Saturday, April 04, 2026

Chump's dementia leads him to desire even more war

Donald Chump kept a low profile today.  Possibly he learned of the latest polling results?  Sam Stevenson (NEWSWEEK) reported this morning:


Public sentiment is shifting as the administration confronts fallout from the Iran war, mounting economic pressures, and a political calendar already tilting toward the midterms. 

Slipping support among low-income voters, a key part of Trump’s electoral coalition, adds to the stakes.

A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS between March 26 and March 30, 2026, found Trump’s approval ratings at their lowest point yet across three major policy areas: the economy, foreign affairs and inflation.

The survey was based on a random national sample of 1,201 adults, interviews were conducted using a mix of online and telephone methods, with results weighted to reflect the U.S. adult population, and the margin of sampling error for the full sample was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.


Friday, a US fighter jet was shot down in Iran with two service members on the plane.  While one was recovered quickly, another one was missing on Friday and for most of today.  Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper (NEW YORK TIMES) report: 

An Air Force officer whose fighter jet had been shot down in Iran was rescued by U.S. Special Operations forces in a risky Saturday night mission that took commandos deep into enemy territory, said current and former U.S. officials briefed on the operation.

The rescue followed a life-or-death race between U.S. and Iranian forces that stretched over two days to reach the injured airman. As U.S. forces converged on the downed airman, a firefight erupted, a former senior military official briefed on the operation said. In the end, the United States extracted the officer in an operation that involved hundreds of special operations troops.


Andre Damon (WSWS) notes:


A second aircraft, an A-10 Thunderbolt, was shot down in a separate incident the same day. The pilot ejected over Kuwaiti airspace and was rescued. Two HH-60G rescue helicopters sent to recover the F-15E’s crew were also hit by Iranian fire, injuring US personnel aboard before returning to base. In all, four American aircraft were struck in a single day—the worst losses of the five-week war.

The shoot-downs came two days after Trump addressed the nation in a prime time speech in which he threatened to destroy Iranian society. “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said Wednesday. “We are going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong.” He threatened to hit “each and every one of their electric generating plants,” and said he had not yet struck Iran’s oil only because doing so “would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding.”

“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said in the same speech. “They have no antiaircraft equipment. Their radar is 100 percent annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared on March 31: “Iran knows that, and there’s almost nothing they can militarily do about it.” Forty-eight hours later, Iran shot an American fighter jet out of the sky.

As the Intercept noted, “Neither the White House nor the Pentagon responded to requests for comment on how Iran could down an advanced US aircraft when the country supposedly no longer possesses anti-aircraft weaponry.” The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the shoot-down.


Alexander Ward and Michael R. Gordon (WALL STREET JOURNAL) point out:

Just 48 hours after President Trump had all but declared Tehran was militarily defeated and looking for a deal to end the war, Iran downed two American warplanes.

Trump’s repeated declarations that the war is nearly over are colliding with the gritty battlefield reality, some U.S. officials and analysts said.


And while Chump hid out today, his request for the next defense budget to be increased by approximately 42% to $1.5 trillion further called his previous insistence to be opposed to never-ending wars into question.  In his speech on Wednesday night, he got wrong Iran's capabilities, yes, but he also was wrong the federal government when he said in the speech that the US government cannot afford to fund child care or Medicaid or Medicare because the government must focus on military spending.  

Then why do we need the federal government?


If you believe Chump's lie, then there's no need for a federal government.  


Chump, in his advanced dementia, appears to believe that the US government now exists solely for pursuing his wars of choice.  As he prepares for attacks on Cuba and Greenland and who knows where else in his deranged mind.


Daniel Hampton (RAW STORY) reports:


President Donald Trump's closest allies in the Middle East are privately sounding the alarm as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushes the president to escalate the Iran war by targeting civilian infrastructure — including power plants and desalination facilities that millions of people depend on to survive, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Hegseth has personally briefed Trump on a legal rationale for striking Iran's bridges and roads, arguing that Iran's military could theoretically use them to move missiles and drone materials, the Journal reported. A White House official added that destroying power plants could "foment civil unrest," potentially complicating Tehran's path to a nuclear device.

But current and former military lawyers warn that it breaches the laws of armed conflict.


AP reports on the anti-Chump, someone who truly believes in peace:


Pope Leo XIV, carrying a tall, lit candle through a darkened and silent St. Peter’s Basilica, ushered in Christianity’s most joyous celebration with his first Easter vigil service as pontiff Saturday night, urging that Easter would bring harmony and peace to a world torn by wars.

Easter for Christians commemorates Christ’s triumph over death with his resurrection following his crucifixion. Lighting the candle before he entered the basilica, the pope intoned: “The light of Christ who rises in glory.”

[. . .]

With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its second month and Russia’s ongoing campaign in Ukraine, Leo has repeatedly called for a halt in hostilities. On Palm Sunday, he said that God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who make war or cite God to justify their violence,


Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:


Trump proposes slashing domestic investments while increasing defense spending by half a trillion dollars more

ICYMI: Trump on Wednesday: “It’s not possible for us to take of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare … We have to take care of one thing: military protection.” 

Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray, Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on the release of President Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget request, which proposes increasing defense spending by roughly half a trillion dollars while slashing and even defunding key domestic programs that American families count on every day.  

“The vision President Trump has outlined for America in his budget is bleak and unacceptable. President Trump wants to slash medical research to fund costly foreign wars. It doesn’t get more backward than that, and the only responsible thing to do with a budget this morally bankrupt is to toss it in the trash.  

“After passing the largest cuts to health care in American history, all to fund billionaire tax breaks and give ICE more money than most militaries, President Trump now wants Congress to defund dozens of programs that help students so that he can send other people’s kids to fight a war with no justification. And after sending prices skyrocketing with his stupid tariffs and reckless war, President Trump is now proposing to eliminate programs that help families afford the basics—like LIHEAP. 

“This week, President Trump said that our country cannot afford to help families with child care or health care—but his own budget proves what a ridiculous farce that is. Imagine how many families we could help if, instead of giving the Pentagon more money than they can even figure out what to do with, we cut people’s heating bills in half and made child care affordable for every family in America. 

“Our national defense budget should not be dictated by a president who is sending servicemembers into harm’s way in reckless foreign wars—and who woke up one day and decided to send his aides scrambling to figure out how on earth they could spend half a trillion dollars more, which the Pentagon can’t possibly spend responsibly. Donald Trump might be happy to spend more money on bombs in the Middle East than on families here in America—but I am not.   

“Last year, I said I’d rip up President Trump’s budget and make sure Congress wrote a new one instead—that’s exactly what we did and will do again. The American people want their tax dollars going toward investments that help everyone and make life more affordable—the basics like utilities and child care. Those are the investments I am going to fight for. Trump wants to build a ballroom—I want to build more affordable housing, and only one of us sits on the Appropriations Committee.” 

President Trump’s budget proposes slashing domestic investments by $73 billion while massively increasing the defense budget by roughly half a trillion dollars more (through both annual appropriations and reconciliation) in order to achieve an unprecedented $1.5 trillion defense budget that dwarfs all other non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending. This sum does not include a separate supplemental funding request expected for the Iran war.

  • President Trump arbitrarily announced on Truth Social in early January that he wanted a $1.5 trillion defense budget—and sent his aides scrambling to produce a request that met his topline.  
  • Trump’s budget seeks to dramatically cut back on domestic investments as American families struggle to make ends meet with higher costs, and as there are already immense strains on the non-defense budget, which has been roughly flat for three successive fiscal years, while defense spending has continued to grow. Non-defense programs will be further strained with the expiration at the end of fiscal year 2026 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which has supported key non-defense priorities with tens of billions of dollars in funding each year.

President Trump’s budget proposes a $404 million cut in funding for the Hanford nuclear clean-up site—and proposes eliminating contingency funding for the Office of River Protection’s High Level Waste (HLW) facility.

On President Trump’s proposed budget for Hanford, Senator Murray said:

“Hanford is the largest nuclear cleanup site in our country, and it is not only dangerous, but costs more in the long run to cut corners on nuclear waste cleanup. Trump’s proposed budget is a slap in the face to the Tri-Cities, threatening the Hanford cleanup mission and the community with this absurd budget request. This proposal is completely unacceptable. I’ll be doing everything I can to set this president straight on the importance of the Hanford cleanup—and if he still doesn’t get it, I’m going to make sure Congress funds it anyway. The federal government has a moral and legal obligation here—and as long as I help lead the appropriations committee, Congress is going to meet that obligation.”  

More toplines on President Trump’s budget request will be distributed later today and made available HERE.  

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The following sites updated:




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