Today in Politics, Bulletin 339. 3/30/26
… US Army officials have ordered an investigation into the activities of two AH-64 Apache attack helicopters that flew over Saturday’s ‘No Kings’ protest in downtown Nashville, then engaged in low-altitude maneuvers near the home of Kid Rock just north of the city. Kid Rock posted a video of the helicopters who paid a special visit to his home.
… Two days before the Trump admin’s lawyers appear before SCOTUS to argue the birthright citizenship case, he posted that the justices are dumb: “Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China, and the rest of the World, who want their children, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the US. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES! The World is laughing at how STUPID our US Court System has become (TARIFFS!). Dumb Judges and Justices will not a great Country make!”
… Punchbowl: “REPUBLICANS DHS MESS. Let’s be abundantly clear - this record-breaking, 44-day DHS funding impasse has turned into a political disaster for Republicans. At one point, Republicans seemed to be breaking through with their message that Dems instigated the DHS fight over undocumented immigrants. But now, House and Senate Rs are publicly warring with each other over who’s at fault for last week’s debacle. The GOP-run Congress has left town until mid-April, while Trump was forced to issue an executive order to pay TSA employees.”
… “This episode illustrates how adrift the GOP-run Congress is when Trump remains on the sidelines. Trump was completely silent about the Senate’s proposal, although his staff was telling lawmakers he approved. When it became clear that the House would reject it, Trump sided with them. But now the House Republican Conference has ownership of the impasse. Johnson’s rejection of Thune’s approach ensures that the next two weeks will be all about how GOP infighting is prolonging the shutdown.”
… Punchbowl: “Thune sent updated guidance to GOP senators today saying he’s working with Schumer to see if there’s something Dems would agree to re: DHS funding, but noted that Dems have already blocked DHS CRs (like the one the House passed) numerous times.”
… Schumer spokesperson responded: “With the division and intransigence among Republicans it is clear that this is a Republican shutdown. Schumer made clear that Dems would not accept anything less than what was passed unanimously by the Senate. Johnson and House Republicans needlessly extended this DHS shutdown. Republicans shouldn’t look to Senate Dems to fix their own internal caucus problems.”
… Fox reporter Brooke Taylor: “I spoke to two TSA agents in Houston off camera. Both tell me they received a paycheck this morning but it was only half of what they were owed.”
… Unfortunately, now they know what contractors who have done business with Trump Org have experienced for the past several decades.
… Axios: “Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement. New efforts to rein in health programs are sure to be controversial and open the GOP up to election-year attacks that they’re cutting health care to pay for an unpopular war.”
… “Top House Republicans are looking at health care offsets addressing fraud in federal programs, as they did during last year’s debate over the budget law that made deep cuts to federal Medicaid spending and imposed first-time work requirements.”
… Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) on Fox: “I know gas and food prices are really impacting people and my heart goes out to them, but the president is doing the right thing. It’s better to make sure we are not gonna be destroyed by a nuclear weapon of ballistic missiles.”
… The S&P 500 is off to its worst start in history through the first 12 weeks of a year.
… Axios: “Wind farms across the US are being delayed as the Trump admin sits on military reviews that were once considered routine. At least 30 onshore wind farms projects are affected by the Pentagon paperwork logjam. At roughly 200-300 megawatts each, that’s about 7.5 gigawatts of stalled capacity - enough electricity to power several cities. The reviews are necessary to make sure the wind farms’ turbines won’t interfere with military radar or aviation systems.”
… Trump spoke to reporters on Air Force 1 as he returned to DC from another golf weekend in FL:
“This is a view of the columns as they are going to be made. They’re going to be hand-carved and they’re beautiful. Top of the line. They’ll be corinthian, which is considered the best, most beautiful by far.”
… Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) to Meidas: “The situation is bad. It’s getting worse. And we have a president who, frankly, only cares about putting his signature on currency, illegally etching it onto the Kennedy Center, and building his big, beautiful ballroom -and frankly couldn’t give a shit about the American people.”
“A lot of people are talking how beautiful the ballroom is. A lot of people are giving it good reviews. Some people are giving it good reviews without seeing it.”
Q - “Do you still have confidence in Tulsi Gabbard? Trump: Yeah. Sure. I mean she’s a little bit different in her thought process than me, but that doesn’t make somebody not available to serve. I’m very strong in the fact that I don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I think she’s a little softer on that.”
I’m against prediction markets, but it is probably a good time for people to pick Gabbard as next to be fired based on these comments. As for which pending nominee is most likely to be withdrawn soon …
Q - “Are you considering withdrawing Casey Means for Surgeon General? Trump: I don’t know how she’s doing in the nomination process - I’m more focused on Iran. But something like that would be possible.”
Q - “You had offered that 15 point plan to Iran. Did they ever come back with a response? Trump: They gave us most of the points. Q - You make it sound like they made some concessions. Can you identify those? Trump: They’re agreeing with us on the plan. The 15 points. We’re having very good meetings.”
“They’re going to give up nuclear weapons. They’re going to give us the nuclear dust. They’re going to do everything that we want to do. And you know what? They’re going to go on and maybe have a great a great country again. But if they don’t do that, they’re not going to have country.”
Q - “Are you considering still putting boots on the ground, and would you do that without going to Congress? Trump: I have lots of alternatives. We have tremendous numbers of ships. We don’t need them all because, you know, the power. Just like we’re ahead of schedule on the ballroom, we’re ahead of schedule with Iran.”
The Iran War is just like the ballroom. Got it.
… Karoline Leavitt gave another propaganda-filled press conference for the regime today:
Q - “Who is paying for the cost of this war? Will the Arab countries step up? Leavitt: I think it is something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do. Certainly, it’s an idea I know he has and something you will hear more from him on.
… We’re still waiting for Mexico to pay for the wall.
Q - “The president said we might blow up and completely obliterate all of their generating electric plants, oil wells, Kharg island, and possibly all desalination plants. Under international law, striking infrastructure is generally prohibited. Why is the president advocating potentially a war crime? Leavitt: Their best move is to make a deal or else the US armed forces has capabilities beyond their wildest imagination.”
… Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ): “Dangerous warmongers. This is sick.”
Q - “The Pope said, ‘God does not listen to the prayer of those who wage war.’ Can you comment on that? Leavitt: Our nation was a nation founded 250 years ago almost on Judeo-Christian values. And we have seen presidents, the leaders of the Dept of War, and our troops go to prayer during the most turbulent times in our nations history and I don’t think there is anything wrong with our military leaders or with the president calling on the American people to pray for our service members overseas.”
… The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols: “Notice she quickly redefined the question as ‘praying for our people overseas’ and not the vicious nonsense Hegseth has been spewing about God guiding our bullets.”
Q - “Why did the president not attend CPAC? Does he believe it has become less relevant? Leavitt: No. He loves CPAC. He has a great relationship with Matt Schlapp.”
… Podcaster Hemant Mehta: “Trump always has great relationships with people accused of sexual assault.”
Q - “The president insists negotiations are underway and he has said Iran has agreed to most of the 15 points. Iran says no negotiations are taking place. How do you explain that discrepancy? Leavitt: I think the American people are smart enough not to take the word of a terrorist regime.”
… Axios: “If Dems win the House in midterms, expect them to target moguls and major corporations for subpoenas. The target list includes monopolies, AI and social media. Dems know the WH will blow off subpoenas, same as during Trump’s first term. But businesses and billionaires have to answer subpoenas. Look for the subpoena list to include:
Law firms that signed deals with Trump.
Media giants that settled.
Donors to the WH ballroom.
Top execs who negotiated to give the govt a stake in their companies.
Profit-enablers of Trump relatives or families of Cabinet members.”
… NYT: “The arrival of 2,500 Marines and another 2,500 sailors is keeping the number of American troops in the Mideast region at over 50,000 as Trump decides on his next step in his month-old war in Iran.”
I expect something pretty significant to happen on the Iran War this week. Either Trump is going to declare victory and get out, we are going to do a widespread high-risk special forces operation in multiple locations to seize uranium, or a ground invasion of islands and/or coastal areas. Trump can’t continue the status quo much longer.
If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.
… Marco Rubio moved the goalposts against on the objectives of the war. He posted this today: “Here are the clear objectives of the operation. You should write them down:
The destruction of Iran’s air force.
The destruction of their navy.
The severe diminishing of their missile launching capability.
The destruction of their factories.
… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) responded: “Here’s the problem. These are all ‘tactical’ objectives. They are not strategy. Because there IS NO strategy. Let me take these ‘objectives’ 1-4 to explain - based upon what I’ve learned in briefings - why we are badly and embarrassingly losing this war:
