💣 TRUMP BRIEFED ON STRIKE PLANS
Absent any other options, Donald Trump is preparing a new set of strikes against Iran. He was briefed this morning by CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper, Trump signed off on a set of strategic strikes intended to dislodge Iran’s resistance to negotiations. The new attacks are unlikely to achieve very much, but they will show American resolve to continue the standoff until Iran gives up its nuclear weapons.
The strikes will be “short and powerful” — and they are intended to tell the Iranians what Trump also said on Truth Social: “just give up”. Iran responded by declaring the Gulf US-free as the USS Gerald R. Ford and her strike group depart the region in days. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Pete Hegseth has been defending the Pentagon’s $25 billion price tag for the war so far — through six hours in the House yesterday and a Senate Armed Services hearing today. New analysis says the $25 billion is the floor, not the ceiling. Independent estimates put the real cost far higher once you count ship-time, ammunition, missile inventory, and force readiness lost.
🎖️ JOHNSON: REDRAW THE SOUTH NOW
Wednesday’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling — Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act effectively killed — is already paying off for the GOP. Speaker Mike Johnson called this morning for Southern states to redraw their congressional maps before November. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is preparing to suspend the primaries currently underway in his state to draw new districts that comply. Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina face the same call. The Black Caucus seats are about to start disappearing. The Chief Justice who wrote the opinion has been calling twenty million dollars in law-firm commissions to his wife “salary” for sixteen years. Christopher Armitage filed a DC Bar disbarment complaint against him last week — he just released the full text at The Existentialist Republic today and minutes later joined us on Narativ Live.
⚖️ DHS SHUTDOWN ENDS, GOP SPLIT
The House passed the stalled Department of Homeland Security funding bill at 1:09 PM ET today, ending the longest DHS shutdown on record. Funding had been cut off February 14 over the Trump immigration crackdown — including the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens during ICE roundups in Minneapolis earlier this year. Senate Republicans cut the deal a month ago. The House GOP sat on it for weeks because conservatives refused to vote for a bill that zeroed out ICE and border patrol. The White House warned this week that DHS workers’ May paychecks were at risk. Speaker Johnson moved the bill to the floor with a special maneuver — limited debate, two-thirds supermajority — and Democrats pushed it through over GOP holdouts. The next ask: $70 billion more for immigration enforcement through 2028, on a track shielded from a Democratic filibuster.
📉 SCIENCE BOARD FIRED FRIDAY 4 PM
I missed this story on Friday - and in case I’m not the only one - On Friday at 4 PM — the White House emailed all 22 members of the National Science Board that they were “terminated, effective immediately.” No explanation arrived until Monday. The NSF — created by Congress in 1950, $9 billion a year in independent research grants — now has no board, no director, and no deputy director. Trump has been ousting advisory panels at the EPA and the CDC. Watch where this money goes.
🌍 TRUMP DROPS MEANS, BLAMES CASSIDY
Trump pulled Casey Means as Surgeon General at 1:25 PM today and blamed Senate health chair Bill Cassidy. Cassidy, Murkowski, and Collins had all refused to commit. The replacement: Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier of Memorial Sloan Kettering. Means is Trump’s third Surgeon General pick to fall. RFK Jr.’s MAHA wing wanted her; they got a Fox doctor instead.
🎯 THE PATTERN
The president of the United States is going to strike a country that, by his own assessment, has already been obliterated; his Pentagon chiefs spent $25,000,000,000.00 to destroy a country in 60 days, and now they are seeking a $1.5 trillion military budget— a 50% increase over the previous year. Meanwhile, the surge of ICE agents nationwide is fully funded, just as Southern governors redistrict Black people out of representation.
American fascism has arrived.
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Thanks for the recap Zev!
Also thanks in advance for the awesome totes I just ordered because I have a serious weakness for merch. 😁
Thus while post covers another level of insanity but thanks for the crazy Zev. 🥰