Good evening, and welcome to Raw America. I’m British Chris.
There’s a lot happening right now the billionaire-owned press isn’t covering. NATO is pushing back against Trump’s war in Iran. His poll numbers are so bad they may doom Republicans for the rest of the decade. The White House is quietly panicking about gas prices. And a judge just gave Trump the green light to demand an Ivy League university hand over names of Jewish students. It’s a lot to take in, and that’s exactly why independent media matters more than ever right now.
Raw America is Raw Story and Really American’s people-powered response to the attempted billionaire takeover of the media. Right-wing oligarchs are gutting newsrooms and making sure the stories that matter most never reach you. The best way to fight back is to support independent media directly. If you’re not already a paid subscriber to Raw America, now is the time. We can’t do any of this without you. The button is right below.
Judge Lets Trump Force University to Hand Over List of Jewish People
A federal judge in Philadelphia has ruled that the Trump administration was within its rights to demand that the University of Pennsylvania hand over information about Jewish students and staff on campus.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been investigating potential workplace discrimination against Jewish faculty and staff at Penn since 2023. The investigation was launched at the request of Andrea Lucas, a Republican who is now the agency’s chairwoman. Last year, the government issued a subpoena demanding names and phone numbers of members of Jewish groups on campus. Penn pushed back hard, and so did Jewish students and faculty themselves, with many drawing direct comparisons to the kind of registry-building that took place in Nazi Germany.
Judge Gerald Pappert, an Obama appointee, took Trump’s side, giving the university until May 1st to comply. He also called the Nazi comparisons, writing that drawing those parallels was “counterproductive.”
Here’s the thing, though. The people making those comparisons weren’t doing it lightly. They were doing it because the government was asking a university to compile a list of Jewish people. The judge may have found that legally permissible. That doesn’t mean it isn’t alarming. Especially given the White House’s propensity to appoint officials with ties to hate groups.
NATO Allies Frustrating Trump’s War in Iran
America’s NATO allies are pushing back hard against the war in Iran, and the cracks in the alliance are getting wider by the day.
Spain has closed its airspace to US military jets involved in Iran operations. Italy denied US aircraft permission to land at a base in Sicily. Poland says it has no plans to relocate its Patriot missile batteries. And France flatly refused to allow military supply planes to use its airspace, prompting Trump to post on social media that the US would “remember” France’s refusal.
The problem for the US is significant. The offensive against Iran relies heavily on European territory, including bases, ports, and airspace. But European leaders don’t want to be seen by their own voters as co-signatories to a war that’s broadly unpopular across the continent.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since said the US may need to reassess its relationship with NATO entirely. Germany’s Friedrich Merz, who’s gone out of his way to maintain a close relationship with Trump, still called the US attack a “massive escalation with an uncertain outcome.”
What’s clear is that the war in Iran is straining transatlantic relationships in ways that are going to be very difficult to repair, regardless of how the conflict ends.
Trump Is Already Dooming Vance’s Chances in 2028
Trump’s approval ratings are in freefall, and they’re starting to drag JD Vance down with him.
CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten has been tracking the numbers, and they’re brutal. Trump’s net approval has dropped from plus six points on Inauguration Day to minus eighteen now. That’s worse than Richard Nixon during Watergate. It’s also worse than Trump’s own first term at the same point, when his net approval was sitting at minus twelve.
With independent voters, it’s even worse. Trump’s net approval with that group is an extraordinary minus 45. Enten says that makes him more unpopular with independents than any president in recorded history.
Vance isn’t doing much better. His odds of claiming the Republican nomination in 2028 have dropped from 53 percent six months ago to just 37 percent now. That’s partly because Vance has been vocally supportive of the Iran war despite having spent years positioning himself as part of the anti-war, isolationist wing of the MAGA movement.
This week he told right-wing host Benny Johnson that Trump would continue the war “for a little while longer” so they could “neuter” Iran for a very long time. That kind of messaging, paired with gas prices now topping four dollars a gallon nationally, is not going down well.
The White House Knows Gas Prices Will Cost Them in Midterms
Behind closed doors, the White House is quietly panicking.
Senior aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff James Blair, are regularly briefing Trump on internal polling. The numbers aren’t good. Independent voters are unhappy about the economy, gas prices, and the general sense of chaos. Several officials have privately conceded that Republicans will face losses in the midterm elections if the trends don’t reverse.
Gas prices hitting four dollars a gallon for the first time since 2022 is making everything worse. Two thirds of Americans say they’re not willing to pay more at the pump because of the Iran war.
The White House’s public response has been to point to the eventual end of what they’re calling “Operation Epic Fury,” insisting gas prices will drop once the military action concludes. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the current situation “short-term disruptions.”
Wiles has reportedly been pressing administration officials for ideas to lower costs since the beginning of the second term. So far, no one seems to have a particularly convincing answer.
Support Raw America’s Independent Journalism
Bringing you this kind of analysis every week, going deeper than the headlines, finding the threads that connect these stories, none of it happens without your support. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Raw America recently brought you exclusive interviews with SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah and congressional candidate Lev Parnas, and there are more significant segments lined up throughout April. We also have a reporter on the ground in Washington DC, covering protests and congressional hearings in real time, as they happen.
None of that is cheap. None of it is possible without paying subscribers.
So if this kind of independent, fearless journalism matters to you, please subscribe to Raw America today. It’s the most direct way to make sure this work continues. The link is right below.
I’m British Chris. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you tomorrow.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Judge Halts Construction of Trump’s $400 Million Ballroom. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon — an appointee of former President George W. Bush — granted a preliminary injunction on Tuesday in favor of the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation while litigation over the ballroom continues. The group sued Trump in 2025, arguing that President Donald Trump’s administration acted illegally when it bulldozed the East Wing of the White House to make room for the ballroom without obtaining Congressional approval.
Judge Rules Trump’s Defunding of NPR and PBS Unconstitutional. Also on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss — who former President Barack Obama appointed in 2014 — ruled that Trump’s 2025 executive order defunding National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service was unconstitutional and unenforceable. Moss wrote that the First Amendment “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.” While the ruling is likely to be appealed, how NPR and PBS will get the funding back that Trump cut remains unclear.
Iran Identifies Major U.S. Corporations as ‘Targets’ for Attacks. The Iranian government recently accused major American companies like Apple, Boeing, Google, Intel and others of being “involved in terrorist operations” in making the case for attacking them as soon as April 1. Of the 18 companies listed, only two are non-American, and both are headquartered in the United Arab Emirates.
Trump Vows U.S. Is Leaving Iran ‘Very Soon.’ During a press gaggle in the White House, President Trump vowed that gas prices would drop after the U.S. left Iran, which he said would happen “very soon.” While he didn’t give a specific date, Trump said he expected Operation Epic Fury to wrap up in a matter of weeks, arguing that he had productive talks with the new Iranian regime. The average price for a gallon of gas is hovering close to $4 as of Tuesday.
Army Suspends Helicopter Crew Behind Kid Rock Stunt. The U.S. Army has announced the suspension of several personnel who were responsible for an unsanctioned Apache helicopter flyover outside the Nashville, Tennessee home of pro-Trump singer Kid Rock. Major Montrell Russell stated that the crew was from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
