President Trump addresses reporters on the South Lawn last week [WHITE HOUSE photo].
Another TACO Tuesday? – President Trump late Tuesday announced another ceasefire with Iran, this one indefinite on the heels of the about-to-expire two-week ceasefire, to give Iran’s leadership time to submit a response to US demands (per The New York Times). This ceasefire will last “until discussions are concluded, one way or another,” Trump said.
The US president appears to have blinked first. US negotiators to be led by Vice President JD Vance called off their flight to Islamabad for round two of negotiations after it became clear Iran had no intentions of sending its delegation. –TL
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TUESDAY 4/21/26
One-Sided Peace Talks – Vice President JD Vance was off to Islamabad, Pakistan Tuesday for peace talks with Iran, which had not yet sent a delegation, according to Semafor. Citing a “divided regime” from when the US and Israel took out Ayatollah Hossieni Khamenei two months ago, the report posits that Iran’s hardliners may be stalling, perhaps to demand an end to the US blockade.
Meanwhile, President Trump says he is “highly unlikely” to extend the two-week ceasefire with Iran, which is set to expire later Wednesday.
It seems apparent the new regime in Iran has read The Art of the Deal, and so it’s probably up to Trump to decide whether attacks actually resume by Thursday.
Good news first … The good news is that both the US and Iran want a peace deal, Financial Times chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman writes, but the bad news is they “distrust each other and remain far apart on all the crucial issues.”
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Fed Up Next – President Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell (his previous nominee) as Federal Reserve chairman, Kevin Warsh, is a change agent ready to shake up the institution’s traditions. That’s the argument most Republicans were to take during Warsh’s Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, according to Axios.
Most Republicans except Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who says he will block Warsh’s confirmation until Trump’s Justice Department concludes its investigation of Powell and his alleged responsibility for cost and schedule overruns in renovating the Fed’s Washington headquarters.
Powell, whose term as chairman ends in May, has said he will not step down from that role until his replacement is named and he does not plan to resign from the Fed board before his term ends in 2028.
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Labor Secretary is Out – Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving the Trump administration to take a job in the private sector, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement, (per The Hill). The department’s inspector general’s office has conducted a monthslong investigation into allegations of misconduct including allegations of an affair with a subordinate, using department resources for personal trips and suggestions of drinking during the workday.
Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling is acting secretary.
After a year with nary a change in the Trump cabinet, Chavez-DeRemer now joins former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ex-Attorney General Pam Bondi, who have left the administration in the last couple of months to pursue other interests.
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Patel Sues – FBI Director Kash Patel has filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic and author Sarah Fitzpatrick for their article published last Friday, “The FBI Director is MIA.” In the article, Fitzpatrick cites colleagues alarmed by “episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”
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Deal On? – Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has not paid his $1.3 billion judgment to families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, still. At the end of the Biden administration, Jones successfully blocked sale of his Infowars -- from which he made up a pro-gun story about the Sandy Hook tragedy being a staged event with actors as those family members -- to Global Tetrahedron, parent of The Onion.
Now Global Tetrahedron says it has reached a provisional deal to assume control of Infowars, pending approval by a Texas judge. GT plans to revive Infowars as a parody of itself, something like Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report before Stephen Colbert was hired (and much more recently fired) as host of CBS’ The Late Show. –TL
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MONDAY 4/20/26
The Art of the Deal, No Deal – Iran says it will not attend a second round of negotiations set ahead of Wednesday’s expiration of its two-week ceasefire with the US, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, after the US seized an Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump had said Vice President JD Vance would lead the delegation along with special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Dinosaurs not in the usual places … As strife in the Middle East rages on, Big Oil is spending big money on drilling sites in other regions, The Wall Street Journal reports.
These include ExxonMobil dropping $24 billion on deep water oil fields in Nigeria, Chevron expanding its Venezuelan footprint, BP’s purchase of oil blocks off the coast of Namibia and Total Energies signing an exploration deal with Turkey. The report quotes energy research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie estimating creation of $120 billion in value from the new exploration over the coming years.
Gas pains … Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union Sunday that gas prices have “likely peaked” but may not dip down below $3 per gallon “until next year.” After dipping below $100 per barrel during the two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, prices started to spike again Monday, Semafor reports.
Not so slowly … Asked about Wright’s comments on SOTU, Trump told The Hill in a brief phoner Monday, “No, I think he’s wrong on that. Totally wrong.”
So, how long will it take for gas to drop below three bucks?
Trump replied, “as soon as this ends.”
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AAA National Average Unleaded Regular, Monday: $4.076 per gallon, down 3.4 cents from Friday, up $1.045 over February 26. Diesel: $5.531 per gallon, down 6.2 cents from Wednesday, up $2.269 over February 27.
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Tariff Refund Time – The Trump administration began accepting requests Monday for tariff refunds forced by the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump (per The New York Times). In the ruling, SCOTUS said President Trump could not invoke the Economic Powers Act of 1997, which he used to impose a large portion of his tariffs last year. The federal government owes $166 billion, plus interest, in tariff refunds.
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Amen – “Nothing’s riding on this, except the First Amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press and maybe the future of the country.” – Ben Bradlee (played by Jason Robards), executive editor of The Washington Post warning Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) they had better get their reporting on Watergate right, in Alan J. Pakula’s film version of Woodstein’s All the President’s Men. NPR’s All Things Considered celebrated the 50th anniversary of the movie’s release on Sunday. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa