WASHINGTON (AP) โ More than three dozen Democrats supported an effort by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to block arms sales to Israel, signaling a growing discontent in the party with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wars in Gaza and Iran.
The two resolutions to block U.S. sales of bulldozers and bombs to Israel were opposed by all Republicans and rejected 40-59 and 36-63. But Sanders has repeatedly forced votes on the issue to put pressure on his colleagues โ both Democrats and Republicans โ to oppose Netanyahuโs regime.
Similar resolutions forced by Sanders in 2024 and 2025 were also rejected, but the number of Democrats voting with the Vermont Independent has more than doubled in less than two years amid Israeli campaigns in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon and a stepped-up campaign by party activists who have increasingly seen support for Israel as a litmus test for support.
โItโs clear that Democrats are beginning to listen to the average American who is sick and tired of spending billions of dollars to support Netanyahuโs horrific wars when people in this country canโt afford housing or health care,โ Sanders said after the vote.
I was especially interested in the Justice Clarence Thomas comments, which I read, then became disinterested for reasons you’ll get if you read them. Lots of news of the day here.
A thin-skinned and prickly Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went off on journalists in his press conference this morning, resorting to the classic โattack the messengerโ defense to a unpopular war going poorly.
Itโs not the first time Hegseth has succumbed to blaming a lack of patriotism among reporters for unfavorable headlines and critical reporting on a Middle East conflict ignited by the Trump administration. But todayโs screed was striking for how it mixed the old worn-out reflexive questioning of the loyalty of reporters with biblical references that reflect Hegsethโs personal Christian nationalism:
โSometimes itโs hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on,โ Hegseth said. โItโs incredibly unpatriotic.โ
In the decades since the Vietnam War, the Pentagon had haltingly moved away from the defensive crouch it often took in the face of criticism toward a more transparent and self-reflective public response to bad news. It was not always consistent and the backsliding was dramatic during periods of sustained setbacks, like in Iraq during the aughts, but the general trajectory was away from the kind of knee-jerk circle-the-wagons approach that Hegseth rolled out this morning.
Questioning the loyalty of journalists โ or any regime critics โ harkens to earlier dark eras of America history and to authoritarian regimes worldwide. But Hegsethโs diatribe came with a strong Christian twist, as he compared journalists to the Pharisees who rejected Jesus in the Bible:
โThe Pharisees, the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time, they were there to witness, to write everything down, to record, but their hearts were hardened, even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didnโt matter,โ Hegseth said.
โThey were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda. As the passage ends, the Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel against him, how to destroy him,โ he continued.
โI sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees, not all of you, not all of you, but the legacy Trump-hating press, your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors,โ he added.
Hegseth โ callow, reactive, driven by a warped theology of nationalism, and poorly grounded in history โ personally represents a dramatic break from decades of training, education, and refining of a professional officers corps. In 15 months in office, Hegseth has done more to politicize the military than any secretary of defense in at least the last half century.
Third Boat Strike in Three Days
The accelerated pace of unlawful strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats continued in the eastern Pacific, with the third such strike in the last three days. Three people were killed in the 51st strike of the U.S. campaign, bringing the death toll to at least 177 people.
What Trump Foreign Policy Looks Like
USA Today: Pentagon ramps up planning for possible military ops in Cuba
WSJ: Pentagon Approaches Automakers, Manufacturers to Boost Weapons Production
WaPo: Trump administration pushes nations to sign โtrade over aidโ declaration
SCOTUS Watch
Justice Sonia Sotomayorย apologizedย privately to Justice Brett Kavanaugh and followed up with aย public apologyย released by the Supreme Court for remarks last week that, without naming him, attributed his defense of what have become known as โKavanaugh stopsโ to his posh upbringing.
In a public appearance at Yale Law School, Justice Ketanji Brown Jacksonย blastedย the Roberts Courtโs handling of its emergency docket.
In unusually pointed remarks carried live by CSPAN, Justice Clarence Thomasย launched a broadsideย at progressivism.
Jan. 6 Never Ends
Trump lawyer and coup plotter John Eastman wasย officially disbarredย in California after the state Supreme Courtย declinedย to take up his appeal.
Trump I White House chief of staff Mark Meadows isย seeking reimbursementย from the Trump DOJ of his legal fees incurred as a witness in both of Special Counsel Jack Smithโs investigations.
Must Read
Heather Cox Richardson draws a straight line from Lincolnโs assassination to Jan. 6 and the events of this week.
Do as We Say Not as We Do
NBC News: โAnti-abortion advocates met with Justice Department officials Wednesday, just hours after the Trump administration fired prosecutors it accused of coordinating too closely with abortion-rights advocacy groups during the Biden administration.โ
Election-Year Islamophobia
When all else fails and their election prospects look dire, Republicans fall back on various forms of racist appeals to solidify their base and wrong-foot Democrats. This year, top Texas Republicans have landed on Islamophobia as the racist appeal of choice. TPMโs Josh Kovensky reports on the ground from Grapevine, Texas, where he talks to right-wing activists who are back again to warning about Sharia law and portraying Muslims as an external threat to โrealโ Americans.
Too often, gullible national media outlets treat these racist effusions like an organic upwelling of nativism, rather than a calculated election year strategy. TPM, Iโm proud to say, has never been suckered in.
Thread of the Day
The Corruption: Bitcoin Jesus Edition
ProPublica offers a casebook study in the erosion of white-collar crime prosecutions under Trump II that includes the intervention of DOJ political appointees and the retention of a former Trump criminal defense attorney to outright kill one of the largest-ever cryptocurrency tax fraud cases.
Creepy Text of the Day
โHearing u/r in town. Wishing you would let me know. I could have made some excuses to get out and show u around. Please keep this private.โโRichard Chavez, father of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, in a text to a young female staff member working for his daughter
Hot tips? Juicy scuttlebutt? Keen insights?ย Let me know. For sensitive information, use the encrypted methodsย here. (snip)
There’s gotta be something each of us wants to know, and likely are things we need to know but may not be covered by traditional or partisan news outlets. It’s long, of course.
Today, we will look at yesterdayโs congressional resignations, President Donald Trumpโs criticism of Pope Leo, and other news spanning each continent.
Letโs get to it.
United States
-Both Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell and Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez resigned from the House of Representatives yesterday amid a slew of ethical and legal controversies related to sexual misconduct.
The House Clerk read their respective resignation letters on the floor, which were met by bipartisan applause.
Their departures leave the lower chamber with 216 Republicans and 213 Democrats.
-California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation yesterday setting the date for a special election to fill the remainder of Swalwellโs term for August 18.
-House Democrats introduced a bill that would establish a commission to assess whether President Donald Trump should be removed from office.
-Wholesale inflation rose to 4% in March, a four-year high, according to new data released yesterday.
The uptick was fueled by a 15.7% rise in gasoline prices, accounting for half of the increase due to the war in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the average U.S. gas price stood at $4.11 yesterday, according to AAA.
-Senate Majority Leader John Thune said yesterday that Republicans โwould be prepared to confirmโ a nominee to the Supreme Court in the event of a retirement ahead of the midterm elections.
For weeks, rumors in Washington have circulated around whether Justice Samuel Alito could retire in the next several weeks.
The 76-year-old conservative has been on the Court since 2006 and is the second-oldest on the high court, behind Clarence Thomas.
-The Senate Banking Committee is expected to hold a confirmation hearing next Tuesday on Trumpโs nominee to lead the Federal Reserve.
-Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday that Trump is readying an executive order that would mandate U.S. banks to collect citizenship information.
-The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Connecticut and the city of New Haven over its sanctuary policies.
-The Republican National Committee (RNC) ended February with $109 million, seven times as much as its Democratic counterpart.
-Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper raised more than $13.8 million in the first quarter of the year.
-Trump said that he was โnot a big fanโ of Riley Gaines after the conservative activist criticized his posting of an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus.
-Streamer Hasan Piker called the Republican Party the โbiggest domestic terroristโ group in the country on Pod Save America.
The comment comes as Democrats wrestle with whether to welcome or distance themselves from the content creator ahead of this yearโs elections.
-Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a prospective 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, will be honored by the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund in Washington this weekend.
-Former President Joe Bidenโs official portrait was unveiled yesterday at Syracuse University.
-Authorities in Nigeriaย apprehended a 33-member gangย allegedly responsible for abducting 38 people at a church in the countryโs central Kwara state in November.
The arrest is part of the central governmentโs crackdown on criminal groups.
-Libyaโs eastern- and western-based administrations participated in military exercises hosted by the United States for the first time on Tuesday.
Since the ouster of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the North African country has been rocked by civil conflict and divided government authority, with competing geographic factions vying for territorial control since 2014.
-On this day in 1958, the First Conference of Independent African States was held in Accra, Ghana, bringing together the leaders of the eight independent African nations at the time to coordinate their opposition to colonialism and foster continental unity.
At the gathering, the leaders designated April 15 as โAfrican Freedom Day.โ
In 1963, the Organization of African Unity moved the date to May 25.
In 2023, civil war broke out in Sudan after the countryโs army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) descended into a battle for control of the capital, Khartoum.
Since then, the country has been gripped by widespread death and disease.
According to some estimates, there have been at least 150,000 deaths since the war broke out, with some 14 million more people having been displaced.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 19 million people, or about 41% of the population, are facing โhigh levels of acute food insecurity.โ
-Brazilian President Luiz Inรกcio Lula da Silvaย calledย for the extradition of former spy chief Alexandre Ramagem after he was apprehended in the United States.
Ramagem fled Brazil after he was convicted of his role in plotting a coup with now-former President Jair Bolsonaro following his 2022 election defeat.
Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year prison term.
-On this day in 1959, Fidel Castro visited the United States, just four months after successfully leading a revolution that toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.
-North Korea carried out another test of its strategic cruise and anti-warship missiles on Sunday as relations between Pyongyang and South Korea continue to deteriorate.
-Five countries in the Indo-Pacific will participate in U.S.-led military exercises in the region starting next week.
The drills, which will run from April 20 to May 8, come as U.S. allies in the region worry that Washingtonโs strategic focus has shifted from Asia to the Middle East amid its conflict with Iran.
Australia, Canada, France, the Philippines, and New Zealand will contribute forces to the multilateral effort.
-Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. did a few rounds of jumping jacks in a bid to dispel rumors of his failing health.
-The United Nations said that around 250 people are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea due to heavy winds.
-On this day in 1998, Pol Pot died in his sleep.
During his four-year rule over Cambodia, his Khmer Rouge regime carried out a genocide against the Cambodian people, killing an estimated 1.5 to 3 million people, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the Southeast Asian nationโs population.
-Days after President Trump criticized Pope Leo for his opposition to Washingtonโs war against Iran, the Vatican issued a statement warning the advanced democracies risked sliding into โmajoritarian tyranny,โ a seemingly veiled shot at Trumpโs populist movement.
-In an interview with an Italian newspaper, Trump said that he was โshockedโ by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloniโs opposition to his decision to launch a military operation against Iran, representing a break between the conservative allies.
In response to Meloni calling his attacks on the Pope โunacceptable,โ Trump said, โItโs her whoโs unacceptable.โ
-Trump called on the United Kingdom to drill oil from the North Sea to offset surging global energy prices.
-U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will once again skip a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group today. Instead, the Pentagonโs policy chief, Elbridge Colby, will attend in his place.
A meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in June 2022.
The grouping of over 50 defense chiefs seeks to coordinate military assistance to Ukraine as it wards off invading Russian forces.
The forum was established in April 2022 just after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since assuming office, the Trump administration has delegated its leadership role in the body.
-French President Emmanuel Macron said he would seek a coordinated approach to ban minors from using social media across the 27-member European Union.
-On this day in 1452, Leonardo da Vinci was born in Italy.
In 1912, the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic.
Shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched a joint military operation against Iran on February 28, the Israeli military began striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, ending a teetering ceasefire agreement.
According to estimates, the fighting has killed around 2,000 people and displaced over one million people in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, President Trump said yesterday that talks with Iran could resume as early as this week.
Last weekend, Vice President JD Vance led a U.S. delegation for talks with Iranian officials in Pakistan. After those talks broke down, Trump said that he would impose a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz in a bid to get Iran to agree to a long-term agreement to settle the war and to place limits on its nuclear program.
Vance appeared on Fox News on Monday to discuss the talks.
It is believed that Iran has planted mines in the strategic waterway, and Tehran has threatened to attack ports belonging to Arab Gulf states if its ports are attacked.
Prior to the recent war in the region, the Strait served as a conduit for 20% of the worldโs daily oil consumption.
The 76-year-old, who has dominated politics in Israel for the better part of the past two decades, is expected to seek another term in office in parliamentary elections due by late October.
Last week, a long-running public corruption trial against Netanyahu restarted after pausing due to the war.
-On this day in 1993, President Bill Clinton hosted Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the Oval Office to discuss the Middle East peace process.
Later that year, Clinton would host Rabin, along with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, at the White House for the signing of the Oslo Accords, establishing a framework for the eventual settlement of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
In 1995, Rabin was assassinated as he departed a peace rally in Tel Aviv by an Israeli radical angry over Rabinโs peace overtures to the Palestinians.
Speaking at Rabinโs funeral service in Jerusalem, Clinton said, โYour Prime Minister was a martyr for peace, but he was a victim of hate. Surely we must learn from his martyrdom that if people cannot let go of the hatred of their enemies, they risk sowing the seeds of hatred among themselves.โ
Trump wrote, โPope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. He talks about โfearโ of the Trump Administration, but doesnโt mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside. I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA.โ (snip-MORE)
Iโm not religious so the fact that Trump posted an image showing himself as Jesus doesnโt personally insult me. But some of the criticism have described his actions as blasphemous, which I think is dangerous territory for a secular society. There are countries which have blasphemy laws that have led to horrendous murders, just because someoneโs religious sensibilities have been offended. It has no place in a democracy. What Americans ought to be outraged about was the gaslighting response Trump gave to a reporter when asked about the image. Either he was lying through his teeth or his dementia is further along than I thought.
Hereโs an cartoon from 2020 when Trump pandered to Christian voters by demanding governors open houses of worship during the Covid pandemic shutdown.
Yesterday, after posting a tirade against the Pope on Truth Social, Donald Trump shared an AI-created image of himself as Jesus Christ. A lot of people didn’t take kindly to this, probably because Donald Trump posted a picture of himself as Jesus Christ.
Asย The New York Timesย describes it, โThe image had showed Mr. Trump (sic) dressed in white and red robes, with the presidentโs hands emitting shining lights. His right hand was touching the forehead of a man lying on a bed in a hospital gown, evoking religious art that depicts Jesus healing the sick.โ (snip-MORE)
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 07: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) welcomes Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban as he arrives at the White House on November 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump and Orban are holding a bilateral lunch today and are expected to discuss trade and energy. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Itโs the Corruption, Stupid
In the aftermath of Viktor Orbรกnโs defeat in Hungary, a typically shallow conventional wisdom has already emerged that unless President Trump gets the economy turned around, Republicans are going to have hell to pay in the 2026 and 2028 elections.
The NYT quotes the right-wing commentator Rod Dreher, who decamped to Hungary to work for an Orbรกn-funded think tank, as explaining the election result thusly: โWhen all boats arenโt rising, everybody looks at whoโs on the yacht. In terms of MAGA, populism is great, but if you canโt deliver on the economy, none of it is going to matter.โ
That is abundantly true and yet terribly misleading because the economic mess weโre in is entirely of Trumpโs own doing. Heโs not the usual American president held hostage to the vagaries and cycles of an economy largely beyond his control.
In historic fashion, Trump has torpedoed key pillars of the global economy by launching unprecedented trade wars and an unjustified elective war in the Middle East that has bottled up world oil supplies to such an extent that it threatens a recession. At home, he has dramatically throttled back the economic engine of immigration, targeted Americaโs world leading universities, and decimated its vibrant scientific and biomedical research base.
Except for the racist assault on immigrants, all of these moves are not driven by ideological imperatives but by corrupt impulses. The economic damage Trump has done was crafted purposely to create opportunities for self-enrichment for him and his allies. It generates its own currency which can be used to perpetuate his political power. What he dispenses he can take away.
The family real estate business is undergoing the fastest overseas expansion since its founding a century ago, each deal potentially shaping everything from tariffs to military aid.
Led by Eric, and his brother, Donald Jr., the family business has expanded into cryptocurrencies with ventures that brought in billions of dollars but raised questions about whether some big investors received favorable treatment in return.
The brothers have also joined or invested in a number of companies that aim to do business with the government their father runs. Last month, they struck a deal giving them stakes worth millions in an armed drone maker seeking contracts with the Pentagon and with Gulf states under attack by Iran and dependent on the U.S. military led by their father.
It always sounds a bit earnest to deplore corruption, but one of the practical reasons for eschewing corruption is because at best it acts like an invisible tax on economic growth. At worst, it corrodes the economic engine to the point that it doesnโt properly function any longer. Before Trump, the United States was a world leader in combatting corporate and political corruption abroad for the unapologetically realpolitik reason that American companies could win on a level playing field. Under Trump II, the DOJ has explicitly stopped enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and weโre now in a grubby race to the bottom.
Any notion that Trump can get the economy โback on trackโ or dampen the economic shockwaves he has unleashed ignores the substance of what heโs done. Not only are Trumpโs second term attacks on economic growth hard to reverse, let alone quickly, theyโre deeply wired into who he is and what heโs about.
The Economic Warning Signs
The Middle East conflict isย causingย oil scarcity and rising prices that are contributing to significant โdemand destructionโ which could lead to the steepest drop-off in demand for oil since the COVID slowdown, the International Energy Agency is forecasting in itsย latest outlook.
The International Monetary Fundย warnsย that the Middle East conflict will slow economic growth, fuel inflation and raises the possibility of a global recession.
Latest on the Middle East Conflict โฆ
Israeli and Lebanese officialsย gatheredย in D.C. for rare direct talks โ the first in a decade โ as the Netanyahu government has seized on the wider conflict to advance Israelโs position on the ground in Lebanon.
Bitter irony alert: Talks between Iran and Trump administration are complicated by โthe risk that any agreement that emerges may resemble the 2015 nuclear accordโ that Trump abrogated in his first term, theย NYT reports.
House Republicans have again abdicated their oversight roles byย pushing offย until at least May testimony originally scheduled for next week from senior Pentagon officials on the war in Iran.
Latest on the Middle East Conflict โฆ
Israeli and Lebanese officialsย gatheredย in D.C. for rare direct talks โ the first in a decade โ as the Netanyahu government has seized on the wider conflict to advance Israelโs position on the ground in Lebanon.
Bitter irony alert: Talks between Iran and Trump administration are complicated by โthe risk that any agreement that emerges may resemble the 2015 nuclear accordโ that Trump abrogated in his first term, theย NYT reports.
House Republicans have again abdicated their oversight roles byย pushing offย until at least May testimony originally scheduled for next week from senior Pentagon officials on the war in Iran.
Lawless Boat Strike Death Toll: 170
The U.S. attacked an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, bringing the campaignโs overall death toll to at least 170. In announcing the attack, the U.S. Southern Command introduced new Orwellian language: โApplying total systemic friction on the cartels.โ
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is waging a pressure campaign against the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to squash a potential investigation into the boat strike campaign, The Intercept reports.
Must Read
TPMโs Josh Kovensky reports from Frisco, Texas, the countryโs fastest growing city and a haven for South Asian immigrants, which far-right activists are seizing on as โproofโ of the Great Replacement Theory.
Thread of the Day
Trump has cut legal immigration more than illegal immigration, as I predicted. While illegal entries have fallen, they continued a prior trend, falling more before he came back. Meanwhile, Trump has drastically cut legal entries, reversing the prior upward trend. http://www.cato.org/blog/trump-h…
Local authorities in St. Paul, Minnesota have launched a criminal investigation into the notorious ICE detention in January of Hmong American ChongLy โScottโ Thao. Theyโre investigating the warrantless raid on an American citizenโs home as a potential kidnapping, burglary, and false imprisonment.
American law is built on a simple rule: The government cannot get around legal limits by creating a new structure to do the same thing another way. The Posse Comitatus Act reflects that rule. It exists to prevent the federal government from using a large, armed force for general policing inside the U.S. But by tripling ICEโs size, giving it $75 billion in multi-year funding insulated from normal oversight, and deploying it far beyond immigration enforcement โ from neighborhood operations to general airport security โ the administration has achieved in practice what those restrictions were designed to prevent.
Swalwell and Gonzales Both Resign
In a rapid-fire combo of scandal-fueled resignations, Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) both announced last evening that they would resign their seats โ though neither gave a date certain for their departures. Depending on the exact timing, the resignations should be a wash and not effect majority control of the House.
Two Big Wins
In the lawsuit over the removal of the Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument, the Trump administration has reversed course andย confirmedย in a new filing that it will reinstate the flag and not remove it again.
The American Library Association and a union of cultural workers have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the Trump administration thatย savesย the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, the NYT reports: โThe Trump administration reaffirmed that it had reinstated all previously canceled grants, in keeping with a separate legal ruling last year, and reversed all staff reductions. It also promised not to take any further steps to reduce the agency.โ
Good Read
Wired: Government Workers Say Theyโre Getting Inundated With Religion
Pope Making Everyone Look Dumb
The senior senator from Ohio:
Bernie Moreno on Trumpโs comments about the Pope: โI was incensed to watch the Pope's comments. I think what the Pope is doing is a disgrace.โโIt's a shame that the Pope has made the Catholic Church political. Thank God my momโs not alive to watch that.โ
Randy/blundersonword is correct about moral turpitude in the US’s government, though of course many believe that moral is as moral does for each person. What I consider moral can be immoral to others (though I never get why… Anyway.) This came in my email today, and maybe others wish to participate with this absolutely moral activism. Thanks for checking in!
Please join us on Tuesday, April 14 at 8:30AM ET for an emergency press conference convened by Bishop William J. Barber, II, DMin, President & Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, Professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy, and Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.
Bishop Barber will respond to President Trumpโs widely circulated AIโgenerated image depicting himself as Jesus Christ, recent statements from Franklin Graham, and the Popeโs global call for renewed moral commitment to the poor and to pluralist democracy.
Bishop Barber will address the theological and democratic dangers of these developments and call faith leaders nationwide to resist the misuse of religion to sanctify policy violence and division.
Because this is important history that we really ought to review, because the leopards who were “only” going for certain parts of the population are going for all the population, these days.
“Not all Republicans are racist, but racists vote Republican, and they do it for racist reasons.”
While the explicit nature of the โmonkeyโ and โcannibalโ slurs is jarring, it sits within a long, documented tradition of presidential prejudice that has shaped the nationโs policies.
History always has a funny way of spinning the block, and every once in a while, we run into something that refuses to stay buried no matter how much time has passed. Recordings reported byย CBSย revealed a deeply disturbing discussion between former Republican presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reaganโand you guessed it, itโsย super racist.
Per the news outlet, former President Richard Nixon was speaking with then-California Governor Ronald Reagan following a United Nations meeting to recognize the Peopleโs Republic of China. While global attention shouldโve been centered on the diplomatic shift, Reagan reportedly phoned Nixonโs White House to voice his frustration over African delegates who celebrated the decision. At one point, Reagan flat out called them โmonkeysโโand it only went downhill from there.ย
Before we get to that, hereโs the real question: Why is anyone shocked? To treat these recordings as a singular, shocking โglitchโ in the American presidency is to ignore the very fabric of the office. Yes, the explicit nature of the โmonkeyโ and โcannibalโ slurs is jarring, but it sits within a long, documented tradition of presidential prejudice against Black folks that has shaped the nationโs policies for decades.
Long before Reagan and Nixon shared a laugh at the expense of African diplomats, Woodrow Wilson was busy re-segregating the federal workforce and praising the post-Civil war Ku Klux Klan as an โInvisible Empire of the South,โ perย History. Andrew Jackson publicly framed Native Americans as an โinferior raceโ to justify the brutal displacement of the Trail of Tears. Even Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act, was notoriously recorded using the N-word in private to describe the very people he was legislating forโoften viewing civil rights through the lens of political leverage rather than inherent humanity.
When we look at the timeline, Nixonโs own history of referring to Black people as โgenetically inferiorโ or Reaganโs later โwelfare queenโ trope arenโt outliers; they are the quiet parts being said out loud. So, as these clips circulate on social media, the most revealing part of the story isnโt the racism itselfโitโs our collective lack of surprise that it happened at all.ย
Letโs get back to the audio. Reagan told Nixon โLast night, I tell ya, to watch that thing on television as I did. To see those monkeys from those African countries, damn them. Theyโre still uncomfortable wearing shoes.โ
Laughter is heard on the other end of the call after the disgusting statement. But thatโs not all.ย
After Reaganโs reckless and racist phone call, Nixon later spoke with William Rogersโthen Secretary of Stateโand doubled down on Reaganโs racist remarks. And if you thought the last phone recording was badโฆ just wait, it gets worse.
(snip-embedded TikTok; click the story title above to go to the page, if you wish)
โHe saw these cannibals on television last night, and he says โChrist, they werenโt even wearing shoes, and here the U.S. is going to submit its fate to thatโฆโ Nixon said.
Later that month Nixon had a laugh with his long time best friend, former Florida banker and businessman Charles โBebeโ Rebozo. And as you may have expected, the racist banter continued to roll.
โThat reaction on television was that it proves how they ought to be still hanging from the trees by their tails,โ Rebozo said with a laugh during his call with Nixon.ย
Tiktokโs comments section was riddled with folks asking, โWhereโs the surprise?โ and โThe way my jawย did notย drop,โ alongside emojis. And letโs be real, we get it.ย
While thereโs certainly shock value in hearing these recordings, none of this is entirely surprising. This is a country built on Black labor and Black sufferingโone where federal power has long been used to contain Black political movements, includingย COINTELPRO, which targeted organizations like the Black Panther Party and other Black-led groups working toward progress and self-determination.
That said, these tapes donโt feel like an isolated incident, but rather a reminder of how deeply racism has been woven into political life at even the highest levels. And while the exposure of this kind of rhetoric may be unsettling, it ultimately tells a familiar reality of Black folksโ lived experience in America.
NEW YORK (AP) โ The Trump administration said Monday it will resume flying a rainbow Pride flag on a federal flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, reversing course two months after removing the banner from the first national monument commemorating LGBTQ+ history.
The government revealed the decision in court papers as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by advocacy and historic preservation groups who had sought to block the Feb. 9 removal. A judge approved the deal.
The Interior Department and National Park Service โhave confirmed their intention to maintain a Pride flag at Stonewall,โ lawyers for the government and the groups wrote in a joint court filing.
The flag โ one of several Pride banners at the 7.7-acre (3.1-hectare) park โ wonโt be removed, except for โmaintenance or other practical purposes,โ the filing said. (snip-details of position and measurements of the Pride flag)
April 12, 1935 60,000 students across the U.S. took part in the first nationwide student strike. The protest was against fascism and participation in any war. ย Posters from the anti-war movement of the 1930’s One of the events that dayย
April 12, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. and his fellow ministers Fred Shuttlesworth and Ralph Abernathy, along with 60 others were arrested on Good Friday in Birmingham, Alabama, for marching downtown. They had been denied a parade permit, and were violating a court order banning them from all protest activities. Public Safety Commissioner Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor had sought the injunction to put an end to a series of sit-ins, kneel-ins, boycotts and other nonviolent actions designed to challenge the local and state segregation laws. Fred Lee Shuttlesworth (left), Ralph David Abernathy (center), and Martin Luther King Jr. (right) march on Good Friday on April 12, 1963, in Birmingham. The Birmingham campaign of 1963ย Arrest in Birminghamย
April 12, 1971 Protest at Fessenheim The first European demonstration against nuclear power brought together 1300 peacefully to oppose construction of a nuclear power plant at Fessenheim, on the Rhine in the Alsace region of France. The four 900 megawatt reactors have been in operation since 1977.
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Scottie's Playtime 
