Nick Hilden

Infuriated young voters suspect Trump will derail the election

According to a new Harvard Youth poll, faith in the American government has sunk to a new low of just 15 percent among young Americans aged 18-29. A slim 13 percent think the country is on the right track, however only 33 percent say they trust the upcoming midterm elections will be fair.

On Friday, Director of Polling at the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, John Della Volpe, joined MSNOW to discuss the survey’s findings, saying he hasn’t seen anything like it in America over his 25 years as a pollster.

According to Della Volpe, young voters are concerned about “a stack of issues.”

“It's inflation, cost of living, housing, health care, paying more, getting less,” he explained. “The day-to-day concerns financially and otherwise related to the war. These are all adding up to a generation that is highly anxious, incredibly stressed out by this, and talk about not even living day-to-day, but surviving day-to-day.”

And, says Della Volpe, young Americans have heard a lot of talk from President Donald Trump, but the “rhetoric” doesn’t align with what they’re experiencing.

Instead of addressing voter concerns, agreed host Alex Wagner, the administration is “doing nothing about the rising cost of health care, literally letting Obamacare subsidies expire and raising the cost of health care on 23 million Americans, many of whom are young.” Trump is also “not addressing the future of joblessness, which is artificial intelligence taking over many of these jobs that these young people would have once had… This president has not shown that to be a priority.” Then there is the environment: “Who's going to inherit a heated-up, broken earth but young people? They have every reason to feel incredibly bummed out about the direction.”

As Wagner notes, many of these young voters have now spent a decade having Trump tell them they can’t trust elections.

“This administration has done more to erode confidence in the levers of our democracy than any other presidency,” she asserted. “Telling them that their votes don't count, telling them the elections are fraudulent, telling them that there's an unseen enemy pouring across the border to change the fabric of this country.”

Della Volpe points out that much of the electoral disillusionment is among Republican and independent voters, explaining, “Younger folks who identify as Democrats…are significantly more likely to say they will vote in November than young Republicans and independent or indifferent voters…So still you see that advantage for Democrats.”

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'Insecure FAKE': Newsmax host posts rare shellacking of Trump official

Since its inception, Newsmax has been known for its loyalty to President Donald Trump and his administration. Many were therefore surprised when on Friday, Newsmax host Greg Kelly delivered a no-holds-barred criticism of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to fire John Phelan from his post as Naval Secretary, calling the Pentagon chief an “insecure FAKE.”

“What a DESPICABLE guy Hegseth is,” posted Kelly. “Frustrated that he can’t remove his Real Nemesis, the Army Secretary, He Fires the NAVY Secretary, has him ‘walked out of the building’ by security. But this was NOT an Urgent matter. Could have given the SECNAV a month, maybe 2 weeks notice. You know, The DECENT thing to do. Instead this Insecure FAKE, who Lied and Conned his way thru Life (see Mom) and the Trump admin (see ‘confidential settlement’ ie Blackmail of accuser #1) Blows up Someone Else’s life bc he can’t Handle his own. Not CUTE anymore.”

There is a lot to unpack in those 96 words.

The “Real Nemesis” Kelly refers to is Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who drew Hegseth’s ire by questioning his ability to command. As for having Phelan walked out of the building, it’s been reported that the firing was highly contentious, so much so that Phelan refused to believe it at first, went to the White House for confirmation, then was escorted out. The “see Mom” was in reference to a letter Hegseth’s mother wrote, in which she asserted that her son is an “abuser” who “lies” and “cheats.” And the “confidential settlement” was a nod to the $50,000 Hegseth paid to a woman who accused him of sexual abuse in 2017.

There has been a flurry of controversy around the decision to fire Phelan. Some have suggested that he got the axe in part because he refused to punish Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) for making a video reminding military officers of their constitutional duty to reject illegal orders, which a judge had ruled would be a violation of his First Amendment rights.

Phelan has temporarily been replaced by acting secretary Hung Cao, who has a reputation for loyalty to Trump and the administration’s anti-woke ethos.

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'Hell week' closing in on Republicans as recess looms

With three pieces of controversial legislation on the docket while another congressional recess looms, Republicans are facing “hell week” as they attempt to overcome resistance both from the Democrats and within their own party. While House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has proven to be surprisingly adept at navigating internal GOP conflict, his colleagues are well aware that next week’s session will be an uphill battle due to party infighting.

Next week, the House tackles three much-debated measures. First, a long-term extension of Section 702 FISA, a surveillance package that bipartisan critics warn can be used to spy on American citizens without a warrant. Then there’s the farm bill, which advocates say will provide essential funding to agriculture, but opponents argue is too expensive and regulatory. And finally, the Senate-passed budget reconciliation resolution to fund ICE and Border Patrol, which has been argued over by Congress for months.

"Next week is going to be hell week," said Representative Troy Nehls (R-Texas), according to Axios.

While opposition is to be expected from the Democrats, numerous Republican lawmakers have voiced firm opposition to various aspects of the aforementioned bills. When it comes to a FISA extension, for example, some in the GOP are expressing dissent in no uncertain terms.

"If you're not going to have warrants, I'm not going to play ball," declared Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN).

And when it comes to DHS funding, many House Republicans worry that the Senate won't go for another attempt at a reconciliation bill, so they’re aiming to make the current version as ambitious as possible. But when it comes to legislation, the more ambitious, the more difficult it is to get the necessary support.

"We're not there yet," admitted House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX).

Meanwhile, with DHS running out of money to pay its staff, the clock is ticking, and there are still many within the Republican caucus who have yet to be convinced

Driving these issues into a fury is the need for Republicans to prove to their constituents that they can govern and pass laws while in power. Without a list of accomplishments to take back home to voters their argument for re-election becomes very tough in an already tough election.

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'Bankrupted 3 of them': Trump family member pounces on president's 'casino' comment

On Thursday, President Donald Trump remarked that “the world is a casino” in a glib reply to questioning from a reporter. The following afternoon, his niece Mary Trump had an equally glib response, pointing out that her uncle has a less-than-stellar track record regarding casinos.

It started in the Oval Office, where Trump was taking questions from reporters while meeting with Israeli and Lebanese leaders to discuss the ceasefire. A reporter asked about bets that had been placed on the war via prediction markets, which have raised questions not only about the ethics of betting on conflict, but the legality of what is widely suspected to be insider trading. As has been widely discussed, millions of dollars have been earned by gamblers placing bets suspiciously timed just before Trump makes consequential statements on the war. But he was dismissive about such concerns.

“The whole world has become somewhat of a casino,” he said. “I don't like it conceptually. It is what it is.”

His niece — who has long been an outspoken critic of her uncle — took the opportunity to take a swipe at the president.

“‘The world is a casino,’ says the guy who bankrupted three of them,” she posted to X. “The world is next.”

Mary Trump was actually wrong, because her uncle, in fact, bankrupted four casinos between 1991 and 2009. According to experts, they failed for several reasons. Some of these were beyond the future president’s control, like wider industry trends and the 2008 recession. But other problems were directly of Trump’s own creation. For example, while the properties sank into debt, he extracted millions in salary, bonuses, and fees.

The president’s niece has never been shy with criticisms of her uncle, once declaring that he is "utterly incapable of leading this country, and it's dangerous to allow him to do so.”

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Week-long Alex Jones freak out culminates in claim 'Satanists' are taking over Infowars

As the satirical news outlet the Onion launches another bid to take over the far-right platform Infowars from conspiracy pundit Alex Jones, he and his allies are not taking the news well. To the contrary, they’re freaking out and accusing the Onion of being “Satanic.”

The story dates back to 2022, when Jones lost a defamation suit and was ordered to pay over $1 billion in damages to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which 20 children and 6 teachers were murdered. The radio host had asserted that relatives of victims were “crisis actors” participating in a hoax, eliciting threats of rape and death against them from his followers. After the judgment, Jones declared bankruptcy, and the Onion attempted to buy Infowars in a liquidation auction. This initial purchase was blocked by a judge who found issues with the process.

Now the Onion is attempting to assume control of the platform again, this time proposing a temporary lease that would allow it to publish its own content under the Infowars channel and social media accounts. According to Onion CEO Ben Collins, the deal could be in place by the end of April, after which Infowars would be relaunched as a parody of itself, now helmed by comedian Tim Heidecker, best known as co-founder of the Cartoon Network series Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!.

"This is about accountability, and what comes next,” said Collins. “We’re taking something that caused real harm and turning it into something much funnier, and ideally, more useful.”

This news prompted a full-blown freakout from Jones.

“Just because you’re wearing my shirt doesn’t mean you’re me, let’s be 100 percent clear about that,” ranted a shirtless Jones on Monday. Then on Wednesday, he posted a mashup of clips from Heidecker’s previous show — a famously surreal series that verges on nonsense — claiming that it was proof that his replacement is “publicly into” pedophilia. The following day, he posted a video of Heidecker joking, “I love wearing the man’s skin,” which Jones suggested was a literal assertion. Finally on Friday, Jones claimed that Heidecker had produced a “torture and murder program” filled with “Satanic” messaging.

Jones — who was fined roughly $1.4 billion for defaming the families of murdered children — offered a theory on the Infowars-Onion situation: “The whole thing’s about defaming me.”

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Former White House official: Iran war has left US dangerously exposed to China

After two months of conflict with no end in sight, Former Undersecretary of State Richard Stengel says that the U.S. is now “poorer,” “less safe,” and “more vulnerable” to its adversaries. His comments were posted along with an article from the New York Times that details how the war has drained stockpiles of “critical, costly weapons.”

“It is difficult to come to any other conclusion,” writes Stengel, “than that this admin's war in Iran has made America less safe and more vulnerable in regard to much more powerful potential adversaries like China. The diminution of expensive and hard to replace munitions is also making us poorer: spending estimates of the war so far are over $30 billion. Iran's military budget, by the way, is 1% of ours.”

Stengel is basing his assertion on some striking numbers. In just two months, the U.S. has fired some 1,100 long-range stealth cruise missiles intended for a war with China, which represented about half the American stockpile. It’s used over 1,000 Tomahawk missiles, which is ten times what it buys in a year. More than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles have been fired at a price of $4 million each. And these and other weapons had to be rushed to the Middle East from Asia and Europe, which has “left these regional commands less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China.”

At the same time, while the U.S. has been burning through billions of dollars worth of multimillion-dollar weapons, Iran is using an asymmetric strategy that is exceptionally cheap by comparison.

“A Patriot missile costs between $4 and $4.5 million. An Iranian drone costs about $30,000-50,000,” noted Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) at a recent hearing. “It’s like shooting Ferraris at frisbees. We cannot match this asymmetrical warfare, and we can never make enough of these defensive munitions.”

In Europe, reports the New York Times, “the war has led to depletions in weapons systems critical for defending the eastern flank of NATO from Russian aggression… But the biggest impact has been on troops in Asia,” where the movement of forces and resources from the South China Sea has provided a strategic boon to China and North Korea.

During a Tuesday Senate hearing on the matter, Admiral Samuel J. Paparo Jr., the head of the military’s Indo-Pacific Command, acknowledged the issue of stockpile shortages by admitting that “there are finite limits to the magazine.”

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Pollster reveals Trump’s shrinking coalition: He 'is unpopular almost everywhere'

The latest polls have much to say about how Americans view President Donald Trump and his performance, with his overall approval rating cratering to a new low of just 35 percent, his approval on cost of living plummeting to net -46, and surprisingly high support for impeachment. Now according to seasoned pollster G. Elliott Morris, there’s more bad news for Trump. Not only is his coalition shrinking, but he is “unpopular almost everywhere.”

Typically, Republicans like to show geographic polling maps that display the vast majority of the U.S. in red, implying widespread support for Trump and the GOP. But as Morris notes, “few people actually live” in that red, as most of it is empty space. When you instead look at what is known as a “population cartogram,” in which each map point is scaled to the number of people who live there — in other words, you look at where voters reside rather than empty land, because land doesn’t vote — something interesting is revealed: “Trump is unpopular almost everywhere people actually live.”

In fact, “Trump is above water with only two demographic groups.” He still has relatively strong support among those who voted for him in 2024, currently holding 84 percent. But while that number may appear high, the loss of 16 percent of his previous voters represents a major shift. While he’s still at just over 50 percent with male voters over 65, that’s a sizeable drop from a year ago. At the same time, his approval is abysmal with nearly every other voting bloc, and surprisingly low with two of Trump’s previous support groups: white, non-college voters and males aged 45-64, with the former split at 50 percent and the latter down to 48 percent.

“Yikes,” writes Morris. “Even some of the groups that went strongest for Trump in 2024, like white voters without college degrees and older men, are bunched in the low-to-mid 40s. There is no group short of his own 2024 voters where Trump cracks 60 percent approval. The only way you get to a sub-40 approval rating is to lose a little bit, among every type of voter, everywhere.”

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Ex-CIA director reveals 3 crucial things that will fix Trump’s ‘mess’ before it's too late

According to former CIA director William J. Burns, the war with Iran has been plagued by President Donald Trump’s “unforced errors.” But having spent a lifetime in diplomacy — which included leading negotiations with Iran in the run-up to the nuclear deal that was later canceled by Trump — Burns says there are still three critical things the commander-in-chief can do to extract the U.S. from the "mess" in Iran.

“President Trump’s war of choice with Iran has paid little attention to our past mistakes and added many of his own,” writes Burns. “He assumed that bombs and assassinations could bring about regime change. He misread tactical military success as a workable strategy. He made policy choices based on Presidential Id and court politics. He negotiated on the fly with little forethought or planning.”

With this in mind, Burns says Trump should move forward with three things in mind.

First, navigating the situation is going to require “time and patience.” While the administration thought that decapitating the leadership would be a shortcut, or that the Iranians would immediately accept the “perfect” deal to end hostilities, Trump has run up against the fact that an ideological and entrenched regime is not going to give way so easily. Burns advises that the White House needs to “overcome its addiction to quick fixes” and “play a longer game, curbing the worst risk posed by Tehran — the potential for nuclear weaponization — and blunting other threats over time, while supporting political freedoms for the Iranian people.”

Second, he says Trump must harness “all the instruments of U.S. national security.” That means military and economic leverage, but it also means “patient, painstaking diplomacy, backed up by good intelligence taken seriously by policymakers” and collaboration with allies.

Third, Burns asserts that the “mowing the grass approach,” in which force is used to provide short-term solutions without a long-term plan, only results in more problems. Trump’s attempt at a quick military victory in many ways strengthened Iran’s strategic position, hurt Gulf states, fractured alliances, enriched and empowered China and Russia, all while severely disrupting the global economy. The White House, therefore, must move forward with a vision for what’s ahead.

“We didn’t have to dig the hole this deep,” Burns concludes. “Fortunately, there’s still time to put our shovel down, learn some hard lessons, and apply them with a little more humility.”

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'Be quiet or be targeted': ex-WH official laments new world order under Trump

Few if any administrations have had such an adversarial relationship with the press as that of President Donald Trump, whose longstanding disdain for journalists is well documented. Now, according to former Obama and Biden United Nations appointee Andrew Weinstein, the president’s attacks on the media have become so “dangerous” that they put the nation at risk.

“The most dangerous thing in Washington right now isn't just the corruption,” wrote Weinstein on X. “It's the retaliation against the people who expose it. When government power is used in ways that appear designed to intimidate a journalist for revealing potential abuses, the message is unmistakable: be quiet or be targeted. That’s how fear replaces truth. That’s how a free press is pushed toward silence. And that’s how democracies start to collapse.”

Trump’s antagonism toward the press is nothing new. He’s disparaged journalists in the past, telling reporter Lesley Stahl in 2018, “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.”

During his second term, Trump has ramped up his attacks on the press, turning his hatred for journalism into policy. As Federal Communications Commission Chairman and Trump loyalist Brendan Carr bragged, “Look at the results so far: PBS defunded. NPR defunded… CBS is under new leadership, and soon enough, CNN is going to have new ownership too.”

And Trump himself has taken to social media repeatedly to attack journalists and media figures he doesn’t like or views as oppositional to his project. More than that, he frequently asserts that journalists are “enemies of the people” in an effort to destroy public trust in the institution of a free press.

“Defunding public broadcasters. Applying pressure to corporate ownership. Signaling regulatory scrutiny,” writes former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “These are not abstract grievances. They are concrete mechanisms that can reshape the media landscape, chilling dissent and narrowing the space for independent reporting.”

On April 25, Trump will participate in his first White House Correspondents’ Dinner of either of his presidencies. The event, which brings together members of the press with presidential officials to mingle over food and comedy, has drawn Trump’s ire ever since President Barack Obama and comedian Seth Meyers joked about him at the 2011 dinner. While many have wondered why he’s decided to attend this year, no one thinks it’s going to stop his attacks on journalists.

This situation, says Jean-Pierre, does not bode well for the health of U.S. democracy.

“A free press is not a partisan institution,” she writes. “It is a constitutional safeguard, enshrined in the First Amendment, because the framers understood that democracy cannot function without scrutiny. As a cornerstone of our democracy, it ensures that those in power remain accountable to the people. Journalists investigate corruption, expose abuses, and provide the public with the information needed to make informed decisions. When those in power seek to intimidate or undermine that role, they are not just targeting headlines. They are targeting the public’s right to know.”

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Officers order Trump official's son to 'stop dropping names' during filmed arrest

United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff has been facing criticism over his mishandling of the Iran negotiations, but now he has a new scandal on his hands as footage has been unearthed of his son’s arrest for drug possession at a Miami nightclub in January 2022.

Zach Witkoff — who also happens to be the co-founder and CEO of the Trump family’s crypto business — was arrested for cocaine possession, and while the charges were dropped, the newfound footage may pose an embarrassment to those in the orbit of President Donald Trump.

In it, the younger Witkoff is shown in handcuffs and telling Miami police that he had done “nothing wrong.” At one point, he attempts to wriggle out of the situation by dropping the club owner’s name, saying, “I’m friends with Marc Roberts, I swear to God.”

“Nobody cares, nobody cares,” replied an officer. “You understand that, right? Nobody cares. Stop dropping names.”

Ultimately, Witkoff was arrested on charges of cocaine possession, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct, but prosecutors declined to pursue the case.

Witkoff helms World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto venture that is currently being sued by billionaire investor Justin Sun, who asserts that the company defrauded him out of his multi-million dollar investment.

According to Sun, the company is “on the verge of collapse.”

Zach Witkoff's 2022 arrest raises questions about oversight and vetting within Trump administration circles. The incident occurred before Witkoff took the helm of World Liberty Financial, but it underscores a pattern of insufficient accountability within the Trump family's business operations. The dropped charges suggest potential preferential treatment, particularly given the family connections involved. The timing of the footage's release coincides with growing scrutiny of both the Iran negotiations and the crypto venture's financial troubles.

For Steve Witkoff, already under fire for his diplomatic missteps, the resurfacing of his son's arrest compounds perceptions that Trump's inner circle operates with impunity. Additionally, the connection between Zach Witkoff's role at World Liberty Financial and the company's current legal challenges—including Justin Sun's fraud allegations—suggests that nepotism may be undermining the venture's credibility and operational competence. The incident illustrates broader concerns about how the Trump administration prioritizes loyalty over qualification and accountability.

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Trump's new Navy secretary has thoughts on 'witchcraft' — and that's just for starters

In the wake of the sudden departure of Navy Secretary John Phelan, acting secretary Hung Cao steps into his place. Originally appointed to the role of undersecretary by President Donald Trump, Cao is known for his commitment to the administration’s anti-“woke” ethos, as well as a smattering of eyebrow-raising statements he’s made in the past.

Upon assuming his initial role, Cao was tasked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with modernizing base infrastructure, raising recruitment standards, and implementing culture war policies that remove DEI and vaccination requirements from throughout the military. To that end, Cao shares Hegseth’s “traditional” view on military service, once asserting, “When you're using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that's not the people we want. What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds. Those are the young men and women that are going to win wars.”

A rising figure in conservative politics in recent years, Cao has twice run for office, losing a House race in Virginia in 2022, then to Senator Tim Kaine in 2024. It was while on the campaign trail that Cao made some of his most attention-grabbing statements, like his assertion that a California town was being taken over by “witchcraft.”

Speaking in 2023, Cao said, “There’s a place in Monterey, California, called Lovers Point. The original name was Lovers of Christ Point, but…they took out the Christ. Monterey is a very dark place now. A lot of witchcraft and the Wiccan community has really taken over. We can’t let that happen to Virginia.”

In the same interview, Cao — who was born in Vietnam — then suggested that he was “African American” because he spent part of his childhood in Niger. Kaine went on to beat Cao by roughly 9 percent.

No reason has been given for Phelan’s departure, which comes as the U.S. is engaged in a naval blockade of Iranian ports. It has been suggested that he was ousted due to the slow production times for naval ships, but lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have expressed concern that it may have come down to questions of loyalty to the Trump project.

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Fox News says Trump admin fired Navy secretary for refusing to ignore court order

On Wednesday, it was abruptly announced that Navy Secretary John Phelan was leaving his post. While at the time no explanation was given, it is now being reported that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth may have fired Phelan over his refusal to disobey a judge's order.

As Fox News reports, Hegseth and Phelan "butted heads" when Phelan refused to ignore a recent federal judge’s ruling that it would be a violation of First Amendment rights to punish Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) for making a video in which he reminded military officers of their constitutional duty to reject illegal orders.

Phelan's firing comes amidst a flurry of military leadership firings.

Phelan's refusal to circumvent the court order reflects a broader tension within the Trump administration's military leadership. The federal judge's ruling established that military personnel have a constitutional right to hear dissenting viewpoints on lawful orders, and that punishing Senator Kelly for his video would constitute an unconstitutional retaliation against free speech. Hegseth's apparent frustration with Phelan's adherence to the law suggests the Defense Secretary may be attempting to consolidate power within the Pentagon by removing officials who prioritize legal and constitutional constraints over administration directives.

This incident is part of a larger pattern. Since Trump's second inauguration, the administration has removed or sidelined numerous military leaders perceived as insufficiently loyal or unwilling to bend rules to suit political objectives. Analysts view these removals as part of what some have called a "military purge," designed to install commanders more amenable to controversial orders that might otherwise face legal challenge or internal resistance.

The irony is stark: Phelan was fired for protecting the constitutional rights of military personnel to understand their legal obligations. Military officers have long been trained that they have not only the right but the duty to refuse unlawful orders. Senator Kelly's video simply reinforced this foundational principle. By attempting to punish Kelly and, by extension, supporting Phelan's removal, the administration appears to be signaling that loyalty to Trump supersedes adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law.

Legal experts warn that removing military leaders for respecting court orders sets a dangerous precedent. It suggests that civilian control of the military—a cornerstone of American democracy—is being subordinated to executive whim. The implications extend beyond the Pentagon: if the military leadership can be purged for following judicial rulings, what stops similar purges in other agencies tasked with constitutional oversight and restraint?

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Even Fox News says Americans don’t like Trump or his economy

Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s political career, Fox News has had a reputation for not only avoiding criticism of him, but doing its best to help him sell unpopular policies. The network is historically so loyal to Trump that it had to pay nearly $800 million for spreading his election lies. But now, with his approval rating cratered and the economy in shambles, even Fox is admitting that Americans don’t like what Trump is up to.

In a new Fox poll shared Wednesday night, it was revealed that 70 percent of respondents think the economy is getting worse — a massive increase from 55 percent at the same time last year, on par with a record high set in April 2023. Just 26 percent say the economic situation has improved. While Republicans surveyed are more likely to rate the economy positively than Democrats, even among Republicans, 56 percent say general economic conditions are bad, and 52 percent say their personal finances are suffering.

What’s more, Fox also shared the latest AP-NORC poll, which showed Trump’s overall approval rating has slumped even further, now down to just 33 percent, with a whopping 76 percent of independents disapproving of the president’s performance. That same poll showed that Trump is underwater in every realm, with 67 percent disapproving of his handling of Iran, 76 percent voicing anger over the cost of living, and 59 percent saying “no” to his approach to immigration, which had previously been the one place where he held decent support.

“Even Fox News is now reporting Trump's approval rating has plummeted to 33 percent over his foolish decision to send the US economy into a likely recession over his decision to fight an unnecessary and unprovoked war of aggression,” wrote David Pyne, a security expert who serves as a Deputy Director of National Operations for the Task Force on National and Homeland Security.

Defining himself as a staunch America First advocate, Pyne once supported Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth but fell out with the administration over the war, declaring in early April that he was “ashamed” to have supported them. Now he says he’s not surprised that Trump’s numbers have plummeted, writing, “I predicted this would happen on day one of the war but I did not anticipate his poll numbers would fall this quickly.”
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Military whistleblower calls out Trump for 'vile and un-American behavior'

On Thursday, President Donald Trump shared a post by former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen, in which Thiessen quotes his own op-ed where he asserts, “If there are two factions in Iran, one that wants a deal and one that doesn’t, let’s kill the ones who don’t want a deal.”

“This is the most vile, wicked, and unAmerican behavior I've seen in my adult lifetime,” responded former U.S. military officer and whistleblower Daniel Davis, who rose to prominence after exposing the illegal actions of the U.S. military in Afghanistan. “This is a profound absence of morality, gross violation of any laws that have ever existed, and puts us on the same mental plane as some of the early followers of Adolf Hitler.”

Davis emphasized that he wasn’t exaggerating, saying that even “vile Hitler” didn't kill negotiators.

“And if you think this kill-them-all mentality will be limited to Iranian negotiators, you are fooling yourself,” wrote Davis, “Once a leader has so dehumanized his opponents that you can callously call for them to be murdered for the ‘crime’ of not agreeing to your terms (i.e., not surrendering), there will be nso lower inhibition to killing larger and larger numbers of people who don't submit.”

Dismissing any suggestion that the op-ed reflected Thiessen’s opinion rather than Trump’s, Davis points out that Trump followed up with a second post where he agreed that the “murderous idea” was "Very True!!!" — ”so he is fully on board with the mentality.” This kind of behavior, argues Davis, cannot be dismissed, and it is “time to stand up for whatever is left of our morality and categorically declare that this is beyond the pale and condemn both Thiessen and the president for sharing such reprehensible views.”

Davis says that he will be watching how Christians respond in particular, asserting, “If they *yet again* give him a moral pass for the indefensible, then they can no longer claim to be a Christian, as this violates every tenet in the Bible.”

This is largely a reference to Trump’s ongoing beef with the Pope, whom the president began attacking due to the Vatican’s criticism of the war. While some Trump loyalists shrugged off such behavior, many began accusing him of being the antichrist after he posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus, which Christians widely condemned as blasphemous.

For Davis, Trump’s endorsement of killing negotiators is a straightforward affront to morality: “We're not talking about two combatants fighting it out on a battlefield, this is about us declaring our desire to murder non-combatants who dare to refuse to obey our demands for unconditional surrender.”

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Looming deadline marks 'the beginning of the end for Trump'

In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has appeared increasingly desperate to end the war he started with Iran two months ago. While he has tried to impart a sense of calm, claiming he is “not in a rush” and under “no pressure” to make a deal, his insistence plus reports of shouting from the Oval Office suggest that he is feeling the strain. Part of that stress, writes the iPaper, likely comes from a looming deadline that could mean “the beginning of the end for Trump.”

May 1st will mark 60 days since Trump notified Congress of his offensive actions against Iran, and by law, he is then required to obtain congressional approval to continue the war. Absent of that, he is only authorized to continue hostilities for another 30 days, and only in the context of leveraging defensive operations to cover the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

So this puts congressional Republicans in a bind. On one hand, many recognize that the war is unpopular and perhaps unwinnable. On the other, they have been reluctant to draw Trump’s anger by voting to rein him in via a War Powers Resolution, so have rejected it with some misgivings. At the 60 day deadline, however, they will be forced to explicitly vote to either continue the war or end it, and “any Republicans worried about holding their seat at the midterms, or with ambitions on higher political office in the future, might be reluctant to sacrifice their future career for a lame-duck president.”

Up until now, most Republicans have backed the president’s agenda out of basic self-interest. Without his endorsement, they feared they would lose primaries or funding. But with public opinion firmly against the war and Trump’s approval rating at a historic low, some may see the era of Trump coming to a close and be willing to show opposition to policies they know will bite them in the midterms.

“The trouble for the President is that increasingly, he’s losing,” concludes the iPaper. “He seems, somehow, to be losing his war with Iran. He’s losing control of prices at home. He’s losing popularity. And he’s set to lose the midterms. Republicans will have all of that in mind when the 60-day deadline arrives. Trump could soon lose control of his party, too.”

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'He’s in a bad mood': Republicans brace for more Cabinet firings as 'Trump spirals'

The Trump administration continues to be dogged by multiple crises of its own making, from the tariff debacle to ongoing questions about Jeffery Epstein to the economic catastrophe precipitated by the war with Iran, and more. Now, with President Donald Trump lashing out via social media and a string of officials being fired or pressured from their posts, Republicans are bracing for more anger from the commander-in-chief.

“He’s in a bad mood,” said one GOP Senator speaking anonymously. “He’s preparing to really let a lot of them go.”

The “them” in question could suggest a number of White House officials, such as FBI Director Kash Patel, who has been embroiled in a drinking scandal, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was implicated in recent Epstein file releases, or Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who drew Trump’s ire when she failed to fully back his war.

It is largely the consequences of that very war that has Trump’s temper flaring. Not only have its economic impacts deeply tarnished his presidency, but his inability to end the conflict he himself started has prompted clear signs of frustration. After Trump held a phone call with Iranian officials in mid-April, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) claimed he was shouting so much he lost his voice. A few days later, Trump ranted that he was “under no pressure whatsoever” to end the conflict.

What’s more, White House press correspondents report hearing shouting from the Oval Office, with Trump once yelling “Get him out” before ejecting deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from the room. According to one reporter, “These days that the yelling is more frequent and less restrained… As Trump spirals, he is growing increasingly unhappy with those who are fighting to prevent, but also to survive, his coming fall.”

As Trump’s crises have multiplied and his anger has become more apparent, so has his erratic behavior. This plus disapproval with several of his key actions has pushed longtime supporters like Tucker Carlson Alex Jones, and Marjorie Taylor Greene to criticize his decision making and question his mental health, prompting the president to lash out angrily, calling them “NUT JOBS” and “stupid people” with “Low IQs.”

According to Julian E. Zelizer, a Princeton historian and editor of a book on Trump’s first term, because the president “naturally disregards any guardrails or sense of decorum, Trump feels much freer…to unleash his inner rage and to act on impulse.”

And with Trump looking for targets to blame for the problems dogging his presidency, his conservative allies are wary of who that rage and impulsiveness will have him firing next.

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'This should terrify every American': Trump official destroying military 'integrity'

On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the end of the flu vaccine mandate for military service members, citing a need to “restore freedom.” This, as many have noted, is in direct opposition to a 1777 decision by future President George Washington, in which he ordered that all American soldiers be vaccinated against smallpox to ensure the army of the emerging United States would be healthy enough to fight the British. Hegseth has thrown that out the window, and according to renowned economist Paul Krugman, it not only diminishes U.S. military readiness, but is an act of “hypocrisy” that aims to “destroy the integrity of the professional military” and “cultify” the armed forces.

Krugman suggests a number of issues with Hegseth’s decision.

First, the self-titled “Secretary of War” — who Krugman describes as a “bloodthirsty religious fanatic” who is “more comfortable with fascism than with America’s founding principles” — is displaying clear “hypocrisy.” On one hand, Hegseth claims the inalienable right to control “your body, your faith, and your convictions,” but on the other, he has banned beards and argued that troops and generals should lose weight because “it’s a bad look.”

“But requiring that serving troops receive a vaccine that helps maintain their military effectiveness and also helps protect their comrades from infection?” writes Krugman sarcastically. “Tyranny!”

And as Krugman notes, surrendering a certain amount of personal “freedom” has always been inherent to military service in the first place. “When Americans sign up to serve the nation under arms, they agree to temporarily forego many of the freedoms of civilian life,” he writes. “They must wear uniforms, not street fashion. They must eat Army or Navy food. They must salute officers and obey orders. They must, in other words, adhere to military discipline.”

But Krugman is most concerned with what he calls Hegseth’s attempts to “cultify” the military by “creating an environment in which professional integrity, military discipline, and historical precedent are destroyed in service to the personality cult of Donald Trump.”

As Krugman explains, “Think of these directives as loyalty tests. Hegseth can indulge his faux concerns about liberty while aligning himself with the science-hating right. If you are an officer concerned about the welfare of your troops and voice your concerns, you are out. Mention that the directive against beards is nonsensical and disproportionately harms black male soldiers with a common skin condition, then you are a woke weakling and are sent packing. If you are a general in possession of critical skills and hard-won experience, but served during the Biden administration, you will be unceremoniously fired.”

Krugman concludes that “the method in Hegseth’s apparent madness is to destroy the integrity of the professional military corps through destructive and despotic behavior that drives out those…who hold to their principles. And this should terrify every American.”

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Fox News host brings receipts to Trump's optimistic Iran claims

The Trump Administration has offered numerous, sometimes confused justifications for launching war against Iran, with one of the most oft-cited being the reduction of Iranian missile and drone capabilities. But while President Donald Trump has asserted that such programs have been “decimated,” one Fox News host said the government’s public claims of success don’t align with what’s being said behind closed doors.

“In a House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing last week, the director of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency warned of Iran's remaining missile and drone capabilities, which runs counter to what top Pentagon officials have told the press during televised briefings at the Pentagon,” posted Fox Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffen. She attached a quote from Lieutenant General James Adams in which he revealed that, “Despite significant degradation of Iranian military capabilities through coalition strikes in operation Epic Fury, Tehran retains thousands of missiles and one-way attack UAV's capable of threatening U.S. and partner forces throughout the region.”

Adams' admission contradicted a previous statement from Air Force General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who in early April declared, “All of these systems are gone.”

Griffen pointed out the inconsistency of these two messages over a retweet of a CBS article, in which it was revealed that Iran's military is more capable than the Trump administration is publicly acknowledging. While on Tuesday, Trump claimed, "We've taken out their navy, we've taken out their air force, we've taken out their leaders,” multiple U.S. officials told CBS that Iran has retained at least 60 percent of its navy, roughly two-thirds of its air force, and half its stockpile of ballistic missiles.

This isn’t the first time that Trump’s military claims have diverged from the facts on the ground. In early April, after declaring that the U.S. had “beaten and completely decimated Iran,” asserting that “they have no anti-aircraft equipment” and “their radar is 100 percent annihilated,” the Iranians successfully shot down two American fighter jets.

On Wednesday morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back against the CBS article, posting that “the vast majority of Iran’s ballistic missiles, launcher vehicles, and long-range attack drones were destroyed,” “the Iranian navy was annihilated,” and that “Iran’s air forces are functionally and operationally irrelevant.”

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Republicans face ticking clock on 'political catastrophe'

Over the past year, a number of issues have angered voters, from brutal ICE tactics to the mishandling of the Epstein investigation to President Donald Trump’s beef with the Pope. But now with gas prices skyrocketing due to the unpopular war with Iran, writes Politico, “GOP campaign veterans say time is running out if the party is going to avoid a disaster at the ballot box in November.”

While the White House has done everything it can think of to bring oil prices down, costs at the pump have shot up by over a third in less than two months, with further increases forecasted even by Trump and his officials — just in time for summer road trip season.

“I would say gas prices need to come down substantially before Memorial Day weekend,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. “That is a political catastrophe waiting to happen.”

Memorial Day is typically when fuel demands begin to soar, and with the situation in the Strait of Hormuz still anything but certain, it seems unlikely that prices will come down by Bonjean’s catastrophic deadline. While oil barrel prices are down somewhat from their recent high of $120, they are still at $93, which is roughly $30 higher than they were before the war. This has pushed national gas averages to over $4 per gallon, costing U.S. consumers over $24 billion since the conflict began.

The White House has been desperate to characterize the price hike as “short-term, temporary disruptions,” but studies have shown that a 10-cent increase in gas prices drives a 0.6 percentage point drop in presidential approval. That’s bad news for the Republicans, who already see warning signals of midterm disasters to come. It has already been widely accepted that the GOP will likely lose its majority in the House, and many conservatives have begun to worry that they could even lose the Senate as the electorate doles out punishment for high gas prices and unpopular policies.

“At a political level, if oil prices remain exorbitantly high, voters are going to blame the party in power,” said Alex Conant, a partner at Washington-based strategic communications firm and former communications director for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign. “And there’s not much you can do from a comms perspective on that.”

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Trump’s strategy is to 'seek turmoil' and 'lie about everything': ex-US admiral

Two months into President Donald Trump’s war against Iran, one of the key characteristics of the conflict has been a general lack of clarity about its status. From one day to the next, and sometimes within hours, the public is told one thing, which is then quickly contradicted by emerging facts. According to a retired U.S. admiral, it is all part of Trump’s “lie about everything” strategy.

“We were told Iran's navy was sunk, their air force, destroyed,” posted former Admiral Mike Franken on Wednesday. “Their fissile material blown up. Their leadership, killed. Yet, they magically seized two tankers this morning. See Ref A. Subj: Lie About Everything.”

Franken was responding to the latest news that Iranian forces had seized two cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz. This came one day after Trump announced he was extending the ceasefire at the request of Iran, which would have theoretically suspended hostilities. But in an increasingly apparent pattern, the world is left wondering whether Trump’s claim of a ceasefire was ever true in the first place.

First the White House declares that Vice President JD Vance is going to lead negotiations, which Trump immediately contradicts, maybe accurately, maybe not. Trump claims that Iran has agreed to let the U.S. extract its enriched uranium, then Tehran says it’s agreed to nothing of the sort. Shortly after the president asserts that Iranian defense capabilities have been destroyed, two American fighter jets are shot down. While he says Iran holds “no cards,” its decidedly effective closure of the Hormuz Strait has thrown the global economy into chaos while bolstering its position to extract compromise from the U.S. He declared “we won” weeks ago, yet the war still drags on.

As Franken posted in mid-April, “Every statement is a lie.”

Trump’s lies, experts have suggested, likely have a few different inspirations. First, the president’s basic lack of understanding about what is happening from one moment to the next — he simply doesn’t know what’s going on. Second, he’s sometimes attempting to direct a desirable Iranian response, though seemingly without much effect. Third, he’s trying to pacify American concerns about the unpopular war. And finally, he’s hoping to manipulate the market.

As many have noted, Trump tends to make statements about the war that could affect stocks negatively or positively, according to when the markets open or close. At the same time, there have been rampant accusations of insider trading via prediction markets as betters have made over $1 billion placing wagers that are suspiciously timed just prior to Trump making consequential statements about the war.

“This administration is a giant 'pump and dump' scheme to gather riches from market manipulations,” said Franken. “They seek turmoil, and it's a daily occurrence.”

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'Definition of a cover-up': Officials say Trump White House is lying about Iran casualties

As of Wednesday, official figures released by the Department of Defense on casualties in Iran place the number of American service members wounded and killed at 411. But according to a new report from the Intercept, that number “erases” 15 wounded from the count, amounting to the very “definition of a cover-up.”

On the first day of the ceasefire, the Pentagon listed American casualties at 385, and though fighting was theoretically suspended, that gradually climbed to 428 by Monday. But the following day, that number dropped to 413 without explanation. The Pentagon has maintained that number since then, though a DOD count places it two lower.

When asked about the discrepancy, two Pentagon officials were unable to account for the change, with one claiming, “As soon as the duty officer comes back to their desk,” an explanation would be provided. But “a day, and multiple follow-ups, later, The Intercept has yet to receive an explanation of why 15 wounded personnel were scrubbed from the War Department’s casualty rolls.”

One U.S. official was blunt about their assessment of what they called a “casualty cover-up.”

“These numbers, it is obvious, are important. That they don’t want the public to have them says something,” said the official. “That’s the definition of a cover-up.”

According to two sources who worked with the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, which is used to count casualties, it is unusual to see “lag between a casualty occurring in the field and its inclusion in the system.”

“We got it very quickly. We could report the number of casualties very fast,” Joan Crenshaw, who worked on DCAS during the war on terror said, explaining that the data was refreshed on a daily basis.

The Department of Defense and relevant administration officials have refused to address “hard questions about undercounts of dead and wounded personnel, the slow-walking of statistics, faulty accounting measures, and arcane casualty-counting procedures.” Aside from the erased wounded, The Intercept also asserts that the casualty numbers provided by the government “offer a distorted image of the conflict” as the DCAS tally doesn’t include “non-hostile injuries,” such as the over 200 sailors treated for smoke inhalation and lacerations due to a fire aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford on March 12, as well as other injuries.

“That should have been entered into DCAS,” said Crenshaw. “My concern is why that piece is now missing.”

A second source who also worked on DCAS and spoke on the condition of anonymity expressed similar concerns, wondering what the Pentagon “had to hide.”

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Extensive records review reveals Trump’s Epstein investigators 'looked the other way'

When President Donald Trump began his second term, he and many of the officials he appointed came into office claiming they would release the Epstein files and expose the notorious sex trafficker’s secret cabal of clients. But since then, Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell have been the only two to face charges in the U.S., with FBI Director Kash Patel — who had promised justice in the case for years — asserting that there is “no credible information” that Epstein had trafficked his victims to anyone else.

According to a report from CNN, however, victim allegations that align with witness accounts contained in the Epstein files suggest otherwise.

Between the files and statements from victims, there are numerous descriptions of men visiting Epstein’s island and properties to have sex with minors. Sometimes Epstein provided underage victims for sex, and sometimes these men brought “really young” girls with them. Despite these detailed allegations of abuse by other men, says CNN, the Epstein files provide little clarity into how and if investigators pursued those leads.

According to experts, there appears to have been little of the investigation they would have expected.

“I don’t see that that led to writing search warrant affidavits to obtain somebody’s computer, somebody’s personnel file, going to different places to get flight records, hotel records,” said Moses Castillo, a former detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. “I don’t see that any of that was done.”

Many of the men in question are high-profile figures, such as producer Harvey Weinstein (who is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence for rape), former Senator George Mitchell, renowned psychiatrist Henry Jarecki, banking executive Jes Staley, and billionaire Leon Black and many other unnamed men. While Black has faced three formal accusations of rape (with one lawsuit dropped, another dismissed, and the third pending), none of the other men have faced Epstein-related charges, with the government claiming there was “not enough evidence to federally charge these individuals, so the cases were referred to local law enforcement.” None of the men faced local charges either.

What's more, the Department of Justice has also been accused of refusing to release one victim's claims that Trump sexually abused her. The White House called her allegations "baseless" while an FBI email asserts that the victim "refused to cooperate." The DOJ asserts that the allegations were not withheld intentionally.

According to attorney Spencer Kuvin, who has represented numerous Epstein victims, these investigative failures have persisted across several presidential administrations dating back to that of President George W. Bush, when Epstein struck a non-prosecution deal.

“Subsequent administrations looked at it and said, ‘You know what? The girls got paid, settlements happened, let a sleeping dog lie,’” said Kuvin. “They just kind of looked the other way.”

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Top historian says 'the wheels are coming off the MAGA bus'

It’s been a chaotic week for President Donald Trump. One minute, CNN is reporting that negotiators between the U.S. and Iran seem on the verge of reaching a deal. Then in the next, Trump takes to social media to declare Tehran has “agreed to everything,” including to “never to close the Strait of Hormuz again.” Iranian officials then denied Trump’s claims, and promptly resumed attacks on ships in the strait.

According to renowned historian Heather Cox Richardson, this is evidence that Trump’s “vulnerability” is reaching new heights.

“There is the unmistakable feeling that the wheels are coming off the MAGA bus,” wrote Richardson. She cites plenty of examples of this beyond Trump’s bungling in Iran, but the war provides no shortage of evidence in itself. His exceptionally confused approach to negotiating is proof enough. Beyond the frequent daylight between the facts on the ground and Trump’s repeated assertions of a done deal, Richardson shared a particularly embarrassing detail regarding the negotiations.

On Tuesday, the president reposted an AI-generated image claiming that Iran was going to execute eight women, saying, “To the Iranian leaders who will soon be in negotiations with my representatives: I would greatly appreciate the release of these women. I am sure that they will respect the fact that you did so. Please do them no harm! Would be a great start to our negotiations!!!” While it is true that Iran has been executing protesters, this particular post was a fabrication, and as David S. Bernstein of Good Politics/Bad Politics noted, Trump urged Iran “to start peace negotiations by releasing non-existent, AI-generated women some rando posted about on X.”

The list of Trump’s mistakes goes on, and as Richardson suggests, it’s unsurprising that Americans hate his handling of the situation, with a new poll showing that just 35 percent approve of his performance — a historic low. At the same time, 72 percent disapprove of his handling of rising prices, and 50 percent say they would vote Democrat in a generic ballot, versus 43 percent who would vote Republican.

With backlash impending at the ballot box, says Richardson, “Administration officials’ approach to the midterm elections seems to be to continue to sow distrust of elections.” Embattled FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday that arrests were coming in relation to Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, which he claims was stolen. At the same time, Trump officials are demanding voter records from districts where Trump lost.

What’s more, Trump is starting (and losing) fights with the Pope, posting AI-generated photos of himself as Jesus, and delivered a reading of 2 Chronicles 7:11–22 from the Oval Office: “The same verse was read by Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin at the January 6, 2021, insurrection, and is associated with white evangelicals’ belief God sent Trump to heal America.” And on top of all that, Trump’s deportation agenda is receiving pushback in the courts, a handful of Congressional Republicans have stymied his legislative efforts by voting against them, and a nationwide redistricting battle (which was launched by the GOP in the first place) has just netted Democrats more seats in the House due to a referendum that passed in Virginia.

According to Richardson, all of these are signs of Trump's “vulnerability” —and that MAGA could implode in the November midterms.

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Top historian says Trump is committing 'superpower suicide'

Over the course of President Donald Trump’s second term, the United States and the entire world have been thrust into chaos by the administration’s erratic actions. While many have speculated about what pushed the U.S. to elect its highly disruptive leader, renowned historian Timothy Snyder has a theory: it’s an attempt at “superpower suicide.”

“I’ve been thinking about how best to characterize what the United States is doing to itself on the scale of the world,” said Snyder on his Substack, “and I think ‘superpower suicide’ is probably the best term.”

There are a handful of points that drove him to this conclusion.

“To be a superpower, you have to be a power, and to be a power, you have to be a state,” he explained. “And I think the way we’re being governed now is inconsistent with statehood. The way we’re being governed now — or rather ruled — seems to have to do with the enrichment and the wealth of the president himself and the people immediately around him. It seems to involve the cult of an individual and his eternal power rather than the continuity of institutions that belong to everyone.”

That brought him to matters of succession, or the lack thereof, and the future in general.

“By calling into question past and future elections,” said Snyder, “the President of the United States is undermining…the principle of succession, which is fundamental to being a superpower” — the idea that a country will continue beyond its present leadership. What’s more, Snyder claimed that Trump lacks a coherent ideology to carry forward, saying, “What is the future of this country? I don’t think the people in power are able to give any of that a name. There is no idea of the future. There’s just day-to-day enrichment.” On top of that, the U.S. is “pursuing policies that are inconsistent with there being a future.” He explained that global powers rise and fall based on their energy policy, and Trump’s decision to double down on oil and gas while ceding green energy development to China simultaneously cedes the future to Chinese leadership.

On that note, Snyder argued that “a superpower would be able to deal with its adversaries, and we seem completely unable to do so.” Over the course of the past year, Trump has declared and quickly lost a trade war with China, then a war with Iran, and a consequence of both has been the enrichment of Russia. At the same time, Trump has made it clear that he’s not only uninterested in collaborating with allies, but happy to shred essential alliances.

Finally, Snyder suggested that “a superpower of the future…would be caring about education and science, which is what we’re not doing.” To the contrary, under Trump, the U.S. is decimating its K-12 and university systems. Science has become politicized, while students and researchers from abroad are now looking elsewhere to bring their smarts and expertise.

All of this, concluded Snyder, comes down to an act of "superpower suicide." But he didn’t end on an entirely dire note.

“To make things a little bit more hopeful,” said Snyder, it’s an “attempted suicide, because none of this has to happen. It could all be changed. But that would depend on the choices we make.”

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Evangelicals forced into a reckoning — thanks to Trump

Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s political career, writes the Nation, “pundits and religious observers have been asking themselves…just how a thrice-married casino owner who mocks opponents, savors vengeance, and revels in cruelty could become the hero of millions of devout Christians.” In 2016, he won 81 percent of the white evangelical vote — higher than George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, or John McCain in the preceding elections. Then in 2020, Trump secured 85 percent of Americans who both self-identified as evangelicals and attended church regularly. Finally in 2024, he yet again took over 80 percent of the evangelical vote.

Now in recent weeks, amidst Trump’s bizarre fight with the Pope, “Trump’s Christian right supporters have had to reckon anew with the fact that their purported values and those of their president are deeply misaligned.” From his decidedly un-Christian actions, to his beef with the Pope, to sharing photos of himself as Jesus, Trump “is a man who believes he is above faith and superior to those who profess it.”

What explains this “cognitive dissonance” on the part of evangelicals who profess Christian values on one hand but vote for a man who flaunts them on the other? “Trump is the ultimate American televangelist,” who “seized on a central truth about evangelism in the postmodern age: It is a style, not a theology.” This attracted a Christian audience that had been fed on flashy televangelism for decades.

As the Nation explains, Trump appeals to the same 20th-century revivalist landscape that produced the likes of Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, and now White House senior faith advisor Paula White-Cain: ministers who leveraged spectacle, cultural grievances, the defeat of enemies, and promises “that material success signaled divine favor” to draw evangelical masses raised on TV and consumerism. The future president took these lessons and applied them to his political rallies.

“Trump does not argue policy. He does not try to persuade with logic. He uses repetition over explanation and emotional intensity over coherence,” explains the Nation. “He regularly warns of an imminent apocalypse. He demands loyalty. He testifies. He reassures the devout…He also names his enemies, who happen to be the same groups that have dogged televangelists through the modern era.”

While some have argued the novelty of his “presidential bully pulpit,” the Nation notes that “Trump did not invent a new political style; he refashioned a religious style to transform politics. He merged his idiosyncratic form of pseudo-populist authoritarianism with classic revivalist evangelicalism. He has perfected the evangelical style in American politics” to the point where the two are indistinguishable.

Judging by the backlash against his AI-Jesus photo, says the Nation, “Donald Trump may have erred in promoting himself as a latter-day messiah,” but one thing is hard to deny: “he is the televangelist meme incarnate.”

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Bannon's latest 'demonic' meltdown shows how scared Republicans really are

Last August, a GOP-led gerrymandering effort in Texas resulted in the creation of new Republican congressional seats, sparking a nationwide battle to redistrict several states in an attempt to swing electoral maps in one party of the other’s favor. Now with polls open on a redistricting referendum in Virginia, President Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon is claiming that it is a “demonic” effort by the Democrats to take power and launch impeachment proceedings.

If Virginia voters accept the proposed map, it will lend Democrats a 10-1 advantage in the state, gaining the party four new congressional seats.

“This is their plan,” said Bannon, speaking on his podcast with Virginia GOP chair Jeff Ryer. “Not just, are they going to take power and use these four seats to impeach Trump? But they’re going to use this as a template for the rest of the country. It’s coming.”

Bannon suggested that dark motivations underlie the endeavor.

“These Democrats are demonic,” he declared. “If they weren’t demonic, wouldn’t they show you the map? Wouldn’t they walk you through the logic?”

As Democracy Docket points out, Democrats in fact did release a proposed map. Early voting is already open, and the final count is expected to be close. In opposing the effort, state Republicans distributed misleading mailers that suggest top Democrats like President Barack Obama and Governor Abigail Spanberger oppose the redistricting. Both, in reality, support it.

With Trump’s approval rating plummeting to historic lows and the November midterms approaching fast, Republicans have begun panicking over the “inconvenient truth” that they’re almost certain to take major losses. Most experts expect the GOP to lose its majority in the House, and some are even saying the party's majority is vulnerable in the Senate.

According to veteran Republican strategist Mike Madrid, who has spent nearly four decades analyzing elections, "I've never seen the fundamentals of an election cycle as bad for an incumbent party as I am right now,"

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MAGA 'teetering' as devotees realize this isn’t 'what they signed up for'

While President Donald Trump’s 2024 electoral victory was once viewed as “a definitive cultural shift, proof that his aggressive, domineering style of rightwing populism had found permanent purchase in US politics,” writes Guardian political columnist Moira Donegan, “less than 18 months later, that thesis has collapsed.” Today, the MAGA movement is “teetering” on collapse because even they don’t like how Trump’s second term has turned out.

As evidence of this, Donegan points to Trump’s recent McDonald’s-based publicity stunt, in which he had his delivery brought by 58-year-old Sharon Simmons. While Trump attempted to rile up some culture war talk by asking her, “Do you think men should play in women’s sports?” Simmons’ reply was simple: “I really don’t have an opinion on that. I’m here about ‘no tax on tips’.” She went on to explain that she’d begun driving for DoorDash to pay for her husband’s cancer treatment.

“It was a small but revealing moment,” writes Donegan. “In the aftermath of the 2024 election, many political commentators blamed the Democrats’ loss on the party’s supposedly excessive embrace of the social movements of the 2010s. The party had focused too much on culture-war issues, these pundits said, and not enough on economics.” Now Trump, she notes, is doing the exact same thing: ignoring economic concerns in favor of harping on the same old culture war talking points, only from a far-right perspective.

This has even some of Trump’s most diehard supporters bailing on him. His approval rating is at a historic low, even among working-class voters and non-college educated white voters which once provided his most bedrock support base.

As Donegan notes, while MAGA has seen “their cultural values felt in pervasive and sadistic ways,” such as the brutal tactics employed by ICE, they’ve also watched the cost of living skyrocket. All the while, Trump and his officials have continued to espouse the idea that “their side has already won.” It’s hard to convince anyone that winning looks like $4+ for a gallon of gas.

Now even some of Trump’s most high-profile, seemingly loyalist supporters are abandoning him over the bad economy, Jeffrey Epstein cover-up and war in Iran, with figures like Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alex Jones jumping ship.

And “the ordinary, workaday voters who swung for Trump in 2024,” writes Donegan, “are wondering what, exactly, they signed up for.”

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'Uncharted water': Gamblers win big off Trump’s war

Each time President Donald Trump makes an announcement regarding his war on Iran, something suspicious happens: a smattering of prediction market bets are placed hours or even minutes beforehand, specifically pertaining to the news to come, which then pay off big when the announcement is made. This pattern — which has repeated again and again over the course of the war — has many suggesting that insider trading is occurring at the highest levels of government.

In an investigation by the BBC, for example, it was found that in the 47 minutes before Trump declared the war was “very complete, pretty much,” there was a massive surge in bets that the price of oil would fall. It did, and those who placed last-minute bets raked in over $1 million. Similarly suspicious bets happened in the run-up to the U.S. seizure of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, just prior to the February 28th U.S. strikes on Iran, and before other key pieces of news regarding the war were revealed.

“Our paper finds evidence of trading that has characteristics which are suggestive of material, non-public information,” said Joshua Mitts, a law professor at Columbia University who has been analyzing the bets. He explained that while it’s rather straightforward to recognize the pattern, “We cannot prove, however, that any given party had specific information or where that information came from.”

Donald Trump Jr. is currently an adviser to two leading prediction platforms, Kalshi and Polymarket. There has been no direct evidence, however, to suggest that he or anyone else in the Trump family has benefited from war-related bets.

According to Andrew Moran, head of criminology, sociology, politics, and international relations at London Metropolitan University, the trading “does look suspicious and it is clear that a number of investors have made substantial gains…there might be something here which suggests more than coincidence.” But he also agrees that it would be “difficult to prove” who leaked and who was leaked to.

Moran noted that if the President’s family or associates are proven to have engaged in insider trading, “that could be damaging and we will be in uncharted water. Democrats most certainly will be calling for the President to be removed. It will then become a question of loyalty for the Republicans and how far they are prepared to support this administration.”

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Critical state election becomes a GOP 'triangular firing squad' over MAGA 'headwinds'

With just a month left until Georgia holds its three-way Republican Senate primary, the election has erupted into a full-on “triangular firing squad,” says Punchbowl News, with all three candidates doing their best to knock their opponents out of the race. They’re struggling to replace incumbent Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who not only leads in polls against all three GOP candidates, but has far outraised his challengers, boasting a massive $31 million war chest.

So far, President Donald Trump hasn’t endorsed any of the candidates, but the two current leaders — Representatives Mike Collins (R-GA) and Buddy Carter (R-GA) — are campaigning under the MAGA banner. They’re up against football coach Derek Dooley, an ally of Governor Brian Kemp, who has a notoriously strained relationship with Trump. If none of the candidates reach a 50 percent threshold in the primary, it will force a costly runoff election, which Republicans fear would reduce their bankroll for fighting against Ossoff in the midterm general election. Hoping to avoid this, the three GOP prospects are doing their best to jab each other out of the race.

“Look, if Mike Collins is our candidate, we lose. If Derek Dooley is our candidate, we lose,” Carter told Punchbowl News, failing to mention that he and Collins are polling against Ossoff within one percent of each other, with Dooley close behind.

“Our candidate can’t be sitting there having to defend either a long voting record or a House Ethics charge or a divisive social media,” said Dooley, taking a stab at his opponents’ MAGA identities. “You got to have a candidate who not only can energize and mobilize the Republican voters — the Trump voters — but connects with voters that don’t always vote Republican.”

Dooley has raised his concerns about a MAGA candidate due to a widespread belief that Ossoff — who is viewed as a strongly centrist politician who appeals to the working class — can only be defeated by someone who isn’t so far to the right. Currently Collins, the most conservative candidate, is leading in primary polls. This has some Republicans worried.

“If the most conservative person comes out of the primary, there’s the worst matchup in the general, particularly in a year where we have headwinds,” said Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), referring to the headwinds driven by Trump’s increasingly unpopular presidency. “If you cut that image, then you’re necessarily going to alienate unaffiliated soccer moms and whoever else may be trending away from us anyway.”

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Republicans accused of 'the largest government cover-up in modern history'

Over the past year, Democratic lawmakers and even a few of their Republican colleagues have struggled to use what legal tools were available to them to get to the bottom of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. But lately, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee has reduced their options, leveraging a tactic that some say amounts to “the largest government cover-up in modern history.”

During typical House Oversight Committee hearings, members of Congress can make motions and call for votes to subpoena individuals in any matter regardless of what a particular hearing happens to be on. For months now, representatives from both parties with an interest in the Epstein case have taken advantage of this to push for subpoenas for high-profile figures who may have relevant information, which is how a vote was held to force the release of the Epstein files in the first place.

But now, according to Politico, Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) has begun holding “roundtables” rather than hearings, which don’t permit representatives to make motions unrelated to the business at hand. As a result, Republicans “are avoiding the only forum where Democrats can force votes, demand documents, and hold the majority accountable.”

This situation has “frustrated” Democratic representatives dedicated to investigating the Epstein case, says Robert Garcia (D-CA), who explained, “We have important investigative work, and they want to do this right as we are in the middle of this single, largest government cover-up in the modern history of the Congress.”

Republicans have noticed the change too.

“It’s no secret why we are not doing a formal hearing today,” said Representative Glenn Grothman (R-WI) during a recent roundtable on mental health. “We’d like this hearing to be solely focused on the issue before you, and there is some concern that — both parties are guilty of this — that they make motions in the middle of the hearing and try to bring up unrelated topics.”

In the case of Committee Democrats (with the support of a few Republicans), that has meant subpoenaing the likes of former Attorney General Pam Bondi, while Republicans have forced the depositions of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Now with hearings being replaced by roundtables, however, such subpoenas have become less frequent and likely.

Even some Republicans are expressing criticism at the change. Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), for example, said, “I am a fan of committees that like to do the motions to subpoena.”

“They want to neuter the Oversight Committee,” said Garcia. “Give me a break.”

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Clarence Thomas is either 'delusional' or a 'Republican hack': analysis

On Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a speech at the University of Texas, Austin, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In it, he took the opportunity to offer a lengthy attack on progressive politics that was widely criticized, with New York Times political analyst Jamelle Bouie calling the Justice’s assertions “nonsense.”

According to Thomas, “Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence, and hence our form of government. It holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from the government. It requires of the people a subservience and weakness incompatible with a Constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights.”

“It’s nonsense,” said Bouie in response, characterizing Thomas as a “strange, bizarre, misanthropic man with a wide array of frankly lunatic beliefs,” while noting that he is “one of the most powerful people in the country as the longest serving Justice on the Supreme Court.”

As Bouie clarified, Thomas was suggesting that progressives believe human rights come from the government, which amounts to a rejection of the Declaration of Independence and has caused much of the social fracturing we see today. As a consequence, asserts Thomas, those on the political Left are to blame for the world as it is.

We should not, said Bouie, take Thomas’s arguments seriously.

“This idea that progressives or liberals or left of center Americans are the ones who are directly assaulting the Declaration of Independence, who have rejected the idea that all men are created equal, who insist that you only have rights if the government gives them to you,” explained Bouie, “Not only is that not an accurate description of what leftists in the United States believe — it is an accurate descript of Thomas’s own ideological allies.”

As Bouie pointed out, Thomas “loves” Trump, Vance, and MAGA, “and core to the MAGA project is a rejection of the Declaration of Independence. It’s a rejection of the idea that all Americans exist on a plane of equality, or ought to. Key MAGA politicians and thinkers routinely make arguments for the natural existence of hierarchies or natural aristocracy and the idea that some people belong and that others can be excluded or dominated because they don’t. Clarence Thomas is literally describing the views of the people he has empowered as a justice.”

This forced Bouie to two possible conclusions.

“So either he is kind of delusional about the people he has surrounded himself with,” said Bouie, “or he is ultimately a Republican hack.”

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