says About Trump’s America

Guest lists for White House state dinners have always been political rather than social documents. Avidly chewed over in Washington, they broadcast an administration’s priorities, favored businesses, top donors and media allies. They are supposed to reflect the country being honored.

By those standards, the Trump guest list for the state dinner for King Charles III of Britain and Queen Camilla on Tuesday night was another whack at norms in an administration that likes to shatter them.

Among the more than 100 guests were at least 10 American billionaires, six Fox News hosts, one Fox News executive, six conservative Supreme Court justices, numerous Silicon Valley tech titans and assorted friends of the president’s. There were no British cultural figures and, for that matter, a meager number of British overall. The British Embassy in Washington appears to have had limited input into the guest list.

There were also no Democratic politicians, which has been the case at other Trump state dinners. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cKFS0s

‌They Left for the School Bus. ICE Picked Them Up Instead.

Two teenage brothers from the Republic of Congo were living their version of the American dream. They were leaders on their high school basketball team and involved in their local church. The elder was weeks away from graduating.

That dream was thrown into upheaval this month when the brothers were detained by ICE agents who had waited outside their guardians’ home in Diamondhead, Miss. Israel Makoka, 18, and Max Makoka, 15, were leaving to take the bus to school when they were arrested and later moved to separate facilities, in Louisiana and Texas, where they remained on Wednesday.

Their detention has crushed the school community in their conservative small town.

“I’m heartbroken over what’s taking place,” said Stacy Campbell, a history teacher at the brothers’ school, Hancock High in Kiln, Miss., who knows the Makokas. “They definitely do not deserve this. Some of the students are just starting to talk about it, and they are very worried. They want their classmates back at school.”

The Makoka brothers entered the United States legally on F-1 student visas to attend the Piney Woods School, a prominent, historically Black boarding institution. But they felt unhappy there last year, so they transferred to a public school in their host family’s neighborhood.

Before the teenagers transferred to Hancock High in August, a local lawyer advised their host family to become their legal guardians so that they could remain in the country. A judge granted the guardianship request.

The staff at Piney Woods did not warn the family that the teenagers’ transfer to a public school would affect their immigration status, regardless of guardianship, said Amy Maldonado, the immigration lawyer representing the brothers. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QHvz4K

‌Trump Administration Sues New Jersey Governor Over ICE Mask Ban

The Trump administration on Wednesday sued New Jersey’s governor and attorney general over a state law that bars law enforcement officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, from wearing masks while on duty.

The governor of New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, last month signed legislation that requires ICE agents to clearly identify themselves and prohibits them from shielding their faces during enforcement actions. Department of Homeland Security officials immediately said that agents would continue wearing masks despite the state law.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department backed up that vow with a legal challenge. It is at least the second time the Trump administration has sued to overturn immigration policies enacted by Ms. Sherrill, a Democrat who has harshly criticized President Trump. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ueGl0K

‌The Justices Acted as Partisans in the Voting Rights Ruling

The Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday on the Voting Rights Act is a mind-boggling piece of judicial overreach. Six conservative justices voted to weaken the act, in that way substituting their own judgment for that of Congress, which reauthorized the law 20 years ago with overwhelming bipartisan support, including a unanimous vote in the Senate. With this ruling, the court has acted more like partisan legislators than like impartial judges.

Justice Elena Kagan, voting in the minority, struck the right tone: “I dissent because Congress elected otherwise,” she wrote. “I dissent because the court betrays its duty to faithfully implement the great statute Congress wrote.”

The effects will be significant. The ruling, in Louisiana v. Callais, makes it easier for states to draw districts for Congress, state legislatures and local councils that elect the candidates favored by white voting blocs. The officials who make the maps no longer need to worry much about whether they are sprinkling Black voters across many districts and eliminating majority Black districts.

The reality is that in the name of disentangling race from politics, the Supreme Court has given white voters more power at the expense of racial minorities. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4945D9I

‌The Iran War Might Be an ‘Everything War’

From a certain vantage, the illegal and counterproductive war is a sign of the end of American pre-eminence. The American military has been humbled, the Pentagon planning committees humiliated, the global reputation of the United States tattered and the prospects for a reboot of global leadership, of the kind achieved by Barack Obama and to a lesser extent Joe Biden, are now considerably dimmer.

But from another vantage, however much damage U.S. primacy appears to have sustained, the war looks — at least for now — like a perverse confirmation of American power. After all, it was the United States that made all this mess — without real cause and without generating all that much pushback of substance on the world stage. You can’t call the campaign a strategic success, given how poorly articulated the goals were at the outset, how little the United States has gained from its hostility, and how much needless turmoil and suffering it has imposed on the world as a whole. But it is also the kind of mess only a global superpower could make — if one lashing out in response to its own perceptions of decline. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cYIZ3W

‌Jerome Powell says he will remain on the Fed board after stepping down as chair

It would be a blow to Trump, who has mounted a relentless pressure campaign against Powell and would be deprived of the chance to nominate someone to replace him - Quartz https://bit.ly/3OECKds

‌Fed’s key inflation gauge hits 3.5% as Iran war pushes up gas prices

Fast-rising gas prices lifted the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge to 3.5% in March, its highest rate in almost three years, new data showed Thursday.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index rose 0.7% from February, a faster-than-expected acceleration from the previous monthly pace of 0.4%, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

The annual rate of inflation, which jumped from 2.8% in February, is now running at its fastest pace since May 2023. - CNN https://cnn.it/4tFNeZ5

‌Oil surges to its highest level in years as Trump eyes an extended Iran blockade

Brent crude oil prices reached $126 a barrel overnight before pulling back early Thursday, the highest level in four years, as President Donald Trump signaled the U.S. naval blockade of Iran's ports would remain in place until Tehran abandons its nuclear program. By mid-morning, Brent had given back its earlier gains to settle around $116 a barrell, while WTI hovered near $106.

The two oil futures have each increased by 60% from where they stood when the U.S. and Israeli-led military campaign against Iran launched on Feb. 28. Over the past two weeks alone, Brent has climbed about 30%.

Reports indicate Trump turned down an offer from Tehran to restore access through the Strait of Hormuz, according to CNBC. At full capacity, the strait — which cuts between the coastlines of Iran and Oman — serves as the transit corridor for roughly a fifth of all oil traded globally. According to Goldman Sachs $GS +2.01%, throughput at the chokepoint has collapsed to roughly 4% of what it was before the conflict.

In a Truth Social post, Trump warned that Iran "better get smart soon," adding an AI-generated image of himself holding a gun against a backdrop of explosions. Separately, Axios reported that U.S. Central Command was set to brief Trump on possible military action against Iran. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4cWI6bM

‌If “86” Is Illegal Speech, Nobody is Free

During a rally in 1966, a recently drafted man, Robert Watts, reportedly told friends, “If they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is L.B.J.”

For this, a federal court convicted Watts of “knowingly and willfully threatening the President.” The Supreme Court would later overturn that ruling in Watts v. United States, noting that Watts’ comment simply constituted “political hyperbole” and was therefore protected by the First Amendment.

Now imagine if Watts had written his message out in seashells.

This is the absurd situation we find ourselves in this week, following the Trump administration’s second indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, this time for a social media post depicting shells on a beach spelling out “86 47.” - Persuasion https://bit.ly/4w9Z7s7

‌ABC can beat Trump FCC’s license threat if owner Disney is willing to fight

Disney will have the law on its side in its fight against the unusual broadcast license review ordered yesterday by the Federal Communications Commission, legal experts say.

In 1996, Congress made it a lot harder for the FCC to take away a broadcast license, even when it’s up for renewal. “Since the NAB [National Association of Broadcasters] got an amendment in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, denying renewal to a broadcaster faces an almost insurmountable burden,” Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, told Ars this week.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a major update to the Communications Act, the 1934 law that established the FCC and provides the agency with its legal authority.

“Although the FCC generally acts under the ‘public interest’ standard when granting and regulating licenses, the Act imposes more limits on FCC actions that would cancel licenses or deny their renewal or transfer,” Northwestern University law professor James Speta wrote last year in the Yale Journal on Regulation. The Yale Journal article was written in response to previous threats to ABC issued by Trump and Carr.

The key change in 1996 was that “Congress eliminated the former process of comparative renewal hearings, under which broadcasters would have to show that their offerings are the best among any others seeking to take over the license,” Speta wrote. “The Act also generally requires that, before a license can be revoked, the FCC establish, on the basis of evidence, that the licensee has engaged in ‘willful or repeated’ violations of the Act, FCC rules, or its license.” - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4w3RGTa

‌Trump pulls controversial surgeon general pick and makes third nomination for the role

President Donald Trump on Thursday pulled his embattled surgeon general nominee, Dr. Casey Means, amid questions over her vaccine views and announced his third pick for the role in Dr. Nicole Saphier.

“Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans,” he added.

Saphier, a longtime Fox News contributor, is a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

She has called herself someone who “questions the vaccine schedule” and applauded the recent US Department of Health and Human Services decision to make Covid-19 shots available after a conversation with a healthcare provider, particularly for patients at lower risk from the infection, such as school-age children.

But she has also called the drop in measles vaccine coverage for kids “a problem.”

“I know 2% doesn’t really sound like that big of a deal, but I can tell you, that 2% difference, it’s tens of hundreds of thousands of children, and it’s enough to fuel localized outbreaks, and that’s a problem,” Saphier said on her podcast, “Wellness Unmasked.”

She has also criticized HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling his use of a nicotine product during a Senate hearing “disturbing.” - CNN https://cnn.it/4eE3WUj

Bailout Fever

Trump is proceeding with a federal rescue of Spirit Airlines, the ultra low-cost budget carrier that has rotated through two bankruptcies since 2024. It’s reportedly being structured as a $500 million lifeline that could pave the way for the U.S. government to hold a 90% stake in the airliner.

It may move to the front of the line as a privileged creditor during bankruptcy proceedings. Trump has toyed with the U.S. government buying Spirit outright.

Now other imperiled passenger carriers want a lifeline. The Association of Value Airlines, a trade group representing budget airliners like Frontier, issued a statement on Monday requesting a $2.5 billion liquidity pool to cushion the blow from spiking jet fuel prices. The organization said it would be a “necessary and targeted measure to stabilize operations and keep airfares affordable during this period of volatility.” - Quartz https://bit.ly/4uqizzc

‌Congress votes to reopen key parts of DHS without ICE funding

Congress voted to reopen key parts of the Department of Homeland Security — including the Transportation Security Administration — Thursday after weeks of GOP infighting that prolonged a record shutdown of the critical agency.

President Donald Trump promptly signed the bill to fund the department, which went unfunded for 75 days, into law.

In the end, House GOP leaders conceded in a weeks-long DHS funding fight in a major retreat by Speaker Mike Johnson as he faced a growing revolt from centrists in his party, multiple sources told CNN. The House abruptly passed the package — which includes no money for federal immigration enforcement, in a major win for Democrats — by a voice vote Thursday afternoon.

The move brings an end to a historic shutdown that led to long lines at airports across the country and comes just before paychecks were about to stall out once again for DHS employees. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Oyre3i

‌Why Is There a Voting Rights Act? A Timeline

The Voting Rights Act, among the most consequential pieces of U.S. civil rights legislation, was signed into law in August 1965. It came nearly a century after the 15th Amendment outlawed racial discrimination in voting in 1870.

Despite the amendment, Black Americans had continued to face barriers to one of the nation’s most fundamental rights even after ratification, including violence and intimidation, poll taxes and literacy tests. For many decades before the federal law was passed, activists marched, protested and organized voter registration campaigns. Some were brutally beaten or murdered. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eUfkv9

‌Louisiana postpones primaries as states rush to redraw districts after supreme court ruling

Louisiana moved to postpone its May primaries on Thursday in a move that came as other southern states are also scrambling to redraw congressional districts in response to the supreme court’s Wednesday ruling that severely weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act.

Before the supreme court’s decision eliminating a key protection against racial discrimination in drawing voting maps, some states had already begun initiating processes to redraw districts and gut Black voting power. More states have now followed, with governors calling for special sessions to redraw congressional districts, potentially before the midterm elections in November.

Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, and attorney general, Liz Murrill, both Republicans, said in a joint statement that the state could no longer use its current districts to carry out the primaries after the supreme court ruling. Early voting had been scheduled to begin on Saturday in advance of the 16 May primary.

“The State is currently enjoined from carrying out congressional elections under the current map,” Landry and Murrill said in the statement on social media on Thursday. “We are working together with the Legislature and the Secretary of State’s office to develop a path forward.” - Guardian https://bit.ly/4urcNgJ

Firm Building Trump’s Ballroom Got a Secret No-Bid Contract for a Nearby Job

In January, government documents show, the Trump administration secretly gave the company a no-bid contract to do another job at a sharply inflated price.

The National Park Service wanted to repair two ornamental fountains in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The Biden administration in 2022 had estimated the work would cost $3.3 million. But Mr. Trump’s government agreed to pay Clark $11.9 million to do it, and later added tasks that increased the contract to $17.4 million, the documents show. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3OZSBDh

‌California gas prices are surging past $6 a gallon as the Iran war grinds on

AAA data show California's statewide average for regular gasoline climbed to $6.01 per gallon on Thursday, a threshold not seen in the state since October 2023. The figure represents a 30% increase since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4cLJ3Fc

‌Voting Rights Ruling Could Fuel Era of Endless Redistricting Wars

The Supreme Court’s decision to upend a key provision of the Voting Rights Act has plunged the nation into a dizzying new era of partisan conflict, most likely ushering in a forever redistricting war that could produce fewer competitive seats in Congress and further polarize American politics.

Left as probable casualties are longstanding principles of fair representation — along with American voters, who are likelier now to be shunted into hyperpartisan districts drawn in each state to benefit the party in power. A great carving could effectively dilute the power of millions, especially minority voters, and make partisan primaries more important than general elections when it comes to choosing leaders.

“We lost one of the last seatbelts of our democracy,” said Alanah Odoms, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4w0F1QN

‌FEMA Is Reversing Job Cuts Made Under Kristi Noem

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is reversing job cuts that Kristi Noem, the former homeland security secretary, had overseen before she was fired last month.

FEMA has reinstated 14 people who had signed a public letter that became known as the Katrina Declaration, which warned that the agency risked repeating mistakes learned during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Abby McIlraith, one of the reinstated workers and an emergency management specialist. Another 21 people who signed their names are no longer at the agency, Ms. McIlraith said.

The agency has also begun calling disaster workers who were let go in January to offer them their jobs back, according to two people familiar with the actions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the move publicly. The agency parted ways with some 200 workers who served in temporary roles when their assignments came up for renewal in January. It was a major departure from past practices, and prompted unions to file a lawsuit against the agency, arguing that the dismissals violated FEMA’s statutory requirement to maintain readiness for disasters. - NYT https://nyti.ms/48yNNeT

‌Comey Indictment Shows Justice Dept. Got the Message From Bondi’s Firing

The Justice Department’s indictment of James B. Comey for posting a photo of seashells has been roundly ripped by critics as a highly questionable move predicated on flimsy evidence that sacrifices prosecutorial credibility for President Trump’s fleeting favor.

But the charges, which department officials claim were justified by a genuine threat to Mr. Trump’s life, reflect the new realities of an agency whose roiled leadership is more focused than ever on the president’s restless efforts to exact vengeance on his enemies.

By firing Attorney General Pam Bondi — and then conspicuously declining to name her interim replacement, Todd Blanche, as the permanent successor — Mr. Trump has created an environment in which multiple officials seem to all be fighting for their jobs, according to current and former officials. The result is ever greater incentive to execute his increasingly extreme demands without much pushback. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4w6F9OO

‌Letters from an American - April 30, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Today G. Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers noted that Trump has hit a new low in overall job performance and in his handling of the economy, at -22.2 and -40.3, respectively. Those numbers reflect the percentage of people who approve of his handling of an issue minus those who disapprove. Indeed, Morris noted that Trump’s approval rating on the economy is so low it “literally broke the scale of this graph on my data portal.”

On Tuesday, Morris explained in Strength in Numbers that while Republicans have lately been arguing that they simply need to get people to show up to win the midterms, turnout is not their problem. Their real problem is that voters don’t like what Trump is doing. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/3QOKom4

‌House Passes Stalled Homeland Security Funding Bill, Ending Shutdown

The House on Thursday passed stalled legislation reopening the Department of Homeland Security, ending a record 76-day shutdown at the agency and resolving uncertainty over whether thousands of federal security workers would be paid in May.

The voice vote after a brief debate brought to a close a bitter partisan fight spurred by President Trump’s immigration crackdown and the tactics of federal immigration officers who fatally shot two U.S. citizens during immigration roundups in Minneapolis earlier this year. Negotiations between the White House and Democrats who were demanding new restrictions on the officers went nowhere, leading to an impasse that cut off funding on Feb. 14.

But it was a dispute among Republicans that has kept the department shuttered for nearly a month, and the G.O.P. had to bypass its own right flank to push through the bill. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4n5w6cR

‌The Iran War’s Ramifications Have Only Just Begun

U.S. goals haven’t been met, but the war will cause long-term disruptions.

President Trump, celebrating Tehran’s declaration that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen to commercial shipping, posted on Truth Social on April 17, “IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE.” The opening didn’t last. But, in his haste, Trump had inadvertently spelled out possibly the most consequential result of his eight-week war: The Strait of Hormuz now looks, in practice, like the “STRAIT OF IRAN.”

Although none of the Trump administration’s goals—an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, destroying Iran’s missile capability, neutralizing proxy forces, regime change—has been fulfilled, the war has led to enduring changes. Two sweeping conclusions—one short-term, one longer—have become clear, experts in defense, diplomacy, business, and economics told us.

In the short term, despite an indefinite cease-fire that kicked in last week following an initial two-week pause in hostilities, a durable end to the war isn’t coming anytime soon. The disparity in U.S. and Iranian demands for how negotiations should proceed, along with blockades by their respective forces in the strait, has locked the two sides in a stalemate. Many Americans still expect a quick end to the war’s economic strain. But that’s unlikely. At a Vanderbilt University panel discussion on warfare this week, the moderator asked when the effects of the war might end. A retired general, a retired CIA analyst, and an energy-industry executive said anywhere from two to nine months, prompting a collective intake of breath from the audience. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4n3KbHT

‌Apple to seek tariff refunds, plans to reinvest money in U.S. manufacturing

A few days ago, Donald Trump said he would “remember” companies that chose not to apply for refunds, while criticizing those that do.

Even so, businesses across industries are now seeking refunds on duties collected under that framework, which could total roughly $166 billion.

Cook did not disclose how much it expects to recover, but confirmed Apple already has a plan for the money:

We plan to reinvest any amount we receive back into U.S. innovation and advanced manufacturing. These would be new investments and would be in addition to our prior commitments in the U.S. - 9 to 5 Mac https://bit.ly/3PfiSxG

‌Trump dissatisfied with Iran's latest proposal and casts doubt on ability to reach deal

A Vietnam-era law says Congress must sign off on the Iran war after the conflict hits the 60-day mark. The only problem: Lawmakers can’t agree when that deadline actually hits. And now they’ve left town.

Under the War Powers Act of 1973, the president has 60 days to conduct military action in response to an imminent threat or an attack on the United States if Congress has not voted to authorize a war. Without explicit congressional authorization, the law says that once that deadline is reached, the president “shall terminate any use of the United States Armed Forces.”

Many lawmakers see Friday, May 1, as the 60-day mark based on President Donald Trump notifying Congress of the beginning of hostilities on March 2. Some Senate Republicans argue that should mark an inflection point where Congress must step in and authorize the conflict or at least conduct further oversight. But others insist the president can unilaterally extend US military involvement for another 30 days. And some Republicans argue that ceasefire days do not count toward the total. - CNN https://cnn.it/48Ft213

‌Majority of US military sites in Middle East damaged by Iran, CNN investigation reveals

At least 16 American military sites have been damaged in Iranian strikes, making up the majority of US positions in the Middle East, a new CNN investigation can reveal. The damage includes high-value targets, raising questions about America’s footprint in the region. CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi reports. - CNN https://cnn.it/4tLH7lX

‌CNN video analysis: Gunman raised shotgun as he stormed security at press dinner

A federal judge privately admonished prosecutors for attempting to grandstand Thursday at a detention hearing for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman, according to a transcript first obtained by CNN.

“I don’t know what’s going on here. I know that you want to present your case, I guess, to some audience other than the Court,” Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya told three prosecutors in the courtroom on Thursday out of earshot of the public and press. “I don’t want this to turn into a circus.” - CNN https://cnn.it/3RgMICp

‌Appeals court blocks FDA rule that allows women to obtain abortion drugs by mail

A federal appeals court temporarily reinstated a nationwide requirement that abortion pills be obtained in person, undermining access to the method of abortion that has only grown more widespread since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Friday’s ruling from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals is a major victory in the anti-abortion movement’s war against medication abortion, which now accounts for roughly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Louisiana last year against the US Food and Drug Administration, after President Donald Trump’s administration refused to act on calls to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for abortion pills through the regulatory process. - CNN https://cnn.it/49qPriW

‌Trump’s war on science takes a disturbing turn

The Trump administration did some genuine stormtrooper garbage earlier this week when it arrested David Morens, a 78-year-old research scientist who served as an aide to Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases until 2022. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4dlIl1y

‌Trump team lies to evade law limiting Iran war

President Donald Trump’s boondoggle of a war in Iran officially hit the 60-day mark on Friday, thus requiring him—by law—to get congressional approval to continue his hostilities.

But Trump and his administration came up with a bullshit excuse for why the War Powers Resolution of 1973 doesn’t apply to them in this situation.

“We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops, in a ceasefire,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators on Thursday during a hearing on Capitol Hill. “That’s our understanding, just so you know.” - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4cZAhSH

‌The Real Reason Trump Doesn't Want Congress To Vote on War Powers

Today marks 60 days since the start of Trump’s failed war in Iran. The U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) gives Congress the power “To declare War,” and the War Powers Resolution of 1973 — enacted over Nixon’s veto — mandates that troops be withdrawn within 60 days unless Congress extends the deadline or declares war.

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that Trump doesn’t need Congress’s approval to continue the war past the 60-day mark because the ceasefire agreement with Iran has effectively stopped the clock. (Trump echoed Hegseth’s claim today in a letter to Congress.)

That’s bullshit, of course. But the interesting question is why — when Republicans have majorities in both chambers of Congress — Trump doesn’t want such a vote. Why not just let Republicans vote in favor of continuing his war, and be done with it?

It’s possible, of course, that Trump is worried that some Republican members might vote against the war — joining with all or almost all Democrats in voting against its continuation. Even a close vote could force a debate and pressure Trump to set the conditions and timeline for a withdrawal.

But there’s an easier and more straightforward reason.

Trump’s war is so unpopular that Republican members of Congress don’t want to have to go on record as voting in favor of it. With midterm elections in six months, they know their votes in favor of Trump’s war could be held over their heads — especially if the war drags on, or if gas prices continue to rise because Iran is blocking the Strait of Hormuz, or both. - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/427mp47

‌The Real Reason Iran Hasn’t Struck a Deal

Iran and the United States have failed to come to an agreement not because hard-liners are blocking pragmatists inside Iran, but because both sides seem to sincerely believe that they have won the war. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4w60QhP

‌Inside the federal campaign to sow distrust in elections

46% of American voters now believe the lie that there is widespread fraud in U.S. elections. Nearly half the country. That’s according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, which highlights the dangers of the Deceive component of the administration’s Executive Override playbook. (Reuters appropriately notes alongside reporting those results that extensive audits have repeatedly shown fraud to be exceedingly rare.)

The recent polling isn’t an accident — it’s the result of a deliberate Trump strategy. In order for the administration to successfully interfere with the election and, ultimately, overturn unfavorable results, they first need to convince a sufficient portion of the public that our election system is unreliable. As Reuters captured it: “President Donald Trump’s years-long campaign to undermine faith in U.S. elections has gained broad traction with the American public.” - If You Can Keep It https://bit.ly/4t7GSk3

‌Letters from an American - May 1, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Today is the deadline for President Donald J. Trump to ask Congress for approval for his war on Iran. Under the 1973 War Powers Act, a president has the authority to respond to an “imminent threat” without congressional approval, so long as he notifies Congress in writing within 48 hours. Then the president has 60 days either to withdraw U.S. forces from their engagement or to get Congress to authorize the military action.

Trump launched U.S. attacks on Iran alongside Israeli attacks on February 28. He notified Congress on March 2. Sixty days from March 2 is today.

And today, Trump sent letters to House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate president pro tempore (officially the leader of the Senate if the vice president is not present) Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to inform them that so far as the White House is concerned, “the hostilities that began on February 28…terminated” on April 7, when Trump ordered a two-week ceasefire. Ignoring the fact the U.S. fired on an Iranian tanker on April 19, the letter says “there has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4ejeg3L

‌Since Congress Let Obamacare Subsidies Expire, Millions Are Dropping Coverage

Millions of Americans appear to be dropping Obamacare coverage in the months since Congress failed to extend the generous subsidies that had become a defining feature of the Affordable Care Act.

Initial sign-ups had already fallen by about 1.2 million people. But insurance companies, state officials and industry analysts are reporting that many more have lost Obamacare coverage now that people are facing long-term higher costs. The federal government has yet to report current enrollment data.

Many insurers and analysts are estimating overall declines of about 20 percent, dropping to around 19 million from the 24 million who were covered under the A.C.A. last year. Other indications suggest there could be even larger potential losses by the end of the year, a deep retrenchment for Obamacare coverage and a reversal of significant gains in the last several years.

The rising cost of health care has shown up as a top concern among Americans in several public opinion polls. Premiums are rising for Americans who get insurance through work, too, as health care costs have been increasing nationwide. Out-of-pocket costs are growing too, as plans with high deductibles have become popular. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4w7IUU3

‌Trump Tells Congress Why He Doesn’t Need Its Authorization for the Iran War

President Trump sent letters to Congress on Friday making the case that a Vietnam-era law requiring him to seek congressional authorization to continue military operations in Iran did not apply because the conflict was in a cease-fire.

In the letters — sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the president pro tempore of the Senate — Mr. Trump said that he was writing to inform them “of changes in the posture of United States Forces” and reiterated his administration’s position that a cease-fire he declared on April 7 had stopped the clock on the war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42PgG2V

‌U.S. to Withdraw 5,000 Troops From Germany, Pentagon Says

The decision, which drew condemnation from G.O.P. lawmakers, came after President Trump expressed annoyance with the German chancellor’s remarks about the Iran war. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QO4UmO

‌Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Abortion Pill Access by Mail

A federal appeals court issued a ruling on Friday temporarily halting the ability of abortion providers to prescribe pills using telemedicine and send them to patients by mail, blocking what has become a major avenue for women seeking abortions in recent years. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4djO73H

‌Trump Threatens Higher Tariffs on European Cars

President Trump said Friday that he planned to increase tariffs on European cars and trucks because the European Union was not complying with a trade deal agreed to with the United States.

Mr. Trump said the tariff would increase to 25 percent beginning next week. The United States had lowered auto tariffs for the European Union to 15 percent as part of a trade deal between the governments, but U.S. officials have complained that the European Union isn’t moving fast enough to put it in place.

In February, the Supreme Court curtailed the president’s use of tariffs, saying that he had exceeded his authority in using an emergency law to impose tariffs. But the tariffs on European cars were issued under a separate, national security-related law, Section 232 of the Trade Act of 1964, and are not affected by the Supreme Court ruling. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QZERJo

‌Trump says US Navy acting 'like pirates' to carry out naval blockade of Iranian ports

President Donald Trump said on Friday the U.S. Navy was acting "like pirates" in carrying out Washington's naval blockade of Iranian ports during the U.S. and Israel's war against Iran.

Trump ‌made the comments while describing the seizure by U.S. forces of a ship a few days ago.

"We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It's a very profitable business," Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. "We're ⁠like pirates. We're sort of like pirates but we are not playing games." - Reuters https://reut.rs/4d2cly6

‌Public rejects Trump’s ballroom by wide margin

Americans reject President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom by a 2-to-1 margin, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, and they appear largely unmoved by the intensified calls from the president and his allies in Congress to allow the project to go forward. - WaPo https://wapo.st/3RhpLiv

‌Trump's Bad Ballroom Bet

Despite all of Donald Trump’s trolling “Trump 2028” merch and Steve Bannon’s insistence that the second-term president will somehow be reelected to a third, Trump knows very well he will never be on a presidential ballot again.

How do we know this?

Because his every move demonstrates just how little he cares about political outcomes and instead is singlemindedly focused on his legacy.

Trump added his name to the John F. Kennedy Center and got Ron DeSantis to name an airport after him. Now, his signature will appear on paper money, and he’s plastering his face all over a new series of commemorative passports and even an America 250 Trump coin.

But that’s not enough for him. He demands new structures that will endure long after he’s gone. Whether it’s paving over the White House rose garden to create an outdoor patio space, erecting a 250-ft triumphal arch on the National Mall, or building his new grand ballroom where the East Wing once stood, this is what Trump really cares about. More than legislation, more than political transformation, more than improving people’s lives, this is what Trump wants to leave behind.

It’s no wonder that in the wake of the security breach at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner—supposedly a traumatic attempt on his life—Trump immediately exploited the would-be tragedy by launching an all-out PR campaign demanding the ballroom be built as a “security” measure. Within hours of the shooting, Trump told reporters, “We need the ballroom.” And by Monday, MAGA influencers across X were repeating the call with canned talking points.

In a classic Trumpian bait and switch, this new push also includes a Senate Republican bill authorizing American tax dollars to pay for the $400 million project, which Trump repeatedly insisted would be privately funded. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/48CVMrm

Trump's Bad Ballroom Bet

How do we know this?

Because his every move demonstrates just how little he cares about political outcomes and instead is singlemindedly focused on his legacy.

‌Trump flouts lower court rulings in unprecedented display of executive power

The failure of Trump officials to follow court orders has been highlighted most notably in individual immigration cases. But a review of hundreds of pages of court records by The Associated Press also shows an extraordinary record of violations in lawsuits over policy changes and other moves. AP / Japan Tocday https://bit.ly/42gx6RQ?

‌Abortion Providers Forced to Adapt After Court Blocks Pill Access by Mail

“This decision represents the most sweeping threat to abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade,” said Kelly Baden, vice president for public policy at the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. “If allowed to stand, it would severely restrict access to mifepristone in every state, including those where abortion is broadly legal and where voters have acted to protect abortion rights.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eZ91GG

‌Trump Says He Is Reviewing Iran’s Latest Offer but Doubts It Is Acceptable

The cease-fire between the United States and Iran remained in limbo after President Trump said Saturday evening on social media that he was reviewing Iran’s latest proposal but “can’t imagine that it would be acceptable.”

The comments came one day after Mr. Trump had flatly said he was “not satisfied” with the latest offer from Iran, which Iranian state media said was sent to Pakistani mediators on Thursday evening. But on Saturday evening, the president clarified to reporters that he had only been briefed on the “concept of the deal” and had not seen the details.

“They’re going to give me the exact wording now,” he said, just before boarding an airplane in Palm Beach, Florida.

In the post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump cast doubt that the latest proposal would satisfy him, asserting that Iran has “not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/42gxjEC

‌Trump disapproval reaches new high, Post-ABC-Ipsos poll finds

Democrats now hold a five-point advantage in support for Congress, up from two points in February.

Six months ahead of the November midterm elections, the Republican Party faces a deteriorating political climate, with Americans broadly dissatisfied with President Donald Trump’s leadership on the Iran war and other key issues and an electorate in which Democrats are significantly more motivated to vote, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. - WaPo https://wapo.st/49p7uGa

America Is Officially an Empire in Decline ‌

The American-Israeli attack on Iran was more than a bad idea; it has turned into a watershed in the decline of the American empire. Some might prefer the word “hegemony” to describe the world order the United States leads, since its flag does not generally fly over the lands it protects or exploits. But the rules are the same: Imperial systems, whatever you call them, last only as long as their means are adequate to their ends. And with the Iran war, President Trump has overextended the empire dangerously. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QNnPye

‌The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers

In August, months after Elon Musk left the federal government, the director of the Office of Personnel Management offered the first hard estimate of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s impact on the civil service. The government would likely end 2025 with about 300,000 fewer employees than it had at the start of the year, he told reporters. Most resignations were attributable to the incentives DOGE had offered the federal workforce to resign their positions. The total figure amounted to one in eight workers.

Well, almost. In recent weeks, hundreds of the employees DOGE pushed out have reportedly been offered reinstatement. - Wired https://bit.ly/49mz1YP

‌Letters from an American - May 3, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Late on Friday night, President Donald J. Trump took to social media. At 11:03 he posted an AI-generated image of himself, alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, all shirtless, along with an unidentifiable woman in a bikini, appearing to be relaxing in a swimming pool. But the “swimming pool” was the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Then, at 11:04, Trump posted an image of First Lady Melania Trump grinning at the press conference Trump held after the incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when he said that incident proved he needed his proposed ballroom for his security.

Then, at 11:13, Trump posted an image of House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who is Black, holding a baseball bat. The caption calls Jeffries “low IQ,” “a THUG,” and “a danger to our Country.”

Then, at 11:15, he posted an image of himself smiling and holding six wild cards from the game Uno. The caption read, “I HAVE ALL THE CARDS.”

Then, at 11:22, he posted a profile image of himself in gold.

Then, at 11:26, he posted an image showing him standing near Mt. Rushmore, with the angle arranged to make his head the fifth sculpture on the mountain, so from left to right they were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and Donald Trump.

Then, at 11:32, he posted an image of himself and the first lady.

Then, at 11:37, he posted an image of himself and King Charles III.

Then, at 11:40, he posted an image of what appeared to be the reflecting pool full of algae next to one that appeared to be the reflecting pool clean and with a bright blue color. Above the dirty image was the label “Hussein Obama,” and below it, the caption “Photo taken Sept[ember] 29, 2012”; the clean one was labeled with “Trump” and “Coming Soon.” Over the two together, the caption read: “This is what our Country was before, and after, “TRUMP!”

Then, at 11:41, he posted an AI image of the reflecting pool appearing bright blue, under the caption “American Flag Blue.”

Then, at 11:45, he posted another AI image of the reflecting pool appearing bright blue under the caption “American Flag Blue.”

It was some 43 minutes. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4tSVIMJ

Show me your combat action badge

Joni Ernst: Hegseth's false valor, on Threads. - Dick Anderson https://bit.ly/4cPqikj

Trump Escalates Military Threats in Hormuz as Iran Prepares for New Round of U.S.-Israeli Bombings and Assassinations ‌

President Donald Trump is scrambling to find a way to declare victory in the war against Iran—vacillating between public demands to make a deal and threats to unleash a new round of massive bombing. The U.S. naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz has sparked a global economic and energy crisis, and neither the blockade nor Trump’s threats have resulted in Iranian capitulation or a willingness to forfeit any of its rights to control maritime traffic in the Strait.

A senior Iranian official told Drop Site that while Iran is actively engaged in indirect diplomacy with the U.S. via mediators, it has no intention of participating in direct talks until the U.S. blockade is unconditionally lifted. - Dropsite https://bit.ly/42f5Rag

‌Supreme Court temporarily restores ability to receive abortion drug mifepristone by mail

The Supreme Court temporarily restored telehealth and mail access to the abortion pill mifepristone on Monday, responding to an emergency appeal that warned of potential chaos for patients who had appointments to access the drug.

The “administrative stay” is far from a final decision but rather maintains the status quo for a few days while the court reviews emergency appeals filed Saturday by the drug’s manufacturer and the maker of a generic version. The order puts on hold a decision from the conservative 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that reinstated a nationwide requirement that the medication be obtained in person, undermining access to the method of abortion that has grown more widespread since the court overturned Roe v. Wade. - CNN https://cnn.it/3R39SMx

Week Sixty-Seven: May 4 - May 10

‌Trump Tries to Downplay Economic Effects of the Iran War

Facing pressure to address the economic fallout of his war in Iran, President Trump on Monday sought to portray his policy wins for small businesses as evidence that he was succeeding in building up the economy.

Speaking to business leaders from across the country at an event in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Trump declared that slashing taxes and regulations had yielded “record business,” and that the economy was “roaring.” The White House described the Small Business Week event as highlighting “the extraordinary revival of Main Street under his America First agenda.”

But looming over it all was a war abroad that Mr. Trump had begun, and whose economic impact is compounding cost-of-living concerns among Americans, many of whom increasingly say their economic reality has worsened under his tenure. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42TLcst

‌The Silence is the Tell

Project 2025 contains no chapter on the Supreme Court. The reason is chilling. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4wa277x

‌Some Iranians fear the regime is now more entrenched - and ready for revenge

They are still there. There is no evading the simple fact. Everywhere the people walk. Wherever they drive. Whenever they switch on the television. The faces of assassinated leaders, and those of new rulers, dominate the public space.

Protests have come and gone. A war. Then a ceasefire. But the regime of the Islamic Republic has endured.

In fact, according to Iranians the BBC has spoken to inside the country, far from being weakened the regime is more deeply embedded. And it is in a vengeful mood. - Reuters / Yahoo https://yhoo.it/4d4mavr

‌More Than Three Million People Have Lost Federal Food Aid

Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has decreased by nearly 3.5 million people since stricter eligibility requirements were enacted last July, federal data show. Some states, including Arizona, are seeing dramatic declines in the numbers of SNAP recipients.

Under the new rules, able-bodied adults aged 18 to 64 without children under 14 must work, volunteer or participate in approved job-training programs for at least 80 hours a month. The previous age limit for work requirements was 54, and allowed exemptions for adults with children under 18. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4wqiDRg

‌How the Supreme Court Came to Accept a Practice It Called Unjust

Seven years ago, midway through a multiyear demolition of the Voting Rights Act, John Roberts’s Supreme Court heard a case on a slightly different topic: partisan gerrymandering. Republican legislators from North Carolina had drawn a map of U.S. House districts that courts, including the high court, had found was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander under the VRA. So the North Carolina lawmakers tried again, this time going out of their way to make clear that they were trying to reduce Democratic representation, not Black representation.

The gambit worked. Roberts, writing for the majority, lamented that partisan gerrymandering was pernicious and unfair. “Excessive partisanship in districting leads to results that reasonably seem unjust,” he wrote in Rucho v. Common Cause. But the majority nonetheless concluded that federal courts had no role to play in policing partisan gerrymandering, because it was a political question. Still, Roberts didn’t want that to seem like an endorsement: “Our conclusion does not condone excessive partisan gerrymandering.”

That was then. The conservative majority’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais last week doesn’t just tolerate but encourages states to embrace partisan gerrymandering as a justification for squeezing out majority-Black districts. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/49celTo

‌Pentagon Says Iran’s Actions ‘Below the Threshold’ for Restarting War

Iran’s military actions since the cease-fire started, including firing on commercial vessels and seizing two ships, don’t rise to the level of restarting the war, said Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“No adversary should mistake our current restraint for a lack of resolve,” Caine added in a joint briefing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who talked up the U.S.’s efforts to free up the flow of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

The comments came a day after a series of attacks on ships and a key energy installation in the United Arab Emirates, testing the shaky four-week cease-fire and prompting threats from each side toward the other. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/3QOR4k9

‌Trump sends more troops to Iran—because the war is so over

Call it Schrödinger’s war.

We may or may not be at war in Iran—depending on the day and the whims of President Donald Trump. In the latest development, we’ve somehow ended the war, but the U.S. military also needs to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz—which is only necessary because of Trump’s war.

But first, let’s rewind to see how exactly we got here.

Remember how we all ran into the streets last Friday, that halcyon day when we learned that the war was over, because President Deals said so, and because he doesn’t want to follow the war powers requirement that he terminate his unilateral war after 60 days or seek congressional authorization to continue.

A boat sails past a tanker anchored on the Strait of Hormuz off the coast Qeshm island, Iran, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Asghar Besharati, File)

Attribution: APA boat sails past a tanker anchored on the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran on April 18.

Friday was that 60-day deadline—but hey, no war, no report.

“There has been no exchange of fire between the United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026. The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” Trump wrote to Congress.

So nice to have that behind us, right?

Except that same day, just a few hours after declaring things were done and dusted, Trump told the conservative retirees of Florida’s The Villages that it is “treasonous” to say that we’re not winning the war … which is over. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/42PBjMu

‌'Fraud' is a Trump 2.0 buzzword. It has a new pitchman.

An organizing principle of the second Trump administration is the idea of combating fraud.

Elections, it argues, need reform to protect against fraud — even though there's no widespread evidence of it.

Foreign aid was cut, in part, because administration officials said it was riddled with fraud.

Food assistance and state Medicaid programs are being targeted allegedly in order to control fraud.

Minneapolis was the site of an immigration crackdown because of fraud — a documented problem the Trump administration used to target the entire Somali American community.

Under so many of Trump's more controversial decisions and positions are allegations of fraud.

Vice President JD Vance has dubbed by Trump as the administration's "fraud czar," but CNN's Tami Luhby and Sarah Owermohle report there is another administration official — whose face you probably know — who is popping up in social media feeds as a key administration spokesperson on fraud issues. - CNN https://cnn.it/4w6mtPn

‌Senior Iranian official warns US plan to guide ships through strait violates ceasefire

A senior Iranian official, Ebrahim Azizi, has warned that any US interference in the Strait of Hormuz would be considered a violation of the ceasefire, after US President Donald Trump announced that the US will begin guiding ships through the waterway.

“Any American interference in the new maritime regime of the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a violation of the ceasefire,” Azizi said on X. - CNN https://cnn.it/4uzN6up

‌Trump Administration Demands Names of 2020 Election Workers in Georgia

The Justice Department has demanded the identities of every worker who staffed the 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., according to court records, escalating an ongoing federal investigation of the 2020 vote in Georgia’s most populous county that relies on false and debunked claims.

The demand targets employees of Fulton County elections as well as volunteer poll workers, who likely numbered in the thousands during the 2020 election, according to court records.

The demand, which came via a federal grand jury subpoena, appears to be the latest effort by President Trump and his administration to use the investigative power of the federal government to pursue false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. With midterm voting underway in many states, including Georgia, the effort risks further undermining public confidence and sowing chaos among voters. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dpYkvx

‌Judge Slams Trump Administration for ‘Serious Breakdown’ in Legal Ethics

A federal judge slammed the Department of Homeland Security on Monday for making “erroneous and dangerous” statements after the department publicly attacked her for siding with a man it deemed “a violent criminal illegal alien.”

Trump administration officials had not told Judge Melissa R. DuBose that the man she was about to release on bond, Bryan Rafael Gomez, was wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic. The judge, who was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., ordered the release of Mr. Gomez on April 28 after he filed a petition challenging the legality of his detention.

Two days later, the Department of Homeland Security posted a news release attacking her on the basis of the information that it had withheld.

In a hearing on Monday, Judge DuBose said the government’s decision to withhold information about the case amounted to “a serious breakdown in the ethical codes,” and that she would consider imposing sanctions on the Homeland Security Department for misconduct.

“There was a decision made not to be truthful to the court,” she said.

The judge received profuse apologies from Kevin M. Bolan, who leads the civil division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island. During the hearing, he said he was “very sorry and terribly embarrassed.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dq9D6Z

‌Kennedy Starts a Push to Help Americans Quit Antidepressants

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday announced several initiatives intended to rein in the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants, which he has described as exceptionally difficult to quit.

Mr. Kennedy has long signaled that reducing the use of psychiatric drugs would be an aim of his tenure, but Monday’s announcements were the first significant step in that direction.

The initiative focuses on the most widely prescribed class of psychiatric medications, first-line treatments for depression and anxiety that include Zoloft, Lexapro, Paxil and Prozac. In 2026, 16.6 percent of U.S. adults, or roughly one in six, reported currently taking an S.S.R.I. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4wqWiD8

‌More Than 150 Wind Projects Stall as Pentagon Delays Reviews

The Trump administration is blocking more than 150 onshore wind farms across the United States by delaying military reviews that were once considered routine, according to a leading industry trade group.

The delays, which companies said worsened significantly in recent weeks, are the latest escalation in President Trump’s efforts to stop wind power, a technology he detests. Several of the administration’s moves to thwart the construction of wind farms on land and in the ocean have been struck down by courts over the past few months.

Now the administration has held up a large number of onshore wind projects under development on private land, citing national security concerns. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tNDcFr

‌Trump Administration Orders Rapid End to Some Hunting Rules on Federal Lands

The Trump administration has directed national recreation areas, seashores, wildlife refuges and other public lands to immediately lift dozens of restrictions on hunting and trapping, internal Interior Department documents show.

The order, which takes effect on Monday, applies to some 76 federal lands that allow hunting but have rules to protect habitats or people. Curecanti National Recreation Area in Colorado had prohibited firing weapons from, toward or across trails. At Lake Meredith National Recreation Area in Texas, hunters had been barred from cleaning and processing game animals in restrooms. And at the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri, hunting dogs were required to have tags for safety.

Those and many other requirements are now deleted. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4tbYnzP

‌Trump Faces the Complicated Reality of a Costly, Unpopular War in Iran

Two months into the war in Iran, President Trump is confronting the complicated reality of a conflict that has proved costly and deeply unpopular, and lacks a clear endgame.

Energy markets are in turmoil. The Pentagon has given its first public estimate of the war’s cost: $25 billion so far. Key Republicans in Congress are growing impatient. And Mr. Trump is lashing out at foreign allies, like Germany, who have shown no interest in joining the fight.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters on Friday, Mr. Trump insisted he had no regrets.

“I did something that was, I don’t know, foolish, brave, but it was smart,” Mr. Trump said at The Villages, a retirement community in a solidly Republican area. “I would do it again.”

Still, Mr. Trump’s predictions of a relatively short-term conflict with minimal economic consequences appear to be crumbling around him. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4n6ooz2

‌Trump’s Vision for ‘Garden of Heroes’ Keeps Getting Bigger and Higher in Cost

President Trump’s vision for his National Garden of American Heroes is growing larger and most likely more expensive than his initial estimates, with the latest plans calling for reflecting pools, dining facilities and an amphitheater alongside 250 life-size statues of notable Americans.

The plans have expanded to the point that they could require significant redevelopment of West Potomac Park, an area of mostly sports fields near the National Mall, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The statues alone could cost more than the $40 million approved for the project by Congress, according to the Trump administration’s estimate.

Based on the latest renderings, the Garden of Heroes could rank among the more expensive and time-consuming projects Mr. Trump has undertaken as he works to remake the nation’s capital in his own style. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4ep9B0f

‌U.S. intelligence indicates limited new damage to Iran's nuclear program

U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon has not changed since last summer, when analysts estimated that a U.S.-Israeli attack had pushed back the timeline to up to a year, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

The assessments of Tehran’s nuclear program remain broadly unchanged even after two months of a war that U.S. President Donald Trump launched in part to stop the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear bomb.

The latest U.S. and Israeli attacks that began on Feb. 28 have focused on conventional military targets, but Israel has hit a number of significant nuclear facilities. - Reuters / Japan Times https://bit.ly/4dqSwSw

‌Letters from an American - May 4, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

According to a new Washington Post–ABC News–Ipsos poll, fifty-nine percent of Americans believe President Donald J. Trump does not have the mental sharpness necessary to lead the country. Fifty-five percent think he does not have the physical health to serve as president. Fifty-four percent say they don’t think Trump is a strong leader. Sixty-seven percent think Trump doesn’t carefully consider important decisions. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4wa017N

‌Operation Epic Fury, Meet Operation Colossal Blunder

America’s war with Iran has entered a calmer phase: diplomatic posturing, on-and-off-again negotiations and endless wrangling of a settlement. This, of course, is far preferable to the annihilation of Iranian civilization that President Trump was threatening just a few weeks ago. But it raises the question of just what has spurred this turnabout.

The answer is rather straightforward. The American and Israeli bombing of Iran failed to provoke either a popular uprising against the regime in Tehran or its capitulation, however painfully slow Mr. Trump and his advisers have been to acknowledge that. Instead, Iran discovered its ability to shut down the vital passageway of the Strait of Hormuz and send the global economy into chaos.

There are now only two outcomes to the conflict: either the kind of wholesale destruction of Iran that Mr. Trump posited, or a settlement that will leave the government intact and empowered, and a blustering American president humiliated. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Pqt4Dy

‌DOJ Enters a New, Even More Aggressive Phase

The department is growing bolder yet, cutting legal corners in service of getting President Trump the headlines—and revenge—he wants.

The Justice Department is entering a hyperaggressive new era, cutting legal corners in service of getting President Trump the headlines—and revenge—he wants. Last month, Trump pushed out Attorney General Pam Bondi, reportedly because he was unhappy with her failure to secure legal victories against his enemies. Todd Blanche, for now the acting attorney general, seems to be campaigning for Trump’s nomination to replace Bondi: On his watch, the department has announced a spate of new prosecutions and submitted a bizarre court filing channeling Trump’s voice to argue for the construction of a White House ballroom. Under any other president, DOJ’s recent activity would represent an astonishing abuse of power. Even by the standards of the second Trump administration, these actions are absurd, and unusually dangerous. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4f5xPg7

‌F.D.A. Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe

Officials at the Food and Drug Administration have blocked publication of several studies supporting the safety of widely used vaccines against Covid-19 and shingles in recent months, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed.

The studies, which cost millions of dollars in public funds, were conducted by scientists at the agency, who worked with data firms to analyze millions of patient records. They found serious side effects to be very rare.

In October, the scientists were directed to withdraw two Covid-19 vaccine studies that had been accepted for publication in medical journals. In February, top F.D.A. officials did not sign off on submitting abstracts about studies of Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, to a major drug safety conference. - NYT https://nyti.ms/49jmeXb

‌Home on the Range No More: Trump Wants Bison Gone

American Prairie, a nonprofit, has spent decades buying land in Montana to create a home for about 900 bison it owns.

NYT https://nyti.ms/4dbdy6z

‌Trump Administration Investigating Smith College Over Transgender Admissions

The Education Department has opened a civil rights investigation into whether Smith College, the women’s school in Northampton, Mass., violated anti-discrimination laws by allowing transgender students to enroll.

The inquiry broadens the Trump administration’s bid to limit rights for the nation’s transgender students by targeting school admissions for the first time. Until now, the administration had mostly focused on policies that allowed transgender women to participate in women’s sports and use women’s bathrooms.

By investigating Smith, the administration is raising the question of whether allowing transgender women to enroll at a women’s college — and providing access to “women-only” spaces such as bathrooms, housing and locker rooms — violates civil rights protections for women. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4erMGBr

‌Iran’s Unexpected Resilience

By the United States military’s estimation, about 1,550 marine vessels—oil tankers, bulk carriers, container ships, and more—are idling in the Persian Gulf right now. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively blockaded, their crews, many of them uninvolved in the ongoing war with Iran, are slowly using up supplies as they await safe passage through the mine-filled waterway. Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the U.S. would rescue these “victims of circumstance” by guiding them out of the war zone in an as-yet-unspecified way. On Monday, though, Iran’s military rejected the plan, warning that American military forces would be attacked if they approached the strait.

Both sides fired shots yesterday, although the U.S. claims that the cease-fire remains in place. The fact that Iran’s leaders are apparently willing to risk violating the delicate monthlong truce emphasizes just how fiercely they want to protect their hold over the strait. The past 65 days of war have badly punished Iran: Its leaders are dead, its navy and air force have been depleted, and its economy and infrastructure have been decimated. “If we leave right now,” Trump said last week, “it would take them 20 years to rebuild.” But amid the destruction, the country has also found new forms of leverage. Iran had not previously exercised this degree of control over the Strait of Hormuz, and before the war, the country could not have been confident that it would be able to do so. Even in its diminished state, the Iranian military has managed to deter enemy ships and outmaneuver anti-air systems, maintaining that grip on the strait while costing the U.S. billions. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tS0VnR

‌Trump Accuses Pope Leo of Endangering Catholics by Opposing Iran War

President Trump escalated his public feud with Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of endangering Catholics by opposing U.S. military action against Iran.

The president’s latest broadside against the pope could complicate Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Rome later this week, where he is due to meet with Pope Leo in a bid to reset U.S.-Vatican relations after months of growing tensions.

The Chicago-born pontiff has become one of the most outspoken critics of Trump’s growing use of military force, angering a president whose strong electoral support from Christians helped vault him back into the White House. - WSJ https://on.wsj.com/4nbc2FT

‌John Roberts Launched This War Four Decades Ago

On April 30, the morning after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, Governor Jeff Landry of Louisiana got to work. Landry is one of the country’s most aggressively MAGA red-state governors, and by then, had already issued an emergency executive order halting the state’s primary election. He did this even though candidates had already qualified, absentee ballots had been mailed, and early voting had begun. None of that mattered. Landry wanted new congressional maps because he knew Donald Trump wanted those maps.

Black Louisianans make up roughly a third of the state’s population. Under the maps that were in place, Black voters held two of the state’s six congressional seats, near proportional representation. But under the maps Landry intended to draw, they would hold just one. - The Big Picture https://bit.ly/4tiJhse

‌Kamala Harris Just Lit Trump the Fuck Up

Kamala Harris has been quiet. Too quiet. A lot of us have been sitting here watching Operation Epic Fury turn into Operation Epic Clusterfuck, watching diesel go vertical, watching Pete Hegseth mistake the Pentagon for a podcast studio, and thinking, where the hell is the opposition? Where is the grown-up in the room with a functioning limbic system and the vocabulary to name this shit for what it is?

Turns out she was just loading the clip.

Because Kamala Harris walked onto a screen this week and in the space of about three minutes did more damage to Donald Trump than the entire Democratic leadership has managed since January. She opened with this:

“We are dealing with the most corrupt, callous, and incompetent presidential administration in the history of the United States, period.” - IFLOZ https://bit.ly/42gcBF1

‌Hegseth: What war?

Nearly a month after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared that America had achieved victory against Iran, the two nations continue to fire on each other. And during a Tuesday press conference, he insisted that ongoing warfare is not war.

On April 8, Hegseth declared the conflict “a historic and overwhelming victory,” claiming that Iran’s navy, missile production capabilities, and air defenses had been destroyed. And despite claims of a ceasefire, Iran and the United States have continued attacking one another. On Monday alone, the two nations fired on each other’s ships amid Iran’s attempts to control naval traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which has severely constrained global supplies of fuel.

But in Hegseth’s eyes, mutual attacks don’t count as a violation of the ceasefire. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4wetJZf

‌Man with worm in brain thinks he can fix your brain

Consider Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a sort of Renaissance Man, if the Renaissance was a public health catastrophe helmed by the worst people imaginable. Not content to compromise our physical safety with his attacks on vaccines, he’s now taking aim at antidepressants.

To be perfectly clear: Kennedy is as qualified to go after SSRIs as he is to go after vaccines, which is to say not at all. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/49luOET

‌Par for the course: Trump tries to snatch another DC landmark

In case it wasn’t bad enough that the Justice Department is filing Truth Social posts as legal briefs to defend President Donald Trump’s ballroom, and in case it wasn’t bad enough that Trump arbitrarily decided to paint the reflecting pool blue, the president has found a public golf course to ruin too.

It’s no secret that Trump wants to take over all three of the public golf courses in Washington, D.C., but he’s got a special thirst for the East Potomac one, which he wants to turn into a championship-level course to host big, fancy golf events.

Work continues on a largely demolished part of the East Wing of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington, before construction of a new ballroom.

Attribution: APThe East Wing of the White House is demolished to make way for President Donald Trump’s new tacky ballroom.

In other words, the course would be the exact opposite of what it is now: a public course available to everyone. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4nou083

‌Who Stands to Gain Most From the MAGA Split

Call me naive, but I think I had given up on hypocrisy as a defining feature of American politics—I thought we had gone all the way past that to open avarice and the unapologetic exercise of force—but I guess if there’s one constant in life, it’s that there will be a place in politics for hypocrisy. So there was something refreshingly quaint about Tucker Carlson’s recent break with Trump right at the moment when a wedge issue formed in the MAGA coalition and Carlson could start to position himself for a 2028 presidential run. The news cycle was duly roiled with Tucker’s discovery of principles, even as it was evident on slightly closer inspection that the principles all benefited Tucker in the long-term.

The ostensible reason for the break is legible enough. Carlson has been an advocate for America First policies for a long time. He criticized Trump’s killing of Qasem Soleimani in 2020 and reportedly advised Trump against an Iran strike at that time. He campaigned—avidly—for Trump in 2024 on the premise that Trump would keep America out of foreign wars, and the attacks on Venezuela and then on Iran seem to have registered for Carlson as a genuine shock, and then led to the kind of falling out with Trump that, short as the memories of these two are, will be hard to patch up again.

On April 6, responding to Trump’s “Open the fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards” posts on Truth Social, Carlson said on his show, “How dare you speak that way on Easter morning to the country? Who do you think you are? You’re tweeting out the f-word on Easter morning?”

On April 7, Trump, skipping over the theological bits, countered by saying “Tucker’s a low IQ person that has absolutely no idea what’s going on.” - Persuasion https://bit.ly/48NzfrX

‌FDA withdraws publication of COVID, shingles vaccine research findings

During his confirmation hearings last year, Kennedy claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved COVID-19 vaccines "without any scientific basis."

However, COVID vaccines are among the most studied vaccines in history, with large clinical studies showing the health benefits far exceed any potential risks.

Additionally, health officials say COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective following clinical trials that involved tens of thousands of people, and have since helped save millions of lives.

The CDC has also stated that the shingles vaccine is safe and "not associated with serious adverse events."

Dr. Fiona Havers, a former CDC official who worked on vaccine policy and led the CDC's tracking of hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, said in a statement to ABC News, “HHS leaders now have a clear pattern of blocking high-quality studies that include results that don’t support their overall anti-vaccine narrative. - ABC https://bit.ly/42odhIm

‌White House Insists Iran War Is Over, Even While Missiles Fly

When the cease-fire in the war with Iran went into effect a month ago, President Trump was pretty direct that if the Iranians failed to end their nuclear program, or to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the bombers would be back in the air. “If there’s no deal, fighting resumes,” he said, making it very clear this was just a pause.

But it turns out, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that the war actually ended at some point after the cease-fire took hold, or so he told reporters at a news conference at the White House on Tuesday. “The Operation Epic Fury is concluded,” he said. “We achieved the objective of that operation.” The effort to reopen the strait, Mr. Rubio said, is entirely a defensive and humanitarian operation that would result in direct military exchanges with the Iranians only if U.S. ships came under fire.

Later on Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced that he was pausing even that effort — which was only one day old, and had succeeded in getting just a few ships freed — “for a short period of time,” citing what he said was “great progress” toward an agreement with Iran. But he kept the American blockade in place, part of a strategy of maximum economic pressure.

Still, Mr. Trump’s suspension of the effort to guide ships out of the strait seemed to contradict the administration’s stated position that it was intolerable for Iran to block an international waterway, and that only the United States had the ability to force it open again.

For the White House, the insistence that the war was over was the latest rhetorical leap in an effort to put a war that has created the greatest political crisis of Mr. Trump’s presidency in the rearview mirror. But the mere proclamation does not make it true. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dtDU4R

‌G.O.P. Proposes $1 Billion in Immigration Bill for Trump’s Ballroom Project

The money would go toward security improvements as part of an East Wing construction project, including a new ballroom that President Trump has said would be built with private dollars. - NYT https://nyti.ms/3QKW8pQ

‌The U.S. trade deficit widened as AI investment drove a surge in imports

The U.S. goods and services trade deficit widened to $60.3 billion in March, up $2.5 billion, or 4.4%, from a revised $57.8 billion in February, according to Commerce Department data released Tuesday.

Imports increased by 2.3% to $381.2 billion, and exports went up 2% to $320.9 billion. The goods deficit grew by $4.1 billion to $88.7 billion, but this was partly balanced by a $1.6 billion rise in the services surplus to $28.4 billion. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4cWMtVG

‌Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth

They entered the world the way babies should, with piercing cries announcing their arrival. They passed their newborn screening tests. Some made it to their 2-week wellness visits without concern.

Then, without warning, their systems began to shut down. A 7-week-old boy in Maryland developed sudden seizures. An 11-pound girl in Alabama stopped breathing for 20 seconds at a time. A baby boy in Kentucky vomited before becoming lethargic. A brown-haired girl in Texas, not yet 2 weeks old, bled around her belly button.

Desperate to save them, records show, doctors inserted tubes into their airways and hooked them up to IVs. They ordered blood transfusions. They spent half an hour trying to resuscitate one boy until his parents told them they could stop. They shaved another boy’s soft locks to embed a needle directly into his skull to reduce the pressure in his brain.

None of it was enough.

At the morgue, the babies were brought in with their diapers and blankets and with their hospital ID bracelets still wrapped around their tiny ankles. The pathologists’ findings were like those you would typically see in ailing adults, not newborns — the kind of bleeding seen during strokes or brain tissue loss similar to what happens when radiation is administered to treat cancer.

Their autopsies, which took place over the last several years, all came to the same conclusion: The deaths were caused, in whole or in part, by a rare but potentially fatal condition known as vitamin K deficiency bleeding. - Propublica https://bit.ly/4nf08el

‌Letters from an American - May 5, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Late yesterday, Republicans in the Senate released their funding request for the budget reconciliation bill. It includes $1 billion for White House security, including Trump’s proposed ballroom. President Donald J. Trump unexpectedly began the process of knocking down the East Wing of the White House on October 20, 2025, just two days after millions of Americans turned out for the October 18 No Kings rallies.

Days later, Trump told reporters that the cost of the ballroom he intended to build on the site would be paid “100 percent by me and some friends of mine.” At the time, he claimed the ballroom was necessary because presidents needed more space to host events. Since the incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the White House has emphasized the need for the space for security reasons. In response, Republicans proposed a measure that appropriated $400 million to build a secure ballroom.

And now, Republicans are advancing a measure that will appropriate $1 billion in taxpayer money for Trump’s ballroom. They are doing so through budget reconciliation, which cannot be filibustered and so can pass the Senate with no Democratic votes. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4tP9sbc

‌U.S. gas prices surge past $4.50 a gallon as the Iran war grinds on

Average U.S. gasoline prices crossed $4.50 a gallon on Tuesday for the first time since July 2022, according to AAA, with the national average reaching $4.52 as disruptions to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz push crude prices higher.

The strait has been effectively closed since fighting broke out on Feb. 28, blocking a chokepoint that previously handled roughly one-fifth of the world's daily oil shipments. The cost of a gallon of regular gasoline has climbed $1.54 since the war began, according to GasBuddy.

WTI crude rose to $105.33 per barrel, up almost $10 from the prior week's $95.94, while Brent climbed to $112.03 from $106.98. "For now, flows through the Strait remain restricted, further increasing the number of disrupted production volumes. Attacks on ships have also resumed, keeping upside pressure on prices," Giovanni Staunovo, UBS commodities strategist, said in an email cited by GasBuddy. - Quartz https://bit.ly/4nk3Ovs

‌RFK Jr. plans to curb antidepressants, which he falsely compares to heroin

Among his many dangerous, evidence-free statements, he has suggested that too many people, including children, are put on SSRIs and that they make people violent. He has even suggested that they are the cause of mass shootings, including school shootings. In a podcast last year, he made the heinous claim that “every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence.” His suggested solution is for black children to be “reparented” and work on farms.

Kennedy has also repeatedly made the false claim that quitting antidepressants is extremely difficult, harder to quit than heroin. But experts have debunked the claim—there is no research to back the suggestion. When Kennedy repeated it in his confirmation hearing in January 2025, Keith Humphreys, who studies addiction at Stanford University, emphasized to NPR that antidepressants and heroin “are in different universes when it comes to addiction risk.”

“In my 35 years in the addiction field, I’ve met only two or three people who thought they were addicted to antidepressants versus thousands who were addicted to heroin and other opioids,” Humphreys said. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4nhyJIG

‌Iran has hit far more U.S. military assets than reported, satellite images show

Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites across the Middle East since the war began, hitting hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft and key radar, communications and air defense equipment, according to a Washington Post analysis of satellite imagery. The amount of destruction is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government or previously reported. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4f6EzKI

‌Poll finds broad rejection of religion-related messages from Trump, Hegseth

Americans rate Pope Leo positively but are deeply critical of the president’s social media post that appeared to depict him as Jesus, the Post-ABC-Ipsos poll found. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4we6rmt

‌Trump lashes out at Pope Leo again ahead of Rubio trip to Rome

Ahead of a visit to Rome by Secretary of State Marco Rubio aimed partly at defusing tensions between the White House and the Vatican, President Donald Trump unleashed new criticism at Pope Leo XIV, suggesting the pontiff’s views on foreign policy are “endangering Catholics and a lot of people” and that he is “fine” with Iran having a nuclear weapon. - WaPo https://wapo.st/42gf7Lt

‌After defying Trump, a Republican lawmaker hangs on by a thread

Republicans in Indiana’s Senate tested voters’ tolerance for defying the president. Most lost in primaries amid a wave of threats, campaign cash and popular backlash. - WaPo https://wapo.st/48NB0Fz

‌A Look Inside the Case That Enshrined Political Power for Billionaires

For a brief moment in American history, the rich didn’t control politics.

Back in 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Congress passed new campaign finance restrictions that would have largely eliminated the ability of wealthy people to buy elections. In addition to donor disclosure rules and contribution limits, the new legislation capped so-called “independent expenditures” on behalf of political candidates at $1,000 a year. There were even curbs on what rich people could spend to get themselves elected.

David Koch, a wealthy industrialist, was enraged.

“I have the right to spend whatever I choose to promote what I believe,” he later wrote, adding that the law “makes my blood boil.”

Flash forward to the 2024 presidential campaign. Six of the nation’s wealthiest billionaires spent more than $100 million apiece to help get another billionaire, Donald J. Trump, elected president. Independent expenditures by wealthy outsiders for the first time in history exceeded what the candidates’ own campaign committees spent, a New York Times analysis showed. Mr. Koch’s brother Charles was among 300 billionaires and their families who accounted for 19 percent of all contributions in federal elections, either directly or through affiliated groups.

So what happened? - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nhzp0G

‌The FBI Is Reportedly Investigating a Leak to an Atlantic Writer

“If confirmed to be true, this would represent an outrageous attack on the free press and the First Amendment itself,” The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, said in a statement. “We will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously; we will not be intimidated by illegitimate investigations or other acts of politically motivated retaliation; we will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly, and thoroughly; and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest.”

This is not the first time in recent months that federal law enforcement has targeted traditional news-gathering practices in ways that seem designed to intimidate journalists and discourage critical news stories. In January, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the home of the Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, seizing her phone and other devices as part of an investigation into a government contractor who was charged with unlawfully transmitting and retaining classified information. Weeks earlier, Natanson had published an essay about how she had connected with more than 1,000 sources about the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal government. Some of that work, along with that of Natanson’s colleagues, was recognized this week when the Post was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. In March, the FBI began investigating the New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson after she wrote about Patel using bureau personnel to protect his girlfriend and ferry her around, the paper reported. (It also reported that the FBI decided not to pursue a case.) - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4tqCOM5

‌Indiana Primary Results Prove It: The GOP Is Still a Trump Cult

President Trump pushed super hard for Indiana Republicans to redistrict. Party leaders there felt compelled to hold a vote on redistricting, but surprisingly a slew of Republican state senators joined their Democratic colleagues to block it. That vote provided Trump names. Eight of the Republican state senators who opposed the redistricting were up for reelection this year. Trump endorsed primary challengers to seven of them. And on Tuesday, five of the seven lost to their Trump-backed rivals; some of the incumbents were resoundingly defeated. Another primary is currently too close to call. Just one has been declared the winner of his race. - New Republic https://bit.ly/4drGTea

‌Illinois State Police Open Investigation Into ICE Shooting Of Silverio Villegas González

Nearly eight months after Silverio Villegas González was killed by federal immigration agents in suburban Franklin Park, the Illinois State Police have launched an investigation into the fatal shooting.

Trooper Jayme Bufford, a state police spokesperson, confirmed the agency opened an investigation into Villegas González’ death. In an email to Block Club, Bufford said the Franklin Park Police Department asked the department’s Public Integrity Task Force to open the investigation.

Villegas González, a 38-year-old father of two, was killed during a traffic stop in September, just days after President Donald Trump’s administration launched Operation Midway Blitz. Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Block Club show that the Franklin Park Police Department has no records of the shooting beyond an initial police report and police body-camera footage.

Federal law enforcement officials have also refused to release any files related to the shooting. - Block Club Chicago https://bit.ly/4f843Ya

‌A Dangerous New Attack on Press Freedom

The Trump administration’s war against freedom of the press has reached a startling new low.

According to a report this morning from MS NOW, the FBI has opened a criminal investigation focusing on my Atlantic colleague Sarah Fitzpatrick, related to an article she published last month about Director Kash Patel. Drawing on some two dozen sources, Fitzpatrick reported that people inside the administration and the bureau are deeply concerned about what they described as Patel’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking.

Patel filed a lawsuit against Fitzpatrick and The Atlantic following the story’s publication, alleging defamation and demanding $250 million. The Atlantic says that it stands by Fitzpatrick’s reporting, and legal commentators from across the political spectrum have concluded that the case is weak and likely to fail. Editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg responded to the MS NOW report with this statement: “If confirmed to be true, this would represent an outrageous attack on the free press and the First Amendment itself. We will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously; we will not be intimidated by illegitimate investigations or other acts of politically motivated retaliation; we will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly, and thoroughly; and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest.” - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4nfemf0

‌Kash Patel’s Personalized Bourbon Stash

One of J. Edgar Hoover’s greatest reforms at the FBI was his embrace of fingerprinting. During the 1930s, visitors to the FBI offices in Washington, D.C., received souvenir fingerprint cards featuring his name. The men who succeeded him as FBI director were more discreet and judicious, mindful of the cult of personality that had developed around Hoover. They generally avoided giving out branded swag.

But then came Kash Patel.

President Trump’s FBI director has a great deal of affection for swag. Merchandise for sale on a website he co-founded—still operating, nearly 15 months into his term—includes beanies ($35), T-shirts ($35), orange camo hoodies ($65), trucker caps ($25), “government gangsters” playing cards (on sale for $10), and a Fight With Kash Punisher scarf ($25).

One thing not for sale is liquor, because liquor is something Patel gives away for free. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/48PtHNC

‌Jack Smith Calls the Justice Dept. ‘Corrupted’ by Trump and His Allies

Jack Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted President Trump, accused the Justice Department of having been “corrupted” by Trump loyalists he claimed were demolishing its credibility and seeking to undermine the rule of law.

Mr. Smith’s remarks, made last month in a private discussion at the Cosmos Club in Washington, represented his sharpest criticism of the department since leaving his post early last year. They came at a time when Mr. Trump is demanding Mr. Smith be prosecuted for his work as special counsel — an outcome Mr. Smith believes is likely, according to people familiar with his thinking.

“We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them,” Mr. Smith said in the hourlong discussion on April 20, according to a video obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Smith was appointed in late 2022 to investigate Mr. Trump’s post-presidency retention of government documents and his push to overturn the 2020 election.

Mr. Smith, speaking in the deliberate cadence of a prosecutor delivering a closing argument, cited what he cast as the wholesale erosion of the department’s tradition of independence from the White House. “We have a department that fails to investigate cases because they might uncover facts that are inconvenient for narratives the president would like to press,” he said. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uDRWXv

‌John Roberts Believes in an America That Doesn’t Exist

“Today is a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield,” President Lyndon Johnson declared as he signed the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965. “This act flows from a clear and simple wrong,” he continued. “Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote.”

And so it did.

The Voting Rights Act put the final nail in the coffin of American apartheid and opened the door to something that looked worthy of the name democracy. It brought a flowering of political participation, not just in the states of the former Confederacy but also throughout the country, as disadvantaged and disenfranchised Americans took advantage of new rules and protections to fight for and win political power. Latinos, Native Americans and other ethnic and linguistic minorities all won greater access and influence under the act and its subsequent amendments and reauthorizations. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4uFRHeA

‌Why won’t GOP lawmakers abandon Trump? Look to Indiana.

President Donald Trump is getting more unpopular by the day as his war in Iran leads to ballooning gas prices here at home. But if you think that would give GOP lawmakers cover to vote against Trump’s wishes, you’d be wrong. The results in Indiana’s primaries Tuesday night show why.

Trump endorsed primary challenges against a set of seven Republican state senators in the Hoosier State, seeking revenge for those senators refusing to heed his demand to redraw Indiana’s congressional maps and further rig the state in favor of Republicans. Trump-aligned groups spent millions against them as well.

And it paid off. Five of those seven Republicans lost their primaries Tuesday evening by large margins. One of the seven, state Sen. Greg Goode, beat his Trump-backed challenger. And the other is ahead by just three votes as of this article’s publication. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4njC0Y2

‌Letters from an American - May 6, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

It has not been a banner day for members of the Trump administration.

Evan Hill, Jarrett Ley, Alex Horton, Tara Copp, and Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post reported that Iranian strikes since February 28, when U.S. and Israeli air strikes began, have caused far more damage to U.S. military sites in the Middle East than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the U.S. government have admitted.

While the damage from the Iranian strikes, which have killed and wounded servicemembers, is itself important, so is the underlying story: the U.S. government is hiding the true cost of the war in Iran from the American people. The journalists note that it is “unusually difficult” to get satellite imagery from the Middle East right now because less than two weeks into the war, the U.S. government asked two of the largest commercial providers of satellite imagery, Vantor and Planet, “to limit, delay or indefinitely withhold the publication of imagery of the region while the war is ongoing.” - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4evGvwe

‌Justice Dept. Accuses U.C.L.A. Medical School of Bias Against White and Asian Applicants

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that an investigation found that the medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles, violated federal anti-discrimination laws with admissions policies that favored Black and Hispanic applicants with lower qualifications than white and Asian students.

The review stems from a 2023 Supreme Court decision that overturned race-conscious admissions. While many in academia have argued that the decision allowed for schools to consider race in some aspects of the application process, the Trump administration has adopted a narrow interpretation of the ruling. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d9noph

‌Judge Says F.B.I. Can Keep 2020 Election Records Seized From Georgia

A federal judge in Georgia ruled Wednesday that the federal government did not have to return 2020 election records seized by the F.B.I., rejecting a request from Fulton County that the materials be returned.

After F.B.I. agents carried out an extraordinary seizure of about 660 boxes of records from Fulton County’s elections hub, county officials responded in early February by filing a lawsuit demanding the return of the documents and describing the search as unconstitutional.

But Judge J.P. Boulee of the Federal District Court in Atlanta wrote in his order that while he found elements of the case “troubling,” the county had not met the bar required for him to compel the government to return the records.

“This Court acknowledges that the events leading up to this case are, in a variety of ways, unprecedented,” Judge Boulee, who was appointed to the federal bench during President Trump’s first term, wrote in his 68-page order. But he said that the county had not shown that the federal government had displayed “callous disregard” for the constitutional rights of the county. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4cZj511

‌Report shows banned non-fiction books doubled over last school year in US

A new report has found that the number of banned non-fiction books doubled during the 2024-2025 school year in the US.

PEN America analysed the 3,743 unique titles removed from school libraries and classrooms in the July to June period and found that over 1,100 or 29% were non-fiction, more than double the year prior.

The most common theme in the banned non-fiction books was activism and social movements. “These titles help students learn about their rights and the stories of those who confronted injustice and participated in social movements to change the world around them,” said McKenna Samson, a co-author of the report.

Banned non-fiction titles included Challenges for LGBTQ+ Teens by Martha Lundin, Aztec, Inca, and Maya by Elizabeth Baquedano and Night by Elie Wiesel, a Nazi death camp memoir.

“This latest trend shows an embrace of anti-intellectualism, undermining public knowledge by devaluing education and expertise,” said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s freedom to read program. “It is another example of how censorship sweeps broadly, leading to removals of all kinds of books, in its efforts to sow fear and distrust in our public education system.” - Guardian https://bit.ly/4wgeMpA

‌As U.S. Debt Hits a Worrying Milestone, Washington Barely Notices

The U.S. government learned last week that it may have reached an unfortunate milestone: The size of its debt surpassed the nation’s total economic output.

It was a striking imbalance, according to early estimates, one that the country has experienced only in rare circumstances — briefly during the pandemic, and in the aftermath of World War II. But the development barely seemed to register in the nation’s capital, where few policymakers bothered to acknowledge the latest warning sign about the government’s poor fiscal health.

The root of the problem is well-documented and widely known. U.S. debt has soared in recent years because of a mismatch between federal spending and tax revenue, one complicated by a rapidly aging population, which has driven up costs across government.

For economists, the fear is that these conditions are inching the United States toward a fiscal crisis, one in which its debt is so great that the country can’t easily afford to pay the rising interest on it. But their warnings have long gone unheeded in Washington, calcifying the strains on the government’s balance sheet in ways that President Trump’s agenda is expected to exacerbate.

Despite winning a congressional majority, Republicans have cut little in spending over the past year. With the few savings they did achieve, they put that money toward offsetting a fraction of the cost of Mr. Trump’s tax cuts, which are still expected to add more than $4 trillion to the debt in the coming years. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4wkD81z

‌Viewer Beware!

Our media is controlled by just a handful of billionaires and their corporations. And Trump is making it worse.

Trump’s FCC just approved a massive merger that would let one huge media company control what over 80 percent of American households see. One of these merging companies, called Nexstar, tried to silence late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

Trump’s FCC also cleared the way for billionaire Larry Ellison and his son, David, to buy Paramount — which includes CBS News. The Ellisons are huge Trump boosters.

Under their ownership, CBS News has already seen a massive shift toward a Trump-friendly agenda. Which is probably why Trump gave his blessing for the Ellisons’ company, Skydance Media, to also acquire Warner Brothers Discovery. If that deal goes through, Trump allies would also control CNN. Larry Ellison has reportedly had discussions with Trump about firing CNN hosts Trump doesn’t like.

And thanks to Trump, the Ellisons can also count TikTok as part of their growing media empire. Did you know that one out of five Americans gets their news from TikTok? - Reich Substack https://bit.ly/4uFJ2c7

‌Trump’s attempt to impose new 10% tariffs gets struck down by a panel of judges

President Donald Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariffs are in jeopardy after a federal court ruled them illegal on Thursday, dealing a second major blow this year to the president’s signature economic policy.

In a 2-1 ruling, the panel of judges at the US Court of International Trade found the administration lacked the justification to enact tariffs under a 1974 trade law known as Section 122. The administration began to enact these tariffs after a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year rendered its most sweeping levies illegal.

Thursday’s ruling calls for the administration to cease collecting these tariffs from the plaintiffs and refund prior payments. While only applicable to the impacted plaintiffs, it’s a major setback for the Trump administration and its tariff-enacting capacities. - CNN https://cnn.it/3Pbitw4

‌US military strikes sites in Iran as countries exchange fire

US forces targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for launching a series of “unprovoked” missile, drone and small boat attacks against American warships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command said on Thursday.

“U.S. forces intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes as US Navy guided-missile destroyers transited the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman, May 7,” CENTCOM said in a news release.

The Iranian facilities targeted by US forces included “missile and drone launch sites, command and control locations; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes,” according to CENTCOM.

President Donald Trump warned Iran against escalating tensions further and to sign a deal soon, in a post on Truth Social following the strikes. - CNN https://cnn.it/42W7Ctf

‌Trade Court Rules Trump’s 10% Global Tariff Is Illegal

A panel of federal judges on Thursday found President Trump had violated the law when he imposed a 10 percent tariff on most U.S. imports, dealing yet another legal setback to the White House in its efforts to wage a trade war without the express permission of Congress.

In a split ruling, the Court of International Trade found that Mr. Trump had wrongly invoked a decades-old trade law when he applied those duties beginning in February. The president imposed the levies after his previous set of punishing tariffs was struck down by the Supreme Court.

The decision appeared to place, for now, new limits on Mr. Trump’s trade powers, which he has wielded aggressively in hopes of resetting relationships with allies and adversaries, raising new revenue and encouraging more companies to make their products in the United States. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4d8kNfq

‌DOGE’s Termination of Humanities Grants Is Ruled Unconstitutional

A federal judge ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration’s cancellation of more than 1,400 previously approved grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities violated the Constitution, while also creating a broad “chilling effect.”

The ruling, issued by Judge Colleen McMahon of Federal District Court in Manhattan, addressed two lawsuits brought by scholarly groups and individual grant recipients. The plaintiffs had argued that the cuts, carried out by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, violated the First Amendment and, by singling out work relating to particular groups, the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment.

In her 143-page ruling, Judge McMahon ordered the agency to rescind the cuts while saying the plaintiffs had suffered “irreparable injury.”

“The injury is not limited to the loss of money,” Judge McMahon said. “It includes the disruption of protected expression, the interruption of ongoing research and publication, the cancellation or suspension of humanities programming, and the chilling effect caused by the government’s use of viewpoint-based and unauthorized criteria to terminate federal grants.” - NYT https://nyti.ms/42rPpDJ

‌Letters from an American - May 7, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

Today Tennessee state representative Justin Jones burned a Confederate battle flag in the rotunda of the Tennessee State Capitol in protest of the legislature’s redrawing of the state’s congressional district maps to erase the majority-Black 9th Congressional District. By cracking the city of Memphis into three pieces and joining them to white suburbs, the legislature turned all the state’s districts into Republican seats.

The actions of the Republicans in the Tennessee legislature are a direct response to the Supreme Court’s April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which found that in creating a second congressional district to enable Black voters to elect a representative of their choice, as mandated by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Louisiana legislature unconstitutionally took race into account when drawing the district lines. Although the Supreme Court’s clerk normally waits 32 days to finalize an opinion, the Supreme Court made the decision effective immediately to allow Louisiana, where the primary election was already underway, to redraw its maps. - Cox Richardson https://bit.ly/4niU2JH

‌Virginia Supreme Court blocks referendum that would have helped Democrats win up to four more US House seats

The Virginia Supreme Court voided Democrats’ attempt to redraw the state’s US House map in an April referendum, a devastating blow to the Democratic Party’s efforts in the national redistricting battle launched by President Donald Trump ahead of this fall’s midterms.

The court ruled that the process of creating the referendum violated the state Constitution. - CNN https://cnn.it/4eAr3z1

‌Judicial Supremacy Has Arrived

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not die all at once, or by one means. It died through attrition: a Congress that was too sclerotic and polarized to defend one of its finest accomplishments, lawyers and academics who tolerated retreats on civil rights, a society that lapsed into the comfortable illusion that it had accomplished the work of the civil-rights movement. And it died through action: a series of blows from conservative justices ideologically hostile to the law’s aims.

Last week’s decision in Callais v. Louisiana is the most devastating of those blows. The consequences are grave enough on their own terms. Callais will foreclose nearly all federal voting-rights claims aimed at ensuring minority political participation through fair districting. Over successive redistricting cycles, it is poised to collapse Black representation across the South in ways not seen since the end of Reconstruction.

But to view Callais as merely the final hit in the Voting Rights Act’s destruction is to miss its deeper ambition. The bigger shift is that Callais also closes off the possibility that a future Congress could respond with new legislation combating racial discrimination in the electoral system. Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion, joined by the other Republican appointees, rests on an interpretation of the Fifteenth Amendment that effectively bars Congress from remedying the very inequities Callais unleashes—inequities the amendment itself was designed to eradicate and prevent. - Atlantic https://bit.ly/4d9XzWg

‌Trump fraudster learns the hard way that a pardon only goes so far

Turns out that a pardon from President Donald Trump doesn’t actually protect you from everything.

Michele Fiore is one of the scuzzier and more low-rent denizens of Trump world. She scammed people out of $70,000 in donations that she solicited for a statue to honor a slain police officer, instead spending it on cosmetic surgery, rent, and her daughter’s wedding. - Daily Kos https://bit.ly/4dwPZ9s

‌Trump's feuds and tensions with allies likely to outlast Iran war

With his decision to pull some U.S. troops from Germany, his threats to draw down forces elsewhere in Europe and his downplaying of Iran’s recent attacks on an important Gulf partner, President Donald Trump's latest moves foreshadow what could be the war's enduring legacy: the fraying of ties with key allies.

Even ⁠as the U.S. and Iran inch toward a potential off-ramp from their 10-week war, Trump’s words and deeds have revived fears among Washington's long-standing friends — from Europe to the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific — that the United States might be unreliable in a future crisis.

In response, some traditional U.S. partners are starting to hedge their bets in ways that may bring long-lasting changes in relations with Washington, while adversaries such as China and Russia are looking to exploit strategic openings. - Reuters / Japan Times https://bit.ly/42rR3Fr

‌The No-Bid Contract That Is Turning Washington’s Reflecting Pool Blue

President Trump handpicked a firm he said had worked on his swimming pool to repair the iconic site near the Lincoln Memorial.

For a century, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has captured Washington’s history, a vast mirror for moments great and small.

Then, this spring, President Trump said he decided to paint it blue, and steered a government contract to somebody he said had worked on his swimming pools.

In the process, he made the pool into a reflection of Washington’s present.

To give out that $6.9 million no-bid contract, Mr. Trump’s administration invoked an exemption meant for urgent situations, The New York Times found. The exemption was supposed to be used only to prevent “serious injury, financial or other, to the government.” Administration officials made no public claim that such injury was likely; rather, officials said, Mr. Trump wanted it changed for the country’s birthday party on July 4. - NYT https://nyti.ms/48MTJBc

‌Republicans Are Building an Advantage in Redistricting. How Much Is It Worth?

The redistricting wars heading into the November midterm elections had been in a stalemate, with each party’s tit-for-tat gerrymanders roughly canceling each other out.

It’s not a stalemate anymore. Over just the last two weeks, new court rulings and new congressional maps have put Republicans on track to add more than a dozen districts that voted for President Trump. It would be enough for Republicans to obtain a significant structural advantage in the House of Representatives, giving them a much better chance to at least stay competitive even if they lost the combined national vote by a wide margin in the midterms. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dwQkce

‌ABC Accuses Government of Violating First Amendment

ABC has accused the Federal Communications Commission of violating its free speech rights, potentially setting the stage for a protracted, high-stakes legal battle between the network and the Trump administration.

The company said in a filing with the agency that regulators had a “chilling effect” on free speech by trying to punish political content they disagreed with. The filing, made public on Friday, is the most aggressive defense from any television network since President Trump kicked off an extended campaign last year to bring media organizations to heel. - NYT https://nyti.ms/42pAg5W

‌Hegseth Is Sending Us a Warning

This week, I heard something that shocked me. In a federal appeals court, lawyers for Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, argued that military retirees were subject to freedom of speech restrictions because of their connection to the military, and that if they didn’t like those restrictions, retirees could forfeit their pension and benefits. Let that sink in. The Trump administration expects the people who have put their lives on the line for America to cede one of their basic rights, or forfeit the retirement pay and benefits they have earned over decades of service.

I’m a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, and I was in that courthouse with dozens of other retired veterans. We were there to support and defend every veteran whose right to speak freely was being challenged by the government we had served.

How did we get here? - NYT https://nyti.ms/3Rwcse8

‌Hegseth Says This War Has Cost $25 Billion. I Tallied Up the True Amount.

Economists have long known that only a small fraction of the costs of war show up immediately in government spending accounts. What the Pentagon is doing is cash flow accounting — keeping track of the dollars flowing out of the Treasury. The economists Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz argue that we get very different — and much more realistic — estimates with accrual accounting, when you add the cost of each future obligation as you create it.

They estimated that the Iraq war cost the U.S. around $3 trillion. A huge share of those expenses came after the conflict, including the expense of lifetime medical care and disability benefits for veterans, and the higher recruitment and retention costs that follow a bloody war — all compounded by a rising interest bill. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4eDj1p2

‌DOJ sees fallout after push to prosecute former FBI director James Comey

Several prosecutors have left the Justice Department, others are considering doing so, and at least one major case has been disrupted.

More than a half-dozen prosecutors have been demoted or pushed out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia due to fallout from the Justice Department’s push to prosecute former FBI director James B. Comey, leaving a key prosecutorial office understaffed and weakened. - WaPo https://wapo.st/4nhnnEu

‌Trump’s Push for ‘Ultrafast’ Meat Processing Could Make a Brutal Industry Even Worse

Labor organizers, environmental advocates, and economists all agree: This is a bad idea. - Gizmodo https://bit.ly/4nmU4k2

‌Two Court Decisions Have Unleashed an Era of Perpetual Redistricting

A coast-to-coast sprint of partisan one-upmanship in which eight states have redrawn their congressional districts since last summer is likely to escalate next year to at least a dozen more as both parties seek maximum advantage in their battle for control of the House.

Four states are considering drawing new congressional or judicial maps for partisan gain in the coming weeks that could be implemented in time for the fall midterms. But the real flurry could come next year, when at least a dozen more that sat out this year’s redistricting parade could join the fray.

The longstanding tradition of drawing political lines only once a decade, after each census, is giving way to an era of perpetual redistricting where officials seek opportunities for partisan gerrymandering at every chance they can. Both parties have ratcheted up their efforts in recent days, assessing every corner of the electoral map for new openings and redoubling their efforts to win control of state capitols, where the power to draw congressional boundaries often lies. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4nmUjvs

‌For Trump, Court Loss Is Latest Twist in Ever-Shifting Tariffs

The president has reworked his tariffs repeatedly — sometimes because they have been declared illegal — with more updates still to come.

Under President Trump, the tariffs keep on changing. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4dzBTUJ

‌Exclusive: Inmates describe being punished for speaking out about Ghislaine Maxwell

Convicted sex offenders are not typically eligible to serve time at a minimum-security prison camp, so Maxwell’s transfer from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to the Bryan prison camp last summer was highly unusual, according to prison consultants. It prompted speculation that the government was giving Epstein’s accomplice special treatment in exchange for Maxwell staying quiet about President Donald Trump’s past relationship with Epstein.

Maxwell only further fueled those questions when she spoke flatteringly of Trump during her interview with then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and said she never heard of Trump doing anything inappropriate. Maxwell has also signaled publicly that if the president were to grant her clemency, she would clear his name of any wrongdoing as it pertains to Epstein. (Trump has not been accused by law enforcement of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein; he appears numerous times in the Department of Justice’s Epstein files.) - CNN https://cnn.it/3QRIBgh

‌LOOTING THE US TREASURY

Trump Sues Himself for $10 Billion, But A Judge Shut It Down. - Henry Umeana https://bit.ly/49E88jc

‌Trump Says Iran’s Response to Latest U.S. Proposal ‘Totally Unacceptable’

President Trump on Sunday rejected the latest offer from Iran to end the war with the United States, declaring that it was “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.”

Mr. Trump commented hours after the Iranian government said it had sent a counterproposal to end the conflict following a tense week of attacks and responses in the Persian Gulf that rattled a fragile cease-fire between the countries. The details of Iran’s proposal were not made public, and Mr. Trump did not say what was objectionable. - NYT https://nyti.ms/4whObZj

‌ABC refuses to capitulate to Trump admin, fights FCC probe into The View

ABC is fighting back against the Trump administration’s attempt to police broadcast television content, saying in a filing that the Federal Communications Commission is violating the First Amendment.

Led by Chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC accused ABC’s The View of not complying with the equal-time rule, even though the interview portions of talk shows have historically been exempt from the rule requiring equal time for opposing political candidates. The FCC also opened an unusual review of ABC’s broadcast licenses one day after the president and First Lady Melania Trump called on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a recent joke.

An ABC filing that was made public today said the FCC exceeded its authority in actions that “threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly.” The filing is primarily in response to the equal-time investigation, but ABC also seems determined to fight the larger license review. - ArsTechnica https://bit.ly/4dcM5mh

‌

Week Sixty-Eight: May 11 - May 17

‌Checkmate in Iran

It’s hard to think of a time when the United States suffered a total defeat in a conflict, a setback so decisive that the strategic loss could be neither repaired nor ignored. The calamitous losses suffered at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, and throughout the Western Pacific in the first months of World War II were eventually reversed. The defeats in Vietnam and Afghanistan were costly but did not do lasting damage to America’s overall position in the world, because they were far from the main theaters of global competition. The initial failure in Iraq was mitigated by a shift in strategy that ultimately left Iraq relatively stable and unthreatening to its neighbors and kept the United States dominant in the region.

Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character. It can neither be repaired nor ignored. There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done. The Strait of Hormuz will not be “open,” as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world. The roles of China and Russia, as Iran’s allies, are strengthened; the role of the United States, substantially diminished. Far from demonstrating American prowess, as supporters of the war have repeatedly claimed, the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. That is going to set off a chain reaction around the world as friends and foes adjust to America’s failure. - Atlantic https://is.gd/km2hux

‌Trump calls Iran’s response to peace plan ‘totally unacceptable’ as ceasefire frays

Donald Trump has rejected an Iranian response to a US peace proposal as “totally unacceptable”, on a day the month-old ceasefire showed signs of fraying as drone strikes were reported around the region and Benjamin Netanyahu warned the war was “not over”. - Guardian https://is.gd/Lux5RO

‌The families going hungry because of Trump’s food stamp cuts

The line outside a suburban office building was already 15 people long when Tiffany Hudson showed up with her 7-year-old son cradling his blanket. It was 7 a.m. At the front of the line was a woman hooked up to an oxygen tank who had arrived 90 minutes before the building opened.

Like others there, Husdon had come to the Arizona Department of Economic Security office in Surprise, a Phoenix suburb, to find out why the food stamp benefits for her and her two children were cut off after the state began implementing new eligibility requirements under President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” - NBC https://is.gd/mDhG5O

‌Virginia Democrats ask US Supreme Court to let them use new congressional map

Democratic officials in Virginia asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to reinstate a congressional map that would benefit their party ahead of this year’s midterm elections, the latest map drawing appeal to reach the high court amid a flurry of mid-decade redistricting.

The emergency appeal follows a decision from the state Supreme Court last week that voided Democrats’ attempt to redraw Virginia’s US House map via an April referendum in a way that would help Democrats pick up four additional seates. The Democrats are asking the US Supreme Court to effectively put that order on hold for this year’s midterm election. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/gTZU7V

‌Supreme Court allows Alabama to eliminate congressional district held by a Black Democrat

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Monday cleared the way for Alabama to revert to a congressional map with one majority-Black district in a sudden ruling that drew a dissent from the court’s three liberal justices.

Alabama officials had rushed up to the court late Friday asking it to halt a lower court ruling blocking it from using a map it enacted in 2023 that includes only one majority-Black district out of seven. It did so based on the court’s blockbuster decision in late April dealing with Louisiana’s congressional map that severely weakened the scope of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/QJBFZp

‌Trump thrusts the Postal Service back into his election fraud crusade

After years of baselessly casting vote by mail as a fraud magnet, Trump in March issued an executive order that would push USPS far beyond delivering ballots — and into the business of deciding who gets one.

That order has raised alarms inside the Postal Service over whether it can or should take on such a complicated and controversial role, sources told CNN, especially when it may need help from Trump and Republicans to steady its finances.

Under the order, the Postal Service would work with states to determine who can vote by mail and enforce that eligibility, flagging or rejecting ballots tied to people not on those lists. Voting-rights groups and some Democratic-led states say that’s an unconstitutional power grab: The Constitution gives states — not the president or USPS — control over election administration. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/1zicB6

‌Trump ties himself in knots to avoid resuming a full-scale war in Iran

Perhaps the most bizarre moment in the monthslong Iran war occurred in mid-April, when President Donald Trump insisted that Tehran had just “agreed to everything” he had demanded.

That didn’t pan out, of course. And there’s no reason to believe the agreements existed — even tentatively — anywhere except in Trump’s own head. Pretty much everything else continues to suggest, even weeks later, that the two sides remain far apart.

Trump acted like he could will an agreement into existence. Instead, he made it abundantly clear to everyone, including Iran, that he was desperate for a deal.

It wasn’t the first time, or the last.

Over and over again, Trump has appeared remarkably hesitant in recent weeks to resume fighting if Iran doesn’t give him what he wants. He and his administration have tied themselves in knots to explain why they keep giving Iran latitude and time. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/KGs9sS

‌The Trump administration is trying to divert $2 billion in global health funding to pay for USAID shutdown

The Trump administration plans to redirect $2 billion in funding intended for global health programs to cover the cost of closing the US Agency for International Development (USAID), according to a copy of the notification obtained by CNN.

The funds would be pulled from money that Congress appropriated for health programs tackling malaria, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, nutrition, global health security, HIV/AIDS and more, two federal health policy experts told CNN. Roughly $1.2 billion originally intended for foreign development assistance would also be redirected.

Instead, the administration aims to use those billions to pay for things like legal costs, pending invoices and asset sales in the wake of its abrupt dismantling of USAID. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/bMhXuU

‌Trump Has Gone From Unpredictable to Unreliable

In July, on the manicured grounds of President Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, the Trump administration struck a trade deal with the European Union. The agreement—centered on a 15 percent tariff on most European exports—was an uneasy compromise designed to avoid a bigger clash.

By early fall, the deal was headed into the rough. Lawmakers in the European Parliament—rattled by Trump’s renewed talk of acquiring Greenland—questioned the durability of any agreement tied so closely to Trump’s coercive and shifting demands. Inside the Trump administration, officials were already discussing a far steeper tariff regime—up to 50 percent—if Europe didn’t yield, two U.S. officials told me. This month, after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by Iran at the negotiating table, Trump accused the EU of backsliding on the deal and threatened new duties of 25 percent on European cars, an escalation that was poorly received in Brussels. “A deal is a deal, and we have a deal,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said recently. “And the essence of this deal is prosperity, common rules, and reliability.” - CNN https://25th.s.gy/tNyF1J

‌Trump threatens using ‘army’ to rig midterm elections

President Donald Trump is being criticized for his call for an “election integrity army” to fight against Democrats concerned about voter suppression.

In a post to his Truth Social account on Sunday, Trump fumed that former Attorney General Eric Holder plans to work with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on efforts to suppress the vote in the upcoming midterm elections. Trump lied and claimed that “unhinged” Democrats “will no doubt try to suppress Republican voters.”

Trump praised the Republican Party’s use of an “election integrity army” during the 2024 election cycle and added, “We will be doing the same again in 2026, but it will be much bigger and stronger.” - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/ZSscHi

‌Trump Exempted Some of the Nation’s Biggest Polluters From Air Quality Rules. All It Took Was an Email.

In March 2025, President Donald Trump’s administration made a tantalizing offer to coal-fired power plants, chemical manufacturing facilities and other factories: Their operations could be exempted from key provisions under the Clean Air Act, the bedrock environmental law estimated to have prevented thousands of premature deaths. All they had to do was ask.

No rigorous application was needed. An email, which they had until the end of the month to send, would suffice.

Within two weeks, executives across major industries began flooding an inbox set up to receive and funnel requests from the Environmental Protection Agency to the White House. They asked that their facilities be excused from expensive Clean Air Act requirements, relief that would save their companies money but pollute the air breathed by millions of Americans. - ProPublica https://25th.s.gy/Y7w3Bd

‌Kennedy Is Driving a Vast Inquiry Into Vaccines, Despite His Public Silence

The work is raising alarms among some vaccine scholars and critics of Mr. Kennedy, who have long accused the secretary of cherry-picking data and misinterpreting studies to claim that vaccines are unsafe and to limit their use. They fear Mr. Kennedy will use the findings to further erode confidence in vaccines, which the World Health Organization estimates saved 154 million lives over the past half-century. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/fl0dws

‌China Increasingly Views Trump’s America as an Empire in Decline

For decades, many Chinese viewed the United States with a mix of admiration, envy and resentment. President Trump’s volatile second term shattered that image. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/utk1EA

‌US inflation rose to 3.8% in April, eroding Americans’ paychecks

For the first time in three years, Americans’ wages are no longer outpacing inflation.

Prices rose 0.6% on a monthly basis, driving the annual rate to 3.8%, the highest since May 2023, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economists had expected prices to rise 0.6% from March and for the annual rate to climb to 3.7%.

Prior to the late-February US-Israeli strikes on Iran, inflation had eased to 2.4%. It leaped higher in March, and now, the energy price shock from the Iran war is further compounding longstanding affordability concerns for Americans weighed down by years of fast-rising prices. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/CLDIlN

‌Inflation surges to its highest level in almost 3 years

U.S. consumer prices rose 3.8% over the 12 months ending in April, the fastest annual pace since May 2023, as energy costs tied to the war with Iran continued to drive inflation higher.

April's monthly CPI reading of 0.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis was in line with forecasts, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday, though the 3.8% annual figure came in a tenth of a percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus and exceeded March's reading by half a percentage point.

A 3.8% jump in the energy index drove much of the overall increase, pushing the 12-month energy gain to 17.9% and accounting for more than 40% of the total monthly rise across all categories. Gasoline prices were up 28.4% compared with a year earlier.

Food prices rose 0.5% for the month, putting the annual food index at 3.2%. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs increased 1.3% in April, with beef up 2.7%. Fruits and vegetables gained 1.8% over the month. - Quartz https://25th.s.gy/pEp4mb

‌Reflecting Pool Repairs to Cost $13.1 Million. Trump Had Promised $1.8 Million.

President Trump said that his handpicked contractor would charge only $1.8 million to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and paint it blue.

The actual cost is now more than seven times that, after the Interior Department nearly doubled the size of the contract late last week, federal records show.

On Friday, the Interior Department added $6.2 million to the contract’s previous cost, saying it now planned to pay $13.1 million to a Virginia firm called Atlantic Industrial Coatings. President Trump said he chose that company to repair the landmark because the firm had worked on the swimming pools at his golf club in Sterling, Va.

The government awarded that firm a no-bid contract last month, bypassing the requirement to seek competing offers by saying that the situation was so urgent that any delay would cause “serious injury” to the government. The government has not publicly said what that injury would have been. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/pRFIn3

Tortured In El Salvador. Detained For Over A Year. Then Deported Anyway‌

After he was tortured in El Salvador and one of his family members was killed, M.G. sought refuge in the United States. The Convention Against Torture was supposed to make sure he didn’t go back. But he was deported — and no one has heard from him since. - Block Club Chicago https://25th.s.gy/pIbly1

‌What I Just Heard About the Plot To Oust Trump

I had dinner recently with a group of political operatives — sophisticated people who for years have been advising politicians and candidates. During dinner they shared with me their fantasy, which they gave 30 percent odds of becoming a reality within the next four months.

In my dinner companions’ fantasy, Trump’s failed war will elevate gas and food prices so high and long that much of the Republican base will begin turning against Trump. And Trump’s mental problems will become even more obvious.

Faced with all this, JD Vance promises Marco Rubio that he’ll appoint him vice president if Rubio joins Vance in seeking to oust Trump under the 25th Amendment.* Rubio agrees.

Vance and Rubio then approach House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune for confidential discussions in which they broach the possibility. Johnson and Thune give Vance and Rubio their tacit support.

Vance and Rubio then get Pete Hegseth to sign on, promising Hegseth that he’ll keep his job. They get Todd Blanche to sign on by promising him he’ll be appointed permanent attorney general.

Vance, Rubio, Hegseth, and Blanche are what Thune and Johnson need to make the 25th stick. - Reich Substack https://25th.s.gy/SEuAjy

‌FDA chief to depart after Trump signed off on ousting him

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary is leaving the Trump administration, according to three people familiar with the situation, after President Donald Trump signed off on a plan to fire him last week.

The FDA chief had come under intense and sustained pressure from within the administration — including over his resistance to approving the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, an episode that prompted Trump to confront him directly — and from outside allies, including in the pharmaceutical industry and anti-abortion interest groups. And he oversaw constant turnover within the agency’s senior ranks. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/4w7BSk

‌Russia Keeps Attacking U.S. Firms in Ukraine. The White House Is Silent.

The Russian drones slammed into the American-owned warehouses one after another.

Each announced its arrival with an eerie whine. Then came the blasts, ripping through a vast grain terminal in southern Ukraine and lighting up the night sky.

Seven drones in three minutes. The target, according to a video of the mid-April attack recorded by a truck driver, was the U.S. farming giant Cargill.

“This is insane,” the driver is heard repeating in the video, which was obtained and verified by The New York Times. “This is insane.”

The attack was one of the latest in a series of Russian strikes on major American companies since last summer, including facilities tied to Coca-Cola, Boeing, the snacks maker Mondelez and the tobacco giant Philip Morris.

The corporations have largely avoided publicizing the strikes, wary of alarming investors and insurers. While Ukraine has disclosed several attacks on American assets, the strikes on Cargill and Coca-Cola have not been previously reported. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/uHQbT6

‌Makary’s time atop FDA over, Diamantas named acting commissioner

The embattled Food and Drug Administration commissioner is resigning from his role Tuesday after 13 months leading the federal agency, according to an administration official granted anonymity to discuss the development.

Kyle Diamantas, who previously worked as the top food official at the agency, will lead the FDA in an acting capacity, the administration official said.

The decision to move on from Makary was months in the making, according to a senior administration official granted anonymity to discuss the Johns Hopkins surgeon’s tenure. His stint was marked by mass layoffs, persistent churn among senior leaders and policy fights with lawmakers, drugmakers and President Donald Trump. - Politico https://25th.s.gy/KrusjA

‌Inflation jumps to its highest level since 2023. Here are 3 things costing a lot more

The U.S. war with Iran has pushed inflation to its highest level in almost three years.

Consumer prices in April were up 3.8% from a year ago, according to a report Tuesday from the Labor Department. That was the biggest annual increase since May 2023.

Prices rose 0.6% between March and April.

From gas prices to housing, here are three things to know about the rising cost of living. - NPR https://25th.s.gy/V1ON0K

‌The Mess at the FDA Just Got Bigger as Chief Marty Makary Resigns

The second Trump administration continues to be a heavily used revolving door. Just today, Marty Makary officially resigned his position as head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Politico was the first to report on the development this afternoon. Makary’s resignation ends a short tenure marred by controversy, misleading health-related claims from the federal government, and infighting among different camps of the GOP. - Gizmodo https://25th.s.gy/eoHUGT

Trump: I don't think about Americans' financial situation."

CNN Video: https://25th.s.gy/b7PczB

‌Senate Republicans weigh whether to swallow Trump’s $1B push for ballroom security

Key Senate Republicans are signaling a willingness to support up to $1 billion in security upgrades for President Donald Trump’s ballroom renovation project, despite Democratic attacks, as the White House ramps up its lobbying push.

But the vote could put some of the Senate’s moderates in a politically difficult position, especially after the president said his ballroom would be funded through private donations. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/aJURBG

‌Americans’ anger about the economy hits Trump and Republicans’ midterm prospects

It’s President Donald Trump’s economy – and most Americans aren’t happy with it.

A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds that 77% – including a majority of Republicans – say that Trump’s policies have increased the cost of living in their own community. Roughly two-thirds of Americans say that Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the country. And Trump’s approval rating stands at 30% on the economy, a career low. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/HHH3hp

‌CNN Exclusive: Fired former acting FBI chief says Patel tied job security to purging agents linked to Trump probes

A week before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, Brian Driscoll, a decorated FBI special agent, received a series of calls that alarmed him. He was being offered the No. 2 job at the FBI and was told that if he didn’t take it, a political appointee would likely get the role. Driscoll didn’t think that was an acceptable alternative, so he hesitantly agreed.

But then came the vetting process, Driscoll says, which raised more concerns.

Over the next few days, Driscoll says he was asked a series of questions by incoming Trump officials about his personal politics, including who he voted for, when he started supporting Trump, and whether he’d voted for a Democrat in recent elections.

At one point, according to Driscoll, incoming FBI Director Kash Patel told him the vetting wouldn’t be an issue so long as he wasn’t active on social media, didn’t donate to the Democratic Party, and didn’t vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

“It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up,” says Driscoll, who became acting director of the FBI for a month before Patel was confirmed in the job. Patel eventually fired Driscoll in August 2025, and Driscoll is now suing Patel and the Trump administration for wrongful termination. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/NaogEy

‌The South’s New Maps Are A Disgrace. But Also, Possibly, A Massive Self-Own.

There are major inflection points in U.S. history, when decades of progress, hard-won and paid for with great sacrifice, finally emerge triumphant—or teeter on collapse.

This is one of those points.

Less than two weeks ago, the Supreme Court stuck a legal dagger into our democracy with its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. Yesterday, through its “shadow docket,” it drove that dagger deeper through our body politic, greenlighting states across the South to quickly eliminate most, if not all, Black-majority districts before the 2026 midterms.

As I wrote in an earlier piece, Callais is not an aberration. It is, rather, the culmination of a decades-long campaign by Chief Justice John Roberts to gut voting rights for racial minorities. It’s also the latest blow in a long and painful history, running from the cotton fields of the Black Belt to the statehouses of the old Confederacy. Through its cold reasoning, Callais posed the ultimate question for our nation: Will Black Americans and other minorities ever have genuine political power in a multi-racial, pluralistic democracy? Or will that power be gerrymandered back into irrelevance by the same forces that have sought to suppress it for 150 years?

The Court went with the latter. - The Big Picture https://25th.s.gy/HgH0di

‌Trump’s war in Iran has been hell on Americans’ wallets

President Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran is undeniably causing economic pain for Americans, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics announcing on Tuesday that inflation has risen at the fastest rate in three years.

The consumer price index—which measures the average change in consumer goods prices—rose 3.8% in April compared with a year prior. That’s much higher than the 2.4% year-over-year inflation rate in February, before Trump started the Iran war. - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/qIB2NQ

‌Suckers paid $59 million for nonexistent Trump phones

The T1 Phone—a gold cell phone bearing President Donald Trump’s name—feels about as real as Bigfoot these days. It’s been close to a year since the flashy announcement that the Trump family was going to manufacture the very best, most American, most gold-plated phone ever. But there’s no phone in sight, and it’s increasingly looking like there never will be.

But if it never arrives, what happens to the $59 million that Trump Mobile raked in thanks to 590,000 suckers plopping down $100 each as a deposit?

By now, you should know how this works. Those folks are likely out of luck. Why would you ever give money to the Trump family on spec? They are just going to run away with it. - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/8J4br8

‌Trump melts down after New York Times exposes his corruption

President Donald Trump had another online meltdown at six in the morning on Tuesday. This time it was posting a lengthy diatribe complaining about a New York Times report that exposed millions in unaccountable spending by his administration on controversial renovations to the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial.

Trump started his rant by lying once again that he had won the 2024 election in a “landslide,” when in fact he won the popular vote by a miniscule 1.5% while Biden won it by over 5% in 2020.

Attribution: By permission of Mike Luckovich and Creators SyndicateCartoon by Mike Luckovich

He then complained that the Times “are now trying to justify Obama and Biden’s expensively botched attempt at fixing the long broken, unsightly, and unsanitary Reflecting Pool that NOW sits majestically between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.” - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/5sjcmb

‌Trump to Supreme Court: I’m your Constitution now

Uh-oh, it looks like one of President Donald Trump’s sycophants told him to prepare for the Supreme Court denying his wish of eliminating birthright citizenship. And as you can imagine, he’s not taking it well.

Unsurprisingly, Trump has decided that the best way to handle the upset is to threaten the Supreme Court justices on Truth Social—because how dare his own appointees rule against him.

Trump is already furious that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett voted to overrule his patently illegal tariffs, so now he wants to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. This time around, he’s outright demanding that the conservative justices universally rule in his favor on everything. - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/qAk5uw

‌Kash Patel’s Performative Deflections

During a Senate subcommittee hearing today, Democrats tried a variety of avenues to pin down FBI Director Kash Patel on reports about the bureau—about politicization of law enforcement as well as his personal conduct—but it was a simple question from Senator Chris Van Hollen at the end that produced the most telling response.

“Do you know that it is a crime to lie to Congress?” the Maryland Democrat asked.

Patel scowled and loudly reshuffled papers at his table. “I have not lied to Congress,” he said. He accused the senator of lying. He refused to look up. But as Van Hollen noted, Patel repeatedly sidestepped the actual question.

“The director of the FBI apparently does not want to answer the question about whether or not it’s a crime to lie to Congress, and I find that extremely troubling,” Van Hollen said. “You are a disgrace, Mr. Director.” - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/KLvbwf

‌Letters from an American - May 12, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

The biggest story in the country, today and always, is that the president of the United States is mentally unwell.

Over the course of three hours last night, he posted on social media fifty-five times. Those posts accused a number of those Trump considers his personal enemies, including former president Barack Obama, of treason; claimed that investigations of the ties between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives were an attempt to damage Trump; insisted the 2020 presidential election was stolen; reposted a fake quotation from Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) accusing Obama of making a personal fortune of $120 million from the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare; labeled Obama and others “traitors” and called for their arrest; and demanded to know why acting attorney general Todd Blanche hadn’t indicted any of those people yet.

This morning, he started in again with a long screed attacking the New York Times for its coverage of his alterations to the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and insisting that Democratic presidents Obama and Joe Biden had “botched” renovations that he was now fixing for “a ‘tiny’ fraction of the cost!” He posted an AI image of Obama, Biden, and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) apparently swimming in a filthy version of the reflecting pool with the caption: “Dumacrats Love Sewage.” Then he posted an image of himself on the $100 bill. And then he was back to calling House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) “Low IQ.”

After posting a number of AI images showing the U.S. military destroying the Iranian military, Trump posted: “When the Fake News says that the Iranian enemy is doing well, Militarily, against us, it’s virtual TREASON in that it is such a false, and even preposterous, statement. They are aiding and abetting the enemy!”

Then he posted an image of a map with Venezuela overlaid with the U.S. flag. The caption read: “51st State.” - Cox Richardson https://25th.s.gy/KuH3Xj

‌Pete Hegseth is now bringing his wife to Pentagon meetings after he ousted top officials: report

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is now bringing his wife to meetings with Pentagon staffers as his inner circle grows tighter, according to a report.

The move comes as Hegseth has faced increased criticism and ousted more than two dozen Pentagon officials in recent weeks. It also comes as Hegseth leads the nation’s efforts in the Iran war and constantly promotes the success the U.S. has had in its attacks. Hegseth has now grown increasingly isolated within the Pentagon, according to The Guardian.

Hegseth has also expressed fear and paranoia about President Donald Trump firing him, the report noted.

Now, Hegseth has brought his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, a fellow former Fox News producer, to some meetings and she sits in the back of the room.

It’s unclear if Jennifer had any role at the meetings or was just there to observe. - Independent https://25th.s.gy/ydR5aW

‌U.S. Intelligence Shows Iran Retains Substantial Missile Capabilities

The Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities.

Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz, which could threaten American warships and oil tankers transiting the narrow waterway. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/xcFBdR

‌Trump’s Shrinking Ambitions on China

When President Trump campaigned in 2024, he promised a trade agenda that would hit China harder than any other economic partner, expanding on actions he had taken in his first term.

Mr. Trump talked about imposing a tariff of 60 percent or more on the country, and proposed stripping China of the preferential trade relations given to it when it joined the World Trade Organization. The rest of the world would be subject to tariffs too, but they would be much lower, at 10 or 20 percent.

More than a year into Mr. Trump’s second term, the picture looks dramatically different. Though U.S. tariffs on China are higher overall when the tariffs from Mr. Trump’s first term are added in, other countries have faced punitive levies that were nearly as high, and higher for some products.

The Trump administration has saved its most caustic criticism for allies in Europe and Canada, while approaching China more cautiously. And as Mr. Trump heads to Beijing this week for a summit with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, expectations for its outcomes are limited. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/vC2yyT

‌In Heated Exchanges, Kash Patel Denies Lying and Excessive Drinking

Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, offered a series of angry, insult-laden denials to Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday in response to questions about his conduct, including whether he drank to excess, forced subordinates to take polygraph exams and made false statements to Congress.

The remarks, delivered at a hearing ostensibly about the coming budget for the F.B.I. and other law enforcement agencies, veered from sedate exchanges about operational matters to ugly personal confrontations, particularly between Mr. Patel and Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland.

“You are a disgrace, Mr. Director,” the senator declared toward the end of the hearing. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/i8Ypzk

‌Inflation Accelerates After Weeks of War in Iran

Consumer prices in the United States rose at the fastest rate since May 2023 last month, as sharp increases in energy costs caused by war in the Middle East made life more expensive for American consumers.

The Consumer Price Index rose 3.8 percent in April from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported on Tuesday, up from a 2.4 percent annual increase before the conflict started in February and a 3.3 percent increase in March.

The increase was driven largely by energy prices, up 3.8 percent just since the previous month and nearly 18 percent from a year earlier. But the “core” index, stripping out volatile food and energy prices, also rose 2.8 percent over the year in April, up from 2.6 percent in March.

“I’m looking for anything where I can say ‘here’s some relief,’ and that’s not very easy to do in this report,” said Michael Reid, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets. “Generally inflation is moving in the wrong direction.” - NYT https://25th.s.gy/PJiGHQ

‌FBI Created ‘Payback Squad’ to Handle Political Cases, Sources Say

The FBI now has a team of special agents that’s being internally referred to as the “payback squad” specifically put together to handle politically sensitive cases, according to four sources briefed on the matter who spoke to NOTUS on the condition of anonymity.

The team is understood to be made up of agents who are willing to pursue political targets set by the Trump administration, with one current government official noting that investigators are tasked with building cases similar to the recent criminal prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey. The sources — which include two current government officials, a former official and a fourth person familiar with current operations — differed on whether the squad is based out of Washington headquarters or New York. - NOTUS https://25th.s.gy/xXUec9

‌FDA chief resigns after Trump admin forced approval of fruity e-cigs

Trump’s positive review of Makary stands in contrast to the news last week. As administration insiders were widely broadcasting plans for Makary’s ouster on Friday, they offered a long list of issues and instances in which Makary was at odds with the White House. And, according to those close to Makary who spoke with The New York Times today, the now-former commissioner had his own reasons for departing. - ArsTechnica https://25th.s.gy/XMMMFq

‌Kevin Warsh confirmed as Fed chair, succeeding Jerome Powell

Kevin Warsh was narrowly confirmed Wednesday by the Senate to serve as the 17th chair of the Federal Reserve, inheriting a central bank that has long been under political siege from President Donald Trump and an economy rattled by geopolitical tensions that are driving inflation higher.

Warsh will formally succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose eight-year tenure was marked by several economic crises and a heated clash with the White House to defend the US central bank’s political independence. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/4TiZ4k

Trump administration cancels rule that made conservation a 'use' of public lands ‌

The Interior Department is canceling a rule that put conservation on equal footing with development, as President Donald Trump's administration eases restrictions on industries and seeks to boost drilling, logging, mining and grazing on taxpayer-owned land.

The 2024 rule adopted under former President Joe Biden was meant to refocus the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees about 10% of land in the U.S. It allowed public property to be leased for restoration in the same way that oil companies lease land for drilling.

But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has said the rule could have blocked access to hundreds of thousands of acres of land — preventing energy and timber production and hurting ranchers who graze on public lands.

Supporters argued that conservation had long been a secondary consideration at the land bureau, neglecting its mission under the 1976 Federal Lands Policy Management Act. While the bureau previously issued leases for conservation purposes in limited cases, it never had a dedicated program prior to the Biden administration. - AP / Japan Today https://is.gd/hXXAcg

‌Top Kennedy Spokesman Resigns in Protest of Move to Allow Flavored Vapes

The chief spokesman for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resigned on Wednesday in protest over the administration’s push to allow major tobacco companies to begin selling flavored vapes that appeal to children. His departure came one day after the head of the Food and Drug Administration quit for the same reason.

In a letter to Mr. Trump, obtained by The New York Times, the spokesman, Rich Danker, did not blame the president, whom he said had “twice restored our prosperity and national security against all odds.” But he warned that authorizing flavored e-cigarettes would draw more children into vaping and increase their risk for a number of health issues, from addiction to cancer. - NYT https://is.gd/LgyJDK

‌The Late-Night Truth Social Storms That Offer a Window Into the President’s Mind

A WSJ analysis of thousands of posts found that the president uses the social-media platform to spread conspiracy theories and attack his adversaries.

Monday was a typical day for President Trump. He took questions in the Oval Office. He met with members of Indiana University’s football team. And he had dinner with law-enforcement officers in the White House Rose Garden.

After the sun went down, another familiar ritual began: late-night social-media posting. The president’s Truth Social account posted 55 messages between 10:14 p.m. and 1:12 a.m. - WSJ https://is.gd/qwkUxp

‌NATO, Please Help. Trump Has No Strategy for Iran.

Dear NATO Members: I get it. You despise President Trump for all the right reasons. He has walked away from Ukraine. He has threatened to seize Greenland and annex Canada. He has coddled Vladimir Putin. He is eroding America’s democratic institutions and norms. He insulted each of you so much that the German chancellor recently barked back that Trump’s America was being “humiliated” by Iran. I get it.

Now get over it.

Get all your navies together and proceed to the Persian Gulf immediately to join the American armada to make clear that Iran will never, ever be allowed to decide who shall pass and who shall not through the Strait of Hormuz. And, if it insists on trying to do so, it won’t just be taking on the United States and Israel, it will be taking on the entire Western alliance. - NYT https://is.gd/6yAV1U

‌Letters from an American - May 11, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

The story of the Trump Mobile phone seems a microcosm of the Trump administration.

As Judd Legum of Popular Information explains, on June 16, 2025, Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric announced the launch of a new, gold plated, Trump smartphone, “proudly designed and built in the United States.” It would be available in August 2025 for $499. Its website urged customers to “pre-order” the phone by depositing $100 toward it. Don Jr. said the phone would be “American hardware, built in America, without the potential of…[a] backdoor into the hardware that some of our adversaries have installed in there.”

And yet a disclaimer on the website said the Trumps and the Trump Organization were involved only in the branding of the phone; they had nothing to do with the design, development, manufacture, distribution, or sales of the item. As Legum notes, the idea of a superior U.S.-made phone was always a fantasy, and within two weeks the phone’s description changed from “MADE IN THE USA” to “designed with American values in mind.”

The phone never shipped, and on April 6, Trump Mobile updated its terms to say the $100 deposit was not actually a deposit for a pre-order, but rather “a conditional opportunity if Trump Mobile later elects, in its sole discretion, to offer the Device for sale.” It went on to say the deposit “does not lock in pricing, promotions, service plans, taxes, fees, shipping costs, or other commercial terms” and that “[e]stimated ship dates, launch timelines, or anticipated production schedule are non-binding estimates only.” - Cox Richardson https://is.gd/JeYHis

‌Donald Trump doesn’t care about you—and he never did

President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter Tuesday, “To what extent are Americans’ financial situations motivating you to make a deal?”

It’s a fair question, right?

Polls consistently show that the economy is at the top of voters’ concerns, which has dragged Trump’s approval numbers into the gutter. So this was a perfect opportunity for Trump to counter the perception that he’s utterly unconcerned about Americans’ financial plight.

President Donald Trump talks with reporters as he departs the White House for travel to Beijing, Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Washington, to meet with China's President Xi Jinping. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Attribution: APPresident Donald Trump speaks with reporters before leaving for China on May 12.

So to what extent do Americans’ financial situations motivate him?

“Not even a little bit,” he answered. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran: they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing—we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

It’s always weird hearing Trump talk about Iran’s nuclear weapons, given that he proclaimed that they were “obliterated” nearly a year ago, blasting reports suggesting otherwise as fake news.

But it’s definitely true that, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” is among the most honest things he’s said in a long time. “I don’t think about anybody” is even more so. - Daily Kos https://is.gd/QfyYTu

‌Sean Duffy Wants You to Take a Road Trip While Gas Prices Skyrocket

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy owes his celebrity—and his marriage—to a stint on the 1990s reality show The Real World. Now Duffy and his wife, the Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, are promoting another reality show: The Great American Road Trip, a cross-country journey to landmarks across the United States with the couple’s nine kids in tow. Produced by the same studio behind The Real World, it has been framed by the Department of Transportation as a celebration of the country’s 250th birthday, and is set to launch ahead of July 4.

In other ways, though, it’s ill-timed. This plea for Americans to hit the road arrives at a moment when about two-thirds of the country blames the president for rising gas prices, and when many are concerned about the high cost of living. (The war in Iran is pushing up the cost of fuel; according to Rolling Stone’s back-of-the-napkin math, taking Duffy’s route across the country would require about $1,300 in gas money.) Duffy was filmed intermittently over the course of seven months, during which time he was the public face of transportation crises involving debilitating staffing shortages and fatal airplane crashes. The series, which will stream for free on YouTube, is positioned as feel-good, family-focused programming. So far, though, it has mostly generated controversy. - Atlantic https://is.gd/lBQmCc

‌Gen. Caine’s Silence on Iran War Leaves Questions About Military Strategy

In public, General Caine has defined the military’s mission in narrow terms, an approach he took on Tuesday as frustrated Democratic and Republican lawmakers pressed him and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to explain their plans to open the strait and end the war.

“Our military objectives have been clear the whole time,” General Caine said. He talked about “targeting Iran’s ballistic missile systems,” destroying its Navy and defense industrial base and stopping Iranian forces from threatening the U.S. military and allies in the region. He repeatedly praised the dedication of U.S. troops over the course of the war.

But he avoided any discussions of the broader U.S. military strategy. - NYT https://is.gd/YtsZel

‌With a Friend in Trump, the Tobacco Industry Secures a Lucrative Win

In a dispute over vapes, the president sided with tobacco companies that filled his groups’ coffers over his own F.D.A. commissioner, who resigned in protest. - NYT https://is.gd/RvJxJ5

‌China shows export resilience despite Trump’s tariffs and Iran war

The Chinese economy has proven its resilience over the past year with its record $1.2 trillion trade surplus despite US tariffs. Over the weekend, it again demonstrated its ability to withstand disruptions from the Iran war, reporting record monthly exports in April.

Demand for chips driven by artificial intelligence and a soaring appetite for green technology products, from electric vehicles to batteries and wind turbines, due to the energy supply disruptions boosted China’s outbound shipments last month by 14.1% from a year ago.

Exports to the US also grew 11.3% compared with April last year, when President Donald Trump announced the so-called “reciprocal” tariffs in a bid to narrow US trade imbalance with other countries.

The tit-for-tat trade war sent the tariff on most Chinese goods up to as high as 145% last year.

With the summit underway, the latest trade figures are expected to bolster Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s standing as he negotiates with Trump on trade and tariffs, among other contentious issues, like the war. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/SO79F4

‌My Son Never Turned 7. Because of Choices in Washington, Others Won’t Either.

Here is what I need you to understand about pediatric cancer research: It is already the orphan of the oncology world. The percentage of federal cancer research funding that goes toward childhood cancers numbers in the single digits. Treatment protocols for some pediatric cancers haven’t changed in decades. The “popular” cancers — the ones with celebrity galas and pink ribbons and adult celebrity patients — get money and attention. The ones that take children languish. And yet around 15,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in this country every single year.

But what was already bad is now getting worse.

That path to curing pediatric cancers is closing. Not because we have run out of ideas or new treatments to try, but because the Trump administration made a choice to cut funding for pediatric cancer research and undermine the institutions that once made America the envy of the world when it came to health innovation.

In March, funding expired for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, a 26-year-old network that provides children access to experimental treatments. The following month, President Trump released his 2027 budget, which proposed cutting funding for the National Institutes of Health by 12 percent. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/Kqjs1d

‌Xi Is Planning for China’s Final Victory Over the U.S.

When President Trump imposed 145 percent tariffs on China a year ago, Chinese state media urged the public to revisit a nearly 90-year-old essay by Mao Zedong. The Beijing Daily declared that the text was essential to understanding China’s responses to the “chaotic” attacks of the United States and why China will ultimately achieve a “final victory” against its geopolitical rival.

This required reading was Mao’s “On Protracted War,” a 1938 tract laying out his strategy for defeating the Japanese forces that had invaded China. At its core, it is a meditation on how China can come from behind in a life-or-death contest against a stronger adversary.

President Xi Jinping has praised the strategic foresight, discipline and patience espoused by Mao in the essay, which has emerged as a guiding framework for how China aims to face the United States. He has pointed specifically to Mao’s description of a dynamic, long-term struggle unfolding in three phases: A weaker China initially plays dogged defense, followed by a period of stalemate between equally matched forces, eventually culminating in a powerful, victorious Chinese counteroffensive.

China’s leaders are through with playing defense and have shifted into Phase 2 of Mao’s theory. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/5vOJwZ

‌The Iran War Worsens America’s Democratic Erosion

President Trump’s war with Iran is the most significant military action in American history that a president has undertaken without any form of congressional authorization.

Yes, past presidents have often pushed the bounds of their constitutional authority in using the military. Nonetheless, they have typically involved Congress for anything more than a brief attack. Sometimes, Congress passed a bill formally approving action, as was the case in Iraq in both 2002 and 1991, Afghanistan in 2001 and Vietnam in 1964. In other instances, such as Korea in the 1950s, Congress offered de facto approval by passing bills that provided additional resources for the military action. Mr. Trump has received no approval whatsoever from Congress, the only branch of government with the constitutional authority to declare war.

The New York Times editorial board is tracking 12 categories of democratic erosion in the United States, based on historical patterns and interviews with experts. Our index places the United States on a scale of 0 to 10 for each category. Zero represents the United States before Mr. Trump began his second term — not perfect, surely, but one of the world’s healthiest democracies. Ten represents the condition in a true autocracy, such as China, Iran and Russia. Based on the war with Iran, we are moving our assessment of one of the categories — bypassing the legislature — up one notch, to Level 5. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/peKemd

‌Xi warns Trump that Taiwan missteps could lead to U.S.-China conflict

Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned U.S. President Donald Trump during a summit in Beijing on Thursday that missteps on Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict,” even as Xi emphasized a “new positioning” of ties with the United States.

As the meeting of the two superpowers’ leaders kicked off with a welcome ceremony full of pomp at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Trump heaped praise on Xi, calling him a “great leader” and pleading that the rivals’ ties would “be better than ever before.”

But Xi’s focus on Taiwan — and putting China on a more equal footing with the U.S. — highlighted Beijing’s growing confidence in its ability to grapple on the global stage with Washington. = Japan Times https://25th.s.gy/4oBJlm

‌Desperate Trump taps "Tim Apple," Jensen Huang, Elon Musk to attend Xi summit

Donald Trump has very little leverage heading into two days of meetings with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing this week, experts say.

The thinking goes that Trump came into office with a plan that has since largely failed. He hoped to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, settle things down with Israel and Gaza, launch his Liberation Day tariffs, and quickly diversify US supply chains, all of which would have given him substantial leverage over China.

But none of that happened, and instead, Trump’s escalations in Iran have only handed China even more leverage heading into talks, and Xi knows it.

Unwilling to appear weak when negotiating with one of America’s most critical trading partners and fiercest adversaries, Trump invited executives of some of the biggest US tech firms to tag along.

Among tech leaders joining Trump is Tim Cook, who Trump fondly calls “Tim Apple.” The Beijing trip will likely be Cook’s “final major diplomatic effort” as Apple’s departing CEO, EuroNews noted. Elon Musk will also be there, suggesting that Trump still values the SpaceX CEO’s input on foreign policy. And at the last minute, Trump confirmed that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will also be attending, which Reuters noted could help Nvidia finally convince China to start buying the high-end chips that Huang convinced the US would be safe to sell to China earlier this year. - ArsTechnica https://is.gd/NuiyxU

‌U.S. Set to Drop Charges Against Indian Billionaire Accused of Fraud

When the Justice Department indicted India’s richest man in the final weeks of the Biden administration, prosecutors described an “elaborate” bribery scheme involving “corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors.”

Now, according to several people with knowledge of the case, the Justice Department is planning to drop the charges altogether.

The reversal came after the Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani, hired a new legal team led by Robert J. Giuffra Jr., one of President Trump’s personal lawyers and the co-chairman of the prominent firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

Mr. Giuffra’s efforts on Mr. Adani’s behalf culminated in a previously unreported meeting last month at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, according to people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Giuffra ticked through about 100 slides outlining why prosecutors lacked basic evidence, as well as the jurisdiction even to bring the case, one of the people said.

Another slide also made an unusual offer: If prosecutors dropped the charges, Mr. Adani would be willing to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs, echoing a pledge he had made in the wake of Mr. Trump’s election. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/vOb0Hk

‌Senators vote to block their pay during future government shutdowns

The Senate on Thursday moved to bar senators from being paid during government shutdowns.

Pushed by Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy, the measure took on renewed significance in the wake of two history-making shutdowns in recent months: A 43-day federal government shutdown in 2025 and a record-breaking 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year.

The measure does not need approval from the House nor the president and is binding for senators beginning in November after the midterm elections.

Senators approved the resolution by voice vote, despite some questions as to whether it was constitutional. The Constitution only states that lawmakers are to be paid from the Treasury, with no exceptions mentioned. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/ebDnV2

‌The Election Deniers Are Winning

Joanna Lydgate, the CEO and president of the nonpartisan States United Democracy Center, told us that she believes the ultimate goals of election deniers are to subvert America’s system of choosing its representatives and to make it easier to discard results that Trump and his allies don’t like. “I think it’s that simple; I really do,” she said. “Whether it’s an executive order or death by 5,000 cuts, it’s chipping away at our election system. They need to sow doubt; they need to undermine public trust; and each one of these narratives is a tactic to that end.”

In many ways, MAGA has already won its war against American elections. Confidence that a person’s state or local government will run a free and fair election is slipping. Trump’s administration is filled with election skeptics; federal investigations into 2020 are under way; and conspiracy theorists who were once marginalized now run some local election offices. Several officials who have been integral to running fair and transparent elections in past cycles told us they are already burned out—just as the deniers are getting started. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/jw7Aq4

‌Trump Doesn’t Want to Fight Inflation

Donald Trump, probably by mistake, said something honest the other day.

Appearing on the White House lawn Tuesday afternoon, Trump was asked by a reporter to what extent Americans’ financial situation was motivating him to make a deal with Iran. “Not even a little bit,” Trump replied, before elaborating: “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”

Trump was probably trying to lie here—he likely wanted to reject the premise that the economic pain caused by his war of choice is putting pressure on him to end it. The premise is obvious, but he has fervently denied it, in part to retain some leverage over Iran.

But his denial revealed a deeper truth: Trump has treated the public’s economic well-being as an afterthought. The thing he admitted so casually is the primary reason his popularity has cratered. Trump was elected to tackle inflation, and instead has made it worse. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/RKS0in

‌China gains major edge on U.S. amid Iran war, intelligence report finds

A confidential assessment, circulating as President Donald Trump begins his highly anticipated trip to Beijing, shows shifts in several key areas of competition.

A confidential U.S. intelligence analysis details how China is exploiting the war in Iran to maximize its advantage over the United States across military, economic, diplomatic and other fields, said two U.S. officials who have read the report. - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/m1931v

‌Justice Dept. Accuses Yale Medical School of Discriminating Against White and Asian Applicants

The Justice Department on Thursday accused the Yale School of Medicine of violating anti-discrimination laws, the second major medical school targeted in the past eight days by the Trump administration over admissions policies the government said illegally favored Black and Hispanic applicants over more qualified white and Asian students.

Last week, the Justice Department issued similar findings for the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. In March, the department also opened investigations into admissions policies for medical schools at Stanford, Ohio State and the University of California, San Diego. And in February, it sued Harvard University, seeking more detailed admissions data. - NYT https://is.gd/WuTyvK

‌What People in China Say of Trump

Residents in four Chinese cities described a mixture of amusement and anger, blaming U.S. tensions for a slowing economy and rising fuel prices. - NYT https://is.gd/uFjp6Q

‌Is Trump Just Full On Sabotaging The Republican Party Now?

Donald Trump may be adept at building winning political coalitions to elect Republicans, but he is notorious for undermining them in office. At times, he seems like the best player on the Democrats’ team.

Remember his 2022 slate of endorsed Senate candidates? In what normally should have been a wave election for the party out of power, thanks to Trump’s elevation of candidates such as Herschel Walker and Dr. Oz, Democrats actually gained a seat that year.

Now, during his second term, this tendency to set his own party up for failure has reached a whole new level. Less than two years ago, Trump won the popular vote by increasing his vote share among key constituencies and helped usher in Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. The vibes and public sentiment were on his side; Democrats were at a low, both in popularity and power; and MAGA was on the ascent.

But now, 16 months since returning to office, inflation is soaring, and Trump’s disapproval numbers, particularly on the economy, have hit historic highs. Democrats smell opportunity and, should current numbers hold, are on the cusp of retaking Congress. - The Big Picture https://is.gd/bSHlZs

‌Exclusive: Acting AG Todd Blanche was told last year to recuse from Justice Department matters involving Trump

It was less than two weeks after Todd Blanche took on his role of deputy attorney general in March 2025 when the Justice Department’s top ethics lawyer delivered some straightforward yet inconvenient news: His recusal from legal cases that involved President Donald Trump in his personal capacity was necessary.

The official conducting the briefing, Joseph Tirrell, handed Blanche and his then-top deputy Emil Bove, who was also in the conference room, a printed PowerPoint presentation on ethics, according to a former senior Justice ethics official who described the meeting to CNN.

The meeting, which hasn’t previously been reported, is the first time Blanche was formally informed he would need to recuse himself from cases involving Trump. Around the same time, the department’s top career lawyer advised that Bove potentially had a conflict of interest by being involved in firings of DOJ lawyers. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/LaSigd

‌Supreme Court Allows Abortion Pill Access by Mail to Continue

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a widely used abortion medication could continue to be prescribed by telehealth and sent to patients by mail.

Two manufacturers of mifepristone had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit restricted access to the medication nationwide.

The Supreme Court’s brief order means that the Fifth Circuit’s decision will remain blocked, perhaps for months, while litigation continues in the lower courts. The issue could eventually return to the high court. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/wWiuFd

‌Supreme Court allows telehealth and mail access to mifepristone for now

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed women to continue to access the abortion pill mifepristone through telehealth visits, maintaining the status quo while officials in Louisiana continue to push for limiting availability of the drug in lower courts.

The conservative Supreme Court imposed a pause on a May 1 decision from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that abruptly required women to obtain the drug through in-person visits. The focus will now return to the New Orleans-based appeals court, which will decide the merits of Louisiana’s challenge. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/wr67o4

‌Hegseth slashes Army training as Trump’s war rages on

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is a little short on cash.

You see, the Army is apparently short $4 to $6 billion, and while that is a lot of money to the rest of us, it’s pretty much pocket change for the Pentagon. So Hegseth just needs to make a few small adjustments here and there, which led him to a terrific solution: drastically cut training for servicemembers.

A thick plume of smoke rises from an oil storage facility hit by a U.S.-Israeli strike late Saturday in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Attribution: APA thick plume of smoke rises from an oil storage facility hit by a U.S.-Israeli strike in Iran on March 8.

Chat, is it good when—in the middle of what the Wall Street Journal describes as “Air War in Iran Gives Way to Crippling Stalemate in Hormuz”—the Defense Department decreases its Army pilot flight training hours to the mandatory minimum?

What about when it cancels its Army Sapper Leader Course on combat engineering or all of its artillery training courses?

Pffft, warfighters don’t need that stuff. - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/opHFci

‌Vance cuts off Medicaid funding to California families out of spite

On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced that $1.3 billion in vital Medicaid funding would be deferred for six months for unspecified “fraud,” a significant financial punishment to the residents of a state that have voted overwhelmingly against President Donald Trump in every election he has run in.

Vice President JD Vance made the announcement at a White House event, insinuating that money sent to the state has been used for people committing fraud who are “getting rich.” The decision came after Trump appointed Vance to lead an “anti-fraud” task force, which has been the administration’s cover for attacks on states led by Democrats.

California officials immediately called out the partisan attack.

FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a rally with Harris County Democrats at the IBEW local 716 union hall Nov. 8, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren, File)

Attribution: APCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a rally on Nov. 8, 2025, in Houston.

“We hate fraud. But that’s NOT what this is,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a post. “Vance and [Dr. Mehmet] Oz are attacking programs that keep seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes. Pretty sick.”

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla was even more blunt, writing, “The Trump Administration is attacking California over claims that they can’t back up. Let’s be real, this isn’t about fraud—it’s about punishing a state that didn’t vote for him. Political retribution plain and simple.” - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/qEBXrG

‌The Coming War on Local Black Political Power

The Supreme Court’s recent Louisiana v. Callais decision, effectively demolishing a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, is a “five-alarm fire,” former Representative G. K. Butterfield Jr. told me this week. As southern states rush to draw new boundaries eliminating majority-minority districts, as much as a third of the Congressional Black Caucus could lose their seats. Butterfield, a former CBC chair, knows that risk well. But he also knows the less visible yet still enormous effects that Callais could have at a local level in silencing the voices of Black voters. - Atlantic https://hbozhn.s.gy/qPtPYQ

‌Voters Can Be Disenfranchised Now

In states with large Black populations that remain under Republican control—half of the Black American population resides in the South—lawmakers will now be able to draw districts that dilute Black residents’ voting power. In his opinion for the right-wing majority, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “in considering the constitutionality of a districting scheme, courts must treat partisan advantage like any other race-neutral aim: a constitutionally permissible criterion that States may rely on as desired.” The Court’s decision is consonant with the philosophy, articulated by Kilpatrick in his earlier days, that the state is oppressive when it interferes with the right to discriminate, and respects liberty when it allows discrimination. And the decision fits just as well with Kilpatrick’s later spin on that philosophy: Attempts to ban racial discrimination are themselves discriminatory—against white people.

What Kilpatrick wanted, and what the Roberts Court is making possible, is a country where white people can maintain their political dominance at the expense of Americans who are not white. - Atlantic https://hbozhn.s.gy/IM1TAL

‌House Again Blocks War Powers Vote to Halt Iran Conflict

House Republicans on Thursday narrowly blocked an effort to force an end to the war against Iran and require President Trump to win permission from Congress to continue operations in the Middle East, as the administration continued to defy legal deadlines and a shaky cease-fire dragged on.

The measure was thwarted on a tie of 212 to 212, with one Democrat joining nearly all Republicans in voting not to advance it. But the resolution gained some notable G.O.P. backers in the latest sign that the party’s patience for the conflict — and willingness to defer to Mr. Trump on it — is waning. - NYT https://hbozhn.s.gy/9IpEK4

‌Trump Was Flattering, Xi Was Resolute. The Difference Spoke Volumes.

For President Trump, the first day of his visit to Beijing was all about the personal relationship between him and Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader.

“You’re a great leader,” he told his host, whom he has often said he admires for his “powerful” control over a nation of 1.4 billion people. “I say it to everybody.”

Mr. Xi, unsurprisingly, spent little time Thursday on flattery. Once the 21-gun salute and precision-marching by units of the People’s Liberation Army were finished, the disciplined Chinese leader plunged right away into setting boundaries for the two countries’ relations. The red line was Taiwan, he said, making it abundantly clear that Mr. Trump’s effort at rapprochement could crash on takeoff if he interferes with China’s long-term effort to take control of the self-governing island. - NYT https://hbozhn.s.gy/dIBHlz

‌Green Card Holders Targeted for Deportation by New ‘Removal Apparatus’

The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to deport at least 50 green card holders through a new unit dedicated to revetting thousands of immigrants with permanent residency across the country, according to internal data obtained by The New York Times.

Those cases represent a small fraction of the total number of green card holders who have been reviewed so far. About 2,890 cases had been reviewed or were still being assessed as of May 7. Eighty percent of those cases were deemed as requiring “no further action.” More than 500 green card holders were still under review.

The figures reveal the early results of the Trump administration’s efforts to screen green card holders suspected of committing fraud or posing threats. The recent creation of the unit also underscores how aggressively administration officials are trying to root out immigrants they believe should be stripped of their legal status and removed from the country. - NYT https://hbozhn.s.gy/dIBHlz

‌US Supreme Court tosses longshot appeal from Virginians to use new congressional map that would benefit Democrats

The Supreme Court on Friday tossed out an emergency request from Virginia officials to reinstate a congressional map that would have benefited Democrats in this year’s midterm election, a widely expected decision that represented the court’s latest foray into a nationwide redistricting war.

The decision thwarts Democratic plans to use the new map to pick up as many as four additional seats in the House of Representatives this year.

The 6-3 conservative court has recently sided with Republicans in Louisiana and Alabama – permitting those states to quickly redraw their maps. But the Virginia case dealt more squarely with questions of state law rather than federal questions, and many experts predicted that the appeal was, at best, a Hail Mary.

There were no noted dissents. and the court did not explain its reasoning in the one-sentence order. - CNN https://hbozhn.s.gy/ysd4bJ

‌Supreme Court Rejects Virginia Democrats’ Effort to Reinstate New Voting Map

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency request by Democratic officials in Virginia to use a newly approved congressional district map in the midterms that would give their party an edge.

Instead, the justices declined to overturn a recent decision by the Virginia Supreme Court striking down the map, a ruling that dealt a major blow to Democrats in the nationwide redistricting fight.

The one-sentence emergency order by the justices did not give a vote count or provide reasoning for the decision, which is typical in such rulings. No dissents were noted. - NYT https://hbozhn.s.gy/KVdjVS

‌Trump Administration Weighs $1.7 Billion Fund for Allies Investigated Under Biden

The Trump administration is considering the establishment of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate the president’s allies and others investigated by the Justice Department under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., creating an ethical and political minefield for Republicans and the department’s leadership.

The unusual plan, which Democrats and former government officials criticized as a vast political slush fund financed by taxpayers, is being fast-tracked, but has yet to be finalized or approved, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/c4fyQt

‌Election denier Tina Peters will get clemency after admitting she ‘made a mistake,’ Colorado’s Democratic governor says

Tina Peters, the Republican former election clerk imprisoned for crimes related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, will receive clemency from Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and soon be released from custody, Polis exclusively told CNN.

The decision followed a statement in Peters’ clemency application, obtained by CNN from Polis’ office, in which Peters acknowledged for the first time since her 2024 conviction that she “made a mistake” and “misled” Colorado election officials.

Polis said in an interview Friday that he was cutting Peters’ prison sentence in half, reducing it to 4.5 years. Based on her time already served since 2024 and Colorado’s early release rules, she’ll be released on parole on June 1, Polis said in a letter to Peters obtained by CNN.

A jury in conservative-leaning Mesa County convicted Peters in 2024 of conspiring with fellow election deniers to breach her county’s election systems in hopes of proving President Donald Trump’s baseless 2020 voter-fraud claims.

Trump has waged a long pressure campaign against Colorado over Peters’ incarceration. She is the last Trump ally still in prison for 2020 election-related crimes. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/LTHXGe

‌Trump secures reparations for Jan. 6 rioters—out of your wallet

There’s good news, and there’s bad news.

The good news is that the Internal Revenue Service may not be handing over $10 billion in taxpayer money to President Donald Trump for his fake lawsuit.

The bad news is that it looks like the IRS is now planning to give Trump $1.7 billion in taxpayer money in exchange for dropping his fake lawsuit.

Trump is apparently planning to create a compensation fund to give money to anyone who makes a claim that former President Joe Biden made them sad by weaponizing the Justice Department against them.

Oh, sorry—that’s how the DOJ works now, a puppet of the president to be turned loose on anyone who has displeased him. What Trump is specifically referring to are the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

The possible settlement would create a commission to dole out more than $1 billion from the Treasury Department’s Judgment Fund. Of course, it wouldn’t be a real commission, as Trump could fire any of the members without cause. And there’s no requirement that it disclose or explain its decision-making process. It’s just a fig leaf to better route money to his cronies.

Yep, it looks like it’s reparations time, baby. - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/vHreP7

‌Black voter turnout soars amid GOP’s racist map-rigging

GOP-controlled states in the South are rushing to redraw their congressional maps after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act, paving the way for Republicans to draw new lines that eliminate seats held by Black Democrats.

The gerrymandering efforts have led to disgusting images of Republicans gloating in the faces of the Black lawmakers, whose power they are purposely erasing—proving why the VRA is so necessary.

But while Republicans may have a short-term high, their racist gerrymandering appears to be having the unintended and politically damaging consequence of boosting Black voter turnout in the midterms, erasing any gains the GOP made with the voting bloc in 2024. - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/t5pGU8

‌Trump declares reporters who make him look bad ‘treasonous’

Truthful reporting that makes the public view him in a negative light is now on President Donald Trump’s list of crimes punishable by death.

Trump revealed his latest in an ongoing series of anti-free-speech thoughts while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday. The issue came up when New York Times reporter David Sanger asked Trump to speak about the bombing campaign in Iran.

“We had a total military victory,” Trump lied. “But the fake news, guys like you, write incorrect—you’re a fake guy and guys like you write about it incorrectly.”

Speaking of Iran’s capabilities, Trump alleged that the U.S. “knocked out” all of Iran’s naval and military—a statement undermined by the ongoing Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz that has caused fuel prices to skyrocket.

He extended his rant noting, “We’ve had a total victory except by people like you that don’t write the truth, you know, you should write—I actually think it’s [unintelligible] treasonous what you write, you and the New York Times and CNN I would say are the worst.”

“I actually think it’s treason, when you write like they’re doing well militarily and they have no navy, no air force, no anti-anything.” - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/z3wicw

‌Trump’s Latest Gaffes Could Hurt the GOP

Donald Trump deserves plenty of criticism for his serial dishonesty, but on the rare occasions when he speaks frankly, that causes problems too.

This week, a reporter asked the president whether the deteriorating economic situation has created any urgency for him to reach a peace deal with Iran. “Not even a little bit,” he replied. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.” - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/GqgB62

‌How understaffing and DHS policy drives rising deaths in ICE detention centers

CNN obtained county medical examiner reports for the vast majority of the deaths since early 2025, with help from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a nonpartisan independent watchdog, and the American University Investigative Reporting Workshop. Through these reports and interviews with family members and experts, CNN found at least a dozen deaths that better care could potentially have prevented through earlier diagnosis, swifter responses to emergencies, or other factors. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/u2rmSn

‌Penile implant specialist with history of far-right comments led hantavirus presser

As the Trump administration sought to reassure Americans this week that a hantavirus outbreak posed little risk to the public, Dr. Brian Christine, one of the top public health officials in charge of infectious disease policy, stood before reporters in Nebraska promising a response “grounded in science” and “grounded in transparency.”

Before he joined the Trump administration last year, Christine was an Alabama-based urologist who specialized in penile implants. He has little public health experience and a history of far-right commentary and promoting conspiracy theories. He’s said the Covid pandemic led to a wider government plot to control people, compared the Biden administration to Nazi Germany and suggested the Covid vaccine had little effect in stopping the pandemic. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/VeXWhA

‌Taiwan says it is already ‘independent’ after Trump warning

Taiwan’s Presidential Office reiterated on Saturday that the island is an “independent democratic country,” hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Taipei not to formally seek independence.

“The Republic of China is a sovereign, independent democratic country; this is self-evident,” Presidential Office Spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a statement, using the formal name for Taiwan. Beijing’s claims to the island, she added, are “therefore without merit.”

Taipei also noted “multiple reaffirmations” from the U.S. side, including by Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that Washington’s policy and position toward Taiwan — which Beijing claims as its own — “remain unchanged,” Kuo said. - Reuters / Japan Times https://25th.s.gy/6NIDKi

‌Trump’s more than 3,700 trades astonish Wall Street insiders

U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures show that he or his investment advisers made more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter, a flurry totaling tens of millions of dollars and involving major companies that have dealings with his administration.

The transactions, spelled out in more than 100 pages of documents filed Thursday with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, list purchases and sales in broad ranges, making it hard to calculate an exact value. But the volume of trading — more than 40 per day over a three-month period — stands out as much as the potential dollar value.

"This is an insane amount of trades,” said Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, in an interview, adding that it looks more like something done by "a hedge fund with massive algo trades” that buys and shorts securities than a personal account. - Bloomber / Japan Times https://25th.s.gy/3UB93G

‌Trump’s ‘Learning Curve’ on China Ends With Conciliation at Summit

In 2024, Donald J. Trump said China was “killing us as a country.” Last year, he complained that President Xi Jinping of China was “very tough, and extremely hard to make a deal with.” His tariffs on China reached 145 percent at one point.

The whiplash that followed culminated in the pageantry in Beijing this week.

As Air Force One took off from the Chinese capital on Friday, it remained unclear what deals, if any, President Trump had clinched with Mr. Xi. But the two-day summit in Beijing underscored how far he has shifted the foundations of American policy toward China in the wake of his humbling retreat from last year’s trade war. He has thrown aside the adversarial approach of his first years in office, the Biden administration and the beginning of his own second term.

What’s more, he has largely waved aside the warnings outlined in the Pentagon’s annual, unclassified accounting of China’s capabilities and intentions, which lays out a plan to push the United States out of the Western Pacific, engulf Taiwan, claim more territory in the South China Sea and escalate cyberattacks on the United States. He acknowledges that these threats are real. He has just reversed his view of how to deal with them. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/Hc0gME

‌Texas Supreme Court Rejects Abbott Effort to Remove Democrats From Office

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected an attempt by Gov. Greg Abbott to remove Democratic lawmakers from office, ending a high-stakes legal battle that began when the lawmakers fled the state to delay a Republican redistricting drive last year.

Chief Justice James D. Blacklock wrote in his decision that the court did not need to intervene in a political disagreement between two branches of the state government — a dispute that raised “fundamental questions about the allocation of power” — because, as a practical matter, it was already resolved.

“In the end, a quorum was restored in two weeks’ time, without judicial intervention, by the interplay of political and practical forces,” wrote Justice Blacklock, an appointee of Mr. Abbott and his former general counsel. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/CDsNYV

‌Catholic Clergy Can Minister Within ICE Facility After a Legal Agreement

Catholic clergy members have secured the right to visit a Chicago-area immigration processing center to provide daily ministry and pastoral support to detainees, according to an agreement reached this week between a religious nonprofit group and the Trump administration.

The deal comes about six months after several Roman Catholic clergy members in an Illinois-based Catholic advocacy group, the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, filed a lawsuit accusing federal immigration authorities of unlawfully barring them from ministering to detainees at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/JTUCL8

‌Michigan Battles Trump Over His Order to Keep an Old Coal Plant Running

The Trump administration asserted “unprecedented” authority when it ordered a Michigan coal plant to stay open because of an alleged electricity shortage, a lawyer for the state argued before a federal court on Friday.

Michigan and other states, joined by environmental groups, are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which hears cases involving federal agencies, to declare the Energy Department’s emergency order to be unlawful. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/NlnfyJ

‌She was deported without her toddler. Then ICE blamed her for his killing.

After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained his mother, 2-year-old Orlin Hernandez Reyes moved into a shed.

His uncle, Samuel Maldonado Erazo, was charged with taking care of the toddler and his three cousins, the oldest of whom was 7, while Orlin’s mother and her sister waited in ICE detention to be deported to Honduras. - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/YJWVrd

‌RFK Jr. promised a health overhaul led by outsiders. Now many are gone.

Trump officials have increasingly swapped out RFK Jr.’s handpicked deputies for people with more traditional experience, seeking to tamp down on health agencies’ controversies ahead of the midterms. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/FUZv0j

‌Trump says ‘nothing’s changed’ on Taiwan. But his words belie a big shift.

Donald Trump claims “nothing’s changed” on U.S. policy toward Taiwan. But the U.S. president’s stunning remarks about support for the democratic island — and what they portend following his high-profile summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping — belie a shifting reality on the ground.

In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Trump questioned whether it made sense for U.S. forces to “travel 9,500 miles to fight a war” and said he considered a pending $14 billion American arms sales package to Taiwan as leverage in his dealings with Xi, calling it “a very good negotiating chip.”

Although not a formal shift in U.S. declaratory policy toward Taiwan — as some observers had feared he might do at the summit with Xi — Trump also broke with precedent by openly warning the government in Taipei against any push for formal independence. - Japan Times https://25th.s.gy/Z026FQ

‌Trump Calls Xi a ‘Friend.’ But He Left China Without Any Breakthroughs.

The lack of concrete agreements with Beijing shows the risks of President Trump’s personality-driven foreign policy, which rests on the belief that he can defend U.S. interests through charm and force of will. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/Ui9ZF9

‌Senate Ruling Threatens Ballroom Funding in G.O.P. Budget Bill

The Republican bid to provide $1 billion for President Trump’s White House ballroom project in a filibuster-proof budget bill hit a significant roadblock on Saturday when the Senate’s top parliamentary referee ruled that the money did not qualify to be included in the measure.

In a finding announced by Senate Democrats, Elizabeth MacDonough, the nonpartisan parliamentarian, determined that the proposed $1 billion for security enhancements for the ongoing White House project ran afoul of budget reconciliation rules.

The ruling by Ms. MacDonough, the arbiter of complex Senate rules, meant that the proposal would need to be adjusted or be subject to a 60-vote threshold. That would effectively kill the funding, since Democrats are uniformly opposed. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/Erz3s9

‌7 Republicans Voted to Convict Trump. Most Are No Longer in Office.

Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Donald J. Trump of inciting an insurrection in 2021, will depart Congress next year, after losing a Republican primary in which Mr. Trump lined up squarely against him.

Mr. Cassidy’s defeat means that at most two of those seven Republicans will remain in the Senate next year. One of them, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, faces a competitive general election campaign. The other, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, was re-elected in 2022.

Four of the seven opted for retirement over what might have been challenging re-election bids. Mr. Cassidy is the first to lose in a primary. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/dCtOrm

‌China Indicates Tariffs Were Discussed at Trump Summit

The Chinese government indicated on Saturday that the United States and China had discussed the issue of tariffs during President Trump’s visit to the country this past week, seemingly contradicting statements a day earlier by Mr. Trump, who said that tariffs were not discussed.

A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a briefing on Saturday that the countries had agreed in principle to reduce tariffs on a set pool of products that were “of concern to each side.” - NYT https://25th.s.gy/CSssgO

‌Hundreds of millions of dollars for Trump’s ballroom ruled out of order in Senate

Hundreds of millions of dollars for securing the White House ballroom cannot be included in a Republican spending bill as currently written, the Senate parliamentarian ruled Saturday.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s proposed immigration enforcement bill includes $1 billion for security measures related to what the administration calls the “East Wing Modernization Project” — which includes President Donald Trump’s planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom — and other presidential protection efforts. - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/z0G6yg

‌Trump-backed prayer festival on National Mall draws thousands: ‘We welcome Jesus!’

Critics of Sunday's "Rededicate 250" event said it portrayed the United States inaccurately as a Christian nation and sought to erase the line between church and state.

A crowd of thousands transformed a block of the National Mall into an evangelical-style worship service Sunday at an event backed by President Donald Trump and funded with millions of taxpayer dollars. - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/9oxaca

‌Trump Cites Inaccurate Data to Downplay Economic Toll of Iran War

President Trump has for weeks downplayed the economic toll of his war with Iran, citing a bevy of inaccurate statistics.

His remarks to reporters in recent days underscored his approach, as he asserted that the economic hardship Americans might face was not a factor in his negotiations to end the conflict. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” he said. “I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”

Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the president had always been clear about the war’s temporary disruptions to the economy as inflation rises.

“The administration remains laser-focused on cutting costs and accelerating growth on the home front,” Mr. Desai said. “As these policies continue taking effect, and as traffic in the Strait of Hormuz normalizes after the Iranian nuclear threat is neutralized, both energy prices and inflation will drop again.”

Here’s a fact check. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/aM7jxc

‌Tucker Carlson Discusses Breaking With Trump, the Iran War and Antisemitism

Tucker Carlson has been at the center of our political conversation and conservative media for a decade now. Few media figures are more closely identified with the Trump era. His hugely popular Fox News show started just after the 2016 election, and despite being fired by that network in 2023, Carlson has remained a Trumpworld fixture, launching his own network, boosting Donald Trump on his podcast and at campaign rallies, sitting in Trump’s box during the Republican National Convention and attending his inauguration.

Then, in February, President Trump made the call to attack Iran alongside Israel, a decision that Carlson is completely opposed to. He now says he regrets supporting Trump and has become a vocal and influential critic of the administration on his show. He also blames Israel for making Trump a “slave” by, as he characterizes it, pushing the president into war. Because of this focus on Israel, and his high-profile interview of the white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes, critics have accused him of antisemitism. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/9lJWmX

For Trump, Soaring Prices Test Voters’ Finances and Patience ‌

Swept into power by voters who were frustrated with the nation’s economic trajectory, President Trump promised at his inauguration to “bring prices down.”

But that was January 2025, more than a year before the White House would forge ahead with an agenda that has sent inflation roaring back, testing the patience — and the finances — of a cost-wary American electorate once again.

For Mr. Trump, the nation’s political and economic strains are laid bare in a series of dour reports released over the past two weeks. Consumer prices last month rose at their fastest clip in about three years, outpacing workers’ wages, while businesses saw their costs increase at a rate not seen since 2022.

Americans are racking up more debt. Families are saving less. And a key measure of consumer confidence dipped to an all-time low this month. The anxiety has bled into recent political polls, which have registered broad public disapproval of Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/aMcDYl

‌Trump Administration Pushes Narrative of Christian Founding at Rally

With speeches and Christian music performed against a symbolically potent backdrop at the heart of American government, the rally aimed to crystallize the narrative that the nation’s founding was an intentionally Christian project, a framing disputed by many scholars. The separation of church and state has long been a bedrock principle of American democracy. The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” - NYT https://25th.s.gy/7dR6ES

‌Trump administration creates $1.776 billion fund for allies of the president after he drops lawsuit against IRS

The Justice Department on Monday announced the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate President Donald Trump’s allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the previous administration.

It’s an unprecedented move that would allow the president’s administration to pay his supporters from a government agency he controls with taxpayer money.

There appears to be few constraints on who can submit a claim to the fund. The president has broadly stated that his allies were politically targeted by the justice system, from the years-old Russian collusion investigation to the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot.

Its creation comes as Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit alleging that the Internal Revenue Service failed to protect Trump and the Trump Organization from an unauthorized leak of their tax returns.

Trump himself will not receive any payments, but will receive a formal apology, the Justice Department said.

The so-called “anti-weaponization” fund, with its symbolic 1776 figure, is likely to face immediate challenges in court from Democrats and watchdog organizations who say the effort amounts to corruption by allowing the president to enrich allies over what critics they say are unfounded claims of political prosecutions by the Biden administration. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/B49Hoe

‌American infected with Ebola in DRC, as US moves to limit entry from virus-hit region

An international effort is underway to contain an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda that is believed by the Africa CDC to have caused more than 100 deaths, with the United States triggering a public health law to limit entry from the affected region.

An American working in the DRC tested positive for Ebola, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed Monday. Though the CDC did not identify the person, the international charity Serge reported that a Christian missionary physician – Dr. Peter Stafford – had “tested positive” after “presenting symptoms consistent with the virus.” His wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, and another physician – both of whom were treating patients when the outbreak began – are being monitored for signs of the virus but are currently asymptomatic, the charity said. The couple’s four children are also being monitored. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/FFsc5k

‌The Law They Hate Was a High Point of Our History

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 wasn’t the top-down dictate of a rogue, liberal Supreme Court — if such a thing has ever existed.

It wasn’t the brainchild of out-of-touch bureaucrats in Washington, nor was it some kind of martial settlement imposed on the states of the former Confederacy.

It was, instead, an achievement of the most effective social movement of the postwar United States. The Voting Rights Act revitalized American democracy and stands as one of its great achievements.

This, somehow, has been lost in the discourse around the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais. The court’s clear hostility to the law, as well as the glee with which conservative Republicans have dismantled the South’s majority-minority congressional districts in its wake, makes it seem as if the V.R.A. was a handcuff placed on American politics by some outside force.

The truth is that the Voting Rights Act was conceived, crafted and passed in order to further realize American democracy. And it was, itself, the product of an explosion of democratic energy. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/f6PBxy

Week Sixty-Nine: May 18 - May 24

Trump drops IRS suit — and gets a $1.776B fund in return

President Donald Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service on Monday in exchange for the Justice Department creating a $1.776 billion fund to hear and compensate claims from people who allege they were targeted by the government for political reasons. - Quartz https://25th.s.gy/tfowEk

‌ICE officer charged with assault in shooting during Minneapolis immigration crackdown

An ICE agent is facing several assault charges in connection with a January shooting involving two Venezuelan immigrants in Minnesota, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.

The federal agent, Christian Castro, has been charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime, Moriarty said at a news conference Monday. A nationwide warrant for his arrest has been issued. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/R2vY2q

‌Trump administration creates $1.776 billion fund for allies of the president after he drops lawsuit against IRS

The Justice Department on Monday announced the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate President Donald Trump’s allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the previous administration.

It’s an unprecedented move that would allow the president’s administration to pay his supporters from a government agency he controls with taxpayer money.

‌National Mall prayer event sparks concern about Trump administration eroding the wall between church and state

An all-day prayer event on the National Mall on Sunday — backed by the White House through a mix of taxpayer funds and private donations — marked the latest flashpoint in the Trump administration blurring separation of church and state.

The event, dubbed “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” is part of a series of celebrations commemorating America’s 250th birthday, and featured video messages from President Donald Trump and other members of his Cabinet. The event brought together faith leaders, public officials and musicians to reflect and worship ahead of the anniversary of the nation’s founding. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/lJSyyw

‌Trump’s Approval Sinks Amid Unpopular War, Darkening G.O.P. Prospects

With the midterms nearing, President Trump’s approval rating has hit a second-term low as voters question his handling of the economy, according to the latest New York Times/Siena poll. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/y1ypSl

‌Jon Ossoff calls out ‘Mar-a-Lago mafia’ amid presidential bid rumors

At a campaign rally in Augusta, Georgia, on Saturday, the Democratic senator Jon Ossoff mocked Donald Trump’s rosy predictions on Iran and tore into what he called the unprecedented corruption of the president’s family.

While Ossoff is running for re-election in November, he trained most of his fire on the president, and the vice-president, amid mounting speculation that the Democrat could launch a bid for his party’s nomination for the presidency in 2028.

The senator began his remarks by making fun of the paltry turnout for an event headlined by JD Vance on Tuesday: “I don’t know if you saw, but JD Vance was in Georgia this week. Don’t worry – no one showed up.”

He then argued that Trump’s decision to attack Iran would be paid for by young Americans deployed to the Middle East and cuts to services for their families back home.

“Did you hear what this man said two weeks ago?” the senator asked supporters, referring to Trump. “Quote: ‘It’s not possible,’ the president said, ‘for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid or Medicare.’ He said: ‘We can only afford to fund war.’

“Because draft-dodging Donald loves sending other people’s children to war,” Ossoff said.

The senator noted that the $200bn the White House requested to pay for the war on Iran would be enough to “fund a decade, 10 full year years of nationwide, universal pre-kindergarten”.

“Instead? A war no one voted for and no one can explain,” Ossoff said. “And the daily, the hourly lying to the American public about why we’re at war, whether we’ve won, what’s been agreed to, not to mention the insane genocidal threats.”

The senator then recited, to laughter from the crowd, a list of the president’s false claims that the war in Iran he started was all but over. “On day 10 of the war, the president said, quote: ‘The war is very complete.’ That was day 10. Then, day 11: ‘Going to be finished pretty quickly.’ Day 12: ‘We won.’ Day 21: ‘Getting very close.’ Day 32: ‘Leaving very soon.’ Day 40: ‘Total and complete victory.’ Yesterday, day 49, Trump said Iran had opened the strait – except this morning the strait was closed, and it looks like Iran hit a cargo ship.” - Guardian https://25th.s.gy/A7dbZd

‌Knox County Schools bans historical novel 'Roots' by Alex Haley

Knox County Schools in Tennessee is removing Alex Haley's 1976 novel "Roots" from its libraries.

The removal is part of a larger ban that now includes 119 titles across the school district.

Author Alex Haley had strong ties to East Tennessee, and his papers, including drafts of "Roots," are housed at the University of Tennessee.

"Roots," the renowned 1976 novel by Alex Haley that spurred a broad awakening in African American genealogy and history, has been banned by Knox County Schools.

"Roots" was among the first widely read works of fiction to offer a detailed account of the Middle Passage, the horrific transatlantic journey to America endured by enslaved Africans between the 16th and 19th centuries.

"Prior to its release, the impact of slavery was easy to diminish or deny by those that benefited the most from that system," said Annastasia Williams, bookshop director at The Bottom bookstore and cultural organization.

"'Roots' created an opening to reengage with how the history of slavery is taught in American schools and to the American public. Haley's work showcased the violence, brutality, and aftermath of slavery, but it also showcased the resilience and resistance of Black people and families that spans generations. Both the book and subsequent TV miniseries were cultural phenomenons that started conversations, shifted perspectives, and contributed to a collective empathy that the U.S. had not seen or heard before." - Knoz News https://25th.s.gy/DExfQQ

‌Granting Tina Peters Clemency Is a Big Mistake

Local election officials are the lifeblood of American democracy. They, and not the president or Congress, are most important for functional elections, and that’s what made Tina Peters’s crimes especially egregious.

Peters was the county clerk in Mesa County, Colorado, during the 2020 election. Following the election, she signed documents affirming that all results in her county were in order. Later, however, she became convinced of claims by Donald Trump and others that the election was tainted by fraud. Peters ordered security cameras turned off, then allowed an election-denial activist access to voting data from her county. She lied to staffers, obtaining him a badge under another person’s name. When the data leaked, she falsely claimed ignorance. (The county eventually had to replace all of its voting machines.)

In 2024, Peters was convicted of four felonies and three misdemeanors related to the case, and was sentenced to almost nine years in prison. (She pleaded not guilty.) On Friday, Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, announced that he had commuted Peters’s sentence, setting her to be released from prison on June 1. This is a serious mistake. Perhaps Polis succumbed to threats and pressure from Trump to subvert justice, but he insists he did not. Whatever the motivation, clemency for Peters weakens the rule of law, and it will encourage those who wish to undermine elections. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/2CSxfV

‌The Most Interesting Part of Trump’s Prayer Rally

By 10 a.m. yesterday, the line of people wishing to dedicate America to God was more than three hours long. They came ready with prayer flags to wave the Holy Spirit into action, and shofars to scatter demonic forces. They wore T-shirts declaring the sort of Christians they were. A muscular man wore one that read Prayer Warrior. A woman in cargo shorts announced that she was an Intercessor for America. An elderly woman wore one that read I Am the Weapon. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/j65meV

‌Why a growing number of Trump supporters are experiencing voter’s remorse

In recent months, some prominent conservatives and erstwhile allies of President Donald Trump – former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and journalist Megyn Kelly, for example – have voiced their displeasure with him on several issues. They range from Trump’s handling of the Iran war and the economy to the release of information concerning his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Most notably, political commentator Tucker Carlson, once one of Trump’s most stalwart loyalists, expressed remorse for his previous support for the president, declaring in April 2026, “It’s not enough to say, well, I changed my mind – or like, oh, this is bad, I’m out.” Carlson said he will be “tormented” by his support for Trump “for a long time” and that he is “sorry for misleading people.”

Growing unease with the Trump administration among these former allies comes amid some of the worst polling of Trump’s career. According to data compiled by pollster G. Elliott Morris, Trump’s popularity has been steadily declining over the past year. Americans are seriously questioning his handling of key issues, such as inflation, immigration, jobs and foreign affairs.

But beyond former prominent Trump allies, are there other Trump supporters having second thoughts about their votes in the 2024 presidential election? To answer this question, we conducted a nationally representative poll of 1,000 U.S. adults who were recruited from an online panel maintained by YouGov, a survey research firm. - The Conversation https://25th.s.gy/kUZNnZ

‌Trump Threatens Iran and Then Pulls Back, All in the Same Day

President Trump said Monday that he had authorized a new wave of attacks against Iran this week but that he was holding off to make room for “serious negotiations,” after he said three Gulf leaders requested more time to work out a nuclear deal.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch new strikes, only to pull back at the last minute from plunging the United States back into an unpopular, expensive war. On Monday, he confirmed plans to strike and canceled them at the same time.

“We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow, and I put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to,” Mr. Trump told reporters.

When Mr. Trump launched the war alongside Israel on Feb. 28, he estimated that it would end in four to five weeks. The conflict is now in its third month, and Mr. Trump is caught between dueling impulses: to force Iran into submission, and to declare victory and move on.

The result has been wildly contradictory statements about the war — at one point Mr. Trump said the war was “over” but the United States still needed to finish the job — and bombastic threats like the one he issued in April, when he warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” (He backed down before his self-imposed deadline.)

U.S. military officials say that the Iranian regime has demonstrated enormous resilience and the ability to inflict significant damage to the region and on the global economy. And so far, Iran’s nuclear stockpile has not been touched. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/HfdUGQ

‌In Closed-Door Talks, U.S. Demands a Major Role in Greenland

With the conflict in Iran still smoldering, President Trump’s obsession with Greenland seems like a forgotten sideshow.

But for the past four months, negotiators from the United States, Greenland and Denmark, which controls Greenland’s foreign affairs, have been holding confidential talks in Washington about Greenland’s future.

The talks were meant to give Mr. Trump an offramp to his threats of a military takeover of Greenland and to scale back a crisis that risked breaking apart the NATO alliance. But Greenlandic leaders are worried about what is being proposed, which is a much larger U.S. role on the Arctic island. And they fear that if the conflict with Iran winds down, the president will swing his aggression back on them.

Some Greenlandic politicians say they have even circled a date on their calendars to be wary: June 14, Mr. Trump’s birthday. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/07BgAJ

‌Justices Hint at Strains as Supreme Court Comes Under Scrutiny

The tensions come as the court is being pummeled with criticism from across the political spectrum. President Trump is still fuming on social media over the court’s decision to invalidate his sweeping tariffs and musing about the likelihood of a major ruling against his effort to end the guarantee of birthright citizenship.

The president has called out two of his own nominees, Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, for voting against his tariffs, saying they should have been “loyal to the person that appointed them.”

From the left, civil rights organizations and Democrats have decried the court’s significant weakening of the landmark Voting Rights Act last month. The decision has set off Republican-led redistricting efforts to break up majority-Black districts across the South and prompted sharp exchanges between some of the justices.

Soon after the ruling, Chief Justice Roberts defended the court during a judicial conference in Hershey, Pa., and pushed back on what he said was a misunderstanding about its role.

“At a very basic level, people think we’re making policy decisions,” Chief Justice Roberts said. “I think they view us as purely political actors, which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do.” - NYT https://25th.s.gy/hqgWky

‌Colorado Supreme Court Orders Hospital to Restart Care for Transgender Minors

A Colorado hospital that halted gender-transition treatment to transgender minors after the Trump administration threatened to cut off funding must resume providing those treatments, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

The 5-2 ruling from the heavily Democratic state’s highest court was a victory for four transgender minors and their families who sued Children’s Hospital Colorado, one of the top children’s hospitals in the nation, over the hospital’s decision to stop providing hormone therapy and puberty blockers to transgender youth.

The hospital’s suspension of care left the plaintiffs “suddenly abandoned during a precarious time,” the Colorado Supreme Court said. Some experienced depression, and two contemplated suicide, the court said.

Paula Greisen, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the ruling recognized the “profound and immediate harm caused when vulnerable young people are abruptly denied medically necessary care.” - NYT https://25th.s.gy/RFlJpc

‌Justice Dept. Sets Up $1.8 Billion Fund That Could Funnel Money to Trump Allies

The Trump administration announced on Monday the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were targeted by the Biden Justice Department and Democrats, forging a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump’s allies.

The highly unusual “anti-weaponization” fund was denounced by critics as a slush fund and as a brazen misuse of a once-independent Justice Department to carry out the president’s personal and political agendas.

The announcement provided few details of how the disbursement would work or who would be eligible. But the arrangement raised the possibility that American taxpayers might end up writing checks to those prosecuted for the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021, and others the president has cast as victims of Biden administration actions.

“This is one of the single most corrupt acts in American history,” said Donald K. Sherman, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit legal watchdog group that has been critical of the administration. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/5ZAbc8

‌Abortion Pill Lawsuit Leaves Trump Silent, and in a Political Bind

Mini Timmaraju, the president and chief executive of Reproductive Freedom for All, said in a statement that the case underscores the importance of voting this fall.

“Mifepristone is safe, effective and backed by decades of evidence, but anti-abortion extremists dragged this baseless case through the courts as part of their efforts to ban abortion nationwide,” she said, adding: “This is exactly why the midterm elections are critical. We need leaders at every level of government to stop these attacks.”

More than 100 studies and years of F.D.A. reviews have consistently found that mifepristone is safe and that serious complications from taking it are rare. It is the first pill taken in a two-drug medication abortion regimen that has become the method used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States. Pills are now mailed to about 100,000 patients per year in states that have banned or severely restricted abortion. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/mt2W3S

‌New York Times Sues Pentagon for a Second Time

The Times is challenging a new requirement that reporters covering the military complex have an official escort, part of a broader legal challenge to the Pentagon’s press restrictions. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/17ERSW

‌Judge Bars ICE From Making Immigration Arrests at Courts in New York

A judge on Monday largely barred federal agents from making arrests in immigration courts in New York City, putting an abrupt halt to a policy that emerged last year as the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Manhattan.

The federal judge, P. Kevin Castel, issued the ruling two months after the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office sent a highly unusual letter to the court saying that it had mistakenly relied on a Department of Homeland Security policy memo when detaining noncitizens in immigration court.

Opponents of the Trump administration, including Brad Lander, the former comptroller of New York City who is running for Congress as a Democrat, said the letter amounted to an admission of a “bombshell lie” that had been used as a rationale for the detention of thousands of immigrants.

The policy had led to remarkable scenes within the immigration courts at 26 Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan, as immigrants attending court for routine hearings were suddenly detained and, sometimes, dragged away from their families. Protesters began to attend in droves and some — including Mr. Lander — were arrested alongside the immigrants. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/hgqws6

‌Scientists Tweaked the Global Warming Outlook. So Trump Weighed In.

Scientists are dialing back their worst-case scenario for how hot the world might get from climate change. That’s a small bit of good news. But over the weekend, President Trump falsely claimed it was evidence that scientists had been wrong. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/YA8ueQ

‌E.P.A. to End Some Limits on ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water

The Trump administration announced Monday that it will drop some limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water that officials had determined can cause cancer and other serious health problems — angering some key activists who had supported President Trump’s campaign.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it would unravel the nation’s first federal drinking water limits for the compounds, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The Biden administration established the limits on six of the substances in 2024, after the agency determined that long-term exposure to PFAS was linked to kidney cancer, immune system suppression, developmental delays in infants and children and other issues. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/rB0THx

‌Trump and His Advisers Clearly Haven’t Actually Read Thucydides

In January, Stephen Miller gave a blustery and revealing interview to the CNN journalist Jake Tapper. Flush with the triumph of the military raid to abduct Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, Miller was taking a victory lap. America was done being the world’s nice guy, footing the bill for a global order that no longer served its interests. From now on, he said, the gloves were off. America would act boldly and with unapologetic force to impose its will on the world.

This was seemingly the purest expression of Donald Trump’s theory of power, spoken by perhaps the most hard-line member of the administration. Indeed, America is the most powerful nation the world has ever known. Its economy is, by most measures, the world’s largest, and its currency dominates global markets. Above all, it commands the most advanced military on the planet, fueled by expensive, high-tech wizardry and the derring-do of its special forces.

It was with this pugnacious certainty that the Trump administration barreled into a reckless, unprovoked war against Iran more than two months ago. Trump clearly thought it would be a showcase of American might, unshackled from what Miller called the “niceties” of international law and powered by ruthless “kinetic” action, to borrow a favorite word of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s.

It hasn’t worked out that way. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/glvAeN

‌Firing Squads Expose the Brutality of the Death Penalty

There is no tidy way to kill someone. But for the last century, Americans have searched for a way to carry out the death penalty that minimizes suffering while lessening trauma for executioners and witnesses. Those efforts have gone so poorly that we’re returning to a visceral execution method from the past.

Last month, the Justice Department encouraged federal prison officials to consider execution by firing squad amid a nationwide struggle to secure lethal injection drugs. South Carolina has already used firing squads three times recently, placing a hood over the prisoner’s head and firing rifles at a red bull’s-eye placed over the heart. Four other states have authorized the method, and Idaho is renovating its execution chamber to accommodate firing squads.

There is no question that killing a person in this manner is brutal. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/fx8uuR

‌This Redistricting Chaos Must End

Nearly 10 months ago, President Trump announced that he was “entitled” to five additional House seats from Texas. Thus began the redistricting crisis that has engulfed the nation. The last thing the president wants is a functioning House of Representatives that could serve as a check on his efforts to undermine our democracy and to enrich himself and his family.

Last month, the Supreme Court made it easier for Republicans to skew voting maps in their favor, gutting much of what was left of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 and setting off another round of frantic redistricting that will in effect diminish Americans’ voting power and could result in many Black members of Congress losing their seats.

Make no mistake: Republicans, with the aid of the court, are attacking the right to vote for all Americans, whose representatives in Congress will increasingly reflect the preferences of district line-drawers and their most partisan supporters. The next time Democrats take control of Congress and the White House, their top priority must be to rebuild and reimagine American democracy, creating a system that, more than ever before, reflects and is responsive to the will of the American people. That means banning partisan gerrymandering — and much more.

The times demand a thorough response, because things that seemed inconceivable only a decade ago are now happening. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/Wb9Eiv

‌The Vanity and Inanity of Trump’s White House

Befitting his home in the Trump administration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. practices the politics of narcissism: If I embrace it, it must be right. If I embody it, you should emulate it.

I flaunt a sun-sizzled appearance, so you should have the same leathery license.

About two months ago, the health secretary nixed a proposal by the Food and Drug Administration to make tanning beds, like alcohol and cigarettes, off-limits to minors. That development didn’t get extensive news media attention. It couldn’t compete with all the salvos being exchanged — between the United States and Iran, between President Trump and the pope — and it arguably had marginal significance: The proposal had been on the books, unimplemented, for more than a decade. Kennedy wasn’t changing a policy. He was killing a possibility.

But why this one? Why bother? Is there some melanoma lobby we don’t know about? Needn’t he conserve his energy for his shirtless workouts and his mindless conspiracy theories? - NYT https://25th.s.gy/7qJiIz

‌Trump drops IRS suit — and gets a $1.776B fund in return

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the creation of the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" as part of the settlement. "The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department's intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again," Blanche said in a statement. The fund will have the power to issue both formal apologies and monetary relief to claimants. Submission of a claim is voluntary, and there are no partisan requirements to file.

Financing for the Anti-Weaponization Fund will come from the DOJ's judgment fund, which serves as the department's mechanism for covering court-ordered settlements and judgments. A commission of five members, appointed by the attorney general, will administer the fund. Whatever money has not been disbursed by the time the fund winds down — set to happen by December 15, 2028 at the latest — will be returned to the Treasury. - Quartz https://25th.s.gy/0SnbVg

‌Farewell and Thank You, Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert’s last show is this Thursday evening.

CBS refused to renew his contract, and you know exactly why: He mocked and criticized Trump.

CBS says it’s ending “The Late Show” because the show was costing CBS some $40 million a year. That’s utter bullsh*t. Colbert enabled CBS to charge higher fees to local affiliates, because he attracted millions of viewers to those affiliates’ 11 p.m. news programs in anticipation of his “The Late Show” airing right after. The show was also a promotional gold mine for CBS, whose series stars were often interviewed by Colbert. No wonder CBS was “feverish” to lock Colbert into a new contract only three years ago.

What really happened couldn’t be clearer. Führer Trump was furious at Colbert’s mocking, and publicly called for CBS to cancel him (or “put him to sleep NOW” as Trump wrote in one social media post). At the same time, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, was on the verge of a lucrative merger deal that Trump could interfere with.

Paramount had already sucked up to Trump by offering him $16 million to settle a lawsuit he brought against CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” although he had almost no chance of prevailing in court.

In a monologue, Colbert called the settlement a “big fat bribe,” which it was. Days later he got word he’d been canceled. About a week after that, the deal was approved. - Reich Substack https://25th.s.gy/ZMDoF3

‌30-year US Treasury yield hits highest level in 19 years

A bond rout is deepening as inflation fears take hold of the Treasury market, threatening to raise borrowing costs across the US economy.

The 30-year US Treasury yield just hit 5.2%, its highest level since 2007, rising on worries about persistent price hikes because of the Iran war. Unsustainable government finances and interest rate hike fears have also sent investors pouring out of Treasury bonds. Yields rise when bond prices fall.

The war with Iran has ignited a global energy shock, with oil and gas prices at their highest levels in four years while the critical Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. That has started to seep out into other parts of the economy, including food prices and airfares.

“Bond markets are warning that inflation could prove much stickier than many investors anticipated,” Nigel Green, CEO at deVere Group, said in a note. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/0yVVYr

‌This is not gerrymandering as usual

On Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans hopped in cars, climbed on buses, and boarded planes to converge upon Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. They carried one message: “We will organize, mobilize, and vote.”

The march from Selma to Montgomery — first trod in 1965, retraced again this weekend — was organized in a little more than a week by Black Voters Matter and a coalition of civil rights and voting rights organizations under the banner “All Roads Lead to the South.” The message was clear. The fight that produced the Voting Rights Act, and with it America’s second, imperfect attempt at a real multiracial democracy, must be refought. And the people who know that best are the ones who showed up to say so. - If You Can Keep It https://25th.s.gy/92l2Vd

‌Trump Just Stole Your Money!

Donald Trump just stole over A BILLION DOLLARS from you and me and every other taxpayer. And he’s using it to reward cronies and criminals who committed violence on his behalf.

If this sounds corrupt as hell, that’s because IT IS corrupt as hell.

The Justice Department announced that it is establishing a taxpayer-funded $1.8 billion dollar “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

The massive slush fund will give violent criminals and crooks pardoned by Trump a way to seek payouts over bogus claims that the government was “weaponized” against them.

This includes the FIFTEEN HUNDRED insurrectionists charged or convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6. And it includes some of the fraudsters Trump pardoned after they made huge donations to his Super PAC.

This so-called “weaponization” fund was created after Trump agreed to drop his egregious $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns.

In addition, the Justice Department revealed today that it has agreed not to pursue any legal matters against Trump and his family, including those involving Trump’s tax returns, that are currently pending — such as any audits of Trump or his family. In 2024, the New York Times reported that a loss in an I.R.S. audit could cost Trump more than $100 million.

Remember: Donald Trump was literally suing his own government for damages, while lawyers from his own Justice Department handled the lawsuit. Hello? - Reich Substack https://25th.s.gy/nAC0T3

‌Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Is Worse Than Stealing

Recasting the January 6 insurrection as the work of heroic patriots remains the president’s highest priority.

Among the very first things Donald Trump did upon assuming the powers of the presidency for the second time was commute the sentences of, and grant pardons to, everybody involved in his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Republican allies expressed moderate disappointment but vowed to move past this ugly blemish. Senator Susan Collins called it a “terrible day for our Justice Department.” Senator Tommy Tuberville admitted, “It’s a hard one, because we work with them up here,” referring to Capitol Police who were viciously beaten by Trump’s allies. Tuberville concluded, “At the end of the day, we’ve got to get Jan. 6 behind us.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that Republicans were “not looking backwards; we’re looking forward.”

It was not, however, just one terrible day. Trump’s loyalty to his most violent and criminal supporters was a signal of his highest priority and has been a reliable guide to his decisions ever since. The impulse to rewrite the history of January 6, 2021, appears to be the inspiration even for the establishment of a $1.8 billion Treasury Department slush fund for victims of so-called weaponization of government.

Last week, when the administration floated the notion of disbursing payments to alleged victims of government weaponization, cynics assumed that Trump meant to divert the money to himself. But this assessment may have turned out to be too naive. Trump already has ample ways to profit from office, including from stock trading with the benefit of inside knowledge and by accepting gifts from client states. The Justice Department told reporters yesterday that Trump, his sons, and his family business would not receive payments from the fund. The recipients will almost surely be insurrectionists and other allies. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/xZKgej

‌Top Treasury Lawyer Resigns After Creation of ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund

The top lawyer at the Treasury Department stepped down on Monday in the wake of the creation of a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that could soon make payments to President Trump’s political allies, according to three people familiar with the move.

Brian Morrissey, the Treasury’s general counsel, resigned from the position seven months after he was confirmed to it by the Senate and just hours after the Trump administration announced the fund on Monday.

Mr. Morrissey did not respond to requests for comment. A Treasury spokesman said: “Mr. Morrissey has served the United States Treasury with both honor and integrity. We wish him all the best in his next endeavors.”

In his resignation letter, Mr. Morrissey said he was grateful to have worked for Mr. Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to two people familiar with the letter.

The Justice Department created the fund to disburse payments to people who claim that the Biden administration improperly targeted them — a population that includes supporters of Mr. Trump and former members of his staff. Among them are people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Treasury Department is responsible for depositing $1.776 billion into an account that will be controlled by a group of people selected by the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, according to the terms of the fund released on Monday. That money will come from the Judgment Fund, an uncapped pot of funding that is available for the federal government to pay settlement claims without needing congressional approval. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/oIxh7G

‌THE COMMANDER IN THIEF

What would happen if you gave a criminal defendant and his attorney control of the most powerful government in the world? In America, that was a rhetorical question for about 250 years. Unfortunately, in 2026, we’re rapidly watching the answer come to life. Trump’s meritless, vexatious suit against an IRS that he has always shortchanged but now oversees has been settled by the once-independent Justice Department he has corrupted, which will result in major payouts for fellow criminals who served (and possibly plan to serve further) as willing, often violent, accomplices. “The Justice Department on Monday announced that it was establishing a $1.776 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ after President Donald Trump moved to dismiss a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns … The massive fund would give Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump a mechanism to seek taxpayer payouts for their claims of government overreach. The fund could even issue ‘formal apologies’ to individuals who made claims against the government.”

This corruption eruption is bad and sad news for the rule of law, but it could also end up being bad news for Republicans in the upcoming midterms.”Republicans broadly approved of Mr. Trump’s job performance and the war. But most other voters showed serious skepticism of his leadership on other top issues, including the economy and the cost of living. Sixty-four percent of all voters disapproved of his handling of the economy, long a strength for him, and majorities expressed negative views of how he was managing the cost of living.” Serious skepticism might be an understatement. Trump’s approval numbers are plummeting. The key for the opposition will be consistently and constantly tying the administration’s corruption to individual pocketboots. Every issue — the money spent on the war, healthcare cuts, tax cuts for the wealthy, the wanton Trump family corruption — needs to be connected directly to the daily experiences of the average American. No one is managing this narrative better than Jon Ossoff: “The faithless president depicts himself as Christ while he plunges the nation into wars of choice, while he and his family rake in billions from foreign princes, while he plunders our healthcare to cut taxes for the rich. Meanwhile, rent, power, groceries and healthcare have all hit all-time highs this year. While you pay more for everything, the first family’s wealth is growing by billions of dollars – because they’re crooks, and everybody knows it.”

To quote the Mandalorian: This is the way.

This blurb is from the May 18, 2026 edition of NextDraft - Next Draft https://25th.s.gy/6SaoaR

‌Trump traded over $50 million in 'Magnificent 7' stocks last quarter, loading up on Apple and Google and selling Tesla

President Trump made 94 different trades of “Magnificent Seven” stocks in the first quarter of 2026, a new ethics disclosure shows, executing millions of dollars in transactions even as he was meeting with and often promoting these top tech companies.

The trades were valued at between $50 million and $70 million across 64 buy orders and 30 stock sales. - Yahoo https://25th.s.gy/l3rZXr

‌Trump endorses Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn ahead of Texas Republican Senate runoff

President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for Senate, dealing a massive political blow to longtime Sen. John Cornyn as he faces off against Paxton in an upcoming Republican primary runoff.

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“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on Truth Social.

Of the incumbent, meanwhile, Trump wrote, “John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough.” - NBC https://25th.s.gy/uktX0F

‌How Zyn Became All the Rage Inside Trump World—Including With RFK Jr.

At a lunch this month between President Trump and tobacco executives, the conversation turned to nicotine pouches, one of the hottest products in the market.

The president called his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and in the course of the conversation asked him what pouches he used. Trump took an interest in the product and told officials he wanted to see more of the pouches authorized, according to people familiar with the meeting. - WSJ https://25th.s.gy/IVsK3m

‌Betting On War

New York, 6:49 a.m., March 23, 2026

The morning of Monday, March 23, was quiet in the oil markets. The Iran war had been raging for nearly four weeks, but it was an otherwise unremarkable premarket session. Early-morning futures trading is, by nature, low volume, low liquidity, with few surprises. That makes unusual activity easy to spot because there is so little market noise to hide it.

At 6:49 a.m. Eastern time, the very unusual happened. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, contracts corresponding to at least six million barrels of Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude oil were sold in two minutes, with a notional value of $580 million. For perspective, the average over the previous five trading days had been roughly 700 contracts in that same period, for about 700,000 barrels. The positions were structured to profit specifically from a simultaneous fall in oil prices and rise in stock markets.

The trading “was especially bizarre because there were no major news items—no major publicly available news items—to drive sudden big market transactions,” wrote economist Paul Krugman on March 24.

At 7:05 a.m., 16 minutes after the trades were placed, President Trump posted on Truth Social that the U.S. and Iran had held “very good and productive conversations” about ending hostilities, and that he was halting planned strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure. It was a sudden, sharp reversal from a post two days earlier in which Trump had threatened to “obliterate” those same plants.

Oil prices fell more than 10 percent within minutes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 1,000 points. Whoever placed those trades had been on exactly the right side of both moves at exactly the right time. Former commodities trader David Kovel, now a New York lawyer representing fraud victims, gave 60 Minutes his estimate of the profit: “Tens of millions, could be $80 million.” - The Big Picture https://25th.s.gy/YxVRvj

‌What Xi Knows That Trump Doesn’t

It was both painful and humiliating to watch media coverage of Donald Trump’s recent visit to Beijing, because it amply demonstrated America’s decline as a great power relative to China. Prior to the summit, expectations were very low: Trump was in a weakened position, beset by inflation and declining popularity, while seeking Chinese help in getting out of the Iran trap he has created for himself. Xi, on the other hand, had forced Trump to back down in his trade war the year before, with China showing strong export growth in the face of Washington’s weak response.

And so it was. Trump returned to Washington with little to show for his visit: only two agreements on opening Chinese markets to U.S. products, and no political help in the Middle East. China did agree to buy 200 Boeing aircraft (fewer than expected), but it has failed to follow through on similar announcements in the past. The White House also claimed that China has agreed to purchase $17 billion of agricultural products, but China has not confirmed this. It did not prevent Trump from claiming that they “did great trade deals” and that the meeting was “a great success.”

It was the optics of the meeting that demonstrated how far Trump has fallen in Chinese eyes. Trump was not met at the airport by Xi. He was seated on the podium in a chair that made him look smaller than Xi, a slight that could have been avoided had Trump’s State Department not sidelined the protocol officials whose job it is to look after these things. The worst part of the visit was Trump’s constant sycophancy, exclaiming that Xi was a “great leader,” “really a friend,” someone “from central casting”; he effused time and again about how beautiful and impressive China is. As in previous interactions with various dictators, Trump seems to have thought that they would be impressed by the same kind of praise and flattery that he himself revels in. Xi, for his part, failed to reciprocate any of these assertions of friendship, saying merely that the United States and China “should be partners and not rivals.” - Persuasion https://25th.s.gy/95L30b

‌New settlement term bars IRS from investigating Trump, his family for past tax issues

The Internal Revenue Service can’t bring claims against President Donald Trump, his family or businesses for past tax issues, according to additional terms added Tuesday to the settlement the Justice Department reached with Trump to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.

The additional terms, first reported by Politico, were quietly added in a hyperlink to Monday’s Justice Department press release that contained an agreement to create a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate people or organizations that have been “weaponized” by past administrations — a fund widely expected to benefit Trump’s allies, including January 6, 2021, US Capitol rioters.

This additional settlement term is an extraordinary step that Trump’s own administration has taken that benefits him and his family directly.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made no mention of the additional term during testimony before a Senate committee earlier Tuesday. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/ZANiSO

‌Trump’s Jan. 6 slush fund is ‘impeachable,’ says House Democrat

President Donald Trump’s decision to create a $1.7 billion taxpayer-financed slush fund for his political allies, cronies, and associates—including the Jan. 6 attackers—is an impeachable offense, Rep. Dan Goldman of New York told CNN on Monday night.

Appearing on “Laura Coates Live,” Goldman said he agreed with legal commentator Harry Litman’s reasoning that there’s a “strong argument” that the creation of Trump’s fund is grounds for impeachment. - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/u14Ukd

‌Heads, Trump Wins

Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced plans to settle Donald Trump’s personal lawsuit against the IRS over allegations that it had mishandled his tax information. The president, two of his sons, and their family business had been seeking at least $10 billion from the American government, all of which would have come directly from taxpayers. Now Trump is withdrawing the suit—but taxpayers are still footing the bill.

In exchange for Trump dropping this lawsuit and his two other pending claims against the government, the Justice Department will create a $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund to compensate people who say they’ve been wrongfully targeted by the federal government. According to an addendum published this morning, the IRS is also “forever barred” from pursuing “any and all claims” against Trump, his family, and his companies over previously filed taxes. (A DOJ spokesperson told me that this applies “only with respect to existing audits, not future.”)

The money for the new project will come from the Judgment Fund, an uncapped source of taxpayer dollars that’s used to pay out judgments against the government. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/cSffsk

‌Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Is Worse Than Stealing

Recasting the January 6 insurrection as the work of heroic patriots remains the president’s highest priority.

‌Trump Organization found guilty on all counts of criminal tax fraud (2022)

A Manhattan jury has found two Trump Organization companies guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives.

The Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. were found guilty on all charges they faced.

Donald Trump and his family were not charged in this case, but the former president was mentioned repeatedly during the trial by prosecutors about his connection to the benefits doled out to certain executives, including company-funded apartments, car leases and personal expenses.

The Trump Organization could face a maximum of $1.61 million in fines when sentenced in mid-January. The company is not at risk of being dismantled because there is no mechanism under New York law that would dissolve the company. However, a felony conviction could impact its ability to do business or obtain loans or contracts. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/jrUMD6

‌Trump’s compensation plan is a metaphor for a brazen presidency

President Donald Trump’s new $1.776 billion fund to compensate allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration is the kind of scheme that might once have irrevocably stained a presidency.

Yet Trump has spent years shattering ethical expectations surrounding his office. His brazen leadership has long shed the power to shock.

Still, the plan, announced by the Justice Department on Monday and denounced by critics as a slush fund, is a study of his political project in microcosm.

It exemplifies several of Trump’s cardinal rules across two presidencies: harbor grudges, never admit defeat, and always seek retribution.

Trump’s belief that he was uniquely persecuted because of his politics remains a burning motivating force despite his sidelining of criminal probes against him by winning back the presidency. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/UUuujN

‌Israel said preparing for imminent renewal of war with Iran that could extend for weeks

A senior Israeli official tells Channel 12 that Jerusalem is preparing for the imminent renewal of the war against Iran.

“The Americans understand that negotiations with Iran are going nowhere,” the unnamed official says.

“We are preparing for days to weeks of [renewed] fighting and waiting for Trump’s final decision. We will know more in 24 hours,” the official adds. - Times of Israel https://25th.s.gy/pyGd3M

‌How to Get a Pardon in Trump’s Washington

Trump’s dozens of pardons are just one of several moves by the administration indicating a newly permissive environment for white-collar crime. For starters, fewer federal prosecutors are bringing fewer cases against fewer white-collar defendants. At the Justice Department, more than 3,000 of its nearly 13,000 lawyers have quit or been fired since the beginning of 2025. According to an investigation by ProPublica, the Justice Department has closed thousands of white-collar and other investigations and ordered its prosecutors to focus instead on immigration violations.

In mid-May, The Times reported that the Trump administration plans to dismiss a major bribery prosecution, brought in the final days of the Biden presidency, against Gautam Adani, a billionaire businessman from India. Of course, the president who has overseen this change in priorities was himself convicted of a series of white-collar crimes in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case in Manhattan in 2024. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/gL5nzR

‌Early War Goal Was to Install Hard-Line Former President as Iran’s Leader

Days after Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials in the opening salvos of the war, President Trump mused publicly that it would be best if “someone from within” Iran took over the country.

It turns out that the United States and Israel went into the conflict with a particular and very surprising someone in mind: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president known for his hard-line, anti-Israel and anti-American views.

But the audacious plan, developed by the Israelis and which Mr. Ahmadinejad had been consulted about, quickly went awry, according to the U.S. officials who were briefed on it. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/JfEMdm

‌Trump Crushes Republican Dissent: 8 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Primaries

President Trump’s approval rating is drooping. His party is poised to lose seats in the House and is worried about the Senate. And yet Republican primary voters remain so loyal that they have no tolerance for Trump dissenters.

Republicans backed by the president won or were in first place in primaries on Tuesday in Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky, where Representative Thomas Massie, the House’s most prominent G.O.P. critic of Mr. Trump, was sent on his way out of Congress.

Hours earlier, the president’s endorsement of Ken Paxton in Texas was viewed as a hammer blow to Senator John Cornyn’s hopes of retaining his seat ahead of a runoff election next week.

In all, it was the latest evidence that even though Mr. Trump is in his second term, is nearly 80 years old and has led his party into political danger ahead of the midterms, Republicans are still firmly in his thrall. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/y4AkE3

‌I.R.S. to Drop Audits of Trump and Family

The Justice Department has granted President Trump, his family and businesses immunity from ongoing inquiries into their taxes, a potentially lucrative arrangement that could shield the president from significant financial liability.

The provision, quietly inserted on Tuesday as a supplement to a remarkable deal that also created a $1.8 billion fund aimed at benefiting Mr. Trump’s allies, protects the president, his relatives and his businesses from pending audits and tax prosecutions.

The one-page document, signed by the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said that the government would be “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing” pending tax claims against Mr. Trump, his family members and businesses.

The provision invited immediate criticism as tax experts raised the possibility that it was illegal. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/XbwwLq

‌How Trump Entrusted His World Cup to Another Giuliani

Mr. Giuliani, 40, is the executive director of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026 — the nation’s steward for what he has billed, with Trumpian (and not inaccurate) flair, as “the largest sporting event in the history of the world,” which begins next month.

The job would have been complicated enough before the war in Iran, one of the countries competing in the draw; or the 76-day homeland security shutdown that waylaid vital funding (and left Mr. Giuliani and much of his team unpaid); or the jittery incoming messages from blue host cities unsettled by Mr. Trump openly musing about relocating matches that have been planned for years.

But it has fallen to Mr. Giuliani, a Trump super-loyalist and regular golf partner who once played professionally, to reassure the soccer-loving masses that he is on the case, that the president hears their concerns, that everything will probably be fine. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/Nzoyf8

‌Senate Votes to Take Up Measure to Force Trump to End Iran War

The Senate on Tuesday agreed to take up a measure that would force President Trump to end the war in Iran or win authorization from Congress to continue it, after a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in pushing forward with a resolution the G.O.P. has managed to block for months.

Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who lost his primary over the weekend after Mr. Trump targeted him for defeat, was the latest member of his party to switch his vote and side with Democrats in an effort to limit the president’s war powers. That, combined with the absences of several other Republicans, was enough to push the resolution forward. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/GFSyzi

‌Republican Senators Are Livid at Trump’s Endorsement of Paxton

Republican senators reacted angrily on Tuesday to President Trump’s decision to endorse Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, in the state’s Senate primary runoff, warning that his snub of the incumbent Senator John Cornyn could risk the seat and the party’s fight to keep its majority.

Heading into their weekly G.O.P. luncheon not long after Mr. Trump posted his choice on social media, many Senate Republicans appeared stunned and livid as they learned the news, which dealt a serious blow to Mr. Cornyn, who has served for more than two decades. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/9hcztM

‌ICE Makes Courthouse Arrest Despite Judge’s Order

Federal agents on Tuesday detained a 21-year-old Honduran man at an immigration court in New York City, an action that his attorneys said defied a federal judge who barred such arrests a day earlier.

The arrest was made on Tuesday morning at 26 Federal Plaza, one of three immigration courthouses in Manhattan that a judge, P. Kevin Castel, had ruled on Monday were off limits for arrests.

Lawyers for the man, Vinely Alexander Castillo-Norales, said the arrest occurred despite an order that allowed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to make courthouse arrests only in extremely limited circumstances, none of which appeared to apply on Tuesday.

“His arrest is in direct violation of an order in this court — issued just yesterday,” the man’s lawyers said in a petition filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

But on Tuesday evening, after repeated inquiries from The New York Times, the federal government took two seemingly contradictory actions: They released Mr. Castillo-Norales from custody while simultaneously claiming he was a dangerous criminal. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/qyDScO

‌Fish and Wildlife Service Clears a Weedhttps://www.messageboxnews.com/p/everyone-thinks-trump-won-last-nightkiller, Saying It Won’t Cause Extinction

The finding effectively paves the way for continued use of atrazine, a widely used herbicide that has been linked to birth defects and cancer in humans. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/PZ63HR

‌Trump’s Deportations Are Costing Americans Jobs, Study Finds

According to a new study, construction was impacted more than any other industry studied, with American-born workers losing more jobs than immigrants as a result of the deportations.

The Trump administration has long claimed that mass deportations would deliver more jobs and higher wages to American-born workers. But a new study casts doubt on that assertion, undermining a central tenet of the president’s immigration policy. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/hHAr84

‌Everyone Thinks Trump Won Last Night. They're Wrong

The problem for Republicans on the ballot this fall is that the best way to keep their job might be to buck Trump.

Trump’s approval rating is under 40%. He is embroiled in a deeply unpopular war. Voters hate the economy and blame Trump’s economic policies. The voters who made up his winning coalition have abandoned him.

Trump is a massive drag on his party, and to win, many Republicans will need to show some independence from the deeply unpopular President.

Trump won’t let them do that. Cross him, and he could turn on you. It’s too late for Trump to run a primary challenge against someone now, but he could attack them on social media, depressing turnout among the MAGA base, or cut off funding from his array of well-heeled Super PACs. - Message Box https://25th.s.gy/De9KE8

‌There Has Never Been an Example of Presidential Corruption Like This

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

Has there ever been an episode of presidential corruption so blatant and threatening to constitutional order? Certainly not in modern times. President Trump’s Justice Department is using taxpayer money to create a $1.8 billion political slush fund. Ostensibly set up to compensate those who the department claims have “suffered weaponization and lawfare,” it will in fact reward loyalists willing to defy the law and commit violence on behalf of the president.

The fund manages to combine three of Mr. Trump’s most alarming behaviors. One, it is an obvious form of corruption, coming from a president who has used his office to enrich himself, his family and his allies. Two, the fund continues his pattern of using the Justice Department as an enforcer to punish his perceived opponents and protect his friends and allies. Three, the fund is his latest attempt to rewrite history about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.

It is worth pausing to put the fund into the larger context of Mr. Trump’s political project: He is destroying pillars of American democracy to empower himself. He claims elections are legitimate only if he wins. He uses federal law enforcement to investigate and prosecute his perceived enemies. He purges his party of officials who defy him. He describes members of the other party and civil society as traitors and enemies. He incentivizes his supporters to break the law on his behalf and rewards them when they do. He directs his allies to change election rules to keep his party in power. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/pkONY9

‌U.S. Charges Former Cuban President Raúl Castro With Murder

How Rubio Is Driving the U.S. Pressure Campaign on Cuba

Our diplomatic correspondent Michael Crowley explains how Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long lobbied for an end to the regime in Cuba, is ramping up pressure on the island. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/bssAM4

‌Kleptocracy

When everything is bad, nothing is bad. People get desensitized. They can no longer keep track of it all. It’s all so awful that none of it gets processed anymore.

So I need you to hear me when I say tonight: This is bad. Really, really bad. MS Now’s Ari Melber called it “worse than Watergate”. He was right.

Here’s the bottom line. Donald Trump wants to take $1.8 billion dollars of money that taxpayers like you and me have paid to the government, and he wants to give it to his most hardcore followers, the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6. Trump calls them victims of Joe Biden’s weaponization of the Justice Department. It’s corruption. Corruption in plain sight. Trump is going to give his supporters taxpayers’ money. - Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance https://25th.s.gy/47l1EW

‌DOJ indicts Raúl Castro over fatal 1996 civilian planes’ shooting

The Justice Department indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro on Wednesday in connection with the 1996 shooting of two civilian planes that killed four Cuban exiles.

Castro, 94, who is the brother of the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, is being charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, murder and destruction of aircraft, according to acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Five other men, who were Cuban fighter pilots involved in the shooting, were also indicted. - NBC https://25th.s.gy/JRhj9r

Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father ‌

President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New York City builder Fred C. Trump, provided almost no financial help.

But The Times’s investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day.

Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes. He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show. Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/hWVmMK

‌New York judge finds Donald Trump liable for fraud (2023)

A New York judge found Donald Trump and his adult sons liable for fraud and canceled the Trump Organization’s business certification, a shocking ruling that poses an existential threat to the former president’s financial empire as he runs for a second term in the White House.

Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling on Monday is a complete rejection of Trump’s arguments that he didn’t inflate the values of his golf courses, hotels, homes at Mar-a-Lago and Seven Springs on financial statements. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/5QzUSm

‌Trump found guilty in hush money trial (2024)

A Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 charges of falsifying business records Thursday, an unprecedented and historic verdict that makes Trump the first former president in American history to be convicted of a felony.

Not only is Trump the first former president to be found guilty of a felony, he’s also the first major-party presidential nominee to be convicted of a crime in the midst of a campaign for the White House. And if he defeats President Joe Biden in November, he will be the first sitting president in history to be a convicted felon. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/iZhkOo

‌With Trump’s Deal, a Possible $100 Million I.R.S. Penalty Melts Away

A tax audit that President Trump has been fighting since his peak earning days as a television celebrity was most likely wiped away in this week’s agreement with the Justice and Treasury Departments.

The agreement, part of a resolution to an unusual lawsuit that Mr. Trump and his sons filed against the Internal Revenue Service, frees the president from a potential adverse ruling that could have cost him more than $100 million, according to an analysis of his tax returns in 2020 by The New York Times. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/uMI1MP

‌Police officers who defended US Capitol on January 6 sue to stop Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Law enforcement officers who protected the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, sued the Trump administration on Wednesday to block implementation of a newly created $1.8 billion fund for allies of President Donald Trump who say they were unfairly investigated by previous administrations.

The lawsuit brought in federal court by Harry Dunn, a former member of the US Capitol Police, and Daniel Hodges, a current member of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department, claims that the new fund runs afoul of the US Constitution and federal law.

The men say the fund will potentially be used to pay individuals who participated in the attack and finance various paramilitary organizations in the country.

“If allowed to begin making payments, the fund will directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters who threatened plaintiffs’ lives that day, and continue to do so,” lawyers for Dunn and Hodges wrote in the 29-page suit. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/ZUMwst

‌Has Trump's Republican Party Become a Criminal Enterprise?

On Saturday, Trump took revenge on Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy for Cassidy’s vote five years ago to convict Trump, in his second impeachment, for instigating an attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Cassidy thereby became the first GOP senator defeated by a Trump-endorsed candidate in a Republican primary. (Other Republican senators who have stood up to Trump — such as North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Utah’s Mitt Romney — saw the writing on the wall and didn’t seek reelection.)

Trump’s purge of Cassidy comes in the wake of Trump’s purges of House Republicans who stood up to him, such as Wyoming’s Liz Cheney.

Trump’s next Republican target in the House is Kentucky representative Thomas Massie, who had the guts to oppose U.S. military involvement in Iran, demand release of the Epstein files, and criticize Trump’s spending bills for adding to the national debt. Massie appears likely to be defeated by a Trump-backed opponent in Tuesday’s Kentucky primary.

Trump is marshaling the full force of his MAGA machine — spending more than $30 million on a House Republican primary — to purge another of his political enemies from the Republican House. Even Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth is flying to Kentucky today to campaign for Massie’s challenger. It’s all seen as an investment in intimidating and disciplining Republican office-holders who might otherwise think of straying.

Trump has also purged state legislators who have refused to do his bidding, such as the seven Indiana Republicans who refused to redistrict the state as Trump demanded they do, and who Trump insured were defeated in their recent primaries. - Reich Substack https://25th.s.gy/A21DKM

‌How the $1.8 Billion Trump Fund May Violate Past Practice and Policy

The $1.8 billion fund created by the Trump administration this week to pay people who claim mistreatment by the federal government appears to violate longstanding Justice Department standards and practices, as well as a policy directive issued by the administration last year, legal experts said on Wednesday. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/O1QWhf

Justice Dept. Charges Former Cuban President in Fatal Downing of Planes ‌

The Justice Department announced charges on Wednesday against Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba, accusing him of murder and a conspiracy to kill American citizens stemming from the fatal downing 30 years ago of two planes over waters off the coast of his country.

The indictment, issued in Federal District Court in Miami, was an extraordinary escalation of the Trump administration’s multifaceted pressure campaign against Cuba’s Communist government at a moment when President Trump has been seeking to topple it. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/8gBjit

‌Colorado Governor Censured for Commuting Sentence of Election Denier

Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, a Democrat, was censured by his own party on Wednesday night over his decision to free Tina Peters, a high-profile election denier and supporter of President Trump who had been serving a nine-year prison sentence for tampering with voting machines.

The censure by the Colorado State Democratic Party came after more than 700 infuriated Democrats signed onto a grass-roots effort to rebuke Mr. Polis for commuting Ms. Peters’ prison sentence last week. The censure measure, voted on during a state party central committee meeting on Wednesday night, passed with 89.8 percent support. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/OzlDFe

‌Trump’s Government Moves to Spare an Unhappy Taxpayer Named Trump

It is hard to imagine that any previous president would have thought he could engage in such an audacious act of self-dealing.

Sue the government he runs, then settle the lawsuit with himself by barring the Internal Revenue Service from auditing his past returns. And as part of that deal, hand over $1.8 billion of taxpayer money to his allies.

President Trump has used the federal government to advance his own personal interests and those of his family and allies more expansively and openly than any past occupant of the White House. Any review of history would suggest that it is not even close.

But as Mr. Trump, the only convicted felon ever elected president, heads deeper into his second term, he seems even less inhibited by the rules, written or unwritten, that governed his predecessors. While deeply unpopular with the general public, he has demonstrated as recently as this week that he remains the undisputed master of his own party, and therefore appears to feel that he can do as he likes without fear of Congress standing in his way. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/vqQIF4

‌Kennedy Fires Leaders of Key Health Task Force

The Trump administration has fired two leaders of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel of experts who determine what medical screenings and preventive procedures insurance companies must cover for millions of Americans at no cost.

The two leaders — Dr. John B. Wong, a professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine, and Dr. Esa M. Davis, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine — received letters notifying them of their firings. The New York Times obtained copies of the letters, which were dated May 11.

In the letters, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote that he had “directed a review” of U.S.P.S.T.F. appointments “to ensure clarity, continuity and confidence” in his department’s oversight of the task force, and “to protect the integrity of the task force’s work.” He said Dr. Wong’s and Dr. Davis’s appointments were terminated “effective immediately” in order to “avoid uncertainty that could jeopardize the validity of future task force actions.”

The move has heightened concerns among public health experts that Mr. Kennedy is politicizing the task force, which assesses scientific evidence and makes recommendations on a wide range of medical services, including mammograms, colonoscopies, depression screenings and more. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/H6RI5D

‌Trump Just Pardoned Himself and His Family Forever

For decades there have been disagreements among constitutional scholars about whether a president can pardon himself. But Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, just gave President Trump something even better: pre-emptive exoneration from all potential criminal liability for certain financial crimes. He also guaranteed that the federal government would not be able to pursue tax claims against the president (or his family or his businesses).

Mr. Blanche wrote a new chapter in the history of the presidency, elevating the office to a point where Mr. Trump and his family are declared exempt from the rules that apply to his fellow citizens.

The details of this gift were posted on the Department of Justice website on Tuesday. The document is only a single page, and the language is (perhaps intentionally) convoluted, but the meaning turns out to be clear. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/AY2Jqh

‌There Has Never Been an Example of Presidential Corruption Like This

‌Now Give Me Money. A Lot of Money.

The presidency is never static. It always changes. Each president molds it in his image.

George Washington made the office one of honor. Andrew Jackson, of democratic vigor. Abraham Lincoln brought heretofore unseen energy to the executive and Franklin Roosevelt put the office, and himself, at the center of Washington policymaking. Lyndon Johnson marked the White House with his domineering ambition and Richard Nixon did the same with his crushing paranoia.

We have had, depending on who held the office, aristocratic presidencies, participatory presidencies, plebiscitary presidencies and, of course, imperial presidencies.

You know where this is going. Where does Donald Trump fit? How has he changed the presidency?

With his unilateral actions, authoritarian power grabs and strongman aspirations, we tend to think of Trump as the imperial president par excellence — the unitary executive made flesh. Inherent in this is a radical vision of the plebiscitary presidency: of the president as the sovereign embodiment of the people’s will, untethered by law, and free to interpret and deploy the Constitution as he sees fit.

This reflects the personal imprint of President Trump as much as it does a generational effort by conservative legal elites to make each successive Republican president more powerful and less accountable than the last. Trump, remember, comes from the personalist world of the family firm, where his word is law. If our experiences build habits of mind that shape and define our response to new stimuli — and they do — then Trump was trained by life to be an autocrat.

But Trump does not just embody a particular form of the presidency. He has pioneered a new one. You can see this clearly in his latest act of corruption, a $1.776 billion (ha, get it?) settlement fund for those supposedly harmed by the so-called weaponization of government under the Biden administration. The fund was created after Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service for its failure to prevent a leak during Trump’s first term that revealed the details of his tax returns. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/oltX5t

‌Gas prices are heading for their most expensive summer in years

The national average could hit $4.80 a gallon between Memorial Day and Labor Day, surpassing the prior summer record set in 2022

A new GasBuddy forecast released Wednesday puts the national average gas price at $4.80 per gallon for the summer driving season — a figure that would eclipse the record of $4.43 per gallon from 2022. The forecast covers the period from Memorial Day through Labor Day and is driven by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The average national average on Wednesday came in at $4.56 a gallon, according to AAA, and every state in the country has crossed the $4 threshold, with seven states posting averages north of $5. GasBuddy's Memorial Day projection of $4.48 per gallon would represent a sharp jump from the $3.14 average recorded on the same holiday a year earlier, ranking it as the second-costliest Memorial Day in history. The lone exception was Memorial Day 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine had pushed the holiday average to $4.61 per gallon, per CNN. - Quartz https://25th.s.gy/lplMgb

‌Mortgage rates climb to highest level in 9 months

Turmoil in the bond market, fueled by the war with Iran, is sending US mortgage rates higher and threatening to make buying a home even more expensive.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 6.51% this week, reaching the highest level since August of last year, according to Freddie Mac.

It was the sharpest weekly increase in mortgage rates since April 2025, when the bond market suffered similar stress after President Donald Trump first announced his plans for sweeping, historic tariff increases on nearly all countries. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/U7G68D

‌Surging Gas Prices Mean Americans Paying an Average of $706 More a Year to Fill Up: Study

Rising gasoline prices have been hitting Americans in the wallet in 2026, and a new iSeeCars study now informs us just how painful those hits are. The price of gasoline rose 46 percent between January 1 and April 30, 2026, and the study says that equates to an annual increase of $706 for drivers of gasoline-powered cars. Unsurprisingly, the news is worse for owners of less-efficient SUVs, trucks, and minivans; hybrid owners took less of a hit, while most EV owners probably won’t even notice a change. - Road and Track https://25th.s.gy/aj8JrL

‌Gas prices aren’t the only item inflicting financial strain on Americans ahead of Memorial Day.

The national average for a pound of ground beef stands at a record high of $6.90, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Lower cattle supply coupled with robust demand caused prices to skyrocket over the past five years. Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, ground beef prices have climbed by 24%.

That creates a political challenge as beef remains central to the American diet.The Trump administration has struggled to tame price increases in beef, a staple of the American diet. The U.S. government is encouraging Americans to become more like carnivores: Beef is now on top of the food pyramid following an overhaul of federal dietary guidelines at the Department of Health and Human Services. Even Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he eats beef “twice a day.” - CNN https://25th.s.gy/YDEY9q

‌Republicans revolt over Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

The Trump administration’s push for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund derailed Senate Republicans’ plans to pass the president’s priority immigration enforcement package Thursday.

Senators left Washington for their Memorial Day recess with Republicans saying they were blindsided by the Justice Department’s announcement of the fund and at odds over how to rein it in.

The issue had become so toxic for the Senate GOP that there were doubts they could muster 50 votes needed to pass the broader bill that would provide tens of billions of dollars to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol. President Donald Trump had demanded the package land on his desk by June 1, but GOP lawmakers will now almost certainly miss that deadline.

It was just the latest example of the party’s revolt against Trump, whose separate request for $1 billion in US Secret Service funding and East Wing ballroom security also seemed likely to be stripped from the package in part because of GOP opposition. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/DpgBQv

‌Charges Against Broadview Protesters Dropped After Feds Admit To Grand Jury ‘Errors’

Charges against four Broadview protesters accused of impeding immigration officers were dropped Thursday after the U.S. Attorney’s Office made the extraordinary admission that federal prosecutors had committed misconduct during the grand jury proceedings that led to charges being filed in the first place.

The dismissal of all charges against the four protesters quickly followed U.S. District Judge April Perry’s decision to shelve the start of the trial in the case, which was slated for next week. Perry’s decision came after a closed-door hearing Thursday in which she outlined misconduct at the hands of prosecutors, officials said. - Block Club Chicago https://25th.s.gy/alh1rF

‌Judge Denies Petition To Appoint Special Prosecutor To Probe ICE Abuses

A Cook County judge has denied a petition to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes committed by federal agents throughout Operation Midway Blitz.

During a Thursday morning hearing, Cook County Judge Erica Reddick ruled that a group of petitioners seeking a special prosecutor did not present enough evidence to prove that a conflict of interest stopped Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke from investigating alleged crimes committed by federal agents. - Block Club Chicago https://25th.s.gy/yFmHwv

‌The U.S.’s Most Concerning Anti-Vaccine Policy

Midway into 2026, the most overt attacks on vaccines in the United States have stopped. With the midterm elections looming, the White House reportedly asked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to quiet his anti-vaccine rhetoric—publicly, at least. But protections against infectious disease are continuing to falter, both domestically and abroad, through sheer neglect. Although the full impact of the U.S.’s disinterest has only started to play out, one effect is already clear: When vaccines’ reach is eroded, the poorest, least well-served people feel the brunt of that loss first. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/GSpWg1

‌Trump's Attempt To Cloak Christian Nationalism In The American Flag Was A Self-Own For The Ages

On Sunday, the Trump administration held what it called “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” on the National Mall.

The event reportedly drew thousands of conservative Christians from around the country (though the swaths of empty seats undercut this claim) to hear prominent Christian nationalist politicians, authors, and pastors speak about how the United States is a Christian nation, how Trump is our Savior, and, in one particularly bizarre moment, how “the Lord” took two centuries to “raise up a great man to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand.”

The Frequently Asked Questions on its website describes Rededicate 250 as “a historic gathering to give thanks for God’s providence, reflect on our nation’s story, and rededicate America as One Nation under God.”

So how did an event so clearly in violation of the separation of church and state—not to mention the spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution’s pesky Establishment and Free Exercise clauses—make it into the Department of the Interior’s Freedom 250 lineup of celebrations marking 250 years since the founding of our nation? - The Big Picture https://25th.s.gy/fgPvfJ

‌One GOP congressman is vowing to end Trump’s $1.8 billion compensation fund for allies

One Republican congressman says he is exploring ways to end the Trump Justice Department’s move to establish a tax-payer fueled “anti-weaponization” fund, a move likely to draw the ire of President Donald Trump.

Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick told reporters he “100%” wants to prevent the nearly $1.8 billion fund that could compensate Trump’s allies from moving forward.

“Once we get to the bottom of the source of the funding, we’re going to put legislative text together. We got to figure out what we have jurisdiction over. That’s the first question,” he said Wednesday, later sending a letter to the Justice Department demanding answers about the fund.

Fitzpatrick, a moderate who represents a district that voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, was the first in his party to publicly reject the fund outright and vow to stop it. He has recently bucked some of Trump’s other priorities – like funding for his East Wing ballroom – and provoked the president’s threat of backing a primary opponent against him. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/VcGi2S

‌Republicans revolt over Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

The Trump administration’s push for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund derailed Senate Republicans’ plans to pass the president’s priority immigration enforcement package Thursday.

Senators left Washington for their Memorial Day recess with Republicans saying they were blindsided by the Justice Department’s announcement of the fund and at odds over how to rein it in.

‌GOP leaders abruptly cancel House vote on Iran war powers, shielding Trump from rebuke

House GOP leaders abruptly canceled a vote Thursday on a resolution to limit President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran just as Republicans were on the verge of losing the vote due to absences.

Democrats have repeatedly forced votes to limit Trump’s war powers in both the House and the Senate – a campaign that has slowly picked up more GOP support in recent weeks.

The resolution was introduced by New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Top House Democratic leaders criticized the move to cancel the vote, saying in a joint statement, “the Republican-controlled House continues to behave like a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Trump administration.”

“Republicans cowardly pulled a scheduled vote on a War Powers Resolution—legislation that would have passed with bipartisan support and required the President to end the conflict in the Middle East,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in the statement. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/8Q2rZu

‌A Close Reading of Trump’s Statement on Attending His Son’s Wedding

Donald Trump’s most amusing habit is meting out casual abuse to his sycophants. His recent answer to a question about the wedding of Donald Trump Jr. may, depending on how deserving one deems Trump’s eldest son of mistreatment—poor Don Jr. was, after all, born into the Trump life—qualify as his most hilarious riff ever. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/bL1dRc

‌Homeland Security’s Plan to Squeeze International Flights

In early April, shortly after Markwayne Mullin took over the Department of Homeland Security, he floated an idea on Fox News that wasn’t taken seriously; it sounded, in fact, like a proposal from someone very new on the job: Mullin threatened to cut federal screening of international passengers and cargo at airports in cities with “sanctuary” policies, which limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Such a move would trigger flight cancellations to airports in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other major cities and force airlines to reroute to other destinations. Mullin’s proposal seemed more like a wild swing than a real plan.

The new secretary is pushing forward anyway. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/UaVr61

Cops attacked by Jan. 6 rioters sue Trump over reparations scheme ‌

Two of the police officers who responded to the pro-Trump Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol are now suing the administration after it revealed plans for a taxpayer financed slush fund to reward insurrectionists and other Trump allies.

D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges and former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn filed suit on Wednesday. The suit seeks to block the so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” created after Trump dropped his suit against the IRS and “negotiated” with his own officials to create the $1.7 billion slush fund.

In the suit the officers allege that the fund “encourages those who enacted violence in the President’s name to continue to do so.”

“These people, they should not be rewarded by the government for their attempt to overthrow the government. They tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power; they wanted to assassinate the vice president. They assaulted me and my colleagues, they instilled fear and terror in members of Congress, the staff, congressional staff,” Hodges told CBS.

“There’s no reason that the government should be giving these people money.” - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/UYUA4c

‌Trump Collides With GOP Senators Over $1.8 Billion ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund

Senate Republicans broke with President Trump over his administration’s plan to create a $1.8 billion settlement fund to pay people who claim political persecution, with widespread opposition forcing party leaders Thursday to abandon votes on immigration-enforcement funding and send lawmakers home early for their Memorial Day break.

The “anti-weaponization” fund is a Trump priority, after he alleged for years that his supporters, including those prosecuted over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, had been targeted unfairly by the Biden administration. But its creation has run into blowback in the Senate, and the immigration-enforcement bill gave senators leverage to dig in their heels.

“I don’t like the fund at all,” said Sen. John Curtis (R., Utah), who added he didn’t think any guardrails could fix it. Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), a frequent target of Trump criticism who is retiring, called it a “payout pot for punks.”

With no resolution in sight, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) sent senators home for their weeklong Memorial Day recess, putting the Republican-led Congress on course to miss Trump’s deadline to have the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol measure on his desk by June 1. - WSJ https://25th.s.gy/TYuiXS

‌Trump tried to silence late-night hosts. They’re mocking him even more.

A Washington Post analysis shows hosts are telling more jokes about Trump, despite threats by the FCC chair and the president’s repeated calls to get them fired.

As Stephen Colbert prepares for the end of CBS’s “The Late Show” — the finale airs Thursday night — one theme has been on the minds of other late-night hosts.

“I’m Seth Meyers,” NBC’s “Late Night” host told the crowd gathered at an NBC industry preview event in New York last week. “Or as the FCC calls me: ‘Next.’” - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/poLokU

‌Federal commission, packed with Trump allies, approves his towering triumphal arch

The president rejected the idea of lowering the structure’s height, an architect said. Military veterans have sued to stop the project.

A federal arts commission on Thursday voted to approve designs for President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot triumphal arch, advancing the project amid public opposition and some confusion on the panel. - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/cUoT9b

‌The Civil Rights Era Is Collapsing Before Our Eyes

On May 7, amid the din of protesters, Tennessee’s Republican-majority legislature met to vote on a bill that would eliminate the state’s lone majority-Black and Democratic House district, divvying its voters up between three heavily white ones. Outraged, State Representative Justin Jones of Nashville stood in the hallway of the State Capitol and set afire a paper replica of the Confederate battle flag. The words “We will not go back” were printed along the top.

But going back is precisely what the legislature voted to do, as Tennessee became the first of the former Confederate states to create and approve new congressional maps since the Supreme Court’s recent decision to eviscerate the 1965 Voting Rights Act. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/HBEUkR

‌Republican revolt over Trump 'weaponization' fund stalls ICE funding vote

U.S. Senate Republicans abandoned plans to vote on an ICE funding bill on Thursday in an act of revolt over one ‌of President Donald Trump's priorities: a $1.8 billion fund for victims of government "weaponization," including those convicted of crimes during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

The Senate walked away from a planned vote on a $72 billion bill funding Trump's massive migrant deportation program, delaying the ‌vote at least until June, when lawmakers return from a Memorial Day holiday ⁠recess.

From the beginning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the legislation should be narrowly ⁠targeted to secure the $72 ⁠billion. But at Trump's behest, the $1.8 billion "weaponization" fund and another $1 billion for building a White House ballroom became ‌major sticking points.

“It was something that was supposed to be very narrow, targeted, focused, clean, straightforward, and it got ⁠a little bit more complicated this week," Thune said, ⁠expressing his frustration. “It makes everything way harder than it should be.” - Reuters / Japan Today https://25th.s.gy/C5psgU

‌G.O.P. Pulls Measure to End Iran War, Lacking Votes to Defeat It

House Republicans on Thursday abruptly canceled a vote on a resolution directing President Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from Iran or win approval from Congress to continue the war, after it became clear they lacked the votes to defeat the measure.

The retreat was a striking setback that exposed fractures within the G.O.P. over the conflict at a moment when the party has begun pushing back forcefully on Mr. Trump and his agenda.

It also marked the latest embarrassing blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, who has toiled to defeat efforts to challenge or limit the war in line with the president’s wishes, but is contending with growing wariness within his party as the midterm elections approach and the realities of his minuscule majority. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/ZfRqBH

‌Trump to Deploy 5,000 Troops to Poland, Surprising the Pentagon

President Trump announced on Thursday that the United States would deploy 5,000 troops to Poland, despite the Pentagon’s decision a week ago to cancel the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops there.

In a social media post that caught Pentagon officials by surprise, Mr. Trump suggested that he was making the move “based on the successful election” of Karol Nawrocki, Poland’s conservative nationalist president whom Mr. Trump endorsed in his election — nearly a year ago.

Mr. Trump’s apparent reversal of the Defense Department’s decision was the latest in a series of head-snapping announcements that have stunned leaders of Poland, one of the administration’s staunchest allies in Europe, and drawn intense bipartisan criticism from lawmakers who said troop cuts in Eastern Europe would send the wrong signal to Russia.

The Pentagon declined to comment on Thursday, referring questions to the White House. That left a raft of unanswered questions, including whether the military would now need to cut troops elsewhere to fulfill Mr. Trump’s larger goal of having Europe shoulder more of its own security burdens and allow the United States to reduce its roughly 80,000 forces there. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/kJdoJR

‌Trump Says He Will ‘Try and Make’ Son’s Wedding, but Timing ‘Not Good’

President Trump said the war with Iran and “other things” would make it difficult for him to make the wedding this weekend. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/Uq2DWj

‌Audit Immunity for Trump Family Puts I.R.S. in a Bind

President Trump’s return to office has been an unforgiving crucible for the hidebound Internal Revenue Service. He and his aides have decimated its ranks, fired and replaced its leaders and made repeated attempts to enlist the agency in his quest for political retribution.

Now, as part of an arrangement drawn up this week by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, the I.R.S. faces its most profound legal and ethical test yet: a demand to drop any audits of Mr. Trump, his family members or their “affiliates.”

Tax lawyers and former I.R.S. officials said such expansive protection would cut to the core of the agency’s mission to collect taxes in a disinterested, nonpartisan way — and could potentially run afoul of the laws governing how it does so.

“It’s just completely contrary to the notion that you’re supposed to comply with the law and the I.R.S. is there to make sure you do that,” said George Yin, a tax law professor and former chief of staff at the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. “The idea that you can get a free pass from the I.R.S. or anyone can get a free pass from the I.R.S. is just completely ridiculous.” - NYT https://25th.s.gy/etFDWJ

‌Trump Just Took Us Somewhere the Country Had Never Been Before

President Trump has been thinking a lot about his place in history. That’s one of the reasons, according to recent reporting by The Atlantic and The Times, that he’s paying so little attention to his plummeting popularity and so much attention to remodeling Washington in his own image. But there’s no arch high enough, no ballroom gilded enough, to distract from the mountain of corruption he’s constructing.

This week’s announcement of a $1.8 billion government slush fund — ostensibly for victims of what Mr. Trump has called the Justice Department’s “weaponization” but almost certainly destined for his allies — guarantees it. The president may wish to be considered in the same class as Napoleon or Alexander the Great, but he is in danger of turning himself into the next Mobutu Sese Seko or Suharto: a kleptocrat remembered not for his ideas and not for his power but for his greed.

Mr. Trump has devoted a large portion of his second term to enriching himself and his family with foreign and private funds: the crypto deals, the rapid-fire stock trades, the Boeing 747 he accepted as a gift from Qatar. But until recently, there was no evidence that his most brazen capers involved taking actively, directly from you and me. That changed when he, two of his sons and the Trump family business sued the U.S. government for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns.

In effect, Mr. Trump, the private citizen, was suing President Trump, the head of the executive branch. He didn’t bother to pretend it made sense: “I’m supposed to work out a settlement with myself,” he quipped to reporters. Surprise, surprise, that settlement was really sweet. The 10-figure “anti-weaponization fund” is a new low: Mr. Trump plunging his bruised hands into public accounts and scooping out money.

Trump supporters convicted of crimes connected to the Jan. 6 riot could get large spoonfuls. But the Trump clan looks to be the biggest beneficiaries of all: As part of the settlement, the U.S. government would be barred from prosecuting or further auditing the Trumps or their family business for any potential misconduct preceding the agreement. That would save the Trumps from penalties that some estimate could reach $100 million or beyond. More than that, it would functionally put the family beyond the reach of the law in these tax cases. The order is intended to last, according to the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, “forever.” - NYT https://25th.s.gy/YBdI54

‌High gas prices, cost of living send US consumer sentiment to all-time low

Americans just loathe this economy.

A closely watched measurement of US consumer sentiment fell to a fresh, all-time low in May, according to the latest survey from the University of Michigan.

The May consumer sentiment index dropped for the third consecutive month, falling to 44.2 and landing below the previous record low of 49.8 set in April.

The US-Israeli war in Iran and its subsequent oil supply crunch and price shocks have worsened sentiment that already was soured by years of high inflation and an affordability crisis.

“The cost of living continues to be a first-order concern, with 57% of consumers spontaneously mentioning that high prices were eroding their personal finances, up from 50% last month,” Joanne Hsu, director of the university’s Surveys of Consumers, wrote in a statement.

Consumers’ personal finances sank by 13% in May, she said.

The University of Michigan’s sentiment survey dates back to 1952: Americans are feeling worse now than they did during wars, the 1970s oil crisis, 9/11, the Great Recession, the Covid-19 pandemic and the inflation surge afterward. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/Kquoye

‌In a Rarity, Republicans Stand Up to Trump

For much of President Trump’s time in office, Republican lawmakers have had little appetite to stand up to his brand of vindictive politics.

Through revenge primary campaigns, bullying social media posts and the threat that he can command the G.O.P. base to go after anyone at any time, Mr. Trump has brought lawmakers in his party under his control like no president in modern history. A single critical word against Mr. Trump or his agenda could result in a full-scale retribution campaign to force a disloyal Republican from office.

But this week, in a rarity in G.O.P. politics, Mr. Trump’s taunts, bullying and threats have backfired, at least for now. Senate Republicans, after the president targeted two of their own, stood up to Mr. Trump on two of his biggest priorities: money for his White House ballroom, and a $1.8 billion fund to reward Trump supporters who claim political persecution by Democrats, such as the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops?” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky. “Utterly stupid, morally wrong — take your pick.” - NYT https://25th.s.gy/M3iZFK

‌Stephen Colbert’s Last Show: Laughing Well Is the Best Revenge

He didn’t land the pope, but he got a Beatle. He didn’t have a new project to announce, but he left us with a song (in fact two). He didn’t choose to end his show, but he ended it his own weird, wonderful way.

Stephen Colbert hosted his final “Late Show” on Thursday night, completing the story of the TV year’s most notorious and rancorous cancellation. But his final hour-plus — an emotional and delightfully bizarre wake for a comedy institution — turned it into a cancellebration. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/6otXL0

‌General Assembly backs historic World Court climate crisis ruling

UN General Assembly ADOPTS resolution welcoming the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the obligations of States in respect of climate change

RESULT

In favor: 141

Against: 8

Abstain: 28

Those voting against were Belarus, Iran, Israel, Liberia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the US and Yemen. - UN News https://25th.s.gy/c5usog

‌Poll shows voter confidence in economy plummeting to a nearly 4-year low

Concerns about rising costs are a problem for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections as Trump struggles to deliver on affordability pledges.

Americans’ confidence in the economy has hit a nearly four-year low, according to a new poll, underscoring a growing problem for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections as President Donald Trump struggles to deliver on his campaign pledge to make life more affordable. - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/CL5nY1

‌Judge dismisses charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying Todd Blanche spurred a ‘tainted investigation’

The criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the man the Trump administration deported to El Salvador last year despite a judge’s order barring his removal to the country – have been dismissed by a federal judge in Tennessee, who cited a “tainted investigation” by now-acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

When he was transported back to the US last year, Abrego Garcia was immediately charged with two counts of allegedly transporting unlawful migrants in 2022. His attorneys fought the charges, saying they should be dismissed because they were selective and vindictive because of the administration’s public and private missteps in how they handled the matter.

“The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution,” Judge Waverly Crenshaw wrote in his opinion dismissing the criminal case on Friday. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/e2NzEg

‌Backlash grows over DOJ slush fund. Trump's $1 billion ballroom funding falters. More Trump critics lose primaries.

On Monday, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice announced a new “Anti-Weaponization Fund” of up to $1.776 billion intended to “provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.” The fund grew out of a settlement with the IRS, though it’s not officially a part of it, after Trump agreed to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the agency related to the unauthorized release of his tax returns among many thousands of others. According to Reuters, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche also added a memorandum on Tuesday that “forever bars” the IRS from “pursuing any audits into past tax claims for President Donald Trump, his relatives and his companies.”

On Tuesday, appearing in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Blanche faced tough questioning about the fund. During his testimony, Blanche denied that the fund was created at Trump’s direction. He also refused to rule out money going to those who attacked police officers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. In response to the announcement of the fund, former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Danniel Hodges, both of whom defended the Capitol on January 6, sued the DOJ to block the fund from issuing any payouts. In addition, Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) vowed to pursue legislative options to quash the fund. Republican Senators met with Blanche on Thursday, angrily demanding answers, leading Majority Leader Thune to adjourn the Senate early for the long weekend. Senator Mitch McConnell called the fund “utterly stupid” and “morally wrong.” - The Big Picture https://25th.s.gy/R0Ukio

‌Judge Dismisses Criminal Case Against Abrego Garcia

A federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal case against the immigrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, ruling that the Trump administration had brought human smuggling charges against him as part of a vindictive effort to punish him for challenging his wrongful deportation to El Salvador last year.

The ruling by the judge, Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., was a stinging rebuke of both the Justice Department and its top official, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general. Judge Crenshaw singled out Mr. Blanche for criticism in his 32-page opinion, pointing to statements he had made that prosecutors reawakened a dormant investigation into Mr. Abrego Garcia only after a different judge in Maryland questioned the administration’s decision to deport him — along with scores of other immigrants — to a notorious Salvadoran prison in March 2025. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/v1TnoV

‌Trump administration upends green card process, potentially compelling hundreds of thousands to leave US to apply

The Trump administration will now require people seeking green cards to leave the United States during the application process — a sweeping change that could upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of people seeking the right to legally and permanently live and work in the US.

In a new rule announced Friday, US immigration authorities said green card applicants would have to return to their home countries to apply for permanent visas.

The abrupt policy change stands to affect a large swath of the legal US immigration population, compelling those seeking legal permanent residency to leave the country — separating families, forcing people to leave their jobs and disrupting communities in the process. Applying for a green card is a notoriously arduous process that can take several months to years to complete. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/RLvTJs

‌Judge drops criminal case against Kilmar Abrego García, deeming it vindictive

The Maryland man was charged with human smuggling after a high-profile legal fight in which courts ruled he had been illegally deported to El Salvador.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed the Justice Department’s human-smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego García, ruling that the Trump administration improperly brought it to punish him for successfully challenging his illegal deportation last year. - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/XhBR2p

‌Trump’s Endgame Is Surrender

He seems to hope to slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat.

The outlines of President Trump’s endgame in the Iran war are now emerging. In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, Trump reportedly explained that the United States was negotiating a “letter of intent” with Iran that would “formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations” on Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The purpose and effect of such an agreement should be clear: The United States is walking away from the crisis. Trump may launch another limited strike to look tough and satisfy the demands of the war’s supporters, but it would be a performative gesture. Endgame in this case is a euphemism for “surrender.” - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/r8VVBa

‌Trump Mobile Leaks Customers’ Data and the Phone Isn’t Even Out Yet

It has an American flag design with just 11 stripes (the real flag has 13) and isn’t built in the U.S. as originally advertised, but the Trump phone is finally here. Almost. Not quite, actually, according to The Verge. But that’s not even the big news of the day. The news is that Trump Mobile has leaked customer information, and the company finally confirmed it.

YouTuber Coffeezilla was the first to report this week that his and every other Trump Mobile customer’s information had been leaked. He was contacted by a security researcher who just wanted to give him a heads up that, with the exception of his credit card, basically everything he’d handed over to Trump Mobile was available on the open web.

“There’s a public interest in letting people know, do not order on TrumpMobile.com unless you’re ready for your information to be leaked. It’s basically that bad,” he said in the video. - Gizmodo https://25th.s.gy/xq5Wk8

‌Why Trump’s Slush Fund Is So Egregious

Donald Trump is attempting to engineer a $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to be paid to persons and groups that got in legal trouble promoting his interests. It’s one of the most notable legal stories of this (or almost any) year.

In January, Trump and two of his sons sued the federal government, claiming that his own Internal Revenue Service had failed to prevent a rogue contractor from unlawfully leaking parts of his tax returns to the press in 2019 and 2020. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams was skeptical about the suit, since Trump had appointed and could fire the officials charged with defending the U.S. Treasury.

On Monday, it was announced that Trump had dropped the suit, forcing the judge to relinquish her jurisdiction. Within hours, he unveiled a “settlement” with the IRS, which at that point could proceed without judicial supervision. On Tuesday, an “addendum” to the settlement was released, signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Legal journalist Roger Parloff was among the first to dig into the language of the purported settlement. He writes:

The Trump/Blanche “settlement” fund purports to be challengeable only by those who colluded to create it.

To help themselves to nearly $2B of our tax dollars, claimants present evidence to the (wink-wink) “settlement” fund that they were victims of “Lawfare” or “Weaponization,” terms that are nowhere defined.

The fund is administered by 5 people chosen by Acting AG Todd (“I love you, sir”) Blanche, and are removable at will by Trump.

The identities of those given our tax dollars, and how much, will be kept secret from us, and known only to Todd (“I love you, sir”) Blanche.

The procedures for processing these claims can be as secret as Blanche’s appointees choose to make them.

Two other provisions of note: the fund must wrap up operations and liquidate by December 2028, ensuring that later administrations cannot get their hands on it (or more to the point, I suspect, its records).

It has a second, longer section purporting to exclude judicial review: “there shall be no appeal, arbitration, or judicial review of claims, offers, or other determinations” made by the fund.

The sum transferred is to be $1.776 billion, a number that is cute but reveals the arbitrariness at work. Blanche’s argument that this is the sum expected to be paid had claimants gone through regular legal processes is baldly mendacious. At any rate, no judge had anything to do with that number.

Additionally, under Tuesday’s addendum to the settlement, the IRS is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” (capitals in original) from asserting civil or criminal claims against Trump, his companies, and his family over any tax returns filed up to the present date. At least so Blanche—who is also Trump’s former personal attorney—has agreed.

Nice deal if you can get it! Maybe you can get it if you’re “negotiating” with someone who serves at your pleasure? - Persuasion https://25th.s.gy/84rRHP

‌House GOP too scared to vote to end Trump’s war

On Thursday evening, House Republicans canceled a vote on a resolution that would have stopped President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, as GOP leaders knew the legislation would pass and deliver an embarrassing loss to their Dear Leader.

Instead of voting on the resolution to stop Trump’s boondoggle of a war—which has spiked gas prices and in turn the cost of other goods and services—House Speaker Mike Johnson instead sent the House home for the Memorial Day recess so they could campaign. But good luck with that given how angry Americans are with Trump, the war, and its impact on their finances.

Republican leaders claimed that they pulled the vote due to some absences from members who wanted to vote on the legislation.

Attribution: Jack Ohman/Tribune Content AgencyCartoon by Jack Ohman

“We just had some members that weren’t there for it who wanted to be recorded on it. So we’re going to be giving them that opportunity when we get back,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told NBC News.

But that’s an embarrassing cop out, as even with full attendance it appears that the resolution has the votes to pass, with at least three Republicans—Reps. Tom. Barrett (R-MI), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Thomas Massie (R-KY) saying they will vote for it. Meanwhile, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who had been voting against previous war powers resolutions, now said he will vote for the next one, ensuring the legislation will be successful.

“The next time they bring it, it’s passing,” Fitzpatrick told Politico after the vote was pulled. - Daily Kos https://25th.s.gy/qFzP7a

‌Green Card Seekers Must Leave U.S. to Apply, Trump Administration Says

The change is likely to affect hundreds of thousands of people. It could also lead to more family separations as spouses or relatives wait for application decisions, immigration lawyers said. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/WkVngl

‌Trump Weighs His Options in Carrying Out New Strikes in Iran

President Trump was in the Oval Office on Friday morning with his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, in what appeared to be a review of military options for potentially resuming the bombing campaign against Iran.

The existence of the meeting was revealed by Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a graduation ceremony at the Naval Academy. While he said nothing about the substance of the meeting, the timing was notable, as negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and its blockage of the Strait of Hormuz appear to have hit a dead end. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/R3ff4l

‌Tulsi Gabbard Resigns as Director of National Intelligence

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence and an advocate of a more restrained foreign policy, submitted a letter of resignation to President Trump on Friday, saying that she was stepping away to support her husband after he recently was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.

The departure will bring an end to Ms. Gabbard’s rocky tenure overseeing the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, during which she had been largely sidelined by the White House on significant national-security issues, including military operations in Iran and Venezuela.

Mr. Trump assembled a second administration last year with an unusual mix of foreign-policy hawks in one corner and critics of American entanglements overseas like Ms. Gabbard in the other. But Ms. Gabbard and her wing found themselves increasingly marginalized in recent months, and her departure marks the most significant exit yet from the coalition of restrainers. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/uKXj4T

‌Once Trump’s Co-Pilot Against Iran, Netanyahu Is Now a Mere Passenger

In the run-up to the Feb. 28 attack on Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was not only in the Situation Room with President Trump, he was leading the discussion, predicting that a joint U.S.-Israeli strike could very well lead to the demise of the Islamic Republic.

Just a few weeks later, after those sanguine assurances proved inaccurate, the picture was starkly different. Israel was so thoroughly sidelined by the Trump administration, two Israeli defense officials said, that its leaders were cut almost entirely out of the loop on truce talks between the United States and Iran.

Starved of information from their closest ally, the Israelis have been forced to pick up what they can about the back-and-forth between Washington and Tehran through their connections with leaders and diplomats in the region as well as their own surveillance from inside the Iranian regime, said the two officials. Like others for this article, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/ZfzIKA

‌The Civil Rights Era Is Collapsing Before Our Eyes

‌There’s a Way to Stop Trump’s I.R.S. Slush Fund

These days it takes a spectacular burst of corruption to get the attention of our scandal-weary nation, but President Trump and his administration have managed, once again, to transfix Americans by establishing a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund in the Department of Justice that will undoubtedly be used to line the pockets of Mr. Trump’s partisans and foot soldiers — with your tax dollars.

The creation of this fund is a stupefying feat of self-dealing, part of a “settlement agreement” between the Department of the Treasury, which Mr. Trump controls, and the plaintiffs — Mr. Trump, two of his sons and their family business — who sued the I.R.S. for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns. It will very likely result in an undeserved windfall to a legion of Jan. 6 rioters who have already unjustly received pardons from Mr. Trump.

Every part of this farce is an affront to the Constitution. It usurps both the exclusive power of Congress to legislate programs and spend money and the power of the courts to decide specific cases and controversies.

It is, quite simply, a scam. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/uTj8fp

‌The Goodbye Stephen Colbert Wanted to Say

The late-night host ended his talk show the way he started it—with empathy, and an eye for entertainment.

The end of a long-running late-night talk show tends to play out in one of two ways: as a mournful funeral, or a joyous wake.

In the case of hosts such as David Letterman and Johnny Carson, who picked the date and manner of their retirements, the send-offs were upbeat. Stephen Colbert, Letterman’s successor as host of CBS’s The Late Show for the past 11 years, is leaving his job under more forced, awkward circumstances. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/VptLuX

‌US claims ‘emergency refugee situation’ as it admits 10,000 more white South Africans

The US government has said it will increase the number of white South Africans it admits as refugees this year from about 7,500 to 17,500, claiming that “unforeseen developments in South Africa created an emergency refugee situation.”

Since starting his second term in office last year, Donald Trump has repeatedly made false claims that white Afrikaners are racially targeted and face a “white genocide”, which South Africa’s government has furiously rebutted.

His administration also cut aid to South Africa, boycotted the G20 summit in Johannesburg last year and disinvited South Africa from this year’s G20, which will be held at one of Trump’s resorts in Miami.

The US began admitting white South Africans as refugees in May 2025, while suspending the refugee settlement programme for people fleeing war and persecution in countries including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. In the year ending in September 2024, the last full fiscal year before Trump took office, the US admitted more than 100,000 refugees. - Guardian https://25th.s.gy/fo7GCm

‌Trump’s $1.8 billion payout fund isn’t required to reveal how it actually works

The Trump administration’s announcement that it would set up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to deliver payouts to people who say they were harmed by the justice system ignited a whirlwind of controversy, unanswered questions and uncertainty that could stretch through the rest of President Donald Trump’s term and beyond. - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/N36d1P

‌Trump and Top Officials Defend $1.8 Billion Fund With Inaccurate Claims

The president, vice president and acting attorney general have offered a series of inaccurate claims to defend an unusual fund announced this week.

The Trump administration’s $1.8 billion fund to pay people who say they have been politically persecuted has set off a revolt among Republican senators and drawn denunciations from Democrats who have labeled it President Trump’s “slush fund.” But those who anticipated being eligible, such as pro-Trump supporters who were prosecuted and pardoned for mobbing the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, expressed elation.

Mr. Trump and top officials have suggested the fund, which was created as part of a deal struck between the president’s personal lawyers and government lawyers over the leak of his tax records, was not particularly unusual. They have also said that it will not be financially beneficial to Mr. Trump or his family.

But critics have pointed out that the arrangement essentially establishes a way to funnel taxpayer money to Mr. Trump’s allies.

Here’s a fact-check of some of the administration’s claims. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/mMx7Ft

‌Trump says agreement with Iran has ‘been largely negotiated’ and Strait of Hormuz will be opened

President Donald Trump said Saturday that a broader agreement between the United States and Iran has been “largely negotiated” and that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened, signaling potential momentum toward ending the monthslong war.

“An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Recent versions of the memorandum of understanding that Trump appears close to finalizing would end hostilities with Iran while gradually reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the US blockade of Iranian ports, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The agreement would unfreeze some Iranian assets that are held in banks outside Iran.

And it would start a clock of at least 30 days for continued negotiations meant to resolve the remaining sticking points on Iran’s nuclear program, including what happens to Tehran’s stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/Q9QukY

‌CBS Radio News Goes Silent, and Public-Interest Media Fades With It

When CBS Radio News goes silent on May 22, 2026, Americans will lose access to news programming they’ve tuned into from their living rooms, kitchens and cars for nearly a century.

The once-bipartisan idea that the nation’s media should exist to serve democracy continues to fade with it, too.

As a media historian, I think the story of CBS Radio News’ rise and fall cannot be told without telling another parallel story: the story of how the U.S. stopped demanding that media serve the public interest. - Gizmodo https://25th.s.gy/XGhnBV

‌Letters from an American - May 23, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

President Donald J. Trump’s proposed triumphal arch would sit at a rotary on the Virginia side of the Arlington Memorial Bridge between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The proposed arch obscures the Lincoln Memorial, built to honor the president who steered the country safely through the Civil War, but perfectly frames Arlington House, the mansion built by enslaved Americans and once owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The arch does not frame the nation’s honored dead, but frames instead the home of the man who led the armies of the Confederacy that killed them. - Cox Richardson https://25th.s.gy/JWP8MN

‌Trump Says Peace Deal Is Near

President Trump said the United States and Iran had “largely negotiated” an agreement, but American and Iranian officials described the terms differently. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/zHG0Ei

‌Trump Is Setting His Sights on Restricting Legal Immigration

The Trump administration has pulled back its aggressive operations in cities like Chicago and Minneapolis after bad polling indicated the crackdown on illegal immigration was unpopular.

In its wake, however, a new approach is emerging on legal immigration, one that makes it harder for those abroad to enter the United States, and for those already here on a temporary basis to stay. In recent months, Trump administration officials have discussed the legal immigration system as rife with fraud and abuse, and in need of wholesale reform.

The increasingly tough tack on legal immigration was underscored Friday when the Department of Homeland Security announced a policy requiring most immigrants seeking green cards to leave the United States while they wait long periods of time for their applications to be processed. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/4Ngx9C

‌61% of Americans Said They Had to Cut Back on Groceries

Concern about rising prices has reached a fever pitch as Americans sit down to Memorial Day barbecues across the country. A majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents said that they had changed their purchases from grocery stores to stay within budget in the last several months, according to polling from CNN.

Another 59 percent of Americans said they had cut back on extras and entertainment.

More than three quarters of Americans, including 55 percent of Republicans, said President Trump’s policies had increased the cost of living in their community.

Survey after survey has found that Americans are feeling growing financial uncertainty. Nearly half of all voters gave the economy the lowest rating, “poor,” in the latest New York Times/Siena poll, up 11 percentage points since January.

And economic confidence has hit a four-year low, according to Gallup.

Gas prices have continued to soar nationally, rising above $4.50 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club.

Nearly 80 percent of voters — including a majority of Republicans — say the Trump administration is responsible for this price hike, according to polling from Fox News. Large majorities also blamed oil companies, the war in Iran and government regulations.

All in all, a solid majority of voters in the Fox poll, 57 percent, say that Mr. Trump’s policies have hurt the country, up from 51 percent who said the same one year ago. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/89gToD

‌Defiant After Bad Week, Trump Pushes Ahead on Politically Unpopular Ideas

By pretty much any estimation, President Trump has had a very bad week.

New poll numbers show his approval rating has hit a second-term low. He is weighing whether to restart a bombing campaign in an unpopular war against Iran. Gas prices are high and inching higher heading into Memorial Day weekend. And his grip over Republican lawmakers is beginning to slip after he proposed a pair of deeply unpopular spending items, prompting an unusual revolt from the Senate.

When faced with such a backlash ahead of midterm elections, many politicians would pivot, redirecting their focus to issues they are on stronger footing with.

But Mr. Trump has decided to double down, presenting himself as politically all-powerful even in the face of indications that he is not. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/vfODlt

‌Trump Administration Chips Away at Last Traces of Broad Inquiry Into Jan. 6

The Justice Department has moved on two fronts to chip away at some of the last traces of its vast investigation into the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, aligning itself ever more closely with President Trump’s own efforts to whitewash the events of that day.

On Friday evening, just as the holiday weekend was beginning, federal prosecutors in Washington filed motions to formally dismiss the most serious criminal cases stemming from Jan. 6 — those that involved leaders and members of far-right groups who were tried and convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy.

Hours later, one of the Justice Department’s official social media accounts confirmed that the department was scrubbing its online archives of news releases used to publicize the cases filed against Jan. 6 rioters.

The investigation of the riot at the Capitol, which stretched from 2021 to 2025, was the single largest criminal inquiry in the Justice Department’s history, resulting in charges being filed against nearly 1,600 defendants. But ever since Mr. Trump began his second term by granting clemency to all of the defendants, the department has taken steps to unwind almost every aspect of its enormous effort to hold the rioters accountable for disrupting the peaceful transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election.

Senior department officials, including Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, were, for instance, deeply involved in setting up a $1.8 billion fund this week intended to compensate allies of Mr. Trump who believe they were wronged in the courts by previous Democratic administrations. Many Jan. 6 rioters were elated by the creation of the fund, and have already vowed to file claims seeking payouts.

The motions to dismiss the sedition cases against a dozen members of the far-right groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers was another step toward wiping away the vestiges of what had been the most significant criminal proceedings arising from the Capitol attack. While all of the men were pardoned or had their sentences commuted by Mr. Trump, the full dismissal of their charges would represent a further symbolic victory, and would allow the veterans among them to reclaim military benefits that were terminated after their convictions. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/9GO64M

‌The Moms Delivered for Trump. Now He’s Scamming Them.

President Trump loves moms, and last week he announced a whole new website — moms.gov — to prove it to you.

At an event just after Mother’s Day, the president, flanked by a phalanx of maternal health advocates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, reminded the public that he was the “father of fertility” and presented the website, which purports to be a one-stop shop of useful information for mothers. In reality, the online resource is light on useful information or new proposals. It is best understood as a way to highlight this administration’s beliefs about which women count and which mothers matter.

Bucolic imagery of a faceless pregnant woman standing in a golden field dominates the homepage. A lot of real estate is also dedicated to controversial “pregnancy centers,” code for places that distribute conservative anti-abortion counseling masquerading as health care. It is mostly a sloppy rebranding of culture war talking points.

The website may be underwhelming but its existence is a rare concession that Trump is very unpopular. Granted, several primary victories for Trump-backed candidates suggest that the Republican Party still belongs to the president. But his coalition is not impervious to political fracturing. The push to remind his base that Trump loves the conservative mothers who voted for him is about three realities closing in on him. The midterms are critical to the president’s agenda. MAGA moms are important to his midterm fortunes. And the moms are not happy. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/jT5Ssb

‌Firing Cancer Screening Experts Will Not Make Us Healthy Again

Last week, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the two leaders of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a powerful expert panel whose recommendations shape preventive services, like cancer screenings, for millions of Americans. They were given little explanation for their firing, besides a vague pronouncement in a letter they received from Mr. Kennedy that it had been done “to protect the integrity of the task force’s work.” - NYT https://25th.s.gy/IKxIqP

‌This Gun Shop Stayed Open Despite Repeated Violations. Then A Chicago Cop Was Killed With One Of Its Guns

Launched as a new kind of gun retailer in 2012, the Range USA chain was built to look and feel different from the smaller, unwelcoming shops and gun ranges often associated with the industry.

Its founder and president, Tom Willingham, wanted to make the experience of buying and shooting firearms more mainstream. So he modeled his company on big box chains, striving for bright, comfortable outlets that would be inviting to women, novices and others put off by some older gun stores.

Today, Range USA has bloomed into a formidable brand, with 50 stores in 14 states, a footprint that spans from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Coast.

But despite efforts to set itself apart, the company is beset with the same vexing problems faced by more traditional retailers. Federal regulators have repeatedly cited its employees for failing at basic protocols designed to help thwart illegal sales, and guns purchased at its stores keep getting recovered by police.

Take the recent killing of Chicago police officer John Bartholomew, who was fatally shot on April 25. The suspect who used a 10-millimeter Glock 29 to shoot Bartholomew was not the original owner of the gun. It was first purchased in 2024, according to investigators, in an illegal transaction at a Range USA store in the northwest Indiana town of Merrillville, a short drive from Chicago. - Block Club Chicago https://25th.s.gy/6FTKAU

‌The transcript reveals Judge April Perry’s shock at how prosecutors behaved during the grand jury proceedings.

Charges against four Broadview protesters were dropped Thursday in a stunning turn of events after the U.S. Attorney’s Office admitted federal prosecutors had committed misconduct.

‌Trump said gas prices are ‘peanuts.’ Only if you’re rich.

Surging gas prices have hit American drivers hard — but some much harder than others.

For households in the bottom quarter of the income distribution — those earning roughly $40,000 a year or less — commuting fuel costs now consume an average of about 4 percent of their income, according to a Washington Post analysis. - WaPo https://25th.s.gy/n2Bqts

‌Why Trump Lost

The president failed to deliver on his Iran bluster, and in the end fooled only himself. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/CoERmF

A Different Kind of Fading President ‌

But as Trump turns 80 next month, his recent behavior should prompt even more questions than usual about his stability, judgment, and mental sharpness. Among the points of concern: a late-night social-media storm a few days ago featuring more than 50 messages, many strewn with dangerous or nonsensical misinformation, which followed a similar Truth Social broadside weeks earlier; an apocalyptic threat to wipe out a civilization; more and more insults (“nasty,” “stupid,” “ugly,” “treasonous”) hurled at reporters; appearing to fall asleep in public, sometimes twice in one week; deep bruises on his hands, which are covered in makeup and accompanied by confusing explanations; and long, odd tangents in speeches that seem longer and odder than his usual tangents. Never known for his ability to self-censor, Trump seems to have completely abandoned any sort of filter, tossing out messages from one extreme (He’s glad that Robert Mueller is dead!) to the other (actually, Trump is Jesus and shall heal the sick). - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/0vBwBs

‌Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Is Worse Than Stealing

Recasting the January 6 insurrection as the work of heroic patriots remains the president’s highest priority.

Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Is Worse Than Stealing ‌

Recasting the January 6 insurrection as the work of heroic patriots remains the president’s highest priority. - Atlantic https://25th.s.gy/glDMV7

‌U.S.-Iran Peace Deal Nearer, But Could Take Days to Nail Down, U.S. Official Says

The official said the sides had agreed in principle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and commit Iran to disposing of its highly enriched uranium, but stressed that a deal had not yet been signed. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/cnJEbR

‌To Get the Strait Open, Trump Had to Leave the Hardest Issues for Later

President Trump is hailing the agreement with Iran as groundbreaking, even as he admits it “isn’t even fully negotiated.” But the nuclear stockpile, enrichment and missiles have not been discussed. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/31Ap21

‌Confusion and Worry After Abrupt Change to Green Card Process

Immigrants and their advocates and lawyers are trying to interpret a new Trump administration rule that requires people to be in their native country to apply for a green card. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/KPfvq9

‌Reopening of Strait of Hormuz Still a Question Mark

Without the details of a formal agreement, it is unclear how soon normal shipping will resume and when oil prices will start to come down. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/yELOa7

‌Kennedy’s Push to Curb Antidepressants Has Shaken Psychiatry

An annual psychiatric meeting was abuzz over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s call to rein in the use of depression medications. Some fear it will drive patients away from care. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/cq5i6n

‌Deal with US not imminent, Iran says

Iran says some progress has been reached in talks with the US, but a deal "is not imminent".

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqai's remarks came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said an agreement could possibly be reached on Monday.

"It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion," Baqai said in Tehran on Monday. "But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent - no-one can make such a claim." - BBC https://25th.s.gy/Olr8R8

‌Exclusive: Trump admin shutting key US researchers out of global virus response talks, documents and sources reveal

Key officials responsible for leading US research on infectious disease threats have been barred from speaking directly with the World Health Organization — effectively shutting some of them out of the global discussions on virus outbreaks, according to documents and multiple sources who spoke to CNN.

The Trump administration issued the directive stopping individuals at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from communicating with the WHO. - CNN https://25th.s.gy/p1mLTK

‌With Big Decisions Ahead, the Supreme Court Collides With a Testy Trump

President Trump has alternated between bullying the justices and cozying up to them as the court prepares to announce major decisions that will determine the fate of the key aspects of his agenda. - NYT https://25th.s.gy/RtEpXO

Year One, 2025-2026 is here: http://tony-silva.com/undertrump