Reporter: There is reporting that Pentagon officials brought in Cardinal Christophe Pierre and told him the American military can do whatever they want and the church should get on its side
A top Vatican diplomat was summoned to the Pentagon for a “bitter lecture” demanding that the Pope get behind Donald Trump, it has emerged.
Vatican officials briefed on the meeting told The Free Press that one of the Pentagon’s most senior officials summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre to meet in January—then told him that the United States has the military power to do “whatever it wants,” and that Pope Leo, the first American-born pontiff, “better take its side.”
The site writes that “as tensions escalated,” one U.S. official “went so far as to invoke the Avignon Papacy, the period in the 1300s when the French Crown leveraged its military power to dominate the papal authority.”
Pierre was reportedly summoned to the meeting by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, a Catholic who served in the first Trump administration and was nominated by Trump to his current role. Colby is a close ally of Catholic convert JD Vance. Such a meeting between Pentagon officials and the Vatican is believed to be unprecedented.
The Free Press writes that Pentagon brass “picked apart the pontiff’s January speech,” referring to his inaugural State of the World Address. They reportedly took issue with a passage in which Leo challenged Trump’s so-called Donroe Doctrine, saying, “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies.”
I’m sure Vance will find a way to excuse this insanity despite the fact that he’s even written a new book about his Catholic faith, which is about as authentic as his politics.
Bill Barr in 2023: Trump is “a consummate narcissist, and he constantly engages in reckless conduct. He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country's interests."
"Trump could drop a nuke and I'd still vote Republican over those people. What they want to do is nuke our own country. The open border, what they're doing to children. They'd do it all if put back into power."pic.twitter.com/Ak3NRFK6qg
— The American Conservative (@amconmag) April 7, 2026
They care more about owning the libs than the survival of the country.
Pam Bondi’s tenure at the Department of Justice started out with such promise. She understood from the beginning that her job was to serve not as attorney general of the United States, but as attorney general of Donald Trump. She was his personal legal hit woman, and she took on the assignment with energy and enthusiasm.
For a solid year she fulfilled her duty as a top Trump sycophant, showing not even the slightest compunction at behaving like a schoolyard bully and shameless apple polisher. During what would turn out to be her last major public appearance in office, she testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 11 that Trump is “the greatest president in American history” and, in an attempt to divert attention, argued that the committee should be talking about the stock market instead of the Epstein files. The assumption was that the “audience of one,” as Trump is called, would undoubtedly be pleased by her combative attitude and rousing defense of him, but it turned out that he had already soured on his attorney general. He would fire her within the month.
Bondi had known Trump for years, even before he became president, so she should have known that, with him, loyalty only goes one way. The day after she was sacked, her official portrait was thrown in the trash at the very building that had been her domain.
It’s unclear what exactly cooled Trump on Bondi, but we do know he was unhappy about her inability to stick it to his political enemies. But Trump will perhaps have better luck with the man he immediately named as his acting attorney general — Todd Blanche, Bondi’s deputy and yet another of Trump’s personal lawyers. On Tuesday, at his first press conference after taking office, Blanche proved that he is more than up to the task of flattering the president before the television cameras. When asked if he wanted to be named to the job permanently, he replied, “I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime. And if President Trump chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.’”
That sort of sentiment is certainly appreciated by Trump, but it is insufficient in securing his regard. So Blanche, obviously seeking to learn from his predecessor’s mistakes, went on to make clear that he loyalty to the president comes first — ahead of the traditions and norms that have long been in place at the Justice Department, ahead of his duty to the country, ahead of any commitment to the rule of law.
A reporter asked about his policy of taking “referrals” from the president, pointing out that after Watergate, Congress intentionally constructed a firewall between the White House and the DOJ. Blanche bridled at the suggestion, calling it “the most false statement I have ever heard in my life.”
“There is always communication between a president and his priorities and what the DOJ should be focused on and not focused on,” he said, certainly knowing that is not why the firewall was erected. It was created to insulate the department from politics to the greatest extent possible, and to prevent an attorney general from using their tremendous power on behalf of the president. After Watergate, that was considered an abuse of power. Not anymore.
Blanche went on to explain that there are “men, women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with,” and it is Trump’s right and duty to lead the country. He said that while the president doesn’t want to go after his political enemies, “he wants justice” because people had gone after him and his family.
That bald admission shows that, if he hopes to exonerate his boss, Blanche will need to hone his skills as a political mouthpiece. But what he might lack in rhetorical finesse, he more than has in job experience, as least as defined by Trump.
During his 14 months as Bondi’s deputy, Blanche presided over a full-scale purge of the Justice Department, which saw the firing of anyone with even the most tangential relationship to the investigations of Trump’s role in Jan. 6 and his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and his possession of classified documents after leaving office. He has made no bones about believing that any prosecutor who worked on those cases had behaved unethically and should have resigned. At the same time Blanche is defending Trump’s right to “get justice” against anyone he believes has wronged him, he is overtly punishing the department’s career prosecutors and FBI agents who were assigned to “get justice” for the president’s criminal behavior.
There are also other ongoing inquiries targeting Trump’s political enemies, including yet another attempt to discredit the Russia investigation and the Obama administration with a secret probe based in Florida. On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that its civil rights division, headed by Harmeet Dhillon, a right-wing activist whom many are urging Trump to appoint as attorney general, has been assigned to investigate former Trump White House employee Cassidy Hutchinson for allegedly lying to Congress, a task that makes no sense for the department. The case is yet another punitive shot against one of Trump’s perceived enemies, and they are making sure it goes to a political operative who understands the assignment.
Blanche would most likely be easily confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, and his paean to Trump at Tuesday’s press conference shows that he understands his boss very well. By expressing his unconditional love for the president and making clear his willingness to be tossed aside like one of his discarded wives, Blanche has signaled he will do anything Trump wants him to. And if anything goes wrong, he’ll happily take the fall.
Blanche is the attorney general of Trump’s dreams. Until he isn’t.
Donald Trump’s second term has been an extinction-level event for American credibility. The malignant narcissist could get his suit ripped, his arm broken, and his nose bloodied and he’d still declare victory. Nobody’s buying what he’s selling this time. Not even his allies.
WOW. Fox News admits none of Trump’s stated objectives for the war have been achieved. pic.twitter.com/iBlsJ0k1ri
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) April 8, 2026
Absolute disaster for the White House. Piers Morgan completely dismantles Donald Trump's fake historic victory. He confirms Iran absolutely controls the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon wasted 30 billion dollars, and Trump's approval ratings are collapsing. Total failure! pic.twitter.com/Gqmd2VsyOW
Absolute humiliation for the White House. Sky News dismantles Donald Trump's fake victory lap. A top defense expert confirms not a single American objective was achieved, and the disastrous war left the US in a much worse position. Total strategic failure. pic.twitter.com/7DhyBmCAoX
Trump still believes in his power to bend reality to his will. He’s amped up for another “conquest” as if he’s just finished with one of Jeffrey Epstein’s young masseuses.
I remember when MAGA morons were pushing Russian propaganda from their Putin-paid influencers and calling us “warmongers” for supporting aid to Ukraine so they could defend themselves.
What Trump has finished off is American credibility, writes a former special assistant to the president in the Biden administration. Writing from Spain, Amanda Sloat lets Americans know their country’s reputation is trashed (gift link):
More and more Europeans no longer view the United States as a reliable ally. The reasons are not hard to find. The president has threatened to leave NATO, sidelined allies in negotiations over Ukraine’s future, imposed steep tariffs on the European Union and threatened to seize Greenland by force — prompting Europeans to prepare for the real prospect of military conflict with their oldest ally. One recent survey found that one-quarter or more of respondents in some countries — including France, Germany and Spain — see the United States as a rival or adversary. Another found that an absolute majority view Trump as an “enemy” of Europe and U.S. foreign policy as “recolonization.” Polls also reflect a growing belief that China is a more dependable partner.
There’s more. And less.
The U.S. is losing access to European bases and intelligence. When the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran, a joint statement by Britain, France and Germany pointedly noted their lack of involvement. A growing number of European countries have refused to authorize base or airspace access for offensive military operations, while Poland reportedly denied a U.S. request to transfer air defense systems. These actions follow Britain’s significant but barely noticed decision last fall to suspend intelligence sharing about suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean given concerns about legally dubious U.S. strikes.
The U.S. is also losing European business. As European governments increase their defense budgets, they are unsurprisingly using taxpayer euros to support domestic arms manufacturers. The Trump administration has threatened retaliation if their procurement bids exclude American companies — while at the same time rerouting U.S. munitions already purchased by Europe for the Pentagon’s use in Iran.
This dynamic isn’t limited to governments — it’s reaching ordinary consumers and financial markets. There is growing support for “Buy European” movements. In the Nordic countries, new apps scan a product’s barcode, view its origin and identify local alternatives. Dutch citizens are deleting Google Maps in favor of national options. Retail and institutional investors, including pension funds, are shifting away from U.S. equities amid fears the U.S. Treasury could freeze European assets. The E.U. is also expediting new trade deals with partners like India and Mercosur.
While you were Googling duck-and-cover instructions from the 1950s and 60s on Tuesday, JD Vance was in Budapest campaigning for the reelection of Hungary’s far-right nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Orbán is flagging in the polls ahead of Sunday’s election.
Viktor Orbán is the cornerstone of President Trump’s vision for Europe. The pro-Kremlin, anti-EU strongman has spent 16 years building a template for Christian nationalist rule now embraced by the American right.
Orbán has been the toast of CPAC, a Tucker Carlson crush, and self-styled defender of western civilization against the predations of wokeness and race mixing. Vance praised Orbán, saying, “The president loves you, and so do I, because you’re such an important part of what has made Europe strong and prosperous.” Etc., etc.
About that “strong and prosperous.”
Richard Stengel, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy under President Obama, commented on Hungary Tuesday during an appearance on “Deadline: White House.” Speaking as a former editor (Time), Stengel recommended that every article on Hungary come with an advisory box. It would read:
Hungary the poorest country in the EU
Hungary is the most corrupt country in the EU
Hungary is a country the size of Pennsylvania but it’s four times as poor as Pennsylvania
Italy is 10 times richer than Hungary
Bookmark that.
“Hungary is an example of failure,” Stengel emphasized, an example of state capture.
So just what is it that white, Christian nationalists find attractive about Hungary? Orbán is loudly and proudly anti-immigrant. Here’s a quote (2022):
“We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race,” said Orbán on Saturday. He added that countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were “no longer nations”.
That makes Orbán a MAGA darling, and Hungary a model for what MAGAs want for the U.S.
Some US conservatives see Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Hungary as a model for America’s future. In reality, Orbán’s crude majoritarianism has undermined the rule of law and media freedom in Hungary to take control of the economy and funnel resources to loyal oligarchs. The dismantling of institutional constraints on state power has gone further than in other modern democracies, and the results have consistently disappointed, even in areas where the government claims achievements such as strengthening the economy or increasing fertility rates. Far from being a model, Orbán’s Hungary is a cautionary tale of what results from an unrestrained executive with strongly centralized power, crony capitalism, and the systematic dismantling of the rule of law.
Again, Orbán is a MAGA darling. Like Dear Leader.
Not that perspicacity is their strong suit, but MAGAs had best be careful what they wish for.
I’m reminded of the family of conservative Christians that moved from Houston to Russia because they believed their three daughters “were being brainwashed by public school and mainstream media to support LGBTQ rights” and because “American culture in general no longer offered white people the same opportunities as other races.” Russia would be their non-woke, white-Christian paradise. Another family from Abilene emigrated for the same reasons, except with sons. Life in Russia was not their white-Christian paradise either.
Here’s a lovely piece about Aaron Rupar, the man who provides the clips that I rely upon to document the atrocities I share with you every day. He has a great eye for what’s important and has made it possible to follow the story of this administration on video.
The psychological demands of Aaron Rupar’s work are immense. He counts himself lucky to have remained more or less healthy after a decade in his job.
“I certainly wouldn’t say that I’m like a model of mental health,” says the father-of-two from Minnesota. “But for the most part, especially considering what I do and how much time I spend doing it, I think I’ve been able to emerge relatively unscathed.”
Rupar works from his spare room in his Minneapolis house. His job is to watch President Trump. All day, every day.
I hear that…
And good on Aaron for this:
“It’s really difficult to cover him in a way that conveys how unhinged he is,” says Rupar. “That’s kind of how people are trained to do political journalism. It’s like, ‘OK, what did he say that was newsworthy, what’s new?’ So you kind of pick up those things and convey them to your audience. But in reality, when you actually watch his rallies, you see that they’re full of hatred, he’s lying constantly, and a lot of it is incoherent.”
Yep, yep, yep. You can’t know just how unhinged and outrageous this whole thing is without paying very close attention to Trump and it’s very hard to keep your humanity sometimes. But Aaron remains as sincere, genuine and authentic as he’s always been, a true mensch. I don’t know that I could have continued to do this if he wasn’t performing this valuable service.
Some of the President’s Cabinet secretaries will also be allowed to use the aircraft, which was originally purchased to help with Trump’s mass deportation agenda, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The jet was bought by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and featured a bedroom, showers, a kitchen, four large flat-screen TVs and even a bar, according to images obtained by NBC News in February.
Just more outrageous taxpayer rip-offs by the administration that was going to drain the swamp — apparently so they could build personal McMansions on the silt.
If Democrats manage to take back full power in 2028, this should be among the first things they sell off, right after they demolish the ballroom and the arch. The symbolism is important even if the money is a drop in the bucket in the big scheme of things. They should start running on this right now.
Anti-corruption is going to be an extremely important issue over the next few cycles.
President Javier Milei of Argentina promoted a cryptocurrency last year that quickly skyrocketed in value then cratered just as fast, costing investors millions of dollars and setting off a scandal and an investigation.
Mr. Milei said he was simply highlighting a private venture and had no connection to the digital coin called $Libra. New evidence is now raising questions about his assertion. Phone logs from a federal investigation by Argentine prosecutors into the coin’s collapse show seven phone calls between Mr. Milei and one of the entrepreneurs behind the cryptocurrency on the night in 2025 when Mr. Milei posted about $Libra on X.
The contents of the calls, which took place before and after Mr. Milei’s post, are not known.But the phone logs — which were obtained by The New York Times and first reported by a local cable news channel, C5N — suggest a greater degree of communication between Mr. Milei and the entrepreneurs who launched the token than what the president has publicly acknowledged. Newly uncovered messages also suggest Mr. Milei received regular payments from one of the entrepreneurs while he was a congressman.
Of course he’s corrupt. Why would anyone think otherwise? He’s a member of the global right wing and affiliated with Donald Trump.
The crypto scams are going to be one of the biggest stories of this period. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to completely unravel it but in the end we will find that these criminals stole billions from people who were clueless about what they were getting into. It’s a sad comment on our modern culture that people can’t see through these scams but far too many are dazzled by hucksters who promise wealth and vengeance and they’re going to end up with neither.
A brief notice from the Office of Personnel Management could dramatically change which personally identifiable medical information the agency obtains, giving it the power to see prescriptions employees had filled or what treatment they sought from doctors. The regulation would require 65 insurance companies that cover more than 8 million Americans — including federal workers, retired members of Congress, mail carriers, and their immediate family members — to provide monthly reports to OPM with identifiable health data on their members.
The proposal is prompting unease from insurers as well as health policy and legal experts, who are concerned about the legality of OPM acquiring such a sweeping database of sensitive health information, and the agency’s ability to safeguard it.
“You can anticipate a scenario where this information on 8 million Americans is now in the hands of OPM and there’s a real concern of how they use it,” said Michael Martinez, senior counsel at Democracy Forward, an advocacy organization that filed a public comment opposing OPM’s proposal in February. Martinez previously worked at OPM.
There is simply no doubt that they will misuse the data. That’s what they do.
The last I heard, HIPAA precludes anyone from sharing this information but we know that the law doesn’t apply to the Trump administration so never mind.
Hopefully, the courts will stop this too. But you never know.
The Wall St. Journal (gift link) takes a look at the state of America’s alliances in the wake of this latest trainwreck. If it was bad before it’s terrible today:
Crowning a year of disputes with the Trump administration over trade tariffs, support for Ukraine and the future of Greenland, the Iran war has placed America’s friends in Europe, Asia and the Middle East in front of an uneasy dilemma.
Their most important ally is acting in ways that they see as erratic and that have already caused hardship and uncertainty. The war has sapped their economies and even bigger shocks loom if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, deepening the worldwide energy crisis.
Many—on both sides of the Atlantic—wonder if they are even allies anymore. Angered by the refusal of European nations to join the war alongside the U.S. and Israel, President Trump has called European countries cowards, and threatened to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization altogether.
“The United States is unpredictable,” said Roderich Kiesewetter, a lawmaker from Germany’s ruling party, echoing a widespread sentiment in Europe. “It’s not a reliable partner anymore for the Western world.”
The threats to take Greenland were the tipping point:
“This will never be forgotten,” said retired French Lt. Gen. Michel Yakovleff. “Psychologically, Trump talking about taking Greenland was the equivalent of a father talking, jokingly, of raping one of his daughters. Obviously, it’s a new world in the family after that.”
Well.
The problem is that until they can all arm up and retool, the US is still the only option:
“If you insult your allies and push them to the brink in every negotiation, if you present your ugliest face to the world, then this consent will evaporate,” Fullilove said. “But what is the alternative to the U.S.-led alliance system? The U.S. is the only country that can project power anywhere on Earth. Who else will lead the West, if not Washington?”
This Catch-22 is acutely felt by U.S. partners and allies in the Persian Gulf. With their cities subjected to daily Iranian missile and drone barrages, the Gulf states are most affected by the Iranian retaliation for a war that they didn’t start and whose course they cannot control.
We’ve closely watched the destruction of the NATO alliance for the past year but the big strain on the relationship with the Gulf states is more recent:
Gulf officials have grown frustrated with Trump—who, among other undiplomatic moves, publicly insulted Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by saying last month, at a Saudi-sponsored investment conference, that the kingdom’s de-facto ruler “didn’t think he’d be kissing my ass.” Yet, these Gulf states also know that only Washington can provide them with crucial weapons, particularly air defenses, and offer protection from future Iranian attempts to dominate the region.
One can only assume that Trump’s TACO yesterday has caused even more consternation. Reportedly, Saudi Arabia was begging Trump to continue the war. Today, they’re still being targeted by Iran while Trump is talking about doing a deal to split the “fees” Iran is going to be charging to use the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, he’s blown up the Asian alliances as well:
South Korea, facing a threat from North Korea and an emboldened China, watched with dismay as the U.S. redeployed vital air-defense resources to the Middle East last month. “The action that the U.S. is engaged in in Iran not only reveals the U.S. as a rogue actor whose political values at home and internationally are no longer in accordance with South Korea’s professed values, but also one whose actions will have huge economic consequences,” said Mason Richey, a professor of international politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. “Yet, South Korea also needs to stay on the right side of the Trump administration for its own security purposes.”
[…]
At Monday’s news conference, Trump touted his good relationship with North Korea’s leader as he complained about South Korea’s refusal to join the war on Iran, and said that he still wants Greenland.
He’s nuts.
“Everyone is confused. Nobody can understand what America actually is today. It seems governed by some kind of mad emperor who keeps saying whatever comes to his mind, something we haven’t witnessed since Caligula or Nero,” said Carlo Calenda, an Italian senator and former economic development minister. “The one thing the Europeans have understood is that we are dealing with a bully. You can give him everything he wants, you can pretend you don’t hear his insults, but he will keep trying to bully us, and so at a certain point we must stop him.”
If only the Republican Party would have such an epiphany we might be able to save our country. I’m not holding my breath.
