April 2, 2026

Democracy Docket: Trump's Epstein Cover-Up Is Getting Worse

Mar 31, 2026

Marc Elias breaks down the timeline of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files, exposing a massive cover-up by the Department of Justice to protect President Donald Trump.

April 2, 2026

There is no one left to sell Trump's war

There is no one left to sell Trump’s war
One month into his war of choice with Iran, Donald Trump will finally address the nation on Operation Epic Fury

By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published April 1, 2026 12:25PM (EDT)


(Salon) Tonight, on April Fools’ Day — the first night of Passover, with the bond markets closing early tomorrow ahead of Good Friday — Donald Trump will finally address the American people about the war he started with Israel in Iran. It has taken him more than a month to do so.

The administration seems to believe that if it can just find the right messenger or the right primetime moment, the narrative for war will click into place. But the timing of Trump’s address, after weeks of deflection and delay, dropped into a narrow window between market closures, feels revealing. Trump’s war in Iran is built on so many contradictions that MAGA’s disciplined propaganda machine of administration officials, media outlets like Fox News, podcasters and influencers is starting to crack under the strain.

For weeks the president has tried to outsource the job of selling the war to the American people, first to the Pentagon, as former Fox News anchor turned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was supposed to be the perfect vessel for this message. Bombastic, unwaveringly loyal and constitutionally incapable of doubt, Hegseth has stood at the Pentagon podium for four weeks and attacked reporters, called dead service members a PR operation designed to make “the president look bad” and belligerently insisted each offensive action in Iran was a military success.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was awkwardly dispatched to soothe the financial markets while doubling as a kind of economic war correspondent. The nation’s top economic official argued that the war is under control because markets are “functioning,” that disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz are “manageable” and, ironically, that energy price spikes are “transitory.” On one level, it makes sense. This war is being fought as much through global trade as with airstrikes. The administration knows that if the financial system panics — if oil prices spiral further or if shipping grinds to a halt — the political consequences will be immediate and severe. Thus their priority has not been trying to explain the conflict to the American people. They are trying to manage the market reaction to it. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/01/there-is-no-one-left-to-sell-trumps-war/

April 1, 2026

States say ICE pulled Medicaid data despite court order

A coalition of 22 states told a federal court that the Trump administration appears to have violated a court order that limited the types of health data that could be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings.

Back in December, a court allowed ICE to pull some basic information from Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that primarily covers people with low incomes, to help the agency find people who are in the country illegally.

That ruling was a partial win for the administration in a lawsuit in which the 22 states and the District of Columbia had sued to block information sharing between ICE and Medicaid.

But the court also placed restrictions on ICE, saying it could only pull basic data such as addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and citizenship or immigration status. And the ruling barred ICE from collecting information on lawful permanent residents or citizens. .....................(more)

https://michiganadvance.com/2026/04/01/repub/states-say-ice-pulled-medicaid-data-despite-court-order/

April 1, 2026

Atlanta: Stations now online for MARTA 'Better Breeze' system, fare gates open as old system sunsets

ATLANTA — As of this past weekend, MARTA stations have now come fully online for the "Better Breeze" tap pay system — though it may come with a peculiar sight for a little while.

At some stations, the fare gates are simply sitting wide open. MARTA says that's because they're trying to be amenable to customers who are still using an old card, which won't work with the tap-pay gates.

But they do still want people to pay their fares.

"As we're going through this transition, because we're moving from the old system, you have to have to have a new card to be able to pay, it does not work with the old card in an old system," MARTA's assistant GM for customer experience, Nevin Grinnell, told 11Alive's Grace King. "So we wanted to open up those stations to make sure that people can move around effortlessly."

Where stations are still installing the new tap-pay gates, there may still be old gates in operation that can take an old card. A release from MARTA said both systems will be active until May 2, though it's not fully clear which stations will be last to sunset any of the old gates. ....................(more)

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/stations-now-online-for-marta-better-breeze-system-fare-gates-open-as-old-system-sunsets/85-631968de-1f1b-4198-aa37-dc8d90cfdef9

April 1, 2026

Heather Cox Richardson: Watch for Trump's Hail Mary Passes

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: No Kings rallies, Trump's social media post on the Strait of Hormuz, Wall Street Journal leak on Iran war exit conditions, stock market rally, Brent crude prices, DHS leaks targeting Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, Laura Ingraham and Alex Jones breaking with Trump on Iran, court order halting White House ballroom construction, judge blocking NPR and PBS defunding, NATO allies restricting U.S. airspace, Trump executive order on mail-in voting, Save Act Senate push, Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship, and the 14th Amendment's Reconstruction-era origins.

From Politics Chat, March 31, 2026

April 1, 2026

Heather Cox Richardson: The History of the 14th Amendment

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: No Kings rallies, Trump's social media post on the Strait of Hormuz, Wall Street Journal leak on Iran war exit conditions, stock market rally, Brent crude prices, DHS leaks targeting Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, Laura Ingraham and Alex Jones breaking with Trump on Iran, court order halting White House ballroom construction, judge blocking NPR and PBS defunding, NATO allies restricting U.S. airspace, Trump executive order on mail-in voting, Save Act Senate push, Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship, and the 14th Amendment's Reconstruction-era origins.

From Politics Chat, March 31, 2026

April 1, 2026

JD Vance's demon talk is lame youth outreach

JD Vance’s demon talk is lame youth outreach
Hopping on the "KPop Demon Hunters" trend won't save the vice president's career

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published April 1, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) Even for JD Vance, it was a weird moment. Over the weekend, the vice president appeared on the podcast of Benny Johnson, a sycophantic MAGA media figure tied to the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA. The two discussed the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, Medicaid fraud and the SAVE Act, which would undermine Americans’ freedom to vote, and Vance even accused Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., of immigration fraud. But in a blatant attempt to snag the attention former president Barack Obama received for discussing aliens during a recent podcast appearance, the conversation turned to the extraterrestrial and UFOs, which the Yale-educated Vance argued are actually demons.

....(snip)....

The clip is worth watching, and not just to marvel yet again at Vance’s ability to make idiotic statements in the self-assured tone of the smartest boy in the room. The entire exchange feels rehearsed, even though it’s clear Vance is hoping to channel some of that off-the-cuff energy that made Obama’s chat with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen so entertaining. Vance, though, is clearly incapable of such a spontaneous response. (His disgust upon hearing on MAGA influencer Katie Miller’s podcast that her husband, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, loves mayonnaise was a rare moment of authenticity.)

No wonder it came off as contrived. On Tuesday it was announced that Vance would be releasing “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” a memoir about his conversion to Catholicism. (As my Salon colleague Kelly McClure pointed out, “Communion” is also the title of a popular 80s book about alien encounters.) Talking up demons on a MAGA podcast offered a good way to frame his faith not as part of the high-minded Catholicism of the American-born Pope Leo XIV, who is much-loathed by Donald Trump for all that peace-and-charity talk. It signals that Vance is more into an evangelical-flavored Catholicism that’s popular with MAGA and is centered far more on Satan and hellfire than all that “love thy neighbor” chatter.

....(snip)....

Vance is tapping into a long, productive history of Christian-right activists and politicians getting attention by hijacking pop culture trends. Sometimes these efforts attempt to be positive; contemporary Christian music has long attempted to imitate secular chart success, but with a “Jesus loves you” message. That has tended to be less effective, though, as much of the music is perceived as corny to those who aren’t living in a Christian fundamentalist environment. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/01/jd-vances-demon-talk-is-lame-youth-outreach/

April 1, 2026

Supreme Court could create a whole new class of noncitizens

Supreme Court could create a whole new class of noncitizens
An enormous administrative problem — and a mountain of paperwork for everyone — is only the tip of the iceberg

By Russell Payne
Staff Reporter
Published April 1, 2026 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) Avictory for President Donald Trump in the birthright citizenship case before the Supreme Court would not only create a mountain of paperwork for many Americans, but could also create a class of generationally stateless American residents, according to attorneys who have filed briefs in the case.

The legal merits of the Trump administration’s arguments against birthright citizenship aside, the administration’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which asserts that at least one of a child’s parents must be a U.S. citizen to claim citizenship, would detonate a bomb in the U.S.’s legal and electoral system and even make Trump’s top legislative priority, the SAVE America Act, practically unworkable.

Danielle Lang, the vice president for voting rights and rule of law at the Campaign Legal Center, told Salon that if Trump gets his way on birthright citizenship and the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, which could create a bureaucratic nightmare for Americans, in no small part because in this scenario, a birth certificate would no longer serve as proof of citizenship.

“The question of proof of citizenship status would become exceptionally complicated, as the primary proof of citizenship for most Americans is their birth certificate,” Lang said. “Most Americans are citizens by virtue of being born here, and their proof of citizenship is their birth certificate or other proof that they were born in the United States. Only for those who have migrated here are they going to have an alternative form of proof of citizenship, like a naturalization certificate.” ..............................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/01/supreme-court-could-create-a-whole-new-class-of-noncitizens/

March 31, 2026

Jamelle Bouie: MAGA's War on the Fourteenth Amendment

Mar 30, 2026

Stephen Miller and the entire MAGA right are waging a systematic war on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which stands as political and legal obstacle to their supremacist effort to limit citizenship and create a permanent subclass of stateless people.

March 31, 2026

NO KINGS 3 was a Massive Success, But WHAT COMES NEXT? With Indivisible's Ezra Levin!

Mar 30, 2026

Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible and one of the leaders of the NO KINGS movement, joins The Left Hook to discuss how local communities can organize and prepare ahead of the elections.