News & Politics

Zeteo editor Martin Pengelly says the world needs a new kind of word to describe the depth of crisis in which President Donald Trump is drowning. Thankfully a foul-mouthed Scottish actor belted out just such a word in an episode of “The Thick of It.”

“You’re a f—— omnishambles. That’s what you are,” barked Peter Capaldi’s “Malcolm Tucker” to an unfortunate co-worker. “You’re like that coffee machine: from bean to cup, you f—— up.”

And from bean to cup is where all Trump is going wrong, said Pengelly.

“Polling shows it. This week, before the bad news about the Strait and the mines, AP/NORC found Trump’s approval on the economy at just 30 percent, down eight points from March, while 72 percent of Americans said the country was heading in the wrong direction. Trump’s favorability rating was also down, by five points to 33 percent.

And the reason for both American voters and Trump’s own party to loathe him just keep on mounting.

The Pentagon on Tuesday told Congress that clearing the Strait of Hormuz of Iranian mines could take six months – and those efforts can’t even begin until the war is over. And it’s not. Worse, even once the ceasefire became official and effective, the U.S. can’t expect any help from Iran because Iranian officials barely know where they mined their own waters, meaning every removal will be painstaking, dangerous and slow.

But the Strait of Hormuz is still a key waterway for trade, said Pengelly, particularly in oil, fertilizer, and other commodities, and news coming out of the Pentagon just isn’t good for Republicans in November, who will be catching the worse of voter fury on the day of the vote — no matter how badly Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants reporters to cover for him.

“But [i]mpervious to reality as ever, Trump insists Tehran will soon ‘cry uncle,’” said Pengelly, despite the fact that Iran recently attacked two cargo vessels in the Strait, and Columbia University Iran expert Richard Nephew admits few companies are willing to risk sinking a multi-million-dollar tanker.

“Behind every such headline lingers a dread fact for Trump: the midterm elections are just six months away. And every day, in every way, the administration is lurching further into the feared world of the 'omnishambles,'” said Pengelly.

The ripple effects of Trump's Iran miscalculation extend far beyond the Strait of Hormuz.

Global energy markets remain volatile, with crude prices fluctuating based on daily developments in the conflict. Insurance premiums for vessels transiting the waterway have skyrocketed, effectively pricing smaller shipping companies out of the market entirely. Meanwhile, U.S. allies in Europe and Asia are quietly diversifying their supply chains away from routes dependent on American military protection.

Domestic political costs continue mounting as well: gas prices hover near $4 per gallon, inflation remains sticky, and consumer confidence has eroded. Trump's insistence that the situation is under control rings increasingly hollow against mounting evidence to the contrary.

The Daily Beast reports President Donald Trump is still grousing months after his FBI director was filmed chugging alcohol in a winter Olympics game locker room at

“President Donald Trump has been privately venting his anger over FBI Director Kash Patel’s embarrassing boozy Olympics antics, according to a new report,” said DB. “The president, 79, is said to be fuming about the parade of bad headlines triggered by viral footage of his hockey-mad FBI chief celebrating Team USA’s gold medal win over Canada in Milan by slamming beers in the men’s locker room.

While publicly supporting the former MAGA podcaster and ardent Trump supporter, CNN reports Trump is privately irritated about Patel’s record and his public embarrassments.

“Patel had skipped the official U.S. delegation in Milan — which included Vice President JD Vance, 41 — and flew out on his own, only landing after Vance and his entourage had left town,” reports DB. “After the gold medal triumph, Team USA general manager Bill Guerin — who also runs the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and is reportedly friendly with the FBI director — waved Patel into the locker room celebrations.

And that’s where cameras were apparently waiting.

Patel called Trump on speakerphone, and Trump joked he would “have” to invite the women’s hockey gold medalists to the White House, too, or he would face impeachment, but the image of Patel’s celebration has continued to dog him considering the Olympic snafu is just one chapter in an expansive series of controversy following Patel. Most recently, Patel made news when informants told reporters that Patel has a drinking problem and regularly misses meetings and engagements.

Now Patel appears to be in Trump’s sights, and he may not appreciate the attention.

“We’re all just waiting for the word” that Patel is officially out of the top job, one FBI official told Atlantic writer Sarah Fitzpatrick. Meanwhile, another former official told reporter Jonathan Lemire that Patel was “rightly paranoid.”

Patel's tenure at the FBI has been marked by controversy since his confirmation.

Beyond the drinking allegations, sources close to the bureau describe an agency in turmoil under his leadership. Multiple investigations into his conduct have been launched, and morale among career agents has plummeted.

Trump's private complaints about Patel reflect a broader pattern: the president frequently turns on appointees once they become public liabilities. Patel's allies argue the stories are exaggerated, but the damage to his reputation may already be irreversible. Whether Trump ultimately moves to replace him remains unclear, but insiders suggest it's not a matter of if, but when.

During a late Thursday morning, April 22 appearance on MS NOW, former CIA Director/ex-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave a scathing critique of President Donald Trump's war against Iran — arguing that Trump has made the Iranian regime even worse. Panetta told host Ana Cabrera, "The reality is that we now have a regime that is much tougher and more entrenched…. They have nothing to lose by being even tougher…. The regime has survived; it hasn't come down."

Trump continues to insist that the war is going well. But journalist Jonathan Chait, in an article published by The Atlantic on April 23, laments that Trump's social media posts on his Truth Social platform are only making things worse.

"On Monday morning, (April 20)," Chait explains, "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. Sources told CNN that the president's boasts angered the Iranians. '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 undermining their work. This was Trump's signal to begin binge-posting about the Iran negotiations."

Chait adds, "The Iranians may not have appreciated Trump's stream-of-consciousness messaging, and apparently, their American counterparts did not either."

Trump, Chait observes, "can't seem to refrain from touting his genius," adding that "despite the president's surface bravado," an "undercurrent of nervousness" about the Iran war is making its presence felt in his social posts.

"Generally speaking," Chait notes, "people who are not under pressure rarely have to: (1) issue frantic, all-caps claims that they are not under pressure, or (2) promise that they will quickly deliver a deal that will cause them tremendous embarrassment if it fails…. Trump returned to Truth Social this morning to narrate the war. 'Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is!' he wrote. However, he continued, the strait 'is Sealed up Tight, until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!!'"

Chait continues, "According to the president, we are holding the world economy hostage until such time as Iran can resolve its internal struggle. Perhaps the problem here is not just Trump's live commentary about his negotiating strategy, but the strategy itself."

Fox News is typically a safe space for President Donald Trump and his administration, but the waters got choppy for one of his Cabinet secretaries, per Mediaite, as host Stuart Varney pressed her about a plan to tackle soaring prices.

On Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins appeared as a guest on Fox Business, where Varney brought up the struggles American farmers are currently facing as fertilizer prices skyrocket. While much has been made about the impact of the Strait of Hormuz's closure on oil prices, it has also been a disaster for the cost of fertilizers that are key to agricultural industries, as roughly one-third of the global supply of them also goes through the waterway.

Varney began by playing remarks from economist Steve Moore on the situation.

"It’s not just oil that goes through there, it is also about half of the world’s fertilizer," Moore said. "There is a fertilizer shortage right now, and by the way, this is planting season for our farmers who are planting the rice and the soy beans, and the corn, etc. So, they need more fertilizer. The price has risen significantly. If we don’t get the Strait open, you are going to see — farmers are complaining that the costs have really risen, and when that happens, they charge more for their products come the fall."

Following that clip, Varney pressed Rollins on whether there is "a plan to mitigate this fertilizer problem," to which the secretary said that daily meetings are happening between the White House and fertilizer CEOs.

“The good news — because of President Trump’s energy independence policy, America has plenty of fertilizer,” Rollins said, while also admitting that the price increase “has been significant.”

As many Trump allies are prone to do, she also attempted to pin blame for the issue on the Biden administration.

"During the Biden years, fertilizer had already jumped 40%. So, our farmers are really feeling this. This is a really, really tough time for fertilizer, for those that didn’t prebook in the fall."

Noting that the question had not strictly been answered, Varney pressed again: “But, what’s the plan?... You’ve had lots of meetings. What’s the plan?”

“So, that’s what I was walking through,” Rollins responded. “So, for the short term, lifting the Jones Act, which is very important, opening up additional lines, more lines from Venezuela. We are making permitting easier so we could move it more quickly. We have had meeting after meeting, Lee Zeldin at EPA lifted some diesel exhaust fuel rules, so that makes it cheaper... For the short term, we’ve gotten our arms around it. I am in Missouri tomorrow with some farmers talking about it more in depth. We will be hyper-focused on bringing those costs down and having a back-end opportunity that we’ll be talking about.”

When Justice Clarence Thomas joined the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991, he had strong disagreements not only with the liberal justices, but also, with Ronald Reagan appointees Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor. Kennedy had a libertarian approach to conservatism, embracing a right-view of economics but voting with the High Court's liberal justices on cases involving gay rights and abortion.

Thomas, however, had an ally in Justice Antonin Scalia (Reagan's most socially conservative High Court appointee), and Justice Samuel Alito was often described as Thomas' kindred spirit after then-President George W. Bush appointed him in 2006.

According to analysis from SCOTUSblog's Kelsey Dallas in July 2025, Thomas and Alito "agreed in 97 percent of all cases resolved with opinions from the Court and in 100 percent of the closely divided (6-3 or 5-4) ones in the 2024-25 term." But Reason's Damon Root, in an article published on April 23, describes a rare example of Thomas and Alito finally having a major disagreement.

The case that found the far-right justices on opposite sides was Hencely v. Fluor Corporation, decided on April 22.

"It originated with a suicide bombing carried out by a Taliban operative at the U.S. Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan," Root explains. "Army Specialist Winston Hencely was severely injured in the attack and later filed suit for negligence in state court against the Fluor Corporation, the U.S. military contractor that employed the bomber. In its own investigation of the matter, the U.S. Army faulted the Fluor Corporation for, among other things, 'an unreasonable complacency by Fluor to ensure Local National employees were properly supervised at all times, as required by their contract.' The question presented by the case was whether Hencely's state lawsuit may proceed or whether it is preempted by federal law."

Root continues, "Writing for the majority, Thomas held that Hencely's state negligence suit may move forward. 'No provision of the Constitution and no federal statute justifies that preemption of the State's ordinary authority over tort suits,' Thomas wrote. 'Nor does any precedent of this Court command such a result.'"

Hencely v. Fluor was a 6-3 ruling, with Thomas joined by the High Court's three Democratic appointees (Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown) and two Donald Trump appointees (Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett). The dissenters were Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh.

"What a fascinating line up," Root comments. "Not only do we have the rare sight of Thomas butting heads with Alito, but we have Thomas joined by all three Democratic appointees, while Alito has mustered the votes of only Roberts and Kavanaugh. In this case, as in certain others, the principles of federalism helped to make for some unusual judicial bedfellows."

Root argues that "Alito basically accused Thomas of letting federalism run amok to the detriment of the war powers of the national government."

The libertarian journalist notes, "'May a State regulate security arrangements on a military base in an active warzone?' Alito demanded. 'May state judges and juries pass judgment on questions that are inextricably tied to military decisions that balance war-related risks against long-term strategic objectives? In my judgment, the answer to these questions must be no, and for that reason, this state-law tort case is preempted by the Constitution's grant of war powers exclusively to the Federal Government.'"

Authoritarians, either far-right or far-left, don't necessarily come to power via militarized coup d'états like the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Chile. Many of them were voted into office and, after being sworn in, did everything to undermine their country's system of checks and balances — from Russian President Vladimir Putin to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his far-right Fidesz party stayed in power for 16 years, and he seemed entrenched. But Orbán was finally voted out of office in recent parliamentary elections.

During the 1930s, Adolf Hitler didn't turned Germany into a fascist dictatorship overnight. But the longer he stayed in power, the more dangerous his regime became.

In an article published by Zeteo on April 22, journalist John Harwood argues that author Laurence Rees' 2025 book "The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings From History" offers some useful warning signs on the types of dangers the United States is facing during Donald Trump's second presidency.

"To state the obvious, Donald Trump is not Adolf Hitler," Harwood argues. "MAGA is not Nazism. No despot or movement in history compares to the Third Reich, and the nature and scale of evil it perpetrated. Moreover, Trump's handiwork appears less formidable today. Most of America recoils from his second-term grotesquerie. If permitted free and fair elections, voters will punish his Republican Party this fall — just as Hungarian voters have now punished Trump's authoritarian role model Viktor Orbán. But the lessons Rees identifies remain relevant to the crisis confronting 21st-Century America. And that is not merely because Trump and a disturbing number of his young fans have, at times, expressed admiration for Nazi strength and ruthlessness."

Rees, during a 2025 interview with conservative Anthony Scarmucci — who briefly served in the first Trump Administration but is now very much in the Never Trump camp — pointed out that Hitler received only 2.6 percent of the vote in 1928 but five years later, was chancellor of Germany.

Rees' books and video documentaries, Harwood notes, "explore how skillful, if repugnant, Nazi leadership drove ordinary Germans to monstrous wrongdoing during World War II."

"Donald Trump’s musings about dictatorship once sounded almost funny," Harwood warns. "Nobody laughs anymore. Trump has not created a dictatorship. He has, however, dragged the U.S. further toward authoritarian rule than many of us thought possible. His corruption of the legal system, subordination of Congress, embrace of state violence, and hostility toward free elections led the sober-minded centrist Jonathan Rauch to write earlier this year: 'Yes, it's fascism.'"

Harwood continues, "How Trump has managed to do that, contravening the values that made the U.S. the world's leading democracy, remains hard to fathom. But at least part of the answer lies in his use of techniques that earlier historical figures have used to amass and centralize power."

In August 2024, troubled Spirit Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a second time. And in late April, President Donald Trump said he would "love" for "somebody to buy Spirit" — adding that "maybe the federal government should help that one out."

After that, Reuters reported that according to three sources, the Trump Administration was close to a deal that could give Spirit up to $500 million in government funding.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, meanwhile, is blaming the Biden Administration for Spirit's problems. In 2024, Biden officials blocked JetBlue's efforts to buy Spirit, citing monopoly concerns.

Some Republicans are now voicing their opposition to a possible Spirit bailout.

CNN's Aaron Blake, in an article published on April 23, reports, "For more than a year, Republicans in Washington have largely stood by as President Donald Trump staged a series of remarkable government interventions into private business. The moves flew in the face of decades of conservative, free-market-capitalist orthodoxy. Some of them have even sounded a lot like, well, socialism. But the (Trump) Administration's interest in Spirit Airlines is testing the GOP's laissez-faire approach…. Importantly, CNN reports the administration's proposal is expected to include the federal government taking a stake in Spirit, as it has in several other companies over the past year."

One of the Republicans who is voicing his opposition to a possible Spirit bailout is Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

When Thrifty Traveler Editor Kyle Potter noted, in an April 22 post on X, that "the potential bailout of Spirit could result in the federal government owning up to 90 percent of the airline," Cruz responded, "This is an absolutely TERRIBLE idea. The TARP corporate bailouts were a huge mistake & the government doesn't know a damn thing about running a failed budget airline (that the Biden admin killed)."

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), on April 22, tweeted, "If Spirit's creditors or other potential investors don't think they can run it profitably coming out of its second bankruptcy in under two years, I doubt the US Government can either. Not the best use of taxpayer dollars."

During an April 21 appearance on CNBC, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said of a possible Spirit bailout, "The president says take a look, and he is my boss. And so we will take a look."

Duffy told Reuters, however, "There's been a lot of money thrown at Spirit, and they haven't found their way into profitability. And so, would we just forestall the inevitable and then own ⁠that? We can't make dumb investments."

Bernard Arnault is one of the richest men in the world and someone President Donald Trump "really looks up to," but he probably will not like what the luxury goods tycoon had to say about his war causing a "world catastrophe," according to a report from The Daily Beast.

Arnault is a French businessman serving as the CEO of LVMH, a conglomerate formed by the merger of the famed fashion house Louis Vuitton and high-end alcohol producer Moët Hennessy, making him, as of last month, the seventh richest man on Earth. He is also a close friend and political ally of Trump, having attended his most recent inauguration, with the Daily Beast also noting that the president "wants to make him happy."

"Happy" was certainly not a word that would describe Arnault's recent comments to LVMH shareholders at their annual meeting in Paris. In an address to the audience at the general meeting, the CEO said that Trump's war with Iran might be pushing the world economy to the brink of a major catastrophe.

“The world is now in a pretty serious crisis in the Middle East,” Arnault said. “Either it’ll be a world catastrophe with very serious and very negative economic impact—in which case, who can say how 2026 will unfold—or it will be resolved more rapidly in some shape or form that we all hope for, even if it doesn’t seem to be easy, in which case, business will recover and resume their normal course.”

According to The Daily Beast, he also mentioned the severe impact that the war has had on LVMH's financial outlook, complaining that its "first-quarter organic sales growth" had been slashed by half, down to just 1 percent. The conglomerate's stock price, which began that year around 700 euros a piece, has also dipped by 35 percent since a February tariff announcement from Trump.

"The Middle East accounts for around mid-single digits of total sales for most major luxury companies—but profitability in the region tends to run higher, meaning the hit to bottom lines could be more severe than headline figures suggest," the report explained.

While Arnault claimed that a swift resolution to the war would lead to a similar swift resolution to the current economic crisis, that outlook is far from certain. The prospect of a lasting ceasefire with Iran and a permanent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz remains shaky at best. Sources within the Trump administration have also privately admitted to Congress that the economic pains from the war could potentially last well into 2027.

The "walls are closing in" on President Donald Trump, according to a new analysis from The i Paper, as his approval rating continues to find new lows and the economic crisis caused by his Iran war-of-choice threatens to persist through 2027.

Writing for the outlet on Thursday, political commentator Simon Marks highlighted Trump's most recent approval rating from the Associated Press, a dismal record low of 33 percent. Driving that downward trend, as ever, has been voter anger over the economy under his watch, with only 30 percent approving of his performance so far, down nine points since the start of the conflict with Iran in late February.

Most notably, the economic fallout of the Iran war has been surging gas prices, after the country ordered the closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz. Despite Trump's pledge that prices would begin to subside soon, there is still no end in sight, with airlines beginning to grapple with the reality of the fuel cost situation.

"On Wednesday, Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, warned that with no end to the conflict in sight, he was ordering a 20 per cent increase in air fares for summer flights," Marks wrote. "Other airlines are expected to follow suit. Notably, the increases will impact holidaymakers and all those football fans who have not already booked their tickets to the US, Canada and Mexico for this summer’s geographically dispersed FIFA World Cup."

Privately, the Trump administration has begun to admit that, even in one of the better-case scenarios for peace talks with Iran, the economic pains will persist well past the midterms and into 2027.

"Underscoring the belief that fuel costs will not fall anytime soon, The Washington Post reported that Pentagon officials have warned Congress in a classified briefing that even if an elusive peace between Tehran and Washington is negotiated, it will take a further six months to clear the Strait of Hormuz of mines. It reported that the timeline was 'met with frustration by Democrats and Republicans alike' on Congress’s House Armed Services Committee, with the conflict’s economic impact likely to extend late into this year or even beyond."

Energy Secretary Chris Wright admitted as much openly, saying in a recent interview that gas would not get back down below $3 a gallon by the end of the year. Trump was quick to try and put that fire out, claiming that his Cabinet official was "totally wrong" and pledging that prices would plunge once the war ended.

"Trump may not recognize it yet, but with the midterms fast approaching, his goose looks cooked," Mark concluded. "Meanwhile, Iran shows no inclination to negotiate in earnest to end the war he started and give him the possibility to turn things around back home."

The Justice Department is being investigated by a watchdog about whether it is fully complying with the law mandating that files associated with trafficker Jeffrey Epstein be revealed to the public.

The Associated Press reported on Thursday that the internal DOJ watchdog, the Inspector General, is looking into whether the department has fully released all of the files.

Survivors and lawmakers have commented that the DOJ still has documents it hasn't released but should have, CNN reported in March. These include over 50 pages of FBI interviews and FBI notes taken by agents about one of the accusers of President Donald Trump, NPR reported in February. The young woman, who was a minor at the time, was interviewed by the FBI four times about her story. Of that, only a summary of her interview was made public.

"NPR reviewed multiple sets of unique serial numbers appearing before and after the pages in question, stamped onto documents in the Epstein files database, FBI case records, emails and discovery document logs in the latest tranche of documents published at the end of January," the report said. "NPR's investigation found dozens of pages that appear to be cataloged by the Justice Department but not shared publicly."

In January, the DOJ said it was officially done releasing the Epstein files, having uploaded 3.5 million documents. It was just some of over 6 million pages of documents and at least 14 terabytes of archived materials that the FBI and DOJ have in their possession, including photos and videos, the U.K's Channel 4 News said, after reviewing FBI emails. Thus far, only about 300 gigabytes have been released.

There are a large number of images (180,000) and videos (over 2,000) that contain explicit images of children that were not uploaded to the database.

CBS News reported in March that tens of thousands of pages were removed after widespread criticism and concern from survivors and their attorneys over the government's not withholding their personal information as was required by the law. Rather than removing the page, redacting the information and re-uploading it, the report said those pages had merely disappeared. It has left about 2.7 million documents of the 3 million the DOJ said it uploaded.

It has been less than a month since former Attorney General Pam Bondi was ousted from her post and her deputy, Todd Blanche, took over until a replacement could be confirmed.

Blanche told Fox News, “I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward."

Host Jesse Watters replied, “I’m not sure you totally get what people feel about that.

President Donald Trump was furious when conservative/libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) made it abundantly clear that he was a firm "no" vote on the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, vowing to remove him from Congress via a GOP primary. While much of the bill's criticism came from Democrats, Massie attacked it from the right — arguing that it would add to an already-huge federal deficit. And in 2026, tensions between Trump and Massie continued when the Kentucky Republican criticized Trump's war with Iran as a betrayal of his "America First" platform of 2024.

Trump is more determined than ever to see the 55-year-old Massie voted out of the U.S. House of Representatives. And Massie, Bloomberg News' Joshua Green reports in an article published on April 23, is responding that Trump is out of touch with his own MAGA voters.

"Unlike virtually every other GOP politician," Green says of Massie, "he routinely defies his party and his president, conducting himself as if he's impervious to threats, criticism or electoral consequences. That defiance was why a Japanese camera crew was in northern Kentucky. Massie, a committed libertarian, is the rare Republican willing to publicly criticize Donald Trump — over domestic spending, the war in Iran, the president's efforts to bury the Jeffrey Epstein files. And he's done this while running for an eighth term in Kentucky's deep-red 4th Congressional District, which gave Trump two-thirds of the vote in 2024."

Green adds, "Trump has never had much tolerance for critics, and for Massie, he harbors something closer to outright contempt."

In the 2024 GOP presidential primary, Massie endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis —not Trump. And after Trump returned to the White House, Massie demonstrated that he wouldn't automatically rubber-stamp his policies.

"Last year, he cast the lone GOP vote against a Trump-backed spending bill to avert a government shutdown," Green notes. "In March he helped force a congressional vote —over the president's vehement objections — that ultimately compelled the Department of Justice to release most of the Epstein files and their thousands of references to Trump. And he's been the loudest Republican critic of the president's unpopular decision to launch a war against Iran."

Green continues, "In response to all this, Trump has waged a WWE-style vendetta campaign, blasting Massie on social media as 'terrible,' 'sanctimonious,' a 'lowlife' and 'the Worst Republican Congressman we have had in many years.'"

Massie, however, argues that he is campaigning on "the things that MAGA was for, like no foreign aid, no foreign entanglements, no wars, release the Epstein files."

"MAGA is split right now," Massie told Bloomberg News. "I have half of MAGA, and I think the president has the other half — not that I'm running against him…. I'm still for free markets, personal liberty and constitutionally limited government."

The second Trump Administration was rocked by more upheaval and chaos when, on Monday, April 20, then-Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer — facing allegations of drinking on the job and having an affair with a subordinate — resigned. Her husband, Shawn DeRemer, played a role in the controversy: The New York Times reported that he was "barred from" the Labor Department's headquarters "after female staff members accused him of making unwanted sexual advances, including filing a police report."

Lori Chavez-DeRemer's resignation follows President Donald Trump's firings of two prominent loyalists: former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ex-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Firings were common during Trump's first presidency, which found him clashing with a long list of traditional conservatives he appointed. After returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump made a point of choosing staunch MAGA loyalists in order to avoid having so much turnover. But Salon's Heather Digby Parton, in an article published on April 23, points to these firings as examples of how chaotic Trump's second presidency is.

"Incidents like this were commonplace during the president's first term, and now, with a series of three Cabinet firings or forced resignations in six weeks — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 5, Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 2 and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on April 20 — it appears he may be returning to his old ways," Parton explains. "Trump entered office in 2017 unschooled in the ways of Washington, and he knew nothing about how the presidency worked. He expected that members of his staff and Cabinet would be as fawning and obsequious as his employees at the Trump Organization. Instead, he found they considered themselves professionals, with a responsibility to give the president their best advice. He soon disabused them of such a notion…. The main lesson Trump appears to have taken from his first term was to only hire staff who would never dare to cross him or tell him anything he doesn't want to hear."

Parton continues, "All you have to do is witness the displays of sycophancy by his appointees during his televised Cabinet meetings to understand the dynamics within his second administration. And until recently, Trump has refused to fire any of them — no matter what they've done."

The Salon journalist notes that reportedly, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard could be Trump's next firing.

"As the president's approval ratings have plunged into the low to mid-30s amid rising inflation," Parton argues, "the spectacle of his immigration policy and his inexplicable decision to go to war with Iran, Trump appears to be looking for scapegoats — and ways to distract the media and the public. It's a mark of a presidency on the brink, teetering due to a chaotic and vacillating policy agenda, poor management and outright incompetence…. Whatever the case, more scapegoats are almost certainly on the way. If there's one thing we know about Trump, it's that he will never blame himself."

President Donald Trump, despite his persistent demands, is facing down a "long, drawn-out" negotiation process to end his war of choice with Iran, and according to a new piece from MS NOW, he only has himself to blame for this.

"Peace talks between Iran and the U.S. are proceeding neither quickly nor smoothly this week, in part because Iran’s government 'has not yet decided' if it will participate in a second round of peace negotiations on how to end the war," MS NOW's Zeeshan Aleem wrote on Thursday. "One factor that explains the sluggishness is that Iran’s government is reportedly unable to settle on a clear counteroffer to the U.S.’ latest position on ending the war."

Rather than this situation merely being an example of "Iranian dysfunction," Aleem argued that Trump "bears enormous responsibility" for it, owing to the fact that "he has killed so many of Iran’s leaders."

"Trump has sown the seeds for a drawn-out conclusion to a war he desperately wants to end," he added.

The many assassinations of Iranian leaders by the U.S. and Israel have left Iran's government "more decentralized, more factionalized and more reactionary," with Aleem further citing an Axios report about officials being split by "warring factions" that are not able to settle on a "coherent" strategy for the peace talks. The report gave considerable blame to Israel’s assassination of Ali Larijani, the previous secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who “had the authority and political weight to hold Iran’s decision-making together," a position with which geostrategic analyst Imran Khalid agreed in another recent piece for MS NOW.

"Larijani and other slain high-ranking officials represented the ‘deep state’ in its traditional sense; they were men who understood the nuances of diplomacy and the necessity of maintaining certain backchannels, even during periods of intense hostility," Khalid explained. "Larijani in particular, a former Revolutionary Guards commander who was once speaker of Iran’s Parliament and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator in the early 2000s, embodied the dual military-political roles."

"In other words, the U.S. has lost the exact kind of player it would have wanted to engage with in order to advance credible and politically sophisticated U.S.-Iranian negotiations," Aleem explained.

He added later: "This is yet another reason that Trump’s lack of strategic clarity when beginning this reprehensible war of choice was such a problem. One cannot pursue 'regime change' and lighter-touch coercive diplomacy at the same time. If he wanted to ensure reliable off-ramps from the conflict, then the U.S. and Israel should not have killed the people who might facilitate a (relatively) speedy exit from the war, to the extent that one was possible."

Late Wednesday evening, the Secretary of the Navy was booted as part of an ongoing purge of the military by President Donald Trump and his administration.

According to one detail in the CNN report, Navy Secretary John Phelan didn't believe Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when he said he was being fired.

Sources told CNN that all of it came to a head during a meeting about shipbuilding. Trump wants a new "Golden Fleet" or "Trump-class" ships and subs for the U.S. military. But the process of making such ships isn't a quick one.

"It will take five years for the two shipbuilders that build Virginia-class attack boats to deliver two submarines a year, according to the Navy’s latest estimates of the production schedule," the U.S. Naval Institute wrote in a 2023 report. "The two yards are currently on a pace to deliver about 1.2 submarines a year, Navy officials told USNI News this week."

Trump blames Phelan for the slow progress on building his fleet, so, he told Hegseth to "take care of it," CNN said.

"The official said Phelan, though, did not appear to believe Trump was aware of the message, and he soon began phoning other White House officials asking if they had heard he had been told to resign and whether they knew if the president was aware of it," the report explained.

Two White House staffers told Phelan that it was Trump personally who wanted him out. Phelan still didn't believe it, demanding to hear from the president himself, "or someone close to him" that he was canned. So, he came to the White House grounds looking for an official in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. He was asking around if they had any details about what was happening.

Phelan ultimately asked to meet with Trump and went straight to the West Wing, an official told CNN. There, Trump confirmed he was out.

Over the past several weeks, Trump has been shuffling out many officials in his administration whom he hired as loyalists. Phelan, for example, and his wife raised millions for Trump's 2024 campaign. But he has no experience in the Navy and has never served in the military at all.

He's also never worked in any capacity doing shipbuilding or even defense contracting. He was an investor and banking analyst.

After his name was announced in 2024 as the new secretary, experts began questioning whether it was the right time to have someone with no military experience running a key branch of the military.

“It will be difficult for anyone without experience in the Pentagon to take over the leadership of a service and do a good job,” Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow and director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, told the Associated Press. “Services are sprawling organizations with distinct cultures, subcultures and bureaucratic interests, and where decisions are made through many formal processes. To change a service’s plans, one must understand this Byzantine landscape.”

On Thursday morning, Trump issued an order to the Navy via TruthSocial to shoot to kill anyone who violates the U.S. Navy blockade.