Good morning, I’m Thom Hartmann.
This morning, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself holding a rifle in front of explosions in Iran at 4 a.m., then told his aides to prepare for an extended, Cold War-style blockade with no clear end in sight. King Charles III visited the White House and quietly schooled the president on history while pleading for NATO unity and peace. And in an exclusive interview, Raw America spoke with Congressman Ro Khanna about his meeting with Epstein survivors ahead of Charles’s address to Congress, why he pressed the King to acknowledge their pain publicly, and why half the Epstein files still haven’t been released. Corporate media is running cover for all of it. The FCC chair has made sure they know the cost of doing otherwise. And the Ellisons keep buying. Let’s get into it.
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Trump Posted an AI Image of Himself with a Rifle at 4 AM Then Told Aides to Prepare for an Extended Blockade.
Just after 4 a.m. Tuesday, the president of the United States posted an AI-generated image of himself in aviator sunglasses, holding a rifle, standing in front of multiple explosions in what appears to be the Iranian mountains. The words “No More Mr. Nice Guy!” appeared above his head. He added in the caption that Iran “can’t get their act together” and that they “better get smart soon.”
This is not a joke. This is the 47th president of the United States posting war fantasy content before sunrise.
Hours later, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump told aides in Monday’s Situation Room meeting to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran, potentially lasting months, in a Cold War-style standoff designed to squeeze Tehran’s economy until the regime agrees to end its nuclear program entirely. Iran’s latest proposal, a three-phase process starting with a ceasefire, followed by reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with nuclear talks last, was dismissed by Trump as proof that Iran wasn’t negotiating in good faith.
The administration wants Iran to commit upfront to surrendering its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and suspending further enrichment for at least 20 years. Iran says it has a right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes and isn’t budging on sequencing.
So the blockade continues. The Strait stays closed. One-fifth of the world’s oil supply remains bottled up. Gas sits at $4.11 a gallon nationally. And a source close to the president told Axios this week: “A frozen conflict is the worst thing for Trump politically and economically.”
Strongmen throughout history have understood that a permanent crisis is exactly what keeps them in power, because manufactured emergencies abroad demand unquestioning loyalty at home. What we’re watching unfold is the oldest authoritarian script in the world, and ordinary Americans are being told to pay for it at the pump and shut up about it.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News that Iran’s nuclear program “is the reason why we’re in this in the first place” and that it “still remains the core issue here.” The White House says the blockade gives the U.S. “maximum leverage.” That leverage is being paid for at the pump by every American who drives to work.
King Charles Visited the White House and Quietly Schooled Trump on History
King Charles III was at the White House Tuesday night for a state dinner, and he used the occasion to deliver a polite but pointed history lesson to the man sitting across from him.
Trump had said at the World Economic Forum in January that without the United States, Europeans would be speaking German. Charles waited for the right moment and then told the room, “Dare I say that if it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French,” a reference to British dominance over France in North America before American independence. Trump smiled. Melania smiled. The room got the point.
Charles, a direct descendant of King George III, the monarch on the throne during the American Revolution, went further. He defended NATO, stressed the importance of the international rules-based order, and pleaded for unity with European allies at a moment when Trump has been threatening to suspend Spain from the alliance and abandon the whole framework. He quoted Shakespeare’s Henry V in his closing and warned against what he called “clarion calls to become ever more inward-looking.”
There’s something almost tragic about a British monarch having to remind an American president of the alliance system that Roosevelt and Truman built from the ashes of two world wars, the same alliance that’s kept Europe at peace for eighty years. When the King of England has to defend NATO to the President of the United States, you know exactly how upside down this moment really is.
When Trump told the state dinner audience that Charles agrees with him that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon, Buckingham Palace issued a careful clarification: “The King is naturally mindful of his Government’s long-standing and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.”
That is royal for: do not put words in the King’s mouth.
Raw America Exclusive: Ro Khanna on Epstein Survivors, King Charles, and the Files Still Being Hidden
Before King Charles addressed Congress on Tuesday, Raw America and Call to Activism sat down exclusively with Congressman Ro Khanna, who had met with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse to press the King to acknowledge their pain publicly in his remarks.
Charles “should have met with the survivors,” Khanna told us. “At the very least today in the Congress, he should acknowledge their pain, and he should talk about justice, and he should make it clear that just because you’re a royal or powerful doesn’t give you license to abuse young girls.”
In his speech to Congress, Charles appeared to gesture toward Epstein’s victims, if only obliquely, saying that the strength of free societies includes the ability “to support victims of some of the ills that, so tragically, exist in both our societies today.” Whether that was enough is a question survivors and their advocates have been asking since the speech ended.
Charles’s brother, the former Prince Andrew, was arrested in February and is being investigated in the UK for misconduct in public office over his ties to Epstein. British investigators have been pressing the U.S. Department of Justice for access to unredacted Epstein files to aid potential prosecutions. The Trump administration has been slow-walking that request.
When Raw America and Call to Activism’s Joe Galina pressed Khanna on why it matters to keep hearing from survivors, the congressman did not mince words.
“They were denied justice,” he said. “They’ve been denied justice for decades, and what it shows is that rich and powerful people can treat other people as dispensable. That’s not America. We need one tier of justice, not two tiers of justice. They’re fighting a fight for all of us.”
America was founded on the radical idea that we don’t have kings or aristocrats who play by a different set of rules, and yet here we are watching the most powerful law enforcement officer in this country sit on files that name his old boss while the women who survived this monster are told to keep waiting. Equal justice under law is the entire reason this country exists, and it’s being shredded in broad daylight.
As many as half of the Epstein files remain unreleased. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal criminal defense attorney, has indicated he has no interest in releasing more of them. This week, Substacker and legal analyst Katie Phang filed suit against Blanche, alleging he violated federal law by refusing to fully release the files.
The survivors are still waiting. The files are still locked away. And the most powerful law enforcement officer in the country used to work for the president whose name keeps appearing in the documents he won’t release.
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This is Thom Hartmann for Raw America. The fight is here. Thank you for being in it.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Supreme Court Further Guts Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on Wednesday struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which had required states with a history of discriminating against minority voters to get approval from a federal judge or another federal authority before changing election law. The decision is expected to set off a flurry of changes to Congressional district maps in the Deep South, which may cost many Black Democrats their seats.
Trump’s Niece Reveals Why He Melted Down at 60 Minutes. After CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell read a segment of the manifesto by the alleged gunman at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, President Donald Trump called her “disgraceful” and said she should be “ashamed.” Psychologist Mary Trump — the president’s niece — said on her X account that Trump likely agreed to a sit-down with CBS because new owner David Ellison would have protected him from tough questions. She added that Trump likely felt betrayed by the network when O’Donnell confronted him with the gunman’s manifesto.
Bari Weiss Posts CBS News’ Lowest Ratings This Century. New ratings data from Nielsen shows that Tony Dokoupil’s CBS Evening News audience has sunk to historic lows. The show has now posted three consecutive weeks with a viewership under four million, with just 467,000 viewers in the coveted 25-54 demographic. For context, ABC World News with David Muir has seen skyrocketing ratings, with 8.5 million viewers over that same time period and more than one million viewers in the 25-54 age group.
Trump-Appointed Judge Slams Door on Bid to Get Voter Data. A federal judge in Arizona ruled Tuesday to dismiss the Trump administration’s lawsuit to obtain sensitive voter data from Arizona. U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich — who Trump appointed during his first term — wrote in her decision that the data, which includes dates of birth, home addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, isn’t the kind of information that the Attorney General of the United States can demand from a state. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, celebrated the decision and told the Trump administration to “pound sand.”
Republicans Prepare to Force Trump’s Hand on Iran War. The 60-day window under the 1973 War Powers Act is due to expire on Friday, meaning that Trump will need Congressional approval in order to continue his war in Iran. Several Senate Republicans, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Curtis (R-Utah), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) have all indicated they would like to see an exit strategy from the White House before agreeing to extend the war.
