Good morning, I’m Thom Hartmann.
Here’s what we’re covering this morning: Trump went on a 1 a.m. rant attacking the Supreme Court over birthright citizenship after watching Fox News. His Easter weekend posting spree included threatening to bomb Iranian power plants, sharing anti-Muslim immigrant propaganda, and calls from lawmakers to invoke the 25th Amendment. Iran has flatly rejected Trump’s 15-point ceasefire plan, calling it “illogical,” while his Tuesday deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz expires today. And ICE deported a key federal witness before he could testify, handing two drug smugglers an acquittal and torpedoing a years-long prosecution.
Raw America is Raw Story and Really American’s people-powered response to the MAGA billionaire takeover of American media. CNN and CBS are running cover for the war in Iran. The FCC chair is threatening broadcast licenses for any outlet that doesn’t. The Washington Post and the LA Times are being swallowed by oligarchs. And sources inside CBS say 60 Minutes is being lined up for destruction the moment this season ends. Every week the circle of independent journalism gets smaller. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please become one today. This is exactly the moment that decision matters.
Trump Attacks the Supreme Court at 1 A.M. After Watching Fox News
Shortly after midnight, Donald Trump posted a rant on Truth Social attacking the Supreme Court — not because of any new ruling, but because he apparently watched a Fox News segment and felt the justices should have seen it too.
Trump suggested it was “too bad” the Court hadn’t studied a segment by Fox host Mark Levin arguing that the 14th Amendment was never meant to extend birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants. “THEY SHOULD USE THEIR POWERS OF COMMON SENSE FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY,” Trump wrote, also attacking the Court over tariffs and warning it not to make more “bad decisions.”
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week on Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship — a move struck down by every lower federal court that reviewed it. Even justices Trump nominated appear deeply skeptical. Chief Justice John Roberts responded to the administration’s argument that we’re in a “new world” by noting: “It’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.” Trump had taken the unusual step of attending the hearing himself, and sources say he walked out after justices repeatedly dismantled the administration’s arguments.
For the record on Trump’s new legal authority: Mark Levin has a law degree from Temple University, spent time in the legal department at Texas Instruments, and has never argued a case before the Supreme Court. His path to Sunday night Fox News ran through Rush Limbaugh’s radio program. The president of the United States is now publicly demanding the nation’s highest court take legal cues from him.
What we’re watching here is a president who’s decided that if he can’t control the courts through appointments, he’ll try to control them through public intimidation. That’s not a Twitter tantrum. That’s an assault on the separation of powers that every American civics class taught us was the foundation holding this whole experiment together.
Trump’s Easter Weekend: War Threats, Anti-Muslim Propaganda, and 25th Amendment Calls
The president of the United States opened Easter Sunday not with a call for peace, but with a threat to bomb Iranian power plants, signed off with “Praise be to Allah” — a remark that prompted immediate questions about his mental state from both parties.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” Trump posted early Sunday morning. “Open the F---in’ Strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
He skipped Easter services entirely, opting instead for a motorcade tour of Washington that included a stop near Arlington Memorial Bridge, where he plans to build what he is calling his “Arch de Trump.” He later golfed at his Virginia club.
Later Sunday night, Trump shared a video clip purporting to show Somali shoppers at the Mall of America, set to the Tears for Fears song “Mad World,” with a caption falsely claiming 85 percent of those shown were on welfare. The clip originated from an anonymous account. Trump shared it without comment.
By Sunday evening, Democratic lawmakers were calling publicly for the 25th Amendment. Senator Chris Murphy, and Representatives Melanie Stansbury and Yassamin Ansari were among those demanding Trump’s cabinet act. “The emperor has no clothes,” Stansbury wrote. “Time for the 25th Amendment. Congress and the Cabinet must act.”
Even former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene joined in: “Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshiping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness.”
When a sitting president is threatening to bomb civilian infrastructure at 1 in the morning and spreading race-baiting propaganda he pulled from anonymous accounts, and members of both parties are calling for the 25th Amendment, we’ve left the territory of ordinary political dysfunction. We’re in a genuine crisis of governance, and the cabinet’s silence is its own answer.
Iran Rejects Trump’s Ceasefire Plan as Tuesday Deadline Arrives
Iran has rejected Trump’s 15-point ceasefire proposal, with the Foreign Ministry calling it “illogical” and vowing to continue defending itself with “all its might.”
This comes directly after Trump publicly claimed Iran had asked the United States for a ceasefire — a claim Iran has now flatly contradicted on the record.
Today is the deadline Trump set for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes. Trump has extended this deadline multiple times already. He has threatened to destroy Iranian civilian infrastructure if Tehran refuses. International law experts have signed open letters warning those strikes could constitute war crimes.
The war is now in its sixth week. Oil is above $100 a barrel. Gas prices have topped $4 a gallon nationally. There is no plan. There is no end in sight. And the administration that started this conflict is now being publicly contradicted by the country it is fighting about the basic facts of whether peace talks are happening at all.
Every war in American history that’s dragged past its early weeks without a clear objective has ended up costing far more in lives and treasure than anyone admitted upfront. We’re six weeks into a conflict where the administration can’t agree with the other side on whether peace talks are even happening, and American families are already paying for it at the gas pump.
ICE Deported a Federal Witness Mid-Trial. The Drug Smugglers Went Free.
Two men accused of running a drug smuggling operation walked out of a Los Angeles courtroom as free men after ICE deported the government’s key witness to Tijuana before he could testify.
Javier Hernandez had pled guilty to conspiracy charges in connection with a 2015 raid that recovered 22 pounds of methamphetamine, and had agreed to testify against his co-defendants as part of his cooperation agreement. During a routine immigration check-in last year, ICE arrested him and deported him — without notifying federal prosecutors.
Months later, his co-defendants were acquitted. The case collapsed without him.
Past administrations coordinated between immigration enforcement and federal prosecutors to keep witnesses in the country through the duration of trials. Under the terms of his original agreement, Hernandez was warned deportation remained possible — but no previous administration had exercised that option mid-prosecution without consulting the relevant U.S. Attorney’s office.
A DHS spokesperson called Hernandez a “clear and present threat to public safety.” What that framing leaves out is that his testimony was the government’s primary tool for putting accused drug traffickers in prison. ICE blew up its own side’s case, let two defendants walk, and is calling it a public safety win.
This is what happens when mass deportation becomes the only metric that matters.
When deportation numbers become the only thing an administration tracks, everything else falls apart, including drug prosecutions, witness agreements, and the very rule of law that enforcement agencies claim to be upholding. This isn’t a bureaucratic mistake. It’s what happens when a policy becomes an ideology.
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