Friends,

It’s not too early to engage in one of America’s greatest pastimes, which is handicapping the upcoming presidential election.

Not too early because in each of the last five presidential elections, the people who finally emerged as the party’s candidate in the general election began running for the nomination three years before. Early in a campaign cycle, the candidates with high name recognition usually lead the polls. That lead often holds, unless others emerge to take center stage.

Here, according to early polls and political observers, are the people most likely to be the Democratic nominee — as of April 21, 2028 (no candidate has yet officially announced their candidacy).

Who do you think should be the Democrats’ candidate?

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Friends,

Sorry to impinge on your email for a third time today, but I want to make sure you know that Lori Chavez-DeRemer has resigned as secretary of labor [translated: she was told to resign by the White House], after facing investigations by the department’s inspector general into multiple allegations of misconduct.

She’s alleged to have been drinking during the workday from a “stash” of alcohol in her office, arranging official trips for herself that were extended vacations, taking subordinates to an Oregon strip club while on one such trip, showing no interest in the work of the department, and having an affair with a member of her security team.

Sources have described Chavez-DeRemer as the “boss from hell,” saying she demanded staffers run personal errands for her or perform other menial tasks unrelated to their government jobs. More than two dozen department employees from across the political spectrum described in interviews with The New York Times a toxic workplace characterized by an absentee secretary, hostile aides, and a deeply demoralized staff.

In other words, Chavez-DeRemer was turning the great department I once headed and loved into shit. And I hold Trump responsible because he appointed her.

As I shared with you a few weeks ago, I loved the Department of Labor from the moment I entered the Frances Perkins Building on Constitution Avenue as secretary of labor in January 1992. I loved its mission: to protect and raise the standard of living of working Americans.

I loved its history. The first secretary of labor, Frances Perkins — appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 — was also America’s first female Cabinet secretary. She was the guiding light behind the creation of Social Security, the 40-hour workweek, the National Labor Relations Act, and much more.

I hung the painting of Frances Perkins behind my desk in my huge second-floor office. Whenever I felt discouraged, I looked at her, and she bucked me up. (Although I’m Jewish, I called her Saint Frances.)

I admired the Department of Labor’s career staff, who were dedicated to helping American workers. I was deeply impressed by the assistant secretaries, the deputy secretary, the chief of staff, and other appointees with whom I toiled, often six or seven days a week from early morning to late at night.

Never before or since have I had the privilege of working with such talented people who cared so much about what they were accomplishing for the American people, and who made such a positive impact on so many lives.

We raised the minimum wage for the first time in many years, even under a Republican-controlled Congress. We implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act. We fought against sweatshops. We took on big corporations that were cheating their employees. We kept workers safe. We … well, I could go on and on. (And I have, in my book Locked in the Cabinet, which you can also find here, but please don’t order from here.)

But like so much else Trump has done, he’s turned what was once a great department into a fucking mess. And it frankly breaks my heart.

It’s what you get when you have a president and White House staff who don’t give a rat’s ass about whom they appoint to positions of power except for their loyalty to Trump and how they look on television.

Trump and his White House assistants don’t mind if his appointees wreck our government because they don’t care about government. Hell, they came to government to wreck it. If the public loses confidence in, say, the Department of Labor, that’s perfectly fine. If Congress slashes its funding, so much the better.

What they do mind is if a Cabinet member makes Trump look bad, which is why Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi are now history — along with Chavez-DeRemer.

It infuriates me, because I’ve seen government work for the people. I’ve witnessed public servants who care deeply and bust their asses in service to this country. I know how important government can be if it’s doing the job it should be doing.

I loved the Department of Labor because it has improved the lives of millions of Americans. I worked like hell as secretary of labor because I believed in what we were doing. That it’s been treated like crap is an insult to generations of hardworking DOL employees, to American workers, to America.

The least we can all do is flip Congress in November, so senators and representatives who care about this country can oversee the departments of the government and try to remedy some of the wreckage that Trump and his appointees have wreaked on America.

In the meantime, goodbye and good riddance to Madam Secretary Chavez-DeRemer.

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Friends,

Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s admission yesterday that it “could be next year” before gas prices return to below $3 a gallon is causing trauma in Republican circles because “next year” is after the November 3 midterm elections.

Initially Trump said he could end the war “in two or three days.” It then became “four to five weeks.” He then stretched it to six. His so-called “cease-fire” ends Wednesday.

We’re now in the eighth week of what Trump called his “little excursion” into Iran (he hasn’t called it a “war” because under the Constitution he needs Congress’s okay to go to war), with no end in sight, and oil prices are again on the rise.

Over the weekend — only hours after Trump said the Strait of Hormuz had been “reopened” — Iran said it had closed the strait.

Yesterday, Trump claimed that his blockade would quickly bring Iran to its knees:

“Iran recently announced that they were closing the Strait, which is strange, because our BLOCKADE has already closed it. They’re helping us without knowing, and they are the ones that lose with the closed passage, $500 Million Dollars a day! The United States loses nothing. … We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years. IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

But Trump’s blockade isn’t working as Trump intended.

Last night, the U.S. Navy opened fire on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship to disable its engines after it apparently refused to stop despite repeated warnings.

Following the incident, oil prices soared higher, and experts predict it will make ships even less likely to brave the strait.

Last week’s Quinnipiac poll shows that almost two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) blame Trump for the spike in gas prices, including 73 percent of independent voters.

This is important. The economic costs of this war to average Americans are understood by average Americans to be the direct result of Trump’s personal decision. Trump went into this war without consulting anyone or getting anyone else on board — not Congress, not America’s allies, not NATO or the United Nations — and didn’t even explain to America why he was taking the nation into war. So, it is indubitably his own war.

If Trump believes he’s holding all the cards, he has no idea whom he’s dealing with.

The new regime in Iran believes it has more leverage than Trump because (1) it’s able to stop traffic in the strait as easily as can the U.S., and (2) it’s better able than Trump and the U.S. to wage a long war of attrition. It knows Trump is under increasing political pressure in the U.S. to bring down gas prices and is facing midterm elections in less than seven months — but all it needs to do in the meantime is survive.

The Iranian regime has also likely concluded that it hasn’t yet inflicted sufficient pain on Trump (and American consumers) to prevent America from attacking it again, so it will hold out for ironclad guarantees from the United States that the U.S. won’t resume bombing — guarantees Trump not only refuses to grant, but continues to threaten Iran every time he opens his mouth or posts another screed.

This is a war without end.

Meanwhile, today marks the opening of the government’s new tariff refund portal, through which businesses can claim reimbursements for the import taxes — that is, tariffs — they’ve paid, which were struck down by the Supreme Court.

The government — that is, we taxpayers who fund the government — owes tens of thousands of importers a total of up to $175 billion in refunds for the tariffs imposed by Trump last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

But the people who have actually borne much of the cost of these import taxes — American consumers — won’t see a penny of refund. The $175 billion will just contribute to the record profits of American corporations.

If corporations worried that competitors might pass these refunds on to their consumers in the form of lower prices, presumably all corporations would do the same. But corporate power is so concentrated now — monopolies and oligopolies now dominate most industries — that corporations have no such worry.

So you and I and other taxpayers are in effect refunding American corporations for the import taxes they paid, although we paid for most of them in the form of higher prices — which they won’t now lower because they have monopoly power to keep them high.

Which means — like Trump’s war and its effect on oil prices — Trump’s tariffs will continue to require us to pay more.

Put the two together, and you see why American consumers are f*cked.

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Friends,

In light of Trump’s increasingly cruel and bonkers behavior — toward Iran, toward the pope, his posts, his bottomless vengeance, his continuing ICE raids, his continuing use of the Justice Department to target his enemies, his shameless corruption — many of you want to know: “What can I do now?” Here are 10 recommendations, in rough order of importance.

1. Protect the decent and hardworking members of your communities who are most vulnerable.

This is an urgent moral call to action. As Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol continue their roundups and deportations, many of our neighbors and friends are endangered. They and their families are understandably frightened.

Trump’s executive orders allow ICE to arrest undocumented immigrants at or near schools, places of worship, health care sites, shelters, and relief centers — thereby deterring them from sending their kids to school or getting help they need.

If you trust your mayor or city manager, check in with their offices to see what they are doing to protect vulnerable families in your community. Join others in voluntary efforts to keep ICE away from hospitals, schools, and shelters. And to alert all members of your community when ICE is present.

Organize and mobilize your community to support it as a sanctuary city and to support your state as a sanctuary state. Trump’s Justice Department is investigating cities and states that go against federal immigration orders. Your voice and organizing can be helpful in fighting back.

You might also consider sponsoring a refugee family.

If you haven’t done so, I recommend you order these red cards from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and make them available in and around your community: Red Cards | Tarjetas Rojas | Immigrant Legal Resource Center | ILRC. You might also find these of use: Immigration Preparedness Toolkit | Immigrant Legal Resource Center | ILRC.

2. Protect them against bigotry and hate — LGBTQ+, immigrants, “hyphenated” Americans, and people of color. Trump continues to try to make life far more difficult for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other people through executive orders, changes in laws, alterations in civil rights laws, or changes in how such laws are enforced. He’s also fueling bigotry against immigrants, especially Muslims and immigrants from Iran, and against people of color.

I urge you to work with others in being vigilant against prejudice and bigotry, wherever it might break out. When you see or hear it, call it out. Join with others to stop it. Get your churches and synagogues involved. If you trust your local city officials, get them involved. If you trust your local police, alert them as well.

3. Help protect officials in your community or state whom Trump and his administration are targeting for vengeance. Some may be low-level officials, such as election workers. If they don’t have the means to legally defend themselves, you might help them or consider a GoFundMe campaign. If you hear of anyone seeking to harm or intimidate them, immediately alert local law-enforcement officials.

4. Organize and mobilize for the midterms. It’s not too early to plan to get out the vote on or before November 3 — ensuring that people who are eligible to vote are registered, that they know when and how to vote, that they know how to vote by mail or are otherwise able to get to polling places. Knock on doors, raise money for progressive candidates, and mobilize your friends, neighbors, colleagues and acquaintances. Join your local Indivisible organization (find the nearest group here).

If you hear of any plans for ICE or Border Patrol agents to be deployed at voting places, contact the ACLU (you can locate the nearest office by visiting aclu.org/affiliates). If you hear or know of any plans by Republican election officials to meddle in the upcoming elections, notify the League of Women Voters, here, or local representatives of the Democratic Party.

5. Participate in or organize boycotts of companies that are enabling the Trump regime — including Elon Musk’s X and Tesla, Amazon, Meta (Facebook), and any companies that advertise on X or on Fox News. Never underestimate the effectiveness of consumer boycotts. Corporations invest heavily in their brand names and the goodwill associated with them. Loud, boisterous, attention-getting boycotts can harm brand names and reduce the prices of corporations’ shares of stock.

6. To the extent you are able, fund groups that are litigating against Trump. Much of the action stopping Trump and his regime is occurring in the federal courts. The groups initiating litigation that I know and trust include the American Civil Liberties Union, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, Environmental Defense Fund, Southern Poverty Law Center, Center for Biological Diversity, Democracy Forward, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Common Cause. All could use your help and encouragement.

7. Spread the truth. Get news through reliable sources, and spread it. If you hear anyone spreading lies and Trump propaganda, including local media, contradict them with facts and their sources. Urge friends, relatives, and acquaintances to avoid Trump propaganda outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, X, and, increasingly, Facebook and Instagram. They are filled with hateful bigotry and toxic and dangerous lies. For some people, these propaganda sources can also be addictive; help the people you know wean themselves off them.

Here are some of the sources I currently rely on for the truth: Democracy Now, Business Insider, The New Yorker, The American Prospect, The Atlantic, Americans for Tax Fairness, Economic Policy Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Guardian, ProPublica, Labor Notes, The Lever, Popular Information, Heather Cox Richardson, and, of course, this Substack.

8. Push for progressive measures in your community and state. Local and state governments retain significant power. Join groups that are moving your city or state forward, in contrast to regressive moves at the federal level. Lobby, instigate, organize, and fundraise for progressive legislators. Support progressive leaders.

9. Call your members of Congress. Tell them to oppose Trump and support progressive initiatives. And keep calling! Your calls count. (Staffers do keep count of how many constituents are for or against various issues.) The main U.S. Capitol switchboard phone number is (202) 224-3121. The operator can connect you directly to the office of your Senator or Representative. To find your specific representative, you can also look up their contact information on www.house.gov or www.senate.gov.

10. Keep the faith. Do not give up on America. This is a long and difficult slog but we have no choice. The fight we’re in will determine the future of this nation and much of the world. I understand if you’re tired and sometimes discouraged, but we can and must win.

Trump won the popular vote in 2024 by only 1.5 points, and 35 percent of eligible voters didn’t even vote. By any historic measure, this was a squeaker. In the House of Representatives, the Republicans’ lead is the smallest since the Great Depression. In the Senate, Republicans lost half of 2024’s competitive Senate races, including in four states Trump won. Since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, Democrats have won all special elections or dramatically over-performed in them.

America has deep problems, to be sure. Which is why we can’t give up on it — or give up the fights for social justice, equal political rights, equal opportunity, and the rule of law. The forces of Trumpian repression and neofascism would like nothing better than for us to give up. Then they’d win it all. We cannot allow them to.

We will never give up.

***

Beyond these, please be sure to find room in your life for joy, fun, and laughter. Do not let Trump and his darkness take you over. Just as it’s important not to give up the fight, it’s critically important to take care of yourself. If you obsess about Trump and fall down the rabbit hole of outrage, worry, and anxiety, you won’t be able to keep fighting.

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Friends,

Please submit your caption in the Comments section and, as before, please use the Comments section only for captions.

Winners will be announced next Sunday. For consideration, please post your caption by Monday at 9 pm PT, 12 midnight ET.

Leave a comment

Last week’s winner:

“The only strait Trump should be in is a straitjacket.”

(Congratulations, Steven Horowitz.)

Runners-up:

“Whenever he says he wins, we all lose!”

(Congratulations, Adam Laurie.)

“His endorsement of Orbán was his latest win. For Hungary.”

(Congratulations, Carol Nylen.)

“He’s experiencing Hormuz Derangement Syndrome.”

(Congratulations, Jefryclair.)

“He’s drowning in his own egomania!”

(Congratulations, Laurence Hoffmann.)

“It ain’t over ‘til the fat boy sinks.”

(Congratulations, Steven Ugoretrz.)

“And away goes trouble down the drain!”

(Congratulations, Susan S.)

“He’s in a Dire Strait!”

(Congratulations, Susan Ryan.)

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Friends,

You can almost feel the change in the air we breathe.

It’s not just that Dems are winning special elections by wide margins (and even where they’re not, they’re “overperforming” in ruby-red areas by an average of 16 points).

Nor just that Hungary’s Viktor Orbán was overwhelmingly defeated after 16 years of authoritarian rule, with almost 80 percent of eligible voters turning out. (The victor, Peter Magyar, overcame Orbán’s rigged system by focusing on Orbán’s corruption and linking it to the economic difficulties facing average Hungarians.)

Or that Trump posted an image of himself as Jesus, revealing his God complex and causing even evangelical Christians in his MAGA base to question his religiosity and mental stability.

Or that Trump and Vance were dumb enough to pick a fight with Pope Leo, who has used it to explain his (and, for Catholics, Jesus’s) objections to war and to tyrants everywhere.

Or that Trump’s major ally in Europe (and the only European leader to attend his inauguration), Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Malone, described Trump’s attack on the pope as “unacceptable” (Trump responded by attacking her for “lacking courage” in refusing to join his war on Iran).

Or that Trump threatened to wipe out Iranian civilization — prompting even Tucker Carlson to call Trump’s threat “vile on every level,” Candace Owens to demand that the 25th Amendment be invoked to remove him from office, conspiracist Alex Jones to accuse Trump of threatening “genocide,” and Megyn Kelly to concede that Trump’s coalition is “completely fractured and in smithereens.”

Or that Trump’s war has been such an abominable failure that it’s demonstrated his dangerous ignorance and diminishing mental capacity.

It’s all these, together.

Add in Trump’s legal failures to prosecute his political enemies, to target universities and law firms, to impose his tariffs, and to mount defamation lawsuits — and you understand why the air around us is beginning to feel different.

I hesitate to say we’ve reached a turning point in this horrific time. But something profound seems to be changing.

America and the world’s democracies are beginning to win this overriding fight — against the forces of authoritarianism, corruption, bigotry, ignorance, lies, greed, and violence.

We are starting to win because Trump and the forces he’s unleashed are so deeply repulsive to the consciences of most Americans and much of the rest of humanity.

The more Trump and these forces reveal themselves for what they are, the more that decent people — whether they call themselves Republican or Democrat, conservative or progressive, right or left, American or non-American — are recoiling from them.

We have not yet prevailed, of course. But, my friends, we are making progress. And we will prevail.

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Friends,

I’ve long assumed that Samuel Alito was the worst.

Alito — who authored the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the case that ended constitutional abortion rights by merely asserting that the high court’s prior opinion in Roe v. Wade (1973) was wrongly decided; who accepted a 2008 luxury fishing trip to Alaska, including private jet travel, from hedge fund billionaire and GOP donor Paul Singer yet failed to disclose it on Alito’s financial forms and didn’t even recuse himself from decisions involving Singer’s subsequent business before the Supreme Court; who hoisted an inverted American flag outside his Virginia home shortly after the January 6 Capitol riot, a symbol of support for Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election — has the moral and intellectual stature of a poisonous toad.

But I’ve come to revise my view of the court’s worst Justice.

Clarence Thomas is 77 years old. He has now served on the Supreme Court for over 34 years, making him the longest-serving member of the court. He is a bitter, angry, severe hard-right, intellectually dishonest ideologue. After reading his latest thoughts on America, I’ve concluded Thomas is even worse than Alito.

Last Wednesday, Thomas gave a rare public address at the University of Texas in Austin that began as a banal tribute to the Declaration of Independence before degenerating into a misleading screed against progressivism.

“At the beginning of the 20th century, a new set of first principles of government was introduced into the American mainstream,” Thomas intoned. “The proponents of this new set of first principles, most prominently among them the 28th president, Woodrow Wilson, called it progressivism.”

Thomas went on to blame progressives for the worst crimes of the 20^th century, insisting that “Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao” were all “intertwined with the rise of progressivism,” as was “racial segregation,” “eugenics,” and other evils.

This is pure rubbish.

In reality, America’s Progressive era emerged at the start of the 20th century from the corruption and excesses of America’s first Gilded Age (we’re now in the second, if you hadn’t noticed) — its record inequalities of income and wealth, its “robber barons” who monopolized industries and handed out sacks of money to pliant legislators, its dangerous factories and unsafe working conditions, its violent attacks on workers who tried to form unions, its corporate control over all facets of government, its widespread poverty and disease, and its corrupt party machines.

In many ways, the Progressive Era — whose most prominent leader was Republican president Theodore Roosevelt, not Woodrow Wilson, by the way — saved capitalism from its own excesses by instituting a progressive income tax, an estate tax, pure food and drug laws, and America’s first laws against corporate influence in politics.

Then, under Teddy Roosevelt’s fifth cousin (Franklin D.), came Social Security, the 40-hour workweek (with time-and-a-half for overtime), the right to form unions, and laws and regulations that limited Wall Street’s ability to gamble with other people’s money.

Clarence Thomas got it exactly backward. Had we not had the Progressive Era and its reforms extending through the 1930s, America might well have succumbed to fascism — as did Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini, or to communist fascism, as did Russia under Stalin. Progressive and New Deal reforms acted as bulwarks against the rise of fascism in America.

In fact, it’s been the demise of such reforms since Ronald Reagan that have opened the way to Trumpian neofascism.

Over a third of American workers in the private sector were unionized in the 1950s, giving them bargaining leverage to get higher wages and better working conditions. Now, fewer than 6 percent are unionized, which has contributed to the flattening of wages, a contracting middle class, inequalities of income and wealth rivaling the first Gilded Age, and an angry and suspicious working class that’s become easy prey for demagogues.

Wall Street has been deregulated — allowing it to go on gambling sprees such as the one that produced the financial crisis of 2008, which claimed millions of working peoples’ homes, savings, and jobs.

America’s social safety nets have become so frayed that almost a fifth of the nation’s children are now in poverty. Yet Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump have slashed taxes on the rich and on big corporations and have allowed giant corporations to merge into giant monopolies rivaling the trusts of the first Gilded Age. And Trump has ushered in an era of corruption the likes of which America hasn’t seen since that earlier disgraceful era.

Thomas claims that “the century of progressivism did not go well.” Baloney. It helped America create the largest middle class the world had ever seen, while also extending prosperity to millions of Black and brown people.

The tragedy is that America turned its back on progressivism and on social progress in part because of the Supreme Court and Justice Clarence Thomas.

Flashback: I was in law school in 1973 when the Supreme Court decided Roe, protecting a pregnant person’s right to privacy under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Clarence Thomas was in my law school class at the time, as were Hillary Rodham (later Hillary Clinton) and Bill Clinton.

The professors used the “Socratic method” — asking hard questions about the cases they were discussing and waiting for students to raise their hands in response, and then criticizing the responses. It was a hair-raising but effective way to learn the law.

One of the principles guiding those discussions is called stare decisis — Latin for “to stand by things decided.” It’s the doctrine of judicial precedent. If a court has already ruled on an issue (say, on reproductive rights), future courts should decide similar cases the same way. Supreme Courts can change their minds and rule differently than they did before, but they need good reasons to do so, and it helps if their opinion is unanimous or nearly so. Otherwise, their rulings appear (and are) arbitrary — even, shall we say, partisan.

In those classroom discussions almost 50 years ago, Hillary’s hand was always first in the air. When she was called upon, she gave perfect answers — whole paragraphs, precisely phrased. She distinguished one case from another, using precedents and stare decisis to guide her thinking. I was awed.

My hand was in the air about half the time, and when called on, my answers were meh.

Clarence’s hand was never in the air. I don’t recall him saying anything, ever.

Bill was never in class.

Only one of us now sits on the Supreme Court. And he has shown no respect for stare decisis.

Nor has he respected judicial ethics.

A federal law — 28 U.S. Code § 455 — requires that “any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Thomas’s wife, Ginni, actively strategized with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on overturning the election results. Between Election Day 2020 and the days following the January 6 attack on the Capitol, she exchanged 29 text messages with Meadows, in which she spread false theories about the election, urged Meadows to overturn the election results, and called for specific actions from the White House to help overturn the election. She also served as one of nine board members of a group that helped lead the “Stop the Steal” movement and called for the punishment of House Republicans who participated in the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack.

Yet Clarence Thomas has repeatedly participated in cases that have come to the high court directly or indirectly involving the 2020 election results, refusing to disqualify himself.

In addition, he failed to disclose his wife’s income from her work at the Heritage Foundation, in violation of the Ethics in Government Act.

Finally, there’s his speech last week in Austin. How can Americans be expected to believe in the impartiality of the Supreme Court in general and Clarence Thomas in particular when he condemns an entire philosophy of government — progressivism — and all the people who continue to call themselves progressives, in effect labeling them neofascists?

At the start of his speech last week in Austin, Clarence Thomas noted that “my wife Virginia and I have many wonderful friends and acquaintances here, and it is so special to have our dear friends Harlan and Kathy Crow join us today.”

He was, of course, referring to the Republican mega-donor who has spent the last 20 years lavishing Thomas with personal gifts, luxury yacht trips, fancy vacations, and funding for Ginni Thomas’s political organization.

Small wonder that Clarence Thomas prefers the Gilded Age over the Progressive Era. He’s the living embodiment of the Gilded Age’s public-be-damned excesses.

Hence, he’s my nominee for the worst justice in modern Supreme Court history.

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Today Heather and I are joined by our colleague Michael, who helps us dissect a wild week. What’s the truth about the Strait of Hormuz? Why did Trump and Vance pick a fight with Pope Leo? Who or what’s behind the booming stock market?

We grapple with these and much more on today’s Klatch. Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, and join in the conversation.

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Friends,

I hear from many of you every day. I read your comments on this substack. Some of you email me or Inequality Media. I run into you during my travels.

You tell me you can’t recall a worse time. You point to the war in Iran, ICE in our towns and cities, Trump’s vengeful ravings against his critics (including the pope), his disrespect for democracy, his promotion of fossil fuels, his corruption.

The list of horribles goes on and on.

Despite this (or perhaps because of it), some of you tell me you’re more fired up than ever. Others tell me you’re barely hanging on. Others of you are depressed and fighting hopelessness. Some say you’re simply exhausted.

The purpose of today’s check-in is to get a sense of how you’re honestly doing. However you feel, I promise you that you’re not alone.

So please choose the category that best expresses your true sentiments right now:

Read more

Friends,

You’ve got to hand it to Pope Leo, who used a speech today in Cameroon to express “woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”

I can’t imagine who Leo was talking about, can you?

In case there was any doubt, the pope added: “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.”

The tyrant in the Oval Office has been trying to portray his war in Iran as a “just war” backed by the will of God and Jesus Christ. Pope Leo disagrees. Jesus, he says, “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s self-described secretary of war, has promised to give “no quarter” to the “barbaric savages” of the Iranian regime, and called on the American people to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

At a worship service at the Pentagon on March 25, Hegseth asked God for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

Hegseth’s words apparently provoked Pope Leo to preach on Palm Sunday that God ignores the prayers of those whose “hands are full of blood” from making war.

This past Sunday, Trump attacked the pope on social media as “terrible on foreign policy” and suggested that Trump himself was the reason Leo was selected to be pope in the first place.

On Tuesday, JD Vance said the pope should be more “careful when he talks about matters of theology.”

Hello? What in heaven’s name is the vice president to the least-careful-of-what-he-says president doing telling the pope to be more careful of how he interprets Catholic theology?

I’m not Catholic, but I always thought the pope’s words about matters theological were considered by Catholics to be as close to God’s own words as humans can get.

Today in Cameroon, the pope also said: “The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild. They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation.”

At this rate, Trump is going to demand the Justice Department open a criminal investigation of the pope. Trump will get hold of all the bills for restoring the Sistine Chapel and claim the pope misappropriated funds. He’ll have Jeanine Pirro seek an injunction against the pope to block any further papal statements. He’ll threaten that unless the pope stops criticizing him, he’ll get God to reconvene the College of Cardinals and fire Leo.

So far, though, Pope Leo isn’t backing down.

Praise the Lord.

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Friends,

It’s a catastrophe on the way to becoming a cataclysm.

Trump is rapidly going stark-raving mad. He’s a clear and present danger to the United States and the world.

Yesterday he lashed out at The New York Times after its chief White House correspondent questioned his mental health and stability and pointed to his “erratic behavior and extreme comments.”

“HAVE THEY NO SHAME? HAVE THEY NO SENSE OF DECENCY?” Trump posted in CAPITAL LETTERS about the Times, inadvertently echoing the famous words of Joseph Welch when standing up to Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954. Trump went on to take issue with the Times’s coverage of his war in Iran rather than his mental state, as if to prove the Times’s point.

He keeps saying he’s “won” the war with Iran, although he’s never said what “winning” means. At one moment his goal is to free Iran’s people. At another, it’s to end Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon. At another, to destroy Iran’s missiles. At another, to achieve “regime change.” At another, to open the Strait of Hormuz (which was open before Trump started his war). At another, he says he’ll know the U.S. military operation in Iran is over when he feels it "[in] my bones.”

He can’t even stay on the same subject for more than a few minutes. In the middle of a high-level Cabinet meeting about the war, he spends five minutes talking about his preference for Sharpie pens. He interrupts another Iran war update to praise the White House drapes.

He threatens that if Iran doesn’t reopen the strait, “a whole civilization will die tonight.” Then he says America doesn’t need the strait reopened. Then he says: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

He calls the Pope “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” because the Pope wants peace. He posts an AI-generated picture of himself as Jesus, then says he was only depicting himself as a physician.

He won’t give up on his illegal and dangerous (for the economy) criminal investigation of Fed Chief Jerome Powell, claiming it’s not just about Powell’s renovations at the Fed but also a “probe on incompetence,” adding he’ll fire Powell if he doesn’t resign after his term as chair ends.

He claims that the United States “needs” Greenland. He confuses Greenland with Iceland. He says whales are being killed by windmills. He claims that he won all 50 states in 2020. That he defeated Barack Obama in 2016. He says the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed. He goes on an eight-minute ramble about poisonous snakes in Peru. He boasts of ending a fictional war between Cambodia and Armenia.

After Robert Mueller’s death, he says, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.” He blames the murders of Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle on “the anger [Rob Reiner] caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” After Joe Biden is diagnosed with an aggressive form of Stage 4 prostate cancer, Trump says, “I’m surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time ago because to get to Stage 9, that’s a long time” (there is no Stage 9 cancer).

He’s been losing it for a while now, but in the last few months it’s become far worse.

In 2017, 27 psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals concluded in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump that Trump’s mental condition posed a “clear and present danger” to the nation.

In 2021, members of Trump’s own Cabinet — horrified by the January 6, 2021, violence at the Capitol and Trump’s lack of urgency in stopping it — discussed whether to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office due to mental incompetence.

During his 2024 campaign, he attacked Kamala Harris and then went into the stratosphere of his bonkers mind:

“She destroyed the city of San Francisco, it’s – and I own a big building there – it’s no – I shouldn’t talk about this, but that’s OK, I don’t give a damn because this is what I’m doing. I should say it’s the finest city in the world – sell and get the hell out of there, right? But I can’t do that. I don’t care, you know? I lost billions of dollars, billions of dollars. You know, somebody said, ‘What do you think you lost?’ I said, ‘Probably two, three billion. That’s OK, I don’t care.’ They say, ‘You think you’d do it again?’ And that’s the least of it. Nobody. They always say, I don’t know if you know. Lincoln was horribly treated. Uh, Jefferson was pretty horribly. Andrew Jackson, they say, was the worst of all, that he was treated worse than any other president. I said, ‘Do that study again, because I think there’s nobody close to Trump.’ I even got shot! And who the hell knows where that came from, right?”

It’s no longer possible to overlook his conspiracy-obsessed paranoia, his uncontrolled rage, his emotional volatility, his delusional claims, his vengeful rantings, his foul-mouthed posturing, his increasing detachment from reality.

Yet his Cabinet members and aides keep their heads down. Republican members of Congress pretend not to notice. His billionaire supporters dare not speak of his rapid decline. The media tries to “sanewash” his growing incoherence.

But some voices on the right — people who have long been supporters of Trump — have had enough.

Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene says Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilization is “not tough rhetoric, it’s insanity.” Far-right podcaster Candace Owens calls him “a genocidal lunatic.” Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones says Trump “does babble and sounds like the brain’s not doing too hot.” A White House lawyer in Trump’s first term, Ty Cobb, says Trump is “clearly insane.” Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham says “he’s clearly not well.”

The public is catching on. Fully 61 percent of Americans think he’s become more erratic with age, while just 45 percent say he is “mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges” (down from 54 percent in 2023).

For the good of the nation and the world, it’s time we face the reality: The most powerful man in the world does not have the mental capacity to do the job. Donald Trump — who has a family history of dementia — is increasingly unhinged.

We are all endangered. What happens if, in a demented rage, he hurls a nuclear bomb? Who is watching the “football” with the nuclear codes? Who’s ready to stop him to save the world?

Don’t wait. Impeach him now.

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Friends,

Today — Tax Day — it’s important to remind ourselves that a record share of the nation’s wealth is in the hands of the nation’s billionaires, who are also paying a lower tax rate than the average American.

How do the ultra-wealthy justify their wealth and their low tax rates? By using three myths — all of which are utter rubbish.

The first is trickle-down economics.

Billionaires (and their apologists) claim that their wealth trickles down to everyone else as they invest it and create jobs.

Rubbish. For more than 40 years, as wealth at the top has soared, almost nothing has trickled down. Adjusted for inflation, the median wage today is barely higher than it was four decades ago.

Trump provided a giant tax cut to the wealthiest Americans, promising it would generate $4,000 in increased income for everyone else. Did you receive it?

In reality, the super-wealthy don’t create jobs or raise wages. Jobs are created when average working people earn enough money to buy all the goods and services they produce, pushing companies to hire more people and pay them higher wages.

The second myth is the “free market.”

The ultra-rich claim they’re being rewarded by the impersonal market for creating and doing what people are willing to pay them for.

The wages of other Americans have stagnated, they say, because most Americans are worth less in the market now that new technologies and globalization have made their jobs redundant.

Baloney. Even if they’re being rewarded, there’s no reason why the “free market” would reward vast multiples of what the rich were rewarded with decades ago.

The market can induce great feats of invention and entrepreneurship with lures of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars — not billions.

As to the rest of us succumbing to labor-replacing globalization and labor-saving technologies, no other advanced nation has nearly the degree of inequality found in the United States, yet all these nations have been exposed to the same forces of globalization and technological change.

In reality, the ultra-wealthy have rigged the so-called “free market” in the U.S. for their own benefit. Billionaires’ campaign contributions have soared from a relatively modest $31 million in the 2010 elections to $1.2 billion in the 2024 presidential cycle — a nearly 40-fold increase.

What have they gotten for their money? Tax cuts, freedom to bash unions and monopolize markets, and government bailouts. Their pockets have been further lined by privatization and deregulation.

The third myth is that they’re superior human beings.

They portray themselves as “self-made” rugged individuals who “did it on their own” and therefore deserve their billions.

Bupkis. Six of the 10 wealthiest Americans alive today are heirs to fortunes passed on to them by wealthy ancestors.

Others had the advantages that come with wealthy parents.

Jeff Bezos’s garage-based start was funded by a quarter-million-dollar investment from his parents. Bill Gates’s mother used her business connections to help land a software deal with IBM that made Microsoft. Elon Musk came from a family that reportedly owned shares of an emerald mine in southern Africa.

Don’t fall for these three myths.

Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.

The so-called free market has been distorted by huge campaign contributions from the ultra-rich.

Don’t lionize the ultra-rich as superior “self-made” human beings who deserve their billions. They were lucky and had connections.

In reality, there is no justification for today’s extraordinary concentration of wealth at the very top. It’s distorting our politics, rigging our markets, and granting unprecedented power to a handful of people.

The last time America faced anything comparable was at the start of the 20th century.

In 1910, former president Theodore Roosevelt warned that “a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power” could destroy American democracy.

Roosevelt’s answer was to tax wealth. The estate tax was enacted in 1916 and the capital gains tax in 1922.

Since that time, both have eroded. As the rich have accumulated greater wealth, they have also amassed more political power — and have used that political power to reduce their taxes.

Teddy Roosevelt understood something about the American economy and the ultra-rich that has now reemerged, even more extreme and more dangerous. We must understand it, too — and act.

For our economy and democracy, we must tax the wealth of the wealthiest.

ALSO, please take a look:

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Friends,

Trump’s chief bigot, Stephen Miller, said on Fox News that immigrants to the United States bring problems that extend through generations.

“Not only is the first generation unsuccessful,” Miller claimed. “You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.”

Bullshit. The children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of most immigrants are models of upward mobility in America.

In a recent paper, researchers found that immigrants today are no slower to move into the middle class than immigrants were a century ago. In fact, no matter when their parents came to the U.S. or what country they came from, children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than their U.S.-born peers.

Stephen Miller’s great-great-grandfather was born in a dirt-floor shack in the village of Antopol, a shtetl in what is now Belarus. He came to America in 1903 with $8 in his pocket and spoke no English. Three generations later, little Stephen was born in 1985 to American parents but somehow developed a visceral hatred for immigrants.

Miller and Trump have been dealing with immigrants the same way Pete Hegseth and Trump have been dealing with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz — inflicting pain on both them and the United States, in the hope their pain will be worse than the pain we endure.

Today’s Tax Day was supposed to be a big PR boon for Trump, in which he touts his “no taxes on tips” and other ersatz tax “cuts” for average working Americans (while hiding that his Big Ugly bill actually gave most of its benefits to the wealthy and big corporations, and paid for them by taking money from Medicaid and food stamps and other programs the working class and poor rely on).

But the war in Iran has made everything — even Stephen Miller’s war on immigrants — feel like the Strait of Hormuz.

Consider that before Miller ordered the Internal Revenue Service to give ICE officials the addresses of people subject to deportation, undocumented immigrants had been paying roughly $60 billion annually in federal taxes, much of it going into Social Security and Medicare — programs from which they don’t benefit.

Now, tax experts fear many immigrants won’t file returns, and those who formerly had their taxes withheld in every paycheck will shift into under-the-table jobs. The Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan research center, projected lost tax revenue of about $300 billion over a decade.

Meanwhile, Miller’s vast, sadistic crackdown on undocumented workers is causing significant pain for the U.S. economy. There aren’t enough workers in construction, hospitality, and agriculture to keep these sectors going. Another Strait of Hormuz situation.

Let’s be clear. Apart from Native Americans, we are all immigrants — all descended from “foreigners.” Some of our ancestors came here eagerly; some came because they were no longer safe in their homelands; some came enslaved.

As Ronald Reagan put it in a 1988 speech,

You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won’t become a German or a Turk. But … anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American. A person becomes an American by adopting America’s principles, especially those principles summarized in the “self-evident truths” of the Declaration of Independence, such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Reagan understood that America is a set of aspirations and ideals more than it is a nationality.

Miller and Trump, on the other hand, want to fuel bigotry. Their entire project depends on hate. Like dictators before him, Trump’s road to tyranny is paved with stones hurled at “them” — whether “they” are immigrants, Iranians, or anyone else who doesn’t fit the white Christian nationalist mold.

America is better than Trump and his chief bigot.

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Friends,

Several of you have asked how I manage to produce this Substack every day, seven days a week — often two or three times a day. Is there just one of you? you ask. Do you get any sleep? Do you have a life?

There’s just one of me (except on Saturdays, when Heather Lofthouse joins me for the Coffee Klatch). I do sleep (although as I get older, it’s harder to get a full night in). And I do have a life (I take long walks, read great novels, spend time with my wonderful family and friends).

I post so much because we’re in a national emergency, and I want to do what I can to get you the facts, arguments, and analyses you need to take an active role resisting and putting an end to the Trump regime.

He’s getting madder and more dangerous by the day.

Your active role can be phoning your senators and representatives and giving them more backbone in fighting Trump. Protecting vulnerable members of our communities from him and his agents. Marching, demonstrating. Getting out the vote. Or simply sharing my posts with your friends and colleagues — so they also have the facts, arguments, and analyses they need to effectively resist.

I also want to frame for you what’s happening — giving the news a larger context and meaning.

Showing, for example, why it’s impossible to appease Trump because tyrants always see appeasement as a sign of weakness and will demand more and more (as Trump has done with Columbia University and law firms such as Paul Weiss).

Or how the fights over abortion, transgender rights, equal marriage rights, and rights against domestic abuse are really about preserving the most intimate forms of freedom — including freedom from men who believe in patriarchy.

Or how Trump’s — and Harmeet Dhillon’s, Samuel Alito’s, and Clarence Thomas’s — vision of “civil rights” is really about white rights.

And how all these connect to the larger fight against Trump’s white Christian male nationalism.

I want to give you the strength, courage, and reassurance you need to get through this nightmare without drowning in denial or despair.

In other words: I write and post at least once every day because the stakes are so damn high.

But mostly, I post every day because I believe in you. I believe in your values. In your thoughtfulness. In your determination to leave this nation and this world a better place than it was before Trump.

I believe that together we will get through this and we will prevail.

Please don’t worry about me. I have only a certain number of years left when I can do as much as I’m doing, and I might as well take full advantage of it.

My only real worry is that I’m overloading you and overfilling your inbox, for which I do apologize.

— Robert Reich

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Friends,

Late Sunday night, Trump posted on Truth Social the most grandiose depiction any U.S. president has ever made of himself.

I’ve reproduced it above. Take a look, and remember: It came from Trump.

What kind of a president would post this of himself?

Today, Trump told reporters that he posted it because he thought it depicted him as a physician. “I thought it was me as a doctor,” he said, adding that news organizations had misinterpreted the image. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better, and I do make people better,” he said.

There’s something fundamentally wrong with the man.

Bishop William Shomali, the General Vicar of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, put it well when he said:

“The problem is not that [Trump] tries to emulate Jesus Christ, but rather that he tries to present himself as if he were a superhuman and great figure. If we consider Jesus Christ as a model, then we should emulate him — but that should be through his humility, spirit of service, and self-sacrifice, not through a desire for domination, authority, and marginalizing others.”

Earlier Sunday, Trump lashed out at Pope Leo XIV following the pontiff’s public condemnation of the war in Iran. The pope had called Trump’s threat to wipe out Iran’s civilization “truly unacceptable.”

Weirdly, Trump accused the leader of the Catholic Church of being weak on crime and catering to liberals. “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician,” Trump wrote in a Sunday night social-media post. “It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”

Trump also claimed that Leo, an American, was selected as pope last year because of Trump. “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” The Catholic Church “thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

Trump’s problem with Pope Leo is similar to the problem Henry VIII had with Pope Clement VII in 1531. Henry wanted to do whatever he wished, but the pope opposed Henry’s moves (instead of destroying Iran, Henry sought to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon). So Henry established himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England via the Act of Supremacy.

But in contrast to Trump, Henry didn’t think of himself as the second coming of Christ, didn’t try to substitute his own likeness for that of Jesus, and wasn’t president of a nation that calls itself a democracy.

It’s hardly the first time Trump has revealed his God complex. He has referred to himself as “the chosen one.” He’s said he was anointed by the “supernatural hand” of God to win a second term in office. He’s said “God saved me for a purpose.” He has ordered his face to be etched on coins and placed on banners draped from government buildings, literally idolatrous moves.

But Trump’s malignant narcissism is now utterly out of control. Attacking the pope. Posting pictures of himself as Jesus. Claiming he won the war in Iran. The man has become delusional, violent, and dangerous.

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Friends,

Speaking at a January 6 retreat for House Republicans, Trump stated, “You gotta win the midterms ‘cause, if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just gonna be — I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me. I’ll get impeached.”

This was before Trump’s agents murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, before the Justice Department released more Epstein files, before Trump’s disastrous war in Iran, before Trump threatened death to the entire Iranian civilization, before a gallon of gas hit $4 or more, before other prices also began rising because of the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, and before additional price hikes associated with Trump’s tariffs had kicked in.

It was also before Trump’s polls slid to record lows, before the MAGA faithful began complaining that Trump had betrayed his promise to avoid foreign entanglements, and before a slew of special elections in which Democratic candidates have won Republican districts (and even when they didn’t win, lost by far smaller margins than Trump won by in 2024).

Until recently I thought impeaching Trump and convicting him in the Senate was a pipe dream. I was concerned that even talk of impeachment at this stage might distract attention from the affordability crisis brought on by Trump and could even fortify Republican charges of Democratic “extremism.”

No longer.

The president of the United States is stark-raving mad. He’s a clear and present danger to America and the world. The American public is beginning to see it.

We’ve got to do whatever we legally can to remove him from office. The 25th Amendment would be useful if Trump’s Cabinet and key advisers had any integrity, but they don’t. They’re ambitious, unprincipled traitors.

Which leaves impeachment.

You may be skeptical. After all, he’s already been impeached twice, to no avail. How can the third time be the charm?

Because it seems likely that Democrats will retake control of the House and the Senate in this fall’s midterm elections (unless Trump prevents free and fair elections).

And because it’s also possible that there will be enough votes in the Senate starting next January to convict Trump of impeachable offenses and send him packing.

I understand how difficult this may seem. Both times Trump was impeached in the House, he was saved by the Constitution’s requirement that two-thirds of the Senate (67 senators, assuming all 100 are present) convict in order to remove a president.

The highest Senate vote count against Trump came in 2021, and it was 10 votes short of the constitutional requirement. Fifty-seven senators, including seven Republicans, voted to convict him of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It was the most bipartisan impeachment vote in U.S. Senate history, but it still fell well short of the 67 votes needed to convict Trump.

So why do I think it’s possible now? Because public sentiment has swung further against Trump now than it was in 2021. And it’s likely to swing even further against him, because he’s going out of his mind at a rapid rate.

The way to accomplish this is to defeat enough incumbent Republican senators who are up for reelection in 2026 to create a Democratic majority in that chamber, totaling some 54 votes, and pressure at least 13 Republicans up for reelection in 2028 to vote to convict him.

That’s not impossible. In the upcoming midterms it’s likely that Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins will be replaced by a Democrat (either Janet Mills or Graham Platner). I also assume that former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper will replace Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who’s retiring.

And I’d like to believe that the good people of Ohio will see the light and reelect Sherrod Brown over Jon Husted, the dullard who was appointed to fill the remainder of JD Vance’s term.

James Talarico could take the Texas Republican Senate seat now occupied by John Cornyn. In Alaska, I’d put odds on Mary Peltola defeating incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. In Nebraska, assume that Dan Osborn prevails over incumbent Republican Senator Pete Ricketts. And so on.

Republican senators last elected in 2022 who will be on the ballot in November 2028 include some who are vulnerable because they’re in swing states, such as North Carolina’s Ted Budd and Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson; or are in states that could be competitive, such as Indiana’s Todd Young; or are vulnerable to internal party shifts, such as Louisiana’s John Kennedy and South Carolina’s Tim Scott.

Those vulnerabilities mean that their constituents could push them to vote to convict Trump in an impeachment, or else threaten to vote against them in 2028.

So it’s possible to get the 67 Senate votes, my friends. And it’s absolutely necessary that we try.

The vast No Kings demonstrations should be considered a prelude to targeting enough Republican Senate incumbents and open races to flip the Senate this fall, and pressuring Republicans up for reelection in 2028 to do their constitutional duty.

Now is the time to show the size and intensity of America’s commitment to removing Trump from office, for the good of us all.

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Friends,

Today, the good people of Hungary brought to an abrupt end 16 years of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian rule.

Nearly 78 percent of eligible voters turned out, an unequivocal mandate whose repercussions are already echoing from Budapest to the European Union, to Moscow, and to Washington.

As I wrote yesterday, Trump and Putin pulled out all the stops to help Orbán. JD Vance stumped for him in Budapest last weekend “because of the moral cooperation between our two countries” — each engaged in a “defense of Western civilization” based on their common adherence to “Christian civilization and Christian values.”

It was all rubbish. The Hungarians evidently saw through it.

Trump endorsed Orbán. Putin also did what he could. Even Benjamin Netanyahu sent a message to the annual U.S. CPAC conference in Budapest, hailing Orbán as a leader who can “protect against this rising tide” of Islamic terrorism. “Orbán means safety, security, stability.”

Today was a solid victory for democracy and a clear defeat for the forces of authoritarianism — in Hungary, in Europe, and in America.

Thank you, Hungary.

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Please submit your caption in the Comments section and, as before, please use the Comments section only for captions.

Winners will be announced next Sunday. For consideration, please post your caption by Monday at 9 pm PT, 12 midnight ET.

Leave a comment

Last week’s winner:

“He said oil is well that ends well. Well I ain’t buying it!”

(Congratulations, Mike Hammer.)

Runners-up:

“We just need cars that run on Stupid.”

(Congratulations, Mark Robokoff.)

“I’d hate to see the price if we were losing!”

(Congratulations, Robert Belknap.)

“Dead dinosaurs made more expensive by a dying dinosaur.”

(Congratulations, Jeff Schwartz.)

“I can’t afford any more winning.”

(Congratulations, Maria Ekstrand.)

“I could have avoided this with a Tesla except for the other asshole.”

(Congratulations, Mike Whitney.)

“You get frequent liar miles with Trump gas …”

(Congratulations, Poetic Polemics.)

“Trump needs a ‘CRUDE’ awakening!”

(Congratulations, Ann greeley.)

“A foreign policy so volatile, it’s basically Tehran-nosaurus Wrecks!”

(Congratulations, John F. M. O’Sullivan O’Shea.)

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Friends,

The past terrifying week has caused me to wonder: How did America ever get to a point where one man, backed by the military might of the United States, could credibly threaten death to an entire civilization?

I’m also wondering how 19 super-rich American households could have added $1.8 trillion to their wealth in just the last 24 months — roughly the size of the economy of Australia — while the rate of child poverty in the U.S. has more than doubled, from a low of 5.2 percent in 2021 to over 13 percent now?

How have we come so perilously close to climate catastrophe, with spring temperatures in the Western United States already shattering records — and yet governments are spending over a trillion dollars a year subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and banks have channeled over $3 trillion to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement, while there are almost no funds to protect living ecosystems?

How have we allowed artificial intelligence, the most powerful technology the world has ever seen, to threaten millions of jobs; make vulnerable the software that runs our financial, energy, and defense systems; and potentially destroy the human race — while allowing it to amass so much political power that it eludes all guardrails and regulations?

I have served at the highest levels of the U.S. government. I’ve watched our political and economic systems grow and change over the last 50 years, and I’ve spent much of that time writing about their evolution. I’ve never been reluctant to accuse those in power of abusing their authority.

While I have some ideas about how and why our system has sacrificed democracy and critical thought to the false gods of greed and growth (anyone interested in my tentative thoughts is more than welcome to read my recent Coming Up Short), I cannot state with certainty how we arrived at this point.

Yet notwithstanding how we got here, how do we change course? I refuse to accept that we cannot, or that it’s too late.

On Friday, I taught students who are seeking degrees in public policy. They wanted to know why — given all this — I remain optimistic.

I told them that I have faith in the goodness and reasonableness of the American people when they become aware of huge problems that threaten our and the world’s existence. And that the problems I’ve mentioned have now reached such size and dangerousness that the public can no longer ignore them.

We are, I think, coming to a tipping point in how we understand the challenges to our continued existence.

As author Jeremy Lent has written:

“A civilization built on a different foundation would start from an acknowledgment that the deep interconnectedness of all life is not romantic aspiration but scientific fact — confirmed by complexity science, systems biology, and Earth science, and affirmed by wisdom traditions of cultures that never lost that understanding.

From this recognition, different goals follow: not perpetual growth but setting the conditions for all people to flourish on a regenerated Earth. Not maximization of returns on capital but the kind of reciprocal, mutualistic relationship with living systems that makes long-term human wellbeing possible.

There is no blueprint that will save us. No one person or group can design in advance what such a civilization will look like in its particulars. But a framework of core principles can orient us — the way a distant horizon orients a traveler moving through unmarked terrain.

You may not yet see the exact path, but knowing the general direction changes everything about which opportunities you embrace and which you recognize as alluring detours.

The trance that keeps us from seeing this is powerful. But it has been broken before. Every paradigm that once seemed like reality itself — the divine right of kings, the natural inferiority of women, the Earth at the center of the universe — turned out to be a myth that was shattered.”

I agree with Lent. It’s time to eschew the myths that contributed to the reelection of the most dangerous person ever to occupy the White House, myths that continue to limit our beliefs and imaginations: that widening inequality and an ever-larger military are necessary and inevitable, that we need a billionaire oligarchy to guide our economy and a “strongman” to lead our government, that a political revolution founded on returning American democracy to the ideal of self-government would be too destabilizing, that continued growth of the Gross Domestic Product is an unmitigated good, and that more “productivity” and “efficiency” are always beneficial.

The most dangerous myth of all is that there is no alternative to the path we’re on, that we have no control over our destiny, and that, just as it was inevitable that we came to where are, our unraveling is similarly inevitable.

I refuse to accept this deterministic myth. The first act of genuine systemic change is to stop believing it.

It’s been a terrifying week, but one that is awakening millions of people.

Thank you for being an ally in seeking a better world.

Robert Reich

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Friends,

The biggest authoritarian monsters of our time — Trump, Putin, and Xi Jinping — have bred smaller monsters who seem less dangerous than the big ones but are causing almost as much chaos and cruelty.

I’m talking especially about Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungary’s Victor Orbán. Both have held their offices by clinging to bigoted, authoritarian, homophobic, anti-Muslim views and actions that are poisoning much of the Middle East and Europe. Netanyahu continues to wage war, which is keeping him out of jail and his right-wing coalition in power; Orbán continues to consolidate control over state institutions, rewrite electoral laws, and crack down on independent media.

Both Netanyahu and Orbán also have the support of the Trump regime and its white, Christian, nationalist cultural warriors.

But Trump’s war in Iran has made it harder for white Christian nationalists to maintain their “America First” isolationism, given the obvious contradiction between crusading for white Christianity abroad while also promoting xenophobic nativism at home. This contradiction has eroded American support for Netanyahu and Orbán at a critical time for both.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson had been among Netanyahu’s and Orbán’s strongest cheerleaders in the U.S. But Carlson opposes Trump’s war in Iran and recently stepped up his criticism, calling Trump’s obscenity-laced Easter Sunday message on Iran “vile on every level” and labelling Trump’s threats to bomb civilian energy and transportation infrastructure a war crime.

Carlson also echoed growing sentiment in the MAGA right that Trump’s decision to go to war was a result of undue influence by Netanyahu. “The Israelis have him in a hammerlock,” Carlson said.

Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene charges that “Trump has gone mad as he wages war against Iran, a broken campaign promise. I fought alongside Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Alex Jones to help get Trump elected. We never changed. Trump did.”

Trump calls all these cultural warriors who have criticized his war “stupid people” whom “nobody cares about …. They’re not MAGA, they’re losers. As president, I could get them on my side anytime I want to, but when they call, I don’t return their calls because I’m too busy on world and country affairs.”

Behind this petty war of words are serious shifts in power and influence.

Trump’s war in Iran has contributed to Netanyahu’s Israel becoming a pariah state in the world. And because the war has exposed confusion and ambiguity among the MAGA faithful when it comes to foreign regimes, it has also indirectly undermined support for Orbán’s Hungary.

With the Hungarian presidential election looming, JD Vance last weekend stumped for Orbán in Budapest, lamely explaining he’d come there “because of the moral cooperation between our two countries” — each engaged in a “defense of Western civilization” based on their common adherence to “Christian civilization and Christian values.”

Trump has endorsed Orbán. Putin is also doing what he can to help Orbán. Netanyahu sent a message last month to the the annual U.S. CPAC conference in Budapest, hailing Orbán as a leader who can “protect against this rising tide” of Islamic terrorism. “Orbán means safety, security, stability.”

Rubbish.

Tomorrow, the good people of Hungary will have an opportunity to push Orbán out of office. It’s possible. Hungary still has enough remnants of democracy to do the job — although it may not for very much longer if Orbán remains in power.

Hungarians seem most upset with Hungary’s struggling economy, high prices, poor hospitals, and underfunded railway. Orbán’s opponent has focused on these bread-and-butter issues while noting that Orbán’s cronies have grown richer as ordinary Hungarians have become poorer.

Orbán’s removal would send a timely signal to the rest of the world about to deal with the monsters, large and small, who are now threatening global peace, prosperity, and stability while also destroying whatever moral authority the West still possesses.

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JD Vance was right: Illiberal kleptocratic Christian nationalism is on the ballot in Hungary this Sunday, just as it will be on the ballots that Americans will cast in November. Here and there, may it be massively repudiated.