“I Guess” (#119)
President Trump demonstrates how little he cares about our safety; so many justifications for the Iran war; Trump lies about bombing a school; Iran, Armageddon, and Trump supporters who want to start the end times; and congestion pricing demonstrates why we have No Kings here.
Here we go. I’m glad you’re here.
“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.” “The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.
#1
- Trump Says 'I Guess' Americans Should Worry About Iran Retaliating on U.S. Soil: 'Like I Said, Some People Will Die' (Paloma Chavez, People, Link to Article)
- Trump to mass death: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Inae Oh, Mother Jones, Link to Article)
While major legacy media organizations capitulate to the Trump regime, People magazine has been exposing its readers to news that may not appear elsewhere in their media diets. Even better, they have been doing so without equivocation or trying to both-sides the situation. For example, as Paloma Chavez writes:
For the latest Time cover story titled "Trump's War," which was published on Thursday, March 5, correspondent Eric Cortellessa questioned Trump about the details of the unfolding war with Iran. In a pointed moment, he was asked whether it's reasonable for Americans to have concerns about being attacked at home.
“I guess,” Trump, 79, responded. “But I think they’re worried about that all the time. We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things."
"Like I said, some people will die," the president added. "When you go to war, some people will die."
I guess? Seriously? We’ve known for a long time that Trump is devoid of empathy, but it is still hard to take in its 100-proof potency.
Inae Oh at Mother Jones goes further, noting how Trump regime officials are cheering mass death and how relaxed the president appears about it.
But where Hegseth cheers on mass death, the president himself offers a shruggy nihilism. Consider that in the first three days of war, Trump opted for a leisurely stay at Mar-a-Lago, where he posted two videos of himself briefly talking about the war on Truth Social. From there, Trump went forward with a previously scheduled $1 million-a-head fundraiser because he “had to eat dinner anyway.” Once back in the White House, Trump ignored questions about Iran and, instead, urged reporters to gaze upon some new statues erected in the Rose Garden. On Monday, he finally gave a five-minute briefing on the war that featured updates on his ballroom renovations.
Then, an even more troubling attitude emerged: “I guess.” That’s how Trump responded when Time asked whether Americans should be concerned about the possibility of retaliatory attacks here in the US.
“But I think they’re worried about that all the time,” he continued. “We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.”
Unlike Hegseth, who appears drunk on performance as he thirsts for death, Trump’s thoughts here are eerily relaxed. They are notable because they appear to lack even a modicum of critical thinking. No, this is not a man remotely bothered by mass death. He simply does not care. Again, insouciance might not be new when it comes to America’s thirst for war. But carrying it so openly and inelegantly is something else entirely.
He does not care about me. Or you. Or anyone who isn’t Donald J. Trump.
This should surprise no one. He has demonstrated this lack of empathy throughout his lifetime. It is also a connecting thread through the worst parts of his regime—from the war, to the brutalization of immigrants, to his associations with Jeffrey Epstein.
Everyone is expendable to his whims. There is no plan other than what Trump wants.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party leadership refuses to put an end to his misrule. They enable him while reportedly being privately critical.
“I guess.” Sending our troops into battle is not a small decision. Anyone who does not condemn that attitude has signed up to also being held accountable for its atrocities.
#2
- Six Days of War, 10 Rationales (Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Isabel Ruehl, The Atlantic, Link to Article)
- 9 days in, the most basic question about the Iran war remains unanswered (Judd Legum, Popular Information, Link to Article)
Why did the Trump regime join Israel in a war with Iran?
In the past, it was not hard to understand the government’s justification for going to war. Sometimes the justifications were based on lies, but at least they existed.
That is not true this time. The Trump regime did not prepare the American people for this war. The Congress has not approved the Constitutionally required declaration of war.
Instead, the Trump regime has offered a smorgasbord.
As The Atlantic’s Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Isabel Ruehl write, the Trump regime offered many possible reasons in the first hours of the conflict.
On the third day of the war in Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Operation Epic Fury the “most-precise aerial operation in history.” A difficult claim to fact-check. More difficult still has been parsing statements from the White House and the Pentagon to figure out, with any exactitude, why we are at war in the first place. So far, the Trump administration has offered at least 10 separate rationales in just six days.
Many relatives of the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school students killed on the first day of the war would rightly take issue with Hegseth’s boast about how precise this aerial war has been.
Anyway, the Trump regime is still trying to find a reasonable explanation for this war. Popular Information’s Judd Legum updated the count on Monday:
On February 28, President Trump announced that “the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.” The war has claimed the lives of more than 1500 people, including about 1300 Iranians, dozens in neighboring countries, and six U.S. troops. The Pentagon has estimated the conflict is costing U.S. taxpayers about $1 billion per day — and that figure may be too low.
And yet, nine days into the war, Trump and his administration have failed to clearly answer the most fundamental question: Why did the war begin?
Instead, the Trump administration has offered a bewildering series of shifting, contradictory, and factually incorrect answers. In just over a week, Trump and top administration officials have given at least 17 different responses about why the war began:
The decision to send our troops into battle should be among the most meaningful decisions a president makes. It should come with a planning process to define what winning means and a communications plan to inform the American people about why it is vital to place our military members in harm’s way.
The wide range of reasons provided by the Trump regime for the Iran War makes clear that Trump did not handle this decision with the gravity it required.
#3
- Trump says Iran at fault for strike on girls school (Ben Johansen, Politico, Link to Article)
- Minab school bombing: what evidence is there that the US was responsible? (Tess McClure, The Guardian, Link to Article)
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth likes to cosplay as a tough guy when on camera. But he cowers when inconvenient truths are mentioned in front of his boss. So much for courage. As Ben Johansen wrote in Politico:
When asked aboard Air Force One Saturday whether the U.S. conducted the Feb. 28 strike, Trump said, without evidence, “No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, standing next to the president, took a more cautious tone, saying the government is still “investigating” the attack but adding, “The only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
Following Hegseth’s statement, Trump asserted: “It was done by Iran.”
A more cautious tone downplays the lack of courage Hegseth demonstrated. The bully who rhymes to put generals in their place could barely utter a small “we’re investigating” as Trump lied and lied and refused to take accountability.
Because, let’s be clear, Iran did not bomb an elementary school on the first day of this war. The United States did.
This is not a small lie. Eliot Higgins is absolutely correct to compare this Trump lie to some of the worst shared by other evil figures in recent conflicts.
Over the past few days, various investigations have uncovered evidence to demonstrate that United States Tomahawk missiles hit the school. The Guardian provides an overview of the evidence, including geolocated videos, that point to this horrible conclusion.
How did this happen? Did the missile miss its mark? Did the large language models the U.S. is using to help select targets not know that this school has been walled off from the military complex for at least nine years?
We need to know. As UNESCO explains, striking a school is a violation of international law (yet another one, as this entire conflict is illegal). Over 160 people, mostly children, died.
We must not allow this atrocity to be lost down the memory hole.
#4
- The Five-Alarm Fire No One Is Talking About (Julie Roginsky, Salty Politics, Link to Article)
The impact of this illegal war could easily go beyond the increase in gas prices. As Julie Roginsky explains, wise leaders would have anticipated severe consequences not just around the world—but within the United States.
Iran is not a minor regional irritant. It has spent decades building asymmetric capabilities through proxy militias, covert networks, and intelligence operations. It is unclear how much those networks have degraded over the past several days but since this strike did not come as a surprise to the Iranian regime, it stands to reason that its leaders had put contingencies for vengeance in place even in the event of their deaths. That is why Iran continues to bombard American allies with missiles across the Middle East now and why it is not unreasonable to believe that it may launch terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
That is precisely why any president who chooses to escalate militarily against Tehran has an absolute obligation to ensure that counterterrorism and counterintelligence defenses at home are fully staffed, politically insulated, and operating at maximum capacity.
Instead, we are witnessing the opposite. You would not know it, since legacy media refuses to cover this story as the five-alarm fire it is. Still, the facts are deeply troubling and underscore the danger in which Americans find themselves today.
There has been scant coverage of how the Trump regime, and FBI Director Kash Patel, have prioritized seeking petty revenge over the safety of United States residents over the past year.
The United States does not have the capabilities it used to have to defend itself against terrorist attacks, whether in-person or online. Many experts were purged or resigned. Many others have been forced to assist in the Stephen Miller mass deportation atrocities.
Democrats should have done more to highlight this dynamic over the past year—if only to defend themselves from what will inevitably happen in the wake of a terrorist attack. As Roginsky explains:
This is not a president who cares much about American lives. He is, however, a president who cares very much about sticking it to his enemies and riling up his base in the process.
If a major terrorist incident were to occur on American soil, we can guess how Trump and his allies would frame it. They would not engage in introspection about whether escalating conflict while shrinking and politicizing national security agencies was prudent. They would not ask whether expertise was lost at a critical moment or question whether domestic preparedness matched foreign ambition.
They would blame Democrats.
It is a tale as old as time.
Democrats should have been telling the public over the past year more about how the FBI’s counterterrorism abilities have been gutted by the Trump regime.
Now would be the next best time to start making it clear.
#5
- Kash Patel gutted FBI counterintelligence team tasked with tracking Iranian threats days before US strikes, sources say (Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN, Link to Article)
Just days before the United States launched a major military operation in Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
They were ousted for a simple reason: Each was involved in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
As a result, Patel hamstrung the Washington, DC-based FBI counterintelligence unit, known as CI-12, which handles cases ranging from mishandling of classified documents to tracking foreign spies operating on US soil.
The dismissals have added to concern inside the Justice Department and FBI that counterterrorism and intelligence investigations in the wake of the military operation in Iran could be hampered by a mass exodus of national security experts, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Did I write that the Trump regime has been gutting our counterintelligence abilities over the past year? Silly me. I meant the past few weeks.
How does one make such a decision just days before we launch a war with an adversary known for its ability to attack around the world? Was Patel not in the loop? Did he not care?
Democrats should be talking about all of these failures. They should point out how protecting Trump’s ego was more important than protecting you and me in a time of war.
#6
- U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus (Jonathan Larsen, Link to Article)
- U.S. Attack on Iran Prompted Military Bible Studies, Advocacy Group Says (Jonathan Larsen, Link to Article)
- Huffman, Raskin Lead Call for Investigation of "Armageddon" Briefings (Jonathan Larsen, Link to Article)
Oh, how I wish the word “Armageddon” could be in the news for how it provided one of the most inventive ways for moviemakers to handle the transition from a foreign language to English. In this scene from The Hunt for Red October, the word Armageddon—which sounds similar in English and Russian—serves as a pivot, allowing the Soviet submariners to speak in English and relieving American audiences of any further need to read subtitles.
Alas, it is more relevant to our present situation for reasons more scary than even a Soviet political officer’s motives for asking why a submarine captain is reading the bible.
Journalist Jonathan Larsen (who, as a producer, helped create Up with Chris Hayes and worked on Countdown with Keith Olbermann) has been reporting on complaints by troops about alleged religious messaging being forced on them by their religious-minded superior officers.
As Larsen writes:
A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.
From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).
The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.
The MRFF is keeping the complainants anonymous to prevent retribution by the Defense Department. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to my request for comment.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is known for his religious nationalist views. He has been leading bible studies at the Pentagon and bringing in extremist religious leaders to speak in supposedly voluntary presentations.
When the Secretary of Defense or a unit commander starts discussing their religion, it is difficult for those under them to pretend it is voluntary. And not everyone in our military is a religious extremist—or even a more mainline Christian. Our military includes members who believe in many different religions, or none.
The rise of white religious nationalism in our military has been a problem our political leaders have chosen to ignore.
For some, the war with Iran is not just about defeating a country. It is about creating a result they believe necessary to accelerate the end times.
#7
- War With Iran? A Blood Moon on Purim? For Some Christian Influencers, That Can Mean Only One Thing: The End Times (Sarah Posner, Talking Points Memo, Link to Article)
- The Geography of Ginning Up an Apocalypse (Andra Watkins, For Such a Time As This, Link to Article)
- Yearning for the Apocalypse (Tal Levin, The Sword and the Sandwich, Link to Article)
- Christian Nationalists Have an Apocalypse Fetish (Andra Watkins, For Such a Time As This, Link to Article)
I wish I were joking about the last line of the previous story.
There are significant people around the president who believe in at least some of these biblical interpretations (including the Secretary of Defense).
So I wanted to share a few stories that provide a quick primer about why sects of religious extremists are working to facilitate making Armageddon happen as soon as possible.
On Sunday, two days after President Donald Trump ordered the start of “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran, John Hagee, the 85-year-old televangelist and founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), delivered a sermon at his Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. Standing in front of a banner that read “God’s Coming… Operation Epic Fury,” Hagee thanked Trump, “whose wisdom and courage has crushed the enemies of Zion.” He then quickly pivoted to a familiar refrain for anyone who — like me — has followed Hagee’s career since he founded CUFI in 2006: that the American and Israeli attack on Iran will trigger a series of biblically prophesied events, including the invasion of Israel by a Russian-led army, and Jesus’s eventual defeat of the Antichrist at the Battle of Armageddon.
For decades, Hagee has argued that he loves and supports the Jewish people and the state of Israel; that it is a biblical imperative that America support Israel, including going to war on its behalf; and that Israel will be the site of the ultimate showdown between good and evil, at which Jews will burn or convert, and after which Jesus will rule the world for one thousand years from a throne on the Temple Mount.
Andra Watkins has written several posts exposing how the religious nationalists close to Trump think about these prophecies. In this post, she explains the geography of those beliefs, which help explain why a war with Iran is so important (and also why we are treating the European Union more like a foe than an ally).
Today’s newsletter covers every Biblical reference to ancient nations or land masses and correlates them to modern Christian Nationalist identifications.
Their interpretation of nations involved in the End Times is influencing their approach to foreign policy. Certain WCNs believe our attack on Iran constitutes the beginning of a prophesied war that kicks off the Great Tribulation.
Before we get to the specific nations, we need a brief overview of the Battle of Armageddon. Christian Nationalists believe the Battle of Armageddon will happen at the end of the seven-year Great Tribulation. All the nations of the world converge on Israel’s Valley of Megiddo for a final world war. Certain nations will defend Israel, and others will attempt to destroy Israel.
Christian Nationalists believe Jesus will descend from heaven with a great army to defeat the Anti-Christ, cast all unbelievers into hell, remake Earth for true Christians, and set up a thousand year reign of peace and perfection. They are willing to put everyone on this planet through unspeakable torment for this hotly anticipated reward.
The book of Ezekiel describes a different invasion of Israel. This is the conflict Mike Huckabee and his ilk believe they encouraged undear leader to start a few days ago.
Tal Levin posted a revised excerpt from his incredible book Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America.
As chaos and violence break out across the Middle East in a war led by the US with Israel as junior partner, I wanted to revisit my research on Christian apocalyptic prophecy. This adapted excerpt from my book Wild Faith talks about the evangelical Christians eagerly looking forward to the end of the world—and influencing foreign policy to bring it closer. It’s difficult to conceive of willful courting of disaster for religious reasons, but decades of modern Christian prophecy eagerly foresee mass bloodshed in the Middle East as a prelude to Christ’s triumphant return. Evangelicals of this stripe form a crucial part of Trump's base and governing coalition.
…
In October 2023, war broke out in Israel. Beginning with the slaughter of more than a thousand Israeli civilians by the terrorist group Hamas and continuing with bombardments, invasion, and starvation of the fenced-in Palestinian enclave of Gaza, the conflict was a devastating humanitarian crisis that drew the attention of the entire world. For some American evangelicals, however, the slaughter was an occasion for celebration.
“Does the ongoing bloodshed in Israel point to a potential fulfillment of Bible prophecy?” asked the evangelical Christian Post on October 10, 2023, three days after the initial massacre. The evangelical pastor Greg Laurie, author of more than seventy Christian books and a former spiritual adviser to the Trump administration, had a ready answer. “Fasten your seat belt because… you’re seeing Bible prophecy fulfilled in your lifetime in real-time before your very eyes,” he said in a video posted to YouTube that week that racked up 1.4 million views.
Laurie is among the millions of evangelicals who view the modern state of Israel as “God’s timepiece,” whose demise will serve as the starting point for the end of the world. It is these evangelicals who consider themselves Christian Zionists and whose unswerving support for Israel has a profound impact on Republican foreign policy. Its roots are in a stark vision of apocalypse that will culminate in the ecstatic Rapture of Christian believers, even as the rest of the world descends into misery. As thousands died in Israel and Gaza and the war cast the region into turmoil, some American evangelicals reacted with almost palpable glee.
Finally, a significant portion of these people also believe that we are on the clock and should try to hasten these endtime events. Watkins, in this post, explains why:
“The United States doesn’t exist in the Last Days,” my childhood pastor thundered, King James Bible held aloft. “If it does, it will be too weak to play a role in the Great Tribulation, too broken to appear at the Battle of Armageddon.”
For almost five decades, Christian Nationalist pastors have served up regular intervals of End Times prophecy. I remember exactly where I sat in the congregation when my pastor uttered these words. Fearful indoctrination sticks when it is planted so deeply.
Here are the key tenets of the End Times leading into the Great Tribulation:
Christian Nationalists believe the End Times countdown began on May 14, 1948 with the reforming of the nation of Israel. They point to Jesus’ Parable of the Fig Tree from Matthew 24:32-34.
Because Jesus utters the words this generation shall not pass, and those born in 1948 will be seventy-eight this year, radicalized Christian Nationalists are becoming desperate for their Bibles come true. They are willing to take an active role in making that happen. For many, End Times beliefs drove their vote in the November 2024 election. It fuels their nihilism as things unravel.
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Remember for Christian Nationalists, faith is CERTAINTY. They are CERTAIN they worship the One True God and practice the One True Faith. But this certainty masks a profound misunderstanding of the nature of faith and leads to deep insecurities.
The generation of people who were alive on May 14, 1948, is entering the final years of their lives. If they subscribe to this interpretation, they need the tribulation to come so they can experience all they believe will follow.
I’ve just scratched the surface here—I haven’t even gone into why groups of people have been trying to breed a red heifer (see Lavin’s post for more on that part of the prophecy).
Even though I no longer believe in any religion, I continue to study it. These so-called Christian Nationalists (who don’t appear to like the actual teachings of Jesus) have so much power within the Republican Party and with President Trump that we ignore them at our peril.
These are among the reasons I write about the people behind these beliefs and those who are trying to make the red letter words in the New Testament (the ones spoken by Jesus) matter again.
These dynamics also help explain why so many evangelical and religious nationalist figures are willing to overlook all of Trump’s scandals and moral failings. They are focused on the end times and making Jesus’ return possible—no matter the cost to the rest of us.
#8
- Trump Wanted to Kill Congestion Pricing. Nevertheless, It Persisted (Ece Yildirim, Gizmodo, Link to Article)
The Federal District Court in Manhattan just released the final word in a long political battle: New York City congestion pricing is here to stay.
New York City officially began enacting the congestion pricing program in January 2025. The program currently has drivers pay $9 to enter the busy area below 60th street in Manhattan during peak traffic times. The goal is to have the toll gradually rise to $15 by 2031, eventually aiming to bring the city’s public transit system $1 billion annually.
This court decision is just one of many seeking to restrain the Trump regime’s anti-Constitutional attempts to abuse its powers.
But this specific conflict also has another legacy, because of something Trump wrote as he celebrated the decision the court just killed.
Trump was vocal about his disdain for congestion pricing and had his Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revoke federal approval pretty much as soon as he assumed office in January 2025.
In February 2025, Duffy sent a letter to New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority claiming that the program was a financial “burden” on commuters and exceeded the power “authorized by Congress,” rescinding Federal Highway Agency approval.
Following Duffy’s February letter, Trump took to Truth Social to celebrate.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” the President said in a post.
And with that pathetic—and inaccurate—boast, the president inspired the branding for the series of No Kings protests. I hope you can join me at one of the next protests scheduled for March 28, 2026.
Follow me on BlueSky to see the stories I’m finding and the tabs I’m opening in real-time.
On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump instigated a violent insurrection against the United States government. Here’s a video from the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol that one can review if their memory fades.
People were hurt and police officers died protecting the Capitol. Vice President Pence and other elected officials just barely escaped danger. Our national streak of peaceful transfers of power ended.
It was not, as Trump claims, a “day of love.” And we must resist his efforts to rewrite the history of that dark day.
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