Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report. News for the public, not the powerful. Sign up for free at CommonwealthReport.news
Is Trump Dragging Us Into Another Forever War?
The Middle East is on a knife’s edge, and the Strait of Hormuz is the blade. Donald Trump told Fox News that Iranian forces would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if they target American ships running his so-called Project Freedom convoys through the Strait. CENTCOM says it’s destroyed six Iranian small boats and shot down cruise missiles and drones aimed at the United Arab Emirates. Iran’s own president called the IRGC strikes on the UAE “completely irresponsible,” reportedly carried out without his knowledge. Trump’s dismissing falling American support as “fake polls.” Senator Lisa Murkowski wants to introduce an Authorization for Use of Military Force to put a leash on this president. She’d better hurry. We’ve seen this movie before, and it never ends well.
Did Sam Alito Just Lose His Mind on the Bench?
The Supreme Court fast-tracked the killing of Louisiana’s majority-Black congressional district yesterday, and Justice Sam Alito went after Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson with the kind of language you don’t see from this court. Joined by Thomas and Gorsuch, Alito called Jackson’s dissent “baseless and insulting” and “groundless and utterly irresponsible.” Jackson, dissenting alone, said the majority “unshackles itself” from constraints and is throwing Louisiana into chaos. Governor Jeff Landry already suspended the May 16th primaries so Republican lawmakers can redraw the map. The 6-3 ruling guts a key piece of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Black voters in Louisiana are about to lose their seat at the table, and Republicans in Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama are already lining up to do the same thing. This is gerrymandering by Supreme Court fiat, and it’s an emergency for democracy.
Senate Republicans Want a Billion Bucks for Grampy’s Ballroom?
Late Monday night, Chuck Grassley and Senate Republicans dropped a $72 billion spending package, and tucked inside is a $1 billion line item for “security adjustments” tied to Trump’s gold-plated White House ballroom. Remember when the White House promised this thing wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime? Yeah, never mind. They’re running this through reconciliation so they only need 51 votes. Meanwhile, Iowans are going hungry, jobless, and uninsured under Grassley’s watch. Senator Brian Schatz pointed out the one silver lining. Now every senator gets an up-or-down vote on funding Trump’s vanity project. Working Americans pick between groceries and insulin. Trump gets a billion-dollar dance floor. That’s the deal Republicans are offering this country.
Is Larry Kudlow and Fox Allergic to the Constitution?
Federal Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui apologized in court yesterday to Cole Allen, the man accused of trying to assassinate Trump at the Correspondents’ Dinner. Why? Because Allen, a man with no prior criminal record presumed innocent under our laws, had been thrown into 24-hour solitary, padded room, no windows, five-point restraints, denied access to his lawyers and even a Bible. Faruqui called it tantamount to solitary confinement, noted he’d never seen a January 6th defendant placed in five-point restraints, and reminded everyone that pretrial detention isn’t punishment. Then Fox’s Larry Kudlow lost it on air, hollering “We’re apologizing to this guy?” Yes, Larry. Because that’s how the Constitution works. Even Fox’s own legal analyst Jonathan Turley had to remind him that prisoners do, in fact, have rights. The Bill of Rights doesn’t have an asterisk for people you don’t like.
Is Florida’s New Map the Worst Gerrymander in History?
Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s new congressional map yesterday, and within two hours, voters and the Equal Ground Education Fund hauled him into court. The lawsuit calls it “one of the most extreme gerrymanders in American history.” And here’s the kicker. DeSantis’s own map drawer, Jason Poreda, admitted in a hearing he used partisan data to draw the lines. That’s a flat-out violation of Florida’s 2010 Fair Districts Amendment, which 63% of Florida voters approved. Under the new map, Republicans could win 86% of seats with 55% of the vote. Tampa gets sliced into three districts, Orlando into five. This is Trump’s national strategy. Steal the midterms with a ruler and a Sharpie, because they can’t win them fair.
Is Trump’s DOJ Now Big Oil’s Personal Law Firm?
Trump’s Justice Department sued the State of Minnesota yesterday in a desperate bid to kill Attorney General Keith Ellison’s six-year-old climate fraud case against Exxon, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute. Minnesota’s case accuses Big Oil of running a campaign of deception about climate change while sticking taxpayers with the bill. ExxonMobil alone raked in roughly $775 billion during the lying years. Federal judges have already tossed similar Trump lawsuits against Michigan and Hawaii, and the DOJ filed copycat suits against New York and Vermont this week. Ellison says the suit is frivolous and meritless, and he’s moving to dismiss it. When the Justice Department of the United States becomes the in-house counsel for the world’s biggest polluters, you know exactly who’s running this country. And it isn’t us.
And that’s the way it is, Today Tuesday, May 5, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
