"A Moral Obscenity": Trump Budget Pairs Record Military Boost with Billions in Cuts to Social Programs

Donald Trump’s White House released a budget proposal on Friday that pairs an unprecedented, debt-exploding $1.5 trillion in military spending with tens of billions of dollars in cuts to domestic agencies and education, healthcare, climate, and housing programs.  

Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2027, which must be approved by Congress, includes $73 billion in total cuts to nondefense spending while boosting military outlays by 42%—or nearly $500 billion—compared to current levels.      

Programs cut or eliminated in the proposed budget—under the guise of slashing “woke programs” and “ending the Green New Scam”—include the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice program, Community Services Block Grants, electric vehicle charging subsidies, renewable energy initiatives at the Interior Department, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing.

The budget proposal also calls for cuts to the already-depleted Internal Revenue Service, without offering specific figures. One budget expert noted that, if enacted, the White House’s requested cuts would bring nondefense discretionary spending to “its lowest level in the modern era.” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote in response to Trump’s request that “to pay for his endless wars, he wants the biggest increase to military spending in 70 years.” “How does he pay for it? Cuts to ‘education, health, housing, and more,’” Casar added. “Hell no.”

Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a statement that “the Trump-Vought budget proposal is a moral obscenity,” referring to Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

“The $500 billion annual increase in proposed Pentagon spending—if it were instead deployed humanely—would be enough to solve or meaningfully address the nation’s great problems, from healthcare to daycare, from the climate crisis to affordable housing, from improving schools to making college education affordable,” said Weissman. “Instead, Trump and Vought propose to spend an unfathomable amount on a Pentagon that can’t even pass an audit to further empower an out-of-control and incompetent leader in Pete Hegseth.”

“As usual, the priorities of the people are simply unimportant to this administration as they think about spending our taxpayer dollars,” Weissman continued. “Republicans and Democrats in Congress should treat this proposal with all the care it deserves and immediately hit delete.”

“Trump said that our country cannot afford to help families with childcare or healthcare—but his own budget proves what a ridiculous farce that is.”

The White House unveiled its budget request days after Trump said it is “not possible” for the federal government “to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things” because “we’re fighting wars,” comments that observers viewed as a stark summary of the administration’s priorities.

“Trump is telling the American people our country somehow can’t afford childcare, Medicaid, and Medicare, but is never too stretched to fund wars of choice,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement Friday. “He is wrong. We are the wealthiest country in the world and can absolutely afford to both defend and invest in the American people.”

“The president is now demanding a massive increase in defense spending, including a $350 billion slush fund for his reckless war with Iran, while cutting billions from healthcare, education, housing, and more. This budget represents ‘America Last,’” said Boyle. “I will be demanding answers from White House OMB Director Russell Vought when he testifies at the House Budget Committee on April 15.”

The Trump White House is calling on Congress to approve a significant chunk—roughly $350 billion—of its proposed military budget increase via the filibuster-proof reconciliation process, which would allow Republicans to push the funding through without any Democratic support. The new budget request also calls for a “historic investment” in the Department of Homeland Security, which has been partially shut down for more than a month as Democrats push for reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“This funding would come in addition to the $170 billion passed just last year that has enabled the deaths of migrants in detention centers, the detention of children, and the deaths of US citizens at the hands of mass deportation agents,” Lindsay Koshgarian, program director of the National Priorities Project, said in response to the budget request.

“The president looked at the country, with our rising gas prices and nearly half of us struggling to afford basic necessities and decided what we really need is a bigger war budget,” said Koshgarian. “Not healthcare or childcare or relief from high prices or expensive housing, but a nearly bottomless budget for whatever wars his cronies and the contractors dream up next.”

-Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

Russia threatens nuclear strike on Ukraine in 48 hours: "Wipe cities off Earth"

 

Russian state television has issued a chilling warning that nuclear weapons could be deployed to "wipe Ukrainian cities off the face of the earth" and eliminate Volodymyr Zelensky "in his bunker." The alarming threat emerges as Vladimir Putin faces setbacks in the conflict and acknowledges his inability to subdue Ukraine through conventional missiles, drones, and ground forces.

In the broadcast, Putin's propaganda figures brazenly refer to themselves as the "Nuclear Maniacs Club." Kremlin TV military analyst Col. Mikhail Khodarenok acknowledged to millions of viewers that Putin's approach over four years of warfare has not achieved its objectives.

He proposed a threat comparable to the one Donald Trump made to Iran, though the Russian blueprint for destroying Ukraine involves the potential deployment of nuclear weapons. "The Ukrainian leadership will be faced with the question of whether the country will be left in complete ruins, or we move to some kind of peace agreement," he said. "The task isn't solvable with conventional weapons, the ones we have, so perhaps we should switch to special [nuclear] weapons and end this conflict within ten days, by May 1?"

Putin's chief TV propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov, responded: "Welcome to our Nuclear Maniacs Club. I've been calling for this for a long time." Khodarenok - a retired air defense forces commander - stated he no longer supported "caution." "If the [Ukrainian] leadership, the military-political leadership, certain high-ranking officials, political leaders, are hiding in underground bunkers, located at considerable depths... How can they be reached there, except with special weapons...?" 

Russian state television has issued a chilling warning that nuclear weapons could be deployed. "For me, the time has come when the use of special weapons should not be considered an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence. "Because the conflict must be ended, ended as quickly as possible. This will save tens of thousands of lives. This will protect our country's infrastructure from attacks." Both he and Solovyov declared, "We don't care" regarding international backlash.

They suggested Ukraine should receive a Trump-style ultimatum to accept a Moscow-imposed peace agreement, effectively capitulating to Putin's demands, or face nuclear attacks within 48 hours. Solovyov issued a stark warning: "Citizens living in Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv, leave your cities immediately.

"They will be wiped off the face of the earth."

 -Antonio Scancariello and Will Stewart, Newsbreak, Military

“25th Amendment RIGHT NOW"

 

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Tuesday urged President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office following his genocidal threat to wipe out the “whole civilization” of Iran. “After bombing a school and massacring young girls, the war criminal in the White House is threatening genocide,” Tlaib (D-Mich.) wrote on social media. “It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment. This maniac should be removed from office.”

Some of Tlaib’s colleagues echoed her demand. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) wrote that “Trump is too unhinged, dangerous, and deranged to have the nuclear codes.” 

“25th Amendment RIGHT NOW,” Pocan added. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) said in response to Trump’s openly genocidal Truth Social post Trump “just threatened to slaughter 100 million people.”

“It’s clear he’s unfit to be president, the 25th Amendment must be invoked,” wrote Thanedar. “If Vance, Rubio, and the others continue to be spineless cowards, Congress must do everything possible to stop Trump and this war.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who led the push in the US House for a war powers resolution to stop Trump’s illegal assault on Iran, told Common Dreams that he also thought the president should be removed.

“When an American president threatens the extinction of a civilization,” said Khanna, “we should be looking to invoke the 25th and remove him if Congress is to have value and independence.”

The 25th Amendment gives the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet—or a majority of a body established by Congress—to declare the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and remove him from the position, elevating the vice president to serve as acting president.

Given the composition of Trump’s Cabinet—which is filled with sycophants who lavish the president with praise at every opportunity—any 25th Amendment push would likely be doomed to fail.

But Trump’s Cabinet has nevertheless faced growing calls to use the tool since the president’s Easter-morning outburst warning Iranian leaders to “open the Fuckin’ Strait [of Hormuz], you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.”

Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, warned the president’s Cabinet officials on Tuesday that “if you take any part in assisting this, you too will be guilty of the crime of genocide.”

“Use the 25th Amendment now to lawfully remove Trump from office,” Williams urged. “Congress: This is an impeachable offense. Come back to DC now ready to impeach and convict Trump.”

The National Iranian American Council said in a statement that the president’s “insane, genocidal” threat to wipe out the “whole civilization” of Iran must be “wholeheartedly condemned.”

“Military leaders are not bound to follow unlawful orders, including but not limited to the destruction of civilian targets and making good on this outrageous threat,” the group added. “We call on President Trump to recant this abominable threat against 92 million Iranians. If he does not, both Congress and his Cabinet must be prepared to remove him from office via lawful means.”

-Common Dreams

Trump warns a 'whole civilization will die tonight' if a deal with Iran isn't reached

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station in Iran on Tuesday, and Iranian officials urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants, as U.S. President Donald Trump warned that a "whole civilization will die tonight" if Tehran does not meet his latest deadline for the Islamic Republic to agree to a deal that includes reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. also struck military targets on the Iranian oil hub of Kharg Island, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The attack marked the second time the island was targeted. Earlier in the war, American forces struck air defenses, a radar site, an airport and a hovercraft base there, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project.

Bottom of Form

Trump has extended previous deadlines but suggested the one set for 8 p.m. in Washington was final, and the rhetoric on both sides reached a fever pitch, leaving Iranians on edge. Trump threatened to destroy all of Iran's power plants and bridges if Tehran does not allow traffic to fully resume in the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil transits in peacetime. Iran's president said 14 million people, including himself, have volunteered to fight.

It was not clear if the latest airstrikes were linked to Trump's threat to attack bridges. At least two of the targets were connected to Iran's rail network, which Israel earlier signaled it might attack. Israel has increasingly carried out strikes that it says are aimed at delivering a blow to Iran's economy.

Iran, meanwhile, fired on Israel and Saudi Arabia, prompting the temporary closure of a major bridge. While Iran cannot match the sophistication of U.S. and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its chokehold on the strait is causing major damage to the world economy and raising the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.

Officials involved in diplomatic efforts said talks were ongoing — but Iran has rejected the latest American proposal, and it was unclear if a deal would come in time to head off Trump's threatened attacks. World leaders and experts warned that strikes as destructive as Trump threatened could constitute a war crime.

As the deadline approaches, rhetoric ramps up: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," if a deal isn't reached, Trump said in a post Tuesday morning, while keeping open the possibility of an off-ramp, saying that "maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen."

Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on "all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors" to form human chains around power plants.

Iranians have formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. This time though, it was unclear who would heed the call, and one major power plant in Tehran apparently had been closed off for security purposes at the time the demonstration was to start.

President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X that 14 million Iranians had answered state media and text message campaigns urging people to volunteer to fight — and said he would join them — while a general from the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints. The Guard, meanwhile, warned that Iran would "deprive the U.S. and its allies of the region's oil and gas for years" and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Trump carries out his threat.

In Tehran, the mood was bleak. A young teacher said that many opponents of Iran's Islamic system had hoped Trump's attacks would quickly topple it. Now, as the war drags on, she fears U.S. and Israeli attacks will spread chaos. "If we don't have the internet, and if we don't have electricity, water, and gas, we're really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said," she said told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for her safety.

Trump's threat prompts warnings of war crimes

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot joined a growing chorus of international voices and calling for restraint, saying attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure "are barred by the rules of war, international law." "They would without doubt trigger a new phase of escalation, of reprisals, that would drag the region and the world economy into a vicious circle," the minister said on France Info television.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres also warned the U.S. that attacks on civilian infrastructure are banned under international law, according to his spokesperson. Such cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute, and Trump told reporters he's "not at all" concerned about committing war crimes.

-PBS

READ MORE: Experts say Trump's threats to destroy Iran's infrastructure could be considered war crime

WATCH: What international law says about Trump's threats to bomb Iran's bridges and power plants

WATCH: Trump claims Iranians 'want to hear bombs' because they want to be free

WATCH: People in Tehran on edge as Trump's deadline for Iran looms

 

A Crisis of Confidence in America

 

Trump is tearing America apart with his threats against Iran and comment that domestically, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.” He’s also succeeded in intentionally pitting Americans of different races, religions, and across the rural/urban divide against each other.

As Michael Corthell noted on the Essay X² Substack: “There was a time when Americans expected political leadership to involve sobriety, judgment, and at least a passing acquaintance with reality. That time now feels like one of those lost civilizations historians whisper about, somewhere between Atlantis and the Republican Party of 1956.”

While it’s worked to the advantage of the GOP, the fossil fuel and private prison industries, and the billionaire class for four decades or more, it’s extraordinarily dangerous to our nation and our children’s future.

That’s because a society can’t function when its people don’t have faith in its institutions, and it’s even more of a challenge for a democracy, a form of government which only exists “by the consent of the governed.” When people lose faith in their nation’s institutions, the result is both social and political chaos much like America is experiencing right now.

I saw this over and over again when doing international relief work back in the 1980s and 1990s: in failed and failing states, people not only distrusted their governments, but were openly disdainful of them and their elected and bureaucratic officials.

Out of that distrust grew a plethora of conspiracy theories that tried to explain why things got so bad, and those often led to political violence (I saw this in Haiti and Colombia), authoritarian takeover (I witnessed this working in Russia) and, in two cases where I worked (Sudan and Uganda), actual civil wars.

America is now going through something similar. For example, prior to Reagan’s presidency, 73% of Americans said they trusted the federal government to do the right thing “just about always” or “most of the time.” Pew found in 2024 that 85% of Americans said most elected officials “don’t care” what people like them think, and only 4% said the political system is working “extremely” or “very” well.

That’s absolutely unsustainable without radical change.

We’re also experiencing a crisis of confidence in America internationally, as nations that were formerly allies across the planet are now openly questioning whether they can ever again trust us after all the betrayals, trash-talking, and Putin-fluffing coming from Trump and his lickspittles.

Tariffs, destroying USAID, and silencing The Voice of America have devastated our soft power and credibility around the world, moving dozens of countries away from us and toward mostly China and Russia.

All of which raises the question: How did we get here and how do we get out of this mess? Three factors that burst onto the scene in a big way in the 1960s led us to the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s, which brought us to today’s crisis.

— The first was the invention of neoliberalism in the 1940s, as I lay out in my book The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America.
— This was followed by the creation of the Libertarian Party a few decades later as a lobbying vehicle against rent control by the real estate lobby.
— And, finally, in the 1980s a handful of fossil fuel billionaires jumping into politics to fund think tanks, media, and politicians who’d preach the doctrine that, as Reagan famously said, ”Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Prior to these interventions, the New Deal consensus had brought Americans together around the idea that the purpose of government was, to quote the Constitution’s Preamble: “[T]o form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Neoliberals, Libertarians, and rightwing Petro billionaires like David Koch (who ran for VP in 1980 on a ticket of shutting down pretty much all domestic spending, presaging Trump’s recent rant that the only legitimate function of government is to run the military) all began the refrain that government is essentially evil, because they all objected to paying taxes to “promote the general Welfare,” or losing profits to regulations that prevented harms to workers and average Americans.

An army of sycophants and spokesmen was mobilized from William F. Buckley to Rush Limbaugh to the “stars” of Fox “News” and its imitators. Soon, the word spread. As Limbaugh used to joke, social programs were actually evil because: “What do you do for a man when he’s down? You kick him! Otherwise, he’ll never get up!”

Men with wealth beyond the imaginings of Midas were telling average white working Americans that it wasn’t the GOP’s tax cuts and Republicans’ destruction of unions that crushed them, but brown-skinned immigrants, women, and Black people who wanted to “steal” their jobs, invade their homes, and rape their daughters.

The foundation of Trump’s 2024 campaign was the ad repeated on loop asserting that Kamala Harris wanted government to pay for trans surgery for people in prison. Don’t think about being robbed by billionaires; there are queer people out there who just want to live their own lives!

By the end of the George W. Bush presidency (and his and Cheney’s lies that led us into bloody quagmires in Afghanistan and Iraq), most Americans had decided they couldn’t believe or trust our government. Then Trump came along and, presumably on Putin’s orders, told the world that we couldn’t be trusted internationally, either.

Just like with domestic politics, our nation can’t effectively function internationally if other nations also don’t have faith in our institutions. The Reagan Revolution, Donald Trump, and the Republican Party have destroyed both our faith and the world’s faith in the institutions of America and thus put our democracy at serious peril.

Part of that peril is that Donald Trump is now threatening to turn America into an “illiberal democracy” police state with rigged elections like Russia and Hungary. And it’s Americans’ cynicism that is his main weapon.

As John Mac Ghlionn wrote this week for The Hill about how hard a serious recession could hit Americans: “The cultural confidence that once carried societies through genuine hardship – the belief that sacrifice was worth something, that tomorrow warranted patience – has faded into a nihilism that is difficult to condemn in people who arrived at it honestly. “A society that still believes in endurance can survive contraction. A society built entirely on consumption faces a harder test.”

The solution is straightforward, and it appears we’re moving quickly in that direction, just like we did in 1932 as we woke up and chose to move out of the Republican Great Depression.

First, Americans must realize that these nihilistic ideologies promoted by billionaires and massive, monopolistic corporations are grounded in lies. We’re not a society of selfish individual consumers driven primarily by greed; we’ve historically been here for each other, and that’s why our government was first formed. It worked best during the 1933-1981 New Deal era, when the Middle Class went from around 10% of us up to around two-thirds of us. And it was crippled by the Reagan Revolution, which has cut it down to around 43% of us.

Second, the Democratic Party needs to re-embrace the social and economic goals of the New Deal and Great Society that brought us Social Security, the minimum wage, Medicare, Medicaid, free and cheap college, etc., etc. Put “we, the people” first and again restrain the toxic impulses of billionaires and corporations through appropriate taxation and regulation.

And third, we must repudiate the GOP’s corrupt ideology at the polls this fall and bring into office a new generation of FDR-style progressives who are committed to undoing Reagan’s, Bush’s, Musk’s and Trump’s damage and rebuilding American institutions, so they’ll once again work for the average family. It may seem like a big lift, but more and more Americans are waking up to the Great Grift billionaires and their Republican toadies have been running on us for the past half-century. A new America is possible!

The Hartmann Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

 

84% of Democrats and 55% of Independents Support Impeaching Trump a Third Time

 

After just 14 months of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, polling released Monday found that a majority of likely US voters support impeaching him a historic third time—which one pollster called “an unprecedented result this early in a presidential term.”

Lake Research Partners conducted the poll March 26-30 for Free Speech for People, a legal advocacy organization that has launched a campaign to “Impeach Trump. Again.” As part of that effort, FSFP gathered more than 1 million supportive signatures ahead of the latest “No Kings” rallies and has publicly detailed over 25 grounds for impeachment.

First on that list is that “in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, Trump is abusing his role as commander of the US military to commit atrocities that violate US and international law.” 

The president notably spent the weekend threatening to commit more war crimes in Iran if it doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all ship traffic—which it only closed in response to the joint Israel-US attack on February 28.

Another key argument for impeachment on the FSFP list is that “Trump has militarized and weaponized federal law enforcement, particularly US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to punish the opposition party, disrupt local communities, instill fear in the civilian population, and quell lawful political dissent.”

Pollsters noted both of those grounds in their question, asking respondents: “Several members of Congress have recently come out in support of impeaching President Donald Trump for violating Americans’ constitutional rights and the law, including actions by ICE in the US and the war he started with Iran. Do you support or oppose President Trump being impeached?”

Overall, 52% of all voters said they support impeachment, including 84% of Democrats, 55% of Independents, and even 14% of Republicans. Just 40% opposed, including 8% of Democrats, 34% of Independents, and 81% of Republicans. 

“The result is quite striking,” David Mermin of Lake Research Partners said in a call with reporters. “It’s a clear majority. It’s a solid majority. And it reaches across all demographics and across partisan lines as well.”

The 800 respondents represented a variety of perspectives in terms of age, gender, racial identity, education, region, and partisanship. The margin of error is +/-3.5%. Putting the finding in a historical context, Mermin noted that there were majorities in favor of impeachment in the mid-1970s, when then-President Richard Nixon was approaching impeachment and then resigned, well into his second term. Nearly a quarter-century later, during the proceeding that led to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, “most of that period, we did not see majorities in favor of impeaching him, even during that process,” the pollster explained.

“For President Trump, in his first term, there were two impeachment proceedings against him, and in the first one, near the end of 2019... some of the polls disagreed, but there were some polls showing him slightly about 50% approval of impeachment,” he continued. “And then the second proceeding that happened after the January 6th coup attempt, there was a clear majority... during those last few weeks of his term prior to his when he left office in January of 2021.”

As with Clinton, the House of Representatives impeached Trump, but the Senate declined to convict him. Now, both chambers of Congress are narrowly controlled by Republicans who have demonstrated an unwillingness to stand up to the president—including by refusing to advance war powers resolutions challenging his various unauthorized military actions abroad.

Mermin said that “this appears to be the earliest in a presidential term that you’ve seen a majority of Americans in favor of impeachment.” FSFP co-founder and president John Bonifaz highlighted that the polling comes when there is not even an impeachment proceeding in the House. Since Trump’s return to office last year, Reps. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) and Al Green (D-Texas) have introduced articles of impeachment against him, though those efforts have not gone anywhere. 

However, in the lead-up to the November midterm elections, even Trump has acknowledged that Democrats winning congressional races could lead to him being impeached a third time. “You gotta win the midterms, ‘cause if we don’t win the midterms... they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” Trump told Republicans in January. “I’ll get impeached.”

The new survey shows even higher figures for disapproval of Trump’s job performance: 57% of all voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing, including 92% of Democrats, 56% of Independents, and 16% of Republicans.

Bonifaz said that “this poll confirms what we are seeing across the country: The American people understand that Donald Trump poses a direct threat to our Constitution and to the rule of law and must be impeached and removed from public office.”

-Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams

 

Trump’s Vulgar Iran Post Raises Alarm: “A Deeply Unwell Man”

 

President Donald Trump drew a wave of backlash on Easter Sunday after posting an expletive-laced ultimatum to Iran that threatened strikes on the country’s power plants and bridges if Tehran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime chokepoint for global energy shipments, amid the ongoing war.

The post quickly dominated political reaction in Washington, with critics warning the language could escalate the conflict and raise fresh concerns about whether the U.S. is signaling attacks on civilian infrastructure.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F*****’ Strait, you crazy b*******, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The post and the blowback to it partly overshadowed the widely hailed Saturday rescue of a missing U.S. airman in Iran and the reaction to that earlier on Sunday, which drew praise from both sides of the aisle. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Among Republican lawmakers allied with the president, there was little direct comment on the post itself. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who pushed for the Iran war, wrote of Trump on Sunday on X: “He is deadly serious when it comes to his ultimatum to Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face a massive military response against vital infrastructure.”

Far‑right political activist Laura Loomer, who has a history of anti‑Muslim remarks, wrote: “This is what I voted for. Bomb jihadis back to the Stone Age where their mentality permanently lives. Trump said he’s going to bomb their infrastructure in Iran, and then he said ‘Praise be to Allah’. On Easter. Amazing. Just amazing. Strategic bombing wins wars.”

‘Threatening Possible War Crimes’

The backlash to Trump’s post was swift on X. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, described the post as the president “ranting like an unhinged madman on social media” as Americans “head off to church and celebrate with friends and family.” 

Schumer warned Trump was “threatening possible war crimes and alienating allies.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, also condemned the message, calling it “the ravings of a dangerous and mentally unbalanced individual” and urging Congress to act to end the war.

Trump’s estranged niece, Mary Trump, wrote: “It’s not that Donald sent this as awful as it is; it’s that nobody felt they could stop him or, worse, nobody thought they should.”

Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, responded simply: “Threatening war crimes. Unhinged, clueless, and embarrassing.”

Senator Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, wrote: “This is a deeply unwell man on a dangerous power trip, threatening possible war crimes. This is not how the President of the United States should be speaking about sending our servicemembers into harm’s way. Republicans should join Democrats to end this war immediately.”

President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1 in Washington, DC.

‘A National Security Threat to Our Country’

Some lawmakers responded by bringing up the 25th Amendment, which allows a Cabinet to remove the president from office, and replace him with the vice president, under certain conditions. 

“If I were in Trump’s Cabinet, I would spend Easter calling constitutional lawyers about the 25th Amendment,” Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, wrote on X. “This is completely, utterly unhinged. He’s already killed thousands. He’s going to kill thousands more.”

Representative Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona Democrat, similarly posted: “The 25th Amendment exists for a reason. The President of the United States is a deranged lunatic, and a national security threat to our country and the rest of the world.”

Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was once a Trump ally, also criticized his post, writing to administration officials on X: “I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.”

Politically, the backlash signals that arguments about the war’s legality, proportionality, and congressional oversight are likely to intensify—especially as lawmakers point to potential humanitarian impacts and the risk of widening the conflict.

-Steve Mollman, NewsBreak