Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the defenders of Ukraine and the entire modern civilization!
- Trump fired Attorney General Bondi
- The 47th president faces another painful defeat in the Supreme Court regarding his decree effectively repealing the Constitution’s birthright citizenship clause
- New speeches from the 47th president and old words: Iran is defeated, the Strait of Hormuz is unnecessary for us, the war will last another 2-3 weeks, I will consider withdrawing from NATO
- CNN, citing sources familiar with intelligence data, reports that Iran retains significant potential – missiles, at least half of the launchers available at the start of the war, and thousands of drones
▶ On Thursday, Trump announced the dismissal of Attorney General Pam Bondi. He did this, as usual in such cases, via a tweet.
Trump nominated Bondi for attorney general before his inauguration following the failed nomination of the controversial former congressman Matt Gaetz (five Republican senators stated they would vote against his confirmation, and therefore Gaetz could not be confirmed by the Senate). Bondi was Trump’s lawyer during his first Senate impeachment trial.
The reason for Bondi’s resignation is unknown. She tried to faithfully serve her boss, turning the federal prosecution and justice department into a legal office serving the president’s interests. Hundreds of professional and career prosecutors were dismissed from the federal prosecution system. Hundreds more prosecutors and other staff resigned themselves, unwilling to follow illegal orders or in protest against illegal actions by leadership.
For almost a year, Bondi did everything possible to prevent the disclosure of Epstein’s criminal case materials, and when Congress passed a law for their publication last November, she sabotaged the execution of this law. Some materials that were to be published by December 19, 2025, remain unpublished.
Bondi blocked the investigation into the murders by immigration police and border patrol officers of two U.S. citizens, Rene Good and Alex Pretty, in Minneapolis and obstructs the transfer of physical evidence to the district attorney for state jurisdiction investigation in Minnesota.
The 47th president might have been dissatisfied that Bondi, despite all her efforts, was unable to bring cases against his political opponents and those he considers his enemies to court. Charges against former FBI Director Comey and New York State Attorney General James were dismissed as illegally filed. The grand jury failed in its attempt to indict six Democratic members of Congress for conspiracy over their video address to military personnel reminding them that the law requires them not to follow illegal orders. Bondi was unable to charge Senator Adam Schiff.
Trump may also have been unhappy with his two sensitive defeats in the Supreme Court, where cases on his behalf were presented by the Justice Department under Bondi’s leadership (these include cases on federalizing the National Guard and deploying it in cities, and on customs tariffs), the inevitable third major defeat in the Supreme Court regarding Trump’s executive order effectively overturning the constitutional birthright citizenship clause (more on this below), and numerous defeats in district courts where Trump was also represented by the Justice Department.
There is also a version that Trump fired Bondi to give her the opportunity not to appear as Attorney General to testify under oath in the House Oversight Committee in connection with the sabotage of the Epstein files disclosure law (she is summoned to testify on April 14).
Trump announced that Todd Blanche has been appointed as the acting Attorney General – the first deputy attorney general and his former lawyer for all his criminal cases, including the one in New York, in which Trump was found guilty of falsifying 34 financial documents.
▶ On Wednesday, it became clear that Trump is facing another very sensitive, painful defeat in the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court was reviewing Trump’s appeal of the lower courts’ decisions on the unconstitutionality of his executive order, issued on the first day of his second presidency, effectively overturning the constitutional birthright citizenship clause.
Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
It is impossible to interpret this article of the Constitution in any special way. The 47th president issued an order that birthright citizenship could only be granted to those whose at least one parent is a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident. The order was immediately challenged in court by numerous lawsuits. District courts found the order unconstitutional, the president appealed to the appeals court, which also found the order unconstitutional. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to review it.
The 47th president decided to put pressure on the court by appearing in the courtroom. For the first time in U.S. history, a president chose to be present at Supreme Court hearings regarding the constitutionality of his order.
It has been noted many times that although the U.S. Supreme Court has a Republican majority (6:3), and three of the six Republican judges were appointed by Trump during his first term, at least most of the lifetime-appointed judges are primarily guided by the law. If there is a law that states something clearly, most judges simply cannot claim that such a law does not exist.
For matters not related to a clearly prescribed law, judges may exhibit their ideological biases and political leanings. But if there is a law, most judges simply cannot go against it. They understand the boundary between their political preferences on one side and the law and their reputation on the other.
The hearings showed that the judges could not accept Trump’s position, represented by Deputy Solicitor General John Sauer (another former Trump lawyer for his criminal cases).
When Sauer attempted to tell the judges that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in the 19th century, and that times have changed, Chief Justice John Roberts responded with a phrase that concluded the hopeless outcome of the hearings for Trump: “The times are different, but the Constitution is the same.”
Trump left the hearings early, tweeting immediately afterward at 12:20 PM on Wednesday:
“We are the only country in the world STUPID enough to allow ‘birthright citizenship’! President Donald J. Trump”
Naturally, the president once again lied, as there are at least 30 countries in the world where birthright citizenship is a constitutional norm.
On Thursday, at 7:15 AM, he added an unusually short tweet for himself: “Kangaroo court!!!”
These tweets clearly indicate that Trump realized he had lost.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision by June 30. From the hearings, one can confidently conclude that either all 9 justices will vote to dismiss Trump’s appeal and declare his order unconstitutional, or at most, two Republican justices – Alito and Thomas – might support Trump, simply because they almost always support him regardless of the situation.
However, this will undoubtedly be another very painful defeat for Trump in the Supreme Court, creating an important precedent: the president cannot change the Constitution. Based on this precedent, any of his orders that contradict the Constitution will be immediately blocked by the courts.
Incidentally, on Thursday, Democratic leaders in Congress, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, filed one of the lawsuits demanding that Trump’s order issued on Tuesday, which significantly restricts mail-in voting, be recognized as unconstitutional. There is little doubt that the courts will block this order in the coming days.
▶ On Wednesday at 9:00 PM, the 47th president addressed the nation from the White House. Presidents deliver such addresses to announce something very important – a significant decision, an important event.
The White House press secretary announced in advance that Trump would speak about the war with Iran.
This was Trump’s first address to the nation in the 34 days of the war.
But he didn’t say anything new at all. Nor did he articulate the aim of the war.
He repeated his often-debunked false claims. He reiterated what he has said and tweeted many times over the past month.
He declared that Iran is already defeated and devastated. That the Strait of Hormuz will “open by itself.” That if the countries that need it want to open it, they should “go and open it; we don’t need it.” That in Iran, the “regime has changed.” Apparently, he is the only person in the world who believes that the regime in Iran has changed. By the way, this statement is quite direct evidence that the real, albeit unattainable, goal of the war with Iran was to remove the ruling theocratic regime from power.
Iran is already defeated and devastated, but the war, as the president announced, will last another two to three weeks.
The best indicator of the futility of Trump’s address was the oil market. The price of oil, which had begun to fall in anticipation of Trump’s speech, went up. Now, on Thursday evening, American WTI crude is even more expensive than the benchmark Brent – $111.50 and $109 per barrel respectively. Meanwhile, gasoline prices at U.S. gas stations have gone up by another 10 cents per gallon. In New York, prices range from $4.10 to $4.40 per gallon today (before the war, it was $3.00 per gallon).
The president suggested that all countries buy oil and jet fuel from the U.S. But neither oil nor jet fuel will become cheaper because of this. As long as the Strait of Hormuz is blocked, as long as the war is ongoing, only someone who doesn’t understand anything at all would talk about lowering the prices of oil and oil products.
In his speech, Trump insulted the President of France, Macron. On Wednesday morning, in an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph and Reuters, he once again repeated his old refrain that he does not rule out the possibility of deciding to withdraw the US from NATO.
In 2023, Congress included in the defense budget law an indefinite provision stating that for the US to exit NATO, the president must gain the approval of 2/3 of the Senate. Ironically, one of the co-sponsors of this bipartisan amendment to the law was the current Secretary of State (and then-Senator) Rubio, who today, in unison with the president, claims that US relations with NATO need to be reconsidered.
Can Trump break the law? Yes. He has demonstrated this many times. That is, he could issue an order for the US to withdraw from NATO. In this case, legal proceedings will begin, similar to the order to cancel unconditional birthright citizenship.
We will discuss this again in our roundup of major events on Saturday.
▶ On Wednesday evening, CNN, citing sources familiar with US intelligence data, reported important information about the “defeated and depleted Iran”:
“According to recent US intelligence estimates, approximately half of Iran’s missile launchers remain operational, and the country’s arsenal still holds thousands of one-way attack drones—despite the daily massive strikes by the US and Israel on military targets over the past five weeks. Three sources familiar with the intelligence shared this information with CNN.
“They remain in full combat readiness and are capable of wreaking real havoc across the region,” one of the sources said about Iran.
The overall US intelligence assessment likely includes those launchers that are currently difficult to access—such as those buried under debris due to strikes but not physically destroyed.
According to intelligence data cited by two of the three sources, Iran remains in possession of thousands of drones—about 50% of the country’s total potential in this area. The sources noted that recent intelligence briefs also indicate that a significant portion of Iran’s coastal defense cruise missiles remain intact; this is consistent with the fact that the US did not emphasize striking coastal military facilities in its air campaign, although they did target ships. These missiles constitute a key element of the military potential that allows Iran to pose a threat to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”
1024 days remain until the end of the story called “Fear: Trump in the White House” © (the title of Bob Woodward’s 2018 book).
Thank you to everyone who read this. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Take care of each other, help each other. Health to all.
Ultimately, what happens in the world depends on us. Whether we fight evil, do Good, remain mere observers, wait passively, and believe that someone somewhere will decide something for us, or we fight evil and do everything we can for Good to prevail.
We must not allow evil to triumph. The triumph of evil would mean the end of the world we live in. We cannot allow this. Especially now.
Ukrainian friends, I embrace and love you all. Please take care of each other.
Ukraine is and always will be.
And evil will be defeated and punished. And this is certain.
