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Commonwealth Report, Friday, May 1, 2026 - AM edition

Iran war beats Vietnam for most hated. Trump brands the Times seditious. DOJ unlocks gun shows. Fifty-four MAGA crimes. Nine in ten broke. Plants fight back.

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Trump’s Iran War Now More Hated Than Vietnam?

Donald Trump’s war on Iran is now the most unpopular American conflict in seventy-six years. That’s from a Mirror US analysis of Reuters and Ipsos polling. Sixty-one percent of Americans disapprove of the strikes, up from forty-three percent when the bombs first started falling. That’s worse than Vietnam. Worse than Iraq. Worse than Afghanistan. Trump’s overall approval has cratered to thirty-four percent, and just twenty-two percent approve of his handling of the cost of living. Since February twenty-eighth, Iran’s Health Ministry says three thousand three hundred seventy-five Iranians have been killed by US and Israeli strikes. Thirteen American service members are dead. The Strait of Hormuz is choked off, gas prices are climbing, and Trump has now bombed seven countries in his first year back. America is sick of this war.

Trump Brands the New York Times “Seditious”

President Trump went on a tirade Thursday in the Oval Office, accusing The New York Times of sedition over its coverage of the Iran war. The paper’s editorial board had just published a piece arguing the U.S. military lost its edge after Iran. Trump fumed that the Times and CNN were making it sound like Iran was winning. He called the cable network stupid and said reading the Times is “actually seditious.” Let’s be clear about what sedition actually means. It’s conspiring to overthrow the government by force. The last people convicted of seditious conspiracy were Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who stormed the Capitol on January sixth. Trump pardoned them. When a sitting president calls journalism sedition, he isn’t making a legal point. He’s threatening the free press.

Why Did the DOJ Just Hand Killers a Loophole?

The Justice Department just reopened the gun show loophole. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced more than thirty rule changes Wednesday, repealing a Biden-era regulation that forced firearms dealers at gun shows to run background checks. Now unlicensed sellers can move guns to whoever shows up with cash, no questions asked. No criminal record check. No mental health screening. Nothing. Blanche called it the most comprehensive regulatory reform in ATF history. Gun control groups call it a great day to be a criminal. And get this. The announcement came just days after a man armed with guns and knives allegedly tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ dinner to kill the president. So while political violence threatens the nation’s leaders, the Trump administration is making it easier for dangerous people to arm themselves.

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Did Trump Already Inspire 54 Acts of Violence?

Want to know what happens when a president eggs on political violence? ABC News documented fifty-four criminal cases during Trump’s first term where attackers, killers, or threat-makers explicitly invoked his name in court papers or police reports. Murders. Assaults. Threats against members of Congress. A Coast Guard lieutenant compiling a hit list of Democrats. A mob boss killing tied to QAnon delusions about Trump’s protection. Men beating Black Americans in MAGA hats. A guy threatening to murder Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Fifty-four cases. Zero for Obama. Zero for George H.W. Bush. The pattern was clear then and it’s clearer now. When the most powerful man in America paints opponents as enemies, dangerous men hear permission. Words from the Oval Office carry consequences. Always have. Always will.

Nine in Ten Americans Drowning in an Affordability Crisis

Almost nine in ten Americans now believe this country is in a full-blown affordability crisis. A Talker Research survey of five thousand adults found eighty-seven percent agree the United States is in crisis because life has become unaffordable. Fifty-two percent struggle to pay rent on time every month. Half can’t afford groceries. Seventy-eight percent say everything got more expensive last year, and forty-six percent expect things to get worse this year. Thirty-eight percent have already moved because they couldn’t afford where they lived. Sixty-four percent of Gen Z say they’ll never live where they want. This is what working America feels right now. While Trump does war mongering with seven countries and his cabinet hands tax cuts to billionaires, regular families can’t cover the rent. That’s not a sustainable country. That’s a powder keg.

Plants Punch Back at the Inflammation Killing You

Want to slow down aging without buying a single supplement? Try eating plants. A new University of Warwick study analyzed seven randomized controlled trials covering five hundred forty-one people. The finding? Plant-based diets significantly lower C-reactive protein, the standard blood marker for chronic inflammation. That slow-burning inflammation, what scientists call inflammageing, drives heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. The CRP drop was big enough to push people from high risk into low risk for cardiovascular events. Researchers say the fiber, antioxidants, and unsaturated fats in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes do the work. Lower saturated fat helps too. So while corporations sell you anti-aging creams and processed junk, the medicine grows in the ground. Eat your vegetables. Your future self will thank you.

And that’s the way it is, Today Friday May 1, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.

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