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Iran: Trump is Weighing Two Horrific Options
Three weeks ago Donald Trump threatened to wipe an entire civilization off the map if Iran didn’t surrender. Iran didn’t. Now the White House is weighing two paths forward, and both are nightmares. New reporting from Axios shows Trump’s choices come down to launching a fresh wave of military strikes on Iran, maintaining his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for months on end, or doing both. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas moves through that strait. Closing it has already sent gas prices soaring, driven up fertilizer costs, and threatened a global hunger crisis. Trump bragged this week that Iran’s economy is suffocating under his pressure. He met with oil executives to plot how to keep that choke hold going for months. He could restart the nuclear deal Obama negotiated in 2015 and end this tomorrow. He’s choosing not to. And working people across the planet are going to pay the price.
The National Debt Just Crossed a Line We Haven’t Seen Since World War Two
For the first time since 1946, America’s national debt is bigger than the entire American economy. New numbers out of the Bureau of Economic Analysis put public debt at 31.27 trillion dollars. GDP is 31.22 trillion. That puts the ratio at 100.2 percent. Total gross debt has surged past 39 trillion dollars. That’s roughly 114,000 dollars for every man, woman, and child in this country. The federal government is now spending a dollar and 33 cents for every dollar it collects in taxes. The deficit this year alone runs near 1.9 trillion dollars. While Republicans scream about cutting Medicare and Social Security, Trump’s new budget proposes jacking up defense spending by more than 40 percent. His tax cuts for billionaires are kicking in. The Iran war keeps piling on the bills. Don’t let anyone tell you this is a working class problem. It’s a billionaire bailout, billed to your grandchildren.
Why Are Republicans Pretending the Inflation Report Doesn’t Exist?
Inflation just hit 3.5 percent in March. That’s the highest reading in three years. Even when you strip out food and gas, prices are up 3.2 percent, well above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target. Workers’ incomes only grew six tenths of a percent. So every paycheck buys less. How are congressional Republicans responding? Senator Tim Scott went on Fox Business and claimed the economy is humming on every cylinder. Steve Scalise told CNBC that gas was nearly six dollars a gallon under Biden. The CNBC host had to correct him on the air, twice, because gas peaked under Biden at four ninety three a gallon, and it’s actually higher now than it was two years ago. Tim Burchett blamed oil company greed, then admitted Republicans control Congress, then blamed Congress. The Fed has now signaled no rate cuts for months because of the Iran war. Real wages are sliding. Republicans are gaslighting.
Did the Grassroots Just Take Down Maine’s Establishment Pick?
Maine Governor Janet Mills suspended her Senate campaign this morning. She was Chuck Schumer’s hand picked candidate to challenge Republican Susan Collins, the only GOP senator from a state Trump has lost three times. Mills couldn’t keep up in the polls, and she couldn’t keep up in the bank account. She raised 2.7 million dollars in the first quarter of this year. Her opponent, a 41 year old Marine and Army veteran turned oyster farmer named Graham Platner, raised 4.6 million in the same period. Mills is 78. Platner ran a populist, anti Trump, working class campaign and built it town hall by town hall. Maine is the seat Democrats absolutely have to win to take back the Senate. Schumer’s machine is now cracking in Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota too. The grassroots is rising. The party establishment is finally starting to listen because it has no choice left.
Press Freedom Has Just Collapsed to a 25 Year Low
Reporters Without Borders released its 2026 World Press Freedom Index this morning, and the news is grim. For the first time in the index’s 25 year history, more than half the world’s countries now rank as difficult or very serious for press freedom. The share of humanity living in a country with a genuinely free press has crashed from 20 percent to less than 1 percent. The United States dropped seven more places to 64th, sliding from fairly good to problematic since Trump retook office. The report singles out Trump’s systematic attacks on journalists, the detention and deportation of Salvadoran reporter Mario Guevara, and the deep cuts to U.S. international broadcasting like Voice of America. Russia has 48 journalists locked behind bars. Israel has killed 220 Palestinian journalists in Gaza. When the powerful come for the press, democracy goes next. Every American who values freedom should be wide awake right now.
Fascist Alert. Trump Behaves Like a School Yard Bully to Germany’s Chancellor
Donald Trump spent Thursday morning on Truth Social attacking the chancellor of Germany. Friedrich Merz had told a group of students this week that Trump’s Iran war was ill considered, that the Americans had no strategic plan, and he compared it to the disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq. Trump exploded. He called Merz totally ineffective. He told him to fix his broken country, especially on immigration and energy. He said Germany’s economy is collapsing because of Merz. And he threatened to pull American troops out of Germany altogether. This is a longstanding NATO ally, the largest economy in Europe, and a country whose energy supply is being crushed by Trump’s own Hormuz blockade. Britain’s top economic official just blasted Trump over the same war. Trump is picking fights with our friends and bowing to dictators. The world is watching. Our allies are taking notes. America’s standing in the world is dying right in front of us.
And that’s the way it is, Today Thursday, April 30, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
