The Trump Administration’s Anti-Blackness is Showing on the Global Stage

The United States’ actions are not just a betrayal of the rest of the world; they are the latest examples of the Trump administration’s betrayal of its own people—and in particular, of the 45 million Americans who are of African descent.


Flags of member states are seen at United Nations headquarters in New York.
(Photo by I, Aotearoa/ Wikipedia/ CC BY-SA 3.0)

Desirée Cormier Smith
Apr 22, 2026

Common Dreams


On March 25, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a historic resolution marking an extraordinary step forward for global racial justice. Spearheaded by Ghana and co-sponsored by more than 65 countries largely from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, a declaration designating slavery as the gravest crime against humanity passed the General Assembly. Through this, the majority of the world aligned on one key message: The enslavement of millions of Africans and their descendants for over 400 years is the gravest crime against humanity, we are still dealing with the consequences, and there must be reparatory justice to address the lingering impacts.

In a shameful moment for Americans and the world, the Trump administration voted against this resolution on behalf of the United States—only 1 of 3 countries to do so. This decision comes just months after the US withdrew from the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, falsely claiming it was “racist.” These two actions show that the Trump administration’s anti-Blackness is not limited to its domestic policy—it’s on full display on the global stage, too.

The history bears repeating: The slave trade ignited 400 years of racialized chattel slavery, representing the longest running system of organized human exploitation in history. This period marked the first time in human history when race defined the global political, economic, and social hierarchy. The United States was a driver in creating and perpetuating this unprecedented form of slavery. Across the globe, countries mimicked the United States’ policies to deprive an entire race of its humanity. The centuries-long system impacted millions upon millions of people of African descent, and even after this inhumane system of trafficking, selling, and enslaving human beings was abolished, its legacy continues to be felt today.

The resolution spearheaded by Ghana represents the worldwide atonement for chattel slavery that continues to have immeasurable consequences on the world. Because it is not legally binding, the only rationale for a country like the US to vote against it is that its leaders believe in erasing our world’s greatest atrocity. It signals to the international community that the United States refuses to recognize the ugly parts of our past and how it impacts current realities.

The Trump administration’s actions to undermine forums at the UN designed to promote the rights and equality of people of African descent will be a stain on our nation’s history.

In his opposition to the resolution, the US representative characterized it as a scheme for developing (read: African) countries to gain leverage for the future allocation of resources. Additionally, he accused the resolution of being an attempt to establish a hierarchy of crimes against humanity (note: This was the same justification that the UK, Canada, and EU countries cited as explanation for their abstentions). Yet, this narrow-minded mischaracterization fails to recognize that the transatlantic slave trade and racialized slavery comprised all crimes against humanity: trafficking, forced labor, sexual assault, disease, famine, and the dehumanization of an entire race.

And yet, this is not the only instance of the Trump administration displaying its anti-Blackness on the world stage. When the administration made the decision in January 2026 to withdraw from the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) because it was “contrary to the interests of the United States,” it was saying the quiet part out loud: This administration does not care about or represent the interests of Black Americans.

The UN PFPAD was created in 2021 as a space for people of African descent to discuss ways to improve the quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent and share recommendations with member states. Its mandate includes promoting “the full political, economic, and social inclusion of people of African descent in societies in which they live as equal citizens without discrimination of any kind” and “ensuring equal enjoyment of all human rights.” The forum’s annual meeting represents the largest UN gathering of Black civil society from around the world. Its fifth session just concluded in Geneva, Switzerland, where the US government’s absence was noticed, but overshadowed by the energy and momentum behind Ghana’s historic resolution.

Civil society from around the world noted the fact that the world’s “superpower” was 1 of 3 countries to vote against the resolution, but the sheer number and diversity of Black American civil society leaders present at the forum made it clear that this shameful vote does not reflect our unwavering commitment to and solidarity in the global struggle for reparatory justice.

The United States’ actions are not just a betrayal of the rest of the world; they are the latest examples of the Trump administration’s betrayal of its own people—and in particular, of the 45 million Americans who are of African descent. This is why the video message from Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in the PFPAD closing ceremony was so important: When the federal government fails to represent our interests or even be present in rooms where our issues are being discussed, Black civil society and congressional leaders have always stepped up to fill the void.

The Trump administration’s actions to undermine forums at the UN designed to promote the rights and equality of people of African descent will be a stain on our nation’s history. The administration is telling us loud and clear that it does not view ensuring Black people’s equal human rights as a priority. So, while this administration falsely claims that “President Trump has done more for Black Americans than any other president,” we must remember the words of our great James Baldwin, “I cannot believe what you say because I see what you do.”


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Desirée Cormier Smith
Desirée Cormier Smith is the co-founder and co-president of The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice. From 2022 until 2025, she served as the inaugural US special representative for racial equity and justice at the US State Department.
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Locked Up by Israel at 15, Palestine Activist Is Now Jailed by ICE

Doxxed by Canary Mission and jailed by ICE, Salah Sarsour calls on his Wisconsin community to challenge injustice.

By Mike Ludwig ,

Truthout

April 21, 2026

Federal immigration agents transported Salah Sarsour hundreds of miles away from his family to a county jail in Indiana that contracts with ICE, where Sarsour remains incarcerated today as attorneys petition for his release.

Free Salah Sarsour / freesalah.org

Nearly a dozen agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surrounded Muslim community leader Salah Sarsour on March 30 after he left his home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and serving as president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the city’s largest mosque and Muslim institution, Sarsour is a husband, father, and grandfather described as a pillar of his community and a “loving bear” who is “always smiling.”

ICE’s parent organization, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), claimed without evidence that Sarsour is a “terrorist” who “lied” on a green card application when he moved to the U.S. in the 1990s. However, Sarsour’s attorney says that federal documents show he was jailed because Secretary of State Marco Rubio considered him a threat to U.S. foreign policy in June 2025, which was also reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Sarsour’s arrest came shortly after he was profiled by the shady pro-Israel website Canary Mission known for doxxing and smearing the reputations of Palestinian rights activists on college campuses. Their targets included Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was abducted and jailed by ICE for more than three months in 2025.

Federal immigration agents transported Sarsour hundreds of miles away from his family to a county jail in Indiana that contracts with ICE, where he remains incarcerated today as attorneys petition for his release. On April 6, a few days after his arrest, Sarsour released a letter to his community, urging fellow Muslims and civil rights activists in Milwaukee to continue “standing on just causes without hesitation.”

Citing lessons learned while he was jailed by the Israeli military as a teenager living in the West Bank, Sarsour’s letter frames the latest “unjust confinement” as a test of faith. Sarsour references the story of the prophet Yusuf — or Joseph in Christian and Hebrew texts — who was imprisoned in Egypt on false charges but maintained his faith in God and justice.

Zionist Doxxing Campaigns Upended Their Lives. Now They’re Suing for Damages.
Canary Mission faces a class-action lawsuit under a new Illinois anti-doxxing law.
By Marianne Dhenin , Truthou tApril 20, 2026

“The prophets never stood with injustice, with oppressors and with other evildoers; rather, they taught us to stand with the mathloomeen (the oppressed) and defend them,” Sarsour wrote. “This is why our community has always put forth tremendous efforts to help others, including standing with the people of Gaza, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Kashmir, Burma, Lebanon, and beyond.”

The letter is reminiscent of the one issued by Martin Luther King Jr. after he was jailed for violating an anti-protest injunction in Birmingham, Alabama. On scraps of paper, King penned a letter from his jail cell to his followers, criticizing “white moderates” who said that civil rights protests were disruptive and untimely. Touting the moral power of nonviolent civil disobedience, King famously declared that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Sarsour’s colleagues and supporters say he was targeted and locked up over his free speech about Palestinian rights and against Israel’s genocidal wars. On April 20, a coalition of Muslim civil rights groups gathered on Capitol Hill to demand Sarsour’s release. Osama Abu Irshaid, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine, warned that the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestine voices as “threats to foreign policy” undermines freedom of speech for everyone.

“If [Muslims] can be targeted because of their political speech, anyone could be the subject tomorrow,” Abu Irshaid said during a press conference.

Abu Irshaid said the First Amendment does not align with the actions of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who personally signed off on arrests of pro-Palestine student activists after designating their speech as a foreign policy threat in an attempt to revoke their visas and green cards. During the anti-genocide protests that swept campuses in 2024, students with citizenship were also arrested on trumped-up charges for occupying public spaces and voicing dissent.

“What foreign policy do we pose a threat to? What foreign policy? There is no foreign policy, there’s total chaos,” said Abu Irshaid. “And Salah is a victim of this chaos, of this prioritization of Israel over America, and of the trampling of the Constitution of the United States.”

Will Perry, former executive director of the Milwaukee Islamic Da’wah Center and a longtime leader in the city’s Black and Muslim communities, said the U.S. government has targeted Black and Brown movement leaders who challenge injustice for much of the country’s history.

“That’s the strategy: to cut off the head, cut off the outspoken ones who stand up for democracy and justice,” Perry said in an interview with Truthout.

Perry cited outspoken Black leaders such as Marcus Garvey, Malcom X, and Nelson Mandela. Like Martin Luther King Jr., these leaders were imprisoned on political charges over the course of their struggles for justice.

“That’s always been the case: the ones that speak the loudest are the most targeted,” Perry said, adding that authorities target leaders to weaken the broader movement. “But it does the opposite, it helps to strengthen and unite the community … it has just strengthened our resolve to seek justice for Sarsour, and all of the other people who have been taken into detention.”

JoCasta Zamarripa and Alex Brower, two progressive members of the Milwaukee city council, have also said Sarsour is a lawful, permanent resident who has lived in the community for three decades. Members of the Milwaukee Delegation of Democratic State Legislators have also called for Sarsour’s release.

“The unacceptable activities by ICE — and especially illegally detaining [people] without due process — must stop immediately,” Zamarripa and Brower said in a joint statement on April 2. “How dare federal ICE agents come into our community and unlawfully detain a grandfather, a faith leader, a Wisconsinite!”

Janan Najeeb, executive director of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, said she has known Sarsour and his family for years as they both have roots in Palestine. Najeeb said Sarsour comes from a large family and is known for his generosity and philanthropy. He sits on the boards of national organizations that advocate for a free Palestine — which may have put Sarsour on Canary Mission’s radar. Pro-Israel groups have long targeted nonprofits that advocate for Palestinian rights.

“He is really the nicest person you can imagine, and there’s nothing dangerous about him except him for the fact that he speaks out for Palestine,” Najeeb told Truthout in an interview.

Due the outpouring of public support for Sarsour following his arrest, Najeeb said ICE and Homeland Security released multiple statements on Sarsour with vague allegations against him, which generally trace back to accusations made against him as a child by the Israeli government an apparent “interview” with Sarsour’s brother by Israeli authorities in 1998.

“So, they are working to throw the kitchen sink at him and each time changing their story,” Najeeb said.

DHS has said Sarsour was convicted in Israel of“throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces.” Najeeb said Sarsour was arrested as a 15-year-old living in the West Bank, where the occupying Israeli military works with extremist settlers to displace Palestinians from their homes, often with violence.

“This joke about him throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of soldiers, these are people who have flunked basic history, because Israeli soldiers don’t live in the West Bank, they don’t live anywhere near the Palestinians,” Najeeb said. “The Palestinians have to go through checkpoints, and they are not allowed in different areas where Israelis live.”

Najeeb said at age 15, Sarsour was tortured for weeks while imprisoned by Israel and forced to sign documents written in Hebrew, a language he did not speak. For years, human rights groups have reported on Israeli military courts that have incarcerated thousands of Palestinian children for allegedly throwing stones at occupiers based on coerced confessions. From 2005 to 2010, at least 93 percent of Palestinian children convicted of stone throwing were given prison sentences.

“So, we know about the kind of kangaroo courts and military courts that minors have to go through in Israel,” Najeeb said. “He already served his sentence in an Israeli prison. Why is he being arrested decades later in Milwaukee? What American law allows that to happen?”

While DHS has not publicly released any evidence, Homeland Security’s claim that Sarsour is “suspected of funding terror organizations” echoes a 2016 congressional testimony submitted by Jonathan Schanzer, a pro-Israel analyst at the far right Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The testimony cites a 2001 FBI memo noting an alleged interview about a Palestinian charity with Sarsour’s brother by Israeli authorities after his arrest. Truthout has not confirmed whether the interview was coerced or actually occurred in the first place.

Schanzer’s testimony also points out that Sarsour chaired the 2015 national conference for American Muslims for Palestine, which pro-Israel propagandists have for years attempted to link financially to Hamas in Gaza. American Muslims for Palestine has successfully fought to dismiss such claims in court.

In March, Schanzer held an “emergency briefing” with Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a group that directly supports Israel’s military. An independent UN commission has said that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. In an ongoing case, the International Court of Justice has also said that Israel is plausibly committing genocide; Israeli leaders have warrants out for their arrest from the International Criminal Court.

“They try to instill fear into our hearts because they know they cannot win this debate on its merits,” Abu Irshaid said.

Canary Mission is one of several groups doxxing and harassing pro-Palestine activists online, often reporting them to federal law enforcement. Unlike a standard nonprofit, Canary Mission keeps its membership and funding sources secret. Najeeb said the group is linked to Islamophobic hate speech, and experts say it exists to silence and terrorize people.

When an alarming video of masked ICE agents abducting Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk off the street went viral in March 2025, Canary Mission took credit with a celebratory post that linked to Öztürk’s profile on its website. The Trump administration claimed without evidence that Öztürk supported the Palestinian resistance party Hamas, but the only evidence for her arrest cited in an internal memo was an op-ed published in the student newspaper on the genocide in Gaza.

Abu Irshaid said a system that targets Muslims and anti-genocide activists for their speech can be weaponized against anyone, regardless of their citizenship status.

“So, America has to reckon with this now,” Abu Irshaid said. “It’s no longer about minorities, you can be a white American and be shot in broad daylight and called a domestic terrorist, as what happened with two American citizens who were shot [and killed] by a rogue agency called ICE. And you could be abducted from the middle of the street just because you say you disagree with this government, this foreign policy.”

AOC Renews Call to Oust Trump After Report on His Exclusion From Situation Room


“In some ways, you kind of want this guy on a golf course more,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lamented.

By Chris Walker , 

Truthout

April 21, 2026

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) speaks during a at Forest Hills Stadium 

Stephani Spindel/VIEWpress via Getty Images


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Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) is suggesting that a recent report on President Donald Trump’s involvement in the Situation Room (or lack thereof) during the extraction of U.S. military airmen in Iran should prompt his cabinet members to consider removing him from office.

The Wall Street Journal report in question details that Trump, upon learning that the two airmen’s plane had been shot down, reportedly screamed at his aides for many hours and was later kept from receiving real-time updates on the situation while his staff was given updates.

While senior aides like Vice President JD Vance and chief of staff Susie Wiles were included in Situation Room briefings, Trump was only updated “at meaningful moments” on the phone, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Trump was kept out of the room because aides “believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful,” a senior official told the publication.

The White House has denied the report’s accuracy, with one spokesperson describing it as “fake news.”


AOC: Iran Deal “Changes Nothing” on Need to Impeach Trump for Genocidal Threat
Trump “threatened a genocide against the Iranian people, and is continuing to leverage that threat,” she said.  By Sharon Zhang , Truthout  April 8, 2026

When asked about Trump’s frequent visits to the golf course as the war in Iran wages on, Ocasio-Cortez cited the report and suggested that it might be good that Trump was kept away from his presidential duties.

“We’re already seeing that some of the most important military decision-makers in the country are trying to keep him out of consequential decisions, so in some ways, you kind of want this guy on a golf course more than you want him in the Oval Office,” the New York Democrat said while speaking to reporters earlier this week.



“That also calls into question the 25th Amendment,” Ocasio-Cortez added, “because if the determination is that Donald Trump cannot be trusted in the Situation Room, then he’s not fit to be president.”

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment outlines a process for removing the president when it’s deemed that they’re no longer fit to serve. The process requires the majority of the president’s cabinet, along with the vice president, to deem the chief executive “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” at which point the vice president assumes presidential responsibilities.

The president can challenge that determination, after which, if the cabinet and vice president persist in their demands for the president to be removed from power, the issue goes to Congress. Two-thirds of both houses must agree with the cabinet’s determination in order for it to stay in place.

The current political climate makes it highly unlikely that Trump could face a 25th Amendment challenge, as Vance has made no indication that he would back the idea and Trump has filled his cabinet with people loyal to him. The fact that Republicans have a narrow majority in Congress also makes it next to impossible that two-thirds of the House and Senate would vote to remove him.

Still, Democrats have increased their calls for Trump to be removed from power, especially following his Truth Social post earlier this month calling for genocidal action against Iran if the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t reopened, stating that “a whole civilization will die” if his demands weren’t met.

“We need to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump. Threatening war crimes is a blatant violation of our Constitution and the Geneva Conventions,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) said in response to Trump’s post.

“This is not ok. Invoke the 25th amendment. Impeach. Remove,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) said.

No major poll has asked voters their views on invoking the 25th Amendment against Trump, but other surveys regarding his removal suggest that a large portion of Americans would support such a move. A Free Speech for People poll earlier this month found that 51 percent of Americans backed impeaching Trump, with only 40 percent against the idea.

Hungarian Prime Minister-Elect Says Country Will Arrest Netanyahu If He Visits

Peter Magyar said the country will halt its withdrawal from the ICC that was initiated by his predecessor, Viktor Orbán.

By Sharon Zhang ,

Truthout

April 21, 2026

Election winner and leader of Hungary's TISZA party Peter Magyar answers journalists' questions during a press conference following the first official meeting of TISZA's new parliamentary group in Budapest, Hungary, on April 20, 2026.

Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP via Getty Images

Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar said that his government will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he steps foot in the country, joining roughly a dozen other European countries now off-limits for the man wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Magyar, who takes office next month, said that he is ending the country’s withdrawal from the ICC and, as a result, will carry out its obligations as a party to the ICC statute.

“I made myself clear to the Israeli prime minister,” said Magyar, per a translation by Al Jazeera. “If someone is a member of the ICC, and a person who is wanted enters our country, then they must be taken into custody.”

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He said that his government can simply halt the process of withdrawal before it becomes official in June.

Magyar is a center right politician who won in a shock defeat of longtime far right dictatorial Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, earlier this month. The pledge to arrest Netanyahu is a huge departure for Hungary, as Netanyahu and Orbán were close allies.

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Orbán Faces ICC Investigation After Refusing to Arrest Netanyahu in Hungary
As a party to the ICC’s Rome Statute, Hungary is obliged to arrest suspected war criminals and send them to The Hague.
By Marjorie Cohn , TruthoutApril 22, 2025

Netanyahu, like President Donald Trump, had endorsed Orbán in the election, calling him a “true friend of Israel.” The politicians share a commitment to nationalist political views.

Netanyahu visited Orbán in Hungary last year, during which time the Hungarian government announced that it was exiting from the ICC in reaction to the arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in late 2024.

Magyar’s announcement appeared to confirm that Israeli officials were lying when Israel’s ambassador to Hungary, Maya Kadosh, said that Magyar invited Netanyahu to visit Hungary during an upcoming commemoration of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.

Magyar said that other leaders were invited, but that “we have a legal obligation to enforce the court’s rulings, and I’m sure [Netanyahu] knows this.”

Ahead of Magyar’s announcement, human rights advocates had called for Hungary to arrest Netanyahu if he were to visit the country.

“Despite its move to leave the ICC, Hungary is still a member country and is still obligated to arrest and surrender individuals wanted by the court,” said Alice Autin, an international justice researcher for Human Rights Watch, in a statement. “By flouting this obligation, for the second time in less than a year, Hungary would further entrench impunity for serious crimes in Palestine and once again betray victims who have been denied justice for far too long.”

Though the ICC has 125 member states, not all of them have committed to enforcing the ICC’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant.

The U.K. is a member state but reportedly threatened to defund the ICC if it followed through on threats to issue the arrest warrant against Netanyahu, according to the ICC’s prosecutor Karim Khan. French officials issued a statement shortly after the warrant was issued suggesting that Netanyahu has immunity because Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC.

An u

Top historian says Trump is committing 'superpower suicide'

REUTERS/Evan Vucci

Nick Hilden

April 21, 2026  

ALTERNET

Over the course of President Donald Trump’s second term, the United States and the entire world have been thrust into chaos by the administration’s erratic actions. While many have speculated about what pushed the U.S. to elect its highly disruptive leader, renowned historian Timothy Snyder has a theory: it’s an attempt at “superpower suicide.”

“I’ve been thinking about how best to characterize what the United States is doing to itself on the scale of the world,” said Snyder on his Substack, “and I think ‘superpower suicide’ is probably the best term.”

There are a handful of points that drove him to this conclusion.

“To be a superpower, you have to be a power, and to be a power, you have to be a state,” he explained. “And I think the way we’re being governed now is inconsistent with statehood. The way we’re being governed now — or rather ruled — seems to have to do with the enrichment and the wealth of the president himself and the people immediately around him. It seems to involve the cult of an individual and his eternal power rather than the continuity of institutions that belong to everyone.”

That brought him to matters of succession, or the lack thereof, and the future in general.

“By calling into question past and future elections,” said Snyder, “the President of the United States is undermining…the principle of succession, which is fundamental to being a superpower” — the idea that a country will continue beyond its present leadership. What’s more, Snyder claimed that Trump lacks a coherent ideology to carry forward, saying, “What is the future of this country? I don’t think the people in power are able to give any of that a name. There is no idea of the future. There’s just day-to-day enrichment.” On top of that, the U.S. is “pursuing policies that are inconsistent with there being a future.” He explained that global powers rise and fall based on their energy policy, and Trump’s decision to double down on oil and gas while ceding green energy development to China simultaneously cedes the future to Chinese leadership.

On that note, Snyder argued that “a superpower would be able to deal with its adversaries, and we seem completely unable to do so.” Over the course of the past year, Trump has declared and quickly lost a trade war with China, then a war with Iran, and a consequence of both has been the enrichment of Russia. At the same time, Trump has made it clear that he’s not only uninterested in collaborating with allies, but happy to shred essential alliances.

Finally, Snyder suggested that “a superpower of the future…would be caring about education and science, which is what we’re not doing.” To the contrary, under Trump, the U.S. is decimating its K-12 and university systems. Science has become politicized, while students and researchers from abroad are now looking elsewhere to bring their smarts and expertise.

All of this, concluded Snyder, comes down to an act of "superpower suicide." But he didn’t end on an entirely dire note.

“To make things a little bit more hopeful,” said Snyder, it’s an “attempted suicide, because none of this has to happen. It could all be changed. But that would depend on the choices we make.”

Trump's China strategy torn apart by GOP tax gurus following evidence of failure

Matthew Rozsa

April 21, 2026

ALTERNET


President Donald Trump’s image is indelibly linked to that of American business, from branding a real estate empire with his name and giving business advice in his ghostwritten-book “The Art of the Deal” to starring in the business-themed reality TV show, “The Apprentice.” Yet a nonprofit that exists to promote free markets and low taxes, two policy staples of the American business community, accused Trump on Tuesday of failing American business against its main foreign competitor, China.

“Government reviews have repeatedly documented the ongoing failure of Section 301 tariffs to change China’s behavior,” wrote Bryan Riley, director of the Free Trade Initiative for a 501(c)(4) called the National Taxpayers Union. “Ways and Means and Finance Committee Members may want to ask Amb. Greer why we should expect new Section 301 actions launched by USTR to fare any better.”

The “Amb. Greer” in question is U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer, who is scheduled to speak before both the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee about Trump’s trade policies.

“In light of USTR’s recent announcement of new Section 301 trade investigations, those committees may want to follow up on his statement to the House Appropriations Committee last week,” Riley wrote. “‘In President Trump’s first term, the Section 301 tool was used to great effect.’ His comment referred to tariffs imposed following a 2017 Section 301 investigation into China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation. The goal of the investigation was to reduce or eliminate China’s unfair practices in these areas.”

Yet Riley insisted that “subsequent reviews cast substantial doubt on the effectiveness of this action,” ticking off as evidence data from a 2018 USTR update on Section 301, a 2019 Economic Report of the President on Chinese retaliatory tariffs, a 2021 Report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and President Biden’s 2024 four-year review of the Section 301 tariffs.

“China has not eliminated many of its technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices. Instead of pursuing fundamental reform, the Chinese government largely took superficial measures aimed at addressing negative perceptions of its technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices,” Biden’s report started per Riley. “At the same time, China has persisted and even become more aggressive, particularly through cyber intrusions and cybertheft, in its attempts to acquire and absorb foreign technology, which further burden or restrict U.S. commerce.”

Although Trump imposed tariffs on a wide range of products at the start of his second term, the Supreme Court famously ruled Trump had abused his power by incorrectly claiming he could levy tariffs unilaterally. The tariffs are also exacerbating inflationary pressures at a time when Trump’s ongoing war against Iran, which prompted Iran to raise gas prices by closing the Strait of Hormuz, has made his tariffs increasingly unpopular."These ‘economists’ are idiots,” White House spokesman Kush Desai
told AlterNet earlier this month. He was referring to a pair of economists, Richard Wolff and Ed Gresser, who had criticized Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro for arguing the Iran war will lower gas prices. “Peter Navarro is an American Patriot whose loyalty to the President and the American people is unimpeachable.”

Why Earth Day Matters More Than Ever

The environmental movement has already shown what collective action can achieve. The question now is whether we are prepared to use that power again.


Participants hold placards as they march on a street ahead of Earth Day on April 22, the annual environmental awareness day, in Jakarta on April 21, 2024.
(Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images)

Kathleen Rogers
Apr 22, 2026

Common Dreams

Fifty-seven years ago, Earth Day changed American politics. On April 22, 1970, 20 million American, about 10% of the entire US population, took to the streets, campuses, and town squares in a single day to demand action after 150 years of uncontrolled industrial pollution. The demonstrations were so large and bipartisan that Washington responded almost immediately, probably out of fear but also respect for the intensity and size of the demonstrations. Within just a few years, President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and Congress passed 20 landmark laws including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act. Americans and their environment enjoyed that nonpartisan honeymoon for over a decade.

Again in the early 1990s, cooperation between Democrats and Republicans produced significant environmental progress, including the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which addressed acid rain, smog, and toxics, and the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, which stopped pollutants at their source. Were they costly? Initially to the polluters yes, but the health and safety results, estimated to be close to $2 trillion in health-cost savings, have been stunning. And eventually industry investment in clean technologies led to efficiency, profits, and innovation. These laws and others demonstrated that bipartisan cooperation could deliver both environmental and economic results.

What is often forgotten today is how broad that political coalition once was. Environmental protection was not a partisan cause. Republicans and Democrats almost competed to be seen as environmental champions. Conservative lawmakers voted for pollution limits, and no wonder: 75% of Americans supported increased government spending to reduce air and water pollution, and large majorities said they were willing to pay higher costs for clean air and water.

For a time, that public pressure worked.

When citizens demonstrate that protecting the planet matters—to their communities, their votes, and their future—leaders respond.

But the momentum that first Earth Day created has slowed and increasingly reversed. Why? One major turning point came in 2010, when the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowed corporations and outside groups to spend unlimited money in elections. In the years since, political spending by all groups has surged but particularly by polluting industries, which outspent health and environmental groups 20 to 1. According to Climate Power, the fossil fuel industry spent $450 million during the 2024 election cycle.

In the past year, 425 environmental and health and safety laws and regulations have been rolled back or crippled, many of which, including all climate change related policies and laws, were promised during the election. The quid pro quo for donations was pretty straightforward—denial that climate change exists or is harmful.

Citizens United opened the spigot for anti-environmental spending, and what is coming out of those spigots is hurting our children, our health, and American innovation and economic leadership.

The influence of that spending has helped transform environmental policy from a bipartisan priority into one of the most polarized issues in Washington. In the years before the ruling, bipartisan climate legislation was still possible. In the years after Citizens United, cooperation largely collapsed. The result has been legislative gridlock at precisely the moment scientists and many economists say immediate action will both reduce or even solve the climate crisis and keep America from losing its place in the impossible to stop green economy.

Ironically, this reversal of environmental policy has occurred even as public concern has remained high. Surveys consistently show that large majorities of Americans believe climate change is real and more than 70% of Americans support stronger measures to address climate change. This disconnect between public concern and political action is the defining challenge of this Earth Day and the environmental movement itself.

That is why the theme of this year’s Earth Day, Our Power, Our Planet, is more than a slogan. It is a reminder of a fundamental truth that shaped the first Earth Day: Political power ultimately flows from citizens—real people—to Congress and the White House.

The environmental breakthroughs of the 1970s and 1990s did not happen because leaders suddenly discovered science. They happened because millions of people made environmental protection politically unavoidable. Citizens marched, organized, voted, and demanded action. They made it clear that protecting the planet was not optional. Today, that same civic power and engagement is needed again.

If governments believe environmental protection is a low priority for voters, progress will stall. If they believe the public is divided or disengaged, short-term political pressure and massive corporate dollars will always win. But when citizens demonstrate that protecting the planet matters—to their communities, their votes, and their future—leaders respond.

That is the real meaning of Our Power, Our Planet. The environmental movement has already shown what collective action can achieve. The question now is whether we are prepared to use that power again. Because the progress of the past half-century was never guaranteed; without sustained public engagement, it could easily erode.

Earth Day was never meant to be a celebration. It was designed as a demonstration of public will. Fifty-seven years later, the challenge is the same: to show governments, once again, that the power to protect our planet ultimately belongs to the people.

This piece was distributed by American Forum.

‘You Dirty Orange Maniac!’: The President of Ultimate Destruction

Sadly, as crazed as Donald Trump may be — and he clearly is a deeply disturbed (and, of course, disturbing) human being — when it comes to war and the burning of fossil fuels, he’s been anything but alone as president of the United States.


Orange blow-up garbagemen Donald Trump speaks at Green Bay airport
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Tom Engelhardt
Apr 21, 2026

TomDispatch


When he’s on full blast, Donald Trump (not so long ago the “drill, baby, drill” candidate for president) is distinctly a furnace. And he seems intent on turning this planet, our only world, into a version of the same. But here’s the strange thing, when it comes to almost anything — from Iran to suddenly firing two key women, Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem, in his government (but certainly not the no-less-chaotic men) — there’s no minute, it seems, when he’s not flipping himself on his head and then spinning or stumbling or catapulting off in a new direction. There’s only one exception I’ve noticed and, all too sadly, that’s climate change, where everything he does — every single thing — is guaranteed to be a disaster for our children and grandchildren.

Recently, of course, he’s launched a nightmarish war, by definition a gigantic producer of greenhouse gases, that’s literally been all about oil and natural gas, thanks in part to the now chaotic, largely blocked Strait of Hormuz through which a quarter of humanity’s sea-borne oil and a fifth of its natural gas used to pass. And if you don’t believe me about it being a nightmare, just check out the most recent prices at your neighborhood gas station. Consider it an irony, then, that his disastrous Iranian war will undoubtedly lead in a direction — to the use of more green energy globally — that, if he ever thought about it, he would hate more than just about anything else. He has, of course, referred to environmentalists as “terrorists.” (“They are terrorists. I call them environmental terrorists.”) And in this country, over his two presidencies, he’s done his damnedest to attack and try to block wind and solar power projects in every imaginable way, even though, globally, green power is growing fast and getting ever cheaper.

And here’s the reality of our moment for which we do need to give Donald Trump credit: once upon a time, you couldn’t have made any of this up — or, of course, have made up Donald Trump as president of the United States (twice!). If you had, it would have seemed like the least believable science fiction novel ever written. Not that I drive a car in New York City (the subway and buses work fine for me), but as I was writing this piece, of course, the price of gas had also edged up in my city to almost four dollars a gallon and a (possibly global) recession is on the horizon. (Thank you, Donald Trump!)

Of course, in launching his recent war against Iran, however incoherently, “the PEACE PRESIDENT” (and yes, he’s into CAPS when it comes to himself) was, all too sadly, in good company, historically speaking. Since victory in World War II, from Korea to Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq and now to Iran (to mention only the big conflicts of that all-American era), our presidents have had quite a knack (if such a word can even be used) for starting wars, none (not a one!) of which has ended in anything faintly like victory. And it’s already obvious — you don’t need to have the slightest knack for seeing into the future to know this — that Donald Trump’s version of the same in Iran will prove to be a global disaster, made worse by the fact that, in the process, whether he faintly grasps it or not, he’s also launched another brutally losing war against Planet Earth.

And the worst thing is that I feel I’ve written all of this before. And before Trump — well, “leaves” is far too mild a word for it — abandons (??) the presidency, I could end up writing it again and again, and we would still be in the world — all too literally his world — from hell. Of course, for all we know, Donald J. Trump could decide to crown himself president and try to launch a third term in office that would, if successful, turn the constitution into an historical relic.

“The Only Orange Monarch I Want Is a Butterfly.”

The other week, feeling as I do about “our” president, I went to New York City’s “No Kings” rally. It was gigantic (though you wouldn’t have known that, had you read my hometown paper, the New York Times, in the days that followed). It started on 59th Street where Central Park ends, with masses of marchers on both Seventh and Eighth Avenue, heading for 34th Street. By getting there early, I made it to the front of the crowd on Seventh Avenue at the head of that vast mass of protesting humanity and, once it started, I wove my way in and out of the crowd, back and forth, downtown and uptown again, jotting in a little notebook some of the thousands of homemade signs people were carrying.

When I finally reached Broadway and 42nd Street, I stepped up on the sidewalk and looked back. To my amazement, I could see all the way to 57th Street where we had begun, and that significant-sized avenue was still totally — and I mean totally — packed right back to Central Park. And mind you, this old man was just one of an estimated more than eight million Americans who turned out at more than 3,000 rallies across the United States that day, in communities huge and microscopic, to protest the world Donald Trump has dumped on, spilled all over, and is continuing to roil and broil.

And, yes, it did seem like every third person (even the two demonstrators dressed as plastic tigers) was carrying a homemade sign. I doubt I had ever seen so many of them at any past demonstration. I was scrawling a number of them down in a little notebook, and they ranged from “Fight Truth Decay” and “Grandma says, ICE is not nice!” to “It’s a good thing Congress isn’t alive to see this” and “The only orange Monarch I want is a butterfly.”

And then there was the one carried by a bearded man that caught my attention: “You dirty ORANGE maniac! You blew it all up! Damn you to hell!” And I thought to myself, boy, is that painfully accurate. In his own fashion, among all the things he hasn’t succeeded in accomplishing, he has indeed been blowing it all up in a striking fashion and, unfortunately, potentially damning my children and grandchildren (and yours) to a literal planet from hell.

And sadly, as crazed as Donald Trump may be — and he clearly is a deeply disturbed (and, of course, disturbing) human being — when it comes to war and the burning of fossil fuels, he’s been anything but alone as president of the United States. After all, in these decades, war has been this country’s middle name and we’ve been burning fossil fuels to fight them as if… well, as if there would indeed be no tomorrow(s). And in his two terms in office, Trump and crew have gone with a passion after any form of clean, renewable energy that wouldn’t blister us all. Only recently, for instance, the Guardian (which is superb when it comes to climate-change coverage) was the only publication I saw that reported on new research in Nature magazine showing that this country has caused “an eye-watering $10tn [yes, that’s trillion!] in global damages to the world over the past three decades through its vast planet-heating emissions, with a quarter of this economic pain inflicted upon itself.”

Consider it something of an unintended irony, then, that the crew President Trump and his administration have put so much of themselves into goes by the acronym ICE. In fact, wouldn’t you have thought that “ICE” would be a curse word for President Trump and that, when it comes to creating an immigration hell on earth, his crew of manic enforcers would have been known as “HEAT”? Which reminds me that, at the No Kings rally, I noted an older woman carrying a homemade sign all too appropriately saying: “Deport Trump! Make ICE useful.”

And thanks to his brutal assault on Iran, this planet is only going to get hotter yet, as war releases staggering amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere! Honestly, back in 2016, even if you had let your mind run in wild and unbelievably crazy directions, you simply couldn’t have made up Donald Trump’s planet as it is now, could you? Who could have imagined that the president of the United States, after launching a war with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, would attack European countries for not joining him, saying, “You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.”

And remind me, who has Donald Trump been there for, other than the major fossil fuel companies that backed him so radiantly in the 2024 election and are now getting a remarkable return on their investment?

Giving Decline New Meaning

Of course, to put all of this in some kind of perspective, sooner or later great imperial powers do go down and the United States has been the number one imperial power on this planet since the end of World War II, with its only true competitor (until China rose well into this century), the Soviet Union, which collapsed in a heap in 1991. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that this country, which, singularly in human history, once reigned more or less supreme on Planet Earth, should finally have begun its own decline, while turning over investment in present and future green energy to China.

But of course, there’s decline and then, in ICE terms, there’s DECLINE!!! And Donald Trump is threatening to turn imperial decline, something known throughout history, into a distinctly new phenomenon. Even declining imperial powers haven’t usually had such a mad ruler or leader. And he does seem remarkably intent, in his own increasingly confused way, on taking this country down with him. The difference, historically, is that until now no imperial ruler had the chance to take down not just his (almost never her) country, but (after a fashion) our planet (at least as a livable place for us), too. And he does seem remarkably intent on continuing to fossil-fuelize our world in a disastrous fashion.

Of course, at this very moment, we’re all watching his approval ratings generally (and particularly on the economy) begin to tank. (Oh wait, my mistake! A tank is a war vehicle, and right now that reference only applies to Israel, which recently lost a remarkable number of tanks in southern Lebanon.) But “our” president has also focused a significant part of his administration on ending anything that could benefit the climate, while burning fossil fuels in a fashion that should be considered beyond incendiary. That includes recently agreeing to offer almost a billion dollars to a French energy company to abandon a project to construct wind farms off the East Coast of this country (as long as it was willing to reinvest that sum in future oil and gas projects here instead).

Yes, someday he could well be seen not just as the president of decline but potentially of ultimate devastation and that flaming red tie of his could end up having a symbolic significance that, once upon a time, no one might have imagined. No wonder that sign I saw on the No King’s Day march — and let me repeat it here one more time: “You dirty ORANGE maniac! You blew it all up! Damn you to hell!” — sticks in my mind. It predicts the very future that, unbelievably enough, 49.8% of American voters tried to usher in again in 2024.

Once upon a time, who could ever have imagined either Donald Trump as president of these (increasingly dis-)United States or such a possible fate?


© 2023 TomDispatch.com


Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Type Media Center's TomDispatch.com. His books include: "A Nation Unmade by War" (2018, Dispatch Books), "Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World" (2014, with an introduction by Glenn Greenwald), "Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050"(co-authored with Nick Turse), "The United States of Fear" (2011), "The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's" (2010), and "The End of Victory Culture: a History of the Cold War and Beyond" (2007).
Full Bio >

Good Riddance to Trump’s Horrible, No Good Labor Secretary

The disgraced Lori Chavez-DeRemer is 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.


Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who resigned from her post Monday, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Robert Reich
Apr 21, 2026

Inequality Media


Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned Monday 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.


© 2025 Robert Reich


Robert Reich is professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former US secretary of labor. His latest book is the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Coming Up Short."
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Trump’s Iran War: Anatomy of a Debacle

President Donald Trump’s persistent boasts about tactical victories against Iran’ s military ignore the fundamental strategic fact that Trump has lost the Iran war.


High gas prices are displayed at a gas station after Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer spoke at a news conference outside the gas station amid the war in Iran on April 9, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Steven Harper
Apr 21, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


When he declared war on Iran in violation of international law and the US Constitution, President Donald Trump announced several objectives. He claims to have won the war, but Iran is emerging as the long-term victor.

Let’s count the ways.

“Regime Change”

No one doubted the capacity of the US armed forces to decimate Iran’s far inferior military force. But to what end?

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced Trump that launching the attack would prompt a popular uprising that would lead to the overthrow of Iran’s theocracy. Listening to Netanyahu’s assertion, CIA Director John Ratcliffe called it “farcical.” Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio translated that word into language Trump would understand, “In other words, it’s bullshit.”

Trump’s bluster isn’t working with Iranian leaders. His threats to commit war crimes dominate news cycles, but they merely reveal to Iran Trump’s desperation to extricate himself from the mess he created.

Trump chose to believe Netanyahu. Announcing the US-Israeli assault, Trump told Iranians that this was their opportunity to reclaim their country. To win the war on Trump’s terms, the Iranian theocracy needed only to survive.

The attack killed the Supreme Leader of Iran and top members of the government. But immediately, the serpent grew another head—the Supreme Leader’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who had lost his wife and teenage son in the bombing. The new leader is known for deep, long-standing ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) security establishment. His appointment signaled a transition to a more heavily militarized, hard-line, and anti-Western regime.

Trump calls this “regime change.” By his definition, Admiral Karl Dönitz succeeding Adolf Hitler as head of the German state near the end of World War II constituted regime change too.

The Iran theocracy survived in an even more militant form.

Score: Iran 1, Trump 0
“Contain Iran”

Trump boasted that the war would restrain Iran’s ability to project power:

“We are systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders,” he said.

Trump then described the destruction of Iran’s navy, air force, missile facilities, and defense industrial base. Those were tactical successes, but the war itself has been a strategic failure.

Iran’s response included attacks on neighboring countries. Even more troubling, it discovered and deployed a powerful new weapon: blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Notwithstanding its decimated navy, Iran now has a choke hold on the global economy.

Netanyahu had assured Trump that the regime would be so weakened from the US-Israeli assault that it would be unable to block the waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil flowed. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine flagged the enormous difficulty of securing the strait and the risks of Iran blocking it. But Trump dismissed that possibility on the assumption that the regime would capitulate before that could happen.

With the price of oil skyrocketing, Trump has created a new problem for the entire world and powerful leverage for Iran.

Score: Iran 2, Trump 0
“No Nuclear Weapons”

In his June 2025 attack on Iran, Trump claimed to have “obliterated” its nuclear facilities. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth went further, saying that not only were the facilities obliterated, but so too were Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Subsequently, Trump took repeated victory laps over the mission:“It knocked out their entire potential nuclear capacity.” (July 16)
“It’s been obliterated.” (July 31)
“We obliterated… the future nuclear capability of Iran.” (August 18)
“But I also obliterated Iran’s nuclear hopes, by totally annihilating their enriched uranium.” (September 20)
“Well, they don’t have a nuclear program. It was obliterated.” (October 13)
“…completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear capability.” (November 11)
“It was called Iran and its nuclear capability, and we obliterated that very quickly and strongly and powerfully.” (November 19)
“We obliterated their nuclear capability.” (December 11)
“We knocked out the Iran nuclear threat, and it was obliterated.” (January 8)
“…obliterated Iran’s nuclear enrichment capability.” (January 20)
“…achieving total obliteration of the Iran nuclear potential capability—totally obliterated.” (February 13)

In defending the launch of the war on February 28, 2026, Trump acknowledged that Iran’s nuclear program had not been obliterated after all. Rather, the country was now “right at the doorstep” of having a nuclear bomb. Trump has no strategy for solving that problem either.

Trump’s tactics—bombing—won’t work. Knowledgeable experts believe that a key Iranian nuclear facility is Pickaxe Mountain, where some of its uranium may be stored. That facility is so far below the ground that even America’s 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs can’t reach its inner chamber.

Trump talks about “going in” and taking the nuclear material out. But a ground operation to retrieve the material or destroy the facility would entail tremendous risk to those attempting it while providing, at best, an uncertain outcome.

The threat of a nuclear Iran remains.

Score: Iran 3, Trump 0
False Declarations of Victory That Backfire

Trump’s bluster isn’t working with Iranian leaders. His threats to commit war crimes dominate news cycles, but they merely reveal to Iran Trump’s desperation to extricate himself from the mess he created. As a negotiating strategy, it’s counterproductive.

Trump’s persistent boasts about tactical victories against Iran’ s military ignore the fundamental strategic fact that Trump has lost the Iran war. If a deal emerges from discussions between Iran’s experienced negotiators and Trump’s collection of amateurs, America and the world will pay a big price for a long time.

Citing Child Cancer Risk, Lawsuit Targets Trump EPA Over Glyphosate

“The EPA’s silence leaves families in the dark and falls far short of its responsibility to protect public health,” said the Environmental Working Group’s president.


An employee adjusts Roundup products on a shelf at a store in San Rafael, California 
(Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Apr 21, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


Just days before the US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments related to glyphosate’s health risks, the Environmental Working Group on Tuesday sued the Trump administration for unlawfully delaying its response to an EWG petition seeking stronger restrictions on “the most widely used herbicide in the United States and globally.”

The filing at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit calls out the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to act on evidence that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, “is exposing infants and young children to harmful levels through everyday foods.”

EWG and its co-petitioners filed a formal administrative petition under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, and amended it the following year. They want the EPA to revoke or modify the glyphosate policy for oats, so it’s stricter, and restrict its use as a pre-harvest drying agent.

“Congress required EPA to ensure that pesticide residues in food are safe, with particular protection for children,” the new filing states. “Yet, more than seven years after being presented with substantial scientific evidence that the current tolerance for glyphosate in oats may not meet that standard, EPA has failed to make any final, reviewable determination.”

EWG president and co-founder Ken Cook declared in a Tuesday statement that “parents shouldn’t have to second-guess whether everyday foods like cereal and snack bars are putting their children at risk of cancer.”

“The EPA’s silence leaves families in the dark and falls far short of its responsibility to protect public health,” he continued. “It’s time for the agency to stop stalling and do its job.”

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic” to humanity over a decade ago, while the EPA has repeatedly claimed that it is not likely to cause cancer in humans despite mounting research, the recent retraction of a landmark study on the pesticide’s supposed safety, and legal battles between patients and Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018.

Next week, the nation’s top court is set to hear arguments in a case that, as EWG warned Tuesday, “could have sweeping implications for whether farmers and consumers can keep pursuing lawsuits for harms linked to glyphosate, and whether states can require warning labels on glyphosate products.”

The Wall Street Journal noted Monday that while the company continues to insist on glyphosate’s safety, it “wants anyone with a claim to join the settlement” negotiated with a team of lawyers representing around 40,000 claimants that “would bring Bayer’s total price tag to resolve the Roundup litigation to roughly $22 billion.”

Despite Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign promise to “Make America Healthy Again,” the administration has notably sided with Bayer in the case before the Supreme Court, and the president in February even issued an executive order mandating the production of glyphosate.

“If anyone still wondered whether ‘Make America Healthy Again’ was a genuine commitment to protecting public health or a scam concocted by President Trump and RFK Jr. to rally health-conscious voters in 2024, today’s decision answers that question,” Cook said at the time. “It’s a shocking betrayal to all of us but especially the people who live and work near farm fields where glyphosate is used.”

Still, EWG is plowing ahead with its legal action, arguing that “the EPA has a clear legal duty to act on this petition, and it has simply refused to do so,” as the group’s general counsel and COO, Caroline Leary, put it. “This kind of delay has real consequences for families who rely on the agency to ensure children are not exposed to toxic farm chemical residues like glyphosate.”

“This is exactly the kind of situation where courts are meant to step in,” Leary added. “The EPA cannot avoid its responsibilities simply by doing nothing.”