Trump: ‘A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight’ … Maybe
INSIDE: Pete Hegseth ... Hannah Dugan ... Tony Gonzalez
Go Big or Go TACO
I long ago moved away from leading Morning Memo with crazy shit Trump says, but over the last 48 hours he’s become so unhinged, erratic, and cartoonishly bombastic about an ongoing regional war in one of the cradles of civilization that it feels worth noting for posterity’s sake.
This morning’s social media effusion has all the elements of the late-stage Trump: violent, over the top, ignorant, wishful … while still leaving himself plenty of room to TACO:
A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!
The arbitrary deadline of tonight to reach some kind of deal that let’s him stand down on Iran, which doesn’t seem particularly interested in a deal, is a set-piece of Trump’s own making. Most of his rhetoric over the past new days has been puffery to make the risk of failing to bail him out look intolerable to the Iranians. But if Americans can see through the smokescreen, surely the Iranians know what’s up.
It’s hard to get past the civilization-destroying threats by an imperial superpower, but once you do, most of the rest of the social media post reads like the tongue-in-cheek cliffhangers at the end of Rocky and Bullwinkle, which were themselves spoofs of older forms of broadcast entertainment. Ever the narcissist, Trump is the announcer and would-be hero: “Tune in tonight to see if I will destroy the world … or NOT!”
Tilting at Windmills
During his press conference yesterday, President Trump threatened jail for the unnamed reporter who leaked news of the missing U.S. airman downed over Iran unless they divulge the source of the leak — except that no one quite seems to know what Trump was talking about. The news of the downed aircraft that carries a crew of two was widely reported, as was the rescue of the pilot. The inference that the second airman remained missing wasn’t hard to make. The White House did not respond to a New York Times question about which news outlet Trump was referring to.
The Hubris
I am as susceptible as anyone to a good rescue story, especially of the leave-no-one-behind variety, but when the Christian nationalist defense secretary explicitly turns a downed airman’s Easter weekend rescue into the passion play, it’s gross:
Good Read
TPM contributing writer Sarah Posner: Trump’s Evangelical Leaders Are Working Overtime to Spin the Iran War
Quote of the Day
“The United States is unpredictable. It’s not a reliable partner anymore for the Western world.”—Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the Bundestag from Germany’s ruling Christian Democratic Union party
ICYMI
Trump DOJ Watch: Only the Best People
NY Mag traces the mind-blowing path of former FBI agent Jared Wise from Jan. 6 defendant still on trial when Trump re-took office to working as a senior adviser in the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and assigned to the so-called Weaponization Working Group.
A WSJ profile skewers Robert Keenan, 60, as “one of the longest-tenured and least-productive federal prosecutors” in Orange County, California, who was repeatedly passed over for promotions and “still handling low-level cases typically reserved for first-year federal prosecutors” when suddenly the Trump DOJ elevated him into a “key courtroom warrior” and “go-to guy.”
Big Oops …
The Blaze has fired reporter Steve Baker, the author of the story it had to retract that falsely identified a former Capitol Police officer as the Jan. 6 pipe-bomber.
A Thankless Task
A deserving profile of the indefatigable Aaron Rupar, whose 24/7 work clipping Trump’s public comments is an invaluable public service.
Dugan Conviction Upheld
The trial judge in the federal criminal case against Wisconsin state judge Hannah Dugan — convicted of obstructing a DHS proceeding by interfering in the courthouse arrest of an undocumented immigrant — denied her post-conviction motions for acquittal.
2026 Ephemera
Senate Republicans’ main super PAC — the Senate Leadership Fund — revealed its view of the midterms map, as it unveiled a $350 million plan to hold its majority. It’s focused on:
defending five seats: Alaska, Iowa Maine, North Carolina*, and Ohio
targeting three Democratic seats: Georgia, Michigan, and New Hampshire*
*open seats
Gonzalez’s Pattern of Preying on Staff
Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-TX) has already decided not to seek re-election after being exposed for having an affair with a former staffer who later took her own life. Now hundreds of text messages obtained by the San Antonio Express-News show him allegedly propositioning a campaign staffer four years earlier, during his 2020 campaign.
“He obviously pursued, pursued, pursued her like he did with me,” the former campaign staffer told the Express-News, referring to the later affair. “I never took him serious. … It wasn’t until this poor girl died that I thought, ‘No, this guy is pure evil.’”
As the NYT notes, the newly revealed texts create a new bind for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), “who is dangerously close to losing what is left of his tiny majority and cannot afford the resignation of another Republican.”
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As a Vatican II Catholic, words cannot convey the horror that ph and his jolly bunch instill. Almost feel I should apologize to non-Christians everywhere. As for jdv— puh léeze.
OMG today TPM cover LOTS of news👏 Very informative pieces with links to more in depth perspectives. ✨Kudos✨