“President Donald Trump is ramping up pressure for Republicans to ‘unify’ behind a clean, 18-month extension of a key spy power — making a last minute plea to GOP holdouts refusing to bend without certain amendments,” Politico reports.
Iran Threatens Retaliation Over U.S. Blockade
Iran on Wednesday threatened further retaliation over an American naval blockade of its ports in the critical Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. military said that it had “completely halted” trade in and out of Iran by sea, the New York Times reports.
Headline of the Day
“Vance Says the Pope Should Be More Careful When Talking About Theology”
— New York Times, April 15, 2026.
Trump’s Go-To Justification for Contentious Decisions
New York Times: “President Trump offered a surprising justification last month for forging ahead with construction of his White House ballroom: Halting the $400 million project would pose a grave threat to national security.”
Said Trump: “Everything is drone-proof and bulletproof.”
“It was hardly the first time the administration had invoked national security to justify a contentious decision. Over the past year, top officials have cited similar concerns when stripping union rights from thousands of federal workers, pausing the construction of wind farms off the East Coast, and exempting oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from protections for endangered species of whales.”
“Critics see a troubling trend that is testing the limits of presidential power.”
Trump’s Dark Night on Truth Social
Tom Nichols: “On many recent nights, Donald Trump has been posting obsessively on his Truth Social site into the wee hours. The president, of course, has never been one for a solid night’s sleep—or restrained and temperate commentary on social media—but his emotional state seems to be fraying: This weekend, he attacked Pope Leo XIV, presented himself as Jesus Christ, and then jabbed at his phone until dawn.”
“Judging from those posts, the commander in chief is in distress. No one can say for sure what is causing the president’s bizarre behavior. Perhaps Trump’s narcissistic insistence that he is always successful in everything he undertakes is feeling the sting and strain of multiple public failures, including the collapse of his campaign to dislodge the Iranian regime, plummeting approval ratings, the decline of the U.S. economy, and, on Sunday, the crushing defeat of one of his favorite fellow authoritarians, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.”
“But whatever is driving this decline in Trump’s self-control, Americans must not shrug off the president’s latest implosion.”
Trump Breaks With Giorgia Meloni
New York Times: “After suffering major political setbacks because of her association with Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Italy and seen as the cause of rising gas prices, Ms. Meloni seized on an opportunity to extricate herself from a relationship that had grown domestically and internationally poisonous. After Mr. Trump launched a broadside on Monday against Pope Leo XIV, Ms. Meloni rallied to the American pontiff’s defense, saying, ‘I find President Trump’s remarks about the Holy Father unacceptable.’”
“Mr. Trump, clearly jilted, lashed out at Ms. Meloni, saying in an interview with an Italian newspaper on Tuesday that he hadn’t talked to her ‘in a long time,’ was vexed by her lack of participation in the war in Iran and was ‘shocked by her,’ adding, ‘I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.’”
Where’s Jared Kushner’s Ethics Disclosure?
The Atlantic: “While carrying out public business for his father-in-law, he has continued to pursue his private interests and declined to disclose any information about them. There’s a carve-out designation in ethics laws known as the ‘special government employee,’ which allows business people to perform work for the government.”
“Elon Musk was a special government employee, and so was Corey Lewandowski. But Kushner has not been designated one. He is both outside and inside government—a ‘volunteer,’ the White House calls him. And he is vaulting over strictures that were put in place to defend the mechanisms of government from becoming tools of foreign or private interests.”
Clay Fuller Sworn In to Fill Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Seat
Associated Press: “Republican Rep. Clay Fuller of Georgia was sworn into office Tuesday after winning a special election to take the congressional seat formerly held by Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
“Fuller represents a deep red district in northwest Georgia and has sought to align himself with President Donald Trump as much as possible.”
MAGA Is Starting to Look Beyond Trump
“A seemingly endless torrent of criticism directed toward Trump from former MAGA allies suggests the president is losing support from his base,” Wired reports.
What Democrats Can Learn from Hungary
Paul Krugman: “There will be many post-mortems on the demise of the Orbán regime. The stunning victory of Hungary’s opposition was delivered by an electoral surge so large that it swamped the anti-democratic breakwaters the regime had erected to maintain its grip on power.”
“A full analysis of why Hungarians repudiated Orbán will surely contain many details unique to Hungary. However, it’s also clear that there were three main factors that led to Orbán’s overthrow. And understanding these factors is important if Americans are to defeat Trump’s MAGA regime.”
Trump Says He’ll Fire Jerome Powell If He Doesn’t Leave
“President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell if he does not step down from the central bank,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “I’ll have to fire him. If he’s not leaving on time.”
“Trump also refused to distance himself from the Justice Department’s criminal probe into the Fed’s $2.5 billion office renovation, which prosecutors have used to ratchet up pressure on the Fed even as its legal standing has crumbled in court. Asked whether he would direct the department to stand down from the investigation, which a federal judge last month found to be part of a broader White House pressure campaign, Trump declined.”
U.S. Sends Thousands More Troops to Mideast
“The Pentagon is sending thousands of additional troops into the Middle East in the coming days, as the Trump administration attempts to pressure Iran into a deal that could end the weeks-long conflict there while considering the possibility of additional strikes or ground operations if a fragile ceasefire does not hold,” the Washington Post reports.
“The forces moving into the region include about 6,000 troops aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and several warships escorting it… About 4,200 others with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked Marine Corps task force, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, are expected to arrive near the end of the month.”
Iran Has a Chinese Spy Satellite
“Iran secretly acquired a Chinese spy satellite that gave the Islamic republic a powerful new capability to target US military bases across the Middle East during the recent war,” the Financial Times reports.
James Talarico Raises Enormous Sum for Senate Race
Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D) raised $27 million in the first quarter of the year, Punchbowl News reports.
Trump Takes Aim at Pope Leo Again
President Trump took aim at Pope Leo XIV again, suggesting that he was unaware of Iran’s repressive actions against its own people and building on his criticism of the Catholic pontiff, CNBC reports.
Said Trump, in a late night Truth Social post: “Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable.”
Is Eric Swalwell the Straw That Broke Congress’s Back?
Wall Street Journal: “There’s a ‘tip of the iceberg’ feeling in Washington now when it comes to congressional (mis)behavior. Lawmakers from both parties have been swept up in a range of scandals (certain things are nonpartisan after all). Some have gone beyond ethical flubs. More than a few lawmakers have either gone to jail or faced criminal charges. Others, like Swalwell, have faced allegations of sexual misconduct (he has denied wrongdoing).”
“Even before (waves arms) all this, a record number of lawmakers weren’t running for re-election in November. There have been two government shutdowns in the past year. A growing number of lawmakers look at Congress as more of a side hustle, focusing instead on their work as ‘influencers’ or podcasters.”
NPR: How Congress’ workplace culture made accountability elusive.
Democrats File Impeachment Articles Against Hegseth
“House Democrats will introduce five articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday accusing him of abuse of power, war crimes and other serious wrongdoing,” Axios reports.
“The measure has virtually no chance of passing this Congress, but it is the latest sign that Democrats have coalesced around Hegseth as their new top target in Trump’s Cabinet.”
Mediators Move Closer to Extending Ceasefire
“Mediators moved closer Wednesday to extending the ceasefire between the United States and Iran and restarting negotiations to salvage the fragile truce before it expires next week,” the AP reports.
