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

April 8

Trump has repeatedly delayed deadlines for Iran, but suggests Tuesday’s is final

President Donald Trump has pushed back a deadline for Iran to cut a deal or open the Strait of Hormuz from Monday to Tuesday, the latest of several deadline delays, and threatened that without a deal “Hell will reign down on them.” Read more.

What to know:

Trump’s previous deadline was for March 23, but that shifted several times over the ensuing weeks as Trump oscillated between heated threats, announced delays and proclamations that the negotiations were going well, sometimes in the same statement. Iran rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, the country’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Monday. Shortly after, Trump gave an ominous warning to Iran if it didn’t capitulate, and suggested Tuesday’s 8 p.m. deadline was final. “They’ll have no bridges. They’ll have no power plants. They’ll have no anything,” he said.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacks on civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, according to his spokesperson. Trump, speaking with reporters, said he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes with such attacks.

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April 8

Vance’s Trip to Trump Ally Hit by Humiliating Putin Call Leak

The vice president is in Europe to show support for a far-right leader.

JD Vance’s trip to Hungary to help boost its pro-Trump leader’s election hopes has been marred by the leak of a phone call showing the right-winger sucking up to Vladimir Putin.

The vice president arrived in Budapest on Tuesday morning to show support for Viktor Orbán, a far-right leader facing a serious risk of losing Hungary’s April 12 election, which could end his 16-year rule.

On the morning of Vance’s European trip, Bloomberg revealed that Orbán told the Russian president in October 2025 that he was prepared to help Moscow “in any way” to win the war in Ukraine, adding: “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service.”

According to a leaked transcript of the phone call, Orbán also compared himself to a mouse rescuing a trapped lion after it spared the rodent, a reference to a European fable, which reportedly drew laughter from the two allies.

Orbán also told Putin of his hopes to hold a summit in Budapest to show support for Russia amid its four-year invasion of Ukraine, and even discussed plans to involve the U.S. as well. The event in the Hungarian capital never took place.

Vance and his wife, Usha, were welcomed off Air Force Two at a Budapest airport on Tuesday morning by Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó. Vance will appear at a rally in Budapest alongside Orbán later Tuesday local time.

Orbán is a longtime ally of Putin and is widely viewed as one of the Russian president’s closest supporters within NATO and the European Union.

Orbán’s close ties with Moscow, combined with a languishing economy, have been a major campaign issue in Hungary’s upcoming election.

Center-right opposition party Tisza, led by Péter Magyar, a former insider in Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party, has recorded double-digit leads in the polls ahead of next week’s vote. Magyar has campaigned on strengthening Hungary’s alliance with the rest of Europe and moving the country away from Russia.

Trump and Orbán have also been close allies for years, with Orbán becoming the first European Union leader to back Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has enthusiastically endorsed the anti-immigration Hungarian leader’s re-election campaign and is now sending Vance to bolster the administration’s support.

Last month, The Washington Post reported that Szijjártó is alleged to have frequently leaked confidential EU information to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Because of this, “every single EU meeting for years has basically had Moscow behind the table,” one official told the Post.

During the October 2025 phone call, Putin suggested to Orbán that Lavrov could also meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio around the time of the proposed Russia–United States summit in Budapest.

Orbán and Putin also praised their mutual friend Trump during the call. The Hungarian prime minister said he appreciates Trump’s “tornado”-style business approach, with Putin saying the 79-year-old “moves forward like a tank.”

The Daily Beast has contacted Vance’s office for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jd-vances-trip-to-donald-trump-ally-viktor-orban-hit-by-humiliating-vladimir-putin-call-leak/?

ps:So now we go around all the world and support communists?????

April 8

Price of Trump’s Iran War Rockets as He Threatens Giant Escalation

The president insists he will not push back his latest deadline for a ceasefire agreement, even as the giant cost mounts.

It’s day 38 of Donald Trump’s conflict with Iran, and the daily cost of waging the president’s war in the Middle East just topped $500 million.

Roughly a tenth of that expenditure constitutes the loss of U.S. military equipment destroyed by Iranian strikes, the Financial Times reported. The newspaper cites an analysis by the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, which found that Trump’s campaign has likely cost as much as $31 billion in the five weeks since it began, on Feb. 28.

Elaine McCusker, a former Pentagon budget official who now works as a senior fellow at the non-profit, added that her calculations reflect at least $2.1 billion in costs for replacing equipment damaged or destroyed in the course of hostilities.

“Damaged equipment can sometimes be repaired in days, while some destroyed systems will take years to replace on a one-to-one basis,” she said. Further analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, another D.C. non-profit, found that at least $1.4 billion of losses came in the first six days of fighting alone.

At the same time, the number of U.S. service members wounded in the conflict continues to rise. NewsNation reported Monday that those stats had jumped from 348 to 373 since the end of March, in addition to the 13 military personnel killed in the course of the president’s war so far.

Trump has consistently dithered on the motives, goal, and timeline for his campaign against the Islamic regime, from claiming the war was already over several weeks ago to suggesting he is prepared to wage it “forever.”

The president has set a hard deadline of Tuesday, 8 p.m. Eastern Time, for Iran to enter into a ceasefire agreement with the United States. He has threatened massive escalation if a deal is not reached before then, suggesting the country could be “taken out in one night” with large-scale attacks on key infrastructure, even after setting roughly five other deadlines since the war began.

Despite his efforts to downplay the conflict’s deepening impact on the global economy while highlighting the limited gains of his campaign, Trump appears wary of the Iranian regime’s unwillingness to capitulate to his demands.

On Friday, his administration quietly announced it is now seeking to spend a total of $1.5 trillion on defense for the coming year, the largest amount set aside for the military by any president in modern history, funded in part by cuts of more than $73 billion to education, housing, social services and healthcare.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/price-of-president-donald-trumps-iran-war-rockets-as-he-threatens-giant-escalation/?

April 8

Trump Hurls Personal Attack at a Woman in Late-Night Meltdown

The president insisted his favorite TV network ax his least-favorite presenter.

President Donald Trump unleashed a brutal tirade against Fox News’ most prominent liberal co-host in a late-night Truth Social meltdown

Trump, 79, fired up his social media just before 10 p.m. on Monday to offer unsolicited advice to the bosses at his favorite network about his least-favorite presenter.

“For Fox executives only, take Jessica Tarlov off the air,” Trump wrote.

It is unclear what triggered Trump, as Tarlov did not appear on Monday’s episode of The Five, where she is the token liberal panelist.

However, Trump has regularly criticized Tarlov, who is equally outspoken in calling out his behavior on social media and Fox News.

Trump continued to spew his late-night bile, saying of the host of the podcast Raging Moderates, “She is, from her voice, to her lies, and everything else about her, one of the worst ‘personalities’ on television, a real loser!”

The president also claimed, “People cannot stand watching her.”Last week, Fox said The Five had become the most-watched show on cable news for 18 consecutive quarters, with 4 million viewers.

Tarlov is the latest in a growing line of female journalists to be targeted by Trump.

On April 1, he lost his cool with NewsNation’s Libbey Dean, who had asked him whether Iran would have to make a deal for him to end the U.S. military intervention. “You’re a fresh person, you know?” Trump snapped. “We’ve had a lot of problems with you, haven’t we?”

In March, on board Air Force One, Trump opened fire on a female reporter from ABC. “I think it’s maybe the most corrupt news organization on the planet,” he said. “I don’t want any more from ABC.”

In February, the president laid into CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, 33, when she asked him what he would like to say to the survivors of convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“You are so bad. You know, you are the worst reporter. No wonder,” Trump said. “CNN has no ratings because of people like you.”

Trump’s latest female target, Tarlov, may have been absent from Fox News on Monday, but that didn’t stop her from using her X account to slam the president.

Sharing his F bomb post threatening Iran from Easter Sunday, Tarlov, 42, told her 284,000 followers, “What an embarrassment this man is.”

The Daily Beast has contacted Fox News for comment.

Trump’s latest drive-by against Tarlov follows his appearance on The Five two weeks ago. “I watch Jessica, and I’m not a fan,” Trump said, claiming Tarlov “uses fake numbers” to report negatively on his popularity.

Tarlov was not on the panel the day of Trump’s phoned-in interview.

Trump imitated Tarlov’s reporting saying, “‘He’s only polling 42 percent…’” before adding, “That’s not right, I’m polling very high actually.”

He told the panel, “I’m sure I’d like her, I’m sure she’s a lovely person, she’s just not for me.”

Tarlov later shared a clip of Trump talking smack about her on The Five on her social media, saying she was “so bummed” to miss the show. She added, “But I definitely would’ve said he’s even inflating his numbers to 42 percent!”

Trump also used his Monday night pre-bedtime Truth Social screed to publicly correct Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream. He said his voter eligibility bill is “not the Save Act, it’s the Save America Act, a big difference.”

The president ironically called out Bream, an attorney and a journalist, for letting her guests “spew out Democrat propaganda and lies” on her “not very hard hitting show.”

On Sunday, Bream interviewed Democrat and former Marine Corps officer Jake Auchincloss, who was critical of Trump and his threats to Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.

“As always with this president, it is all hat, no cattle,” Auchincloss said before referencing his “TACO Trump” nickname.

“He is blustering, he is threatening, and yet he always backs down. And the reason is, because he misunderstands the nature of grand strategy. The nature of grand strategy is about choke-point control; it is not about the raw exercise of power.”

Auchincloss continued, “Last year, this president tried to pick a trade war with China. He lost it. He lost it because China choked off critical minerals. This year, he’s picking a war with Iran; he is losing it because Iran choked off oil transit through the strait.”

That Sunday morning comment prompted Trump to belatedly claim on his Monday night Truth Social post, “I always close deals, unlike the Dems, and did great with China in every way, also, unlike the Dems!”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hurls-personal-attack-at-a-woman-in-late-night-meltdown/?

April 8

Tucker Carlson Fumes at Trump’s ‘Vile’ Post in Raging MAGA Civil War

The conservative commentator slammed the president for both his post and his actions in Iran.

Conservative firebrand Tucker Carlson took aim at President Donald Trump in the Monday edition of his show, criticizing the president for his Easter Sunday tirade against Iran and his actions during the war.Just after 8 a.m. on Easter Sunday, the president renewed his threats against Iran on Truth Social, writing, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!”

“Open the F---in’ Strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!” he continued before adding “Praise be to Allah” and signing off with his name.

He followed it with a clarification of his exact deadline of Tuesday, 8 p.m. Eastern.

“The morning of Easter is a uniquely joyful and peaceful moment,” Carlson said. “And yet that peace yesterday was shattered.” He then read the president’s incendiary post in full.

“A lot of people reading that imagined, of course, this can’t be real. Did the president of the United States really just write that?” Carlson continued.

“It is real. It is maybe the most real thing this president has ever done and also the most revealing on every level. It is vile on every level,” he added, before going on to condemn the president’s threat to use the U.S. military to destroy civilian infrastructure.

“Which is to say commit a war crime,” he noted, adding, “a moral crime against the people of the country whose welfare, by the way, was one of the reasons we supposedly went into this war in the first place.”

Trump has previously claimed regime change as one of his many motivations for initiating his war with Iran, citing the Iranian government’s crackdown on dissidents and urging the Iranian people to seize the moment by overthrowing the regime.

Strikes conducted in conjunction with Israel also succeeded in killing multiple senior political leaders in the country, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

International law experts have also condemned Trump’s threats to target civilian infrastructure, with dozens signing a letter on Thursday expressing “profound concern” about his plans to target sites such as power plants.

“International law protects from attack objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, and the attacks threatened by Trump, if implemented, could entail war crimes‚” the experts wrote.

Returning to the timing of the president’s post, Carlson highlighted Iran’s large Christian population, reminding viewers that it was “their Easter too.”

“What happens when [a country] loses power? Well, people die. Babies connected to incubators die. People in hospitals die. And those are the first-level effects,” Carlson continued.

“Then people begin to starve. And then you have refugee crises. People leave the cities looking for food. And then yes, they move into other countries in the region, in Europe, in the United States.”

“You cause chaos and death, mass suffering and death when you do that,” he told his viewers. “And we have done that. We have intentionally bombed civilian infrastructure in Iran. It’s totally unacceptable. Not under the phony laws of some international body, but under moral law, God’s law, killing non-combatants, people who did nothing wrong, who didn’t choose this war, who were just people created by God, that is immoral. That will never be moral. That can never be justified. That is always wrong.”

Carlson, a staunch anti-interventionist, has previously broken ranks with the president to advocate for an “America First” position that prioritizes domestic concerns over foreign engagements. His stance—shared by former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who reposted his latest episode on X—has brought him into conflict with some of the president’s most loyal supporters, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Cruz denounced Carlson as the “single most dangerous demagogue” when discussing Carlson’s antisemitism, charging Carlson with being the “most consequential” voice responsible for the recent rise in antisemitism on the right.

The president himself has also denounced Carlson, telling ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl in March that his former ally had “lost his way.”

“I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA,” Trump told Karl.

“MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things,” he added. “And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/outraged-tucker-carlson-slaps-down-president-donald-trump-for-vile-easter-post/?

April 9

Trump Humiliates Vance by Leaving Him to Learn of Bombings From Reporter

The jet setting vice president was caught off guard as he stood on the world stage alongside Hungary’s right-wing leader Victor Orban.

JD Vance was advised to check his phone for updates on the war during a press conference as he struggled to keep up with his boss’s escalatory attacks against Iran.The jet-setting vice president was caught off guard as he stood on the world stage alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, moments after Donald Trump put out an incendiary post warning that a “whole civilization” will die tonight if Iran does not make a deal by his 8 pm deadline.

Asked by a Washington Post reporter if he had any new information to believe a deal could be reached, Vance initially replied: “I don’t—unless I have a text message from Steve Witkoff,” who is Trump’s Middle East envoy.

But as he reached into his pocket for his phone, the vice president realized in real time that things were changing.

“I do have a message from Steve Witkoff,” he acknowledged somewhat awkwardly after glancing at the text.

“Wouldn’t you like to know the subject of this message?” he added. “But no, uh, I need to read it first before I talk about it. But here’s, here’s… uh, what time is it in the United States right now?”

Vance was in Budapest on Tuesday morning to show support for Orbán, a far-right leader facing a serious risk of losing Hungary’s April 12 election.

The uncomfortable moment was followed up by another question from a Reuters reporter, who told Vance he might want to check his phone properly.

“I do think you have to read that text because we have reporting that the United States is striking some targets in Kharg Island,” she said.

“You did say that the military objectives of this war have been achieved. So could you help us understand why the president is still threatening to attack every bridge and every power plant in Iran?”

The war is sensitive for Vance, who served in the Marines and whose political reputation was built on his opposition to foreign intervention—a position that was shaped by his brief deployment in Iraq.

Now, as the standard-bearer of MAGA’s anti-interventionist wing, he has struggled to thread the needle on a war that could become a political liability for him later on.

This was clear as he appeared on stage just as Trump had put out his wild post, threatening to wipe out Iran, a country of 95 million people whose citizens he once claimed he could help save from a tyrannical regime.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump declared on Truth Social.

“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” he added.

Vance, meanwhile, did his best to explain the increasingly volatile situation.

“You know, my understanding, you know, having talked to Pete (Hegseth) and General Caine about this, is that we were going to strike some military targets on Kharg Island, and I believe we have done so.

“(The president)... has said very clearly, that we’re not going to strike energy and infrastructure targets until the Iranians either make a proposal that we can get behind or don’t make a proposal. But he’s given them until Tuesday, at 8 o’clock, so I don’t think the news on Kharg Island represents a change in strategy.”

Kharg Island is an export hub off Iran’s coast, which has been an economic lifeline for the country, handling about 90% of its crude oil exports.

As tensions escalated over the oil standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. struck the island for the first time in March, claiming at the time that 90 targets had been hit, including “naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites.”

But news that it had been hit again on Tuesday came after Trump put out a wild, expletive-filled post on Sunday, warning Iran: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F----n’ Strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!”

The wild tirade sparked calls to invoke the 25th Amendment, a constitutional mechanism allowing the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a president unable to perform the duties of office.

“The president of the United States is a man who recognizes leverage,” Vance said on Tuesday.

“That if the Iranians want to exact a certain amount of pain, the United States has the ability to exact much, much greater pain.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-humiliates-vance-by-leaving-him-to-learn-of-bombings-from-reporter/?

April 9

Death Wish

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This morning, as his 8 p.m. eastern deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and make other concessions looms, President Trump threatened to wipe the country out entirely.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump declared on Truth Social. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” The president did express hope that “different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail,” which would prevent such an attack. Bizarrely, he ended with a benediction for the same people he had just threatened to slaughter: “God Bless the Great People of Iran!”

Though Trump rarely speaks clearly, this threat would appear to meet the definition of genocide under the 1948 United Nations convention: “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The president has spent the past few days warning that he would attack civilian infrastructure, which most experts agree would constitute a war crime, but an apparently explicit threat of civilizational erasure is unheard of outside of cartoon villains; even most real-world génocidaires have denied that’s what they’re doing.

But Trump’s message this morning is also notable for the autocratic view that underpins it. His position is that if he wants to wipe out “a whole civilization,” then that is his decision to make—unconstrained by American law, international law, Congress, or public opinion. “Only President Trump knows what he will do, and the entire world will find out tomorrow night if bridges and electric plants are annihilated,” the White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Wall Street Journal.

This view is legally, morally, and practically disastrous. Such action by the president is not what the Framers of the Constitution laid out. They granted the power to declare war to Congress alone, as my colleague Quinta Jurecic has written: “That design choice represented a radical break from the monarchies of Europe, where kings and queens had the ability to decide when to mobilize their countries to war.” That separation of powers has gradually eroded over decades, but Trump’s war in Iran goes a step beyond what previous presidents have done. The unilateral decision to erase a civilization would go a huge step past that.

Members of the military are required to refuse an illegal order, including a violation of international law, but any individual soldier, sailor, or airman is poorly equipped to assess the law—and most do not realistically feel empowered to refuse an order. When several Democratic members of Congress made a video reminding service members that they can and must refuse unlawful orders, the Trump administration sought to punish them through legal and military justice processes.

Although the Founders could scarcely have imagined the military might the United States would one day possess, the division of powers was intended in part as a check on the ethical compass of a single individual. Trump has previously said he is bound only by his own “morality,” which is not reassuring, given his track record of fraud, dishonesty, racism, and misogyny.

But granting such power to a single individual is also impractical, because it prevents adversaries from negotiating effectively. Iran has given no public indication that it will make concessions, and Tehran appears emboldened and in some ways strategically stronger than when the war began. But even if the Iranian government wanted to reach an agreement, it would struggle to do so. Trump has failed to clearly articulate his aims for the war—not to the American public, not to Congress, and not to the world. His demands can’t be met because they change almost daily, and none of his advisers has obvious influence over him. During a press conference yesterday about the war, in which top officials spent much time fawning over the president, Trump declared, “I have the best plan of all, but I’m not going to tell you what my plan is.”

Trump also claimed in the same press conference that Iranian civilians are eager for his attacks to continue, and although many Iranians do detest the regime, even some who welcome American intervention have pleaded for strikes on civilians to cease.

Trump’s threats today were quickly denounced, not only by Democrats and progressives but also by some on the anti-war right. The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones declared that “Trump literally sounds like an unhinged super villain from a Marvel comic movie. This IS NOT WHAT WE VOTED FOR!!!” Tucker Carlson, another conspiracist voice who is one of the most influential MAGA media figures, said that officials should refuse to grant Trump access to nuclear weapons: “It’s time to say no, absolutely not, and say it directly to the president, no.”

Some GOP members of Congress have also expressed discomfort with attacks on civilians, but overall, the reaction among Republican elected officials has been muted—throughout the war and especially today. But because so many people on the right have worked to consolidate Trump’s power, insulate him from repercussions for his actions, and discredit his critics, it’s not clear how much the president would care even if he did receive more criticism. He doesn’t believe anyone has the right to stand in his way.

Related:

April 9

🤐 Trump's silent allies

President Trump announced a two-week ceasefire tonight, just 88 minutes before his apocalyptic deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Why it matters: On a remarkable day for international diplomacy and rhetoric, it was an unremarkable day for congressional Republicans.

As the hours ticked down on Trump's deadline, only two congressional Republicans — Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rep. Nathaniel Moran (Texas) — criticized his warning that a "whole civilization will die tonight" unless Iran complied with his demands.
Most Republicans were reluctant to box in the president before he made a decision.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune was quiet. Ditto Speaker Mike Johnson.

Zoom in: Murkowski said Trump's rhetoric "cannot be excused away as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran."

"How we protect the lives of the innocent is just as important as how we engage the enemy," Moran said.
"The United States does not destroy civilizations. Nor do we threaten to do so as some sort of negotiating tactic," said newly independent Rep. Kevin Kiley (Calif.), who still caucuses with Republicans.
But Senate Armed Services chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) was bellicose, saying at an event in Jackson, Mississippi, that "Iran has been the worst actor on the world stage. ... The people of Iran deserve better."

The other side: More than 50 congressional Democrats called for Trump's removal today via impeachment or the 25th Amendment, as we reported.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump an "extremely sick person."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries demanded Congress return to vote and stop Trump from plunging the U.S. "into World War III."

What we're hearing: Rank-and-file lawmakers are coordinating on potential organized action, two senior House Democrats and a senior aide familiar with the matter told us.

One of the senior House Democrats told us there are "rumblings" about forcing an impeachment vote against Trump or sending a letter to the Cabinet urging them to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Those conversations have not yet reached the leadership level, according to the sources.
Jeffries and other top Democrats have focused their attention on forcing an Iran war powers vote later this month.

Between the lines: Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who initially supported a war powers resolution on Venezuela, gave Trump a wide berth.

"I believe President Trump is trying to apply maximum leverage, and I hope the Iranians listen," Young said before the ceasefire announcement.

— Hans Nichols, Andrew Solender and Kate Santaliz

April 9

Wife of US soldier released from federal immigration detention

22-year-old Annie Ramos, the Honduran-born wife of a U.S. Army staff sergeant preparing to deploy, was released Tuesday from a federal immigration detention facility where she had spent nearly a week after being taken into custody on a Louisiana military base. Read more.

Why this matters:

Her detention prompted public backlash from critics of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign who warned it demoralized troops during an ongoing war. Ramos, who married Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank in March, had been detained by federal immigration agents while attempting to register at his base to receive military benefits and ultimately obtain a green card. She had lived in the country since she was under 2 years old. DHS said Ramos had been ordered removed by a federal immigration judge in 2005 after her family failed to appear for a hearing.
Ramos and her husband say she has been attempting to gain legal status, including by applying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2020. But her application remained stalled amid legal battles to eliminate the program.
DHS told the AP that Ramos had been released with a GPS monitor “while she undergoes further removal proceedings.” “She will receive full due process,” DHS said.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

April 9

Trump’s Midnight Peace Brag Hit by Humiliating Reality Check

The president’s world peace boast is starting to look a little premature.

Donald Trump boasted of achieving “world peace” after agreeing to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, but cracks are already beginning to show just hours later.Missile and drone attacks were reported across the Middle East in the early hours of Wednesday, and Israel says its military action will continue in Lebanon. Meanwhile, a key detail included in the Farsi-language version of Iran’s 10-point plan, relating to the U.S. accepting Iran’s enrichment of uranium, was omitted from the English-language peace deal.

Trump declared that the U.S. and Iran had reached the agreement less than 90 minutes before his 8 p.m. deadline. He had earlier claimed that a “whole civilization will die” if an agreement had not been reached by that point.

The president ended Tuesday with a midnight post stating it had been “a big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else!”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who served as an intermediary to broker the deal between the U.S. and Iran, announced on X that the ceasefire was effective immediately “everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere.”

“Both parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability,” Sharif wrote.

However, the office of Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu contradicted that statement, saying “The two-weeks ceasefire does not include Lebanon.”

On X, Netanyahu’s office said it backed the ceasefire “subject to Iran immediately opening the straits and stopping all attacks on the U.S., Israel and countries in the region.”

The state-controlled Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting posted on Wednesday morning, local time, that “despite being told that Lebanon was part of the temporary ceasefire plan, Israel attacked southern #Lebanon minutes ago.”

The Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group Hezbollah has been in active conflict with Israel since October 2023.

The Israeli military claimed there had been an Iranian ballistic missile attack early Wednesday morning, with early warnings issued in central and northern Israel after the IDF detected additional launches from Iran.

The United Arab Emirates said its air defenses were registering threats from Iran, stating, “The sounds heard in scattered areas of the country are the result of the UAE air defense systems intercepting ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones.”

Saudi Civil Defense also declared there were early warnings of “potential danger” across Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh. Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar also issued alerts or activated defenses as further threats emerged across the region.

The Associated Press reported that Bahrain sounded its missile alert just hours after the ceasefire deal was brokered.

The Official account of the Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Bahrain posted on Tuesday “The alarm siren has been activated. Citizens and residents are requested to remain calm, head to the nearest safe place, and follow updates through official channels.”

Although Iran has agreed to the ceasefire, its defense system allows local military commanders to make their own strike decisions.

It also emerged overnight that the Farsi-language version of Iran’s 10-point plan included a key detail that was omitted from the English versions.

The plan said the country would require “continued Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of enrichment, lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions.”

For reasons that remain unclear, “acceptance of enrichment” was absent from the English versions shared by Iranian diplomats to journalists.

Ending Iran’s nuclear program was a key point of Trump’s war.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-midnight-peace-brag-hit-by-humiliating-reality-check/?

April 9

Three Missing Words in Ceasefire Plan Could Make a Fool of Trump

It appears one major issue was left out of the English versions of the ceasefire plan.

A key phrase omitted from the English version of Iran’s 10-point ceasefire plan with the U.S. could backfire on President Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, the U.S. and Iran agreed to a conditional two-week ceasefire less than 90 minutes before Trump’s 8 p.m. deadline, after which Trump had said he would obliterate Iran.

In a statement from Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and posted to Truth Social by Trump, Araghchi claimed that Iranian forces would “cease their defensive operations” and that passage through the strait would be permitted with “coordination” from Iranian forces.

He added that Trump had accepted the “general framework” of Iran’s 10-point ceasefire plan as “a basis for negotiations.”

However, the Farsi-language version of Iran’s 10-point plan included a key detail that the Associated Press noted was left out of the English versions.

The plan said the country would require “continued Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of enrichment, lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions.”

For reasons that remain unclear, “acceptance of enrichment” was absent from the English versions shared by Iranian diplomats to journalists.

Iran’s mission to the U.N. declined to comment to Associated Press on the differences between the English and Farsi versions of the ceasefire deal.

The Daily Beast has contacted Iran’s mission to the U.N and the White House for comment.

Trump has repeatedly stated his war with Iran was provoked by a perceived nuclear threat and the need to destroy its nuclear capabilities. In June last year Trump claimed after a U.S. strike that “Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term!”

The president launched fresh strikes on Feb. 28, arguing that Iran’s missile arsenal and nuclear ambitions posed a direct threat to American forces in the region.

The revelation is in stark contrast to Trump’s comments to AFP and Truth Social on Tuesday, claiming victory in the ceasefire.

“Total and complete victory. 100 percent. No question about it,” Trump said to AFP.

He called Iran’s 10-point proposal “a workable basis on which to negotiate,” and insisted that the deal covered the country’s supplies of uranium, used in nuclear weapons.

“That ⁠will be perfectly taken care of, or I wouldn’t have settled,” Trump said, without giving any further specifics.

When asked about his threats to obliterate Iran’s civilian power plants and bridges if the deal did not work out, the president said, “You’re going to have to see.”

The president followed that with a midnight Truth Social post claiming that it had been “a big day for World Peace!”

screen grab

“Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else! The United States of America will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz. There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process.”

Trump said the U.S. would be “loading up with supplies” of all kinds and “just ‘hangin’ around’ in order to make sure that everything goes well.” He predicted, “this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East!!!”

After helping to negotiate the ceasefire, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed on X that he had invited Iranian and U.S. delegations to meet in Islamabad on Friday.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/three-missing-words-in-ceasefire-plan-could-make-a-fool-of-trump/?

April 9

Trump Braces for Humiliating Revelations as Major Split on Iran Leaks

Details of a White House rift over conflict with Iran come ahead of an explosive new book.

Top members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet were at each other’s throats over war with Iran right up until the moment the president hit the big red button.

Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt all expressed wildly diverging takes on Trump’s proposed conflict in the Middle East in the days and weeks leading up to the first U.S. strikes, according to an explosive report from The New York Times.

That report draws on material from a forthcoming book by the newspaper’s star reporters Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, titled Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.

The president appears to have preemptively railed against the book, due to launch after his 80th birthday in June and featuring interviews with hundreds of White House insiders, even before it was announced, tearing into Haberman in an angry Truth Social post last month.

“Maggot Haberman, just another SLEAZEBAG writer for The Failing New York Times, insists on writing false stories about me, even though she fully knows and understands that the exact opposite of anything she says is usually the truth,” Trump wrote.

Material from the book, published Tuesday, reveals that “nobody in Mr. Trump’s inner circle was more worried about the prospect of war with Iran, or did more to try to stop it, than the vice president.”

Vance, a longtime opponent of foreign military entanglements, reportedly sought to dissuade the president from an all-out confrontation with the Islamic regime by warning any full-scale conflict would entail “a huge distraction of resources” and prove “massively expensive.” Widely seen as a 2028 contender for the White House, Vance has appeared to try to keep his hands clean from the war in Iran.

The vice president is said to have warned Trump “in front of his colleagues” the conflict he was proposing “could cause regional chaos and untold numbers of casualties,” and that the Iranian regime would be only too likely to respond by shuttering the Strait of Hormuz to send gas prices skyrocketing in the U.S. and across the globe.

Hegseth, meanwhile, appears to have been all for it, with the Times describing him as “the biggest proponent of a military campaign against Iran” in Trump’s cabinet. The defense secretary apparently believed “they would have to take care of the Iranians eventually, so they might as well do it now.”

Rubio, by contrast, was reportedly more ambivalent, suggesting that “if our goal is regime change or an uprising, we shouldn’t do it,” but then “if the goal is to destroy Iran’s missile program, that’s a goal we can achieve.”

Wiles, like Vance, was wary of what impact any effect on the domestic economy might have on GOP electoral prospects ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections.

She reportedly told colleagues she was concerned that the domestic impact of the conflict could essentially tank Trump’s final two years in office.

Leavitt reportedly reassured Trump that whatever direction he eventually chose, the White House press team would “manage it as best they could.” Even conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who has since emerged as a fierce critic of Trump’s war, appears to have got in on the action, repeatedly calling the president in the period leading up to the initial strikes on Feb. 28.

“I know you’re worried about it, but it’s going to be OK,” Trump is understood to have told the pundit. When Carlson asked how he could possibly be sure of that, the president replied: “Because it always is.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-donald-trump-braces-for-humiliating-revelations-as-major-split-on-iran-leaks/?

April 10

Broken Record

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Legal opinions tend to be dry, wordy, and intentionally vague. One issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel earlier this month is none of these.

“You have asked whether the Presidential Records Act of 1978 (‘PRA’ or ‘Act’) is constitutional. We conclude that it is not,” Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser declares. The law, passed after Watergate, is designed to ensure a reliable and accessible public record. It makes presidential documents public by law, and governs how and when they must be preserved.

If the opinion stands, it will allow Trump to destroy the records of his administration’s actions, or take records with him at the end of his term. Combined with alleged violations of PRA in his first term, this could make Trump the most poorly documented president since at least Richard Nixon, and perhaps going back even further. (As my colleague Henry Grabar writes, the actual library part of his planned presidential library is an afterthought at best.) Yet Trump’s habit of making policy without deliberation, and often with stream-of-consciousness speeches and posts on social media, means that his administration is a paradox: simultaneously one of the most transparent and most opaque in American history.

The Office of Legal Counsel exists to issue sophisticated legal guidance to the White House, and in effect is frequently asked to provide justification for an administration’s actions; perhaps the most infamous instance was the “Torture Memos,” many produced by the OLC’s John Yoo during the George W. Bush administration to justify the use of, well, torture during the War on Terror. And guessing why the Trump administration would want to be rid of PRA isn’t difficult.

Trump and his aides have reportedly broken the law on many occasions. During his first term, he was reported to routinely tear up documents, despite staffers imploring him not to. (Some aides were tasked with painstakingly taping them back together to comply with the law.) In other cases, he flushed papers down toilets. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reportedly fed documents into fireplaces at the end of the presidency. Trump’s staffers then took boxes and boxes of surviving documents, many of them highly sensitive, when they left the White House. He refused to return them upon request from the federal government, then allegedly attempted to obstruct their recovery. According to photographs included in a federal indictment, Trump haphazardly stored documents in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom and a ballroom stage. Trump pleaded not guilty, and his election led to the case being dismissed, which meant he was never tried on charges of obstructing the investigation, but now he would like to erase the accusation entirely by eliminating PRA.

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who investigated the documents case, also believed that Trump wanted to use documents his team took from the White House to further his business interests, according to Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, who obtained Smith’s memo—in other words, stealing public records to make a private fortune. (Absurdly, Trump’s Justice Department returned to Trump the documents that had been collected from Mar-a-Lago by the FBI.)

The Trump presidency is in some ways unusually transparent. The president takes questions from reporters regularly—sometimes in a gaggle, sometimes in cold calls on his phone. The president is temperamentally unable to keep his own counsel, to the point that French President Emmanuel Macron scolded him last week: “Perhaps you shouldn’t talk every day.” There’s simply less policy process to be recorded in preserved documents, because Trump has drastically shrunk bodies like the National Security Council and replaced them with his id and instincts, chronicled in real time on Truth Social.

Yet if Trump is allowed to destroy or remove documents, the American Historical Association argues in a new lawsuit challenging the OLC opinion, historians “would be left with an incomplete historical record by which to professionally research, produce scholarship on, and teach U.S. history.” They add, “Once lost, this information is irretrievable and thus the harm irreparable.” The suit notes that federal courts rejected similar arguments about the law’s constitutionality immediately after its enactment, when Nixon sued to block it.

The history of Nixon’s presidential record also shows the value of the law, even long after a president leaves office. Nixon loyalists controlled the former president’s library for years, and presented a whitewashed version of Watergate to the public. But the law required that the warts-and-all records be preserved, and when control of the library was finally wrested away and handed to Tim Naftali, a professional historian, in 2006, the library began presenting a more accurate account and providing access to historians, who have in turn presented more complete chronicles of Nixon’s career.

Trump is the most corrupt and scandal-plagued president since Nixon; indeed, his fiascoes eclipse Nixon’s, but many of them remain mostly or somewhat hidden, thanks in part to a much more acquiescent Republican Congress than the one Nixon had. In Watergate, the crimes were known; the question was, in the words of Senator Howard Baker Jr., “What did the president know and when did he know it?” With the Trump administration, the situation is perhaps the reverse: We know much about the president’s stated motivations and beliefs, but we do not have a full accounting of what he and his aides have done. Keeping a record would allow the nation to fully understand his actions and their consequences—if not now, then at least later.

Related:

April 10

🚧 Unbuilding of Trump's border wall

A map showing planned border wall types in southwestern Texas. Both physical barriers and detection technology are planned.

Data: CBP. Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

A West Texas revolt is erasing hundreds of miles of President Trump's planned border wall, Axios' Brittany Gibson reports.

Why it matters: The opposition in the Big Bend sector, which includes 517 miles of rugged border along the Rio Grande, is against the physical steel wall, not border security in general.

The intrigue: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was assured by Border Patrol chief Mike Banks that there wouldn't be a physical wall in Big Bend National Park or Big Bend Ranch State Park, a source familiar with the talks told Axios.

As of mid-February, just 35.9 miles of new border wall construction have been finished across the southern border.

Read the story.

April 10

Trump promised to cut electric costs in half. Bills in energy-rich West Virginia now top mortgages

President Donald Trump, as part of his campaign pitch to “make America affordable again,” promised to cut Americans’ electricity bills by half during his first year to 18 months in the White House. It hasn’t worked out. Instead, electricity increased 4.8% in February nationwide and piped natural gas prices rose 10.9%, both compared with a year earlier, according to the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index. That surpassed inflation even before the attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel sent energy costs ballooning. Read more.

Why this matters:

Cost concerns are expected to surface during midterms this fall, potentially in states where Republicans have strong support. In West Virginia, all 55 counties voted for Trump in 2024. Thousands of residents have been posting screenshots of their monthly power charges. West Virginians are angry and perplexed over soaring utility costs that are surpassing rents and mortgages in one of the most energy-rich, yet poorest, corners of America, where some families have been forced to choose between paying for food or heat.
“Lowering electricity prices is a top priority for President Trump,” said White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers, blaming former President Joe Biden for the problem. “He is aggressively unleashing reliable energy sources like coal and natural gas.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

April 10

Draft-Dodging ‘Peace President’ to Register Boys for Military Draft at 18

Trump is looking to sign teenagers up for the same national duty he wriggled out of five times.

The self-proclaimed “President of Peace” who started a war in the Middle East wants to register 18-year-old boys for the same national military duty he shirked on five occasions.

The Trump administration’s Selective Service System (SSS), an agency that keeps tabs on draft-age Americans, has proposed doing away with self-registration for enlistment and instead automatically updating its lists with names drawn from other federal databases.

Federal law already requires men between the ages of 18 and 25 to register with the agency in case the president decides to issue a military draft order. SSS expects eligible candidates to self-register within 30 days of their 18th birthday, but otherwise allows men to file late submissions until age 26.

President Donald Trump signed off on the new rules, shaped by GOP-controlled Congress and which now remain under review pending regulatory approval, in December of last year. The rules suggest the president may be in interested in using emergency enlistment measures the U.S. has not otherwise activated since 1973, during the Vietnam War.

Trump, who attended the New York Military Academy, a prestigious military-style boarding school, did not serve in that conflict, or in any other capacity in the U.S. armed forces. In fact, the president avoided the draft on no fewer than five separate occasions—four times using a student deferment, and a fifth time for medical reasons.

The president’s medical basis for getting out of military service was a bone spur diagnosis, an often harmless condition common among older individuals. He was 22 at the time, and in the many decades since has established something of a track record of disparaging veterans, reportedly referring to them as “losers” and “suckers” in private.

Trump sought to position himself as the “President of Peace” last year, before abandoning the role when it failed to secure him the Nobel Peace Prize. He has defied his 2024 campaign pledges to reduce U.S. military entanglements abroad by invading Venezuela, as well as launching an all-out war with Iran that has since plunged the Middle East and global markets into chaos.

In the past week, he has threatened to wipe the “whole civilization” of Iran off the planet, and more broadly threatened further military action against U.S. allies including Mexico, Colombia, Panama, and Greenland, the last being an autonomous territory of fellow NATO member Denmark.

That aggression has come as the president toys with the idea of granting himself the Congressional Medal of Honor, the United States’ greatest military honor. His justifications for doing so remain unclear, given it would make him the first of more than 3,500 recipients since the award was established in 1861 to receive it without ever having served in the military.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/draft-dodging-peace-president-donald-trump-to-register-boys-for-military-draft-at-18/?

April 10

Decorated SEAL Hero Calls on Barron Trump to Join Military

“How can you send somebody else’s kids to a war if you won’t send your own?” Jesse Ventura asked.

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, a decorated Navy SEAL veteran, has called on Barron Trump to join the military.

“Do something your father didn’t have the patriotism to do,” Ventura, 74, said Tuesday on Piers Morgan Uncensored.

Ventura, who served on an elite Navy SEALs unit during the Vietnam War, slammed President Donald Trump’s three-week-old war with Iran, which has claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members and injured hundreds more.

“How can you send somebody else’s kids to a war if you won’t send your own?” said Ventura, who is also a WWE Hall of Famer.

“There’s a simple thing as a leader, and you know this having been in the military—Trump wouldn’t know it because he’s a draft dodging coward...it’s this: A war is justified if you’re willing to send your kids.”

Trump, 79, never served in the military, and in fact avoided the draft on five occasions, the last of which owed to a bone spur diagnosis.

Barron, 20, is living at the White House while attending New York University’s D.C. campus. He would be of draft age if a draft were authorized by his father and Congress.

Ventura voluntarily enlisted in 1969 after graduating high school, and was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal, the Navy Expeditionary Medal, and the Republic of Vietnam Medal for his service.

He said he was “calling on” Barron to break family tradition and serve in the armed forces: “I want to see a Trump in the military.”

“After all, he’s had three wives, he’s had kids by each wife, and nobody’s ever served in the military,” Ventura said.

“Well Barron, you can change that. Enlist in the United States military right now, do something your father didn’t have the courage to do, do something your father didn’t have the patriotism to do.”

None of the president’s children—Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, Tiffany, and Barron—have served in uniform, and neither did his father, Fred Trump.

Trump’s paternal grandfather, Frederick Trump, born Friedrich Trump, escaped Germany’s mandatory military service when he immigrated to the U.S. He was later stripped of his German citizenship after authorities found out he had dodged the draft.

Ventura said he’d heard the excuse that Barron, at 6-foot-9, is too tall to serve.

“Uh-uh!” Ventura said, pointing out that 7-foot-tall NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson once served on active duty in the Navy.

“Come on Trumps! Don’t just reap the benefits of this free world. Somebody put on the uniform, and that’s you Barron!” he said.

After the self-styled “Peace President” launched his war on Iran and dismissed U.S. military deaths as “the way it is,” #SendBarron began trending nationwide.

Meanwhile, former South Park writer Toby Morton created DraftBarronTrump.com, a website calling on the young Trump to be sent to war.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/decorated-seal-hero-calls-on-barron-trump-to-join-military/

April 10

U.S. Admiral Trolls Trump Over Bizarre Plan to Cash in on Iran

The 79-year-old is being ridiculed after suggesting a “joint venture.”

President Donald Trump has been trolled by a retired U.S. Navy admiral over plans to line the Iranian regime’s pockets.

Trump has floated the idea of teaming up with Iran to set up tolls on the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway reopened under Trump’s flimsy ceasefire. He told ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl about the “joint venture.”

“We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it—also securing it from lots of other people,” Trump reportedly told Karl. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

But CNN senior military analyst and former NATO supreme allied commander James Stavridis took the news as an opportunity to take a swipe at the president, labeling the bizarre plan the “Aya Toll Booth.”

Stavridis shared a mock-up movie poster on X, with the title: ‘Let me get this Strait. The Aya Toll Booth.’

The toll booth gag riffs on Trump’s opportunistic plans for the Strait and the clerical title “Ayatollah,” held by the supreme leader of Iran.

Tehran has demanded that shipping companies pay transit tolls in digital currency for tankers moving through the Strait. Reports suggest that Iran has set the toll at $1 per barrel of oil.

Stavridis, a four-star admiral who served in the Navy for 37 years, indicated that he isn’t sold on Trump’s insistence that the strategic waterway is now open. Writing in a separate X post, he said: “All eyes now shift to the Strait of Hormuz, whether or not it truly is open to mariners. Leaving Iran in any kind of control of the Strait is illegal under international law and highly problematic geopolitically.

“Three things I am watching as I monitor the cease-fire: One, is the Strait actually open? Two, is there a real follow on negotiation concerning the nuclear material? Three, where are U.S. ground troops, both Marines and paratroopers, headed?”

The White House, meanwhile, was forced to walk back on Trump’s rambling to ABC’s Jonathan Karl.

No other U.S. official has indicated that such a plan is under discussion, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was keen to clear the matter up during a press conference on Wednesday.

“It’s something that the president has floated, but the immediate priority of the president is the reopening of the strait without any limitations, whether in the form of tolls or otherwise,” Leavitt said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-admiral-trolls-trump-for-aya-toll-booth-funding-iran/?

ps:I'll say it again, all he is interested in is money!!

April 10

Trump Slams ‘Evil’ Reporters for Exposing His Unraveling Peace Plan

The president is lashing out as his declaration of peace folds under minimal scrutiny.

President Donald Trump has attacked “evil” reporters for exposing his Iran peace plan, which started to unravel shortly after it was announced.

Early on Wednesday, Trump reneged on threats to flatten Iran and trumpeted a ceasefire deal in what he called “a big day for World Peace!”

What ensued was chaos, as inconsistent statements from Iran contradicted elements of a U.S. peace plan touted by the 79-year-old president. CNN strayed into Trump’s crosshairs over its coverage of the confusion, as did The New York Times.

“The Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN each reported a totally FAKE TEN POINT PLAN on the Iran negotiations which was meant to discredit the people involved in the peace process,” he raged at around 11 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday.

“All ten points were a made up HOAX - EVIL LOSERS!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

The president had earlier said that Iran had put forward a “workable” 10-point plan, saying it was a “basis on which to negotiate.” U.S. officials have discussed a broader framework, reportedly including more points.

Trump later posted a release from Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, saying that it was Iran’s “official statement.”

In it, Araghchi said that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened if attacks on Iran stopped.

However, another Iranian statement was released by its Supreme National Security Council, claiming victory over Trump. “The enemy, in its unfair, unlawful, and criminal war against the Iranian nation, has suffered an undeniable, historic, and crushing defeat,” it read.

CNN reported on both, earning Trump’s ire. He responded with two Truth Social posts, accusing the network of sourcing the statement from a “fake news site.” He added that authorities were investigating whether it had committed a crime by doing so.

“CNN is being ordered to immediately withdraw this Statement with full apologies for their, as usual, terrible ‘reporting,’” the president wrote. “Results of the investigation will be announced in the near future.”

In a second post, published just before midnight Wednesday, Trump continued to criticize CNN, writing, “No one can believe that Fake News CNN put out a knowingly false and dangerous statement pretending it came from the upper levels of the Iranian Government.”

“CNN just got caught cheating - A very dangerous thing to do!”

In a statement, the network stood by its reporting. “The statement in question was obtained by CNN from Iranian officials and reported on multiple Iranian state media outlets. We received the statement from specific official Iranian spokespeople who are known to us,” a spokesperson told the Daily Beast.

The Times, too, reported on the statement from Iran’s National Security Council and statements from Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

Network heavyweight Jake Tapper responded on his show, saying the statements from Iran “did not fit the messaging that the Trump administration wanted to project,” prompting his meltdown.

Both parties have agreed that the main sticking point of a deal, the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, is important. Each side has agreed to let vessels through. However, Iran’s deal appears to demand complete control of the waterway, something it did not have before. Also, there is conflicting information about nuclear capabilities. Iranian statements appear to demand recognition of its enrichment programs, while statements from Trump appear to suggest this is non-negotiable.

In a follow-up to his Truth Social post blasting CNN and the Times, Trump touched on this. “It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE,” he said, adding that U.S. forces were ready to restart the conflict if a “real” agreement is not reached.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-slams-evil-reporters-for-exposing-his-unraveling-peace-plan/?

April 11

Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump’s announcement

A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers. These bets were made even though, in the hours before a two-week ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s rhetoric had escalated sharply and there were few signals that a ceasefire deal was imminent. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

April 11

U.S. Soldiers Call BS on Pentagon Pete’s Version of Deadly Strike

American troops who survived the attack spoke for the first time about it to CBS News.

Survivors of the deadly attack in Kuwait after Donald Trump launched a war on Iran are disputing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claims about how the strike that killed six U.S. service members occurred.

Soldiers on the ground for the deadly strike that left more than 20 others wounded told CBS News they were “dangerously exposed” and “unprepared” to defend themselves.

The accounts from those who were there in the lead-up to the attack and lived through the devastating experience in Port Shuaiba directly contradict Hegseth’s version of events and his claim that the location had been fortified.

On March 2, during his press briefing, Hegseth indicated the deadly strike on March 1 was the result of a “squirter” that squeaked through defenses.

“We have incredible air defenders. Every once in a while you might have one, unfortunately we call it a squirter, that makes its way through, and in that particular case, it happened to hit a tactical operation center that was, that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons,” Hegseth said.

But one injured soldier told CBS News: “Painting a picture that ‘one squeaked through’ is a falsehood.”

“I want people to know the unit … was unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position,” the soldier, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to strict rules within the military, added.

One soldier said they saw intelligence that the post was on a list of potential Iranian targets. Soldiers indicated they still had questions over why they remained in range of missiles and drones from Iran.

“We moved closer to Iran, to a deeply unsafe area that was a known target,” the soldier also said. “I don’t think there was a good reason ever articulated.”

The soldier also described the bunker as “weak as one gets” with no defensive cover for attacks from above. Asked to describe the fortification, the soldier said it was a “none category” and, “From a drone defense capability … none."

Another injured soldier described the attack as “chaos” with “no single line of patients to triage. You’re on one side of the fire or you’re on the other side of the fire.”

It was the deadliest attack on U.S. troops since 2021. According to witnesses, the soldiers triaged themselves with makeshift tourniquets and grabbed civilian vehicles to take the wounded to two local Kuwaiti hospitals.

“One of the hardest things for me is that I know we didn’t get everybody out, so I know that at this point there are still soldiers inside there that still haven’t been identified and evacuated,” one survivor told CBS News.

It was a damning account by multiple survivors provided to the network that had been heading under its new leadership in a more pro-MAGA direction.

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on the soldiers’ claims to CBS News, noting the active investigation.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-soldiers-call-bs-on-pentagon-petes-version-of-deadly-strike/?

April 11

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says It’s Time to Burn the Republican Party to the Ground

The former Georgia congresswoman has made an extreme proposition.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has reached new heights in her war against President Donald Trump, declaring that it’s time to “burn the Republican Party to the ground.”

The former Georgia congresswoman has become the poster girl for Trump dissent, morphing from perhaps his most enthusiastic cheerleader into one of his most vocal critics. She cried foul over an alleged Jeffrey Epstein cover-up and lamented the self-described “Peace President” guiding the U.S. into another war.

Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist Infowars host, has joined Greene in parting with the president over “Operation Epic Fury” in Iran, and on Wednesday, the pair sat down for an interview on Jones’ show. Greene pulled no punches.

She accused Trump of abandoning his “America First” principles and turned her fire on his war. “Here’s what we have to do. We have to be realistic about the Republican Party. The Republican Party needs to be burned to the ground,” she told Jones.

Greene said the party is “completely controlled” by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and by Zionists. “That is a serious problem,” she said.

She continued: “That means you, the American people, don’t control your own government and those you elect. They’re controlled by donors that have one specific interest, and that is Israel. Now, we’re talking about the secular government of Israel. We’re not talking about Jewish people, so I don’t wanna hear any of the antisemitism stuff. We’re over that.”

She said the GOP should back candidates who aren’t connected to AIPAC or “AIPAC-adjacent donors.”

Greene, who left Congress in January after announcing her resignation in January, added: “That is a very serious issue. And the reality about Trump, everybody’s like, ‘What’s wrong with Trump?’ The president is controlled and everyone can see it. People are just afraid to say it out loud, but the reality is that he’s completely controlled.”

Greene pointed to Trump megadonor Miriam Adelson, the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the founder and former chairman and CEO of casino company Las Vegas Sands. The businesswoman was born and raised in Tel Aviv and has long advocated for the U.S. to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. She has even encouraged Trump to run for a third term in 2028.

Adelson and her late husband donated about $200 million to Trump’s election campaigns, dating back to 2016.

Greene said people need to “open their eyes.”

She also complained about the war directly, saying Trump “is leading our military to fight a war on behalf of Israel.”

“It is horrific what is happening,” she added.

Greene also tore into the influence of war hawks like Fox News’ Mark Levin on the president. “I’m afraid, based on President Trump telling us ‘Watch Mark Levin’ and then Mark Levin laying out all the reasons of why nuclear weapons need to be used. I’m truly afraid that this is where it’s headed. And that’s why I was willing to say [invoke the] 25th Amendment.”

Greene and Trump’s relationship began to sour when the longtime MAGA loyalist began to publicly push for the Epstein files to be released, at a time when the Trump administration was desperately trying to distract from the issue. Trump began to call his former ally “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene,” and eventually “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown,” when her critique extended to Trump’s war in Iran, which she saw as evidence of the president abandoning campaign promises.

Trump used the new nickname as recently as Wednesday, explaining its meaning as he usually does. He congratulated Clay Fuller, the Republican who won a runoff election for Greene’s vacant seat, but couldn’t resist a jab at her, writing “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown’s (GREEN TURNS TO BROWN UNDER STRESS!) seat in Congress has been taken over by a wonderful and talented man.”

When reached for comment, the White Ho

se criticized Greene’s decision to step down as congresswoman, saying: “There is nothing more ‘America Last’ than quitting on your constituents and the MAGA movement in the middle of your term. President Trump is fighting every single day to Make America Great Again—we don’t have time for quitters.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-says-its-time-to-burn-the-republican-party-to-the-ground/?

April 11

Melania Trump delivers statement at the White House denying knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Melania Trump is denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his sex crimes, saying Thursday that the “stories are completely false” and calling accusations that she was somehow involved “smears about me.”

https://apnews.com/article/melania-trump-white-house-epstein-1df98e9902386609608886f7bd256980?

‘They’ve lost the jury pool’

The US attorney’s office in Washington, DC — led by Jeanine Pirro — is struggling to win trials. Jurors appear to not trust the Trump administration because of the president’s public desire to pursue political vendettas.

April 12

Selective Enforcement

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Vice President Vance is having a busy month. He may facilitate negotiations with Iran in Pakistan this weekend—part of the White House’s attempt to maintain the fragile cease-fire in the Middle East. But he’s also got his eye on domestic issues as the administration’s “fraud czar.”

Vance has been the face of the White House’s effort to combat fraud since earlier this year, but Trump reiterated the title in a Truth Social post last weekend. “His focus will be ‘EVERYWHERE,’” he wrote, “but primarily in those Blue States where CROOKED DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS” have allegedly “had a ‘free for all’ in the unprecedented theft of Taxpayer Money.”

In January, Vance announced that the White House was establishing a new division for national fraud enforcement, with its own assistant-attorney-general position. It was a response to a series of child-care-fraud scandals throughout Minnesota—some of which were unearthed during the Biden era but were reinvestigated by Department of Justice prosecutors toward the end of last year. Trump formalized Vance’s new commitments last month, signing an executive order to create the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which the vice president now chairs. If Trump’s announcement last week is any indication, Vance’s job is to focus mostly on blue-state fraud—which, given the fact that fraud is an issue across both Democrat- and Republican-led states, risks restricting the effects of the project.

As laid out in the March executive order, Vance will be focusing specifically on benefits fraud: the crime of claiming benefits for social services that you don’t actually qualify for. (It’s a real phenomenon, but despite some of the administration’s rhetoric, reducing it won’t do much to chip away at the federal deficit.) The Trump administration has tried to address this issue through legislation (for example, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed eligibility requirements for food stamps) and through targeted enforcement efforts such as DOGE, a far-reaching initiative to trim the fat across the federal government. DOGE’s progress was hard to track: Its website saw repeated overstatements, deletions, and contradictions about the state of the agency’s work. The department ultimately failed in its mission. Despite shutting down several government agencies, DOGE actually ended up leading to more federal spending, rather than less.

As presidential administrations direct their DOJs to address fraud, they sometimes convene task forces to bolster that work, as Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush also did. And federal governments don’t carry out this work alone: State-level operations across the country play a role in reducing fraud too. But Trump’s administration has at times used claims of fraud as political cover—an excuse to withhold funding from its political opponents on the state level. These sorts of targeted cuts have focused largely on blue states, whose immigrant communities often become scapegoats.

According to federal data, benefits fraud can happen at similar levels in both Republican- and Democrat-led districts. But in response to the Minnesota fraud scandal, the Department of Health and Human Services attempted to freeze more than $10 billion in funding for five blue states in January, apparently fearing that taxpayer dollars aren’t safe under Democrats’ control. (A district court has since blocked the move.) The same month, CBS News reported that Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, had directed “nearly all” federal agencies to report the funding they were providing to certain blue states—the idea being to combat any potential “improper and fraudulent use of those funds.”

As the Trump administration conjures up political narratives from its anti-fraud efforts, it is also actively undermining the work of enforcement: In the early days of his second term, Trump fired many of the watchdogs who were searching for perpetrators throughout the country. According to federal data, those investigators were responsible for digging up more than $50 billion in fraud in the 2024 fiscal year.

The anti-fraud task force has already begun its work, and its success or failure will rest squarely with Vance. Trump’s Truth Social post last week was timed with the arrests of eight alleged fraudsters who the FBI has said siphoned more than $50 million from Medicare with “sham hospice care facilities.” There’s an irony here in the fact that Trump has granted clemency to several fraudsters convicted of crimes in a similar vein. Among them are Joseph Schwartz, who stole about $38 million via his nursing-home empire; Lawrence Duran, who pleaded guilty to co-orchestrating a $205 million Medicare-fraud scheme; and Paul Walczak, a former nursing-home executive who didn’t pay his taxes. Walczak was pardoned after his mother reportedly attended a Trump fundraising dinner, where guests were asked to pay $1 million to attend.

Vance will likely put a positive spin on the outcomes of his term as fraud czar, whatever those outcomes may be over the next three years. But he’ll have to answer to tougher critics on the campaign trail in 2028, should he choose to run. That’s what happened to Kamala Harris, who in 2024 had to confront questions about another title that was bestowed upon her: “border czar.” Republicans were eager to highlight failures in the Biden administration’s immigration policy, and the title on Harris’ résumé made her an easy target.

Because the premise of Vance’s fraud mission—that Democrats are uniquely permissive of social-services fraud—is false, his potential results are limited. If Americans aren’t happy with what he achieves, he might come to regret his new title.

Related:

April 12

🥊 Exclusive How Roger Stone saved Tulsi Gabbard

Photo illustrated collage of Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard facing each other with cutaways of Roger Stone's face in the center.

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

President Trump sounded ready to dismiss Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, until he got an earful last week from one of his oldest friends and advisers, Roger Stone, Axios' Marc Caputo has learned.

Why it matters: Trump was displeased with Gabbard when she didn't wholeheartedly endorse the Iran war during Hill testimony last month, according to five advisers and confidants who spoke with the president.

The day before, Gabbard's former adviser and counterterrorism director, Joe Kent, quit his post in a headline-grabbing resignation that undercut the administration's message campaign about the danger posed by Iran.

👀 Inside the room: Trump "scolded" Gabbard in a private meeting soon afterward and questioned her loyalty, two of the sources said.

Two others said Trump wasn't that mad, and instead chided Gabbard in a sarcastic but friendly way.

📱 Trump started polling advisers on their opinions of Gabbard's testimony, her job performance and whether to replace her, The Guardian reported a week later.

Her fellow Cabinet officials backed her, as did Stone when the president called him last week, Axios has learned.

"Roger sealed the deal. He saved Tulsi," a source familiar with Trump's thinking told Axios.

Stone declined to comment but confirmed yesterday on X that he interceded on Gabbard's behalf: "Fortunately, I acted in time."

🔎 Between the lines: Stone, 73, has been a friend and adviser to Trump, 79, since 1979 and has a special relationship with the president no one else has. He gave four reasons for Trump to keep Gabbard, according to two people who spoke with Stone:

Gabbard was loyal, gave congressional testimony in a professional manner and didn't contradict the president.
Gabbard wasn't going to resign like Kent and didn't deserve to be proactively fired.
Firing Gabbard would needlessly create a damaging news cycle for Trump — and make her into a martyr of sorts for those in the president's base agitated by the war.
If she were fired and given that aura of credibility among MAGA dissenters, Gabbard could become a potent GOP presidential candidate in a little over a year.

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