Good morning, I’m Thom Hartmann.
Here’s where things stand this morning: Trump told Iran last night that “a whole civilization will die tonight” as his 8 p.m. deadline for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz expired. The U.S. struck Iran’s Kharg Island oil hub, which processes roughly 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports, just hours before that deadline. The new Homeland Security secretary is floating a plan to strip major American cities of their customs and immigration services at international airports. And one of Trump’s top billionaire backers is making a $64 billion bid to buy Universal Music Group, the label behind Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, and The Beatles.
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Trump Tells Iran “A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight”
Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, twelve hours before his own deadline, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” He added: “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
In the same post, Trump called on the Iranian people to rise up against their government, suggesting that “complete and total regime change” could bring about “something revolutionarily wonderful.” He closed by saying “God Bless the Great People of Iran” — the same people he had just told were likely to see their civilization destroyed by nightfall.
This was Trump’s fourth deadline since launching the war on February 28th. The second he set this week alone, after blowing past a Monday cutoff he had called “final.” Over Easter weekend he posted that “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” ordering Iran to “open the f--king strait” or “be living in Hell,” and signing off with “Praise be to Allah.”
Standing at the White House podium Monday, Trump told reporters the entire country could be “taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.” When asked whether those strikes could constitute war crimes, he said he was “not at all” concerned.
Brent crude has surged roughly 50 percent since the war began five weeks ago. Shipping through the Persian Gulf is running at approximately 95 percent below pre-conflict levels. The average gallon of gasoline in the United States has now climbed past $4.11, the highest since 2022. There is still no coherent strategy. There is still no defined endpoint. And there is now a president telling a nation of 90 million people their civilization may not survive the night.
When a president can threaten to erase a civilization on social media with no declaration of war, no vote in Congress, and no accountability to anyone, we have left constitutional democracy behind and entered something far more dangerous. This is what it looks like when one man holds the power of war and peace entirely in his own hands, and no one with the authority to stop him has the courage to try.
U.S. Strikes Iran’s Kharg Island as Deadline Clock Runs Out
Hours before Trump’s Tuesday evening deadline, the U.S. military launched strikes on Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export hub, which handles roughly 90 percent of the regime’s oil revenues.
Sources say the attack was focused on military targets on the island rather than the oil infrastructure itself, which the U.S. had intentionally preserved during a large-scale strike in mid-March. The distinction matters, though experts note that any sustained campaign targeting the island would carry significant risk of casualties and potential international blowback.
The strikes came during what sources described as active, if fragile, ceasefire negotiations between Washington and Tehran — a timeline that raised immediate questions about whether Tuesday’s military action was intended to accelerate those talks or collapse them. Iran had already rejected Trump’s 15-point ceasefire proposal on Monday, calling it “illogical.” Sources familiar with the situation warned that the Kharg strikes could jeopardize whatever diplomatic channel remained open heading into the evening deadline.
Trump has previously floated the idea of seizing Kharg Island entirely. Military analysts say such an operation would be a logistical nightmare and would likely result in significant American casualties. Whether Tuesday’s strikes represent a contained pressure tactic or the opening of a new phase of the conflict remained unclear as of this writing.
Bombing a country while you’re actively negotiating a ceasefire with it isn’t a pressure tactic, it’s a provocation — and history is full of examples of wars that spiraled out of control precisely because someone decided diplomacy and military escalation could run on the same track at the same time. The American people are the ones who’ll pay the price, in lives and in dollars, if this goes wrong.
New DHS Secretary Floats Stripping Major Airports of Customs Services
Markwayne Mullin, who replaced the fired Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary last month, has suggested the Trump administration may pull customs and immigration services from international airports in sanctuary cities.
“If they’re a sanctuary city and they’re receiving international flights — and we’re asking them to partner with us at the airport, but once they walk out of the airport, they’re not going to enforce immigration policy — maybe we need to have a really hard look at that,” Mullin said in a television interview Monday.
The cities on the federal government’s sanctuary jurisdiction list include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Every one of them is home to a major international airport.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called the idea “stupid,” pointing out that pulling customs services from major international airports while the Iran war is already driving energy prices higher would deliver another serious blow to the American economy. Immigration policy experts were more pointed, noting that the move would have sweeping international ramifications and disrupt millions of travelers who have no connection to immigration enforcement policy.
Mullin also claimed during the interview that Democrats planned to defund Customs and Border Protection — referring to the agency as “Customs and Border Patrol,” which is not its name. The man now overseeing the nation’s immigration enforcement apparatus does not appear to know what it is called.
Using federal services as a weapon against cities that won’t comply with a political agenda is a page straight out of the authoritarian playbook, and it doesn’t matter that the target today is immigration enforcement. What matters is that the federal government is openly threatening to withhold essential services from American cities and millions of American citizens as punishment for local political decisions. That’s not governance, that’s coercion.
A Trump Billionaire Is Trying to Buy the Label Behind Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, and The Beatles
Bill Ackman, an activist investor who poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican-aligned political action committees during the 2024 election cycle, has made a $64 billion bid to acquire Universal Music Group — one of the three dominant labels controlling the global recorded music industry.
Universal’s roster includes Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper who has been one of the most vocal critics of Trump’s immigration crackdown and whose Super Bowl appearance triggered a significant backlash from the MAGA base. Also on the label: Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, Elton John, and the catalog of The Beatles.
Universal holds more than 30 percent of the global recorded music market. A successful acquisition would hand a Trump-aligned billionaire direct influence over the commercial distribution and business decisions of some of the most culturally significant artists on earth, many of whom have been outspoken critics of this administration.
This is the same playbook we have watched unfold in media. A billionaire with political alignment to the current power structure acquires a dominant institution. Programming decisions shift. Artists find their contracts suddenly less favorable. Dissenting voices face structural friction rather than outright censorship. Jeff Bezos did it to the Washington Post. Patrick Soon-Shiong is doing it to the LA Times. David Ellison is doing it to CBS. The only question with Ackman and Universal is whether the music industry is next.
Every authoritarian movement in history has understood that controlling culture is just as important as controlling the news, because culture is where people form their deepest sense of what’s normal, what’s possible, and what’s worth fighting for. When the same political network that’s buying up newspapers and television networks comes for the music, it’s not a coincidence — it’s a strategy.
A Word Before You Go
Exciting news: we have an upcoming exclusive interview with Ivo Daalder, Barack Obama’s U.S. ambassador to NATO, to walk us through everything happening in the Middle East. This is at noon ET on Wednesday on our website and the Substack app.
But I need to be direct with you about where things stand.
The outlets that used to do this work are being bought, silenced, or restructured out of existence. 60 Minutes is being lined up for destruction by its new billionaire owner. The FCC is threatening any broadcaster that doesn’t run cover for this administration’s wars. The Washington Post and the LA Times answer to oligarchs. A Trump donor is trying to buy the biggest music label on earth. The consolidation of media, culture, and information into the hands of people aligned with this administration is accelerating.
Coverage that challenges power, refuses to sell wars, and doesn’t propagandize for the Ellisons of the world requires something the billionaires will never provide: support from the people who need it most. That’s you. That’s the only thing that keeps this newsroom standing when everything else is being bought or shut down.
Become a paid subscriber today. The journalism you want to exist has to be funded by the people it serves.
I’m Thom Hartmann. Stay informed. Stay engaged. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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