Donald Trump and maga Republicans are wasting billions of dollars to fund the illegal Iran war. They must have oversight!

Published in the New York Times by Haider Ali Hussein Mullick

Mr. Mullick served in the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General from 2016 to 2026.

American tax payers will be spending 💲money in Iran for a long time.

In fact, America’s spending on the war in Iran will far outlast active combat. The U.S. government has already made contracts and other commitments to repair damaged bases, field counter-drone platforms, feed and shelter thousands of troops and replenish munitions.

Even if Donald Trump signs a deal ending the war tomorrow, we will harden bases in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, by reinforcing aircraft shelters, building blast walls around fuel and communications nodes, replacing destroyed satellite communications equipment and installing layered defense systems to defeat Iranian drones — the kind that killed six Americans in Kuwait. We will monitor for years Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and the Strait of Hormuz with carrier strike groups, destroyers and intelligence assets. Also, the U.S. military will have to replenish its munitions stockpiles: The war has burned through U.S. supplies of offensive missiles such as Tomahawks, used to strike Iranian ground targets, and defensive Patriot and THAAD interceptor systems, deployed to halt an onslaught of thousands of Iranian drones.

I worked for a decade in the Defense Department’s inspector general’s office, conducting oversight of the sorts of conflicts that the United States so often finds itself in — ones that are easy to start and hard to end, just like this one. The Pentagon calls wars such as these “overseas contingency operations,” a misnomer that hides their true nature: long, stubborn conflicts marked by changing objectives, cost overruns, fraud and waste. The risk is high that the public will not understand how much the Iran conflict will cost and that a lot of money will be wasted, either lining the pockets of fraudsters or paying for things that are marginal to the mission.

Congress should force the Trump administration to provide full, regular transparency on what it has signed up the nation to pay. And it needs to be clear with the American people how well the government is using the billions it is set to spend.

So, the best path forward is to tap a special inspector general to estimate costs, audit contracts, investigate fraud, inspect logistics chains and track whether stated objectives are met. The conflict in Iraq and Syria has one, as do the conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine. While I was with the Pentagon inspector general’s office, we created a website that provides the public information on funding and other oversight work relating to America’s support of Ukraine in its war against Russia.

But, the Iran war has neither a special inspector general nor a public website explaining how much is being (wastefully❗) spent 💲and on what❓

Federal lawmakers know they cannot count on executive branch officials for a straight answer about this war’s cost. Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the House Budget Committee on April 15, “I don’t have a ballpark for you.” It is incredible for him to claim that he has no general sense of the Iran war’s cost so far. Many people, including in the government, have been counting.

The Pentagon told Congress that the first six days of the war cost more than 💲11.3 billion. The Center for Strategic and International Studies calculated that munitions consumed 84 cents of every dollar spent on the Iran conflict in the opening 100 hours, as the U.S. military burned through Tomahawk, Patriot and THAAD inventories. With over 50,000 U.S. troops deployed in the region and about 13,000 strikes against Iran, the American Enterprise Institute estimated the cost at between 💲25 billion and 💲35 billion.

And that’s before the long-tail contracts that follow every war. Those costs can be enormous, and we need to anticipate them.

In 2014, the United States began its operation to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The so-called caliphate fell in 2019. Yet Congress enacted 💲11.5 billion for the operation across fiscal years 2024 and 2025 — six years after ISIS was supposedly defeated. The lead inspector general filed his latest quarterly report this February, in the operation’s 12th year.

Over 17 years, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction documented 💲26 billion in waste, secured 171 criminal convictions and recovered almost 💲1.7 billion in criminal fines and other savings to the U.S. government. And the spending on this conflict is not done. Most Americans think the war in Afghanistan ended in 2021. Active combat did. Thirty-two days after the U.S. pullout, a new operation began — the Defense Department’s over-the-horizon counterterrorism mission to contain terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan, conducted mainly from bases in Qatar. In fiscal year 2025, about four years after the fall of Kabul, the Defense Department’s comptroller reported that the mission’s obligations exceeded 💲4.2 billion.

For Ukraine, the Pentagon inspector general found that the Navy outspent its funding by 💲399 million in a single fiscal year. A separate audit found 💲1.1 billion in questioned costs across 323 payments. Another evaluation discovered that most of the weapons sent to the Ukrainians had not been properly inventoried.

Congress should designate one person — the Pentagon’s inspector general — to lead aggressive and continuing oversight of the whole government’s Iran war effort, providing ample funding for this work in every supplemental war appropriations measure it approves.

Congress should also ensure that the Iran war’s watchdogs have real power, giving them subpoena authority to prompt government agencies to fix problems the auditors find. As of this month, there were over 1,400 open recommendations for the Department of Defense. In December, the Pentagon failed its eighth consecutive financial audit. This department has requested another 💲200 billion for its war in Iran and cannot account for the funding it already has.

But, the Trump illegal Iran world war is not just about treasure. Thirteen American service members were killed in Kuwaid and more than 380 have been wounded. Good oversight would hold the government accountable for both. 

As a Navy Reserve officer recalled to active duty in April 2023, I supported the rescue of 70 U.S. Embassy staff and their families from Sudan as that country collapsed into civil war. The capabilities that made the rescue possible — the airlift, the intelligence, the precision logistics, the access to partner bases — are what inspectors general assess and protect.

The money is already flowing. The oversight must happen soon.

Donald Trump has a fixation on creating cruelty.

File under "You cannot make this stuff up".  

Donald Trump’s latest fantastic notion is to repurpose Alcatraz Island, one of the National Park Service’s most popular historical sites, as the remote, isolated California prison it used to be.

Nothing about it makes sense.

It was costing nearly three times as much to operate as other federal prisons, which is why Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy made the sensible decision to close it in 1963.

Every necessity, such as fuel, food and water, had to be barged in. The buildings, visibly crumbling in the salty environment of San Francisco Bay, needed major repairs. Contrary to legend, it wasn’t escape-proof, either.

A total waste of money💲💰❗

The 💲151 million that Trump is asking Congress to squander on Alcatraz would barely begin to restore it as a prison. The operating expenses would be as extreme as before, if not more so.

But at least he’s asking Congress, rather than acting by imperial fiat like he did by destroying the White House’s East Wing for a grotesquely oversized monument to bad taste.

Congress should say no.

What’s most interesting about his Alcatraz fantasy is how it displays Trump’s obsessions with symbolism and cruelty.

Trump has written of it as a “symbol of law, order and JUSTICE.” What he means is punishment as hard as possible, at least for the criminals he doesn’t see fit to pardon.

Trump was clearly under the impression that no one had ever escaped from Alcatraz. That’s debatable. Over 29 years, according to the Bureau of Prisons, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes. Five of them are still listed as “missing and presumed drowned.”

Although San Francisco Bay is cold, the fitness icon Jack La Lanne once swam to the island pulling a rowboat, and several children also made the swim.

It would disappoint Trump to know there are no man-eating sharks.

A Clint Eastwood movie: Clint Eastwood's movie “Escape from Alcatraz,” may be all Trump knows about the subject. Eastwood's movie depicts the 1962, escape of three men who broke out of the main cellblock and vaulted a fence to the water without being seen. The FBI closed that case after 17 years, believing they had drowned, but it’s still on the active books of the U.S. Marshals Service.

The Bureau of Prisons has a super-maximum facility in Florence, Colorado, that’s far tougher than Alcatraz ever was.

Inmates, including the Mexican drug czar and escape artist known as El Chapo, spends 23 hours a day in a cell roughly the size of a parking place. Their only view of the outside world is a patch of sky seen through a window four inches wide.

It’s an escape deterrent designed to keep them from knowing even what wing of the prison they’re in.

Robert Hanssen, the Soviet spy in the FBI who’s still considered the nation’s worst-ever security breach, was at ADX Colorado for 21 years until his death three years ago.

The Colorado supermax, nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” should satisfy anyone’s thirst for harsh punishment. As one former warden described it, “We’ve figured out a system that’s far beyond death.”

But, in Trump’s mind, the public apparently needs to see something that’s more symbolic than an out-of-the way complex in remote Colorado.

‘We think he’s mad’: As far as the public seems to be concerned, Alcatraz is perfectly fine as a historical site. Some 1.4 million people visit it every year, many of them foreign tourists, and San Francisco is aghast at the prospect of losing that revenue stream to Trump’s crazy 😠😓whims❗

The scheme is far enough along that Pam Bondi visited the island with Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, whose department owns it now. (This was before Trump fired the pathetic Pam Bondi as attorney general.)

Alcatraz began as a military fortress and lighthouse, then became a military prison, converted to civilian use in 1933. It had become a white elephant by 1962, the year the Burt Lancaster movie “Birdman of Alcatraz” was nominated for Academy Awards.

A New York Times reporter working on a story about Trump’s pipe dream interviewed a British couple, Tony and Deb Vickery, while they were visiting Alcatraz. They mentioned having sailed through the Panama Canal and Canada, two other Trump acquisition targets.

“We think he’s mad,” Ms. Vickery said. “We think he’s lost his marbles.”

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board in South Florida.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans illegal war of choice in Iran paid for by Americans paying higher costs on almost everything

Chattanooga Times Opinion: Americans continue to bear the cost of Trump’s chaos.

Last April, 2025, Donald Trump announced what will go down as one of the dumbest economic policy decisions in American history.

Nearly every economist told the president that tariffs imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were a loser — with disagreement coming mostly from how bad their impact would be — and the administration was warned the move was likely unconstitutional.

Trump pushed on anyway, causing Americans to spend millions more for goods.

Now, a year after Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariffs began, it is time for the government to repay more than 💲166 billion in duties that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

So much for making America wealthy again. 🙄

Even after being rebuffed by the court, Trump enacted new tariffs, which are expected to cost the average U.S. family more than 💲2,500 this year — a 43󠀥％ increase (➕ ) from the 💲1,745 average estimated during the first year of his second term, according to data recently released by the Joint Economic Committee.

Small-business importers paid an average of 💲306,000 more per business in tariffs.

All for nothing.

A year of economic chaos just so Trump can go on a power trip. But that is what Trump's second term is shaping up to be.

Jeremy Siegel, professor emeritus of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, called Trump's tariffs the "biggest policy mistake in 95 years," alluding to the 1930, Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

The 1930, measure raised import duties on more than 20,000 goods by 50％ to 100％, aimed at protecting American farmers and industries from foreign competition during the Great Depression. 

But, it backfired, triggering retaliatory tariffs from other nations, causing a 26％ drop in global trade and worsening the economic downturn.

Trump's tariffs added about 💲20,000 to the price of a new home 🏠. They also increased the cost of clothes by 14％. Household furnishings, cleaning supplies and toilet paper are up  at least 5％.

Tariffs increased food prices on a host of items, including beef, up 16％, coffee up nearly 20％ and seafood up more than 6%.

The president claimed tariffs would magically revive American manufacturing. In fact, nearly 100,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost since the start of Trump's second term.

To add warmongering to injury, Trump's conflict with Iran added to the cost pressures on consumers. Gas prices jumped above 💲4 a gallon. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN on Sunday that gas wouldn't drop below 💲3 a gallon until next year. 💢

Thanks to Trump's illegal war of choice in Iran and tariffs, consumer confidence dropped to its lowest level since 2014.

Meanwhile, Trump keeps threatening to commit war crimes in Iran, while his administration's diplomatic efforts amount to the Three Stooges, with the former hillbilly and former Marine Corps corporal Vice President JD Vance, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and New York developer Steve Witkoff charged with negotiating peace.

Trump's shortsighted policies, rogue tactics, and erratic leadership have caused major allies to see the U.S. as unreliable and destabilizing. Trump is causing harm around the world, and yet expects the international community to help him out of the mess he created in Iran. Few allies have heeded his call.

For all his tough talk, America has never looked more incompetent or weaker.

In his concurrence with the high court opinion that Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he imposed sweeping tariffs, Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, reminded legislators of their responsibility to represent the people. 

Nevertheless, Republicans who control Congress have stood aside as Trump flails around with no clear plan.

Fortunately, many Americans are now paying attention. Trump and his policies are highly unpopular, and two-thirds of U.S. adults disapprove of his handling of inflation and the Iran war. Even the MAGA coalition is beginning to fray in the face of White House chaos and broken promises.

As the midterm elections approach, voters seem intent on sending the message that America can no longer afford the cost of an unchecked Trump presidency.

Donald Trump is a political failure along with is incompetent cabinet and cult loyalist followers. Impeach Trump Now

 

Chattanooga Times Fee Press Opinion: 

Americans continue to bear the costs 💲 of Trump’s chaos.

Donald Trump made yet another, among his many, terrible decisions; He unilaterally decided what will go down as one of the dumbest economic policy decisions in American history.

Nearly every economist told the president that tariffs imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were a loser — with disagreement coming mostly from how bad their impact would be — and the administration was warned the move was likely unconstitutional.

Trump pushed on anyway, causing Americans to spend 💲millions more for goods.

Now, a year after Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariffs began, it is time for the government to repay more than 💲166 billion in duties that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

So much for making America wealthy again.

Even after being rebuffed by the court, Trump enacted new tariffs, which are expected to cost the average U.S. family more than 💲2,500 this year — a 43% increase from the 💲1,745 average estimated during the first year of his second term, according to data recently released by the Joint Economic Committee.

Small-business importers paid an average of 💲306,000 more per business in tariffs.

All for nothing.

A year of economic chaos just so Trump can go on his evil power trip. But, that is what Trump's second term is shaping up to be. An insanity laced power trip.

Jeremy Siegel, professor emeritus of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, called Trump's tariffs the "biggest policy mistake in 95 years," alluding to the 1930, Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

The 1930, measure raised import duties on more than 20,000 goods by 50% to 100%, aimed at protecting American farmers and industries from foreign competition during the Great Depression. It backfired, triggering retaliatory tariffs from other nations, causing a 26% drop in global trade and worsening the economic downturn.

Trump's tariffs added about 💲20,000 to the price of a new home. They have increased the cost of clothes by 14%. Household furnishings, cleaning supplies and toilet paper are up at least 5%.

Tariffs increased food prices on a host of items, including beef, up 16%, coffee up nearly 20% and seafood up more than 6%.

Donald Trump claimed tariffs would magically revive American manufacturing. In fact, nearly 100,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost since the start of Trump's second term.

To add warmongering to injury, Trump's conflict with Iran has added to the cost pressures on consumers. Gas prices jumped above 💲4 a gallon. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN on Sunday that gas wouldn't drop below💲3 a gallon until next year.

Thanks to Donald Trump's illlegal war of choice in Iran and tariffs, consumer confidence dropped to its lowest level since 2014.

Meanwhile, Trump keeps threatening to commit war crimes in Iran, while his administration's diplomatic efforts amount to the Three Stooges, with Vice President JD Vance, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and New York developer Steve Witkoff charged with negotiating peace.

Trump's shortsighted policies, rogue tactics, and erratic leadership have caused major allies to see the U.S. as unreliable and destabilizing. Trump is causing harm around the world, and yet expects the international community to help him out of the mess he created in Iran. Few allies have heeded his call.

For all his tough talk, America has never looked more incompetent or weaker.

In his concurrence with the high court opinion that the president exceeded his authority when he imposed sweeping tariffs, Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, reminded legislators of their responsibility to represent the people.

Yet, the Republicans who control Congress have stood aside all while Trump flails around with no clear plan.

Fortunately, many Americans are now finally paying attention. Trump and his policies are highly unpopular, and two-thirds of U.S. adults disapprove of his handling of inflation and the Iran war. Even the MAGA coalition is beginning to fray in the face of White House chaos and broken promises.

As the midterm elections approach, voters seem intent on sending the message that America can no longer afford the cost of an unchecked Trump presidency.

Donald Trump and hypocrites in White House violate God's first Commandment: "No Strange Gods Before Me"

Opinion letter published in the Chattenooga Times Free Pess

I am shaking my head in disbelief.

"I am the Lord Thy God"

Exodus 20:2 is the opening statement of the Ten Commandments, establishing a covenant relationship between God and His people.

"There shall be no strange God's before me"....
🙄 In the last couple of weeks I have seen an ugly Donald Trump post depicting himself as Jesus Christ. JD Vance, who has been a Catholic for about 10 minutes, arrogantly insulted Pope Leo XIV by telling him to be "careful" talking about theology. Pete Hegseth, apparently thinking he was correctly quoting Ezekiel 25:17 in a Pentagon service prayer, instead quoted "Pulp Fiction." ❗

White House (fake female bogus shaman) spiritual advisor Paula White compared Trump to Jesus (OMG "no strange God's before me"💢). 

Now Trump is picking a fight with the Pope Leo, admonishing him to "get his act together." 

I was raised as a mainstream Protestant but now rarely attend church, so I am the last one to claim any level of Biblical literacy. But, I am appalled and offended.  They are hypocrites❗

From Nancy Bishop in Ooltewah, Tennessee

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are wrong to confuse Trump's evil Iran war with Christianity

Donald Trump's incoherent actions, attitude concern readers for the nation’s future: Opinion published in the Chattanooga Times Free Press: Apostle Matthew 5-9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God"  

War is not Christian and not in any way evidence of Patriotism❗

Not Christian nor American:  I find this version of "Christianity" that insists God is blessing Donald Trump's illegal Iran war, that prays for "bullets to find their target," that promotes bombs as God's instruments, to be repulsive, reckless and irresponsible. 

Those evil descriptors don't begin to address the issue that this is neither the values representing Christianity nor the values we have traditionally held dear as Americans.

And did I mention, this has bypassed Congress, has ignored our very Constitution and has come in direct conflict with international law❓ Who have we become that we are not hearing more dissent? Why are we not absolutely resolute in insisting our lawmakers in Congress take back their rightful role in the co-equal branches of government❓

Tragically, so much is at stake. Truly, this is much more than one's political affiliation. This is an issue that should matter to every single American. This is about our values and morality and our willingness to hold those who are conducting this current war to a standard that reflects our values and morality. 

Handwringing doesn't cut it. Insistence and persistence are our friends in making our voices heard and our expectations clear to our lawmakers and to those who are tasked with leadership.

From: Rev. Kate Stulce in Harrison, Tennessee

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are enabling failed incompetent foriegn policy, They have fallen in Iran and cannot get up!

Trump’s extended ceasefire shows his desperation to exit his failed and illegal Iran war — but he doesn’t know how. Americans are endangered by Trump's inability to conduct a foreign policy that goes beyond threats and military force. Echo opinion published in the Philadelphia Inquirer by Trudy Rubin.

In 1966, the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow came up with a description of a mental bias that became known as “Maslow’s hammer.”  “If the only tool you have is a hammer, I suppose it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail,” Maslow contended. Or, as some have reworded his theorem: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

This is a good diagnosis for how Donald Trump has trapped us all in his unnecessary and illegal war with Tehran. A war from which he can’t find a good exit.

It also explains why he indefinitely extended an April 21, ceasefire deadline with Iran, announced on Tuesday evening, even though he’d just threatened to resume bombing if there was no nuclear deal by then.  (Like Douglas Shields from Pittsburg wrote in a letter to the New York Times: "seen more stable direction from a weather vane — and at least it knows which way the wind is blowing. At this point, the only consistent policy is inconsistency, and even that seems subject to revision.") 

As Maslow would no doubt have diagnosed, Trump is a bully whose modus operandi is to browbeat, insult, and threaten opponents and allies (especially those who respond with timidity). He is impatient and seeks quick hits and big headlines.

Overseas, the military hammer has become his preferred tactic so long as the strike is quick, as in Venezuela and the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June.

But, when an adversary is tougher and the fight more complex, with a strategy that outflanks his erratic tactics, POTUS is flummoxed. The illegal Iran war has laid bare how Trump’s strategic and cognitive weaknesses endanger Americans, as well as the entire world.

“Trump did not know what he was getting into,” I was told by Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, Syria, and Lebanon, and one of the smartest Mideast analysts in the field. “This is the first real foreign policy crisis he has faced, and he has no idea what he is doing. It’s scary 😱😰😧.”

POTUS swallowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pitch that Iran’s Islamic regime could quickly be toppled by U.S.-Israeli bombing and replaced by more malleable secular leaders. 

CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Director John Ratcliffe called such regime-change scenarios “farcical,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled them “bullshit,” according to a New York Times investigation. But given his lack of knowledge about Iran and his conviction that his instincts trump expertise, the president picked up his military hammer.

Trump underestimated Iranian leaders’ tolerance for pain and determination to salvage their Islamic republic (even though their numbers were decimated and their country’s economy was in shambles).

But, most importantly, said Crocker, Trump failed to foresee (even though he was warned) that the Iranians had a critical card to play: the closure of the Strait of Hormuz through which about 20% of the world’s energy resources flow. Iran had never tried to close the strait before, but U.S. and Israeli bombs convinced its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that this was a necessary option.

“Iran now knows they can close the strait,” Crocker said. “Every day that the strait is closed adds to the economic pain of the U.S., Europe, and Asia. This has terrible consequences globally. They have turned the Strait of Hormuz into the Strait of Iran.”

Even Trump, with his unfettered verbosity, has referred to it by that name.

Last week, Iran offered to reopen the strait, but made clear its military would still control traffic in and out and charge tolls to passing tankers. Unsatisfied with this unpleasant option, Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to blockade Iranian ports so its oil exports were also halted.

But, Iran’s current leaders are betting, probably correctly, that they can withstand that pain longer than Trump can, with his eye on rising gas prices and midterm elections. Tehran says it won’t return to talks until the U.S. blockade is lifted.

Faced with this standoff, and the choice whether to resume bombing or extend the ceasefire deadline again,👀 Trump blinked.

Let me be clear, I am glad he backed down. But it revealed his desperation to exit the mess he has made.

“Iran has won the first round,” Crocker contended. “This is not going well.”

Trump’s problem is that he now has only bad options to reopen the strait.



Some right-wing hawks are advocating that he pick up the hammer. Fox News’ Hugh Hewitt actually recommended Trump go “full Sherman,” recalling the famed Civil War general’s scorched-earth march to Atlanta, and proposing POTUS destroy all of Iran’s oil and energy infrastructure.

Not only would this be a war crime affecting civilians and a further blow to global energy prices, but it would be unlikely to move the survival-intent hard-line IRGC, which now appears to be running the show.

Moreover, the worst possible option — which would be totally insane — would be for Trump to launch a land war in Iran to try for real “regime change.”

Iran was not an immediate threat to the United States before Trump started this war, and even he knows that sinking into such a bloody quagmire would probably set him on the path to bipartisan impeachment.

The only way out, said Crocker, is to try to swap a simultaneous end to the U.S. blockade against Iran’s ports for a full Iranian opening of the strait. Ideally, this would mean no IRGC control of shipping or tolls on vessels entering or leaving.

“This will be harder for Trump to do now, when he is weaker,” Crocker said. Especially when the Iranians know he is eager for an offramp, after he extended the deadline.

“But it is pretty apparent to everyone, except Donald Trump,” Crocker added, “that he’s not going to bomb Iran out of anything. The only way he can leave [the war] and save face is to get back to the status quo ante on the Strait of Hormuz.”

As for a return to talks on eliminating Iran’s nuclear program, Crocker believes that “at some point we will go back to the table.” However, he noted, the nuclear deal negotiated by President Barack Obama — which would have halted Iran’s nuclear program for 15 years had Trump not withdrawn from it — took two years to complete.

For future negotiations to have a chance, Trump would have to abandon his “I win, you lose” approach to diplomacy. He would finally have to assemble and listen to an expert team instead of sending his ill-informed real estate buddy and son-in-law.

Hope springs eternal, but this hope requires a suspension of disbelief.

True, Trump is desperate to end his misbegotten Iran venture, but he seems to believe he is winning. On Truth (Fake❗ ) Social, he was posting New York Times clips from 2004, citing the top ratings of “The Last Season of My Apprentice Juggernaut.” In other words, how can such a winner be wrong❓

The best we can hope for is that fear of higher gas prices will keep Trump’s hammer in abeyance — and that he will find a way to negotiate the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, declare a fake victory, and bring the troops home.

Perhaps after this Iran debacle, the U.S. public will grasp the danger of leaving a one-tool 🔨president in charge of foreign policy and the nuclear button when they vote in November — and choose legislators who are willing and able to rein him in.

Donald Trump inconsistency: "more stable direction from a weather vane" opinions

Donald Trump the UN-stable genius is emotionally unbalanced.

To the Editor of the New York Times: “Trump Is Turning America Into a Psychotic State,” by Jonathan Rauch and Peter Wehner. (Opinion guest essay, April 12), is disconcerting on many levels. 

To date, the other two branches of our government - judiciary and legislative- have failed to hold Donald Trump in check. 

Perhaps he feels that the Supreme Court decision that granted him sweeping immunity allows him to rule without restraint. Congress seems unwilling to hold Trump accountable when he clearly acts beyond the legal limits. These factors, combined with a president who can be emotionally unbalanced and whose circle of advisers seldom pushes back, place the country in an extremely precarious position. From Amy M. Ferguson Dunmore, Pennsylvania

To the Editor: Jonathan Rauch and Peter Wehner are ultimately making an argument about process, not just personality. Strip away the rhetoric, and what remains is a concern that the machinery of government — deliberation, consistency, institutional memory — is no longer reliably engaged. When that discipline weakens, policy begins to look less like strategy and more like improvisation.

The United States has weathered strong presidencies, weak presidencies and moments of real turmoil. What is different here is the suggestion of sustained unpredictability at the institutional level. That is not a governing philosophy. It is the absence of one.

I’ve seen more stable direction from a weather vane — and at least it knows which way the wind is blowing. At this point, the only consistent policy is inconsistency, and even that seems subject to revision.  From Douglas Shields in Pittsburgh, PA

Jonathan Rauch and Peter Wehner lay out in depressing detail Donald Trump’s lethal combination of qualities: evil, ignorance, out-of-control anger and disorganization. And he has freed up and nurtured the parts of our society and culture that share those qualities.

The results have plunged the rest of us into a state of dread💢😨

But, like the rest of Americans, I was mesmerized watching the return of the Artemis II astronauts and the ground team that pulled off this mission, I felt a bracing shot of optimism.

We were treated to an awesome display of the qualities of the other part of our culture: thirst for knowledge, intelligence, drive, planning, attention to detail and cooperation. And diversity — among both the crew members and the entire mission team. These qualities remain alive and well❗ From Natasha Lisman in New York

Donald Trump and maga Republicans like Senator Rick Scott and Senator Susan Collins are ignoring their constituents' voices

Echo opinion published in the Sun Sentinel Florida newspaper by Katherine "Kitty" Donovan:  This is not what Republicans voted for.

In Maine Writer's opinion, this excellent opinion could just as well have been written about Maine Senator Susan Collins.

I am a lifelong Republican from Boca Raton. I never imagined I would be writing something like this. But here we are.

Like many Floridians, I feel unrepresented — not by the opposing party, but by my own. That should alarm anyone who still believes in representative democracy. When elected officials stop listening to their constituents, we are no longer participating in governance. We are being managed.

Recently, my U.S. senator, Rick Scott, sent out an update touting his efforts to pass the SAVE Act, a bill framed as necessary to prevent noncitizens from voting. The message was urgent, emphatic and unwavering.

But, it was also deeply disconnected from reality.

There is little evidence that noncitizen voting occurs at any scale that would justify sweeping new federal restrictions. 

What the SAVE Act would do, however, is create new barriers for eligible voters — particularly married women, seniors, disabled individuals and lower-income Americans — who may face additional hurdles in proving citizenship under stricter documentation requirements.

There is also a question of scale. Even conservative-leaning data sources have documented extremely few cases of noncitizen voting over decades, compared to the billions of ballots cast nationwide in that time. Meanwhile, millions of Americans lack ready access to documents like passports or birth certificates, and tens of millions — particularly married women whose names have changed — could face additional hurdles under stricter requirements. That imbalance raises a fundamental question: Are we solving a real problem, or creating a new one?

As Republicans, we used to stand for limited government and individual freedom. We believed the burden should not fall on citizens to prove themselves again and again just to exercise a fundamental right. That principle seems to have been abandoned.

At the same time, far more urgent issues are being ignored.

We are witnessing executive actions that raise serious constitutional questions, including military engagement abroad without clear congressional authorization. 

Regardless of party, Congress has a duty to assert its role in matters of war. Silence is not leadership.

We are also seeing growing alarm from communities across the country about immigration enforcement practices — families separated, detainees held without timely charges, and reports that demand transparency and accountability. These concerns deserve serious attention, not deflection.

Yet instead of addressing these pressing issues, our leaders are doubling down on legislation that appears more about political strategy than public necessity.



This is not the Republican Party I have supported my entire life.

Across the country, Americans are exercising one of our most fundamental rights: peaceful protest. 😊❗

Demonstrations on March 28th "No Kings" 👑reflected a growing sense that voices are no longer being heard through traditional channels. Dismissing these movements does not make them disappear — it deepens the divide.

Let me be clear: This is not about abandoning conservative values. It is about reclaiming them.

We should be defending the Constitution, not sidestepping it. We should be protecting the right to vote, not making it harder. We should be demanding accountability from every branch of government, regardless of which party is in power.

And above all, our elected leaders should be listening to the people who elected them to serve.

If the Republican Party continues down this path, it risks losing not just elections but the trust of those who once stood firmly behind it.

I am one of them.

Katherine “Kitty” Donovan, of Boca Raton, is a retired Broward County school administrator with 37 years’ experience in middle schools, a grandmother of three boys and the Florida state senior ambassador for Giffords Gun Owners for Safety.

Donald Trump has failed miserably in his self declared war with Iran. His lack of strategy is extremely dangerous

Echo message published on X/ (formerly Twitter) by Jürgen Nauditt

Jürgen Nauditt

Stupid Donald Trump, the biggest failed strategist in US history, has plunged America into a strategic catastrophe. During his self-proclaimed “victory parade” against Iran, he squandered at least 45% of the US's precision-guided missile arsenal in just seven weeks—including half of all THAAD* (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missiles and nearly 50% of Patriot interceptor missiles. This isn't some fake news blog reporting this, but CNN, citing a CSIS analysis and internal Pentagon data. The result? An “imminent risk” of munitions depletion should a real conflict erupt in the coming years—for example, with China. Trump has ruined the US defense capability for years to come. And for what? For nothing. No regime change in Iran. No destroyed nuclear program. No strategic breakthrough. Just a shaky ceasefire that gives the mullahs time to rearm while America stands naked. 

Trump, the great (flunkie❗) “Art of the Deal” master, has once again only produced hot air – and in doing so, burned through the most expensive and scarce weapons in the USA like a pubescent boy with fireworks.

*The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) is a premier U.S. Army anti-ballistic missile system designed to destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range missiles in their terminal phase using kinetic "hit-to-kill" technology. Deployed since 2008, and developed by Lockheed Martin, it is a highly mobile system that intercepts threats both inside and outside the atmosphere.

#ImpeachTrumpNOW❗💢

Donald Trump obsessed with power but he will fail because his failed leadership is unable to inspire loyalty

Echo opinion published in the Boston Globe: 

Trump’s obsession with winning is a losing strategy. 

Raw power can only get a strongman leader so far. 

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it❗

Thank you for your service❗ 😞😰💘💙

By Stacie Nicole Smith, the managing director of the Consensus Building Institute and the director of the Workable Peace Project, a high school curriculum designed to teach conflict resolution.

For years, I watched ninth-graders learn a lesson that continues to elude some of the most powerful people in the world.

These students participate in a classroom role-play exercise based on one of history’s most famous diplomatic exchanges: the Melian Dialogue, recorded by Thucydides in his account of the Peloponnesian War. 

In 416 BC, Athenian envoys arrived at the small island of Melos with an ultimatum: submit or be destroyed. 

When the Melians protested, the Athenians cut them off. “The strong do what they can,” they said, “and the weak suffer what they must.”

The outcome: Athens “won” that conflict. Melos refused to submit and was conquered, its men killed, its women and children enslaved. In the very short term, it was a victory for Athens. 

Today, the logic of “the strong do what they can” seems to define how the world works. Great powers are ignoring the norms that once restrained them: Russia invaded Ukraine, and the United States arrested Venezuela’s leader and bombed Iran. The current administration’s approach to US foreign policy embodies the Athenian ethos, from a zero-sum approach to trade relationships to a willingness to take the country to war. 

In Canada, like the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently lamented at the World Economic Forum’s summit in Davos, “It seems that every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.”

Those who admire the Athenians’ vision of strength seem to miss the fact that Thucydides didn’t record that exchange to celebrate it. It’s a prelude to catastrophe. Because, within a few years, Athens’s enemies united against it. The empire Athens built by force dissolved precisely because it had been built by force. 

Loyalty from its conquered coalition proved only as durable as the armed force holding it together. I mediated environmental disputes, organizational conflicts, and complex multiparty negotiations, and I have seen how decisions dictated by the powerful are much less stable than agreements designed to meet the interests of all parties.

Students I observed almost always figured this out. In the role-play, some were Athenians, some , and they were prompted to think beyond what they “can” or “must” do. 

Instead, they had to consider what would meet their core needs, uphold their values, and endure the test of time. Students routinely found compromises Athens never even considered — like reduced payment by the Melians* or autonomy over some matters of governance. Those arrangements would have given Athens much of what it needed while giving Melos more reason to accept its rule. This is what mediation experts call the “mutual gains” approach to conflict resolution.

In other words, the students I work with learned the limits of coercion. By rejecting the moral case out of hand, Athens made its contempt for justice explicit and thereby handed every wavering city-state a common cause. Overtly illegitimate behavior reduces the cost of opposing the aggressor, makes coalition-building against it easier, and converts previously neutral parties into motivated adversaries. 

Legitimacy is not a constraint on power — it is a form of power. In their focus on demonstrating strength, the Athenians ignored the strategic importance of building legitimacy.

Mediators know that win-lose deals are almost always worse deals, especially in the long run. The pattern is consistent: One party’s interests are ignored and it is forced to comply with the aggressor’s demands, resentment accumulates, and the forced “agreement” holds only as long as the aggressor can maintain the pressure.

The mediators I work with share the conviction that achieving win-win deals on the world stage is possible. 

People practicing the dynamics of coercion and negotiation firsthand can learn to avoid the pitfalls of the raw, and usually short-lived, exercise of power.

The lesson from Thucydides, then, extends far beyond violent conflict. The ninth-graders in my classroom figured this out in an afternoon. The question is whether today’s strongmen will figure it out before the costs become irreversible.

*Melians were the inhabitants of the Aegean island of Melos, famously involved in a 416 BC, incident during the Peloponnesian War. They maintained neutral, friendly ties with Sparta but were forced into a confrontation by Athens, which demanded their submission. Following their refusal to surrender, Athens conquered Melos, executing all men and enslaving women and children

"like telling Albert Einstein he doesn’t know physics", "Hillbilly" JD Vance a former Marine Corps corporal is saying whaaaaa?

Donald "Dump" Trump, "Hillbilly" JD Vance, His Holiness Pope Leo and the midterm elections.  Published in the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California.

Echo opinion letter to the editor: Donald Trump presides over a U.S. population of 348 million people. Pope Leo has a world following of more than 1.4 billion people. 

Trump’s approval rating is under 40%. Leo’s approval rating is around 84%.  Obviously, Donald Trump is jealous, so what does he do❓ He goes after the pope and tells him he’s “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy.” (Maine Writer,🙄 laughable if it were not also pathetic, spoken by a man who thinks he is like god. Lucifer had 👿this same problem. (Book of Revelation 12:7-9 -war in heaven.)

In reality, it would be an understatement to say Trump is not only a convicted criminal, but he’s also terrible for foreign policy. 

Then "Hillbilly" JD Vance, who was also a Marine Corps corporal,  tells the pope that he doesn’t know the gospel❓ That’s like telling Albert Einstein he doesn’t know physics. 

And the "do nothing" Republicans, like Maine's Senator Susan Collins,  in Congress are saying and doing nothing about this Trump incoherence. We’re doomed if the Democrats can’t take over the House and Senate in November.

From Bill Krumbein, in Santa Rosa, California

Donald Trump puts 300,000 immigrants in danger if the U.S. abandons immigration legal Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

The Gavel, an article published in the Boston Globe: 

Sadly, the Trump administration doesn’t want these desperate refugees. But these people have nowhere else to go. By Kimberly Atkins Stohr

The harm that would result from the Trump administration’s harsh push to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian nationals living in the United States is not theoretical. Sadly, it’s a matter of life and death for upward of 330,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians in the United States who fled horrific conditions to protect themselves and their families. That is something that I hope comes across loud and clear❗ during oral arguments at the Supreme Court scheduled for later this month.

The peril is so great that the State Department has declared that no one should travel to either country for any reason.

“Based on almost any metric, Haiti is just a very dangerous place to be,” said Brian Concannon Jr., executive director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, a human rights non-government organization based in Marshfield, Mass.

“It’s the highest murder rate in the world,” Concannon told me. “Nearly 1.5 million people [have fled Haiti]. Gangs control 90 percent of the capital [of Port-au-Prince] and in many areas elsewhere. Haiti has the highest kidnapping rate in the world. It’s one of the worst places to be a kid. It’s one of the top five hunger spots in the world.”

An important fact here: While natural disasters and political upheaval are the sources of Haiti’s instability, experts have long cited that the United States has contributed to the situation through its ineffective political interventions and unsuccessful aid policies.

Similarly, according to a friend-of-the court brief filed by the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre and Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, there is no safe home for Syrian TPS holders to go if they are expelled by the Trump administration.

“Since the fall of the brutally repressive Assad regime in December 2024 Syria remains in a state of internal and international armed conflict and continues to suffer extraordinary and temporary conditions that preclude the safe, dignified and sustainable return of refugees,” the brief states.

Under the law governing TPS, those who apply and meet the fairly strict criteria for TPS protection are allowed to remain in the country legally, as long as the conditions that led to their home country’s TPS designation persist. 

But,  despite the dire living conditions in Haiti and Syria, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted a notice that “after reviewing country conditions and consulting with the appropriate U.S. government agencies,” Haiti, Syria, and several other countries “no longer meet the conditions for its designation for Temporary Protected Status.” It’s worth noting that all of the countries Noem stripped of that designation are majority Black, Latin, or Muslim. (Evil 👿Noem❗)

Several federal judges ruled in favor of TPS recipients who challenged DHS’s efforts to strip their status, temporarily blocking them from being deported while litigation over the matter proceeds.

But in an unsigned shadow docket order last year, the Supreme Court allowed some Venezuelans to be stripped of their TPS protections. The bid to end that designation began during the Biden administration in 2023 but was continued by the Trump administration.

So, is there any hope that the Supreme Court will reach a different conclusion when it comes to those fleeing Haiti and Syria?

Perhaps. Unlike in the Venezuelan case, the Supreme Court in March took the Haiti and Syria challenges off the shadow docket, ordered the parties to fully brief the case on an expedited basis, and scheduled oral arguments for April 27.

Perhaps the court has given consideration to the words of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her dissent from the Venezuelan shadow docket order, which acknowledged the real-world human stakes.

“What should happen to 300,000 human beings ❗ while our colleagues on the Ninth Circuit, and then perhaps we, do the job of judging❓” Justice Jackson wrote. “Should those individuals get to remain in the United States, working legally, as the Government promised them a few short months ago? Or should they be left vulnerable to job loss, family separation, and deportation to a country the Government determined in January was ‘experiencing a complex, serious and multidimensional humanitarian crisis’ to which they could not ‘returb in safety’❓”

I’m hoping that her colleagues listen. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

An excerpt from The Gavel, a newsletter about the Supreme Court from columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. 

Question to Donald Trump and maga Republicans? Has Iran surrendered yet? Multiple choice answers are "yes" or "no".

An opinion essay published in the New Yorker magazine, by David Remnick.

In war, truth is the first casualty.” It’s a line often attributed to Aeschylus, and it has never lost its relevance. Sometimes the culprit is the observer—the propagandizing correspondent, the mythologizing historian. Now, two months into Trump's illegal war of choice, the chief offender of truth is Donald Trump himself.

Donald Trump's war on truth. Who knew? 

On February 28th, at two-thirty in the morning, the White House press operation released a prerecorded video of Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago standing at a lectern in dim light. Wearing an oversized U.S.A. ball cap and no tie, Dpma;d Trump announced that he had ordered American bombers to commence destroying targets throughout the Islamic Republic of Iran. Trump made a claim of preëmption. He was acting, he said, to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” (This was confusing. Hadn’t Trump declared last June that he had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program? Hadn’t the Omani foreign minister, a mediator between the U.S. and Iran at negotiations in Geneva, just told “Face the Nation” that “a peace deal is within our reach”?) Trump went on to counsel the Iranian people to find refuge somehow—“It’s very dangerous outside, bombs will be dropping everywhere”—but then, at some unspecified moment, they should “take over” their government. “Let’s see how you respond.” And to his American listeners, he admitted, “We may have casualties. That often happens in war.”

For a narcissist obsessed with the projection of strength and grandeur, Trump gave a peculiarly gravity-free performance. The bill of his ball cap obscured his gaze. He raced and rambled through his text. And, rather than hustle back to the White House, he lingered at his country club. He had a fund-raising dinner to attend. It was left to the communications director, Steven Cheung, to provide clear instructions on how to react to the prospect of another American war in the Middle East. “NO PANICANS!” he wrote on X. “TRUST IN TRUMP!”

Donald Trump, together with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, could soon be heard lauding the precision with which they had “decapitated” the Iranian leadership and flattened military, police, and intelligence installations. And yet, as the late Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once blithely said, in the thick of America’s catastrophic misadventure in Iraq, “Stuff happens.” The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and much of the Iranian security hierarchy, would not survive the first day of bombing; neither would about a hundred and seventy-five innocents in the southern city of Minab, most of them children. When asked about a girls’ school there, which was struck by what was likely an American cruise missile, Trump blamed Iran. “They are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions,” he said.

Now, as war has engulfed both the region and the global economy, Trump and his sycophantic advisers have taken to improvising on the fly, floating conflicting justifications for war and predictions about its duration. The Iranians were close to developing missiles that could reach the U.S. (They weren’t.) They were weeks away from building a nuclear weapon. (They weren’t.) Israel forced America’s hand. (Marco Rubio.) “No, I might have forced their hand.” (Trump.) It’s all about regime change. (Trump.) It’s not about regime change. (Trump, later.) When confronted with these contradictions and falsehoods, all the President’s men followed his lead: they blamed
the media.

With increasing frequency, Trump berates reporters (particularly female reporters). He sues media outlets for sport. Resolve is in short supply. The owner of the Washington Post, the newspaper of Watergate, has done irreparable violence to his property merely to stay in Trump’s good graces.

But, while the President has little regard for the freedom of the press, he craves its ceaseless attention. His need has the quality of addiction. In Washington these days, there is hardly a reporter who does not have the Donald Trump's cellphone number. It is said that the best time to call is late at night while he is watching himself on TV and shitposting in his pajamas. Trump loves to muse aloud, then watch as those musings register in foreign capitals, and in the markets. Lately, he has been willing to say anything. The war will be over soon. Or maybe not. Whatever. Each pseudo-scoop is as ephemeral as a mayfly. But who can resist? When asked about the possibility of sending his infantry into Iran, he answers in the language of golf: “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground.” At other moments, he simply changes the subject to, say, his taste in interior decoration—“If you look behind me, see the nice gold curtains.” Are you not entertained?

His advisers, of course, know what to do. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who has cracked down on actual reporting at the Pentagon and has filled his pressroom with “influencers” and propagandists, spoke in his usual tone of rage recently when he lambasted CNN’s coverage of the war as “fake news.” He would be pleased, he said, when the Trump-friendly Ellison family, which has already swallowed up CBS News, finally takes possession of CNN, too.

Brendan Carr, who runs the Federal Communications Commission for Trump, eagerly joined the fray by threatening to revoke the licenses of television networks that are, in his view, “running hoaxes and news distortions.” Trump pronounced himself “thrilled” with Carr’s outburst. On Truth Social, he accused “Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations” of airing “LIES.” Perhaps, he wrote, he will prosecute unruly journalists on “Charges for TREASON.”

Carr’s threats to pull network licenses have no legal weight; the more immediate danger is that media owners, who are all too aware of the economic pressures they face, will quietly cut back on critical coverage of the Trump Presidency in general, and the war in particular. They will fear landing outside the boundary of what is deemed patriotic. The historian Garry Wills, in an essay on Phillip Knightley’s 1975 book about wartime journalism, “The First Casualty,” wrote, “A liberal democracy submits to propaganda more readily than a totalitarian state. Self‐censorship is always more effective than bureaucratic censorship.”

The most cruel irony is that Donald Trump, who addresses the Iranian people in the language of liberation, urging them to throw off the yoke of a regime that has brutalized them for decades, is the same man who threatens American journalists with treason charges and tries to strong-arm broadcasters into subservience. Having torn up a nuclear agreement in his first term and gone to war with no coherent goal in his second, Trump now directs his fire at the one thing he cannot afford to leave standing: the truth. What’s at stake is democracy’s oldest promise—that the people may call on their government to answer for what it does in their name. ♦

Published in the print edition of the March 30, 2026, issue, with the headline “The First Casualty.”