Good morning, I’m Thom Hartmann.
This morning, the Iran war has entered its most dangerous phase yet. Peace talks in Islamabad collapsed over the weekend after 21 hours of face-to-face negotiations, and as of this morning, the U.S. Navy has begun blockading Iranian ports and interdicting ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil is back above $100 a barrel. Markets are falling. Iran is warning of retaliation. And while all of this unfolds, Trump spent his weekend attacking the Pope, posting AI-generated images of himself as Jesus Christ, and getting rebuked by his own base. Corporate media is running cover for all of it. The FCC chair is threatening to yank the licenses of any outlet that won’t. And the billionaires are lining up to buy what’s left.
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The Islamabad Talks Collapsed — and Now Comes the Blockade
After 21 hours of the highest-level U.S.-Iran negotiations since 1979, the talks in Islamabad ended Sunday without a deal. Vice President Vance, who led the U.S. delegation, said Iran had refused to give up its nuclear ambitions. Iran’s side told a different story. Iran’s Parliament Speaker said the U.S. “ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation,” and Iran’s Foreign Minister accused Washington of “maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade.”
The core sticking points were the ones we told you about going in: Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, the Strait of Hormuz, war reparations, frozen assets, and an end to Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Neither side could bridge the gap. Tehran also wanted assurances the bombing would not restart once it made concessions — Iran was bombed twice during previous rounds of negotiation. That is not a paranoid demand. That is a country that has learned from experience.
Within hours of the talks collapsing, Trump announced a naval blockade. He said the U.S. Navy would “seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” and warned that “no one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.” CENTCOM confirmed the blockade began at 10 a.m. ET this morning, though ships not using Iranian ports would not be impeded.
Iran warned it would retaliate if the U.S. carries out the blockade of its ports, calling it illegal — essentially piracy — and said no Gulf ports would be safe if traffic to and from its own were impeded.
A naval blockade is an act of war under international law, and that’s not a technicality worth glossing over. Every comparable American action in modern history — Cuba in 1962, the Persian Gulf in the ‘80s — triggered a national debate, a congressional vote, or at minimum a serious public reckoning. This one was announced on a Sunday morning by a president who was simultaneously posting AI selfies.
The markets responded immediately. Oil surged back above $100 a barrel, with U.S. crude up nearly 8% to $104. The average gas price is now $4.13 a gallon — up $1.14 since the start of the war. Sources say the administration is also weighing resuming limited military strikes against Iran to break the stalemate, which would shatter the already fragile two-week ceasefire.
Vance, departing Islamabad, left open the possibility of future talks, saying: “We leave here with a very simple proposal — a method of understanding that is our final and best offer.” Whether Iran picks it up, or whether the next development is a missile, is the question hanging over everything this morning.
Trump Attacked the Pope — the Pope Hit Back
While Vance was in Islamabad trying to negotiate a ceasefire, Trump was on Truth Social attacking the Pope.
In a 334-word broadside, Trump branded Pope Leo XIV — the first American-born pope in history — as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” accused him without any basis of supporting Iranian nuclear weapons, and claimed credit for Leo’s election to the papacy, writing that if he wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.
He then said he preferred the pope’s older brother, a self-described MAGA supporter from Florida: “I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA.”
Leo did not take the bait quietly. Aboard the papal flight to Algiers at the start of an 11-day trip to Africa, the pope told reporters plainly: “I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do.” Asked about Truth Social specifically, Leo offered a pointed aside about the name of the platform itself: “It’s ironic — the name of the site itself. Say no more.”
The pontiff vowed to continue speaking out against the war. “Too many people are suffering in the world today,” he said. “Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pushed back on Trump directly. Archbishop Paul Coakley said he was “disheartened” by the president’s words, and reminded the country that Leo is “not his rival” and “not a politician” but “the Vicar of Christ.”
When a sitting American president attacks the leader of the world’s largest Christian denomination for opposing a war, and the bishops push back publicly, we’re not watching a political spat. We’re watching the moral authority of a faith tradition refuse to be conscripted into justifying bloodshed, and that’s a line that matters, whatever your own beliefs happen to be.
The polling on this fight is brutal for Trump. A March NBC survey found 42 percent of Americans view Leo favorably and just 8 percent unfavorably. Trump’s numbers: 41 percent favorable, 53 percent unfavorable.
Trump Posted an AI Image of Himself as Jesus — His Own Base Revolted
Less than an hour after attacking the pope, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself depicted as Jesus Christ, healing a man in a hospital bed while surrounded by American flags, bald eagles, and monuments.
The backlash from within his own movement was immediate and sharp.
Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene called it “more than blasphemy” and said it carried “an Antichrist spirit.” MAGA podcaster Michael Knowles told his 1.4 million followers the president should “delete the picture, no matter the intent.” Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham called it “OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy” and demanded he take it down and “ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.” Far-right influencer Milo Yiannopoulos blamed a White House faith adviser for the president’s behavior and wrote, simply, “Pray for his soul. Pray for us all.”
The image went up on Orthodox Easter Sunday.
The use of messianic imagery to sanctify political power isn’t new, every authoritarian movement of the 20th century eventually wrapped itself in God and flag. It’s how leaders signal to their followers that their authority isn’t just political, it’s divine. When even the MAGA faithful are saying “this has gone too far,” that tells you something important about where this is headed.
The Press Is Under Threat – and the Buyouts Are Accelerating
All of the above is the context in which corporate media is being pressured — and bought — into silence.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr has threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of outlets that don’t run cover for the Iran war. Trump has endorsed the threat and called critical outlets “corrupt and highly unpatriotic.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has rooted publicly for a billionaire ally of the president to take over a major cable network, saying the sooner that happens, the better the coverage will be.
That is not a conspiracy theory. That is the Secretary of Defense, at a government briefing, expressing hope that a friendlier owner changes what Americans hear about this war.
Independent outlets are being scooped up by billionaire investors — not just the Washington Post and the LA Times, but newsrooms large and small, one by one, folding into portfolios controlled by people with direct ties to the people they’re supposed to be covering. The ones that aren’t being bought are being threatened. As one communications attorney put it, the real hammer isn’t license revocation — it’s the implicit threat of regulatory retaliation against companies that need federal approvals for mergers and business deals. The chilling effect is the point.
What’s happening at the FCC right now is the same playbook used to dismantle independent media in Hungary, in Turkey, in Russia. You don’t have to ban journalism outright if you can make the cost of honest reporting high enough that no one can afford to do it. That’s not hyperbole. That’s how it works, and we’re watching it work in real time.
Independent media has never been more important. And it has never been under more pressure.
Why Raw America Exists —and Why We Need You Now
Let’s be direct about what is happening.
The government is threatening to pull broadcast licenses from outlets that won’t cheerlead a war. Billionaires are buying up the newsrooms that remain. And the reporters still doing real work — the ones in the hearing rooms, the ones asking the questions power doesn’t want asked — are running out of places to do it.
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This is Thom Hartmann for Raw America. The fight is here. Thank you for being in it.
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Former CIA Director Calls for Trump to Be Removed Via 25th Amendment. Former CIA Director John Brennan is now joining the chorus of calls for Trump to be removed from office by way of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Brennan — who led the CIA during the Obama administration — said during a recent interview that the 25th Amendment was “written with Donald Trumps in mind.” The 25th Amendment, which was ratified in 1965, allows for a president’s Cabinet to remove a president from office with a majority vote.
