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5️⃣ Trump’s Pearl Harbor Clanger
Donald Trump invoked the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor at a White House press conference Thursday — while Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi stood beside him. A Japanese reporter asked why the U.S. didn’t warn allies before attacking Iran. Trump’s response: “Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” Takaichi had arrived bearing 250 cherry trees as a gift and hoping to strengthen the alliance. Instead she got a reminder of the most painful chapter in the relationship. “She brought 250 cherry trees. He brought 1941,” Dean said. “There’s probably nothing worse you could do than mention Pearl Harbor next to the Japanese Prime Minister.” Trump needs Takaichi to send naval vessels to the Strait of Hormuz. Japanese media is playing the clip on a loop. Decades of diplomatic bridge-building between the two countries — Obama at Hiroshima, Abe at Pearl Harbor — undone in 30 seconds for a punchline.
4️⃣ $200 Billion for Iran
Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth asked Congress Thursday for $200 billion in additional war funding on top of the existing $1 trillion defense budget. “It takes money to kill bad guys,” Hegseth said. The U.S. has struck over 7,000 targets in Iran with no end date in sight. Even Republican Sen. Roger Marshall called the figure “a little tall.”
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This story is getting 60% right-wing coverage — if you consume left-leaning media, you’re probably not seeing it. Iranian lawmakers are moving to impose tolls and taxes on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf declared that maritime traffic “will not return to its pre-war status.” Tehran lawmaker Somayeh Rafiei said countries must pay taxes for strait transit. The $200 billion war just got more expensive.
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3️⃣ Joe Kent’s Bombshells on Tucker
Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent sat down with Tucker Carlson Wednesday night for his first public interview since resigning over the Iran war, while the FBI investigates him for alleged classified leaks. Kent told Carlson there was no U.S. intelligence supporting an imminent threat from Iran — confirming what the ODNI’s own worldwide threat assessment says. He described Israeli officials bypassing U.S. intelligence channels to go directly to policymakers, shifting the red line from “no nuclear weapon” to “no enrichment at all,” killing any possibility of a deal. Kent also connected the war to the unresolved murder of Charlie Kirk, saying his NCTC found leads suggesting a potential foreign nexus to the assassination that the FBI and DOJ shut down. “This is a guy who was sitting in the DNI’s office, seeing all the intelligence, saying there’s no real threat from Iran,” Zev said. Lev Parnas added: “The most important thing is the timing — it had nothing to do with imminent threat. It had to do with Russia and Israel.”
2️⃣ Gabbard Contradicts Trump, RFK on the Ropes
DNI Tulsi Gabbard appeared before the House committee Thursday, one day after telling the Senate she went to the FBI’s Fulton County raid “at the request of the president” — directly contradicting Trump, who said Bondi sent her. Today’s testimony was strikingly different. “She was basically a lot more demure, did not really answer any questions related to Fulton County,” Zev observed. “She got smacked on the wrist for yesterday.” Dean noted the body language: “Number one, you know when your kid knows he’s in trouble? That’s what we got today from Tulsi Gabbard.” Asked directly whether she possessed intelligence pointing to foreign interference in Georgia’s 2020 election, Gabbard repeatedly deflected: “We are continuing to look into this matter.” Meanwhile, RFK Jr.’s standing with Trump’s inner circle has hit “a new low,” per the Wall Street Journal. A federal judge blocked his revised vaccine schedule. Zev reported that a good source says Mehmet Oz may soon take over at HHS, which may explain Kennedy’s increasingly erratic behavior.
1️⃣ Bondi’s Perjury Trap
House Democrats walked out of AG Pam Bondi’s closed-door Epstein files briefing Wednesday night. She showed up early, refused to go under oath, and then said she wasn’t even sure she’d appear for her April 14 subpoenaed deposition. “She’s got this choice to make,” Zev explained. “She can either protect the president and perjure herself, or she damages the president by telling the truth — in which case she’s doomed anyhow. It’s either jail, perjury, or political exile.” Reps. Dan Goldman and Ted Lieu have formally requested a special counsel to investigate Bondi for perjury after she testified in February that “there is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime” — despite Trump being referenced over 38,000 times in the Epstein files. Five Republicans voted for the subpoena. Impeachment articles have been filed. And today, Epstein’s longtime lawyer Darren Indyke is testifying behind closed doors. Dean drove home the through-line: “They’re all women. Every single woman he’s put out on the ice flow — Bondi, Gabbard, Noem. They are cannon fodder to him.”
Five stories. One pattern. A president who invoked Pearl Harbor to justify a war his own intelligence says was unnecessary, while his cabinet faces perjury charges, his attorney general can’t answer a yes-or-no question, and Epstein’s lawyer sits in the deposition chair.
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