Monday, March 31, 2025

March 31, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Trump threatens bombing if Iran does not make nuclear deal . . . President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program. In Trump's first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, he told NBC News that U.S. and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate. "If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview. "It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before." Reuters

Politics

Raphael Warnock Lives Free in $1 Million Luxury Home—Purchased by His Church . . . The lavish Atlanta home where Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) resides brims with luxury accommodations, including a 100-bottle wine fridge, a Bluetooth-enabled stainless steel cooking range, custom crown molding, and a walk-in closet affixed to a "stunning" European bathroom with a remote-controlled privacy curtain. That privacy extends to Google Maps, where the images of the property are blurred from view. Warnock, who quietly moved into the home in 2023, now lives there rent-free, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Washington Free Beacon

Musk announces DOGE investigation into 'strangely wealthy' Congress members . . . 'A lot of strangely wealthy members of Congress, where I just can't, I'm trying to connect the dots of how they became rich,' he told the crowd of about 2,000 people in Wisconsin. 'How'd they get $20 million if they're earning $200,000 a year? Nobody can explain that. We're gonna try to figure it out, and certainly stop it from happening.' Daily Mail

It's all in the grand tradition of Lyndon Johnson, who somehow extracted a sprawling Texas ranch from a lifetime of "public service."

Musk Says Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Is A Vote For 'Which Party Controls' The House . . . Musk made the comments during a rally in Green Bay where he urged attendees to show up and vote for conservative judicial candidate Brad Schimel. Schimel is running against liberal Judge Susan Crawford in a race that will determine the ideological slant of the court. "What's happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives . . . And whichever party controls the House, to a significant degree controls the country, which then steers the course of Western Civilization," Musk said, adding that he thought the "entire destiny of humanity" could be impacted by the race. Daily Wire

The destiny of humanity riding on a Wisconsin Supreme Court election? Well, that will certainly get out the vote. Nobody wants anything bad to happen to the destiny of humanity.

Musk handed out two $1 million checks to voters who signed his petition opposing "activist judges"

Deep State Union Gears Up to Sue After Trump Weakens Its Ability to Undermine National Security . . . The American Federation of Government Employees is the tip of the deep state spear, taking President Trump to court as he tries to rein in the federal bureaucracy. AFGE promised yet another lawsuit Thursday, shortly after Trump signed an executive order removing the privilege of collective bargaining from a host of federal employees. Daily Signal

Trump Is Decimating the Left's Patronage Networks . . . President Donald Trump has launched a political counterrevolution in the early days of his second presidency. One of the most profound ways he's doing this is by effectively cutting off the Left's massive, government-funded patronage networks. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin appeared on One America News and explained how the Left has insidiously transformed the federal government into a Democratic Party funding apparatus. Zeldin explained how the EPA under the Biden administration was used as a slush fund to give money to activists. Daily Signal

Trump says he's 'not joking' about third term — and notes this apparent loophole . . . President Trump said he's "not joking" about serving a third term in the White House — and thinks there's a loophole to make it happen. Trump, 78, told NBC's Kristen Welker in a Sunday morning phone call that "a lot of people want me to do it." Trump claimed that "there are methods which you could do it," including having Vice President JD Vance, 40, run for president with Trump as his vice president. Vance would then resign to allow Trump to regain the top job. New York Post

Burgum says 'they certainly have room for' Trump's face on Mount Rushmore

White House to take charge of the briefing room seating chart . . . The White House plans to impose its own seating chart for reporters in the briefing room in coming weeks, taking over a function long managed by the reporters themselves through the White House Correspondents' Association. It's the latest — but likely not the last — effort by the White House to take a heavier hand in shaping who covers President Trump. In public and private, White House officials make it clear they are determined to upend decades-old press corps traditions. Axios

National Security

Mike Waltz Is Losing Support Inside the White House . . . President Trump has decided for now not to fire his national security adviser over the revelation that he included a journalist on a group text chat to discuss and execute a military strike, but the damage to Mike Waltz's reputation has put him on shaky ground in the White House, senior U.S. officials said. For Trump, the officials said, Waltz's biggest sin wasn't starting a Signal chat to coordinate strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, it was having the Atlantic magazine's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg's number in his phone and inadvertently adding him to the conversation. Wall Street Journal

Definitely time for him to starting polishing his LinkedIn profile. Once you're on Trump's bad side, that's usually where you stay, at least for a few years . . .

Trump to travel to Saudi Arabia for first foreign trip

International

French Lawfare? Marine Le Pen found guilty in EU funding embezzlement case . . . France's Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of misappropriating European funds to finance her far-right National Rally (RN) party, in a case which could lead to her being barred from standing in the 2027 presidential election. Le Pen was accused, along with more than 20 other senior party figures, of hiring assistants who worked on her RN party affairs rather than for the European Parliament which paid them. Prosecutors last year said Le Pen's punishment should be not just a fine and prison term, but also ineligibility from running for public office for five years. BBC

Trump 'pissed off' at Putin over Zelensky comments . . . Speaking with NBC News's Kristen Welker, Trump vented his frustrations over a lack of a deal regarding the war in Ukraine. "I was very angry, pissed off when Putin started getting into Zelensky, his credibility, and started talking about new leadership in Ukraine," she quoted Trump as saying. "If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia's fault, which it might not be, but if I think it was Russia's fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on all oil coming out of Russia," he said, per the outlet. Washington Examiner

Money

Trump Team Weighs Broader, Higher Tariffs . . . The Trump administration is scrambling to determine the specifics of its new tariff agenda ahead of its self-imposed deadline of Wednesday, weighing options as the president has promised to remake the American economy with a swath of new levies. One key point of debate is whether to impose individualized tariff rates for U.S. trading partners, as President Trump has previewed in recent weeks, or revert to his campaign pledge for an across-the-board tariff. Wall Street Journal

You should also know

Trump Trashes Kristen Welker And NBC After Sunday Appearance: 'She Wastes My Administration's Time' . . . "Kristen Welker's entire first half hour of the Lowly Rated Meet the Fake Press this morning, was devoted to the boring Signal Witch Hunt," Trump began. He went on to note that Welker, like the anchors and many of the guests on the other networks' Sunday talk shows, had spent a fair amount of time on the Signal chat group that had included a number of top Trump administration officials — and, accidentally, Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Daily Wire

He trashes the mainstream press but still talks to them plenty, like he did Welker over the weekend.

MSNBC, NBC Double Down on DEI and Quotas

California's Collapse: How Progressive Policies Are Destroying the Golden State . . . Once the embodiment of the American dream, California has become a cautionary tale of failed policies and ideological excess, writes Steve Hilton, author of the new book, "Califailure: Reversing the Ruin of America's Worst-Run State." "California means to America what America means to the world," Hilton said, highlighting what originally drew him to the Golden State. "But that's not how it is today. We're famous for the apocalyptic scenes of wildfires, dystopian urban chaos and crime, and thousands of homeless people wandering around like zombies." Daily Signal

Trump announces plans to cut down magnolia tree thought to have been planted by Andrew Jackson . . . Mr. Trump said he is working on "tremendous enhancements to the White House," and one of the "interesting dilemmas" they have faced is what to do with the "tree planted many years ago by the Legendary President and General, Andrew Jackson." "It is a Southern Magnolia, that came from his home, The Hermitage, in Tennessee. That's the good news!" Mr. Trump said. "The bad news is that everything must come to an end, and this tree is in terrible condition, a very dangerous safety hazard, at the White House Entrance, no less, and must now be removed." Washington Times

The fastest, most-accurate fast-food drive-throughs . . . For the 10 major chains in their public sample, it took 5.5 minutes for the average car to get food in 2024. Taco Bell took the speed crown for the second straight year, Baja Blasting us through in just 4.3 minutes. Chick-fil-A customers waited almost twice as long — eight minutes in total. In fact, long wait times at Chick-fil-A are the only constant in a fluctuating dataset. On average since 2016, Chick-fil-A and McDonald's take the longest, while Dunkin' and KFC have the shortest waits. Washington Post

Guilty Pleasures

Goat opens gate, lets kangaroo loose in South Carolina . . . Police in South Carolina rounded up an escaped kangaroo, which turned out to have been released by a mischievous goat. The Horry County Police Department said on social media that the 4th Precinct Patrol Division responded to a neighborhood where a kangaroo was seen on the loose. The animal's owner, Lindsey Richardson, said she had just woken up when a neighbor alerted her that her exotic pet was loose. UPI

We're allowed to own kangaroos?

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