“President Donald Trump, who loves to boast of the win-loss record of his endorsed candidates in Republican primaries, is considering hedging his bet in South Carolina’s governor’s race by potentially endorsing both remaining Republicans,” the Washington Post reports.
Education Department Sheds More Programs
“The Department of Education is moving its office for civil rights and administration of special education to other agencies, according to senior officials, part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the department,” Bloomberg reports.
“Oversight of civil rights in schools will move to the Department of Justice and special education programs will move to the Department of Health and Human Services.”
ABC News: Department of Education taking major step in dismantling itself.
JD Vance Tries to Clean Up for Trump on ‘The View’
“Vice President JD Vance spent much of his first guest spot on The View defending Donald Trump and members of his administration, or doing a bit of clean up on some of the president’s remarks,” Deadline reports.
“The interview, to promote his new book Communion, was confrontational yet always civil, to the point where he acknowledged that backstage, co-host Joy Behar had called him ‘fine.'”
Trump Taps Defense Act to Boost Stockpiles
“President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act in an effort to bolster delivery of weapons whose stockpiles critics say have been strained by the war in Iran and other conflicts,” Bloomberg reports.
Gold Heist Risks Exposing Top-Secret Spy Programs
“Five decades ago, four burglars broke into a billionaire’s safe, setting off a chain of events that exposed and foiled one of the CIA’s most ambitious operations against the Soviets,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Now, Central Intelligence Agency veterans are worried that another seemingly brazen heist—this time allegedly committed by a CIA official—could expose another top-secret program, after authorities say the official walked out of his office with $40 million in gold bars.”
Trump Says He ‘Never Cared’ About Iran Regime Change
“President Trump formally rejected the idea of regime change in Iran Tuesday, saying he ‘never cared’ about it — despite calling early in the war for the Iranian people to rise up against their clerical rulers,” the New York Post reports.
Said Trump: “You talk about regime change. I never cared about regime change. It was never a part.”
Mike DeWine Calls to End Executions
“Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that Ohio should abolish the death penalty, saying it is no longer a deterrent to violent crime,” NewsNation reports.
Said DeWine: “I no longer believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder. I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty.”
Trump Is Stalled Out
Andrew Egger: “Donald Trump is, above all, a showman. While he’s plainly slowing with age, he has certainly not lost his ability to deliver near-daily shocks with his attacks on good government, ethics, and taste.”
“But the nature of those shocks has been changing lately. More and more, they’ve seemed calibrated to obscure a harsh truth: Not yet two years into Trump 2.0, the administration’s momentum has ground to a halt.”
Anthropic Is Still at Odds with the White House
“Trump administration officials concluded talks with Anthropic on Monday without lifting export controls that were imposed last week on the company’s most advanced AI models in response to jailbreaking concerns, according to three people briefed on the matter,” Wired reports.
“The administration continues to believe that there are ways to disable some of the guardrails on Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5, effectively allowing users to access the more powerful cybersecurity capabilities of the company’s Mythos model.”
The Art of the Non-Deal
Francis Fukuyama: “It is clear that Trump is being driven to reopen the Strait of Hormuz at virtually any cost by the domestic pressure from rising oil prices and inflation. Being unwilling to send ground forces to Iran, he has had few cards to play over the past six weeks to get further Iranian concessions. So he has chosen to back down and accept a return to the status quo ante from before he began the war on February 28.”
“The world will indeed be better off if the Strait is re-opened. Perhaps Trump’s hardcore MAGA supporters can be persuaded that he has negotiated a consummate deal and achieved a great victory. But everyone else will understand that the world’s most powerful country is being run by a feckless and ignorant president who will impose immense costs on both other countries and his own people if he thinks it will benefit himself.”
Trump Stages an Iran Retreat
From a Wall Street Journal editorial:
“President Trump is touting his latest cease-fire deal with Iran as peace in our time, but the world is more likely to see it as a strategic retreat short of achieving his war aims. To reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. Trump is accepting Iran’s promises merely to negotiate over its nuclear program…”
“Those who say Mr. Trump had no alternative to this retreat ignore that the U.S. blockade was squeezing Iran more by the day, while Iran’s blockade was leaking. Mr. Trump simply didn’t want to endure higher oil prices for longer. This is his choice, not a strategic imperative…”
“Iran’s new leaders are likely to conclude that Mr. Trump has no desire for more conflict, and they will negotiate accordingly.”
Why Trump Is Keeping the Iran Deal a Secret
Phillips O’Brien: “So Trump signed a deal with the Iranians but is refusing to release its terms for days. Best bet is that he knows they are a massive defeat and is trying to set a completely false narrative by flooding the airwaves with misinformation for as long as possible.”
Trump’s Mystery Deal
From a New York Post editorial:
“Aside from the vast damage the war did to Iran’s military assets and the deaths of so many of the ruling cabal, this Memorandum of Understanding seems to leave things right back where they were before the bombs started dropping. That is: Tehran hasn’t actually agreed to give up its nuclear program or its support of terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas — but only to talk about it all some more.”
Gerontocracy in America
Just out: Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth―and What to Do About It by Samuel Moyn.
“As Americans debate President Biden’s infirmities and President Trump’s erratic behavior, we’ve neglected the bigger problem before us: a massive transfer of power and wealth to the oldest among us, and the curtailment of the prospects of the young.”
Europeans Are Slowly Changing Trump’s Mind on Ukraine
“If there is one thing Ukraine’s European allies need out of the US at the Group of Seven summit, it’s to get Volodymyr Zelenskyy time with Donald Trump and nudge the US president to pay more attention to Russia’s war on Ukraine,” Bloomberg reports.
“World leaders gathered at this week’s meeting in France see Europe and the US converging in the view that Ukraine’s position is getting stronger, according to G7 officials who asked not to be named as the discussions are private.”
Records Reveal $600 Million Estimate for Trump’s Ballroom
“Five months after the demolition of the White House’s East Wing, President Donald Trump claimed that the project to construct a massive ballroom and a bunker in its place would cost up to $400 million and that private donors would pay for all of it,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “This is taxpayer-free. We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents.”
“But a detailed project summary prepared for the White House by the contractor more than three weeks before Trump’s comments estimated the total construction cost at $600 million — with more than half coming from taxpayers.”
Trump Signals He Could Send Iran Deal to Congress
“President Donald Trump on Tuesday signaled that he’s open to sending details of the agreement with Iran to members of Congress, as lawmakers from both parties have raised questions,” CNBC reports.
Trump Achieved None of His Goals in Iran
The Atlantic: “Another mark of how much the U.S. has deviated from its aims at the conflict’s outset is the fate of the Strait of Hormuz. Its centrality to the new memorandum might suggest that Iran’s blockage of the narrow channel was a reason for the U.S. and Israel to go to war in the first place. Not so. The strait was open on the day the war started. Iran closed it, snarling global energy-supply chains, to gain exactly the leverage now being employed at the negotiating table.”
“By contrast, none of Trump’s initial goals for the conflict has been achieved.”
Bloomberg: “The biggest issue Trump focused on when he launched the conflict, Iran’s nuclear program, remains unresolved and subject to further talks. There’s doubt about what concessions Iran might make.”
“The firmest detail — a promise to reopen the strait for 60 days — is simply a return to the status quo before the war. And it’s unclear if that will remain in place under any long-term deal, or what the US might have to give to keep it.”
