The weekend has arrived, and I could not be more grateful!

It’s been 41 days of war coverage, and your girl needs a break. My plans this weekend are to put the decorative finishing touches on my office and spend some time outside cleaning up the yard. I am literally touching grass this weekend.

If the president could be chill this weekend, that would be awesome, but Vance and crew are headed to Islamabad to pow-pow with Iran, so my hopes are slim.

ICYMI

Rivera and Reeves are now LIVE Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30 pm EST exclusively on Substack for R&R paying subscribers!

Rivera and Reeves

Ep. 222 | Iran Ceasefire Chaos: Conflicting Plans, Missing Info & What's Really Happening

The ceasefire with Iran has a very big asterisk on it—and the media isn't helping anyone figure out what's actually in it. This week, Meseidy and Rachel break down the chaotic reporting surrounding the Iran negotiations: conflicting 10-point plans, a White House pushing back on its own president's statements, a mysteriously revived Ayatollah, and China quietly pulling strings behind the curtain. They also get into NATO's stunning refusal to open airspace during the conflict, why European allies are playing a dangerous game of ingratitude, and what the political consequences could look like heading into the midterms. Plus: the podcast class revolt, Lawrence O'Donnell's latest brain melt, summer grilling recommendations, and a cat who brought home a snake. It's the episode that covers everything—because everything is happening at once…

Listen now

2 days ago · 5 likes · Meseidy and Rachel Reeves

In today’s Brief:

• Melania steps to a microphone in the Cross Hall and resurrects the Epstein story on purpose.

• Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner land in Islamabad Saturday for the highest-level U.S.–Iran meeting since 1979.

• A former Army employee who exposed harassment inside Delta Force just got charged under the Espionage Act.

• Anthropic says its newest model is so good at hacking that only eleven companies on Earth are allowed to touch it.

• Plus: a judge accuses the Pentagon of acting like an autocracy, and Trump goes nuclear on Tucker.

Let’s get into the news!

“Epstein was not alone.” Melania breaks her silence and demands a hearing.

Thursday afternoon, Melania Trump walked into the Cross Hall, spoke for six minutes, took zero questions, and single-handedly resurrected a story her husband’s team has spent months trying to move past.

She denied being an Epstein victim. She denied friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell. She dismissed the 2002 “Dear GI” email as “trivial,” noting the Daily Beast, Carville, and HarperCollins UK have all retracted. Then she did the part nobody saw coming. She demanded a public, sworn-testimony congressional hearing for Epstein’s survivors.

“Now is the time for Congress to act,” she said. “Epstein was not alone.”

So the First Lady, whose husband pushed against the bipartisan transparency law that forced the FBI file release, just endorsed the exact hearings House Oversight Democrats have demanded since January. The beltway was stunned. The President told MS NOW he didn’t “know anything about” it beforehand.

This is stunning from a First Lady who is famously private. So why this week, with Iran peace talks two days away? Had she had enough, or is something about to drop, and she’s setting the terms first?

The real line wasn’t what she said about herself. It was what she said about everyone else. “Several prominent male executives resigned from their powerful positions after this matter became widely politicized.” Every wealthy man who flew on that plane just got put on notice. By the First Lady. From the Cross Hall.

Then came the pushback. Within hours, Jim Acosta published a statement from Epstein’s survivors threading a fascinating needle. They’ve told their stories, they say, and being asked to tell them under oath in front of Congress is a “deflection.”

Let me get this straight. Melania offered them a microphone, a hearing room, and subpoena power. They called testifying a “burden.”

These are the same survivors whose advocates have spent years demanding accountability on TV, in op-eds, and in documentaries that carried zero perjury risk. The moment someone says, “Okay, say it under oath,” it becomes, sorry, I can’t, too retraumatizing. Maybe it’s easier to workshop the story in friendly media than say it where Jim Jordan gets to cross-examine.

Update after Publishing:

Vance to Islamabad: the highest-level U.S.–Iran sit-down since 1979

Saturday morning local time, VP JD Vance, envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner meet Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Islamabad. It’s the highest-level U.S.–Iran engagement since the 1979 revolution. Vance, now Trump’s designated “closer”, warned in Budapest that if Tehran doesn’t negotiate in good faith they’ll “find out that President Trump is not one to mess around with.”

The ceasefire is held together with duct tape and Truth Social posts. Per The Hill, Israel just launched its largest barrage on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran calls it a breach. Ghalibaf says three of ten clauses are violated. Trump told Netanyahu to “low-key it.” Meanwhile Iran is demanding $1-per-barrel in crypto to let tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. About 20,000 mariners are stranded in the Persian Gulf. Oil is flirting with $100 again.

The nuclear question is the only one that matters, and the press is treating it like an afterthought. The minimum for this war to end as anything but a failure: remove the 60% enriched uranium from Iran, dilute the 20% stockpile, suspend enrichment for years. If Iran keeps the capability, this “ceasefire” is just halftime. Mike Pence publicly warned Vance this week not to sign an “Obama-style” deal. No pressure.

The big question is, will this meeting happen, and will there ever be a deal?

A Delta Force whistleblower gets the Espionage Act

Courtney Williams, 40, held top secret clearance at Fort Bragg from 2010 to 2016. She was the on-the-record main character of a 2025 Politico Magazine feature adapted from Seth Harp’s book The Fort Bragg Cartel, which alleged rampant sexual harassment inside Delta Force.

Tuesday, the FBI arrested her. Wednesday, the complaint was unsealed in Raleigh federal court. She’s charged under the Espionage Act for allegedly transmitting national defense information to Harp across “more than 10 hours of phone calls” and “over 180 messages” between 2022 and 2025. Up to 10 years in prison. FBI Director Kash Patel went on X to tell other would-be leakers that more arrests are coming.

Harp’s response, per the Washington Post: “Former Delta Force operators disclose ‘national defense information’ on podcasts and YouTube shows every day, but the government is going after Courtney for the sole reason that she exposed sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the unit. This is a vindictive act of retaliation, plain and simple.”

DOJ’s theory is clean. NDA signed, classification understood, ten batches of documents handed over. The defense theory is also clean and uglier. Prosecute the woman who said “harassment” out loud while the guys cashing consulting fees off Zero Dark Thirty walk around Austin doing podcast rounds. Both can be true. Right now, the scoreboard reads: harassment whistleblower in jail, Pete Hegseth’s Department of War trying to lock reporters out of the Pentagon entirely.

Anthropic to the world: “Our new AI is too dangerous for you to use”

Anthropic announced this week that it will not release its new model, Claude Mythos Preview, to the public because it can already find and exploit software vulnerabilities better than nearly every human on Earth.

A major AI lab looked at what it built and said “nope, not for you.” Instead, Mythos Preview is being locked inside Project Glasswing. The eleven companies with access: AWS, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorgan Chase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palo Alto Networks. Anthropic is throwing in $100 million in usage credits and $4 million to open-source security groups.

Per PCMag, the model has already found “thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities,” including a 27-year-old flaw in OpenBSD. Early versions were capable of “hiding their reasoning” and exhibited “strategic thinking and situational awareness, at times in service of unwanted actions.” Translation: it can hack your bank, your hospital, your power grid, and it knows how to lie about why.

Anthropic frames this as responsibility. Maybe it is. But offensive cyber capability just got privatized behind a velvet rope. Eleven tech and finance giants get a hacking god. The open-source maintainer working on FFmpeg in his spare bedroom gets a newsletter. Chinese state-backed attackers already have an autonomous version running on DeepSeek. That’s not a guardrail. That’s a moat.

Welcome to the new arms race.

Quick Rundown

• Judge checks the Pentagon. Judge Paul Friedman ruled Thursday that the “Department of War” violated his March order restoring NYT press access, writing that “suppression of political speech is the mark of an autocracy, not a democracy.” Pentagon has until April 16 to file a compliance declaration.

• White House: stop betting on the war, staff. After $760 million in oil futures changed hands in the two minutes before Trump paused the Iran strikes — and three Polymarket accounts cleared $600,000 on the ceasefire timing — the White House sent staff a federal-ethics “refresher.” Blumenthal and Kim have a bill to ban war-related prediction markets.

• Trump goes thermonuclear on Tucker, Megyn, Candace, and Alex Jones. In a 500-word Truth Social tirade, Trump called them “NUT JOBS” and “TROUBLEMAKERS” after Carlson urged troops to refuse Iran orders and Owens called for Trump’s removal under the 25th. MAGA’s Iran civil war is no longer subtext.

• 70+ Democrats intensify 25th Amendment calls. House Dems are publicly calling for Trump’s removal over his Iran rhetoric. They don’t have the votes. Jeffries and Schumer are pushing war powers resolutions instead.

• Swalwell’s misconduct cloud. Eric Swalwell is facing unverified sexual misconduct allegations ahead of California’s June gubernatorial primary, with Villaraigosa and Porter circling. Campaign calls it “outrageous.”

• Planned Parenthood lost $29.3 million on $2.14 billion in revenue while performing a record 434,450 abortions. Taxpayer funding still grew by $39.8 million. Pap tests and cancer screenings fell.

Let’s Talk About It

Two questions before I let you go:

Be honest: what do you think Melania is getting ahead of, or is she just fed up? Drop your best theory, wrong answers encouraged.

Lightning round: Which of the eleven Project Glasswing companies would you trust LEAST with a hacking supermodel? Apple? JPMorgan? Microsoft? Amazon?

Reply in the comments.

See you Monday. Stay nosy.

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The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

Congratulations, we made it through another day without any civilization being totally annihilated. If we don’t laugh, we cry.

As for what's on the schedule today — the President is at the White House with no travel planned, meeting with the Secretary of Agriculture, sitting for an interview, and then hosting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office at 3:30 — because managing a ceasefire that may or may not be holding wasn't enough for one week.

Karoline Leavitt briefs the press at 1:00, which should be fun. Meanwhile, VP Vance is in Budapest, wrapping up a two-day visit with Viktor Orbán — bilateral meetings, remarks on the U.S.-Hungary partnership, and a very visible show of support four days before Hungary's election. The man went from possibly heading to Pakistan for nuclear talks to rallying with Europe's most controversial conservative. Full plate all around.

Waking up this morning, trying to decode what is going on with this “ceasefire” has my head spinning and chugging my third cup of coffee.

In today’s Brief:

• Iran accepted a two-week ceasefire — then launched missiles at Israel minutes later. Everyone’s telling a different story about what was agreed to.

• Iran’s 10-point “peace plan” demands we accept their nuclear program, pay them war damages, and leave the region. Sure.

• The Strait of Hormuz is “open” — if you pay Iran $2 million per ship in yuan or crypto. That’s not freedom of navigation, it’s a toll booth.

• Eight U.S. scientists tied to NASA, the Air Force, and Los Alamos are dead or missing, and nobody’s connecting the cases

• Artemis II broke the Apollo 13 distance record and named a crater after a commander’s late wife

• Georgia chose MTG’s replacement — and the margin tells you something about where voters stand on the war

Let’s get into the news!

The Ceasefire Happened. Then Iran Kept Firing. So What Exactly Did We Agree To?

Here’s the problem with this story: every player involved is telling a different version of what happened, what was agreed to, and who won. So let’s walk through it.

Trump set an 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline. Two hours before it hit, he announced a “double-sided ceasefire” brokered by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif — whose army chief was on the phone all night with Vance, Witkoff, and Iran’s Foreign Minister. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirmed acceptance. Talks begin in Islamabad on April 10. Markets rallied. The S&P 500 swung from a 1.2% loss to a slight gain.

And then — minutes after Trump posted on Truth Social — Iran launched another barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel. Sirens across Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar all activated air defenses. Meanwhile, Israel said it was continuing strikes inside Iran despite the announcement. So. That’s the “ceasefire.”

Now here’s where it gets interesting — and messy. Trump posted a statement from Iran’s Foreign Minister confirming acceptance and promising “safe passage” through the Strait of Hormuz. But Iran’s Supreme National Security Council released a very different statement — bombastic, defiant, claiming this “does not signify the termination of the war” and that “our hands remain upon the trigger.” And here’s the kicker: Iran is now claiming the U.S. accepted their 10-point plan as the basis for negotiations. Pakistan reportedly communicated this to Tehran.

Let’s talk about what’s in that 10-point plan, because it reads like a wishlist drafted by someone who thinks they won this war. Iran’s demands include: a U.S. commitment to no further aggression, continued Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of Iran’s nuclear enrichment rights, lifting of all U.S. primary and secondary sanctions, termination of all UN Security Council and IAEA resolutions targeting Iran, payment of war damages to Iran, withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from the region, and cessation of hostilities on all fronts including Lebanon.

I’m sorry — we’re paying them damages? They want us to accept their nuclear program and leave? There is zero chance the U.S. agreed to this in principle. But the fact that Iran is selling that narrative to their people — and to the world — we’re negotiating with people who lie as a strategy.

Now, let’s talk about the Strait “opening.” Yes, the Strait of Hormuz will technically be open during the ceasefire. But Iran and Oman are charging a toll — an estimated $2 million per vessel, payable in Chinese yuan or cryptocurrency, with passage coordinated by Iran’s armed forces. At that rate, Iran could pull in $600–800 million a month — during a ceasefire — while the world’s oil supply runs through their toll booth. So everyone else pays more for oil, Iran collects a fortune, and they get a two-week break to resupply. Not a bad deal — for them. (Reports indicate Oman has been named in the arrangement, though Oman’s posture on accepting its share of the revenue remains unclear.)

Who exactly is negotiating? Vance will lead the U.S. delegation in Islamabad. Iran’s delegation will be led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. But here’s the question that keeps hanging over everything: Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei — who’d been reported unconscious and in a coma — suddenly gained consciousness and issued a written order for the ceasefire via runners passing handwritten notes. State TV read out his declaration. Reports also indicate China applied significant pressure, with Wang Yi personally making 26 phone calls to parties in the region. No surprise since China gets a significant amount of oil from the Strait. So the Supreme Leader rose from the dead — or at least from a coma — just in time. How convenient.

Now the part I want to keep in front of you. Before the ceasefire, the left and the podcast genius class — Tucker, Candace, Dave Smith, Greenwald, etc. — were screaming that Trump was an unhinged maniac about to destroy civilization. The moment he agreed to talk, the left pivoted to “he chickened out.” You cannot have it both ways. Anyone who was panicking last night needs to take a breath. The U.S. had already struck roughly 50 military targets on Kharg Island — bunkers, radar, ammunition storage — while deliberately sparing the oil loading docks. Kharg handles 90–96% of Iran’s crude exports. You don’t bomb what you might want to seize or use as a bargaining chip. That leverage is now formally on the table in Islamabad.

But am I confident this is over? No. I’m not sure we’re in a better negotiating position than we were before, because the Iranian regime are professional liars — and they’re already spinning this as a victory. Two weeks is a long time for a regime that fires missiles during a ceasefire.

“Our hands remain upon the trigger.” They told you who they are.

Eight Scientists. Three Agencies. No Arrests. No Answers. And No One’s Asking Why.

Eight researchers connected to the most sensitive programs in American defense and space are dead or missing. Fox News’ Will Cain spotlighted the cases, and it’s weird.

The short version: Monica Reza (NASA/JPL rocket scientist) — vanished hiking in California, no trace. Gen. William McCasland (Air Force Research Lab, professional connection to Reza) — missing since February. Melissa Casias and Anthony Chavez (both Los Alamos) — disappeared separately, both left behind phones, wallets, keys. Carl Grillmair (Caltech/NASA astrophysicist) — shot dead on his porch, suspect charged, no motive, they didn’t know each other. Frank Maiwald (NASA/JPL) — died July 2024, cause of death never disclosed, no autopsy.

Authorities have not connected these cases. The Bernalillo County Sheriff told Newsweek they’re “looking into” possible connections. Congressman Burlison has requested FBI involvement. Some will dismiss this as a conspiracy theory. But there is a pattern — NASA, Air Force Research, Los Alamos — and the question is why nobody with a badge seems to be asking.

Artemis II Is Coming Home — and Someone Watched a Solar Eclipse From the Moon

In a week of wall-to-wall dread, here’s something good. The Artemis II crew broke the Apollo 13 distance record, the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen are heading home after a lunar flyby that produced the first-ever “Earthset” photo and a 54-minute solar eclipse visible only from their position, never seen by a human before.

NASA released the photos on Tuesday, and they are stunning. The “Earthset” — Earth dipping behind the moon with Australia visible — was captured at 6:41 p.m. ET Monday. The lunar surface shots show ridged craters and long shadows along the boundary between day and night. Victor Glover said the sun’s corona created “a halo almost around the entire moon” and that “humans probably have not evolved to see what we’re seeing.” He’s not wrong.

The crew named two craters. Integrity, after their spacecraft. And Carroll, after Commander Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll Taylor Wiseman, who passed in 2020. Splashdown is Friday near San Diego. Trump called the crew “modern-day pioneers.” For one moment this week, the country felt something together that wasn’t fear.

Georgia Picked MTG’s Replacement — and the Margin Matters

Trump-endorsed Republican Clay Fuller defeated Democrat Shawn Harris 56% to 43% to claim MTG’s old GA-14 seat. Fuller was always favored — this district went for Trump by 37 points in 2024. But Harris outraised Fuller nearly 5-to-1 ($6.5M to $1.3M), ran hard against the Iran war calling it “a war of choice,” and still lost by 13. Fuller’s message — “our country is safer” — held. A 37-point Trump district producing a 13-point margin in a special election isn’t a red alarm. But it’s a yellow light heading into midterms.

For Fun:

Quick Rundown

• Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah released American journalist Shelly Kittleson after a week in captivity in Baghdad. She was kidnapped March 31, appeared in a video reading from a script praising her captors, and was released Tuesday. The militia said this “initiative will not be repeated in future.” Chilling phrasing.

• Federal authorities warn pro-Iran hackers breached U.S. infrastructure. FBI, NSA, and CISA issued a joint warning Tuesday: hackers allied with Iran exploited vulnerabilities in industrial control systems. Ports and water plants flagged as potential targets.

• Upper middle class is now the largest income group in America — 31% of U.S. households, up from ~10% in 1979, according to AEI. The middle class is shrinking upward, not downward. Good news that no one will report because it doesn’t fit the narrative.

• Jennifer Siebel Newsom is making Gavin’s 2028 problem worse. Scolded reporters at a press conference, went on Instagram calling Bondi and Noem’s exits proof of a “war on women.” Gavin now polls behind Kamala in a 2028 primary. Miranda Devine: “Gavin’s first partner is a ‘New’sance.”

• New Nancy Guthrie ransom notes sent to TMZ — sender claims to know where her body is, demands half a bitcoin. The second note says she was last seen in Sonora, Mexico. Savannah returned to the Today show the same day without mentioning her mother.

Let’s Talk About It

Be honest, do you trust this ceasefire? Iran fired missiles during the announcement and is already claiming we agreed to their terms. What’s your read?

On something lighter: what do you name a crater on the Moon? Wiseman named one after his late wife, and I’m not over it. Wrong answers welcome.

Drop your takes in the comments. I’ll see you Friday.

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The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

I hope your Easter weekend was filled with more peace than the news cycle and the President’s Truth Social feed, which got a little colorful.

Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the current pinned post on Sec. Rubio’s X profile.

It has riled up a few left-wing outlets, and I am here for it.

IKYMI

We’ve got a lot to cover today, so grab your coffee and let’s get into it.

In today’s Brief:

• A wounded American colonel hid in an Iranian mountain crevice for 36 hours with nothing but a handgun and a prayer — and the rescue mission that brought him home is one for the history books.

• Trump dropped an Easter Sunday f-bomb on Iran and gave them until Tuesday at 8 p.m. to open the Strait of Hormuz or watch their power plants disappear.

• Marco Rubio revoked the green cards of Soleimani’s niece and her daughter, who were living their best Instagram life in LA while calling America the “Great Satan.”

• Artemis II flies by the Moon today — the first crewed lunar mission since 1972 — and you can watch it on literally every streaming platform.
  

The Rescue of “Dude 44”: An American Colonel, a Mountain Crevice, and One of the Most Daring Missions in U.S. History

It’s Good Friday. An F-15E Strike Eagle with the call sign “Dude 44” is conducting combat operations over southwestern Iran when it gets hit. Both crew members eject. The pilot is recovered quickly. But the weapons systems officer — a highly respected Air Force colonel whose name still hasn’t been released — lands deep in the Zagros Mountains, 200 miles inside enemy territory. He’s seriously wounded. And he’s alone.

The following story is destined to be a movie script, and it all played out on Easter weekend.

Despite his injuries, this man climbed a 7,000-foot ridge and wedged himself into a mountain crevice. He had a handgun. That’s it. Meanwhile, Iranian state television was broadcasting a $60,000 bounty for his capture and urging civilians and tribesmen to hunt him down. “Thousands of these savages were hunting him down,” Trump told Axios.

Then came the radio message that almost derailed everything. From his hiding spot, the colonel transmitted: “God is good.” Officials in Washington initially feared it was a trap; the phrase sounded too close to “Allahu Akbar,” and they worried Iran had captured him and was sending false signals to lure more Americans into an ambush. Turns out, the man is simply a man of deep faith. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later posted the same phrase on X.

Once the CIA confirmed his identity and location — described as finding “a needle in a haystack” — they launched a deception campaign, spreading false intel inside Iran that U.S. forces already had the airman and were moving him overland. While Iran chased a ghost, 100 special operations forces led by SEAL Team 6 moved in. Delta Force and Army Rangers were on standby. Four B-1 bombers dropped nearly 100 satellite-guided bombs. MQ-9 Reaper drones struck anyone who got within kilometers of the colonel’s position.

The extraction wasn’t clean. Two MC-130J transport planes got stuck in the terrain of a makeshift airstrip inside Iran. Rather than let $200 million worth of sensitive military equipment fall into enemy hands, commanders ordered them destroyed, along with two MH-6 Little Bird helicopters. Three replacement aircraft were sent in to complete the exfil.

Just before midnight Saturday, the colonel was out of Iranian airspace and on his way to Kuwait for medical treatment. At 12:08 a.m. Easter Sunday, Trump posted two words that said everything: “WE GOT HIM!”

You cannot write this stuff! Down and trapped behind enemy lines on Good Friday, saved by Easter Sunday.

No American rescuers were killed. The colonel sustained serious injuries but is expected to recover. Trump will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. today from the White House to discuss the operation.

Here’s what you won’t hear on most networks: this was the first time a U.S. fighter jet was shot down in hostile territory in over 20 years. The media would love to frame that as a failure. But this is a story of American dedication, excellence, and grit. The fact that we sent 100 operators 200 miles into enemy territory, fought our way to a wounded man hiding in a crevice, and brought him home alive — destroying $200 million in equipment rather than leave a screw behind — is not a failure. It’s a statement.

We do not leave Americans behind.

Side Note: How was the Left doing while all of this was happening?

Trump — who typically flies to Mar-a-Lago every weekend — stayed in Washington. The White House called a lid at 11:08 a.m. Saturday, locking out the press pool as the president received constant in-person briefings from Secretary Hegseth on the rescue operation.

So naturally, the geniuses on Bluesky and left-wing social media did what they do best: they started a viral rumor that Trump was at Walter Reed because he was sick or in critical condition. Anonymous posts claimed roads near the hospital were blocked. It trended for hours. White House communications director Steven Cheung eventually had to go on X to shut it down, confirming Trump had been working nonstop in the Oval Office. Because apparently, the idea that the Commander-in-Chief might be quietly managing the rescue of a wounded American airman trapped behind enemy lines in Iran was just too boring a theory.

No — must be a health crisis. These people are unserious.

Trump’s Easter F-Bomb: “Open the F*in’ Strait, You Crazy Bastards”**

Look, I’ll be the first to say that dropping f-bombs on Easter Sunday is not exactly what Emily Post would recommend. But let’s be real — I’ll take a president who curses at a terrorist regime over one who spent Easter 2024 declaring Trans Day of Visibility. Priorities.

Here’s what Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday morning:

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

Yes, he signed off with “Praise be to Allah.” CNN’s Jake Tapper had to read the whole thing on air with a parental warning. The man is a content machine.

The substance behind the showmanship: Trump has given Iran until Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — through which 20% of the world’s oil flows — or he starts hitting power plants and bridges. He told Fox News’ Trey Yingst there’s a chance for a deal by Monday. He told Axios that the U.S. is in “deep negotiations” with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are leading talks through Pakistani, Egyptian, and Turkish mediators. But he also made it crystal clear: “If they don’t make a deal and fast, I’m considering blowing everything up and taking the oil.”

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, fired back on X, accusing Trump of “following Netanyahu’s commands” and dragging America into “a living HELL for every single family.” Which is rich coming from the guy whose regime just offered a bounty to civilians to hunt down a wounded American airman.

The question now: is Tuesday a real deadline, or is it leverage? With mediators still working and no breakthrough in sight, we’ll know soon enough. Either way, the pause on energy strikes expires today, and the clock is ticking.

Soleimani’s Niece Was Living Her Best LA Life While Calling America “The Great Satan.” Rubio Said: Not Anymore.

On Friday, ICE agents in Los Angeles arrested Hamideh Soleimani Afshar — the niece of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian terror mastermind Trump turned into a crater and “died like a dog” in January 2020 — along with her 25-year-old daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny. Rubio had revoked both of their green cards.

The State Department’s case against her reads like a parody. While living in the United States, Afshar promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against American soldiers, praised the new Supreme Leader, and called America the “Great Satan,” all while posting photos of her lavish LA lifestyle on Instagram. Louis Vuitton hoodies. Champagne in the desert next to a helicopter. Bikini photos. Her daughter was clubbing in Miami and partying in Las Vegas.

Here’s the kicker: Afshar entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2015, was granted asylum in 2019, and got her green card in 2021, under the Biden administration. She then traveled back to Iran at least four times. DHS called her asylum claim “fraudulent.” You think?

Meanwhile, women in Iran are being sentenced to death for showing too much hair. But sure, the niece of their top terror general needed asylum in America, where she could sip champagne and trash our country from the comfort of her $740,000 Tujunga home.

Rubio said it plainly on X: “The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”

Good riddance.

Artemis II Flies By the Moon Today — Here’s How to Watch

In news that has nothing to do with war, cursing, or deportations, humans are going back to the Moon today.

NASA’s Artemis II mission, which launched on April 1st carrying astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will make its historic lunar flyby today. This is the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Let that sink in — over 50 years.

Here’s the schedule (all times ET):

• 12:41 a.m.: Orion enters the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence

• 1:00 p.m.: Live coverage begins on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hulu, HBO Max, Roku, NASA+, and YouTube

• 1:56 p.m.: The crew is expected to break Apollo 13’s record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth

• 2:45 p.m.: Lunar observations begin

• 6:44 p.m.: Communications blackout as Orion passes behind the Moon (~40 minutes)

• 7:02 p.m.: Closest approach to the Moon — just 4,070 miles above the surface

• 7:07 p.m.: Maximum distance from Earth: 252,760 miles

• 7:25 p.m.: “Earthrise” — Earth comes back into view

• 8:35–9:32 p.m.: Solar eclipse as seen from Orion

Watch it. Show your kids. This is the kind of thing that reminds you what this country is capable of when we’re reaching for something bigger than ourselves.

Quick Rundown

• March jobs report crushed expectations: The economy added 178,000 jobs in March — triple the 59,000 predicted — and unemployment dipped to 4.3%. Healthcare led the way with 76,000 new positions, while federal government employment fell by 18,000. Good news, but rising energy prices from the Iran war could cool things off.

• White House Easter Egg Roll is today: First Lady Melania Trump’s 2026 edition features a patriotic theme for America’s 250th birthday, 40,000 hand-dyed eggs, 150 live baby chicks (a first), a sensory-friendly egg hunt, an AI Creation Station from Meta, a NASA Lunar Exploration activity, and storytime with the First Lady, Second Lady Usha Vance, and Karoline Leavitt.

• Trump’s 1 p.m. press conference: The president will address the nation from the White House press room today to provide details on the F-15E rescue mission and answer questions from reporters. Expect fireworks.

• Iran deal deadline looms: With negotiations ongoing through Pakistani, Egyptian, and Turkish mediators, Trump’s Tuesday 8 p.m. deadline approaches. Witkoff and Kushner are reportedly exchanging texts directly with Iran’s foreign minister. If no deal is reached, Trump has promised power plants and bridges start falling.

• IDF struck a mobile ballistic missile launcher in Tabriz over the weekend, continuing joint U.S.-Israeli operations to degrade Iran’s missile capabilities as the war enters its sixth week.

Let’s Talk About It

That rescue story is absolutely unreal. A wounded man, alone in enemy mountains for 36 hours with a handgun, while thousands hunt him — and we brought him home. What part of the rescue mission hit you the hardest?

Are you watching the Artemis II flyby today? Be honest: did you even know we had astronauts headed to the Moon right now?

Drop your takes in the comments. I’ll see you on Wednesday.

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Can I tell you something that genuinely surprised me when I first moved to the States?

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Good Friday was a day off. Full stop. You did not go to work. You did not go to school. The island observes it as an official holiday, and when I was 18, I was not complaining. A day off was a day off; I wasn’t asking too many questions.

Then I moved to the mainland, and my first Good Friday here, I showed up to work... and everyone else did too. I was floored. What do you mean, this isn’t a holiday? I can’t sleep in?

If I’m being honest, at 18 and even into my early twenties, Good Friday was mostly just a welcome break to me. I knew what it meant in a general sense, but I wasn’t sitting with the weight of it.

Today is different. Today I recognize that Good Friday isn’t a holiday, it’s a holy day. We remember the cross, and what it cost. Some may view it as the darkest day on the Christian calendar, and also the most necessary. No resurrection without it. It is Good Friday.

Now, on to the news

Did you get to join Rachel and me yesterday for our first live episode of Rivera and Reeves? It was so fun to have friends join us and even help us break news during the episode!

Rivera and Reeves

Ep. 220 | The Democrat Party's Radical Alignment Problem Is Now Impossible to Ignore

The FBI confirmed what we already knew about the Michigan synagogue attack — but the media conveniently buried the lead. Now meet Abdul El-Sayed: Michigan Democrat, Senate candidate, and a man so afraid of his Dearborn constituency he can’t even acknowledge the Ayatollah’s death. We’ve got the recordings…

Listen now

9 days ago · 21 likes · 2 comments · Meseidy

This wasn’t a one-time event either. Going forward, Rivera and Reeves will stream live exclusively on Substack on Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30 pm EST. If you have been on the fence about becoming a paying subscriber, now is the time. We have a Rivera and Reeves discount code that we decided to extend through the weekend!

30% off Annual Rivera and Reeves

Also, a side note. If you are already a paying Rivera and Reeves subscriber, reply to this email to request an exclusive 40% off discount code for an annual subscription to It’s Meseidy.

In today’s Brief:

• California’s fraud problem just got the FBI-SWAT-at-dawn treatment, and the numbers make your eyes water — $180 billion and counting

• Three illegal immigrants have been charged with murder in one Virginia county in one month, and the governor just revoked ICE cooperation

• Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi — reportedly on the car ride to the Supreme Court — and her replacement is his former personal lawyer

• Artemis II is on its way to the Moon with the first space plumber.

• Abortion quietly moved online: telehealth mifepristone shipments to ban states jumped 26%, and red states are racing to criminalize the mailman

• SCOTUS looked deeply unimpressed with Trump’s birthright citizenship arguments, and the DHS shutdown just hit Day 48

California: The Kingdom of Fraud Gets a Wake-Up Call

If you thought the Minnesota welfare fraud scandal was bad, California said “hold my kombucha.”

Early Thursday morning, FBI SWAT teams raided homes across Southern California, arresting eight people in “Operation Never Say Die,” a hospice fraud takedown targeting operators who stole more than $50 million from Medicare. Among the arrested: a married couple who ran a hospice with a 97% survival rate among supposedly terminal patients. That’s not a hospice that’s a California relaxation retreat.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of CMS, was literally at the scene of the arrest. Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force has now suspended 221 hospice and healthcare providers in LA alone.

But the hospice arrests are just the tip of the iceberg. A bombshell City Journal investigation by Chris Rufo estimates California has lost $180 billion to fraud across unemployment insurance, Medi-Cal, homelessness programs, and food stamps under Newsom’s watch. A separate CAL DOGE report puts the five-year exposure at $425 billion. Ghost hospices billing from abandoned storefronts. Rappers are literally making music videos bragging about scamming EDD. Newsom’s own former chief of staff charged with siphoning campaign and COVID recovery funds.

The House Oversight Committee has launched its own probe, demanding records from Newsom by April 6. First Minnesota. Now California. Noticing a pattern with which party controls the states where billions vanish?

Three Murders, One County, One Month — And the Governor Revoked ICE Cooperation

This one’s hard to read, but you need to.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, three illegal immigrants have been charged with separate murders in a single month. The latest: a Guatemalan national charged with beating his three-month-old daughter to death. Legacy media called him a “Virginia dad.” DHS confirmed he crossed illegally in 2023.

In the second case, a progressive DA had been warned about one of the suspects before he allegedly killed a mother. The prosecutor’s office offered a five-year plea deal on a murder charge — five years for taking a life.

Meanwhile, Governor Spanberger revoked a previous executive order that had allowed cooperation with ICE. The timing is, let’s say, suboptimal.

Three dead. Three suspects who shouldn’t have been here. A governor who made cooperation with immigration enforcement harder. Elections have consequences. So do executive orders.

Artemis II is on its way to the Moon

NASA launched four astronauts, Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, from Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Orion completed its translunar injection burn, officially leaving Earth orbit and heading for the Moon. The crew will fly within 5,000 miles of the lunar surface on April 6 before splashing down in the Pacific on April 10. It's the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. Minor hiccup: they had to troubleshoot the toilet. Some things never change, not even in space.

Also, can someone explain to me why I got emotional watching this interview?

Trump Fires Bondi — Hours After She Rode With Him to the Supreme Court

Wednesday was supposed to be Pam Bondi’s power moment. She accompanied President Trump to the Supreme Court, the first sitting president in history to attend oral arguments. Reports indicate she may have been informed she was being fired on the car ride over.

By Thursday, it was official: Trump ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi, ending a tenure defined by the Epstein files debacle, failed prosecutions of Comey and Letitia James, and mounting frustration from the White House.

Deputy AG Todd Blanche — Trump’s former personal lawyer — is now Acting AG and wasted no time stepping into the role.

Trump is reportedly considering EPA chief Lee Zeldin as her permanent replacement. Bondi said she’ll spend the next month transitioning out before moving to “an important private sector role.”

This is the second cabinet secretary Trump has fired in recent weeks, after ousting DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in March. There have been rumors that DNI Tulsi Gabbard could be next, but White House communications director Steven Cheung tells RCP that Trump has "full confidence" in DNI Tulsi Gabbard and his national security team. So, it appears she is safe for now, but the only thing that is sure is that Trump can change his mind.

Abortion Quietly Moved Online — And Red States Are Playing Catch-Up

While everyone was watching cabinet firings and courtroom drama, abortion shifted underneath us.

Telehealth and mail-order mifepristone shipments to states with abortion bans jumped 26% in 2025. Roughly 91,000 women in ban states received abortion pills through the mail, up from 72,000 the year before. Cross-state travel for abortions dropped. Overall abortion numbers held steady at around 1.1 million. The procedure didn’t disappear after Dobbs. It just moved to the mailbox.

South Dakota already made shipping the pills a felony. Mississippi’s version is on the governor’s desk. Iowa advanced a bill requiring in-person dispensing. At the federal level, GOP senators are demanding the FDA act on what they call illegal pill sales — but the agency still hasn’t completed its long-promised safety review.

Here’s the tension: pro-life states won the legal war with Dobbs, but the enforcement battle is a different animal. You can ban a clinic. You can’t easily ban a FedEx envelope. And until Washington figures out whether the FDA or the states control what gets mailed where, this will keep being the quiet front line of the abortion debate.

Quick Rundown

• SCOTUS looks ready to block Trump’s birthright citizenship order. Chief Justice Roberts called the government’s arguments “very quirky” and delivered the line of the day: “Well, it’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.” Barrett called it “puzzling,” Kavanaugh questioned the relevance of foreign countries’ rules, and even the government’s own precedent backfired. A decision is expected by late June. Trump posted on his way out: “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!”

• The DHS shutdown hits Day 48 — during an active war with Iran. The Senate passed a bipartisan bill to fund most of DHS except ICE and Border Patrol. The House is on recess until April 13. The plan is to fund ICE separately through reconciliation, bypassing the filibuster. Over 500 TSA workers quit or called out sick. Airport wait lines exceeded four hours. Johnson called the Senate bill a “joke” five days ago. Now he’s signing off on it. Washington in a nutshell.

• ActBlue may have misled Congress about vetting foreign donations. Its own former law firm, Covington & Burling, warned in internal memos that ActBlue’s letter to Congress was potentially misleading, and flagged the risk of criminal prosecution. Donors through Apple Pay, PayPal, or Venmo were never asked for passport info. Multiple senior officials resigned. The DOJ investigation is still ongoing.

• Trump signed an executive order to limit mail-in voting. The order directs USPS to deliver ballots only to voters on a DHS-compiled citizen list. Democrats filed lawsuits within hours. Legal experts on both sides agree this one’s dead on arrival; courts struck down a similar order last year. The president has zero constitutional authority over election procedures. But the signal matters more than the substance.

Let’s Talk About It

Be honest, three murders by illegal immigrants in one county in one month, and the governor made it harder to cooperate with ICE. At what point does ideology have a body count?

A hospice with a 97% survival rate. What are we even doing, California? Wrong answers only.

Drop your takes in the comments. I’ll see you Monday.

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The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

Big news day today! But isn’t that basically every day?

The president will be attending an oral argument on birthright citizenship today, making an announcement at 9 pm, and we are going to the moon, again. Kind of, maybe? Check out the question at the end and tell me what you think.

Also, a side note. would love this, and I would love to hear what you think. Genius? I would love to be in that class for an afternoon. Fun tidbit, I was one of the last classes to take typing on an IBM electric typewriter at my college.

In today’s Brief:

• The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today in Trump v. Barbara — the birthright citizenship case — and the president himself is expected in the gallery. First sitting president to ever attend SCOTUS arguments. No pressure.

• A federal judge blocked Trump’s $400M White House ballroom project, Anthropic accidentally published 500K lines of its own source code, and Tiger Woods is stepping away from golf after a DUI arrest.

• Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed won’t condemn a dead tyrant because his voters are “sad” — and his fallback plan is to call Trump a pedophile. Normal Democrat things.

• The FBI has officially labeled the Michigan synagogue attack Hezbollah-inspired terrorism. The media tried to make you feel bad for noticing.

• The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against Colorado’s conversion therapy ban — but the headlines are lying about what that actually means.

• The Charlie Kirk assassination case: “unable to identify” is not the same as “does not match.” The grifter class doesn’t want you to know that.

Welcome to The Brief — your Mon/Wed/Fri dose of what the media wants you to miss, misunderstand, or just not think too hard about. Let's get into it.

🔴 TONIGHT — Oval Office Address, 9 PM ET: President Trump will address the nation from the Oval Office with what the White House describes as an “important update” on the Iran war. Trump indicated earlier this week the U.S. could leave the conflict within “two weeks, maybe three weeks” — “whether we have a deal or not.” Markets rallied, and oil prices fell today ahead of the speech.

He’s Going to the Court. No President Has Ever Done This.

The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today at 10 am in Trump v. Barbara, the most consequential immigration case in decades and the most direct constitutional challenge to a birthright-citizenship executive order since the 14th Amendment was ratified.

And Donald Trump plans to be there. In the gallery. Watching.

No sitting president has ever attended Supreme Court oral arguments in a case involving their own administration. Most outlets are treating it as a PR stunt, others as an attempt at intimidation.

The case: Trump’s executive order, signed on Day One, directed agencies to deny birthright citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to parents who are here illegally or on temporary visas. It hinges on the 14th Amendment’s phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” which the administration argues doesn’t apply to people who entered unlawfully or without permanent status. Solicitor General Sauer argues the government’s position; Cecillia Wang of the ACLU represents the plaintiffs.

The counterargument: the amendment has been read since 1868 to confer citizenship on nearly everyone born on American soil, full stop. Federal courts have been blocking the order since January, and today’s hearing is about whether it can be enforced while litigation continues, which experts say is unlikely. This is not a final constitutional ruling; the full decision is expected in late June or July.

The birth tourism and anchor baby concerns are real policy debates, regardless of where you land legally. Today’s arguments won’t settle them. But having the president physically in the room — watching — makes this another unprecedented day in history.

He Won’t Condemn a Terrorist’s Death. His Backup Plan Is to Call Trump a Pedophile.

Michigan’s left-wing Democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, is having a week. The Washington Free Beacon obtained audio from a private March 1 campaign strategy call in which El-Sayed told his communications team he didn’t want to make any public statement about the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — the Iranian supreme leader killed February 28 by a U.S.-Israeli operation — because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad.”

The man running for a Senate seat in Michigan couldn’t bring himself to say anything about the death of a dictator who oversaw the torture and murder of political opponents, funded terrorism against Americans, and publicly called for the destruction of Israel, because the optics might upset his base.

And if a reporter pressed him? His strategy was ready: “I’m just gonna go straight to pedophilia, frankly. I’ll just be like, ‘Pedophile president decides that he doesn’t like the front page news, so he decides to take us into another war.’”

No condemnation of Iran’s supreme leader. No acknowledgment that hundreds of Americans died at the hands of Iranian-backed terror. Just a pivot to Epstein jokes. Bold political strategy.

There’s more. El-Sayed is headlining rallies with Hasan Piker, a streamer who said “America deserved 9/11” and excused Hamas’s October 7 sexual violence. The Khamenei audio dropped on the same day the internet was processing that choice. El-Sayed’s campaign called the leak a “distraction” by a “disgruntled former employee.” CNN’s Jake Tapper was out discussing what Piker’s role in Democratic politics even means.

Following pressure and criticism over his decision to campaign with Hasan Piker, El-Sayed doubled down, defending it in a 4-minute X video post and confirming he will continue to campaign with Piker at the University of Michigan and Michigan State on April 7. His reason? Joe Rogan is controversial, and everyone insisted Kamala Harris sit for an interview with him. Okay?

Michigan Republican candidate Mike Rogers said El-Sayed “chose to empathize with terrorists” over the 140 children threatened in the synagogue attack happening in his own state. In a race rated a toss-up heading into November, that’s a remarkable hill to die on.

The Synagogue Attack Was Terrorism. We Knew. The Media Tried to Make You Forget.

Federal officials confirmed Monday what was obvious from day one: the March 12 attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan was a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism. Uh, duh!

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon, drove a truck packed with fireworks and gasoline into Michigan’s largest synagogue while 140 preschool children were inside. He waited two hours in the parking lot recording videos saying he wanted to “kill as many of them as I possibly can,” then crashed in, exchanged gunfire with security, and killed himself. The FBI confirmed he searched for “the largest gathering of Israelis in Michigan.” His two brothers were Hezbollah members — one a weapons commander responsible for launching hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians throughout the war. No children were injured. One security guard hospitalized.

The U.S. Attorney compared the attack to the 1983 Hezbollah truck bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.

While CBS and NBC reported the Hezbollah family connection within days, ABC buried it. The New York Times ran a headline reading “Synagogue Attacker Lost Family Members in Lebanon Airstrike,” so sympathetic that even Biden’s former antisemitism envoy said it implies “trying to kill Jewish children is sorta ok.” “Grieving man snaps” and “radicalized Hezbollah family member executes a pre-planned attack on a Jewish preschool” are different stories. The media mostly told the first one.

The Supreme Court Did NOT Ban the Banning of Conversion Therapy. Read the Fine Print.

Every headline this week screams the Supreme Court “ruled against a ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ kids.” That framing is doing a lot of work — and almost none of it is accurate.

The Court sided 8-1 with Colorado Christian counselor Kaley Chiles, who argued the state’s law violated her First Amendment rights. Justice Gorsuch wrote the ruling. Two liberal justices — Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — joined the majority. Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

Here’s what the headlines are burying: Colorado’s law wasn’t just about banning shock therapy for gay teenagers. It required all licensed counselors to practice gender-affirming care and banned exploratory counseling for minors questioning their gender identity. A child or parent who wanted to explore gender questioning without transitioning? Prohibited. A counselor who wanted to help a minor align with their biological sex? Also prohibited.

Kagan said it plainly in her concurrence: a state “cannot suppress one side of a debate while aiding the other.” That’s not a conservative talking point; that’s a liberal justice’s words. Traditional conversion therapy remains discredited. What changed is whether the government can mandate what a therapist is allowed to say. That’s a narrower, more interesting question than “the Court loves anti-gay therapy,” which is where most coverage stopped.

The Kirk Bullet Story: What “Unable to Identify” Actually Means

Tyler Robinson’s defense team filed a motion revealing that the ATF “was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson.” Candace Owens treated this as confirmation of innocence. Posts declared a “second shooter.”

Here’s what the grifter class won’t tell you: “unable to identify” is not the same as “does not match.”

When a soft-point .30-06 round hits bone, it fragments. The forensic pathologist pulls out pieces of metal, not an intact bullet. Without intact striations from the barrel’s rifling, examiners cannot compare it to any rifle, not Robinson’s, not anyone else’s. It’s formally classified as “unsuitable for comparison,” which is an evidence category, not an exoneration.

I had fun triggering people on IG with this one👇

Prosecutors fired back by Tuesday. A retired FBI supervisor told Fox News: “Unable to identify is not the same as ruled out.” The FBI has a second comparative analysis in progress. Meanwhile: Robinson texted his roommate that the rifle was “the only thing he left behind.” His father recognized the heirloom gun from police photos. Robinson allegedly confessed before turning himself in. None of that disappears because a damaged fragment couldn’t be matched.

The defense is doing its job. Treating normal legal process as a conspiracy is not.

Quick Rundown

• Judge blocks the ballroom. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon temporarily blocked construction of Trump’s proposed White House ballroom — a planned $400M replacement for the East Wing — ruling the administration lacks authority to fund the project and that it violates federal historic preservation law. The administration plans to appeal.

• Anthropic leaks its own source code. A version of Claude Code (v2.1.88) was accidentally published to npm with a source map exposing 500,000+ lines of proprietary code. Security researcher Chaofan Shou posted about it on X, which garnered 26 million views. Anthropic confirmed that no customer data was exposed and pulled the package.

• Tiger Woods checks in for treatment. Woods announced he is stepping away from golf to seek treatment following a DUI arrest on March 27, after a rollover crash near his Jupiter Island home. He’ll miss the 2026 Masters. He pled not guilty and said he’s committed to “lasting recovery.”

• American journalist kidnapped in Baghdad. Freelance reporter Shelly Kittleson, who has covered Iraq for Al-Monitor and Foreign Policy, was abducted near her hotel by four unidentified men in civilian clothes. State Department is engaged; Iranian-backed militia involvement is suspected.

• Artemis II launches today. The first human flight beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972 is scheduled for liftoff on Wednesday evening. Four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft “Integrity” will complete a 685,000-mile lunar flyby. Victor Glover will be the first person of color to fly to the moon.

  

• Colorado responding to SCOTUS ruling. Colorado legislators are already exploring civil lawsuit pathways to address conversion therapy harms after the ruling. The case is expected to invalidate similar bans in roughly two dozen states.

Let’s Talk About It

So, a sitting president is sitting in the SCOTUS gallery today while his own case is argued. Is that a show of confidence, or something else? Where does “I take this seriously” end and something more uncomfortable begin?

Artemis II is heading for the moon tonight, the first humans to go that far since 1972. Quick poll: Do you actually believe we landed in 1969, or are you privately a little bit of a moon truther? No judgment. This is a safe space. 😉

Drop your takes in the comments. See you Friday.

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The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

Back to the grind, my friends! I hope everyone had a wonderful, restful weekend and Palm Sunday!

If you seek a break from the madness of the new cycle, might I suggest The Sunday Desk? My Sunday newsletter, where I prove to people that I not only consume news and politics but also have other interests.

In today’s Brief:

• The Iran war enters a dangerous new chapter as the Pentagon plans ground raids and Trump weighs a mission to physically extract uranium from Iranian soil

• Democrats and Republicans both pass DHS funding bills — just not the same bill — then leave Washington for Easter with nothing resolved

• A record-breaking 36 House Republicans won’t seek reelection, and nobody in leadership wants to talk about what that means

• Israeli police block a cardinal from praying at the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday — then Netanyahu reverses course after international backlash

• The U.S. Coast Guard watched a sanctioned Russian oil tanker sail into Cuba and did nothing

The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email.

Let’s get into it.

Is The Air War Moving to a Ground War?

One month into Operation Epic Fury, the Pentagon is reportedly preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran — Special Operations forces, conventional infantry, raids, not a full-scale invasion — while Trump separately weighs a mission to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium from Iran’s bombed-out nuclear sites. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit has arrived in the theater. The 82nd Airborne is staged. About 7,000 troops are in the region, with 10,000 more under consideration.

The WSJ reports Trump is “generally open” to ordering forces to fly into Iran’s nuclear sites under fire, excavate rubble, locate 40–50 cylinders of enriched uranium, and airlift them out. Retired Gen. Joseph Votel, former CENTCOM commander: “This is not a quick in and out kind of deal.”

Iran’s missile infrastructure is down roughly 90% since February 28, but mobile launchers remain unaccounted for. Oil is above $116/barrel. Gas is pushing $4/gallon. The Strait of Hormuz is only partially reopened, and Houthi missile attacks on Israel have entered the picture for the first time.

Breaking this morning: Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran is in “serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME,” language that suggests either backchannel talks are further along than publicly acknowledged, or Trump is laying narrative groundwork for escalation. Either way, it’s a significant signal.

An AP-NORC poll found 62% of Americans strongly oppose ground troops. Just 12% are in favor. Congressional Republicans are split, Rep. Van Orden, a retired SEAL and Trump ally, was blunt: “The answer is no.” The assets are in place. The question is whether this morning’s post signals an off-ramp or a deadline.

Day 42: The DHS Shutdown

Here’s what happened at 3 a.m. Friday, while you were sleeping. The Senate passed a DHS funding bill by voice vote with only five senators in the chamber — Thune, Schmitt, Moreno, Hirono, and Kim. Five people. In the middle of the night. On a bill that funds all of DHS except ICE and most of CBP. Then every senator left Washington for a two-week Easter vacation.

That’s not a compromise. That’s the entire point of the standoff. Schumer called ICE “Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia.” Democrats are holding Homeland Security hostage to defund immigration enforcement. Homan said it plainly: “They’re holding the department hostage.”

Johnson rejected the Senate bill outright: “We’re not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that.” The House then voted 213-203 to fully fund every DHS agency — TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA, ICE, CBP, all of it — through May 22. Democrats voted no. Schumer called it “dead on arrival.” House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain fired back: “I would suggest that the Senate does come back and at least take a vote. That is what they were elected to do.”

Here’s what matters and what the media keeps glossing over: ICE law enforcement — Enforcement and Removal Operations — is funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which gave ICE roughly $75 billion for enforcement and detention that can be spent over four years. Agents are still making arrests. But the administrative side of ICE and DHS — the operations that coordinate deportation logistics, processing, and case management — runs on annual appropriations. That’s what’s unfunded. The part that actually moves people out of the country is the part Democrats are choking.

The human cost: 510 TSA officers have quit. Nearly 12% didn’t show up on Thursday, over a third at JFK, Baltimore, Houston, and Atlanta. Trump signed an emergency memorandum on Friday to pay TSA directly. Paychecks could arrive today. But the rest of DHS — 270,000 employees — stays unfunded while Congress sorts it out from the beach. Nobody returns until April 13.

Holy Week in a War Zone

On Palm Sunday — the first day of the holiest week in Christianity — Israeli police stopped Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and three other priests from privately praying at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It was the first time in centuries that Catholic leaders were denied access for this occasion.

Israel cited wartime security — Iranian missile fragments have struck meters from the church, and gatherings were capped at 50. But Huckabee, one of Israel’s strongest allies, publicly called it “an unfortunate overreach” — four people is not a mass gathering. Cruz pushed back too.

Netanyahu reversed the decision within hours. Italy’s foreign ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador.

Update: As of Monday morning, Israel Police and Cardinal Pizzaballa have reached a framework agreement for Holy Week, including Easter ceremonies at the Holy Sepulchre:

At the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV’s Palm Sunday homily left no room for interpretation: “Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” He called the Iran conflict “atrocious.”

Important context: a homily is pastoral, not doctrinal — the Church’s Catechism (CCC 2309) still permits military force when specific conditions are met. Leo chose to step well outside that tradition. Whether that’s prophetic courage or political overreach depends on your priors.

P.S. I'm not your Catholic theologian, I'm just the lady with the newsletter. But it’s being discussed, the distinction matters, and so we are talking about it.

Trump Blinks on Cuba — Or Does He?

Here’s a story that deserves more scrutiny than it’s getting. The U.S. Coast Guard had two cutters positioned off Cuba’s northeast coast and watched a sanctioned Russian oil tanker — the Anatoly Kolodkin, carrying 730,000 barrels of crude, owned by state-run Sovcomflot — sail into Cuban waters and dock. The tanker had been broadcasting its destination as “Atlantis, USA.” Apparently, someone in the Russian merchant fleet has a sense of humor.

The administration had effectively maintained an oil blockade on Cuba since January. Treasury explicitly added Cuba to the list of countries blocked from receiving Russian petroleum. And yet when the moment came to enforce it, the Coast Guard did not act.

Trump’s explanation? “We don’t mind somebody getting a boatload... because they have to survive.” He added: “If someone wants to send oil to Cuba right now, I don’t have a problem with that, whether it’s Russia or not.” This is the same president who said just days ago at an investment conference, “Cuba is next, by the way,” and floated military action after Iran.

What is this? Strategic patience? Russia accommodation? A quiet concession to avoid a second maritime front while Iran escalates? This one’s worth watching.

The Republican Exodus Nobody Wants to Talk About

Thirty-six House Republicans have now announced they won’t seek reelection in 2026, breaking the previous record of 34 set in the 2018 midterms, the cycle that ended with Democrats flipping the House. The list spans the ideological spectrum: Chip Roy, Jodey Arrington, and Michael McCaul on the right; Don Bacon in the middle. Ten are running for governor, several for Senate.

By comparison, 21 House Democrats are not seeking reelection.

Speaker Johnson is already managing attendance crises — 11 Republicans missed a vote on Friday alone. Members who are mentally checked out mid-term don’t whip colleagues and don’t carry water on tough bills. The historical pattern is brutal for the president’s party in midterms, and early polls are already showing headwinds.

This doesn’t mean doom. But it means the window for the legislative agenda is narrower than leadership is letting on, and anyone telling you the majority is safe is delusional.

Quick Rundown

• The Great KitKat Heist: Twelve tons of KitKat bars — 413,793 individual units — were stolen from a truck en route from Italy to Poland, just before Easter. Nestlé warned of a potential shortage in Europe and is tracking the stolen bars using batch codes. KitKat’s official response: “We appreciate the criminals’ exceptional taste.” Somewhere, the Hamburglar is taking notes.

• Tiger Woods arrested for DUI: Rollover crash near his Jupiter Island home. Breathalyzer came back clean — triple zeroes — but impairment is believed to be drug or medication-related. He refused a urine test and was released after 8 hours. Trump called him “a very close friend.” This is Woods’ second DUI-related incident.

• Rubio vs. the EU at G7: Heated exchange between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas over Russia. She asked when U.S. patience with Moscow would run out. Rubio shot back: “If you think you can do it better, go ahead. We will step aside.” He later denied any tension had occurred.

• LA “No Kings” protest turns violent: Demonstrators at a federal courthouse assaulted officers, prompting federal agents to deploy tear gas. LAPD issued a citywide tactical alert. An assistant U.S. Attorney had a message for the crowd: “We have you on video. We will find you and arrest you too.”

Let’s Talk About It

The administration is literally planning three different ground operations in Iran while Congress is on vacation and DHS still can’t pay its people. What’s the one thing you’d want answered before any boots hit Iranian soil?

And on a lighter note — 12 tons of KitKats. Twelve tons. If you were pulling off that heist, where are you hiding 413,793 chocolate bars? And why? Wrong answers only.

Drop your takes in the comments. I’ll see you Wednesday.

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The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

Reminder! We will be doing Saturday’s Rivera and Reeves UnFiltered LIVE open for everyone. So if you've been wanting to join us for an UnFiltered episode, this Saturday at 11 am EST is your chance! Exclusively on Substack!

Rivera and Reeves

Rivera and Reeves is a news and politics podcast that cuts through the chaos with honest analysis, sharp humor, and a no-nonsense approach to the headlines—news that’s clear, honest, and actually fun to listen to.

The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email.

Let’s get into it.

In today’s Brief:

• Israel takes out the IRGC navy commander behind the Strait of Hormuz closure while the Pentagon quietly draws up plans to end the war with ground troops and island invasions.

• Trump declares an airport emergency and orders TSA agents paid — and overnight, the Senate actually struck a deal to reopen DHS (minus the parts Democrats don’t want to fund).

• The Treasury announces Trump’s signature will appear on all U.S. paper currency, a presidential first, because apparently the Kennedy Center rebrand wasn’t enough.

• A federal judge blocks the Pentagon’s Anthropic crackdown as “Orwellian” — but the Pentagon’s top tech officer makes a surprisingly compelling case for why they did it.

• The House Ethics Committee holds its first public trial in 16 years — for a Democrat accused of stealing $5 million in FEMA funds, buying a diamond ring, and laundering the rest into her campaign. Guess which party doesn’t want to talk about it.

• Trump announces a May trip to Beijing with Xi Jinping, turning Iran war leverage into a China negotiation.

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The Iran War: Tangsiri Is Dead, the Pentagon Has a Playbook, and Nobody Knows If the Talks Are Real

Israel confirmed it killed Alireza Tangsiri, the IRGC Navy commander who authorized the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The strike hit Bandar Abbas, right on the strait. Tangsiri had vowed to keep the waterway shut on orders from Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. He joins a growing list of senior Iranian commanders systematically eliminated since the war began.

Behind the scenes, Axios reported the Pentagon is developing “final blow” options: invading Kharg Island (Iran’s oil export hub), seizing Abu Musa near the strait’s western entrance, or blocking Iranian oil exports outright. The Wall Street Journal reports that up to 10,000 additional troops could join the Marines and 82nd Airborne already deployed.

And yet, Trump extended the pause on energy site strikes to April 6, claiming it was at Iran’s request. Except mediators told the WSJ Iran hasn’t actually requested the pause and hasn’t responded to the 15-point plan. Iranian officials call it a “third deception,” a cover for a ground invasion. All while Iran’s parliament is drafting legislation to codify sovereignty over the strait and charge transit fees.

Trump also revealed Iran’s “present” was letting 10 oil tankers through the strait. Gas is at $3.98 a gallon. Brent crude is above $107. The OECD forecasts U.S. inflation at 4.2% this year, driven by the Middle East crisis.

Does this look like a war winding down, or one being staged for escalation with the hopes of a diplomatic off-ramp?

The DHS Shutdown: Trump Declares an Airport Emergency — Then the Senate Cuts a Deal at 3 AM

Day 42. TSA officers are on their third paycheck of zero dollars. Callout rates exceed 40% at some airports. Lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta and O’Hare are stretching for hours. Some TSA employees are donating blood and sleeping in cars. And it’s spring break.

Thursday evening, Trump announced he’d sign an emergency order directing DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “immediately pay our TSA Agents,” invoking the National Emergency Act to bypass Congress. Fox News reported the White House framed it as a national emergency at airports.

Democrats have blocked DHS funding for over 40 days, demanding reforms after ICE agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota. The House passed a GOP funding bill for the third time, 218-206. Thune called his Senate proposal the “last and final” offer.

Overnight update: The Senate unanimously advanced a DHS deal in the early hours of Friday morning, but it comes with a catch. The deal funds most of DHS but leaves out ICE and CBP enforcement funding, which Republicans plan to secure through reconciliation later. Translation: they got TSA agents paid, but the immigration enforcement fight is not over. The bill still needs to pass the House before hitting Trump’s desk.

Trump’s Signature on Your Dollar Bills: The Gilding Continues

The Treasury Department announced Thursday that Trump’s signature will appear on all newly printed U.S. paper currency, a first for a sitting president. The first $100 bills with Trump’s John Hancock will roll off the presses in June, just in time for July 4th and the nation’s 250th birthday.

Is anyone surprised? This is the man who put his name on steaks, vodka, a university, an airline, and half the skyline of Manhattan. The gilding of the Oval Office continues: first, the 24-karat gold commemorative coin with his likeness; then the Kennedy Center rebrand; and now the dollar bill. Rachael and I have been joking about the slow gold-plating of the White House for months, and honestly, the only shocking part is that it took this long to reach the currency.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called it “the most powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump.” Treasurer Brandon Beach, whose name gets bumped to make room, said the honor was “not only appropriate, but also well deserved.” Imagine being the guy who gets replaced on the dollar bill and has to smile about it. That’s a level of team-player energy most of us couldn’t pull off.

Look — is it precedent-setting? Sure. Is it unexpected from the guy who literally gold-plates his apartment? Not even a little. This is Trump being Trump. Apparently, the branding instinct doesn’t stop at the Resolute Desk. It just gets a bigger canvas.

The AI Power Struggle: Anthropic Wins in Court, But Does the Pentagon Have a Point?

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from labeling Anthropic a “supply chain risk” and halted Trump’s order for every federal agency to stop using its AI. Judge Rita Lin’s 43-page ruling was scathing: the government’s actions were “Orwellian,” likely illegal, and designed to punish Anthropic for First Amendment-protected speech. One amicus brief called it “attempted corporate murder.”

But here’s what the ruling doesn’t fully grapple with: the Pentagon’s operational argument. In an interview on the All-In Podcast, Under Secretary Emil Michael described the “whoa moment” that kicked this off. After the Venezuela operation, Anthropic contacted Palantir to ask whether Claude had been used in the raid. That inquiry triggered alarm bells: Claude was the only AI model approved for classified military use at the time. Michael’s concern was blunt: “What if this software went down, some guardrail picked up, some refusal happened for the next fight like this one, and we left our people at risk?”

That’s not an unreasonable question. Anthropic demanded its model not be used for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon wanted it for “all lawful purposes.” When negotiations failed and Anthropic went public, Defense Secretary Hegseth called them “sanctimonious,” and the supply chain risk designation followed. Michael has since secured agreements with OpenAI and xAI and pursued Google for classified environments, arguing he needs redundancy, not a single vendor with veto power over military operations.

Was the “supply chain risk” label an overreach? The judge thinks so, and the legal process matters. But the underlying concern — that one company’s guardrails could compromise wartime operations — isn’t something a courtroom ruling resolves. The government has seven days to appeal. Meanwhile, Claude is still being used to support the bombing campaign in Iran even as this plays out.

The Trial Democrats Don’t Want You to Watch: $5 Million in FEMA Funds, a Diamond Ring, and 27 Ethics Violations

The House Ethics Committee held its first public trial in 16 years on Thursday — and the defendant is Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), facing 15 federal criminal counts and 27 ethics violations across a 242-page investigative report.

The scheme: her family company, Trinity Healthcare Services, held a FEMA-funded COVID vaccine contract. A Florida agency accidentally deposited a $5 million overpayment. Instead of returning it, prosecutors allege she and her brother laundered the money through multiple accounts. Trinity transferred $2 million directly to Cherfilus-McCormick on a single day; she moved it to her campaign account the next morning. She allegedly recruited friends and relatives to funnel the money back as straw donations, bought herself a 3.14-carat yellow diamond ring, and falsified her tax returns. Fifteen counts: theft of government funds, money laundering, straw donations, tax fraud. Up to 53 years if convicted.

Now the double standard. Remember George Santos? Democrats couldn’t get to a microphone fast enough to demand his expulsion before Ethics even finished its report. With Cherfilus-McCormick, the same leadership is calling for “presumption of innocence” and asking for delays. She requested a postponement after the committee had already delayed it once because she lost her lawyer. Axios reports Democrats face an “impending dam break,” with internal pressure for her to resign before an expulsion vote embarrasses the caucus. GOP leaders believe they have the two-thirds to expel.

A sitting congresswoman accused of stealing pandemic relief money, laundering it into her campaign, and buying jewelry with the leftovers, and the party that made “accountability” its brand during the Santos saga can barely bring itself to say her name.

Quick Rundown

• Trump heads to Beijing May 14–15. The President announced a China visit for talks with Xi Jinping, postponed from March due to the Iran war. A reciprocal Xi visit to D.C. is planned later this year. The trip lands against the backdrop of an $11 billion Taiwan arms package — and the question of whether Beijing’s Gulf oil dependence can be leveraged on Tehran.

• IED at MacDill Air Force Base; suspect fled to China. A brother and sister face federal charges after an IED was found at the Florida base housing CENTCOM and Special Operations Command. The alleged bomb-maker is now in China.

• Finland convicts MP in “Bible trial.” Finland’s supreme court fined MP Paivi Rasanen for publishing a pamphlet on Christian sexual ethics. The Federalist reports it could effectively ban orthodox Christian teaching in Finland.

• NJ governor signs ICE mask ban. Gov. Sherrill signed three laws restricting state cooperation with immigration enforcement. DHS called the ban “despicable” and said it won’t comply.

• Trump anti-fraud task force launched. Vance and FTC Chairman Ferguson outlined a plan to combat $250 billion in annual government fraud, targeting Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and unemployment insurance.

Wait, What Is the White House Doing on Social Media?

The official White House social media accounts went full analog horror this week, and nobody has any idea why.

It started Wednesday night. The White House X account posted a shaky, floor-level video of a woman’s pointed shoes with a voice asking, “It’s launching soon, right?” and someone answering, “Yes.” Caption: “sound on.” Then they deleted it.

A second video followed — static on a screen with text-message sounds and a flash of the American flag.

Thursday brought more pixelated, blurred images, completely unreadable. Then came the kicker: another clip that, when played backwards, appears to say “exciting announcement tomorrow.”

The posts racked up millions of views. Half of X thinks the accounts were hacked. The other half thinks this is a deliberate tease for something dropping today, Friday, March 27. A new initiative? A bomb? Nobody from the White House has explained anything, which is, of course, the point.

But credit where it’s due: the White House comms team has every media outlet in the country heads spinning with speculation using nothing but a shoe video and a pixelated JPEG. Whatever this is, they’ve got everyone watching.

Let’s Talk About It

Two questions for you this Friday:

Should Democrats who demanded Santos be expelled hold their own members to the same standard, or is that just not how Washington works?

And the important one: what do you think the White House cryptic posts are teasing? Wrong answers only.

Drop your thoughts in the comments. I’ll see you Monday.

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The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

Some quick housekeeping!

There will be no Thursday episode of Rivera and Reeves while Rachel is traveling. BUT! Good news is that we will be doing Saturday’s UnFiltered LIVE open for everyone. So if you've been wanting to join us for an UnFiltered episode, this Saturday at 11 am EST is your chance! Exclusively on Substack!

Also, I have been working hard to get the podcast audio dialed in. I think I finally got it. Apparently, a new mic designed for big mouths was the secret.

I am the one with the big mouth, btw.

IKYMI

Rivera and Reeves

Ep. 219 | They Caught Him Twice and Let Him Go Twice

TSA agents are 40 days into working without pay, an 18-year-old college student is dead at the hands of an illegal immigrant Chicago refused to deport, Iran is firing ballistic missiles at U.S. bases, and a Twitch streamer is glamping at a Cuban government hotel in the name of socialism. This week, Meseidy and Rachel break down the DHS/TSA shutdown — including the inconvenient truth Democrats don’t want you knowing about ICE funding — react to the murder of Sheridan Gorman and Chicago’s outrageous political response, deliver a full Operation Epic Fury update (Khomeini, Diego Garcia, Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum), and roast Code Pink’s Fire Festival 2.0 in Havana. Also: the “Iran isn’t a threat” crowd has gone suspiciously quiet…

Listen now

15 days ago · 11 likes · 3 comments · Meseidy, Rachel Reeves, and Rivera and Reeves

The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email.

Let’s get into it.

In today’s Brief:

• Trump handed Iran a 15-point peace plan while simultaneously deploying thousands of paratroopers — diplomacy, apparently, works best with a loaded backup

• The DHS deal everyone was celebrating Monday night is already dead on arrival, opposed by Republicans, Democrats, the White House, and possibly the laws of physics

• The Supreme Court spent Tuesday debating whether a migrant standing in Mexico with their foot at the border has technically “arrived in” the United States — yes, this is real

• Joe Kent said he’d testify in defense of Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin — and now the FBI is investigating him for allegedly leaking classified information

• New Mexico hit Meta with a historic $375M verdict over child exploitation, the first time a jury has ruled on these claims

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Iran: The Deal That Everyone Wants and Nobody Will Admit To

Here is where we stand on day 25 of the Iran war: The United States has struck more than 9,000 military targets inside Iran since February 28. Dozens of regime leaders are dead. The Strait of Hormuz — through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes — remains a flashpoint. Gas prices are still painful.

And yet: Trump handed Tehran a 15-point peace plan via Pakistan on Tuesday, and he’s publicly claiming Iran has already agreed to the biggest demand.

“They’ve agreed,” Trump said of his nuclear ask. “They will never have a nuclear weapon. They’ve agreed to that.”

Tehran’s official response: these reports of negotiations are “fake news” designed to calm oil markets.

Someone is lying. Or both sides are managing their domestic audiences. Probably both. Have you seen the propaganda Iran is putting out?

The framework, reported by the New York Post and confirmed by multiple outlets, demands Iran dismantle its nuclear program entirely — including Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordo — hand enriched uranium to the IAEA, abandon its proxy network (Hezbollah, the Houthis, all of it), and limit its missile program. In exchange: sanctions relief and U.S. help building a civilian nuclear program. Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey are all playing intermediary roles.

VP JD Vance has emerged as a central figure in the off-ramp discussions, alongside Rubio, Witkoff, and Kushner. And Trump announced Tuesday that Iran sent a “significant” oil-related “present” — almost certainly a gesture around the Strait of Hormuz — as a sign of good faith.

Meanwhile, the military buildup is accelerating. The Pentagon is expected to deploy between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, one of the military’s premier rapid-response forces, capable of deploying a battalion within 18 hours. The division’s command element has already been ordered forward. There are already 50,000 U.S. troops in the region. That number is growing.

Overnight update: Fox News confirmed orders have been given to deploy the 82nd Airborne command element. No final orders have yet been issued to the full Immediate Response Force brigade.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was blunt: “Operation Epic Fury continues unabated.” This is not a contradiction — it’s a strategy. You negotiate from strength, or you don’t negotiate at all.

The one question nobody’s asking loudly enough: Saudi Crown Prince MBS has reportedly been privately pushing Trump to continue the war, calling this a “historic opportunity to remake the Middle East.” What does Trump promise Riyadh if a deal actually gets done?

The DHS Shutdown: The Deal That Wasn’t

Senate Republicans walked out of the White House Monday night feeling good about a two-step plan: fund DHS now minus ICE deportation operations, then move ICE funding through budget reconciliation later with zero Democratic votes needed. Markwayne Mullin was confirmed 54-45 as the new DHS secretary, and sworn in. Things felt like they were moving.

By Tuesday afternoon, it was all falling apart.

Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, said the deal still doesn’t include ICE reforms they’ve been demanding — not just defunding — and drafted a counterproposal. House conservatives announced opposition before the deal was even formally announced. Sen. Rick Scott called it a “pipe dream.” And Trump himself, who blessed the deal the night before, told reporters Tuesday he was “pretty much not happy with” anything being negotiated.

So: a plan endorsed by the White House, opposed by the White House, opposed by Democrats, opposed by House conservatives, opposed by at least one prominent Senate Republican. Outstanding.

This is now day 38. TSA officers are working without pay. Airport security lines are breaking records. A Canadian passenger jet collided with a fire truck on the LaGuardia runway on Sunday, killing both pilots. ICE agents are now stationed at airports in place of TSA — Tom Homan says ICE will arrest “criminals,” not screen bags. Steve Bannon is calling the airport deployment a “test run” for the 2026 midterms, which is a thing he actually said, so of course, legacy media is running with it.

The Easter recess starts at the end of this week. If Congress leaves without a deal, they leave the airports exactly like this for two more weeks.

Here’s the real accountability angle: Democrats have blocked DHS funding for 38 days over their refusal to fund ICE deportations. The airports aren’t breaking down because of Trump’s immigration policies. They’re breaking down because Senate Democrats decided the leverage was worth it. The political press has largely avoided framing it that way.

SCOTUS: What Does “Arrives In” Actually Mean?

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Noem v. Al Otro Lado, the case over whether the government can practice “metering,” turning migrants back at the southern border before they physically step onto U.S. soil.

The Obama administration invented the tool. Trump’s first term expanded it. Biden killed it. Now Trump wants it back.

The legal question sounds simple: Does a migrant stopped on the Mexican side of the border have the right to apply for asylum? Federal law says any noncitizen who “arrives in” the United States can claim asylum. The government says a person in Mexico hasn’t arrived. The challengers say migrants approaching a port of entry are close enough to count.

Conservative justices appeared inclined toward the government’s position. Justice Kavanaugh raised the obvious perverse incentive: under the current 9th Circuit ruling, migrants who illegally cross the border onto U.S. soil have more asylum rights than migrants who do everything right and wait in line at a port of entry. Why would Congress create that system?

The oral argument itself got almost absurdist — Justice Gorsuch asked whether someone at the top of a border wall has better asylum rights than someone at the bottom. Chief Justice Roberts asked about people at the back of a long line. Justice Sotomayor offered that maybe a hand or a nose through the fence might count as “arriving.”

Justice Jackson tried multiple times to get the court to toss the case as moot since metering isn’t currently in use. It didn’t land.

Solicitor General John Sauer’s position is commonsense: “A person does not ‘arrive in the United States’ if he is stopped in Mexico.” A ruling is expected by June. Given the questioning, expect the court to hand the executive branch back a critical tool for managing border surges, without a judge in California being able to kill it.

Joe Kent - No Jurisdiction. No Evidence. Willing to Testify for Defense.

Joe Kent — the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned over his opposition to the Iran war — has spent the past week publicly claiming the FBI blocked him from investigating a “foreign nexus” in Charlie Kirk’s assassination. In an interview with Michael Schellenberger, he says he’d willingly testify for the defense of Tyler Robinson, the man who confessed to killing Kirk in a text message to his romantic partner. Kent’s theory: the FBI had “tunnel vision,” Robinson may not have acted alone, and someone in government suppressed the leads.

The FBI’s rebuttal: Kent “had no authority” to probe Kirk’s assassination and was blocked from files he had no statutory right to access. In other words, he wasn’t an investigator — he was an interloper.

Overnight update: The Washington Examiner and others confirmed the FBI has opened a formal investigation into Kent for allegedly improperly sharing classified information. Kent’s response: the investigation is a “counternarrative” meant to intimidate him into silence.

Andrew Kolvet — one of Kirk’s closest advisors — pushed back hard this week, calling Kent’s claims “conspiracy garbage“ and saying more evidence will be presented to the public. This was just a day before Kolvet dropped something that makes this story considerably more uncomfortable.

According to Kolvet, he shared private screenshots of text messages he had with Charlie Kirk directly with Kent. Kent allegedly encouraged Kolvet to go public with those messages. Kolvet declined. About two weeks later, those same private messages appeared on Candace Owens’s show. Kolvet says he doesn’t know whether Kent passed them to Owens, but the timeline speaks for itself, and he’s not letting it go unaddressed.

That’s worth sitting with for a moment. The man who claims to be pursuing justice for Charlie Kirk allegedly encouraged the publication of Kirk’s private messages — messages Kolvet, one of Kirk’s closest friends, chose not to release out of respect — and then those messages ended up broadcast to a national audience anyway, to further a theory that Kirk’s own inner circle calls “conspiracy garbage.” Kent also got into a public clash with Mark Levin over the broader theory.

Let’s be clear about what Kent himself admitted in the interview: he has “nothing specific” on Israeli involvement. His own words. He had no jurisdiction. He had no evidence. What he is offering the defense of Tyler Robinson is an “alternative suspect” theory — the idea that law enforcement had tunnel vision — which is a real legal argument under the Brady doctrine. But here’s the practical danger: if Kent takes that stand and a jury is persuaded that the investigation was compromised or incomplete, it could create reasonable doubt that derails the prosecution of the man who confessed to the murder in a text message. You don’t have to believe in a foreign conspiracy to understand what that outcome would mean.

Kirk was assassinated. A man confessed. The trial will determine what the jury makes of all this noise. But the spectacle of a former counterterrorism official — now under FBI investigation for allegedly leaking classified information — publicly undermining the prosecution of his former boss’s alleged killer, while privately encouraging the distribution of that boss’s personal messages, is a story that deserves a lot more scrutiny than it’s getting.

In my Feed

Legacy media cosplay as podcasters

Quick Rundown

• Taliban releases U.S. hostage Dennis Coyle. The 64-year-old Colorado academic had been held in near-solitary confinement in Kabul for 421 days. The Taliban released him as a goodwill gesture for Eid. Secretary Rubio confirmed his release Tuesday; Coyle arrived in the UAE within hours. Two Americans — Mahmoud Habibi and the remains of Paul Overby — remain in Taliban custody.

• New Mexico jury hits Meta with a $375M verdict. A jury found Meta violated state consumer protection law by knowingly enabling child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram — 75,000 violations at $5,000 each. Meta plans to appeal. It’s the first time a jury has reached this kind of verdict against the company. A separate Los Angeles jury is still deliberating in a social media mental health case against Meta and YouTube. A second New Mexico phase trial on public nuisance claims is set for May.

• Delta yanked Congress’s dedicated travel service line. During the DHS shutdown, which has airport security lines hitting record lengths, Delta suspended its special assistance desk for members of Congress. The Senate had quietly voted earlier to end its practice of letting lawmakers skip TSA security lines. Small justice.

Let’s Talk About It

Two questions on my mind this week. First: Is the Iran peace-plan-plus-troop-buildup combination a sign that Trump is negotiating in genuine good faith, or is the "deal talk" a diplomatic cover for a deeper military escalation that Saudi Arabia is quietly cheering on? And second — on Kent: is he a genuine whistleblower being silenced by an FBI that doesn't want scrutiny of its own investigation, or is he someone so convinced of his own theory that he's willing to risk letting a confessed killer walk free to prove it?

Drop your thoughts in the comments. And if you’re not already subscribed, share this with someone who deserves better news coverage.

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The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

I did my best this weekend to disconnect, but the news cycle sucks me back in, and it was a wild one. I did, however, make a footstool for my ready nook. The full breakdown on that is in yesterday’s Sunday Desk.

But can we talk about the rollercoaster ride of a news cycle this weekend?

One day, Trump says we are about to wrap it up, Iran attempts to hit Diego Garcia, the Strait is still closed, Iran drops an intermediate ballistic missile on Israel, Trump says we're going to bomb your facilities, Iran releases targets & a Lego movie. And then this morning, Trump is all, we are making progress with Iran.

The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email. Let’s get into it.

In today’s Brief:

• Iran’s foreign minister told American TV their missiles couldn’t reach past 2,000 kilometers — then they fired two at Diego Garcia, 4,000 kilometers away.

• Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum to Iran expires tonight — reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face obliterated power plants.

• Fifty thousand TSA workers have gone six weeks without pay, and Washington’s answer is to send ICE to the airports — starting this morning.

• American socialists flew to Cuba, checked into a five-star hotel running on a generator, and held a concert while 11 million Cubans sat in the dark.

• Senate Democrats blocked voter ID, a transgender sports amendment, and standalone TSA pay — all in one weekend.

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Breaking News Overnight

Air Canada Plane and Fire Truck Collide at Newark Airport

Volunteer Ambulances Set on Fire in Jewish Neighborhood in Planned Attack.

Iran Launches Missile at US/UK Base on Diego Garcia - 2,000 km Believed Capable

Three weeks before Operation Epic Fury began, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sat down on Meet the Press and told American audiences something reassuring. “We have intentionally limited ourselves to below 2,000 kilometers of range,” he said, “because we don’t want to be felt as a threat by anybody else in the world.”

They were lying.

On Friday, Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, a joint U.S.-UK military base sitting 4,000 kilometers from Iran in the Indian Ocean. The missiles didn’t hit the base — one failed in flight, a U.S. warship fired an SM-3 interceptor at the other — but the message landed clean. This was Iran’s first-ever use of intermediate-range ballistic missiles, the ones that had supposedly been off the table. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said it plainly on Saturday: “Their lies were exposed.” IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani was blunter: “Just 3 days before the war, the Iranian regime said they don’t obtain long-range missiles. Today, their lies were exposed once again.”

How many outlets that gave Araghchi sympathetic airtime to call concerns about Iran’s missiles “misinformation” are going back to correct the record? Don’t hold your breath.

On Saturday evening, Trump escalated. He issued Iran a 48-hour ultimatum: reopen the Strait of Hormuz — blocked since early March, a chokepoint for roughly one-fifth of global oil — or the US will “hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST.”

Tehran fired back without hesitation. Iran’s military warned that any strike on its power grid will trigger attacks on Gulf nations’ energy infrastructure and desalination plants — facilities that produce 100% of Bahrain and Qatar’s drinking water and more than 80% of the UAE’s. The IRGC added: “The Strait of Hormuz will be completely closed and will not be opened until our destroyed power plants are rebuilt.” Brent crude closed Friday at $103/barrel. A market analyst called it “a 48-hour ticking time bomb of elevated uncertainty.”

UPDATE — This morning: The bomb didn’t go off. Trump ordered the Department of War to postpone strikes for five days, citing “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.” Some headlines are calling it a diplomatic breakthrough. Here’s what’s actually worth knowing before you celebrate.

The negotiations are not direct US-Iran talks. They’re going through Turkey as an intermediary. Iranian FM Araghchi confirmed he’d spoken by phone with Turkish FM Hakan Fidan, Turkey serving as the go-between. That’s the same Araghchi who sat on American television weeks ago and told us their missiles couldn’t reach past 2,000 kilometers. His word is the foundation of this “diplomatic opening.”

Turkey’s role here deserves its own paragraph. Erdoğan has spent the better part of this conflict positioning Ankara as the neutral broker, a NATO member with deep economic ties to Iran and a track record of playing multiple sides in regional conflicts simultaneously. Turkey benefits from being indispensable. That’s not the same thing as Turkey being an honest broker.

Fox News reports that experts are signaling these talks may be buying time for a larger strike rather than genuine diplomacy, and that the five-day pause allows military positioning to continue while giving both sides a face-saving window. US Marines are still heading to the region. The Strait is still closed. Nothing on the ground has changed.

It’s also worth naming a third layer in this story. The Trump administration temporarily lifted sanctions on 140 million barrels of Iranian oil already at sea — Treasury Secretary Bessent framed it as “using Iranian barrels against Tehran” to fight the price spike. UN Ambassador Mike Waltz echoed that on Fox, saying financial sanctions on Iranian banks remain in place, so Tehran sees none of the money. Critics counter it still technically loosened “maximum pressure.” That tension is real and deserves honest coverage, not burial.

TSA Lines Are A Mess — Fingers Are Pointing

Fifty thousand TSA officers have worked without pay for over five weeks. Some are sleeping in their cars. Some are drawing blood to afford gas to get to work. Pittsburgh International Airport partnered with a local food bank to feed federal employees. This is the human cost of a deliberate political strategy.

And the strategy belongs to the Democrats.

They are not blocking DHS funding over TSA. They are blocking the entire Department of Homeland Security over ICE, and it’s worth being precise about what they’re actually demanding, because the media rarely is.

The warrant demand goes well beyond home entry. Schumer and Jeffries are calling to “end indiscriminate arrests and improve warrant procedures” and to end “roving patrols of agents targeting people in the streets and in their homes.” That’s a demand to replace administrative warrants — the legal mechanism for virtually all ICE arrests, whether on a street, at a worksite, outside a courthouse, or during a traffic stop — with judicial warrants across the board. Administrative warrants are signed by senior DHS officials after a probable cause determination and are the existing legal basis for immigration enforcement. Judicial warrants require a federal judge. There are not enough federal judges in this country to process immigration arrests at that volume. The Free Beacon reported that experts say this would bring enforcement to a near “halt.” The Washington Examiner called it “backdoor amnesty.” The White House called it a “complete nonstarter.” Add to that demands for body cameras, identifying uniforms, no masks, no enforcement near schools, hospitals, or churches, and you have not a reform agenda but an operational shutdown dressed up in procedural language.

Republicans blocked a standalone TSA funding measure in response, arguing Democrats have to fund all of DHS, not carve out the parts they like. The Senate has failed to advance a DHS bill seven times. Democrats blocked standalone TSA pay again this weekend during the SAVE America Act debate.

The dominant media frame: Trump deploys immigration agents to airports. The accurate frame: Democrats held 50,000 federal workers hostage to extract immigration concessions, and now ICE is covering airport exits because the government has run out of road.

Starting this morning, ICE is deploying to roughly 14 airports. Homan confirmed on CNN the plan is limited: ICE agents will cover exits and handle crowd flow so TSA can focus on screenings. “This is about helping the men and women at TSA,” he said. Not X-ray machines. Not immigration sweeps.

To be fair — and we always are — some inside the administration weren’t thrilled. The Wall Street Journal reported that ICE and DHS officials were privately frustrated, saying the deployment distracts from deportation priorities and could hand Democrats a PR win without extracting policy concessions. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters she was “not a fan.” This is a live story. If it works, Trump gets credit for keeping air travel functional under pressure. If something goes sideways, it’s a crisis.

The Fyre Festival For Rich American Socialists

While Cuba experienced its third nationwide blackout of the month — a cascading grid failure that plunged 11 million people into darkness, left hospitals running on nothing, and sent protests spreading across the island — a convoy of American and European socialists was keeping quite comfortable in Havana. The generator hum at the Gran Hotel Bristol Meliá Collection runs $130 to $520 a night. It never stopped humming.

The “Nuestra America Convoy” brought in Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, Isra Hirsi (Ilhan Omar’s daughter), Code Pink leadership, and Irish rap group Kneecap — previously accused of supporting Hamas — under the guise of delivering 20 tons of humanitarian aid to protest the U.S. oil blockade. Piker claimed he was forced by U.S. regulations to stay in a luxury hotel. There are no such regulations. There are no rules about choosing a cheaper hotel. He chose the five-star.

Kneecap’s concert drew what a generous observer might call a handful of people. They chanted “Free Cuba, f— Trump, f— Netanyahu.” Code Pink flew in artists to leave behind a “gift mural” — a gift, presumably, to the regime that arranged the whole trip. Meanwhile, a Cuban man filmed himself walking to the hotel in the dark, furious. The video went viral. Code Pink chanted “This is what democracy looks like!” in the streets of a country that bans every political party except the Communist Party of Cuba.

Mike Gonzalez, a Cuban exile forced out at age 12, put it precisely: they’re treating Cuba as “an ideological theme park.” One X user called it “the Fyre Festival for humanities majors with trust funds.” Both are accurate, and neither is uncharitable.

This isn’t just hypocrisy, it’s instructive. Communism produces nationwide blackouts and hospitals without power. The people most enthusiastic about it are the ones with a flight home when the generator runs low.

QUICK RUNDOWN

• SAVE America Act heads into the week — The Senate is debating the GOP’s citizenship-proof voting bill, but Democrats blocked two amendments over the weekend: a transgender sports fairness measure (49-41) and a standalone TSA funding pitch. Schumer says Republicans have now blocked TSA pay seven times. Republicans say Democrats have to fund all of DHS, not carve out the parts they like. The debate continues this week. More here

• Abrego Garcia deportation update — The Trump administration asked a federal judge to dissolve the court order blocking the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national mistakenly sent to El Salvador in 2025. The DOJ says Liberia is willing to accept him, and ICE could arrange a charter flight in roughly five days. He faces human smuggling charges and has pleaded not guilty. CBS News

• Democrats’ 2028 strategy: childhood trauma — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are each opening potential presidential campaigns with unusually candid accounts of chaotic upbringings, absent parents, and personal suffering. Shapiro writes about his mother’s instability. Newsom describes being absent at his dying mother’s bedside. Pritzker lost his father at 7 and his mother to alcoholism at 17. Is this a political strategy dressed up as therapy? Axios

• Cuba protests spreading — Saturday’s blackout was Cuba’s fourth major grid failure in four months, triggered by a cascading failure at a power plant in Nuevitas. Officials blame a U.S. energy blockade. Venezuela cut oil shipments after the U.S. arrested Maduro. Protests are now spreading across the island as frustration over electricity shortages and food shortages deepens. Just the News

Let’s Talk About It

A couple of things I want to hear from you on:

Do you trust the Iran talks? Trump paused the strikes — Iran says they’re negotiating. Do you buy it, or does this feel like a stall? Drop a comment.

Who do you blame for the airport mess? Be honest — before you read this, did you know Democrats have blocked TSA pay seven times? Does that change how you see it?

If this landed differently from what you usually read, pass it on.

Until Wednesday

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The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

Weekend is incoming, and I am here for it! Although the office DIY saga continues because we realized we made a mistake and need to rip out the crown molding. This is after we cut, mounted, and caulked. Fun times! In case it’s not obvious, that is sarcasm.

I will break it all down for you in the Sunday Desk so you can learn from our mistakes.

Also, in today’s edition of the Brief, I linked the gift links to some really good articles. I recommend you add them to your reading list.

ICYMI, we talked about it on the podcast!

Rivera and Reeves

Ep. 218 | The Left's "Moderate" Wants to Abolish ICE

The news cycle is officially broken — and we’re here for it…

Listen now

24 days ago · 14 likes · Meseidy, Rachel Reeves, and Rivera and Reeves

The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email. Let’s get into it.

In today’s Brief:

• The NYT blew up one of the left’s most sacred icons — and the MeToo crowd is conspicuously quiet.

• Israel bombed Iran’s biggest gas field without telling Trump, oil hit $120, and now the president and Netanyahu are publicly at odds.

• Joe Kent resigned, went on Tucker, claimed Israel controls Trump — then the FBI leak investigation dropped. Interesting timing.

• James Comey has been subpoenaed in a probe with 130+ grand jury subpoenas and a certain Florida judge presiding.

• Democrats blocked even a standalone voter ID vote — and one senator explained exactly why.

• The “ICE arrested a 5-year-old” story was wrong from day one. The asylum denial just confirmed it.The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email. Let’s get into it.

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The Cesar Chavez Reckoning — When the Movement Protects the Man

A bombshell New York Times investigation (🎁 link) has exposed Cesar Chavez — labor icon, face of the Latino civil rights movement, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the man whose bust Biden displayed in the Oval Office — as someone who systematically groomed and sexually abused underage girls for years.

Two women, Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas, both now 66, told the Times that Chavez began abusing them at ages 12 and 13. Then came the most seismic disclosure: Dolores Huerta — Chávez’s closest ally, the woman who coined “Sí, se puede,” who turns 96 next month — broke a 60-year silence and confirmed that Chávez sexually assaulted her twice in the 1960s, resulting in two pregnancies she kept hidden.

The United Farm Workers canceled all Cesar Chavez Day celebrations. A statue in Fresno was covered. California is moving to rename Cesar Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day. Chavez’s biographer, Dartmouth professor Matthew Garcia, was direct: “Chavez became too big to fail,” and the foundation — separately under scrutiny by California for financial misappropriation — actively suppressed victims to protect the image and the money.

But here’s the question the “shocked” politicians haven’t answered: how shocked can you really be?

Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters he’s “still processing” the news and that it’s been “hard to absorb.” He noted that he and his wife, Jennifer, are “very close” with Dolores Huerta, the woman who apparently carried the secret of Chavez’s assaults for six decades while remaining one of California’s most prominent political figures. That’s a tight circle to be “in” and yet somehow entirely in the dark.

The paper trail suggests the inner circle had more than rumors to go on. The NYT’s own investigation documented that internal UFW emails discussed Murguia’s abuse claims for over a decade. More than 10 years ago, Debra Rojas — one of the two primary victims — posted in a private Facebook group for longtime UFW organizers: “Wake up people. This man u march for every year molested me.” She was pressured to delete it within days by people who accused her of jeopardizing the movement. UFW insiders saw it. They made a choice.

This wasn’t entirely hidden from the broader scholarly record either. Both of Chavez’s major biographies — Matt Garcia’s From the Jaws of Victory (2012) and Miriam Pawel’s The Crusades of Cesar Chavez (2014) — documented his serial extramarital affairs in detail, including the well-known episode where his wife left him after intercepting a love letter to an 18-year-old girl. Historians had noted that “sex played a role in his efforts to control the movement” and that the UFW became what some compared to a cult, after Chavez developed an affinity for the cult Synanon led by Charles Dietrich. Neither author raised the abuse of minors, but the shape of the pattern was already there in print, for anyone willing to look.

The Washington Post ran an opinion piece this week headlined simply: “News of César Chavez sexually abusing women and girls didn’t surprise me.” (🎁 link) That’s not a fringe take. That’s the Post.

This is the same political coalition that was loudest on MeToo, that toppled statues, demanded accountability, and told us no one gets a pass. Now Democrats are scrambling to find the right distancing language, and Axios's follow-up noted that Biden’s 2024 campaign manager is Chávez’s own granddaughter. The real story isn’t just what Chavez did. It’s who knew, what they chose to protect, and what “the cause” has been used to justify burying.

Week Three in Iran — A $120 Barrel and a Strategy Coming Apart

The gas field. Israel struck Iran’s South Pars — the world’s largest offshore gas field, jointly operated with Qatar — without U.S. coordination. Trump said he knew nothing. Netanyahu said “Israel acted alone.” Trump called Netanyahu directly and told him to stop. Netanyahu agreed not to repeat it.

The blowback. Iran retaliated by striking Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, knocking out 17% of Qatar’s total LNG export capacity and threatening Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. Oil briefly touched $120 a barrel. Treasury Secretary Bessent floated suspending sanctions on Iranian oil to calm markets, which would mean letting Iran profit from its own war to stabilize a crisis it helped create.

The strategy gap. Gabbard testified before both intelligence committees that U.S. and Israeli war goals are different; Israel wants to “disable the Iranian leadership,” and Trump wants to destroy Iran’s military capability. Those aren’t the same war. She also confirmed the new Supreme Leader is more hardline than his father, and that Iran still holds 440 kg of 60%-enriched uranium, enough for 10 nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the WSJ’s inside account (🎁 link) details Israel’s systematic decapitation campaign, with thousands of regime members killed from top leaders to street-level forces.

The execution that wasn’t supposed to happen. Iran publicly hanged Saleh Mohammadi — a 19-year-old champion wrestler — along with two other protesters, per the New York Post. Trump had previously told Americans Tehran assured him executions would stop. They didn’t.

The polls. 83% of Republicans support Operation Epic Fury and back Trump over Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found 59% of all Americans disapprove of the war and 65% think Trump will send ground troops, with only 7% supporting that. Trump said Thursday he is “not putting troops anywhere.” Both polls are real. Your job is to hold both frames at once.

Joe Kent: Principled Dissenter or Leaker Who Got Caught?

Joe Kent, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in protest this week, claiming Iran posed “no imminent threat” and that Trump launched the war due to “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” He immediately went on Tucker Carlson.

Semafor was the first to report that the FBI had been investigating Kent for leaking classified information — before he resigned, with the probe ongoing for months. CIA Director Ratcliffe directly contradicted his threat assessment in Senate testimony. And yesterday NOTUS reported that Kent was being investigated because “FBI agents had determined Kent shared secret government information with disaffected MAGA media figures, like Tucker Carlson,” and “that Kent leaked classified information from a server to a member of the media.” Of course, the sources are unnamed. While some view Kent as an honorable dissenter, others question the timing and alleged coordination of his interview with Tucker.

Before you land on “political hit job,” consider what standard counterintel practice actually looks like. Reports indicate Kent was siloed, kept in place, and access was restricted while investigators watched what he did with what he could still reach. You don’t fire a suspected leaker; you track him. The three-month gap between opening the probe and his resignation isn’t evidence it was fabricated. It’s how you run a real investigation.

What’s harder to explain is the timing of the leak. The probe existed for months. It surfaced publicly within hours of his Tucker interview. The government didn’t have to invent a case to weaponize it, if someone chose to let those three outlets run with it after he went public rather than before, the sequencing alone does the damage. Probe is real. Timing is a choice. Those aren’t the same question.

So here’s where I’ll leave you: Was Kent a principled dissenter who resigned knowing the probe was closing in, and got ahead of it with Tucker? Or was he genuinely unaware, which would mean the FBI was investigating him for months without him knowing and he resigned independently? Because those two scenarios have very different implications for what kind of operation this was — his or theirs.

The Comey Subpoena — What 130 Grand Jury Subpoenas Mean

Former FBI Director Comey has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors in Florida as part of the DOJ’s “grand conspiracy” investigation into Obama-era intelligence officials. The subpoena relates to his alleged role in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference, you know, the one that included the Steele Dossier despite the CIA's consensus that it was an “internet rumor.” The probe has issued 130+ subpoenas. Previously in the crosshairs: John Brennan, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe.

Presiding: Judge Aileen Cannon. CIA Director Ratcliffe has declassified records showing Brennan pushed to include the dossier over intelligence community objections. Declassified Presidential Daily Briefs show the IC assessed as late as December 2016 that Russia “did not impact” the election. For years, concerns about the 2016 ICA were dismissed as conspiracy thinking. 130+ subpoenas and a Judge Cannon grand jury later, that chapter isn’t closed.

⚡ Quick Rundown

• Democrats block a standalone voter ID vote. The Senate voted 51-48 to begin debating the SAVE Act, then Republicans called Democrats’ bluff with a clean voter ID-only vote, and Democrats blocked it. Sen. Jacky Rosen’s floor statement: “This bill is about shrinking the size of our electorate to benefit Republicans.” That’s not a policy objection; it’s an admission. Sen. Fetterman, a Democrat: “83% of Americans agree on voter ID.” Fox News has the full breakdown.

• The “ICE arrested a 5-year-old” story gets its confirmation — and its correction buried. A judge denied asylum for the family of Liam Conejo Ramos and ordered deportation to Ecuador. DHS clarified months ago: ICE conducted a targeted operation on the father, who fled on foot, leaving the child behind. CBS News’s lede on the denial still called it “the arrest” of the boy. Two framing failures, one story.

• Mullin DHS nomination clears committee. The Senate Homeland Security Committee advanced Markwayne Mullin 8-7, with Sen. Fetterman crossing the aisle to provide the decisive vote. Committee Chairman Rand Paul voted no. Full Senate vote expected next week.

• Afroman beats the cops. Ohio rapper Afroman was found not liable in a defamation case filed by seven sheriff’s deputies who sued him for making satirical music videos using security footage of their 2022 home raid. “It’s for Americans,” he said outside the courthouse. Solid First Amendment Friday.

• James Gracey found. The body of 20-year-old University of Alabama student James Gracey was recovered from the sea near Barcelona on Thursday. Spanish authorities believe the death was accidental. Our condolences to his family and the UA community.

• The White House registered Aliens.gov. The domain was quietly registered this week, a month after Trump ordered agencies to begin identifying UFO-related files. The site isn’t live. When asked, the White House said: “Stay tuned 👽.” We’ll see.

Let’s Talk About It

Two questions I keep coming back to:

On Cesar Chavez — The UFW saw Debra Rojas's Facebook post over a decade ago and pressured her to delete it. Internal emails about Murguia's abuse circulated for years. Historians documented the cult-like control patterns. Gavin Newsom says he's "still processing." At what point does "I didn't know" become a choice you made?

On Kent — Kent either resigned, knowing the FBI was closing in, and used Tucker as his exit ramp — or he had no idea he was under investigation and quit independently. Those two scenarios have very different implications for what kind of operation this was. Which one do you believe?r?

Reply and tell me what you think. I read everything.

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

I’m here with your mid-week edition. If you’re reading this before coffee, put it down. You need both hands for this one. Operation Epic Fury is now in week three, Iran’s shadow government just got eliminated, and is the America First coalition cracking in real time?

ICYMI, we talked about it on the podcast!

Rivera and Reeves

Ep. 217 | Tucker's CIA Claim, Joe Kent Quits & Why the Media Is Rooting Against America

Tucker Carlson says the CIA is building a criminal case against him. Joe Kent just resigned from the DNI’s counterterrorism office with a letter that contradicts itself. And legacy media — the same outlets that cheerleaded the Iraq war without a single tough question — are now going wall-to-wall negative on Iran. Coincidence…

Listen now

a month ago · 19 likes · 4 comments · Meseidy, Rachel Reeves, and Rivera and Reeves

In today’s Brief:

• Iran’s de facto ruler Ali Larijani was killed overnight in a U.S.-Israeli airstrike, leaving Tehran without a functional command structure.

• Joe Kent, Trump’s top counterterrorism official, resigned in protest of the Iran war — and the story gets stranger when you learn who his wife works for.

• A bipartisan House committee subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify under oath about the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files.

• The Senate kicked off a marathon floor debate on the SAVE America Act — Trump’s top legislative priority — even though everyone knows it’s not going to pass.

The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email. Let’s get into it.

Subscribe now

Iran Loses Its Second Leader in Three Weeks

Here is where we are: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed by a joint U.S.-Israeli operation on February 28. His son Mojtaba was elevated to replace him by the Assembly of Experts on March 7 — but he’s been mostly absent, a ghost in the government, showing no signs of meaningful moderation or willingness to deal. In the vacuum, Ali Larijani, the 67-year-old Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, had been running day-to-day operations as Iran’s de facto ruler.

Overnight on Monday, Israel killed him too.

Here’s what makes this particularly striking. Last Friday — March 13 — Larijani strolled confidently through a rally of regime loyalists in central Tehran, dark sunglasses, black coat, projecting total command. It was his first public appearance since the war began, in a conflict where he was a known target with a $10 million bounty on his head. He posted on X afterward: “Brave people. Brave officials. Brave leaders. This combination cannot be defeated.”

Four days later, he was dead. Israeli intelligence tracked him to a hideout on the outskirts of Tehran and took him out with a missile strike. The same night, according to a bombshell WSJ exclusive, Israel got a tip from ordinary Iranian citizens that Basij militia commander Gholam Reza Soleimani — the second target killed that night — was hiding in a tent in a wooded area in Tehran with his deputies. Israel struck. Soleimani died too.

That detail — regular Iranians helping Israel find and kill the man who ran the regime’s street enforcers — is not a minor footnote. It is the story within the story.

The WSJ reviewed Israeli battle-damage reports showing the scale of what’s been unfolding for three weeks: Israel has dropped 10,000 munitions on thousands of targets, more than 2,200 of them specifically targeting the IRGC, Basij, and Iran’s internal security apparatus. The campaign began by forcing security forces out of their headquarters, to sports stadiums, then to hideouts under highway bridges, then to tents in the woods — the steady compression of a regime’s ability to enforce its own authority. Thousands of regime personnel have been killed or wounded.

Israel’s Mossad has also been calling Iranian commanders directly. The WSJ reviewed the contents of one such call, with a Mossad agent speaking in Farsi to a senior police commander:

“We know everything about you. You are on our blacklist... I called to warn you in advance that you should stand with your people’s side. And if you will not do that, your destiny will be as your leader.”

The commander’s response: “Brother, I swear on the Quran, I’m not your enemy. I’m a dead man already. Just please come help us.”

The tally continues to grow. The Israeli Ministry of Defense confirmed that on Tuesday — the day after Larijani — Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib was also killed. Defense Minister Israel Katz was blunt about the message: the eliminated leaders “have joined Khamenei, the head of the annihilation program, along with all those eliminated from the axis of evil in the depths of hell.” According to The Jerusalem Post, Israel’s position is simple: Iran’s surviving leadership either makes dramatic concessions or stays in the crosshairs.

And when asked Tuesday whether Iran intends to negotiate, Trump said something remarkable: “We have no idea who is in charge of Iran now.”

Neither does anyone else. Celebrations broke out across Iran when Larijani’s death was confirmed. The strategic picture is grimmer than that suggests: oil prices have spiked to roughly $106 a barrel — up ~50% from a month ago — as Iran’s Strait of Hormuz closure chokes global shipping. The administration has deployed additional Marines to the region. Trump says it wraps in “a matter of weeks.” But who signs the deal? Who sits across the table? Right now, there is no clear answer — and per the WSJ’s reporting, the U.S. and Israel may be counting on the Iranian people to provide one.

The Kent Resignation: Principled, Convenient, or Something Weirder?

Let’s not pretend Joe Kent’s resignation is simple, because it isn’t.

Kent — Army Special Forces veteran, Gold Star husband, former CIA paramilitary officer — served as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center under DNI Tulsi Gabbard. He posted his resignation letter on X on Tuesday and the core argument is stark: Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States, and Trump was deceived into launching this war by “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” who ran a “misinformation campaign.” He called it the same playbook used to draw the U.S. into Iraq. He invoked the death of his first wife, Shannon, killed in an ISIS suicide bombing in Syria, calling her death part of “a war manufactured by Israel.”

Per Axios, Kent privately resigned to Vice President Vance on Monday — with Gabbard also in the room — before going public. Vance reportedly encouraged him to speak to the White House chief of staff first. He didn’t.

The White House response was swift and contemptuous. Trump called Kent “a nice guy” but “always weak on security, very weak on security,” and said his departure was “a good thing.” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt published a lengthy rebuttal, calling Kent’s claim that Iran posed no imminent threat “the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over.”

Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich reported that a senior administration official said Kent was “a known leaker,” had been cut out of presidential intelligence briefings months ago, and was never part of any Iran planning discussions.

DNI Gabbard made clear in her own statement that she supports the president’s decision, emphasizing Trump’s authority as commander-in-chief to determine what constitutes an imminent threat.

Former White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich called Kent “a crazed egomaniac who was often at the center of national security leaks.” He suggested the resignation was preemptive, that Kent jumped before he was pushed. Tucker Carlson called Kent “the bravest man I know.” The NY Post reports the White House is now bracing for an expected Carlson interview of Kent.

Kent is now hitting the media circuit — fast. His interview with Tucker Carlson on TCN airs tonight at 6:00 PM EST. And Candace Owens announced on her podcast that she plans to interview him this Thursday (March 19) at the “Catholic Prayer for America” Gala hosted by Catholics for Catholics in Washington, D.C. That’s two major anti-interventionist platforms in under 48 hours.

The unverified theory that’s circulating — and it’s all about timing. This is unconfirmed online speculation, flagged here because we have to talk about it. On Sunday, Tucker Carlson posted on X, claiming the CIA had accessed his text messages and was preparing a criminal referral to the DOJ, alleging this stemmed from his communications with “people in Iran” before the war, potentially a FARA violation. Carlson framed it as an effort to “frame” him. One to two days later, Kent — a “known leaker” who had already been cut out of presidential intelligence briefings for months — resigns publicly, immediately praises Carlson, and begins booking appearances on his network.

The theory making the rounds: Kent may have been the source who leaked details of the CIA’s alleged surveillance of Carlson to Carlson himself. The resignation, in this reading, wasn’t primarily about conscience; it was preemptive damage control before potential legal or professional fallout arrived. The rapid pivot to TCN and Candace Owens amplifies the suspicion that this is a coordinated effort by the anti-interventionist MAGA flank to build a media counternarrative against the Iran war, with Kent as the credentialed insider who can claim whistleblower status.

To be clear, none of this is confirmed. The White House has already dismissed Carlson’s CIA surveillance claims as “bullsh*t.” No public evidence directly ties Kent to leaks to Carlson. But the proximity of these events — Carlson claims CIA targeting, Kent resigns and immediately joins Carlson’s roster — is the kind of thing that doesn’t just dissolve on its own. The Carlson interview tonight may answer some of it. Or create more questions.

The substantive question underneath all of it remains: Was there truly no imminent threat? Will Chamberlain made a pointed counterargument, ISIS didn’t pose an imminent threat to the U.S. either, and Kent’s own letter praises Trump’s decision to defeat them. The “imminent threat” standard, if applied rigorously, would paralyze deterrence. The question isn’t just whether Kent is principled; it’s whether his standard, applied consistently, makes any strategic sense.

Epstein Files Fight Escalates: Bondi Gets the Subpoena

The Epstein saga is grinding forward, and it is not going away.

A bipartisan House Oversight Committee — led by Chairman James Comer (R-KY), with five Republicans joining 19 Democrats — formally subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to appear for a closed-door sworn deposition on April 14. The committee wants her testimony on the DOJ’s handling of Epstein-related document releases, including decisions on what to redact, what to withhold under legal privilege claims, and how the department reached its July 6 conclusion that Epstein was not part of a sinister trafficking network.

The committee is also seeking interviews with Goldman Sachs’ departing general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, Bill Gates, former Clinton aide Doug Band, Apollo Global’s Leon Black, and others with documented ties to Epstein.

The DOJ pushed back, calling the subpoena “completely unnecessary,” noting that lawmakers can already review unredacted files at a DOJ facility and that Bondi has been available for briefings. Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche were due to give the committee a private briefing on Wednesday.

The political awkwardness here is real. The committee vote forcing Bondi’s appearance was bipartisan. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has already agreed to voluntarily testify about a photo showing him at Epstein’s private island. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles acknowledged last year that Bondi had “completely whiffed” in her pre-appointment public remarks about having Epstein’s “client list” sitting on her desk. Over 3 million pages of documents have been released, and voters, particularly on the right, are not satisfied with what they’re seeing, or not seeing.

The SAVE Act: Senate Theater Comes to Washington

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 51-48 to open debate on the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, Trump’s self-described “No. 1 legislative priority.” The bill requires proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot, and it would empower DHS to flag suspected noncitizens to states for voter roll purges.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted with all Democrats against proceeding. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) — who has called the bill “federal overreach” — didn’t vote.

Trump this week threatened on Truth Social that he will never endorse anyone who votes against the bill, calling it “one of the most IMPORTANT & CONSEQUENTIAL pieces of legislation in the history of Congress.” He has tied his endorsement in the Texas Senate Republican primary directly to a senator’s position on the SAVE Act.

The math doesn’t care about the threats. Republicans need 60 votes to end debate, and they have 53. Majority Leader John Thune has publicly stated he doesn’t have the votes for a “talking filibuster,” either, which would require near-unanimous Republican conference support to force Democrats to continuously speak on the floor until they collapse. Even Trump’s amendments — add a mail-in ballot ban, add a transgender athlete ban — require 60 votes to attach. So the amendments won’t pass either.

What is happening, then? Republicans get to put Democrats on record opposing voter ID. Democrats get to run ads saying Republicans tried to take away your right to vote. Trump gets to tell his base he went to the mat. A Harvard-Harris survey in February found 71% of voters support the SAVE America Act overall, and 85% support the citizenship requirement.

Schumer’s line: “A naked attempt to rig our elections.” Thune’s line: “You need an ID to get a library card.” Both sides are talking past the actual voters.

Overnight update: Internal Republican divisions surfaced at a Tuesday lunch where senators objected to the bill’s mail-in ballot restrictions. The White House is reportedly working to address GOP conference concerns. Debate continues today.

Quick Rundown

• Iran fires back — at everyone. Following the Larijani and Khatib killings, Iran launched retaliatory missile and drone barrages Tuesday night targeting Israel, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Gulf state air defense systems were engaged overnight. Two people died from shrapnel near Tel Aviv, and six were killed in Beirut during Israeli counterstrikes on Hezbollah.

• The DHS shutdown is now in its second month — and airports are noticing. The White House released a formal written offer Tuesday listing five policy concessions on immigration enforcement — body cameras, sensitive-location restrictions, detention oversight. Schumer immediately rejected it, saying they haven’t budged on the two issues that matter: warrants before home entries and unmasked agents.

• AIPAC dropped $22 million in Illinois — and got a split decision. Illinois held Democratic primaries Tuesday. AIPAC-aligned Juliana Stratton won the Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin. But in key House races, AIPAC picks went 2-for-4, with Daniel Biss defeating their candidate in the 9th District and La Shawn Ford beating their pick in the 7th.

• Section 702 spy powers expire in 33 days — and Tucker’s CIA claim just made this weirder. Speaker Johnson wants a clean 18-month reauthorization of FISA’s Section 702 surveillance authority on the floor next week, ahead of the April 20 deadline. Hard-liners want privacy guardrails added. There’s a classified briefing today at 3:30 PM. Given that Tucker Carlson just alleged the CIA accessed his texts and was preparing a DOJ referral — and that Joe Kent is now on Tucker’s network — the fight over what the government can legally surveil, and who it’s surveilling, just got considerably more charged.

Let’s Talk About It

The Joe Kent story is going to dominate the week, and there’s more to come — the Tucker Carlson interview is expected any day. Two questions on my mind that I want your take on:

First: Does the Grayzone connection to Kent’s wife change how you read his resignation letter? Is that relevant context, or is it a distraction from the substance of his argument? Also, what do you think of this “timing” speculation?

Second: The WSJ reported that ordinary Iranians are tipping off Israel, helping pinpoint hiding militia commanders, reporting checkpoint locations, feeding intelligence to the people systematically dismantling their regime's enforcement apparatus. Is this the beginning of a citizen uprising? As the leadership retreats further into hiding and its ability to suppress dissent erodes, will Iranians grow more emboldened and keep helping? Or does the regime still have enough grip on the streets to hold it together? Is Iran on borrowed time?

Drop a comment below.

Until Friday!

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

How are we doing? Did we all have a fab weekend, or do we have the Monday drags?

Just in case you missed it. The Sunday Desk is back after my short hiatus due to the DIY takeover of my office. It includes the full details on my office makeover and a fascinating story of rebellion in Key West.

The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email. Let’s get into it.

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In today’s Brief:

• Tucker Carlson says the CIA read his texts with Iran and is preparing to charge him as a foreign agent — and the full story is considerably weirder than the headline.

• Six American airmen were killed when their refueling tanker went down in Iraq, and their families want you to know who they were.

• Trump bombed Kharg Island, the Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt, 2,500 Marines are headed to the region, and Iran’s new Supreme Leader may or may not be breathing.

• Cuba set a Communist Party headquarters on fire — and its president quietly admitted he’s been talking to Trump the whole time.

• Iranian women soccer players were sent back to Iran under what appear to be coerced circumstances, because apparently the regime’s reach extends all the way to Australia.

The Tucker Carlson Saga: CIA Texts, White House Visits, and the Most Fascinating Question Nobody Can Answer

Let’s start with the story that broke the internet over the weekend.

Tucker Carlson posted a video to X on Saturday night claiming the CIA is preparing a criminal referral to the Department of Justice to charge him as a foreign agent — specifically under the Foreign Agents Registration Act — because he was texting with people in Iran before Operation Epic Fury began.

“The CIA is preparing some kind of criminal referral against me,” Carlson said. “What’s the crime? Talking to people in Iran before the war. They read my texts.”

He denied being an agent of Iran, denied taking any foreign money, and framed the whole thing as politically motivated, tied to his criticism of U.S.-Israel policy. “Countries tend to become more authoritarian in wartime,” he said. Neither the CIA nor the DOJ confirmed or denied his claims.

Here’s where it gets genuinely interesting, and it’s worth noting fascinating but speculative, so treat it accordingly.

Tucker visited the White House three times in the weeks leading up to Operation Epic Fury, the last visit believed to be around February 23, five days before the war began on February 28. He’d been a vocal critic of the Iran war, calling the strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Trump publicly cut him loose on March 5, telling ABC News: “Tucker has lost his way. He’s not MAGA.”

Now here’s the speculation — and to be clear, this is analysis, not established fact: Did Trump know Tucker was communicating with Iran? And did those White House visits serve a purpose beyond a dressing-down? One widely circulated thread floated the idea that Trump, the master of misdirection, may have used Tucker’s Iran contacts as an informal back channel, feeding disinformation to Tehran through an unwitting (or witting?) intermediary.

Is it true? Unknown. But the circumstantial setup is undeniably wild: Tucker meets Trump repeatedly before the war. Tucker is simultaneously texting Iranians. The CIA allegedly has those texts, per Tucker. Trump publicly disowns him weeks later. And now Tucker is telling the world the deep state is coming for him.

However, let’s be honest, Tucker’s track record as a reliable narrator is, charitably, spotty. He claimed Qatar arrested Israeli Mossad agents for planting bombs, but that story vanished. He blamed Chabad for starting the Iran war. And his CIA claim echoes an almost identical story from 2021 about the NSA, which Axios later traced to routine surveillance of Russian officials whose conversations happened to include Carlson. Something similar could have happened here; his texts were swept up because the CIA was monitoring the Iranians on the other end. Marc Caputo of Axios posted an X-thread debunking the speculation, but also, it’s not as if the CIA or even Trump are known for showing their hand.

Is Tucker a pawn? A useful idiot? An accidental back-channel? Or just a guy who loves to provoke and couldn’t resist staying plugged in with Iranian sources?

The story is still unfolding. What we know for certain: the timeline is strange, the texts are real, and “I don’t expect this to go anywhere” is a very specific thing to say when you’re claiming the CIA is building a case against you.

Their Names Deserve to Be Said Aloud

Before anything else, we need to stop.

On March 12, a KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq during a combat mission in support of Operation Epic Fury. Not from hostile fire — from an incident involving another aircraft, which landed safely. All six crew members were killed.

The Pentagon identified them Saturday:

• Maj. John “Alex” Klinner, 33 — left behind three small children, including 7-month-old twins. His wife wrote: “They won’t get to feel the deep love he had for them.”

• Capt. Ariana Savino, 31 — MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.

• Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, 34 — survived by her husband, their 3-year-old daughter, and stepson. Her father said: “She passed doing what she loved — fighting for this country.”

• Capt. Seth Koval, 38 — 19 years of service, 2,076 total flight hours, 443 of them in combat.

• Capt. Curtis Angst, 30 — aerospace engineering degree, loved by his wife Mary and their family who are “still in shock.”

• Tech. Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28 — volunteered for the flight. Didn’t have to be on it. “Tyler’s smile could light up any room,” his family said.

Their deaths brought the total American service member toll in this conflict to at least 13. They were fueling a war so other aircraft could keep flying. That’s a job that doesn’t get the headlines, until it does. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine ordered flags flown at half-staff.

Kharg Island: Trump Drops the Hammer, the Strait Grinds to a Halt

Trump announced the U.S. had carried out one of the “most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East” on Kharg Island, the tiny Persian Gulf island that handles roughly 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports. He said every military target was “totally obliterated,” but the oil infrastructure was deliberately spared, for now. His warning on Truth Social left nothing to interpretation: “Should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

The Strait has effectively ground to a halt. Only 77 ships crossed in all of March so far. Oil crossed $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022. Gas nationally hit $3.63, and diesel is up to $4.89. The USS Tripoli with approximately 2,500 Marines is en route from Japan. Trump has also assembled a multinational coalition — China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the UK — to escort tankers through the strait.

And about Iran’s new Supreme Leader: Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t appeared on camera since taking power on March 8. His first formal address was text only. His supporters held a rally in Tehran and pledged allegiance to a cardboard cutout of him. Iran’s foreign minister insists he’s in “excellent health.” Trump told NBC Sunday: “I’m hearing he’s not alive.” Iran denied it. No camera appearance forthcoming, apparently.

Adding another layer to the mystery: Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, cited by the Daily Mail, is reporting — unconfirmed — that Khamenei was secretly flown to Moscow on a Russian military aircraft, where Putin personally arranged emergency surgery on his leg. He's allegedly recovering at one of Putin's presidential palaces. Russia hasn't confirmed or denied it. Iran says it's false. Take it for what it is: unverified regional media gossip that happens to fit perfectly with everything else we're seeing. But if true, it would mean Iran's Supreme Leader is currently a guest of Vladimir Putin while the U.S. bombs his country. Which is a sentence I genuinely did not expect to type this Monday morning.

At least the cardboard version showed up.

Cuba Is on Fire — and Its President Has Been Talking to Trump

Something remarkable happened in Cuba this weekend, and it’s not getting enough attention.

Protesters in the city of Morón stormed the local Communist Party headquarters, throwing rocks, dragging furniture into the street, and setting it ablaze. Video shows the crowd approaching the building with flaming objects, throwing them inside, chanting “Libertad! Libertad!” and then what sounds like a gunshot.

Cuban state media denied that anyone was shot (shocking, I know) and announced five arrests. Researchers called it the most significant unrest in years, the first time protesters have targeted the party itself, not just police stations. The number of protests on the island went from 30 in January to 130 in the first half of March alone. The conditions that created Morón, one expert noted, “are still there and will remain there indefinitely unless something changes drastically.”

The backdrop: Cuba hasn’t received oil in three months due to Trump’s energy blockade. Power is out for hours daily. Food distribution has collapsed. And President Díaz-Canel did something remarkable: he publicly confirmed for the first time that Cuba has been in talks with the Trump administration seeking “a possible solution to the bilateral differences.” He called the fuel situation’s impact “tremendous.”

Trump confirmed the talks and said he’s hopeful about a deal. Breitbart ran with the excellent headline “Havana Lago?” Trump has previously said he has a “tremendous amount of Venezuelan oil” and vowed to “take care of Cuba” after the Iran focus wraps. The question now: do the protesters accelerate the timeline, or make it harder for Díaz-Canel to negotiate without looking like he surrendered to a mob?

Quick Rundown

• Iranian women soccer players sent home under duress. Four of the seven players who sought asylum in Australia after refusing to sing the national anthem at the Asian Cup have returned to Iran. Their supporters say family members were detained or prevented from leaving Iran to pressure their return. The three players who came back were photographed at the airport in Kuala Lumpur in full hijabs, the same ones photographed without them during their brief window of freedom in Australia.

• The American flag flies again in Caracas. The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela raised Old Glory for the first time in seven years, exactly seven years to the day after it was lowered. Following the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro in January and his extradition to New York to face narco-terrorism charges, diplomatic ties are being formally reestablished

  

• Operation Epic Fury: 15+ days in. U.S. and Israeli forces have now hit more than 15,000 targets inside Iran since the war began. Over 2,000 people killed, most in Iran, plus significant casualties in Lebanon, the Gulf, and among U.S. service members. Trump declined to project an end date, saying Friday: “It’ll be as long as it’s necessary.”

• Qatar halted LNG production; Saudi Arabia hit too. Overnight: Iran struck two Qatari gas facilities, halting liquefied natural gas production. Saudi Arabia suspended operations at its largest oil refinery after an Iranian drone sparked a fire. The Strait situation just got more complicated.

Your Turn

Two questions this week:

On Tucker: If the “Trump used Tucker as a disinformation conduit to Iran” theory turns out to be true, is that the most audacious strategic play of Trump’s presidency, or a disturbing example of the White House treating war like a reality show?

On Cuba: Protests are accelerating, talks are happening, and the regime is cracking. If you were advising Trump right now, would you press for full regime change and let the island collapse, or offer a deal that normalizes relations in exchange for reforms? What’s the right call?

Drop your thoughts in the comments.

See you Wednesday.

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.

Yesterday was one of those days where the news came in fast, and I was monitoring the situation from the sofa with a tweaked back. I am feeling much better today, thank you all for the sweet messages.

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The Brief runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If someone forwarded this to you, you can fix that problem at the bottom of this email. Let’s get into it.

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In today’s Brief:

• Back-to-back Islamist attacks on American soil yesterday mark the fourth and fifth Islamist-linked incidents since the Iran war began — and legacy media’s first instinct was still to blame the right

• Lt. Col. Brandon Shah — two Bronze Stars, 600 combat hours, three deployments — was killed in his classroom by a man who had already been convicted of aiding ISIS and released early

• DHS has now been partially shut down for 27 days; Senate Democrats blocked funding for the fourth time Thursday, even as Iranian sleeper cell threats are at peak levels

• Iran’s new supreme leader issued his first statement through state media — in writing, no face, no voice — and a cardboard cutout went viral for a reason

• Four airmen are confirmed dead this morning after a U.S. KC-135 refueling tanker crashed in western Iraq overnight.

Breaking News

War update this morning: A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq overnight while supporting Operation Epic Fury. CENTCOM confirmed four of six crew members are dead, the first Air Force fatalities of this war. Two more airmen are still missing. Rescue operations are ongoing. Officials say it was not due to hostile fire, though an Iran-linked militia has claimed responsibility. Eleven American service members have now died in this conflict. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Bessent told CNBC the Navy is planning to escort commercial vessels through Hormuz “as soon as militarily possible.” Brent crude closed above $100/barrel.

They’re Calling It “Random.” It’s Not.

In the span of roughly two hours Thursday afternoon, an ISIS-linked gunman opened fire inside an Army ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and a Lebanese-born naturalized citizen drove a truck through the front doors of Temple Israel synagogue outside Detroit, armed with a rifle, fireworks, and an unidentified chemical agent. Both attackers are dead. One person was killed: Lt. Col. Brandon Shah. Dozens more could have been.

At ODU, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, walked into Constant Hall, entered a military science class, and asked if it was ROTC. When someone said yes, he opened fire. He shouted “Allahu Akbar.” He was a former Virginia National Guardsman convicted in 2017 of providing material support to ISIS, sentenced to 11 years, out in December 2024 after serving less than eight. The FBI immediately opened a terrorism investigation. Bill Melugin at Fox News confirmed the ISIS connection through federal sources. RedState had the full conviction timeline.

In Michigan, DHS confirmed the synagogue attacker as 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, who entered the country in 2011. His truck crashed through Temple Israel’s main entrance. The preschool wing had 140 students inside. Synagogue security shot and killed him. The building was engulfed in fire from the chemical agent he brought. All 140 students and all staff were accounted for, a genuine miracle.

Officials confirmed Ghazali and his brother were known Hezbollah members, though their specific roles in the organization haven’t been established. The Detroit News reported his family was recently killed in an Israeli airstrike. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel acknowledged a “clear nexus” to the Iran war.

Let’s count, because someone has to. Austin bar shooting — gunman in an Iran flag shirt and “Property of Allah” hoodie, early March. Gracie Mansion ISIS bomb plot — March 7. ODU — March 12. Temple Israel — March 12. That’s four incidents tied to Islamist ideology since the United States went to war with Iran. Yet legacy media’s initial framing was — predictably — to look for right-wing connections. The Daily Caller documented the playbook in real time with the Gracie Mansion coverage. Greg Price caught a Soros-backed DA blaming Republicans for the ODU shooting on video before the facts were even in.

A quick note on framing: JusticeMoms had the sharpest piece on the Gracie Mansion story — how the proximity of the NYC mayor’s mansion to an adjacent mosque allowed the press to recast an ISIS-inspired attack as anti-Muslim backlash. It’s a pattern. And it’s happening again.

Lt. Col. Brandon Shah Survived Iraq and Afghanistan. He Was Killed in His Own Classroom.

Lt. Col. Brandon Shah was the Professor of Military Science at Old Dominion University — the same school where he once enrolled as a student before the Army called. He joined up in 2003 as an Aviation Operations Specialist. He flew more than 1,200 hours across three aircraft types. Over 600 of those were combat hours. He deployed to Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, and to Atlantic Resolve. He earned two Bronze Stars. His father came to America from Pakistan. Brandon was born here, flew here, fought here, and died here, in his classroom, at the school he came back to so he could build the next class of Army officers.

The man increased his ROTC battalion’s enrollment by nearly 50% in three years. His cousin, who also served, called them “proud to serve our country together.”

The students in that room — the ones he trained — subdued the gunman and killed him, preventing what FBI Director Kash Patel said would have been a far larger massacre. Lt. Col. Shah’s last lesson, apparently, landed.

Jalloh was convicted under federal terrorism statutes, and prosecutors originally requested 20 years. He got 11. He was out in under eight, released by the Biden administration's Bureau of Prisons in December 2024. A man convicted of plotting to murder U.S. military personnel in the name of ISIS walked free fifteen months before he killed one of them. Does the system that handed him early release have any answers?

Democrats Vote to Keep DHS Dark — For the Fourth Time

Thursday’s Senate vote was 51-46. DHS funding needed 60 votes to advance. It didn’t get them. It was the fourth time since February 12 that Senate Democrats have blocked this bill — and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was again the only Democrat who crossed over.

The Department of Homeland Security is now 27 days into a partial shutdown. TSA agents are working without pay. FEMA disaster response is degraded. Counterterrorism programs are running on reserves. Cities hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup haven’t received security funding. Fox News reported Thursday that Democrats cast these votes even as the intelligence community has specifically flagged elevated Iranian sleeper cell activation threats on U.S. soil.

The Democratic caucus’s stated position: they won’t fund TSA until Congress holds ICE accountable for a shooting. They are holding counterterrorism infrastructure hostage over immigration enforcement politics, on the same day the country absorbed two Islamist attacks. Senate Democratic Leader Schumer explained the position as wanting ICE to “behave like any police department.” Fine. Make that argument when DHS is operational and Iranian proxy attacks aren’t landing on American campuses.

No end is in sight.

Iran’s Ghost Leader Is Running a War From Somewhere Nobody Can Find

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first official statement Thursday. Know how? Through Iranian state media. In writing. No face. No voice. Nobody’s seen him publicly since his father was killed.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the statement vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, threatened to open new military fronts, and praised Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iraqi militias for continuing to fight his war. One Iran expert called it “more defiant, and more specific in his defiance, than his father.” The NY Post unpacked the hidden threats buried in the message, including signals of new fronts beyond missiles and Hormuz.

The cardboard cutout at a pro-regime rally — caught on video — tells the story better than any press release. Reports are he suffered a fractured foot and facial lacerations in the same strike that killed his father, his mother, his wife, and his sister’s child. Iranian state media refers to him as “Jaanbaz” — injured war veteran — which is doing nothing to stop the speculation. Iranian opposition sources are claiming he’s in a coma and has lost limbs. The IRGC may be running the war with his name as a figurehead. Iran scholar Saeid Golkar told the Journal: “He is a ghost leader, like the Hidden Imam.”

Trump said earlier this week the war might end “soon.” The ghost leader’s first statement was a direct rebuttal. Make of that what you will.

Quick Rundown

• The surf and turf follow-up is here. Joey Jones dropped a new video on the story I covered Wednesday — watch it below.

• Iran just took down a medical device company. Iranian-linked hackers (the Handala group) wiped the phones and laptops of all 56,000 Stryker employees on Wednesday. The hackers cited the girls’ school strike as justification. Stryker stock fell 4%. Expect more of this.

• France’s counterterrorism forces were just hit in Iraq. Six French soldiers were injured in a drone attack in the Erbil region Thursday while training with Iraqi forces. The conflict keeps expanding.

• Saudi Aramco is buying Ukrainian drones. The world’s largest oil company is reportedly in talks to purchase Ukrainian drones to protect its oil fields. The Iran war’s second-order effects are everywhere.

• UFC fighters are training FBI agents at Quantico. UFC fighters will provide hand-to-hand combat instruction to federal agents. Given yesterday’s news, the timing feels appropriate.

Let’s Talk

Four Islamist-linked attacks or plots since the Iran war began. DHS shut down. A convicted ISIS-supporter released early just killed one of America’s finest in his classroom. What’s it going to take for the people in charge of our homeland security to actually fund it?

And: Lt. Col. Brandon Shah’s story deserves more than a news cycle. Share it today with someone who hasn’t heard it.

I want to hear your thoughts. Drop them in the comments. I read every response.

See you Monday.

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No corporate overlords—just independent journalism you can actually trust. Share it with someone who needs the real story.

I know I disappeared. I am sorry, but I was overwhelmed in the throes of home DIYdom, and it all took place in my office. I had this delusion that it could be completed in one weekend. It took two weeks, and it’s still not done, but it’s done enough for me to be back in my office.

This means the newsletters shall resume, and I will provide a full breakdown of my new office in this week’s edition of the Sunday Desk.

But let’s get into the news.

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In today’s Brief:

• The U.S. just sank 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels in the Strait of Hormuz — and Trump somehow had “no reports” of mines right before we blew them up

• Pete Hegseth is being crucified for lobster tail that deployed service members have been eating since the Bush administration — and the math works out to $7 a tail

• Six Iranian women soccer players are hiding from their own government in Brisbane — thanks in part to one of their teammates who told the Iranian embassy where they were

• A man was beaten on the ground while someone called him a “f***ing Jew” at a San Jose shopping center — in the most tolerant region in America, allegedly

• The president is personally gifting $145 Florsheim oxfords to cabinet members and asking “Did you get the shoes?” at cabinet meetings. We are not making this up.

Iran Update: Mines, Missiles, and “Ruthless Precision”

The Strait of Hormuz — which carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily crude oil supply — is now an active military zone. Iran has begun laying mines in the strait, with intelligence sources reporting a few dozen mines placed in recent days. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps still retains 80-90% of its mine-laying capacity, meaning this could get significantly worse.

Trump responded with a post on Truth Social saying he had “no reports” of mines, then announced we just destroyed the boats laying them. The U.S. military obliterated 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait on Tuesday. CENTCOM confirmed the strikes on X, and Secretary Hegseth followed up, noting that at Trump’s direction, U.S. forces had been “wiping them out with ruthless precision.”

The bigger picture: Nearly 15 million barrels per day of crude — plus another 4.5 million bpd of refined fuels — are effectively stranded in the Gulf right now. Iraq and Kuwait have no alternative export route. Oil has been swinging wildly between $80 and $120 a barrel. Meanwhile, Trump confirmed the U.S. Navy has not yet escorted any tankers through Hormuz, though Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that option is “absolutely” on the table.

Trump has also warned Iran it will face consequences “at a level never before seen” if mines are not removed. He simultaneously suggested the war could end “very soon” in a CBS News interview, which is Trump’s classic strategy of negotiation via contradictory public statements.

What to watch: Whether Trump’s mixed messaging is a strategy (keep Tehran guessing) or improvisation. The oil market is treating it like the latter. Israel has been striking regime headquarters in Tehran and Tabriz, Iranian ballistic missiles are still flying, and ministers on both sides are now saying regime change could take a full year. “Very soon” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

CNN had a bad day yesterday

The Lobster Non-Scandal: Or, How the Left Learned to Hate Ribeye

Let me tell you about the most outraged I’ve been on behalf of deployed service members this week.

TMZ — yes, TMZ — ran with a breathless headline: “Pete Hegseth Reportedly Blew Billions on Shellfish, Steak, Fruit Baskets, Furniture.” The implication being that Hegseth personally ordered the lobster bisque and kicked back with king crab while Rome burned.

Here’s what actually happened, per the watchdog group Open the Books: The Pentagon spent $93 billion in September 2025 — its most expensive fiscal year-end month since the Bush era. For comparison, Lloyd Austin’s DoD did $79.1 billion in September 2024, which at the time was itself a record going back to 2008. That includes $6.9 million on lobster tail, $15.1 million on ribeye steak, $2 million on Alaskan king crab, and $1 million on salmon. There was also nearly $140K in donuts, which, respect.

Why? Because the federal government operates on a use-it-or-lose-it budget system. Every agency, from the DoW to the Department of Education, burns through remaining funds before the fiscal year closes on September 30 — or Congress uses underspending as justification to cut next year’s allocation. This is not a Hegseth invention. This is not a scandal. This is Washington’s oldest and most bipartisan tradition.

Historical context matters here: That Open the Books report about September 2024 — under Biden’s Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin — documented $79.1 billion in Pentagon contracts in a single month, including $6.1 million on raw lobster tail ordered 147 times. The same patterns. Going further back, service members have talked about morale meals — proper hot food after weeks on MREs — for decades. This is not new. This is not Hegseth.

And let’s do some quick math: $7 million in lobster tail across approximately 1 million enlisted service members comes out to $7 per tail. That is a screaming deal. Sounds like a solid use of the defense budget to me.

The real story is that the Left is running the same playbook they use on everything: find a number that sounds big, strip all context, and attach it to someone they want to destroy. Remember when Republicans “voted to cut SNAP benefits”? What actually happened was that Congress declined to extend a temporary COVID-era increase that was never meant to be permanent. Same trick, different props. The goal isn’t accountability — it’s narrative.

If Democrats are suddenly concerned about Pentagon waste, where was this energy during the $79 billion Austin month? Or the seventh consecutive failed DoD audit? Funny how the outrage has a partisan timestamp.

A Funeral in Nashville

His name hasn’t been widely reported. He was a veteran. He died alone, with no known family members left in the world.

In most cities, that’s where the story ends. A quiet burial, a few government forms filed, a grave marker placed in a row with others. Nobody there. Nobody watching. Nobody to say goodbye to a man who, at some point, raised his right hand and swore an oath to this country.

But not in Nashville.

Someone found out. Word spread, and then something happened that the algorithm didn’t manufacture, and no PR firm organized.

Hundreds of strangers showed up.

They came in boots and baseball caps. They came in dress shirts. They came because a veteran was going to be buried without witness, and that felt like something they simply could not allow. Not in their city. Not on their watch.

No news crews were tipped off in advance. No politician showed up for a photo. Nobody got credit for it.

I keep coming back to that story when people ask me whether this country still has a soul. Because here’s the thing, the debate over the Pentagon’s lobster tail and the Senate’s procedural maneuvering and whatever cable news is shrieking about this week, all of that is real and it matters. But it exists in a completely different America than the one that packed a funeral home in Nashville for a man they’d never met.

The lobster debate is, at its core, about how we fund the care of service members. Nashville is about how we feel about them, down in the marrow, without being asked, without an audience.

Both things are true at the same time. And one of them tells you more about who we actually are.

Rest easy, soldier. Turns out you had more family than you knew.

Iranian Soccer Players: The Escape That Got Complicated

Last week, seven members of Iran’s women’s soccer team — in Australia for the Asian Cup — were granted asylum by the Australian government. The players had refused to sing the Iranian national anthem before their opening match. In Iran, that’s not a protest — that’s a potential death sentence. The regime promptly branded them traitors on state media.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed that six players and one staff member took up the government’s offer of permanent visas after private meetings, without Iranian minders in the room, facilitated by a heavy AFP police presence.

Then one of the seven changed her mind. And in doing so, she told the Iranian embassy their secret location in Brisbane, forcing Australian Federal Police to immediately relocate the other six. Burke told Parliament Wednesday he gave the instruction to move people the moment he found out.

The Iranian Football Federation called it a “hostage” situation and blamed Trump, who had publicly called on Australia to offer the players asylum. The regime’s response to women fleeing a theocracy? “Don’t worry — Iran awaits you with open arms.”

Sure it does.

San Jose: An Attack the Media is Keeping on The Down Low

On Sunday, March 8th, two men were attacked at Santana Row in San Jose, a popular outdoor shopping district. Three suspects approached them, the confrontation turned physical, and according to one of the victims, one of the attackers repeated “f***ing Jew” while beating him to the ground. Per JCRC Bay Area, a second video from a closer vantage point confirms the assault.

San Jose Police are investigating it as a possible hate crime. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan called it “deeply disturbing.” Congressman Ro Khanna said the attack was “horrific” and called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted.

What’s notable here isn’t just the attack itself — it’s the context. This is Silicon Valley, a region that regularly lectures the rest of the country about tolerance and inclusion. It’s also a region where the line between “anti-Israel protest” and straightforward antisemitism has apparently gotten blurry enough that people are getting beaten in shopping centers on a Sunday afternoon.

The suspects fled before police arrived. Investigation is ongoing.

And Now, a Dispatch from the Oval Office Gift Shop

The Wall Street Journal ran a delightful piece this week revealing that President Trump has become the nation’s most enthusiastic shoe salesman. He’s been gifting Florsheim leather oxfords — a classic American brand, $145 a pair — to cabinet members, lawmakers, White House advisers, and random VIPs. He pays for them himself. He guesses your size in front of you. He asks, “Did you get the shoes?” at cabinet meetings. Tucker Carlson got brown wingtips over lunch. JD Vance got a size 13. Scott Bessent has a labeled box waiting.

One cabinet secretary was reportedly forced to shelve his Louis Vuittons and is “grumbling” about it. Another White House official said, “everybody’s afraid not to wear them.”

We’re out here trying to navigate a war in Iran, and the shoe-salesman-in-chief is personally tracking foot traffic. In all seriousness, this is the most endearing story of the week, and the fact that it’s a $145 American-made brand rather than anything imported should tell you something about how Trump operates even in the details.

Quick Rundown

• SAVE America Act teeters in Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is forcing a vote on the SAVE Act, the voter eligibility bill requiring proof of citizenship, via a talking filibuster. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) has acknowledged that “3 or 4 Republicans” may break ranks. Names, please.

• White House tells House Republicans: stop saying “mass deportations.” Axios broke the scoop that WH Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair privately urged members at their Doral retreat to shift messaging toward “violent criminal aliens” only, citing polling showing 49% of Americans find the current approach too aggressive. A WH official pushed back to Fox News, saying “nobody is changing the Administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.” Whether that’s messaging discipline or an internal rift, the optics of the White House asking its own party to stop using its own campaign slogan is... something.

• Georgia’s 14th CD special election heads to a runoff. Decision Desk HQ projects Republican Clayton Fuller and Democrat Shawn Harris advancing to a runoff for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former seat. This one matters for House math — watch it closely.

• Oil prices spike and yo-yo. Crude swung between $80 and nearly $120 a barrel in 48 hours as the Strait of Hormuz situation escalated and Trump alternately threatened Iran and hinted the war could end soon. Energy markets are not fans of ambiguity.

Talk to Me

Two questions this week:

The White House is telling House Republicans to drop “mass deportations” as a slogan heading into the midterms. Is this smart political recalibration — or is it a sign that the base is about to get very unhappy, very fast?

The Pentagon’s use-it-or-lose-it budget culture produces billions in end-of-year splurges every single year, regardless of who’s in charge. Is this a fixable policy problem — or is it just how Washington will always work?

Drop a reply. I read them.

See you Friday. Stay skeptical.

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No corporate overlords—just independent journalism you can actually trust. Share it with someone who needs the real story.

You made it through another week of this, and so did I. Yay for us!

As soon as I hit send on this edition of The Brief, I will head to my office to prep it for paint. I mentioned my plans for my office in my last Sunday Desk. I will be sharing the progress of my office redo on the Sunday Desk, and you might catch a glimpse of it in my podcast background.

Anyway, there is a lot of news, so let’s do this.

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In today’s Brief:

• While Iran Talked, Trump Got the War Briefing — The Geneva talks wrapped up with “significant progress.” Simultaneously, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East was in the White House briefing Trump on strike options. China is telling its citizens to evacuate Iran. So. That’s where we are.

• Tim Walz’s Own Party Is Blocking His Anti-Fraud Bill — He held a press conference about fighting fraud. His House Democrats killed the inspector general bill. Twice. This week.

• Cuba Can’t Keep Its Own Story Straight — The communist government that shot four people — at least two of them Americans — quietly admitted it misidentified one of its own alleged detainees. He was calling reporters from Miami the whole time.

• The Epstein Circus Came to Chappaqua — Hillary spent six hours saying “ask my husband.” Congress spent part of that time asking her about UFOs. And as you read this, Bill Clinton is under oath for the first time a former president has ever been compelled to testify before Congress. In history.

While Iran Talked Peace in Geneva, Trump Was Getting the War Briefing

You guys things are getting hot: on Thursday, while U.S. and Iranian diplomats were wrapping up what Iran’s foreign minister called their “most intense and longest” round of nuclear negotiations in Geneva, Admiral Brad Cooper — the commander of U.S. forces in the entire Middle East — was at the White House briefing President Trump on military options for striking Iran.

At the same time. Same day. Both are happening simultaneously.

According to Axios, this was the first time Cooper has briefed Trump since the Iran crisis began in December. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine was also in the room. Axios reports the Geneva talks were seen inside the Trump administration as “a last chance for diplomacy before Trump decides whether to launch a war.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. demands on the table include the complete destruction of Iran’s three main nuclear sites — Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — and delivery of all enriched uranium to the United States. Iran has rejected both conditions flatly. Their position: they’ll pause most enrichment for three to five years under international monitoring, keep limited medical-use enrichment, and they will not ship a gram of uranium out of the country or dismantle a single site.

That is not a small gap to bridge by Vienna next week. And worth noting: this is almost exactly what the Obama administration agreed to in the 2015 JCPOA — temporary limits, enrichment stays in Iran, no dismantlement. Iran took the sanctions relief, funded its proxies, and kept building. By the time these Geneva talks happened, they were sitting on hundreds of pounds of near-weapons-grade uranium. So when Trump's team says they want the sites destroyed and the uranium shipped out, that's not maximalism for the sake of it — that's what happens when you've watched the more trusting version of this deal already played out.

Meanwhile, Times of Israel reported that new satellite images show U.S. F-22 jets repositioning at the Ovda base in southern Israel. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group departed Crete and is heading toward the Israeli coast — marking the largest U.S. military presence in the Middle East in over two decades, since before the Iraq War. And China, which tends to have pretty good intelligence about these things, told its citizens in Iran to “evacuate as soon as possible.”

To his credit, VP Vance told the Washington Post there is “no chance” the U.S. ends up in a drawn-out Middle East conflict — he’s a Marine vet who was lied to about Iraq and says he hasn’t forgotten the lesson. The Omani foreign minister, who mediated the Geneva talks, is flying to Washington today to meet with Vance. The fourth round of technical talks is scheduled in Vienna next week.

So maybe this is all pressure tactics, and the deal gets done. Or maybe the Geneva talks were the last round, and nobody’s ready to say it out loud yet.

I don’t know which it is. Apparently, neither does anyone else, including people in the building. What I do know is that “significant progress” announced by a mediator while your top general is briefing the president on strike options is not the same thing as progress.

Tim Walz’s Own Party Is Blocking His Anti-Fraud Bill

After the Trump administration froze $259.5 million in Minnesota Medicaid funds on Wednesday — citing fraud through VP Vance and Dr. Oz — Governor Tim Walz held a press conference on Thursday, unveiling a new anti-fraud legislative package. Eighteen proposals. Inspector General’s office. Higher penalties. Extended statutes of limitations. He called the funding freeze “targeted retribution” and “absolutely not serious.”

Here’s the part Walz didn’t lead with: a bill to create a state Office of Inspector General — the exact centerpiece of his new package — passed the Minnesota Senate on a bipartisan basis last year. It has now stalled in House committees twice this week. House Democrats are blocking it because they don’t think a new enforcement agency is necessary.

Speaker Lisa Demuth, the Republican House Speaker, called the whole thing “indignation theater.” Which, based on the timeline, is not an unfair read.

For context: this $259.5 million freeze isn’t even the first federal action. The NYPost reported the Trump administration already moved to withhold more than $2 billion in annual Medicaid funding back in January. The new freeze is on top of that. Minnesota has 60 days to defend the flagged claims. And a federal prosecutor in Minnesota estimated last year that fraud across 14 high-risk Medicaid programs could exceed $9 billion — more than half the $18 billion that went to those programs since 2018.

Walz’s answer to all of that is a press conference about retribution. His party’s answer is to block the inspector general bill. And Vance’s answer is to freeze the money until they show some receipts.

Let's be clear about who actually gets hurt in all of this. The fraud isn't abstract — every dollar stolen through fake daycare claims, phantom meal programs, and fraudulent Medicaid billing is a dollar that doesn't reach the veteran who needs home care, the kid who needs a wheelchair, the disabled adult who needs a caregiver. The people Democrats say they're fighting for are the same people getting robbed by the fraud Democrats spent years not seriously preventing. And now that the federal government is finally forcing the issue, the response is to block the inspector general bill and call it retribution. The cruelest irony here isn't the politics — it's that the people most harmed by Minnesota's fraud epidemic and the funding freeze are the exact same people. Vulnerable Minnesotans are being squeezed from both ends: by fraudsters who looted the system for years and by politicians more interested in protecting their narrative than in fixing the problem. The taxpayer funded it. The fraudsters took it. And the people who needed it most got left holding nothing.

Cuba’s Story Keeps Falling Apart — And That’s the Point

Here’s an update that got almost no play yesterday but matters: one of the men Cuba identified as “injured and detained” in the boat shoot-out — Roberto Azcorra Consuegra — called reporters from South Florida to say he had no idea what they were talking about and was not in Cuba. Cuba subsequently issued a quiet correction, calling it a case of “mistaken identity.”

So the communist government that shot four people — at least two of them U.S. citizens or residents — and claimed it had the full list of who was on that boat, got at least one name wrong. And Rubio is supposed to just take Havana’s word for everything else?

To recap what we know, sourced strictly from U.S. investigations: a 24-foot Pro-Line boat was stolen from a Florida Keys dock by Hector Duardy Cruz Correa, a tile worker with two daughters still in Cuba. The boat was carrying 10 people — at least two U.S. citizens, at least one K-1 visa holder, and others likely legal permanent residents. Four were killed, six were detained. Cuba says they opened fire first. The U.S. is running its own investigation and isn’t accepting that at face value.

The son of Conrado Galindo Sariol — a man who was identified as being on the boat, a former Cuban political prisoner and longtime regime critic — told CNN: “I’m proud of what my father just did. I expected nothing less from him.”

This incident is drawing comparisons to the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down, when Cuba downed two unarmed U.S. civilian planes in international airspace and killed four people. That incident led to the Helms-Burton Act — the toughest U.S. sanctions on Cuba in decades. The Trump administration is already squeezing Havana harder than it’s been squeezed in years. The question is whether this gives them the justification to go further.

The investigation is active. The FBI has already interviewed the boat owner.

The Epstein Deposition Circus Came to Chappaqua — And It Did Not Disappoint

Let’s start with Hillary. Yesterday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat for a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center — a six-hour marathon that somehow managed to include questions about UFOs, Pizzagate, and Lauren Boebert's alleged rules violation, with a side of performance art.

The substance first. Per CBS News, Clinton’s opening statement was unambiguous: “I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that.” She said she knew Ghislaine Maxwell “casually as an acquaintance” — Maxwell attended Chelsea’s wedding as someone else’s plus-one, apparently — and denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. She answered every question from every member on both sides. The whole thing was videotaped, and Comer has promised to release it as quickly as possible.

Her editorial framing, predictably, was that the entire investigation exists to protect Trump. “You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and cover them up,” she said in her opening statement. She also called for subpoenas on Elon Musk — citing a 2012 email where Musk asked Epstein “what day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Musk has denied ever attending any Epstein event. The email exists. Both things can be true.

The New York Post reported that by the end, Republicans were asking Clinton about UFOs and Pizzagate. Clinton herself confirmed it: “It then got quite unusual.” Look, I get it. You finally have a Clinton in the chair, under oath, about the biggest alleged sex trafficking scandal in modern history. You have one shot. The camera is rolling. The whole country is watching. So obviously — obviously — you use your precious time to ask about UFOs and Pizzagate.

I genuinely cannot. You have Hillary Clinton, sworn in, on the record, in a room full of lawyers, about Jeffrey Epstein — a man with documented ties to presidents, prime ministers, and billionaires — and someone on that committee decided the move was UFOs?

And honestly? It perfectly set up what happened next. Because if you’re already not taking the proceedings seriously, why not just text a photo to your favorite influencer mid-deposition? That’s the vibe Boebert was apparently reading when she snapped the picture of Clinton and fired it off to Benny Johnson like she was sending a friend a meme. The deposition paused. Democrats erupted. And Boebert, asked to account for herself when proceedings resumed, delivered what I will admit is an objectively excellent line: “I just returned to my hotel room and installed the BleachBit software. So I guess in regards to taking photos, I do not recall.”I’m not going to pretend I didn’t laugh but this is not it Lauren.

The Democrats take? Rep. Wesley Bell, a former prosecutor, put it plainly during the break: “We have not learned one new thing. What we’re seeing is folks that are looking for headlines and tweets as opposed to doing the business of going about getting justice for the victims.”

Now — today. As you are reading this, former President Bill Clinton is under oath at the same Chappaqua Performing Arts Center. This is, per CBS News, the first time a former president has been compelled to testify before Congress under subpoena in American history. Not in recent memory. In the entire history of the republic. Comer warned it would be “even longer” than Hillary’s six hours, because she deflected substantive Clinton Global Initiative questions more than a dozen times with some variation of “you’ll have to ask my husband.” Well. They are asking the husband today.

Unlike Hillary, Bill Clinton has a documented relationship with Epstein that goes well beyond casual acquaintance. He rode Epstein’s private jet at least 16 times. His name appears hundreds of times in the Epstein files. DOJ-released photos show him with Epstein and women whose faces are redacted. He has not been accused of wrongdoing. But the questions that couldn’t get answered yesterday are getting asked today, under oath, on camera, and Comer said in advance that this one will be even longer.

Related:

While the committee was busy asking Hillary Clinton about UFOs, Steve Bannon has been sitting on roughly 15 hours of footage he personally filmed interviewing Jeffrey Epstein in 2019 — originally pitched as a documentary to rehabilitate Epstein's image. The DOJ's January files dump ended up releasing portions of it before Bannon did, including a clip where Bannon asks Epstein if he sees himself as "the devil himself." Epstein's answer: "No, but I do have a good mirror."

The January document release also revealed extensive written exchanges between the two as Epstein mounted a political influence campaign across Europe. Bannon has called for an independent investigation into the Epstein files. He has said considerably less about why he was helping the man build a comeback tour. I would like to see him before the House Oversight Committee.

Quick Rundown

• Walz and AG Keith Ellison are due before House Oversight next Wednesday on the Medicaid fraud question — which means the governor who just watched his own party kill his anti-fraud bill will have to explain Minnesota’s record to the same committee currently deposing the Clintons. The calendar is not being kind to him.

• While the Geneva talks were happening, Witkoff and Kushner took a break from Iran negotiations to meet with Ukrainian officials. One building, two wars. The Trump foreign policy operation is apparently running parallel tracks simultaneously — whether that’s strategic genius or a very crowded waiting room remains to be seen.

• Some Trump loyalists are quietly nervous about the Clinton subpoena precedent. The thinking: a future Democrat-controlled Congress now has a cleaner path to compelling Trump family members to testify. Comer got what he wanted. Whether the party fully thought through what they handed the other side is a different question.

Let’s Talk About It

Republicans packed the room for Hillary and skipped Les Wexner entirely. The committee asked about UFOs. Steve Bannon has 15 hours of Epstein interview footage and nobody’s hauled him in. Does the way this investigation is being run make you more or less confident it will produce anything meaningful for the actual victims?

The fraud is real. The freeze is real. And the people caught between them — veterans, kids, disabled adults — didn’t cause either problem. At what point does “retribution” stop being a political talking point and start being an excuse that everyone in the room is hiding behind while the most vulnerable people pay the price?

Drop it in the comments. The conversation down there is genuinely one of my favorite parts of the week.

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No corporate overlords—just independent journalism you can actually trust. Share it with someone who needs the real story.

This is the State of the Union edition. I am breaking down the SOTU for those of you who went to bed at a reasonable time. There is a lot to get into, so let’s get into it!

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In today’s Brief:

• Record-breaking SOTU — Trump spoke for 1 hour 47 minutes. Nobody left. Somehow.

• NPR: DOJ withheld 50+ pages of FBI Epstein files tied to Trump — Unverified allegations, flagged as not credible.

• Pentagon gave Anthropic until Friday to drop its AI guardrails — The two red lines: no mass surveillance, no autonomous kill decisions.

The State of the Union: A Full Breakdown

Last night, President Trump delivered his first official State of the Union of his second term — themed “America at 250: Strong, Prosperous and Respected” — and he made sure you knew it. The speech broke records, clocking in at roughly 1 hour and 47 minutes, the longest SOTU in modern history. There was a lot to cover, a lot to celebrate, and yes, a few numbers that needed some context. But the overall picture? An administration that has moved the needle on the issues that actually affect people’s lives, and isn’t shy about saying so.

Here’s the full breakdown by category.

Policy: What Trump Said and Where Things Stand

Let’s start with economics, because it matters. The administration didn’t walk into a neutral situation. They inherited an economy still absorbing the consequences of Biden-era inflation that peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 — the highest rate in over 40 years. Grocery bills, rent, energy costs, mortgage rates — all of them surged during those years and left a real mark on American households that didn’t just disappear when administrations changed. The pain was real, and the hangover was real. That’s the starting point.

Now here’s where things actually stand:

• Inflation is at 2.4% as of January 2026 — an eight-month low, beating expectations, and core inflation dropped to its lowest level in nearly five years.

• Real wages grew $1,400 in Trump’s first year in office.

• Gasoline prices are down 7.5% year over year. Egg prices — yes, the ones that became a national symbol of Biden-era sticker shock — are down roughly 34% year over year.

• Prescription drug prices actually fell in 2025.

• Mortgage costs are down nearly $5,000 annually from their peak.

These are not talking points. These are Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers.

Did Trump occasionally round up or overstate? Sure. He claimed he inherited inflation “at record levels” — technically, it was 3.0% in January 2025, not the 9.1% peak, though Americans were still very much living the consequences of that peak when he took office. He touted gas below $2.30 in some states, which AAA says isn’t fully accurate — though gas prices are genuinely down significantly from where they were. The direction of all of it is right, even when the specific numbers deserve a raised eyebrow.

The big tariff moment: Trump announced that Congressional action “will not be necessary” to codify his tariffs. This, just days after the Supreme Court struck down his signature global tariffs. He also predicted tariffs could eventually replace the income tax. That’s a big swing. We’ll put that one in the ambitious column for now.

On immigration, Trump leaned hard on border security and hammered Democrats for the ongoing DHS shutdown — while not mentioning the ICE-related deaths in Minneapolis. He also skipped the Epstein files, despite months of claiming credit for releasing them. That omission did not go unnoticed — more on that in a moment.

Domestic Policy: What He’s Done, What He’s Proposing, and Who Was in That Gallery

The domestic section of the speech was part victory lap, part legislative wish list, part infomercial. And honestly? A lot of it landed — because it was grounded in things that are actually happening.

Already Done: The Big Beautiful Bill

Trump pointed to the One Big Beautiful Bill — passed by the Republican Congress last summer — as the cornerstone of his domestic record. The headline wins: no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for seniors. When he rattled those off, Republicans rose. Democrats sat. Every second of that footage is going to live in a campaign ad, and they know it. You can debate the size of the tax cut — the Tax Foundation ranks it sixth largest in U.S. history, not the biggest ever as Trump claimed — but the policy itself is real money in real pockets. A waitress in a swing state keeping more of her tips isn’t thinking about historical rankings when she votes in November.

On prescription drugs, Trump highlighted TrumpRX — his Most Favored Nation pricing program that ties U.S. drug costs to the lowest prices paid by other developed countries. To make it tangible, he brought a guest: Catherine Rayner, who had been paying $4,000 for a fertility drug she needed for IVF. She logged onto TrumpRX and got the same drug for under $500. Trump’s ask to Congress: codify the Most Favored Nation program into law so no future administration can quietly unwind it. Then, with classic Trump deadpan, he essentially added: “It’ll be hard for anyone after me to justify raising drug prices by 800%, but codify it anyway, just in case.” Hard to argue with that one. A real person, a real number, a real result.

He also pointed to 53 stock market record highs since the election — boosting pensions and 401(k)s for millions of Americans — and GDP growth that hit 3.8% in Q2 and 4.4% in Q3 of 2025, among the strongest quarters in years. The economic engine, by most measures, is running. The question is whether ordinary Americans are feeling it yet. Polls suggest many aren’t, which is why Tuesday’s speech leaned so hard into the individual stories.

What He’s Asking Congress to Do

Housing. Trump introduced Rachel Wiggins, a Houston mom of two who bid on 20 homes and lost every single one to large investment firms paying all-cash, skipping inspections, and converting them to rentals. Trump said he already signed an executive order last month banning companies that own more than 100 single-family homes from purchasing more. Now he wants Congress to make that ban permanent. His line: “We want homes for people, not for corporations. Corporations are doing just fine.” Both sides of the chamber stood for it.

Data Centers and Your Electric Bill. This one flew under the radar but matters. Trump announced that tech companies building AI data centers have agreed to pay higher utility rates in the areas where those centers are located, specifically to keep ordinary consumers from absorbing the cost of powering the AI boom. No legislation required, apparently. Just a deal. Details remain thin, but the underlying concern is real: AI infrastructure is a growing and largely invisible pressure on the power grid, and most Americans have no idea their electric bill is already connected to it. Getting ahead of that problem before it becomes a crisis is the right call.

Congressional Stock Trading. The room’s most bipartisan moment — and probably its most awkward. Trump called on Congress to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act, banning members from trading individual stocks while in office. The entire chamber stood. Trump visibly couldn’t believe it — “I can’t believe it. Did Nancy Pelosi stand up? Doubt it.” (Politico reports she did applaud.) This proposal has floated around Congress for years, with broad bipartisan support, but has somehow never made it to a final vote, primarily by Republicans. If Trump is serious about pushing it through now, the optics make it nearly impossible to vote against. Nearly.

Trump Accounts. Trump called for universal retirement savings accounts for workers who don’t currently receive an employer retirement match — a government-backed 401(k)-style plan with $1,000 in federal matching funds to start. Getting more Americans into the market and building long-term wealth is the right instinct. The cost question is genuinely open, and the funding details were thin. But as a concept — making the wealth-building tools available to working Americans that have long been accessible to corporate employees — it’s hard to be against.

The through-line connecting all of it: these aren’t abstract policy fights. Drug prices, housing costs, retirement security, take-home pay, these are the pressure points that keep people up at night. The broader economic numbers are improving. The directional trend is right. And one by one, this administration is going after the specific pain points that the previous one either ignored or made worse.

Moments: The Speech as Spectacle

Trump is a showman, and he knows it. The big theatrical moments were genuinely memorable, whatever you think of the politics.

The hockey team. Trump invited the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team — fresh off their gold medal win over Canada — and the room went electric. Both sides of the aisle stood. “USA” chants broke out. Trump, ever the counter-puncher, looked at the Democrats and deadpanned: “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen them get up.” He then announced that goaltender Connor Hellebuyck — who made 41 saves in the gold medal game — would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The crowd loved it. It was the kind of moment that reminds you why these speeches still work even when the policy is thin, and on Tuesday, the policy wasn’t thin.

Military honors. Trump awarded two Medals of Honor. The first went to 100-year-old naval aviator Royce Williams, whose legendary 1952 dogfight — single-handedly taking on seven Soviet MiGs while absorbing 263 bullets to his plane — was classified for over 50 years. The second went to Army Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover, who piloted the helicopter during the January raid that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskan received the Legion of Merit, and was reunited on stage with 11-year-old Milly Cate McClymond, one of the 165 people he pulled to safety during the deadly Texas floods last summer. If you didn’t feel something during that reunion, check your pulse.

Dalilah Coleman. One of the more emotional moments of the night involved 7-year-old Dalilah Coleman, who survived a 2024 truck crash at 60 miles per hour caused by an undocumented driver. Doctors said she would never walk or talk again. She is now in first grade, learning to walk. Trump introduced her father, Marcus, and the room stood.

The “stand up” moment. About an hour in, the speech shifted gears. Trump challenged every member of Congress to stand if they believed “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Republicans stood. Democrats sat. Trump stared across the aisle, shook his head slowly, and said: “Isn’t that a shame? You should be ashamed of yourself.” Made-for-TV. Will run as a campaign ad. Worked exactly as intended.

Moment On Top of Moments

Democrat Reactions: The Good, the Chaotic, and the Gone

Democratic leadership had begged their members to keep it quiet. That lasted about 15 minutes.

• Al Green — ejected. Again. The Texas congressman arrived holding a sign reading “Black people aren’t apes!” A reference to Trump sharing and then deleting a video depicting the Obamas. He was escorted out before Trump really got going. This is at least the second consecutive address where Green has been physically removed from the chamber. At this point, it’s a recurring segment, and not a flattering one for the party who claim to be the adults in the room.

• Ilhan Omar went off-script during Trump’s segment on the DHS shutdown, shouting “You have killed Americans” and “You are a murderer.” Trump looked at her and said simply: “You should be ashamed.” Omar had been explicitly warned by Democratic leadership not to engage. She engaged. Democrats sat stone-faced through no-tax-on-tips and then screamed during immigration. Make of that what you will.

• Rashida Tlaib shouted at Trump to release more Epstein files. A Democrat also echoed Joe Wilson’s infamous “You lie!” from 2009 when Trump claimed he had ended eight wars.

Meanwhile, Democrats held five separate counter-events Tuesday night. Rep. Robert Garcia skipped the address entirely to rally at the Lincoln Memorial. The official Democratic response came from Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who hit Trump on tariffs, hospital cuts, Medicaid, and inflation. Clean, focused, disciplined, everything the in-chamber Democrats were not. The party has a message problem and a discipline problem, and Tuesday night put both on national television.

The Guest List: A Study in Contrast

The guest list told two completely different political stories unfolding simultaneously in the same room.

Trump’s guests were everyday Americans connected to his policy record. Military heroes, the hockey team, Dalilah Coleman, and Erika Kirk, widow of assassinated Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who was prominently recognized during the address. The message was deliberate: these are the people the policies are for.

Democratic guests were almost entirely Epstein survivors. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer brought Dani Bensky. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries brought Marina Lacerda. Rep. Robert Garcia — attending via proxy from the Lincoln Memorial — invited Annie Farmer. Rep. Ro Khanna brought Haley Robson, who at 16 was exploited by Epstein and subsequently recruited over 20 underage girls to him. That complicated context was totally avoided during pre-speech coverage.

The contrast was stark and entirely intentional on both sides. Trump wanted you to see Americans winning. Democrats wanted you to see survivors demanding answers. One side came with a record to defend. The other came with a strategy to change the subject.

The Polling Context

Here’s the honest part. Trump walked into that chamber with his overall disapproval at 60%, the highest since January 6th. The polls say most Americans aren’t yet feeling the economic improvements in their daily lives, even as the macro numbers trend in the right direction. That gap — between the data and the lived experience — is the political challenge. Inflation is down significantly from its 9.1% peak. Real wages are up. The stock market is up. GDP growth in Q3 hit 4.4%. And yet groceries still feel expensive, housing is still out of reach for too many, and the mood hasn’t fully caught up with the metrics.

The Closer

The 2026 midterms are the backdrop to every line of this speech. Tuesday night was Trump’s best argument for why the direction is right, even when the destination still feels far. Whether voters buy it between now and November is the only question that actually matters.

The Epstein Files: The Story Within the Story

An NPR investigation published Tuesday found that the Justice Department has withheld and, in some cases, removed files from the public Epstein database, specifically, files connected to allegations involving President Trump. The missing documents reportedly include over 50 pages of FBI interview notes with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse when she was approximately 13 years old, sometime in the 1980s. The FBI interviewed her four times between 2019 and 2021. Only the first interview — which does not mention Trump — is in the public database.

Before you run with that: the allegation was flagged by FBI agents in a list of Epstein-related claims, and agents marked most entries on that list as unverifiable or not credible. The White House’s response was swift — Trump “has been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein,” and the administration pointed out it has released millions of pages of documents, cooperated with Congressional subpoenas, and signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act. A DOJ spokesperson told NPR that any temporarily removed files were pulled strictly for victim redaction purposes and subsequently restored, and that nothing was withheld for “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”

Then there’s the second woman in the report, who told the FBI she met Trump at Mar-a-Lago as a minor while being abused by Epstein. That interview was briefly removed from the public database after January 30th, then re-published. The DOJ says redactions were the reason. A second interview — with the woman’s mother — remains offline. The DOJ says it requires additional redactions and will be reposted.

Here’s the context that NPR’s framing conveniently soft-pedaled: these are unverified accusations from FBI interview logs. The story omitted that the FBI itself flagged most of these claims as unverifiable, and that the accuser came forward years after the alleged events with no corroborating evidence. That matters. The standards for what constitutes news apparently shift depending on who’s being accused.

That said, the document management questions are legitimate and worth watching. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have opened a parallel investigation into whether the DOJ improperly withheld the interviews. They lack subpoena power as the minority, so this is more political pressure than legal teeth.

Separately, two House Democrats — Reps. Dan Goldman and Ted Lieu — are asking Deputy AG Todd Blanche to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Pam Bondi lied to Congress when she testified there was “no evidence” Trump committed a crime. That sounds very serious until you meet the man leading the charge.

This is the same Ted Lieu who, at a February 4th press conference, told reporters that “Donald Trump is in the Epstein files thousands and thousands of times,” a claim that is straightforwardly, demonstrably false. Trump appears in a handful of contexts across millions of pages of documents. Not thousands. Not even close. Then, at the Bondi hearing, Lieu dramatically cited an FBI document and accused the Attorney General of lying under oath, without mentioning that the document in question was an unverified tip from an anonymous limo driver named Dan Ferree, a man who, it turns out, spent considerable time posting hundreds of anti-Trump memes on Facebook. That’s the rock-solid witness Lieu held up as proof of a cover-up. A partisan social media enthusiast who claims he once overheard something in a backseat in 1995.

So to recap: Lieu inflated Trump’s presence in the files by approximately “thousands,” accused the AG of perjury based on an unvetted tip he misrepresented to the committee, and is now calling for a special counsel because Bondi said there’s no evidence of a crime. The man isn’t conducting oversight. He’s running a highlight reel.

The DOJ’s response was characteristically blunt: all responsive documents have been produced, the minority should “stop misleading the public while manufacturing outrage,” and pointing to Epstein’s connections to Trump while ignoring his connections to Democrats — including members of Congress who took Epstein’s money after he was a convicted sex offender — is selective outrage, full stop.

Pentagon vs. Anthropic: Who Controls the AI?

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the Pentagon and delivered what sources are calling an ultimatum: remove the company’s restrictions on military AI use by 5:01 p.m. Friday, or face consequences. Those consequences include cancellation of Anthropic’s existing $200 million Pentagon contract, designation as a “supply chain risk” — which would effectively bar the company from working with federal vendors — and possible invocation of the Defense Production Act to compel access to the technology altogether.

What’s Anthropic refusing to allow? Two things: mass domestic surveillance of American citizens, and fully autonomous weapons capable of making kill decisions without human oversight. That’s... not an unreasonable line to draw. Notably, sources familiar with the meeting confirm that both sides acknowledged that these specific use cases aren’t currently under consideration. The dispute, as best anyone can tell, is more about who controls the guardrails — the company or the government — than about any specific battlefield application.

Here’s the broader picture: Anthropic’s Claude is currently the only commercial AI operating inside the Pentagon’s classified networks. The military used it during the January operation that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Google, OpenAI, and Elon Musk’s xAI all have similar Pentagon contracts, and xAI’s Grok has reportedly already agreed to the Pentagon’s terms and is being added to classified systems. So Anthropic is increasingly the odd one out.

The deeper question this raises isn’t really about one contract. It’s about whether private companies building the world’s most powerful AI systems get any say in how those systems are used, or whether the government can simply conscript the technology whenever it decides national security is at stake. That’s not a small question. And Friday’s deadline means we’re about to find out where the line is.

Quick Rundown

• Kamala Harris, in an interview on the Sharon McMahon podcast, was asked point-blank whether she’s running for president in 2028. Her answer: “I haven’t decided.” She also confirmed she’s “thinking about it.” Harris, who announced last summer she would not run for California governor, currently leads the 2028 Democratic primary field with 28.3% in the RealClearPolitics average, ahead of Gavin Newsom at 20.7%. The party that spent 2025 insisting it needed a fresh start is now reportedly very excited about a rematch. Okay.

• The search for Nancy Guthrie — 84-year-old mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie — is quietly becoming a cold case. TMZ’s FBI sources say the doorbell camera photo that was supposed to crack the case has produced zero leads — no suspect ID, no getaway vehicle, nothing. The FBI now thinks the masked man may have visited the property as early as January 11th, three weeks before the February 1st abduction — meaning Kash Patel’s early claim that the photo was taken the morning of the kidnapping was wrong. Savannah announced a $1 million family reward Tuesday — something she wanted to offer on day one but investigators held off, worried about bogus tips. DNA from the scene could take a year to process. An FBI source says their best hope now is that someone involved eventually brags. Whatever you think of Savannah Guthrie, a mother is missing and a family is in agony. Tips go to 1-800-CALL-FBI.

• A Utah judge rejected another attempt by Tyler Robinson’s defense team to derail the prosecution in the Charlie Kirk assassination case — this time arguing that a prosecutor should be disqualified because his daughter was in the audience when Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University last September. Judge Tony Graf wasn’t buying it. Robinson still hasn’t entered a plea, the death penalty is still on the table, and the trial remains on track. The defense is zero for everywhere so far.

Let’s Talk

Trump’s SOTU was 107 minutes of policy wins, made-for-TV moments, and Democratic meltdowns — but the polls still show 60% disapproval. Does a speech like this actually move voters, or is the gap between macro numbers and kitchen-table reality just too big to close with one good night?

Ted Lieu cited a Facebook meme enthusiast’s limo story to accuse the Attorney General of perjury, claimed Trump appears in the Epstein files “thousands and thousands” of times (he doesn’t), and is now calling for a special counsel. At what point does political theater actively harm the people it claims to champion — like the actual Epstein survivors whose stories deserve better than this?

The Pentagon wants Anthropic to hand over full, unrestricted control of its AI — no mass-surveillance limits, no autonomous-weapons limits — and is threatening to invoke the Defense Production Act to get it. Should private companies have the right to set ethical limits on how their technology is used, even by the government? Or does national security override everything?

See you Friday.

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No corporate overlords—just independent journalism you can actually trust. Share it with someone who needs the real story.

I hope you had a beautiful weekend! And if you were anywhere in the South, I hope you soaked up every second of that completely deceptive 70-degree sunshine, because I am currently staring out my window at flurries and feeling personally betrayed by the atmosphere. Nature giveth, nature taketh away, and apparently, it does it within 48 hours.

For those of you currently buried under an actual blizzard — godspeed. You’re the real ones.

Now. Deep breath. Because the news did not take the weekend off.

Before we get into it — two things. One: if you missed yesterday’s Sunday Desk, go read its a good one. Two: The State of the Union is Tuesday night. Mark it. We’ll be giving our pre-SOTU thoughts on Tuesday and a breakdown on Thursday on the podcast. Something tells me there will be no shortage of material.

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In today’s Brief:

• SCOTUS Nukes Trump’s Tariffs - Court says no, Trump says watch me, imposes new ones anyway.

• Armed Man Breaches Mar-a-Lago - 21-year-old with a shotgun and a gas can. Secret Service ended it. Motive still unknown, Epstein fixation suspected.

• El Mencho Is Dead. Mexico Is On Fire. - A U.S.-backed raid killed the CJNG’s cartel boss. His people responded by lighting the country on fire.

• America’s Hockey Miracle - Team USA beat Canada for Olympic gold, then brought Johnny Gaudreau’s kids onto the ice. Everyone cried. It was perfect.

• Kash Patel Was Also in the Locker Room - FBI Director. Milan. Beer. Toby Keith. It’s less scandalous than it sounds.

Let’s get into the news!

Mexico Killed El Mencho. Then Things Got Worse.

The biggest international story of the weekend: Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes — known as “El Mencho,” the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organizations, is dead.

Mexican special forces raided a location in Tapalpa, in Jalisco state, on Sunday. El Mencho was wounded in the operation and died in custody while being transported to Mexico City. According to Reuters, U.S. intelligence support — including from a new U.S. military-led task force — played a role in the operation. Mexico’s defense ministry confirmed it received “complementary information” from the U.S.

The Trump administration praised the kill. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called it a “great development.”

And then, immediately, large swaths of Mexico caught fire.

CJNG gunmen launched coordinated retaliatory attacks across at least seven states, burning vehicles, blockading highways, and shutting down businesses. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico’s fourth-largest tourism destination, became a war zone. Tourists were trapped in hotels as smoke rose over the beach. The U.S. State Department urged Americans to shelter in place. Major airlines — Air Canada, United, American, and Aeromexico — suspended flights in and out of the area. One stranded American described seeing a man wave a gun at a bus full of people and order them back.

A former DEA official noted that “there will definitely be skirmishes between the various factions, and these spasms of violence could last for years.”

While this can be seen as a genuine strategic victory, it has also created an immediate humanitarian mess. El Mencho is gone, and that matters. The CJNG under his leadership pioneered drone attacks on civilians, ran forced labor operations, controlled fentanyl supply chains into the U.S., and expanded into one of the most dangerous cartels in Mexican history. This is not a small thing.

But the fragmentation that follows a leadership decapitation doesn’t automatically mean less violence. It often means more — at least in the short term — as factions fight over territory. And with Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum already walking a tightrope between cooperation with Washington and protecting Mexican sovereignty, the next few months will be critical.

Someone Broke Into Mar-a-Lago With a Shotgun and a Gas Can

While you were sleeping Sunday morning, the Secret Service shot and killed an armed man who had broken through the security perimeter at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

The suspect has been identified as Austin Tucker Martin, 21, of Cameron, North Carolina. Around 1:30 a.m., Martin drove through the north gate of the resort as another vehicle was exiting, essentially tailgating his way past security. He was found carrying a shotgun and a gas can. When federal agents and a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy confronted him and ordered him to drop both items, he put down the gas can and raised the shotgun to a firing position. That’s when they neutralized the threat.

Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago at the time. He and Melania had hosted the Governors’ Dinner at the White House on Saturday night, which Democratic governors appear to have boycotted.

Here’s where this gets strange: Martin’s family had reported him missing the night before. His cousin, Braeden Fields, told the AP that Martin was “afraid of guns,” from a family of “big Trump supporters,” and that he “wouldn’t even hurt an ant.” Investigators believe Martin bought the shotgun on his way south, since the box for the weapon was found in his car. They’re now building a psychological profile, with the FBI, the Secret Service, and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office all working the case jointly.

TMZ obtained a text message Martin sent to a co-worker on February 15 — exactly one week before he showed up at Mar-a-Lago — that read: “I don’t know if you read up on the Epstein Files, but evil is real and unmistakable.” He continued: “The best people like you and I can do is use what little influence we have. Tell other people about what you hear about the Epstein files and what the government is doing about it. Raise awareness.” Co-workers at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in North Carolina told TMZ that Martin had become increasingly fixated on the Epstein files following the DOJ’s January 30 release of 3.5 million pages of documents, and regularly talked about powerful people “getting away with it.” Investigators are reportedly exploring whether Martin may have held Trump personally responsible for the pace and scope of those releases.

Here’s what we need to be clear about: law enforcement has not officially confirmed any motive, and the FBI’s investigation remains ongoing. The Epstein fixation angle is sourced from co-workers and a text message obtained by TMZ, worth knowing, but not a confirmed conclusion. The picture that emerges is of a young man who was genuinely troubled: economically frustrated, still living with his parents, describing the cost of living as impossible for young people, trying and failing to organize a union at work, and apparently spiraling into conspiracy rabbit holes in the weeks before he drove to Palm Beach with a shotgun and a gas can. Whether that adds up to a political motive, a mental health crisis, or something else entirely — we don’t know yet.

What we do know: this is the third time the immediate area around Trump has been the scene of a serious threat in under two years. Ryan Routh tried to assassinate Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course in September 2024 and was sentenced to life in prison just earlier this month. Thomas Crooks fired eight shots at Trump during the Butler, Pennsylvania rally in July 2024. And five days before Mar-a-Lago, a Georgia man with a loaded shotgun was arrested sprinting toward the U.S. Capitol.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent summed up the broader concern on Fox News Sunday: “This venom coming from the other side. We don’t know whether this person was a mastermind, unhinged, or what, but they are normalizing this violence. It’s got to stop.”

SCOTUS Takes a Hit to Trump’s Tariffs

Let’s start with Friday, because it sets the tone.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down the bulk of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs, the “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs, the baseline 10% global tariff, and the fentanyl-specific tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. Gone. All of it.

The court’s reasoning was straightforward: the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the 1977 law Trump used to justify the tariffs, does not give the president authority to unilaterally impose broad-scale tariffs on the entire planet. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that “IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.” Full stop.

Three conservative justices — Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Alito — dissented, arguing that tariffs are a traditional tool to “regulate importation” and that the statute covers it. Kavanaugh also flagged a mess no one wants to touch: the ruling could force the government to refund up to $200 billion in tariff revenue to importers, some of whom already passed the costs to consumers. So businesses might get double-compensated while consumers who actually paid higher prices see nothing. Not great!

Trump was predictably furious, calling the ruling “unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution” and accusing the justices of being “swayed by foreign interests.” Democrats, including Gavin Newsom, were gleeful, and as Jonathan Turley noted at The Hill, the same people calling to pack the Supreme Court are now celebrating its independence.

But here’s the part that got less attention: Within hours of the ruling, he announced a 10% global tariff under a different legal authority, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Then by Saturday, he bumped it to 15%. Section 122 allows tariffs up to 15% for up to 150 days to address trade deficits. It’s a temporary fix, but it keeps the pressure on. Meanwhile, the administration is initiating Section 301 investigations — the same authority Trump used successfully against China in his first term — which, when complete, produce legally durable tariffs that have already survived court challenges.

So yes, SCOTUS handed Trump a legal defeat. But the tariff policy isn’t dead. It’s just slower, more procedurally grounded, and — ironically — probably on firmer legal footing.

America Got Its Hockey Miracle. And It Made Everyone Cry.

Somewhere in the middle of one of the ugliest news weekends in recent memory, the U.S. Men’s Hockey team went out to Milan, Italy, and gave this country something it desperately needed: a reason to feel good.

Team USA defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime Sunday at the Milano Cortina Olympics to win the gold medal. The game was tense, physical, and everything a U.S.-Canada hockey final should be. But the moment everyone will remember had nothing to do with the scoreboard.

After the final buzzer, Auston Matthews, Zach Werenski, and Matthew Tkachuk skated around the ice holding up the No. 13 jersey of the late Johnny Gaudreau. And then, as the team gathered for their gold medal photo, two of Gaudreau’s children — his daughter Noa and son Johnny Jr. — were brought out onto the ice to pose with the squad while their father’s jersey was displayed for the world to see.

If you don’t know the story: Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew were killed on August 29, 2024, when they were struck by a vehicle near their childhood home in Salem County, New Jersey, the night before their sister’s wedding. Johnny was one of the best American-born players of his generation. He almost certainly would have been on this team.

Gaudreau’s widow, Meredith, and his parents, Guy and Jane, were in the stands at Milan’s Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena to watch the gold medal game. When it was over, Meredith told NHL.com: “We wished we were a part of it, so when we got the call to come out, it felt like maybe he did make the team.”

Dylan Larkin — Team USA’s captain and one of Gaudreau’s close friends — got it exactly right in the locker room afterward. “Johnny and Matty should be here, and that is the biggest loss that all of us at USA Hockey, their family, our family, has gone through,” Larkin said. “And to have Johnny Jr. and Noa out there, it just felt right.”

He even managed to find some laughter in it. “I think part of the puck not going in our net was somehow him standing there doing something, laughing with Matty,” Larkin said. “And ironic on the defensive side — he would’ve never been back there.”

Throughout the entire Olympic tournament, Team USA hung Gaudreau’s jersey in its locker room before every game, a tradition carried over from last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. This wasn’t a last-minute PR move. It was a team that carried a ghost with them all the way to the top of the podium and decided he deserved to be in the photo.

It’s been 46 years since the United States won Olympic gold in men’s hockey. A lot of people are comparing this to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice,” and look, I get it. Both are USA beating a dominant hockey nation in a pressure-cooker moment on the biggest stage in the world. Both captured the country’s attention at a moment when Americans needed something to cheer for. And beating Canada, which treats hockey the way Americans treat football, is no small thing.

But it was a little different; the 1980 team was a scrappy group of college kids who went up against the Soviet Union’s professional machine in the middle of the Cold War, a win that felt like more than just hockey. This 2026 team is full of NHL superstars, playing against another NHL superstar-stacked team. The stakes are different. The context is different.

While the rivalry between Canada and the U.S. adds to the story, what makes 2026 its own miracle is the heart of this game. It’s a team that played an entire Olympic tournament for a man who couldn’t be there, and then made sure his children got to stand on the ice and hold a gold medal their father helped earn from wherever he is now. That’s not a sports story. That’s a human one.

Meanwhile, Kash Patel Was Also in the Locker Room

The internet spent Sunday losing its mind over FBI Director Kash Patel — who was also in Milan, also in the Team USA locker room, and was very much caught on video chugging beer, spraying it on players, wearing a gold medal that Matthew Tkachuk draped around his neck, and belting out Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.”

The video went viral in roughly 45 minutes. Critics called it embarrassing, irresponsible, and taxpayer-funded party-crashing. Supporters called it the most patriotic thing they’d seen all year. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, the actual facts got completely buried, which is pretty on-brand for 2026.

Here’s what actually happened: Patel traveled to Milan on a DOJ aircraft on February 19 for official business, meetings with Italian law enforcement about interagency cooperation and Olympic security. The FBI says the trip was planned months in advance, with Italian officials inviting him back in July 2025 to visit the Milan Joint Operations Center responsible for protecting U.S. athletes and visitors. He posted on X that nearly 100 U.S. government personnel had been “surged to support the Olympics since the start of 2026.” That part of the story? Largely missing from the outrage posts.

A little-known fact is that Patel grew up playing hockey in his hometown of Garden City, New York, and has been on the ice since childhood. At 45, he’s still playing. Before becoming FBI Director, he coached a youth hockey team. He currently plays for The Dons, a D.C.-area men’s recreational league team known for serious competition. The bulk of the roster is made up of former college players, there’s a lengthy waitlist to join, and The Dons won the Lake Placid CAN/AM Challenge Cup in 2019, in the same arena where the U.S. defeated the Soviet Union in 1980. Patel plays defense, described by teammates as “scrappy” and “gritty,” not the most skilled guy on the ice, but someone who blocks shots, takes hits, and doesn’t expect a thank you. When he tore his biceps playing in the league, he publicly chalked the injury up to “kicking the sh-- out of The Deep State.” So. He’s committed to the bit on multiple levels.

The lifelong hockey player also held up his phone in the locker room so Trump could call in to congratulate the players and invite them to his State of the Union address on Tuesday. “We’ll get Kash or we’ll get the military to get you guys,” Trump told them. Which is honestly a great sentence.

Now, did Patel also attend the hockey games beyond official duties? Yes. Did he end up in the locker room dancing? Also yes. Is that a little awkward when the FBI is simultaneously managing an active Mar-a-Lago investigation on the same day? Sure. Around the time the game went to overtime, Patel posted on X that the FBI was dedicating “all necessary resources” to the shooting. So at least he was multitasking.

But here’s what the critics are conveniently leaving out: FBI Directors are required to use government aircraft for all air travel — official and personal — in order to maintain access to secure communications. Congressional Democrats have questioned Patel’s use of the plane, but the policy — expanded by the Obama administration — is mandatory regardless of who holds the job. They reimburse the government for personal portions at commercial coach rates. This isn’t Patel chartering a party plane. This is how the job works, for everyone, across administrations.

Patel’s response on X was characteristically not subtle: “For the very concerned media — yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends invited me into the locker room.”

Was the locker room celebration the most dignified optics for a sitting FBI Director? Probably not. Was it a scandal? Not even close. The man is a lifelong hockey player who coached kids in the sport, flew to Italy on official business, watched America win its first men’s hockey gold in 46 years, got invited into the room by the players, and sang a Toby Keith song about it.

Genuinely unsure what the correct FBI Director behavior is supposed to be in that situation. But “politely decline and go review case files alone in a hotel room” doesn’t seem like it should be the answer.

Quick Rundown

• EU says a deal is a deal. After Trump moved to reimpose 15% tariffs under a new legal authority following the SCOTUS ruling, the European Union pushed back hard, saying it won’t accept the increase and considering the existing trade framework binding. The tariff saga has a long way to go.

• NYC bracing for a historic blizzard. Up to 28 inches of snow are forecast for New York City, with forecasters calling it potentially one of the worst storms in the city’s history. New Yorkers are doing what they do: panic-buying and complaining.

• Bessent won’t commit to tariff refunds. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dodged questions Sunday about whether the administration will refund the $175–200 billion in IEEPA tariffs, signaling the administration is in no rush to cut anyone a check while they rebuild the tariff framework under new legal authority.

• A suspected Russian spy taunted her FBI handler. A woman identified as Nomma Zarubina, suspected of being a Russian intelligence asset operating in New York City, reportedly told an FBI agent “Catch me, baby” — shortly before being jailed. She did not finish winning that game.

• Capitol shotgun arrest, five days before Mar-a-Lago. This didn’t get nearly enough play: just five days before the Mar-a-Lago incident, a Georgia man armed with a loaded shotgun was arrested sprinting toward the U.S. Capitol building while wearing a tactical vest. Two shotgun incidents in under a week. The political temperature in this country is not normal.

Let’s Talk About It

Two questions this week:

The FBI Director flew to Italy on official business, coached youth hockey, still plays recreationally, got invited into the locker room by the players, and celebrated America winning gold. At what point does this become a scandal and not just a vibe check on how much you like Kash Patel?

Martin’s cousin described him as a quiet Trump supporter who was afraid of guns. The motive is completely unknown. Does the frequency of these incidents — three in under two years — tell us something about political polarization, security gaps, or something else entirely?

Drop your thoughts in the comments!

See you on Wednesday!

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No corporate overlords—just independent journalism you can actually trust. Share it with someone who needs the real story.

The drama of the week continues with a literal prince being arrested, America may be on the verge of bombing Iran, and Mark Zuckerberg — Mr. Roboto — sat in a courtroom and had to explain himself to actual human beings for the first time in his life.

In other news, you guys seem to be REALLY enjoying my audio Desk Notes, which is awesome because I really enjoy doing them. These are exclusive for paying subscribers, and IKYMI, this last one was a good one.

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In today’s Brief:

• A British prince gets arrested on his birthday — and it’s not about what most people think

• Trump gave Iran 15 days. The clock is ticking and two aircraft carriers are already in position

• The Board of Peace had its first meeting. “Gloria” played. Red hats were distributed. Jared Kushner was there.

• Zuckerberg finally sat in front of a jury — and somehow managed to say “I don’t think that applies here” about addiction

• Alysa Liu won Olympic gold. Her dad survived Chinese spies to watch it happen.

• Team USA women’s hockey ripped gold away from Canada in overtime — with two minutes left on the clock

Let’s get into the news!

A Prince, a Pedophile’s Files, and the Fall of the House of Windsor

On his 66th birthday — truly, happy birthday to him — Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested by Thames Valley Police on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Six unmarked cars. Eight plainclothes officers. A quiet morning at Sandringham that suddenly wasn’t.

He was held for 11 hours, then released under investigation — meaning neither charged nor exonerated. Police simultaneously searched his former residence at Royal Lodge near Windsor.

Here’s what’s important to understand, and what most coverage is either muddying or getting flat-out wrong: this arrest is not about sex crimes. The allegation under investigation is that Andrew, while serving as Britain’s Special Envoy for International Trade, forwarded confidential trade documents to Epstein, potentially in violation of the Official Secrets Act. The correspondence was released last month by the U.S. DOJ as part of the Epstein document dump. Emails in those files show Epstein offering to arrange a date between Andrew and a young Russian woman in 2010, and the then-prince inviting Epstein to dinner at Buckingham Palace, again, all of this after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor.

This is the first time a senior British royal has been arrested in nearly 400 years. King Charles issued a statement saying “the law must take its course,” which, considering his brother was apparently swapping trade reports and dinner invitations with a convicted pedophile, is really just the floor, not the ceiling, of an appropriate response.

Virginia Giuffre’s family released a statement after the news broke. Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, had long alleged Andrew trafficked and abused her when she was 17. Her sister-in-law said she got the call at 3 a.m. and was overjoyed, then immediately overwhelmed by grief that Giuffre couldn’t be there to hear it. “We can’t tell her how much we love her, and that everything she was doing is not in vain,” she said through tears.

For those keeping score at home: misconduct in public office in the UK carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The Epstein fallout is also snagging others across the Atlantic. Les Wexner, the former Victoria’s Secret CEO who handed Epstein power of attorney over his personal finances, gave a filmed deposition this week in which he claimed complete shock at learning that roughly $20 million from his charitable entities had been funneled to one of Epstein’s charities. “Effing shocked,” he said. He compared Epstein to Bernie Madoff, said he was “completely blind,” and delivered this gem: “If it was a movie, no one would believe it. I mean, diabolical isn’t a big enough word.” He also suggested other prominent people were likely robbed by Epstein but are too embarrassed to come forward. “Bank robbers don’t rob one bank,” he said.

The Board of Peace Had Its First Meeting. It Was Very On-Brand.

Yesterday in Washington, Trump convened the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace, his newly created organization designed to oversee the Gaza ceasefire, rebuild the Gaza Strip, and, based on his own remarks, potentially reshape how the U.S. manages international conflicts going forward. Representatives from more than 40 countries gathered at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a building that, per Secretary of State Rubio, now bears Trump’s name. “Gloria” played. Red “USA” hats were handed out. The President of Paraguay cracked a joke about the World Cup. Jared Kushner sat at the main table.

The substantive announcements were actually significant. Trump pledged $10 billion from the United States to the Board of Peace, an amount he said was “small compared to the cost of war.” He also announced that Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Uzbekistan, and others have collectively committed more than $7 billion toward Gaza relief. Five countries — Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Albania — have pledged troops to an International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza, which is planned to eventually total 20,000 soldiers alongside 12,000 Palestinian police. Training for the force would take place in Egypt and Jordan.

A new Gaza governing authority was formally established during the meeting, with chief commissioner Ali Shaath confirming its creation while cautioning the operational environment remains “far from normal.” FIFA President Gianni Infantino showed up and pledged a $75 million fund to rebuild soccer facilities in Gaza. Trump said he’d like to eventually see Russia and China join the board.

However, many of America’s closest traditional allies — France, Germany, Italy — conspicuously declined to join. A senior Middle East negotiator told CNN the meeting felt “detached from reality,” particularly the demilitarization plan, which he said wasn’t ready for “prime time.” The $10 billion U.S. contribution has no clear breakdown of how it will be spent or over what timeline. And a key condition for reconstruction — the full demilitarization of Gaza and decommissioning of Hamas weaponry — was described by the board’s own High Representative as having “no other option” but to happen, without any explanation of how that actually gets done.

So: big pledges, legitimately notable participation, genuinely unclear implementation, and the President of Paraguay making everyone laugh. Welcome to American foreign policy in 2026.

One more thing worth noting: the same meeting where Trump announced billions for peace is the same one where he told the room a decision on military strikes against Iran was coming in 10 to 15 days. The juxtaposition of those two announcements in the same three-hour session is either brilliant strategic messaging or the geopolitical equivalent of texting “I love you” right after threatening someone. Possibly both.

Iran Has 15 Days. Then It Gets “Unfortunate.”

We’ve been tracking this one closely, and this week it escalated fast.

Trump told reporters at the Board of Peace meeting that a decision on military action against Iran is coming within 10 to 15 days, “pretty much maximum.” The U.S. has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region — the USS Abraham Lincoln already in the Arabian Sea, and the USS Gerald R. Ford en route from the Caribbean, expected to arrive before the end of February. A third carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, has been told to prepare for deployment. When fully in position, the U.S. will have roughly 40,000 troops in the region, backed by over 100 aircraft and a dozen warships.

Per ABC News, Trump is weighing options ranging from a limited targeted strike designed to enhance the U.S. negotiating position to a broader campaign against government, military, and nuclear infrastructure. The backdrop: Trump struck three Iranian nuclear facilities last June, which he credits with bringing regional stability. Subsequent negotiations, led by envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, have focused on Iran’s nuclear program, its long-range ballistic missiles, and its support for Hezbollah and the Houthis. Iran has resisted all three demands.

Talks in Geneva this week produced cautious Iranian optimism; their foreign minister said “good progress” was made, and Iran would submit a written proposal within two weeks. VP Vance told Fox News it went “well in some ways” but that Iran is “not yet willing to acknowledge” the president’s red lines. Which is diplomatic language for: not great.

Iran sent a letter to the UN Secretary General warning that all U.S. bases and assets in the region would be “legitimate targets” if struck. There are 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq, 1,000 in Syria, and 4,000 in Jordan. Iran also wrapped up its annual military drills with Russia this week. So everyone’s feeling very warm and collaborative right now.

The clock is literally ticking. Watch this closely.

Zuckerberg Showed Up to a Courtroom and Had to Answer Questions

Mark Zuckerberg has done congressional hearings. He’s done the apology tours, the practiced deflections, the senators who couldn’t tell Instagram from a search engine. But this week, for the first time, he took the stand before an actual jury in a Los Angeles courtroom, and the dynamic felt different.

The case centers on “Kaley,” a now-20-year-old who began using YouTube at 6 and Instagram at 9. She claims deliberate design choices — infinite scroll, autoplay, algorithmic targeting — engineered her addiction to the point where she was spending up to 16 hours a day on Instagram at age 16, and developed anxiety, body dysmorphia, and suicidal thoughts. This is the first of more than 1,500 similar lawsuits to reach a jury. Snap and TikTok settled before trial. Meta and Google are still in the hot seat.

When asked whether people tend to use something more if it’s addictive, Zuckerberg replied: “I’m not sure what to say to that. I don’t think that applies here.”

Sure, Mark.

Parents who have lost children to social media-related harms flew in from around the country to secure courtroom seats. One mother, Deb Schmill, lost her 18-year-old daughter to fentanyl after she connected with a dealer through Facebook. Another, Joann Bogard, watched Zuckerberg apologize to grieving parents at a congressional hearing in 2024 and thought things would change. “It’s just getting worse,” she told CNN.

There’s also a separate trial in New Mexico where the state AG built his case by literally posing as children on social media and documenting the sexual solicitations they received. That one is specifically about Meta, and it gets considerably darker.

The legal stakes are real. A win for plaintiffs could challenge Section 230, the liability shield that’s allowed Big Tech to operate largely consequence-free for decades. The theory: addictive design is a product defect, not protected speech. Internal Meta documents disclosed in discovery show the company identified “tweens” ages 10-12 as especially valuable users because they’re more likely to stay on the platform long-term. Which is, as you might imagine, not a great look in front of a jury.

At The Olympics

Alysa Liu wins Olympic gold — and the backstory is something else. Liu won women's figure skating gold in Milan Thursday with a career-best 226.79, becoming the first American woman to claim the title in 24 years. She retired at 16, came back on her own terms in 2024, won the World Championship in 2025, and then did this. But the headline doesn't capture the full story.

Her father, Arthur Liu, fled China after participating in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and eventually settled in the Bay Area as a political refugee. In November 2021 — three months before Alysa was set to compete in Beijing — a man posing as a U.S. Olympic official called Arthur and requested their passport numbers.

The FBI had already been watching. Five men were ultimately charged with acting as agents of the Chinese government, targeting Arthur as "Dissident 3" and Alysa as "family member." One was hired to conduct physical surveillance on the family in the Bay Area. Alysa was escorted by at least two people at all times in Beijing and met regularly with her FBI agent, who she described as "so cool" and peppered with questions over dinner.

She called the whole thing "a little bit freaky and exciting" and said she wondered if she was living in a movie. She competed anyway. Thursday in Milan, Arthur watched from the stands surrounded by 26 family members and friends. That's a full circle worth noting.

Team USA women's hockey reclaims gold. The U.S. women's hockey team defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime Thursday in what was one of the most anticipated events of the Milan Games. Canada was leading 1-0 and had one hand on the trophy before the U.S. tied it with just over two minutes left in regulation, then won it outright in overtime.

It's Team USA's third gold in women's hockey in Olympic history and ends Canada's most recent stranglehold on the event. The crowd lost it. Helmets, gloves, and sticks scattered across the ice. Two golds in one afternoon for Team USA.

In My Feed

Punch Makes Friends

Trump Visits Georgia

Quick Rundown

• FDA flips on Moderna’s flu vaccine — again. One week after rejecting its mRNA flu vaccine application and tanking the stock 12%, the FDA reversed course and agreed to review it. Politico reported Trump expressed frustration directly to FDA Commissioner Makary. The White House denied it. Shares bounced 6%. Decision expected by August 5.

• California avalanche: 8 dead, 1 still missing. What we initially reported as nine skiers missing has turned into a tragedy. Eight bodies have been recovered from the Castle Peak area near Lake Tahoe, one person remains missing and presumed dead, and six others were rescued. It is now the deadliest U.S. avalanche in 45 years. The victims — most of them mothers and wives connected through a love of skiing — were on a guided three-day backcountry trip with Blackbird Mountain Guides. A high avalanche danger warning had been in effect when they headed out. The Sheriff put it plainly: “I don’t think it was a wise choice.” Families released a joint statement saying they were “devastated beyond words.”

• Texas Senate primary heats up — and gets weird. Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico are running hard ahead of the March 3 primary — the first major midterm contest of 2026. Talarico raised $2.5 million in 24 hours after CBS lawyers pulled his Colbert interview over alleged FCC concerns. In a separate interview, Crockett claimed Democratic attacks against her are racially motivated, saying ads are “darkening her skin.” Democrats haven’t won a Texas Senate seat since 1988. They may want to sort some internal things out first.

  

• Trump orders the Pentagon to release the UFO files. Because sure, why not. Trump directed Pete Hegseth and relevant agencies to begin identifying and releasing government files on aliens, extraterrestrial life, and UAPs. No timeline specified. Carry on.

Talk to Me

Two things I genuinely want to hear from you on this week:

The Board of Peace is either a legitimate new architecture for U.S.-led conflict resolution, or it’s an elaborate photo op with red hats and a FIFA sponsorship. Massive pledges, notable participation, zero clarity on implementation. What’s your read? Is this a real institution or a branding exercise?

Andrew’s arrest is widely being framed as a sex scandal story, but the actual charge is about sharing state secrets with a convicted pedophile. Does that distinction matter to you? And do you think British courts actually see this through, or does it quietly disappear in six months like every other royal “accountability” moment?

Drop your thoughts, share this with someone who deserves better news coverage, and I’ll see you Monday.

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No corporate overlords—just independent journalism you can actually trust. Share it with someone who needs the real story.

You guys, I am experimenting.

Desk Notes started as a place to think out loud, and lately, I’ve figured I would take that literally by recording myself in the moment. When something is rattling around in my head, and I need to get it out before I lose it or, worse, before it gets buried under the news cycle.

The result is Desk Notes in audio. Short. Unguarded. Equal parts opinion, observation, and the kind of thing I’d say to you if we were having coffee and I just had to say something. It’s not a podcast. It’s not a segment. It’s closer to a voice memo, cleaned up just enough to share. My thoughts on whatever is happening, delivered in a few minutes, without the ceremony.

And because this feels like something special, Desk Notes are now exclusively for paying subscribers.

The first one is below. It won’t take long. That’s kind of the point.

Subscribe now

In today’s Brief:

• Hockey Arena Horror: A transgender shooter kills family members at a crowded Rhode Island game, but the media treats it like just another domestic dispute.

• Equal-Time Hypocrisy: CBS suddenly cares about FCC rules that nobody enforced when Kamala was on SNL, and Colbert cries censorship while his guest rakes in millions.

• AOC’s Munich Meltdown: The congresswoman can’t find Venezuela on a map or handle basic Taiwan questions, then blames everyone else for noticing.

• Carrier Diplomacy: Trump sends warships to the Persian Gulf while negotiating with Iran, and both sides threaten to sink each other’s fleets between handshakes.

• Selling Out for Gold: Leaked documents reveal China’s been paying Eileen Gu millions in government money to ski for them instead of the country that trained her.
  

Let’s get into the news!

A Hockey Game Became a Crime Scene, and the Media Can’t Say the Quiet Part Out Loud

Robert Dorgan walked into a Rhode Island hockey arena Monday afternoon and shot his wife, three children, and a family friend in front of a packed crowd of high school hockey players and parents. Two people died, his ex-wife and one of their sons. Three others, including the grandparents, remain in critical condition. Then Dorgan turned the gun on himself.

The incident was horrific. The livestream captured it all: approximately 11 gunshots, players scrambling out of the penalty box, and spectators diving for cover. One father wrestled a gun away from the shooter, only to discover he had a second weapon.

But here’s what most mainstream coverage is avoiding: Dorgan, who also went by Roberta Esposito, was transgender. He was armed with a Glock 10mm and a SIG Sauer P226. And according to his daughter, who spoke to reporters outside the Pawtucket Police Department, he was “very sick” with “mental health issues.”

Another detail the media’s conveniently downplaying: Dorgan had neo-Nazi tattoos and threatened to go “BERSERK” in a trans-rights rant the day before the shooting.

So we’ve got a mass shooting at a family event. We’ve got clear warning signs. We’ve got a perpetrator who doesn’t fit the media’s preferred narrative. And we’ve got—surprise, surprise—crickets from the usual suspects who would be screaming from the rooftops if this shooter had been, say, a conservative white Christian male.

Most outlets are treating this as a “domestic violence incident” or “family dispute,” which technically it was. But compare the language to how they cover other mass shootings. No think pieces about toxic masculinity. No urgent calls for new legislation. No primetime specials examining the “culture” that produced this violence.

Just another tragic day in America, move along, nothing to see here.

The FBI’s assisting the investigation. Lynch Arena, home ice for the Johnson and Wales Wildcats, is now a crime scene. And parents across Rhode Island are left wondering how to explain to their kids what they witnessed.

The FCC Equal-Time Rule That Nobody Enforced Until Trump Wanted It Enforced

Remember when equal-time rules were quaint relics from a bygone era? When Kamala Harris could pop up on SNL right before the election, and nobody at the FCC batted an eye?

Well, the rules are back. And Stephen Colbert is big mad about it.

Here’s what happened: Colbert booked Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico for an interview on “The Late Show.” Then CBS lawyers stepped in and told him, in his words, “in no uncertain terms” that not only could he not air the interview, he couldn’t even mention not airing it.

So naturally, he went on air and mentioned it. Because that’s what you do when a network tells you not to talk about something, you talk about it immediately and call it censorship.

CBS disputes Colbert’s account, claiming they merely provided “legal guidance” about the FCC equal-time rule and suggested options for providing equal time to other candidates. The show itself, CBS says, decided to post the interview on YouTube instead.

Colbert’s takeaway? This is Trump trying to “silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV.”

The equal-time rule has existed since the 1930s. It requires broadcast networks to give equal time to political candidates. It’s why you used to see awkward 30-second spots from third-party candidates you’d never heard of during election season.

But during the Biden administration, enforcement was “pretty lax,” as one analysis noted. Harris appeared on SNL. Nobody cared. The rule was effectively dead.

Now, Trump’s FCC chair, Brendan Carr, is floating the idea of doing away with the exemption for daytime and late-night talk shows. And suddenly, networks are rediscovering compliance.

Here’s the thing: Talarico is running for Senate. So is Rep. Jasmine Crockett. Under the equal-time rule, if Colbert gives Talarico airtime to promote his campaign, he has to offer the same to Crockett and any other candidates in that race.

CBS claims it offered options. Colbert claims censorship. Talarico himself tweeted that “Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV.”

Except... the Trump administration didn’t block the interview. The CBS legal department flagged potential FCC violations. Those are different things.

The interview aired on YouTube anyway, where Talarico got to position himself as the brave truth-teller Trump’s FCC tried to silence. In the end, Talarioc reportedly raised $2.5 million in the 24 hours following his appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Free publicity for a Senate candidate who was struggling to break through the noise. Mission accomplished.

AOC Goes to Munich, Proves She’s Not Ready for Primetime

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went to the Munich Security Conference last week with big ambitions: Present a progressive vision for global leadership, warn about authoritarianism, and position herself as a serious foreign policy voice.

Instead, she became a viral blooper reel.

The lowlight: When asked whether the U.S. should send troops to defend Taiwan if China invades, she stalled for roughly 20 seconds before offering a word-salad response that technically reflected America’s “strategic ambiguity” policy but sounded like she was buying time to remember what country Taiwan even is.

Conservative social media had a field day. And honestly? They weren’t wrong to notice.

There were other gaffes: She referred to the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" when she meant "Trans-Atlantic." She suggested Venezuela was below the Equator (it's north of it). She mocked Secretary of State Rubio's speech celebrating Western civilization, laughing that his claim about American cowboys originating in Spain was wrong and that "Mexicans and descendants of African enslaved peoples would like to have a word." Except Rubio was right—the word "cowboy" literally comes from Spanish vaquero (from vaca, meaning cow), and Spanish conquistadors brought horses to the Americas and established the ranching traditions that spread through Mexico to the American Southwest. These are the kind of mistakes that get you roasted in a high school history class, let alone on the international stage.

AOC’s response? Everyone’s missing the point. The real story, she told the New York Times, is that global democracies are on fire and far-right movements are surging. Not whether she knows basic geography.

“Is Munich the new New Hampshire?” one reporter asked her, referencing presidential primary speculation. AOC was not amused. “I cannot say enough how out of touch and missing the point, genuinely, that is,” she said.

Except... she’s the one who chose to make her international debut at Munich. She’s the one whose office has been feeding 2028 presidential speculation for months. She’s the one who went to Germany with a delegation of potential Democratic candidates, including Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer.

And she’s the one who fumbled basic questions about U.S. foreign policy in front of international media.

CNN reported that her commitments were “curtailed”—translation: she went into hiding after the Taiwan stumble. Then she ran to the New York Times to complain that people were talking about the wrong things.

The Times, bless them, dutifully produced a sympathetic piece about how her “anti-authoritarian message” was being overshadowed by “scrutiny of her slip-ups” and “presidential speculation.”

But here’s the reality: If you can’t handle a straightforward question about Taiwan—one of the most important flashpoints in U.S.-China relations—without a 20-second deer-in-headlights moment, you’re not ready to be taken seriously on foreign policy.

And if your reaction to criticism is to blame everyone else for not understanding your genius, you’re definitely not ready to run for president.

European leaders were apparently kind to her face. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski called it “refreshing to see some American politicians who talk openly about all of those challenges.”

The trip did accomplish one thing: It made crystal clear that AOC’s wheelhouse is domestic progressive activism and social media dunks, not nuanced foreign policy in multilateral settings.

Diplomacy with an Aircraft Carrier Chaser

While everyone’s distracted by hockey arena shootings and global progressive visions, the U.S. and Iran are playing a massive game of chicken in Geneva.

The second round of nuclear negotiations wrapped up Tuesday with Iran claiming there’s now a “clearer path ahead” to a deal. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the talks “more constructive” than the first round, saying both sides reached “general agreement on a number of guiding principles.”

That’s diplomatic speak for “we agreed to keep talking without nuking each other for now.”

Here’s what makes this interesting: Trump’s negotiating style involves sending two aircraft carrier strike groups to the Persian Gulf while his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff sit in Geneva for indirect talks. The USS Gerald R. Ford—the world’s largest aircraft carrier—is heading to the region to join the naval assets already positioned in U.S. Central Command waters.

Trump told reporters Monday night he’ll be “involved indirectly” in the negotiations and doesn’t think Iran wants “the consequences of not making a deal.” That’s Trump speak for “sign something or we start sending things to the bottom of the sea.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had his own response Tuesday: “A warship is certainly a dangerous weapon, but even more dangerous is the weapon capable of sinking it.” He then helpfully reminded everyone that “the strongest military force in the world may at times be struck so hard that it cannot get up again.”

The backdrop makes this even more precarious: Iran conducted live-fire military drills in the Strait of Hormuz this week, a critical shipping lane through which about 20% of the world’s oil passes. Trump warned that if talks fail, it’ll be “a bad day for Iran, very bad.”

What does Iran want? Sanctions relief. Their economy is in shambles after years of crippling U.S. economic punishment. Sky-high inflation, a devalued currency, and basic necessities becoming luxuries for even the well-off. In January, unprecedented protests erupted over economic suffering, met with an equally unprecedented violent crackdown. Thousands arrested. The regime knows another uprising is brewing if they can’t get sanctions lifted.

What they won’t do: Give up their right to enrich uranium for a “civilian” nuclear program. Araghchi posted on social media that Iran arrived in Geneva “with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal. What is not on the table: submission before threats.”

What does the U.S. want? Everything Iran won’t give: reduction or removal of enriched uranium stockpiles, IAEA monitoring, and—at Netanyahu’s insistence—restrictions on ballistic missiles and funding for regional proxies. Israel’s position is clear: Iran should have zero domestic enrichment capabilities.

Those are positions with approximately zero overlap.

The Trump administration claims they obliterated Iran’s nuclear program in June 2025 strikes during a 12-day Israeli-Iranian war. The extent of that damage remains disputed, but it apparently didn’t stop Iran from continuing enrichment to 60% purity—a “short, technical step” from weapons-grade levels, according to the IAEA.

Both sides left Tuesday’s talks saying the right diplomatic things. The Iranians sound cautiously optimistic. The Americans are maintaining strategic silence. And two carrier strike groups are steaming toward the Persian Gulf while both nations conduct military exercises in the world’s most important waterway.

Eileen Gu’s Chinese Payday: When “Following Your Dreams” Means Following the Money

Eileen Gu is back at the Olympics, skiing for China. Again. Despite being born and raised in California. Despite growing up American. Despite the whole pesky issue of China not allowing dual citizenship.

And now we know exactly how much China’s paying for the privilege of having America’s homegrown talent win medals for them.

According to budget documents that accidentally leaked, the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau paid Gu and figure skater Zhu Yi (another U.S.-born athlete competing for China) a combined $6.6 million in 2025 alone. Over three years, the total hits nearly $14 million.

The documents briefly included Gu’s and Yi’s names before being scrubbed, along with the social media comments criticizing the payments at a time when “budgets were tight for essential services” in China.

Gu’s already one of the highest-paid female athletes in the world, raking in $23 million last year almost entirely from endorsements. She’s got deals with Porsche, Red Bull, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., and a roster of Chinese brands.

And she’s got the Chinese government cutting her multi-million dollar checks to ensure she keeps winning medals for them.

Here’s what makes this story fascinating: Gu won’t talk about her citizenship status. China doesn’t allow dual citizenship. To compete for China, she had to become a Chinese citizen. But she’s never confirmed whether she renounced her U.S. passport.

Red Bull’s website briefly stated in 2022 that she’d given up her U.S. passport and naturalized as Chinese. When the Wall Street Journal asked about it, that detail disappeared from Red Bull’s site, and they refused to answer questions.

Gu’s response to citizenship questions? “When I’m in the U.S., I’m American. But when I’m in China, I’m Chinese.”

That’s not how citizenship works, but okay.

She’s already won silver in ski slopestyle at the Milan Olympics. She’s favored to repeat her gold medals from Beijing in big air and halfpipe.

Vice President JD Vance weighed in, calling the situation a reminder of how money influences athletic decisions. National Review noted it was a “terrible choice” that prioritized financial gain over national loyalty.

“Sometimes it feels like I’m carrying the weight of two countries on my shoulders,” Gu said after her slopestyle event.

No, Eileen. You're carrying the weight of American taxpayer-funded training and world-class education that made you valuable enough for the Chinese government to buy. You benefited from everything America offers—freedom, opportunity, elite coaching, Stanford—then sold your loyalty to an authoritarian regime that cuts multi-million-dollar checks so you can live a life most Chinese citizens will never have access to. In America, you'd actually have to earn those sponsorships. In China, the government just writes the check and calls it patriotism. That's not carrying two countries on your shoulders. That's cashing in on one while living off the other.

Quick Rundown

• Trump’s “Board of Peace” Announces Gaza Package: The administration announced over $5 billion pledged for Gaza humanitarian efforts and reconstruction, with thousands of security personnel committed to an international stabilization force. First formal meeting set for February 19.

• NYC's Socialist Mayor Threatens Homeowners: Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a $127 billion budget with a poison pill—either Governor Hochul approves taxing the wealthy more, or he'll jack property taxes 9.5% on middle-class homeowners (about $700/year extra) and raid the city's reserve funds. This after NYC already blew through $10 billion on migrants and Mamdani's proposing another $1.2 billion for migrant services. Even fellow Democrats are calling it "a nonstarter."

• Air Force One Gets the Trump Treatment: Both the donated luxury jet from Qatar and new Boeing VC-25B jets are reportedly being repainted in Trump’s signature red, white, gold, and dark blue colors. The Kennedy-era blue and white design is officially out. First repaints expected within months.

• RIP Robert Duvall: The legendary actor passed away at 94. From “The Godfather” to “Apocalypse Now” to “Lonesome Dove,” Duvall defined American cinema for generations.

• Annular Solar Eclipse: Antarctica saw a “ring of fire” solar eclipse Monday as the moon blocked 96% of the sun for about 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Southern South America, southern Africa, and most of Antarctica caught partial views.

Let’s Talk

How many red flags have to be waving before we acknowledge patterns we’re not supposed to notice? The Rhode Island shooting had everything: clear warning signs, mental health red flags, a day-before threat to go “BERSERK.” But because the shooter doesn’t fit the preferred narrative, it gets filed under “domestic dispute” and memory-holed. Even the gun violence advocates are quiet.

And where’s the line between “following your dreams” and “selling your loyalty to the highest bidder”? Eileen Gu benefited from everything America offers—freedom, world-class training, Stanford education—then cashed out to an authoritarian regime that pays her millions in government money to live a life most Chinese citizens will never access.

What’s got you fired up today? Drop a comment.

The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No corporate overlords—just independent journalism you can actually trust. Share it with someone who needs the real story.

The Brief is late again, but my husband said this morning, “Let's go get pancakes!” So, obviously, we got pancakes.

Friday is errand day. I got stuff to do. So…😉👇

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In today’s Brief:

• Hawley goes nuclear on Ellison: Tells Minnesota’s AG he “ought to be in jail” over $9 billion in fraud and some inconvenient campaign donations. There’s a 54-minute tape. Ellison says it’s lies. The tape disagrees.

• Operation Metro Surge wraps: Homan declares victory, Walz offers to pack his bags, and Kamala calls the resistance “a beautiful example.” Everyone’s claiming a win, so nobody actually won.

• Inside the Noem-Lewandowski chaos machine: The WSJ drops a brutal portrait—a pilot fired over a missing blanket, a $70 million "big, beautiful jet," Lewandowski autopen-signing his own badge paperwork, and affair rumors Trump himself keeps bringing up. DHS calls it "a roaring success."

• EPA torches the endangerment finding: Seventeen years of climate regulations, gone. Legal challenges are incoming, but for now, the Obama-era framework is rubble.

• Goldman’s top lawyer exits over Epstein: Kathy Ruemmler insists it was all professional. The timing of her resignation suggests the documents have opinions.

• Congress leaves town, DHS unfunded: ICE keeps its $75 billion and operates anyway. FEMA, TSA, and the Coast Guard get to scramble. Fetterman was the only Dem to vote yes—and he’s not wrong about the math.

Let’s get into the news!

Senate Hearing Becomes Full-Contact Sport

If you missed yesterday’s Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, you missed Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) essentially calling for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to be arrested on live television.

Hawley confronted Ellison over campaign donations linked to the Feeding Our Future scandal—the COVID-era fraud scheme that started at $250 million and has since ballooned to an estimated $9 billion stolen since 2018. “You helped fraudsters defraud your state and this government of $9 billion—and you got a fat campaign contribution out of it,” Hawley thundered. “You ought to be indicted.”

Ellison shot back: “That’s a lie.”

Things escalated from there. When Hawley tried to cite a 54-minute audio recording released by the Center for the American Experiment showing Ellison meeting with fraud defendants in December 2021, things got personal. “Don’t talk over me… It’s my hearing, pal,” Hawley said. “Don’t call me ‘pal,’” Ellison fired back. “Well, I should call you a prisoner because you ought to be in jail.”

The core allegation: Ellison received approximately $10,000 in contributions from individuals linked to the fraud scheme—contributions his office says he later returned to the federal government. His spokesperson insists “nobody at that meeting contributed” to his campaign. But here’s what’s interesting: Nine days after that December 2021 sit-down with fraud defendants, the brother of one attendee maxed out to Ellison’s campaign.

Federal prosecutors have now convicted or secured guilty pleas from 44 of the 70 people charged. The stolen funds went to luxury cars, property, jewelry, travel—and, according to Senate testimony, “hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorist groups, to transnational criminal organizations, to drug trafficking, to child trafficking.” But sure, let’s keep arguing about whether a meeting happened.

Operation Metro Surge: Mission Accomplished?

Border Czar Tom Homan declared victory Thursday, announcing the conclusion of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. The 10-week immigration crackdown that turned Minneapolis into ground zero for the administration’s enforcement priorities is winding down.

“As a result of our efforts here, Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan told reporters at the Bishop Whipple Federal Building. Federal authorities say the sweeps led to more than 4,000 arrests in the Twin Cities metro area.

The drawdown is already underway; 700 federal officers are leaving, though 2,000 will remain. A “small footprint” will stay on the ground to oversee criminal investigations into “agitators” and continue the fraud probes. Homan cited “unprecedented levels of coordination” with state and local law enforcement as justification for wrapping up.

Governor Tim Walz responded with characteristic restraint: “We will help you get to the airport. We will clear the roads to get you to the airport. I will come over and pack your damn bags if that’s what it takes.”

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris stopped by Georgia on her book tour to praise Minneapolis’ resistance as “such a beautiful example” for the country. She highlighted community members “pulling out their smartphones” and “blowing their whistles to alert people in the community about what might be happening.” She added: “I am here to advocate intolerance.”

There’s a certain whiplash in watching the enforcement operation declared a success while the former VP celebrates the resistance to it as a model. But that’s where we are.

Inside the Noem-Lewandowski Chaos Machine

The Wall Street Journal dropped a devastating portrait of what’s actually happening inside DHS under Secretary Kristi Noem and her “chief adviser” Corey Lewandowski—and it reads like a workplace dysfunction case study with federal authority.

Start with the basics: Lewandowski wanted to be Noem’s chief of staff. Trump rejected that idea because of reports of a “romantic relationship” between the two, something the president has apparently continued to bring up. Both are married. Both deny the affair. But the rumors aren’t new; they’ve swirled since at least 2020, and photos published by the Daily Mail last year showed Lewandowski going back and forth between his apartment and Noem’s across the street.

Their solution? Noem moved into a government-owned waterfront house on a military base—the official residence of the Coast Guard commandant, which falls under her authority at DHS. Lewandowski “also spends time at the house.” DHS says she pays rent and moved for “increased security.”

Then there’s the jet. Noem and Lewandowski have been using a luxury 737 MAX with a private cabin in the back for their travel. DHS is acquiring it for approximately $70 million, double the cost of the other commercial planes the department is buying for deportations. On paper, it’s earmarked for “high-profile deportations.” Staff have started calling it the secretary’s “big, beautiful jet.”

But my favorite detail is the blanket incident. After Noem had to switch planes due to a maintenance issue, her blanket wasn’t moved to the second aircraft. Lewandowski’s response? He fired the Coast Guard pilot and told him to take a commercial flight home. The pilot was eventually reinstated—because no one else was available to fly them back.

The piece also details Lewandowski’s push to get himself a federal law-enforcement badge and gun without undergoing the required training. When a top ICE official declined to issue them, he was passed over for a promotion. When a top ICE lawyer refused to write a legal justification, he was placed on administrative leave and later demoted to FEMA. Lewandowski eventually got other lawyers to sign off on it, using the ICE director’s autopen. Staff have since spotted him wearing a badge emblazoned with “Homeland Security.”

There’s more: contracts held up so long that steel prices rose $100 million, polygraph tests for employees they don’t trust, roughly 80% of career ICE field leadership fired or demoted, and Noem tracking her TV appearances against Tom Homan’s to make sure she’s on more.

DHS calls all of this “a roaring success” and dismisses the affair questions as “salacious, baseless gossip.” But when your blanket logistics are causing personnel actions and your adviser is autopen-signing his own badge paperwork, the gossip might be the least of your problems.

EPA Torches the Endangerment Finding

In what President Trump called “the single largest deregulatory action in American history,” the EPA formally revoked the Obama-era “endangerment finding” on greenhouse gases Thursday.

For those keeping score: The 2009 finding established that carbon dioxide and methane emissions posed “a threat to public health and welfare,” providing the legal foundation for federal climate regulations. It’s been used to justify everything from vehicle emissions standards to power plant rules for 17 years. Now it’s gone.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin framed it as freedom from bureaucratic burden: “The red tape has been cut. Manufacturers will no longer be burdened by measuring, compiling and reporting greenhouse gas emissions.”

The White House claims the move will save Americans roughly $2,400 per vehicle. The National Consumers League disputes that analysis, arguing federal standards actually save households thousands over a vehicle’s lifespan.

When asked what his message was for Americans concerned about environmental and health implications, Trump replied: “I tell them, don’t worry about it, because it has nothing to do with public health. It just was all a scam, a giant scam.”

Legal challenges are certain. The Supreme Court has previously affirmed that greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. But for now, the regulatory architecture built over nearly two decades is officially dismantled. Whether companies actually change their practices—given that the next administration could reverse course—remains an open question.

Goldman’s Top Lawyer Exits Amid Epstein Fallout

Kathy Ruemmler, Goldman Sachs’ chief legal officer and former Obama White House counsel, announced her resignation Thursday night amid ongoing fallout from the Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of Jeffrey Epstein documents.

Her departure, effective June 30, comes after weeks of news stories examining her relationship with the disgraced financier. Ruemmler and those around her have insisted the relationship was professional. In her statement, she said: “My responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs’ interests first.”

CEO David Solomon praised her as “an extraordinary general counsel” and accepted her resignation. The Epstein document release continues to send ripples through elite institutions, and Ruemmler won’t be the last high-profile departure. When millions of pages of documents get dumped, it’s remarkable how many people suddenly remember they had personal reasons to leave their jobs.

Congress Leaves Town, DHS Unfunded

In a move that would have been politically unthinkable a decade ago, Congress left Washington for a week-long recess Thursday with no deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The shutdown begins at midnight Friday.

The twist? Nobody seems particularly worried. Axios calls it a “no-pressure shutdown” because both sides see political upside.

For Democrats: refusing to fund DHS without ICE reforms plays well to a base that polling shows has soured on the agency’s tactics. For Republicans: ICE and CBP are already funded through the $75 billion allocated in last year’s reconciliation package. The agencies doing the immigration enforcement will keep operating regardless.

Who gets hurt? FEMA, Coast Guard, TSA, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency. Senator John Fetterman was the only Democratic vote to advance DHS funding, noting: “ICE has $75B in funding from Trump BBB that I did not vote for. Shutting DHS down has zero impact and zero changes for ICE.”

He’s right. This is performance politics on both sides. The agencies Democrats are ostensibly trying to rein in will continue operating at full capacity, while the agencies Americans actually need for disaster response and airport security will be scrambling. Congress won’t be back until February 23rd. By then, this will be a 10-day shutdown that everyone pretended to care about.

From the Feed

Quick Rundown

• Second carrier to the Gulf: Trump ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford to join the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East amid Iran nuclear negotiations. The Ford is currently in the Caribbean and will take 3-4 weeks to arrive. Trump wants a deal “within the next month” and says Iran needs to agree “otherwise it is going to be very traumatic.”

• FTC warns Apple over News bias: FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent a letter to Tim Cook after a Media Research Center study found Apple News went 100 consecutive days without featuring a single right-leaning outlet in its top stories. Of 620 articles in January's high-traffic morning slots, 440 came from left-leaning outlets, 180 from centrist sources, and zero from Fox News, the Post, or any conservative publication. Apple says the app offers "a wide range" of sources. Ferguson says if the curation doesn't match Apple's terms of service, it may violate the FTC Act.

• Mark Kelly wins injunction: A federal judge blocked the Pentagon from docking Senator Mark Kelly’s rank and pay over that “refuse illegal orders” video. Meanwhile, a DC grand jury declined to indict any of the six lawmakers Trump accused of “seditious behavior.”

• Don Lemon arraignment today: The former CNN host appears in federal court in Minnesota on charges stemming from a January church protest. He faces two federal counts including violating the FACE Act. Legal experts say the charges may not hold up because the government has never successfully used that statute against church disruptions.

• Olympic skating controversy: American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are calling for transparency after a French judge’s scoring helped the French team edge them out for gold by 0.46 points. The three-time world champions say the scoring confusion “does a disservice” to the sport.

• Inflation data calms markets: Bond yields fell and markets stabilized Thursday after relatively tame inflation numbers. Money markets now price in around 50% odds of a third Fed rate cut by December.

Let’s Talk

Hawley says Ellison belongs in jail. There’s a tape, 44 convictions, and $9 billion missing. At what point does “political theater” become actual accountability?

And on the shutdown: Fetterman was the only Dem to vote yes, because he can count. ICE keeps its $75 billion either way. So who exactly is this performance for?

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