Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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The True Cost of Trump’s Vulgar Branding Spree

The 47th president is replacing public history with an ego trip.

Donald Trump’s two favorite things are himself and money. Now he has decided to combine the two. Indeed, for the first time in history, the sitting president is adding his signature to our paper currency. Trump’s name will be on your money, which is his way of saying that he owns you.

This fits a larger pattern. Since he took office for the second time, Trump has been putting his name everywhere, not just on his hotels, steaks, and birthday letters to Jeffrey Epstein.

And he’s not the only one doing it. In 2024, a group of House Republicans introduced a bill to rename Washington Dulles International Airport the “Donald J. Trump International Airport.” Not that the president should want his name on airports right now, but still.

The sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, said, “As millions of domestic and international travelers fly through the airport, there is no better symbol of freedom, prosperity and strength than hearing ‘Welcome to Trump International Airport’ as they land on American soil.” At which point they will be promptly rounded up and deported.

And last November, Florida State Rep. Meg Weinberger introduced a bill to rename the Palm Beach International Airport as another “Donald J. Trump International Airport.” Sure, why not?

Florida lawmakers have also renamed a four-mile stretch of the road from Palm Beach International Airport to Mar-a-Lago “President Donald J. Trump Boulevard,” an amazing gesture that Trump called “an amazing gesture.”

It’s a game no one plays better than Trump himself. Since returning to power, Trump has been on a tear when it comes to buildings—and a teardown, technically. What used to be the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is now, albeit unofficially, the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. What was once the U.S. Institute of Peace has been rebranded the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. Trump reportedly floated the idea of renaming Penn Station after himself during negotiations over federal funds for a tunnel between New York and New Jersey.We used to bestow such honors on presidents after they left office—typically after they died—as a way to remember them. But now, people are naming things after Trump to remind him of who they are. Nothing says “Hey, look at me!” to Trump as much as “Hey, look at this shrine I made for you.”

In January, a group of cryptocurrency investors installed a statue to Trump at his golf course in Doral, Florida. They spent $300,000 to create a 15-foot-tall gold statue of him. It stands atop a 7,000-pound pedestal and is roughly the same height as a two-story building. It is, like the man it commemorates, vulgar and excessive. But one thing it is not is unnecessary, at least not from the vantage point of these investors. The way to Trump’s heart is through his ego, and nothing satiates his ego as much as a graven image made in his image and at someone else’s expense.

“It LOOKS FANTASTIC,” Trump predictably said.

Free societies tend to shy away from this kind of real-time self-glorification. As a general rule, the more despotic the regime, the more grandiose the monuments it constructs. Louis XIV transformed Versailles from a hunting lodge into a sprawling palace. Saddam Hussein built opulent palaces and a 40-foot statue of himself. Trump, meanwhile, is overseeing the construction of a gargantuan and gaudy 90,000-square-foot ballroom in place of what used to be the East Wing of the White House—in addition to proposing a 250-foot-tall arch in the nation’s capital, which he hopes to be “the biggest one of all”—simply because he wants to. He is turning public monuments into self-monuments.

Usually, we memorialize presidents once public opinion and historians have had time to reach a consensus as to whether their contributions merit commemoration. Construction of the Washington Monument began in 1848, the Lincoln Memorial in 1914, and the Jefferson Memorial in 1939. The construction of Mount Rushmore started in 1927, just 18 years after Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency ended and eight years after he died. This was arguably too soon. In hindsight, it’s debatable whether the first Roosevelt belongs alongside Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. The lesson, then, is to be patient.

But there’s no point in exercising patience with Trump. The entire purpose of commemorating him with statues and airports is to bribe him, which can only be done while he is still alive and in power.

We name things after people to honor them. But the only way to know if they are worth honoring is to know what they did. That’s why, typically, we don’t erect monuments to presidents while they are still living. After all, what if we built a statue of someone who turned out to be in the Epstein files or who, after losing an election, tried to overthrow our democracy? It would be costly and tedious to dismantle a statue of such a person after these revelations surfaced. Perhaps Trump realizes this, which is why he’s building not one monument to himself but scores of them.

Expect more. You can bet your—or, rather, Trump’s—money on it.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-true-cost-of-trumps-vulgar-branding-spree/?

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🏗️ Bunker beneath ballroom

President Trump shows off a ballroom rendering aboard Air Force One last night. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/AP President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One last night that the military "is building a massive complex under the ballroom" that's under construction: "The ballroom actually becomes a shed for what's being built" underneath by the military. Trump said the ballroom — with "drone-proof roofs" and "extremely thick … bulletproof" windows — is weeks "ahead of schedule and under budget," with "not one dime of government money going into the ballroom." Another view of the planned ballroom. Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty Images Trump showed off renderings of the columns, which'll be "hand-carved and they're beautiful. Top of the line — they'll be Corinthian, which is considered the best, most beautiful by far." A closed porch will have views of the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorial. "I'm so busy that I don't have time to do this," Trump said. "I'm fighting wars and other things. But this is very important, because this is gonna be with us for a long time … I think it'll be the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world — highest level." The bottom line: "Just like we're ahead of schedule on the ballroom, in a much bigger way, we're ahead of schedule with Iran," Trump said.

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Trump mulls seizing Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal even as talks show progress President Donald Trump openly mused about seizing Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal in the Persian Gulf and the United States and Israel kept up their attacks Monday on the Islamic Republic, even as there were signs of progress in nascent ceasefire talks. Tehran, meanwhile, struck a key water and electrical plant in hard-hit Kuwait, part of its campaign targeting the Gulf Arab states. Read more.

What to know: As a diplomatic effort being facilitated by Pakistan toward ending the war moved ahead, Trump said Iran had agreed to allow 20 oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday as “a sign of respect.” At the same time, with 2,500 U.S. Marines now in the region and a similar-sized contingent on its way, he raised the idea of taking the island. “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t,” he told the Financial Times in an interview published early Monday. “We have a lot of options.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ As fuel prices rise, US lawmakers push to suspend the federal gas tax   Trump’s conflicting messages sow confusion over the Iran war   Israeli soldier from Connecticut is killed in southern Lebanon weeks after completing training   Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon kills 3 journalists covering the war   A Houthi missile attack on Israel stokes fears of renewed Red Sea shipping strikes

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The top moments from this year’s CPAC conference For the first time in nearly a decade, President Donald Trump did not attend one of the biggest annual meetings of conservatives. But even in his absence, the Conservative Political Action Conference revolved around him. Read more.

Why this matters: There were disagreements over his war with Iran, pride over his immigration crackdown and lots of encouragement to avoid infighting as the Republican Party faces a difficult midterm election. It was a contrast with last year’s gathering, when conservatives were riding high after Trump’s return to office and Elon Musk waved a chainsaw to symbolize his new role leading the Department of Government Efficiency.   The conservative movement was not on the same page about the war with Iran. While there was little criticism of Trump, some warned against deepening the conflict. Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump ally, said that “the decision in going forward is obviously the commander in chief’s,” but he suggested that the American people still need to be convinced. “You have to be convinced that this is the right thing to do, particularly now that we’re on the eve of potentially the insertion of American combat troops,” he said. “Your sons, daughters, granddaughters, grandsons could be on Kharg Island or holding a beachhead down by the Strait of Hormuz.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ CPAC activists embrace Texas’ Paxton as MAGA’s choice for Senate over Cornyn   With their candidates losing in metro Atlanta, Georgia GOP seeks to remove party labels

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New Evidence Corroborates Claims of Trump Sex Accuser, 13

More information given by the woman has been backed up.

A new investigation has backed up evidence given by a woman who has accused Donald Trump of sexually abusing her when she was 13, according to a report.

The woman conducted four interviews with the FBI in 2019 in which she detailed alleged abuse by Trump and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Her interviews referencing Trump were initially withheld by the Department of Justice.

A report from South Carolina newspaper The Post and Courier released on Sunday has now corroborated key personal details given by the woman about a third man she claims also sexually assaulted her—named Jimmy Atkins. Those details are not directly related to her accusations against Trump, but suggest that she was truthful about other matters she raised with the FBI.

The White House has called the woman’s claims against Trump “completely baseless,” while the president has always denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes.

The woman claimed Epstein started abusing her and trafficked her to several men when she was aged between 13 and 15. She had met Epstein after he responded to an advertisement for babysitting that her mother, a real estate agent in South Carolina, had given to her clients.

The Post and Courier report says Atkins moved to Hilton Head, South Carolina, in the mid-’80s and took over Harbour Realty and Rentals. That was where he met the teenage girl who would later claim to the FBI during interviews in 2019 that Atkins and Epstein assaulted her.

The woman’s claims of assault against Epstein, Trump, and Atkins remain unproven, while no direct evidence backing up the alleged crimes has been uncovered.

The Daily Beast is not disclosing the woman’s identity in accordance with its policy on sexual assault victims.

The Post and Courier scoured records to match the woman’s testimony of Atkins’ affiliation with a college in Ohio, as well as his age, hair color, physical appearance, and his employment in Hilton Head.

The paper was also able to verify a direct association with her mother’s criminal record for embezzlement.

During her interviews, the woman told FBI agents that two men were extorting money from her mother, who wound up going to prison for embezzling money.

“Her mother informed her late in the process that they were in trouble, that she had seen photographs...and that she was paying people money,” an FBI agent wrote after an interview, referring to alleged naked photos of the teenage girl.

This month, a Substack article by Ellie Leonard publicly made the link between Atkins, his employment at an Ohio college, and the embezzlement case from the Hilton Head real estate company.

The author said Atkins died in 2003 at the age of 69. As well as owning Harbour Realty and Rentals in Hilton Head, he was also the president/director of Betz College Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The new information follows the woman’s claims about being trafficked to Trump when he was a developer with a new casino in Atlantic City.

The Post and Courier also verified details the woman gave to FBI agents about her family background and legal history, although none of the corroborated details directly related to her accusations about Trump.

In documents released by the DOJ earlier this month, the woman told the FBI she met Trump after Epstein took her to a “very tall building with huge rooms” in the New York or New Jersey area when she was between 13 and 15.

“[REDACTED] could not recall the identities of the other individuals present; however, they all exited when TRUMP asked everyone to leave the room,” the FBI report states.

“Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be,” she alleged Trump said.

The woman alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her after the others left the room.

“TRUMP unzipped his pants and put [her] head ‘down to his penis.’ [REDACTED] ‘bit the s--t out of it,’” the FBI report states.

Trump was in his first term as president at the time of her FBI interview.

Reached for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast: “Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein. And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him. Meanwhile, Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries and Stacey Plaskett have yet to explain why they were soliciting money and meetings from Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told the Daily Beast in a statement that the woman’s allegations are “completely baseless” and came from a “sadly disturbed woman.”

The woman called an FBI hotline days after Epstein was arrested, claiming he had abused her as a teenager. She told investigators Epstein had requested her to work as a babysitter, then raped her after she was given drugs and alcohol.

She said the abuse happened as many as 20 times, with Epstein inviting other men to participate in the criminal activity at least once. Her life would later descend into crime and drug use, before she filed a lawsuit as a Jane Doe and reached a settlement with Epstein’s estate.

The Post and Courier also reported that around 30 pages of documents listed in an internal DOJ trial evidence inventory still remain missing.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-evidence-corroborates-claims-of-trump-and-epstein-sex-accuser-13/?

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Trump Admits Plan to Build Secret Lair Under Ballroom Got Busted

The president has been forced to defend the scale and cost of his vanity project.

Donald Trump has complained that a “stupid” lawsuit forced him to reveal plans to build a top-secret military base underneath his White House ballroom.

The 79-year-old president was defending his $400 million vanity project while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, after a New York Times article over the weekend exposed the shoddy nature of its construction and design.

While holding comically large placards detailing how the completed ballroom might look, Trump also gave updates on what is being built beneath the area where the White House East Wing once stood.

“The military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed,” he said.

“The ballroom essentially becomes a shed [shield] for what’s being built under the military, including from drones, and including from any other thing,” Trump added. “The glass, or the windows, you see the big windows, the glass is extremely thick. It’s high-grade bulletproof glass, so all of the windows are bulletproof.”

The lawsuit Trump referenced was filed in December 2025 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is asking a federal judge to halt construction of the ballroom until it undergoes multiple independent reviews, passes environmental assessments, and receives approval from Congress.

A federal judge said he will rule by the end of March on whether to issue an injunction stopping conStruction of the project pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

Trump also lashed out at the lawsuit for forcing the administration to reveal its plans to build an underground military bunker beneath the ballroom in a typically unhinged Truth Social post in January.

“It is being done with the design, consent, and approval of the highest levels of the United States Military and Secret Service. The mere bringing of this ridiculous lawsuit has already, unfortunately, exposed this heretofore top secret fact,” Trump wrote.

An underground bomb shelter beneath the old East Wing, built during World War II, was demolished in October to make way for Trump’s ballroom.

The vanity project is being built as tens of millions of Americans suffer through a cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by Trump’s war on Iran.

On Sunday, the Times reported that multiple experts also condemned the proposed design of the mammoth building, noting that it includes a staircase that doesn’t lead anywhere, columns that will block the view of its windows, and the 90,000-square-foot ballroom that is “unnecessarily” large.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at the report and accused it of being written by “three random people who have ‘studied fine arts’ and ‘long written about urban planning.’”

“President Trump and his lead architect have built world-class buildings around the world, and they are ensuring the People’s House finally has a beautiful ballroom that’s been needed for decades—at no expense to the taxpayer,” Leavitt posted on X.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-admits-plan-to-build-secret-lair-under-ballroom-got-busted/?

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TV-Loving Trump Goons Suddenly Too Scared to Go on TV

JD Vance in particular seems to have grown allergic to on-camera interviews since the war began.

Some of President Donald Trump’s top goons are running scared of network TV appearances as his war on Iran spirals out of control.

The conflict has now stretched into its fifth week, and the Trump administration is contemplating sending thousands of additional ground troops into the region in a desperate attempt to move the needle.

But despite the potential for boots on the ground—stoking fear of another protracted war in the Middle East—Americans have not heard from a few top administration officials for quite a while. Notably, Vice President JD Vance seems to have grown allergic to media interviews since the war began on Feb. 28, with his absence from the airwaves fueling speculation that he sees no upside in defending Trump’s “excursion.”

The only interview Vance has granted of late was with MAGA influencer Benny Johnson for his YouTube channel. The softball sit-down saw Vance, seen by many as Trump’s eventual successor, rant about his belief that aliens exist, barely touching on the war that Americans object to en masse. “We’re gonna be out of there soon,” he did say, before quickly turning to the “UFO files” chat.

He also indulged in MAGA conspiracies with known peddler Johnson. Vance propagated the rumor that Somali-born Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar married her own brother to gain U.S. citizenship.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had also been ducking TV interviews before he appeared on Good Morning America on Monday morning. Unfortunately for Rubio, his comments to host George Stephanopoulos that the Iranian leaders were “lunatics” and “insane” aired just before Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran now had a “NEW, MORE REASONABLE regime.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also appeared on Fox & Friends on Monday morning, telling the hosts, “Over time, the U.S. is going to retake control of the straits,” referring to the Strait of Hormuz.

Lately, Trump’s United Nations ambassador, Mike Waltz, has been framed as the administration’s primary TV surrogate on the Iran war. He appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan on March 22.

“Well, it’s not the first Sunday where we’ve seen these administration officials absent. People like Marco Rubio, who would be very important to talk with, who would certainly have a lot of questions to field, they continue to decline those interview requests,” CNN media analyst Brian Stelter noted on Newsroom on Sunday evening.

He noted that no Cabinet member or senior White House official did the Sunday circuit. “It’s not the first Sunday this has happened, so we should continue to note it,” he said, “I checked in with several different network sources. These requests for officials from the White House and the Defense Department continue to be declined.”

Stelter also pointed out that there has been no full Pentagon briefing on “Operation Epic Fury” for almost two weeks. The last one came on March 19, when self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth said the objectives had not changed, and spent minutes ranting against the press.

He said the media was guilty of trying to convince the American public that it was “spinning toward an endless abyss, or a forever war, or a quagmire.”

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

Stelter said: “People continue to have questions about the war effort.”

Matthew Miller, a former spokesman at the State Department and Justice Departments, raised similar concerns, saying it was tantamount to a lack of “ transparency and accountability.”

He posted on X on Sunday, “It has been 10 days since Hegseth and [Gen. Dan] Caine last briefed on Iran. No CENTCOM briefing since 3/10, and no Pentagon daily press briefing at all. We learn more of what the U.S. military has been doing from bystander videos than DoD. Historic lack of transparency and accountability.”

The Defense Department and the White House were contacted for comment. In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said Hegseth last updated the nation on Thursday during a Cabinet meeting. However, much of his airtime was dedicated to ranting at the press, as has become customary for the former Fox & Friends host.

Wilson also touted social media updates, one of which she boasted had been viewed “nearly a million times.” The United States has a population of around 342 million people, many of whom don’t use social media.

“Last Monday, Secretary Hegseth spoke alongside President Trump in Memphis, Tennessee where updates regarding Operation Epic Fury were given. Last Tuesday, Secretary Hegseth publicly gave updates on the operation from the Oval Office following Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation. Last Thursday, Secretary Hegseth spoke at length at President Trump’s Cabinet Meeting and gave updates on the success of Operation Epic Fury to national media who covered the meeting as well as the rest of the White House press corps,” she said.

On the department’s social media strategy, she added, “CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper last Wednesday gave a fifth video update on the operation via social media, which has been viewed nearly a million times. CENTCOM’s social media has been posting updates multiple times a day since the operation began. The Department has provided, and will continue to provide, regular updates on the total success of Operation Epic Fury to the media and the public.”

A White House official told the Daily Beast that “this is fake news” because border czar Tom Homan and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman participated in interviews on Sunday. However, Homan has nothing to do with the war and Isaacman’s appearance on Fox News related to how NASA satellites support the military.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tv-loving-trump-goons-suddenly-too-scared-to-go-on-tv/?

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MTG Brands Fox News ‘Fake News’ as MAGA Civil War Deepens

Ann Coulter also compared the network’s Iran war coverage to its false 2020 election claims.

Former Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene has turned against MAGA’s favorite TV channel as the Republican civil war over Iran goes nuclear.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News has long echoed the American First narrative of the Republican Party’s MAGA wing. But some prominent MAGA supporters are falling out of love with the cable network over its backing for Donald Trump’s war on Iran.

Trump’s friend-turned-foe MTG accused the network of peddling “fake news” and “brainwashing boomers” over Iran. She wrote on X Sunday, ”Fox News is now the fake news. Brainwashing boomers to support what we voted against."

The 51-year-old former Georgia congresswoman, who resigned in January over her growing rift with the president, has been outspoken against his foreign wars, but particularly this one.

Her critical Fox News post came in response to fellow Fox regular and MAGA favorite Ann Coulter, who had been scathing about how the station covers Trump.

Coulter, 64, wrote on X, “Watching Fox News assure viewers the Iran war is going SUPER well and Trump is a total stud is like watching the same network assure viewers that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the 2020 election and Trump was the winner.”

Fox paid Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million in 2023 to settle a defamation suit over its broadcast of false claims that the company helped rig the 2020 election, after a judge ruled the statements at issue were false. MTG and Coulter spoke out after Trump and the Pentagon drew up plans for full-on ground operations in Iran—potentially including raids by special forces and conventional infantry—with 3,500 U.S. troops already in the region and thousands more on the way. Sixty-two percent of Americans oppose sending in ground troops to extend a war that has already led to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and pushed gas prices sharply higher.

Coulter and Greene are not alone among MAGA influencers expressing their disquiet about Iran.

Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, 52, posted footage on Sunday morning purportedly shot by a Tehran resident that he claimed showed systematic civilian destruction, calling it a “war crime.”

“I reality [sic] this is a war CRIME!” Jones wrote, adding that Trump is now “publicly preparing a massive ground invasion,” in a post which included a video showing thick plumes of black smoke rising above the Iranian capital.

Greene resigned from Congress in January amid a feud with Trump over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files—a dispute that led the president to label her a “traitor.”

She has been one of the most vocal America First voices railing against the conflict since U.S. and Israeli forces launched joint strikes on Feb. 28, previously calling the Trump administration “a bunch of sick f--king liars” and warning that the war could cost Republicans the midterms.

The anger from MAGA influencers appears to have done little to shake Trump’s core supporters. A YouGov-Economist survey from March 10 found 91 percent of MAGA voters support the war.

The White House has shown little patience for Greene, with a White House spokesman dismissing her on Friday in a statement to Fox News Digital as a “quitter” who had abandoned her constituents mid-term.

The Daily Beast has contacted Fox News for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mtg-brands-fox-news-fake-news-as-maga-iran-civil-war-deepens/?

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Trump Soft Launches Possible Backstabbing of MAHA Ally

MAGA’s efforts to get a wellness influencer and vaccine skeptic installed as surgeon general appear to be flatlining.

President Donald Trump is considering pulling the plug on his bid to install a controversial MAHA influencer as the nation’s top doctor.

“Something like that would be possible,” the president said Sunday, responding to questions about withdrawing Casey Means’ nomination for surgeon general. “We have a lot of great candidates for that job.”

“We’re looking at a lot of different things, and I don’t know how she’s doing in the nomination process,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One, en route back to D.C. after spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “I’m more focused on Iran,” he added.

Trump nominated Means, a 38-year-old former physician and influencer-darling of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement, to serve as one of the nation’s top medical authorities in May last year.

She has since struggled to secure enough support to advance her nomination, facing scrutiny for not holding an active medical license and her relative lack of clinical experience, as well as her vaccine skepticism and potential for conflict of interest from her role as a wellness influencer.

Means faced an intense grilling at a Senate hearing in February. Even Republican officials appeared concerned by her hardline refusal to recommend parents vaccinate their children against flu and measles, and her claims there’s no “settled” evidence on the link between vaccines and autism.

Medical consensus, backed by over a dozen large-scale studies, suggests there is precisely zero link between vaccines and autism, per John Hopkins University.

Means, with every Democratic member of the Senate opposed to her nomination, would require the backing of every Republican senator to secure the post of Surgeon General.

GOP Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Bill Cassidy have all, since Means’s hearing in late February, declined to back her for the job, citing lingering concerns over whether she is up to the task.

Trump’s first Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who was appointed during the president’s first term, threw further sand in the gears with comments in a Sunday interview with the Washington Post.

“The role of surgeon general has centuries of precedent and requirements, and she doesn’t meet them,” he told the newspaper, noting that Means is not, at present, a licensed physician. “The irony would be the nation’s doctor wouldn’t even be in the corps as a doctor.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Means for comment on this story. Trump spokesperson Kush Dusai previously described her as “a critical asset for President Trump’s push to Make America Healthy Again.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-donald-trump-soft-launches-possibility-of-backstabbing-maha-ally/?

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Trump Team Invokes White Supremacists in Major Supreme Court Battle

The president’s legal team has a novel approach to convincing SCOTUS to end birthright citizenship.

Donald Trump’s legal team is citing racist and xenophobic legal arguments in a bid to get the Supreme Court to allow the president to strip birthright citizenship.

The administration is hoping that the nation’s highest court will side with Trump as he attempts to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, with legal arguments in the high-profile case beginning Wednesday.

As The Washington Post reports, Trump’s legal team, including Solicitor General D. John Sauer, is referencing arguments from three lawyers who had previously attempted to remove birthright citizenship using anti-Black and anti-Chinese racism to bolster their own case.This includes Alexander Porter Morse, an attorney who was a Confederate officer during the Civil War. In their Supreme Court brief, Trump’s team cites the views of Morse—who also argued against granting Black Americans the right to vote after slavery was abolished and opposed other Reconstruction amendments—as evidence that not everyone agreed with the idea that all people born in the United States are citizens when the principle was enshrined in the 14th Amendment.

Trump’s legal argument also cites Francis Wharton and George D. Collins, two lawyers who pushed anti-Chinese sentiment while arguing against birthright citizenship in the late 1800s. In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that Wong Kim Ark—who was born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants—was a U.S. citizen, paving the way for birthright citizenship that Trump is now trying to overturn.

Wharton had pushed the archaic legal argument that birthright citizenship could apply to children of European immigrants but not those of Chinese descent.

He suggested that Chinese people were insufficiently “civilized” for Americans to tolerate them becoming U.S. citizens, arguing that doing so would amount to allowing “foreign barbarism.”

Collins similarly argued to the Justice Department that children born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants should not be granted citizenship because they were “antagonistic to our civilization” and “utterly unfit” to become Americans.

Justin Sadowsky, an attorney for the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA), wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief that the three lawyers cited by Trump’s team were attempting to “ride the rising tide of anti-Chinese” sentiment to strip birthright citizenship.

“Relying on new theories of international law and anti-Chinese policy arguments, the arguments of these three lawyers were unoriginalist. They were racist,” Sadowsky wrote.

“This Court should not allow the writings of anti-Chinese racists of the late 19th century to harm the rights of Chinese and other people here in the United States today by adopting their reasoning.”

In a statement to the Post, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “The Supreme Court has the opportunity to review the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and restore the meaning of citizenship in the United States to its original public meaning. This case will have enormous consequences for the security of all Americans.”

Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship sets up another major showdown with the Supreme Court. In February, the conservative-majority court ruled against Trump by declaring his global tariffs illegal.

Last week, Trump blasted Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett—two of his own nominees who voted to strike down his signature tariff plans—saying they “sicken” him and are “bad for our country.”

In a Monday morning Truth Social rant, Trump said that birthright citizenship is not about “rich people from China” or the rest of the world, who want their children “and hundreds of thousands more, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the United States of America. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES!

“We are the only Country in the World that dignifies this subject with even discussion. Look at the dates of this long ago legislation -THE EXACT END OF THE CIVIL WAR,” Trump added. “The World is getting rich selling citizenships to our Country, while at the same time laughing at how STUPID our U.S. Court System has become (TARIFFS!).”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-team-invokes-white-supremacists-in-major-supreme-court-battle/?

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The birthright citizenship case at the Supreme Court hits close to home for this immigrant mother

An Argentine emigre in Florida quickly got her newborn son a U.S. passport last year. During a legal fight over Trump’s executive order to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to people in the country illegally or temporarily, the passport was tangible evidence the baby is American. The Supreme Court hears arguments over the order's fate Wednesday in a New Hampshire case. The 14th Amendment and federal law have been widely understood to make citizens of everyone born in the country, with narrow exceptions. Every court that's ruled has found Trump's order illegal and prevented it from taking effect. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

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Emulating Indecency

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The term virtue signaling refers to an annoying moral peacocking that has less to do with politics than with self-gratification. It’s the dinner guest who feels compelled to comment on the climate impact of every course. It’s the guy who annoys his colleagues during meetings with constant bits of civic guidance. (The author Richard Russo, in a 1990s satire of academic life, created a character whose nickname was “Orshee” because when anyone in a faculty meeting used he as a generic pronoun, the fellow would chirp “Or she” as a correction.)

But Donald Trump and his administration have embraced the Mirror Universe version of virtue signaling. They’ve pioneered the practice of “vice signaling,” or saying insulting or odious things both as attention-seeking behavior and as a way of showcasing their supposedly transgressive political views. They aim to demonstrate strength by being willing to appall other people, much as schoolyard bullies insult their classmates to gain the approval of other bullies. It’s the same peacocking, but with uglier feathers.

Few people besides the president himself have done more to advance the cause of vice signaling than Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a man who honed his communication skills at Fox News, where the hosts routinely say outrageous things as a way of showing their viewers how eager they are to own the libs. Hegseth, for example, has long stewed about the fact that women occupy positions of leadership in the U.S. military, and he has hammered on the idea of “merit” as a way of implying that minority officers have been promoted because of their race rather than their talent. He put those beliefs into action almost immediately upon arriving at the Pentagon by pushing for the firing of one Black and several female senior officers who were then replaced with white men.

A few weeks ago, he did it again: According to The New York Times, Hegseth intercepted the Army’s promotion list, which consists mostly of white men, and struck off four officers—two Black men and two women—preventing them from advancing from colonel to brigadier general.  Hegseth did not provide a public explanation for his decision, but military officials told the Times that one officer was singled out for writing a paper about the career choices of African American officers, and another was targeted because she had served during the pullout from Afghanistan.

Usually, the defense secretary doesn’t get involved at that level of the process. Promotions like these, to one and two stars, are generally a routine matter, decided on by promotion boards within the military and then presented to the Senate for approval. (Promotions to three and four stars get a lot more scrutiny; those generals and admirals will likely head major commands and become part of the civil-military leadership in Washington.) Hegseth had to know that carving those four colonels out of the list looks both misogynistic and racist, and he chose to send a clear message to the rest of the military: I will intentionally harm the careers of loyal American officers in a display of obvious bigotry just to show that I’m a tough guy.

Meanwhile, every time he steps to the podium, Hegseth seeks not to reassure or inform the American people but to hit hot buttons that will please Trump and the MAGA faithful. He raps out some inane sloganeering rather than offering real information: “Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct.” He says that America will show “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies”—chesty, movie-villain talk that is typical of Hegseth’s cringe-inducing attempts to project confidence. (Perhaps he has become aware that some in the Pentagon now reportedly refer to him as “Dumb McNamara,” comparing him—unfavorably—to the late Robert McNamara, his predecessor who helped mire America in the swamps of Vietnam.)

But nowhere is Hegseth’s embrace of vice signaling more obvious than in his efforts to combine his adolescent, gung-ho excitement about war with Christian prayer. When Hegseth tries to don the armor of a warrior priest, the result is a rancid mess that should offend believers and nonbelievers alike.

Praying for the safety of the troops is not controversial in America, nor should it be. In my faith (I am a Greek Orthodox Christian), we pray each week for “the peace of the world” and “for our country, the president, all those in public service, and for our armed forces everywhere.” Nor are petitions to the Almighty unusual in wartime: In 1944, General George Patton ordered up a prayer to God for an end to bitter weather that was holding up his attacks on the Nazis. His chaplain beseeched the Lord to “restrain these immoderate rains” and to allow the Third Army, “armed with Thy power,” to “advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations.”

But even Patton’s weather prayer looks timid next to Hegseth’s impious rage. Last week—during Lent, no less—he prayed in much the same way as the jihadists he hates might have: “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation,” Hegseth said, asking God to give American forces “wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

Christianity—whose founder preached peace and mercy and then was tortured to death—has struggled for centuries with the moral questions concerning the permissibility of war for people of faith, and how they should conduct themselves if armed conflict is inevitable. The works produced by these debates are collectively called the “just-war tradition,” a body of thought that is at the foundation of the laws of war both in the United States and in other nations. The just war tradition has always recognized the sanctity of human life and the spiritual peril of taking it, which is one of the reasons “no mercy” and “no quarter” orders are traditionally a violation of the laws of war—and why they are also against American law.

Christian thinkers have always insisted that princes and generals approach war with a sense of grave responsibility. Hegseth, however, sees war as just another opportunity to display depravity as if it were a martial virtue. (During Trump’s first term, Hegseth reportedly encouraged the president to issue pardons to two men convicted of war crimes.) As Greg Sargent noted today in The New Republic, Hegseth’s wartime prayers—rooted in his apparent adherence to a far-right evangelical sect—not only contravene the traditional Christian abhorrence of war but also suggest that “God actively approves of as much killing as possible.” One Baptist minister told Sargent that the secretary gets to this conclusion by cherry-picking various bloody passages from scripture, using them in a “kind of a Mad Libs mash-up of biblical violence.”

Vice signaling is rampant throughout the Trump administration because the president’s appointees know that the boss likes underlings who emulate his aggressive indecency. But when the man in charge of the Defense Department disgorges this kind of toxic waste, it seeps into the groundwater of military culture. It tells young service members—and men, especially—that racism, sexism, and the display of faux masculinity is the sign of a true warrior.

Whether Pete Hegseth is sincerely a man of faith, I cannot say. His brand of Christianity is unrecognizable to me, but ostensibly we worship the same God, and we definitely read the same Bible. So perhaps I can suggest that he revisit Matthew 6:5, in which Jesus admonishes his followers about showy displays of piety: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

Related:

• Pete Hegseth treats fallen American soldiers as a PR problem.
• Pete Hegseth’s moral unseriousness

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Era of unshackled warfare

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

President Trump's threat to bomb Iran's water supply would constitute his most dramatic breach of the laws and norms designed to protect civilians in wartime, Axios' Zachary Basu and Dave Lawler write. Why it matters: The Iran war is the biggest test of what Trump's contempt for "politically correct" war-fighting looks like in practice. His administration has already signed off on Israeli assassinations of political leaders, threatened "no quarter" for enemy combatants, and initially rejected responsibility for a mass-casualty strike on an elementary school. But the U.S. has been almost exclusively targeting Iran's military and nuclear program up to now. The threat to hit civilian infrastructure shows how intent Trump is on finding ways to increase the pressure on Tehran, even if that means flouting the generally accepted principles of warfare. 🖼️ The big picture: Trump criticized the Geneva Conventions during his 2016 campaign, lamenting that soldiers were "afraid to fight." He vowed to bring back waterboarding and "a hell of a lot worse." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, then a Fox News host, spent Trump's first term lobbying privately and on air to secure pardons for soldiers convicted of war crimes. Zoom in: With the Iran war now entering its second month, Trump threatened yesterday to "completely [obliterate]" Iran's power plants, oil wells and "possibly all desalinization plants" if a deal isn't reached soon. Like other countries in the severely water-stressed region, Iran relies heavily on desalinated water. A senior U.S. official told Axios the idea was to use strikes to pressure Iran to negotiate: "The Iranians want this to stop, too. Don't be mistaken. Their economy is broken. A couple of sorties, they will have no power. A couple of Israeli sorties, they will have no water. There is a lot to lose if there's no accommodation. Everyone will have to give, but we can get there." The official cautioned that Trump has made no decision, and "he wants to make sure that things are proportionate in this war." 👓 Between the lines: International humanitarian law explicitly prohibits attacks on objects indispensable to civilian survival, including drinking water installations. Power plants, by contrast, can be deemed lawful targets if they serve a military purpose. Trump stated his intent plainly, writing that the strikes would be "in retribution for our many soldiers" Iran has killed over the last 47 years. Reprisals against civilians — also known as collective punishment — are explicitly prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. Keep reading.

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Gulf allies privately make the case to Trump to keep fighting until Iran is decisively defeated Gulf allies of the U.S., led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging President Donald Trump to continue, arguing that Tehran hasn’t been weakened enough by the monthlong U.S.-led bombing campaign, according to U.S., Gulf and Israeli officials. Read more.

Why this matters: After private grumbling at the start of the war that they were not given adequate advance notice of the U.S.-Israeli attack and complaining the U.S. had ignored their warnings that the war would have devastating consequences for the entire region, some of the regional allies are making the case to the White House that the moment offers a historic opportunity to cripple Tehran’s clerical rule once and for all.   Officials from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have conveyed in private conversations that they do not want the military operation to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or there’s a dramatic shift in Iranian behavior, according to the officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The push from the Gulf nations comes as Trump vacillates between claiming that Iran’s decimated leadership is ready to settle the conflict and threatening to further escalate the war if a deal is not reached soon.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ US attacks Iranian nuclear site while Tehran hits oil tanker off the Dubai coast   Trump threatens to destroy Iran’s desalination plants. Here’s what that could mean for the Mideast   WATCH: US Central Command releases video of military strikes in Iran   Israel’s parliament approves death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis

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Army reviewing combat helicopter flyover of Kid Rock’s swimming pool The Army has launched an administrative review after two AH-64 Apache helicopters on a training run hovered near the hillside home of Kid Rock as the outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump saluted their crews. Read more.

Why this matters: Kid Rock posted two videos on social media on Saturday. The clips show a helicopter hovering alongside his swimming pool while he claps, salutes and raises his fist in the air. The Nashville skyline can be seen in the background. “This is a level of respect,” Kid Rock posted, that the “Governor of California will never know. God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her.”   There was no official request to the Army from Kid Rock for the helicopters to come to his house on Saturday, Maj. Jonathon Bless, public affairs officer for the 101st Airborne Division, said on Monday. The helicopters also overflew a Nashville “No Kings” protest against the Trump administration on Saturday, but Bless said the training run had nothing to do with the protest. “Army aviators must adhere to strict safety standards, professionalism, and established flight regulations. An administrative review is underway to assess the mission and verify compliance with regulations and airspace requirements. Appropriate action will be taken if any violations are found,” an Army statement reads.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ New York Times accuses Pentagon of flouting judge’s order blocking its press access policy   Lawyers for Rep. Swalwell demand that FBI director halt any plan to release old investigative file   Airport bottlenecks ease as TSA workers get paid   Bruce Springsteen brings ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ home to launch a political US tour   Georgia proposal could take DNA swabs from immigrants in custody for minor offenses   Schumer had a plan to win back the Senate. But some Democrats aren’t on board   Democrats try a new tactic to win a House seat in Utah — running as progressives in a red state   Federal ‘God squad’ poised to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf from endangered species rules   Things to know about Rice’s whale, rare species in way of Trump plans for more Gulf drilling   Lawyers for man accused of killing Charlie Kirk ask to delay preliminary hearing   Charlie Kirk highway got vetoed in Arizona. Elected officials are citing politics   GOP sheriff in California pauses election probe as legal challenges grow   The Mississippi Department of Public Safety uncovers rare KKK artifacts in one of its offices   Airport cleared to be renamed for Trump as he unveils design for skyscraper library

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Trump Secretly Admits Humiliating Defeat on Major War Aim

The president is happy for the world to suffer an oil crisis rather than trying to fix the problem he caused.

Donald Trump is prepared to walk away from the war in Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen, according to a report.

The 79-year-old president has been telling aides he is willing to end military operations in the Middle East without resolving the crisis surrounding the vital shipping route through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Any decision to leave the Strait closed and not bother to resolve the resulting global oil crisis would mark a humiliating walkback for Trump, who has been making increasingly unhinged threats to escalate the conflict unless Tehran caves and reopens the narrow passage from the Persian Gulf.

Walking away from trying to reopen the Strait will also further suggest the erratic president has no clear plan to end the conflict he launched more than a month ago.

Trump and his inner circle have reportedly come to the realization that any military operation to reopen the strait would amount to a major escalation of the conflict, potentially requiring U.S. boots on the ground. Instead, Trump would be satisfied if the war achieves some of his other objectives, such as targeting Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and vice president at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said Trump pulling out of Iran without reopening the strait would be “unbelievably irresponsible.”

“Energy markets are inherently global, and there is no possibility of insulating the U.S. from the economic damage that is already occurring and will become exponentially worse if the closure of the strait continues,” Maloney told the Journal.Iran’s closure of the narrow shipping route has already sparked a worldwide energy crisis, with crude oil prices regularly topping $100 a barrel and gas prices soaring in the United States. There are fears the war could push oil prices as high as $200 a barrel, which would be devastating for the global economy.

Trump has repeatedly suggested the war in Iran will be over soon while simultaneously threatening to drastically escalate the conflict by attacking the country’s energy infrastructure unless the Strait is reopened.

Just hours before the Journal’s report was published, Trump wrote in a typically unhinged Truth Social post Monday that unless the strait is “immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalination plants!).”

The report that Trump might walk away from the war without resolving the Strait of Hormuz crisis also came after White House officials told MS Now that the president is getting “bored” with the conflict he started and wants to “move on.”On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Al Jazeera that U.S. military operations in Iran would be completed within a few weeks and that “we’ll make sure that it’s open, one way or the other.”

Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly, one of MAGA’s most outspoken critics of the Iran war, mocked the contradictory statements coming from the Trump administration about the conflict.

“Sun, Rubio: ‘the Strait of Hormuz will reopen one way or another’ (Al Jaz’ra). Mon, Trump: ‘if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will …blow up…all of [Iran’s] Electric Plants, Oil Wells & Kharg Island” (Tr. Soc),” Kelly posted on X.

“Mon: ‘Trump tells aides he’s willing to end war without opening Hormuz” (wsj).’”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-secretly-admits-humiliating-defeat-on-major-war-aim/?

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U.S. Ally Refuses to Let Trump’s Warplanes Land as Conflict Spirals

Another major ally says it wants nothing to do with U.S. bombing strikes against Iran.

Italy has turned away U.S. bombers headed for the Middle East—becoming the second NATO ally in as many days to defy the Trump administration’s Iran war effort.The U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 under the banner of Operation Epic Fury, dragging European partners into an increasingly uncomfortable position as the conflict has spread across the region.

Rome’s rebuff was first reported by the daily Corriere della Sera and confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday by a source close to the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The newspaper reported that “some U.S. bombers” had been scheduled to touch down at the eastern Sicily base of Sigonella before continuing on to the Middle East, although it did not say exactly when.

Sigonella, home to both the Italian Air Force and the U.S. Navy, is one of Washington’s most strategically significant footholds in the Mediterranean.

The tricky situation was further complicated by Washington filing its flight plan only after the planes were already in the air, without seeking authorization or notifying the Italian military leadership. That is a requirement under the treaties governing American use of military installations on Italian soil.

Italy’s military reviewed the flights and determined they did not qualify as routine logistics. This put them outside the scope of standing bilateral arrangements and triggered a requirement for Rome’s formal sign-off—including parliamentary scrutiny, Bloomberg reported. The Italian defense ministry made no immediate comment, but a senior U.S. official claimed that reports of Italy turning away American war planes from its shores are “false.”

The official told the Daily Beast, “Italy is currently supportive in providing access, basing, and overflight for US forces.”

Italy’s reported move follows Spain’s announcement Monday that it was closing its airspace and its bases at Morón and Rota to all U.S. operations tied to the Iran campaign. “We will not authorize the use of Morón and Rota for any acts related to the war in Iran,” Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said, adding that Spain had made its position clear to the American government from the start.Secretary of State Marco Rubio branded Spain’s stance “very disappointing” and warned that the administration would be forced to take a hard look at NATO’s value once the fighting stops—remarks that now hang over Rome’s decision too.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a right-wing populist, is considered one of Donald Trump’s most reliable allies in Europe and appears to have a good personal relationship with him.

But she has indicated that her government would consult parliament before agreeing to any request that Italian bases be used for strikes on Iran. Italy’s center-left opposition has pushed harder, calling on the government not to get involved at all.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-ally-spain-refuses-to-let-donald-trumps-warplanes-land-as-iran-war-spirals/?

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Sanctioned Russian tanker docks in Cuba after US allows passage despite energy blockade

MATANZAS, Cuba (AP) — A Russian tanker docked Tuesday at the Cuban port of Matanzas laden with 730,000 barrels of oil, marking the first time in three months that an oil tanker reached the island.

https://apnews.com/article/cuba-russia-oil-sanctions-blockade-us-trump-1b69b79b322586503d08f28882e5b948?

Citing First Amendment, federal judge blocks Trump order to end funding for NPR and PBS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing the First Amendment, a federal judge on Tuesday agreed to permanently block the Trump administration from implementing a presidential directive to end federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, two media entities that the White House has said are counterproductive to American priorities.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-npr-pbs-funding-executive-order-fbd9500e5f7400deab84ead188c35694?

Judge orders White House ballroom construction to halt in a ruling that leaves Trump seething

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to suspend construction of a $400 million ballroom it demolished the East Wing of the White House to make space for, barring work from proceeding without congressional approval.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-white-house-ballroom-construction-halted-9cafc70569a3a05fcbaa6cafddbeace4?

Judge says Penn must turn over information about Jewish employees in US discrimination probe

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the University of Pennsylvania to hand over records about Jewish employees on campus to a federal agency as part of an investigation into antisemitic discrimination but said it did not have to reveal any employee’s affiliation with a specific group.

https://apnews.com/article/eeoc-probe-penn-ac1f54c0d585f7d184383f955822ec68?

President Trump will address the nation on the Iran war

https://apnews.com/live/iran-war-israel-trump-03-31-2026?

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Crackpot Secretly Behind Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Plot Exposed

It’s not just Trump, someone is helping him with crazed effort to overturn the constitution.

A disgraced attorney who tried to help President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election has been revealed as the secret driving force behind the administration’s effort to end birthright citizenship. John Eastman has been working for decades to convince the Supreme Court to take up his fringe legal theory that the Constitution doesn’t automatically confer citizenship on virtually all people born in the U.S., despite the 14th Amendment’s explicit guarantees. The justices will hear oral arguments on the subject Wednesday in a case challenging a Trump executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship.

But the administration has apparently sought to obscure Eastman’s influence on the topic, even as it has embraced his legal theories, according to Politico.

Trump did not mention Eastman, 65—who has been barred from practicing law over his effort to subvert Joe Biden’s election victory—when he signed his executive order, even though Eastman had been pushing Trump to try to end birthright citizenship since the president’s first term in office.

The Justice Department’s briefs also don’t cite any of Eastman’s 100-plus op-eds, interviews, law review articles, debates, speeches, or legislative hearings, despite adhering closely to Eastman’s legal arguments, Politico noted.

Speaking to the outlet, Eastman declined to say whether he’d helped craft Trump’s executive order or the government’s arguments defending it. The DOJ declined to comment on Eastman’s role, and a White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Eastman did say, though, that he wasn’t “troubled” by the DOJ’s failure to mention him in its brief.

“Remember, Ronald Reagan used to have a sign on his desk that there’s a lot you can get done in this town if you don’t care who gets credit for it,” he said.

The Daily Beast has also reached out for comment.

In its brief, the DOJ relied on writings of white supremacists to demonstrate that some Americans opposed birthright citizenship at the time the 14th Amendment was drafted.

After the Civil War, Congress passed a constitutional amendment saying that “all persons born… in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are U.S. citizens.

The amendment overturned the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, the Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling that held that even free African Americans were not U.S. citizens, and granted citizenship to former slaves and their children.

But lawmakers also left the wording intentionally broad to apply to people of all races residing in the U.S., according to historian Heather Cox Richardson.

That meant a child born in the U.S. to foreign parents living in California also acquired citizenship at birth, even if the parents didn’t qualify, the Supreme Court ruled in 1898 in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark.

Eastman has tried to argue that the case only covers children of foreigners living permanently in the U.S., and that subsequent legal decisions expanding citizenship rights were wrong.

The vast majority of constitutional scholars, however, including most conservatives, have rejected that interpretation.

Four federal judges have blocked Trump’s order from taking effect, and two federal appeals courts have agreed.

Eastman has also advanced other questionable theories.

For years he banged the drum about birthright citizenship, sometimes paid to debate it by the right-wing Federalist Society, Politico disclosed.

Eastman also pushed a claim that Kamala Harris was ineligible to serve as vice president and run for the presidency because, he claimed, her parents were not citizens at the time of her birth. Newsweek had to apologize for publishing his claim in 2020. Intriguingly, he had considered that Republican Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada to a Cuban-born father, and who disclaimed his Canadian citizenship in May 2014, was completely eligible to run for office.

He was recruited to join Trump’s legal team after the president’s 2020 election loss, and proposed that former Vice President Mike Pence refuse to count some states’ electoral votes in a bid to keep Trump in office illegally.

Pence later told Fox News that he considered Eastman a “crackpot.”

When that idea failed, he appeared alongside former New York City mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani at the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the deadly Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and spread false claims about election fraud.

Eastman later filed lawsuits challenging the election results and made “patently false and misleading statements,” according to a judge tasked with reviewing whether he should lose his law license.

Prosecutor Jack Smith referred to Eastman as an unindicted co-conspirator when he charged Trump in May 2023 with four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. The charges were first gutted by the Supreme Court, and then the remainder dropped when Trump won the election.

The California State Bar Court found in June that Eastman’s conduct was so egregious that he should be disbarred entirely.

He has appealed that decision to the California Supreme Court, which has the final say over matters of attorney discipline.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/crackpot-john-eastman-secretly-behind-trumps-birthright-citizenship-plot-exposed/?

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A Premature Claim (Kaveh Kazemi / Getty)

View in browser According to President Trump, Iran has undergone not one, but two regime changes already this year—and the new government is far more “reasonable” than its predecessors. “The one regime was decimated, destroyed, they’re all dead. The next regime is mostly dead,” he told reporters on Air Force One this weekend. “And the third regime, we’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before.” Trump and his Cabinet have been warming to the phrase regime change since the start of his second term. It’s a marked shift from what he campaigned on. As far back as his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in 2016, he was calling for the country to “abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change,” and he reiterated those views in his most recent bid for reelection. Last year, around the time Trump decided to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, he called those two words “not politically correct,” seeming to understand their rhetorical link to America’s failed “forever wars” during the 2000s and 2010s. Yet in the same Truth Social post, he started coming around to the phrase: “But if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!” In the weeks leading up to last month’s attack on Iran, Trump said that regime change would be “the best thing that could happen” to the country. With his comments this weekend, Trump is casting regime change as a mark of progress in the war. He is signaling—perhaps in the hope of calming down oil markets—that the United States has already achieved an important victory. At the same time, he’s dramatically escalating the conflict in other ways, threatening the complete destruction of some of Iran’s most crucial energy infrastructure as the Pentagon prepares for weeks of ground operations. But regime change hasn’t actually happened. Although American and Israeli attacks have taken out key Iranian leaders, their replacements are still very much part of the existing system. Iran’s supreme leader is now the cleric Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated late last month. Other officials who have been killed, such as the heads of the Supreme National Security Council and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have been replaced via the typical governmental channels—that is, by the Iranian president and his associates. (Trump has claimed that Mojtaba is seriously wounded, but on Sunday, the Iranian government transmitted a defiant message, purportedly written by him, through state media.) Iran’s government is the same theocracy it has been since the revolution of 1979 and the overthrow of the shah. That any of these new appointees have meaningfully different attitudes toward the U.S. than past leaders did is, despite Trump’s assurances, far from certain. People often use regime to refer to the government of a single political leader—particularly one they dislike, or who was not elected democratically—but as my colleague David Graham helpfully explained last week, regime actually refers to a system of governance that doesn’t always change when the head of state does. “One could argue,” he wrote, “that the U.S. has had the same ‘regime’ since 1789, when the Constitution entered into force and George Washington became president.” Arash Azizi, a scholar of Iranian history and a contributing writer at The Atlantic, told me that “the war and decapitations have affected the internal factional balance, but they haven’t changed the regime. There is arguably even more regime cohesion now than there was before the war.” As for what an actual regime change in Iran might look like, Azizi said that it “would include either an unraveling of the Islamic Republic’s core structures or, at the very least, abandonment of its key policies. I think this is likely in the medium term (and it would have been even without the war)”—the regime’s signature policies are both unpopular in Iran and strategically untenable, Azizi explained—“but nothing of the sort has happened yet.” In other words, Trump is misusing the phrase to project an image of success in this historically unpopular war. The Trump administration has offered an abundance of conflicting explanations for its goals in Iran—10 rationales in the first six days of the war alone, my colleagues Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Isabel Ruehl have noted. But the president’s recent actions have underscored his rejection of the anti-interventionist values he campaigned on. In addition to escalating the conflict in Iran, he has sought to destabilize other foreign governments over the past few months: After the January capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (and the subsequent installation of a Trump-approved interim leader), the White House established its first effective oil blockade against Cuba since the Cuban missile crisis. Despite slightly softening the blockade in recent days, there’s no indication that Trump has backed down from his stated goal of ousting Cuban leadership and ushering in a more pro-American government. Perhaps Trump really will carry out regime change in Iran. As my colleague Nancy Youssef wrote earlier today, there are still many paths this war could take—and no military strategist would ever advise determining the outcome of a war just a few weeks in. But in the meantime, there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical about Trump’s assessment of how things are going. Related: Trump had no Plan B for Iran, Tom Nichols argues. Trump’s eye is already on Cuba.

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Trump's blurry vision of victory

One month in, President Trump's Iran war has fractured into three competing realities, Axios' Zachary Basu writes:

1. A military campaign that has largely delivered.
2. A strategic vision that hasn't.
3. A political and economic problem getting worse by the day.

Why it matters: The Trump administration has declared Operation Epic Fury an overwhelming success. But the trajectory of the war — from shifting goalposts to mounting costs — points to a potential stalemate.

🔎 Zoom in: By conventional military measures, the U.S. and Israel are dominating Iran at sea, in the air and on land.

• In its first 29 days, Operation Epic Fury struck 11,000+ targets, flew 11,000+ combat sorties, and damaged or destroyed 150+ Iranian vessels, according to a Pentagon tally.
• The opening phase of the war decapitated much of Iran's senior military leadership and damaged its ballistic missile program.

But sustaining the military campaign has come at a cost — including at least 13 U.S. deaths, hundreds of injuries, billions of dollars in damaged or destroyed equipment, and about $1 billion a day in estimated costs.

• Iran's missiles continue to pummel the region — and U.S. forces haven't been spared.
• One day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Iran's military "neutralized," Iranian missiles struck a base in Saudi Arabia, injuring 29 American soldiers and damaging U.S. refueling and surveillance aircraft.
• The New York Times reports that many of the 13 U.S. military bases in the region are "all but uninhabitable" due to Iranian strikes. The Pentagon declined to comment on the report, citing operational security.

Data: Axios research. Graphic: Sara Wise/Axios. Photos: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service

Zoom out: The strategic picture is hard to square with the administration's triumphalism.

• The decapitation of Iran's senior leadership, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, hasn't destabilized the regime, softened its anti-American posture or brought freedom to the Iranian people.
• The war's central justification — eliminating Iran's nuclear threat — remains unresolved: Trump is now weighing a high-risk ground operation to seize Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
• Iran's stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz has become the war's most damaging unintended consequence — triggering a historic energy shock, straining relations with allies and threatening to metastasize into a long-term strategic crisis.

A White House official pushed back on the strategic assessment, saying Trump outlined four distinct goals for Operation Epic Fury — destroying Iran's ballistic missile capacity, annihilating its navy, eliminating terrorist proxies, and guaranteeing Iran never possesses a nuclear weapon — and that "the United States Military is meeting or surpassing all of its benchmarks on these defined objectives."

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😵‍💫 Trump's mixed messages perplex his team

President Trump isn't just befuddling foreign leaders and financial markets with his mixed signals on Iran. Advisers who speak regularly with the president tell Axios they're just as uncertain, Axios' Marc Caputo and Barak Ravid write.

• Why it matters: Trump's off-the-cuff musings and Truth Social postings can have life-or-death consequences for the war and massive implications for the market. Then the cycle restarts without any lasting clarity.

Some Trump aides and allies say he's mostly improvising rather than following a clear plan.

• He likes to keep his options open, spitball with different audiences, then capitalize if he thinks he sees an opportunity, they say.
• Aides have been convinced at various points that Trump was leaning toward a major escalation, and at others that he was eager for a swift resolution. "Nobody knows in the end what he's really thinking," a senior adviser said.
• "They had a plan for the first week and since then, they are making the plan up as they go along," a former U.S. official said.

🔬 Zoom in: It's becoming clearer, at least for now, that Trump intends to withdraw and declare victory soon — in the next "two–three weeks," as he put it yesterday.

• He's mused repeatedly in recent days about how the U.S. has won and what an exit would look like.

In private, though, Trump is talking more to hawks like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Fox News personality Mark Levin than longtime confidants who oppose escalation.

• Leaders in Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also worried about the idea of Trump wrapping up and leaving the regime in Tehran, battered but emboldened.
• "The Saudis sound like Mark Levin," one Trump adviser said. "They want the U.S. to finish the job by wiping Iran off the globe now. We don't want to."

👀 What to watch: With it becoming clear Iran's missile and drone capacity won't be entirely destroyed, one option that has emerged is "mowing the grass" — or conducting strikes as needed after heavy combat dies down.

• "The president said early on we might have to come back," another administration official said. "And we might have to."

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🚜 Trump's immigration winners

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Getty Images

If you're an immigrant worker in the U.S., you've got a better shot at landing a visa as a farmer than a tech worker, researcher, doctor or nurse, Axios' Brittany Gibson writes. Why it matters: The Trump administration's crackdown on H-1B visas is crushing sectors that rely on high-skilled immigrant workers, while seasonal programs for farm workers have gotten a pass. Huge new fees ($100,000 a pop for H-1B visas) are combining with higher salary requirements to make importing high-skilled workers less attractive for American employers. At the same time, the administration is lowering wage requirements for farm workers and helping streamline their visas. Keep reading.

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Trump signs order directing creation of a national voter list, a move already facing lawsuit threats President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and to restrict mail-in voting, a move that swiftly drew legal threats from state Democratic officials ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Read more.

Why this matters: The order, which voting law experts say violates the Constitution by attempting to seize states’ power to run elections, is the latest in a torrent of efforts from Trump to interfere with the way Americans vote based on his false allegations of fraud. The president has repeatedly lied about the outcome of the 2020 presidential campaign and the integrity of state-run elections, asserting again Tuesday that he won “three times” and citing accusations of voter fraud that numerous audits, investigations and courts have debunked.   The order signed Tuesday calls on the Department of Homeland Security, working in conjunction with the Social Security Administration, to make the list of eligible voters in each state. It also seeks to bar the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to those not on each state’s approved list. Trump is also calling for ballots to have secure envelopes with unique barcodes for tracking, according to the executive order, which was first reported by the Daily Caller. Federal funding could be withheld from states and localities that don’t comply.

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Trump estimates US will be done in Iran in 2 to 3 weeks President Donald Trump said the military could end its Iran offensive in two to three weeks and will shift responsibility for the Strait of Hormuz to countries that rely on it for oil and shipping. The White House announced a prime-time presidential address Wednesday evening on the war. Read more.

What to know: The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush is slated to go to the Middle East along with three destroyers, two U.S. officials said. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 sailors. It comes as thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division have also begun arriving in the Middle East, according to two other U.S. officials.   Iran hit a tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait International Airport early Wednesday as Tehran remained unrelenting in its attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbors, while acknowledging for the first time that Washington had been in direct contact about a possible ceasefire. Israel sounded warnings of incoming fire from both Yemen and Iran, while launching its own attacks in Lebanon that killed at least five people.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump criticizes European allies for not helping fix the damage his war against Iran has caused   Securing Iran’s enriched uranium by force would be risky and complex, experts say   Officials say American journalist kidnapped in Iraq had been warned of threats   Vance and Rubio’s differing postures on Iran war highlight their challenges ahead of 2028 election   Stopgap measures aren’t enough to halt rising gas prices as the world scrambles for more oil   JetBlue raises its checked bag fees by as much as $9 as the Iran war affects fuel costs   Pope Leo XIV urges an Easter end to the US-Israel war on Iran, calling for dialogue