Get ready for another rally -- The president, seen here attending the LIV Golf tournament at the Trump National Golf Club Washington, D.C. (in Sterling, Virginia), will headline the Freedom 250 celebration on the National Mall. [White House photo]
Dear Center Column – Before digging into local news, an 11 p.m. newscast asks, “Are hopes for peace in Iran fading?”
Dear 11 p.m. newscast – It appears you haven’t been paying attention. President Trump has ping-ponged between being ready to sign a peace deal with unnamed leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran and threatening to bomb the nation of 90 million back to the Stone Age for some 14 weeks now, driving up both the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Averages and the interest rates on US Treasury bonds. Monday’s flip-flop was nothing new, with those Iranian leaders taking the lead again and telling President Trump to stuff the peace deal after Israel extended its war on Lebanon to Beirut.
Latest is that Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says the US supports its attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs so long as Hezbollah continues to attack northern Israel, The Guardian reports.
The endless flip-flop has prompted some pundits and analysts to conclude that Iran, and not the US, is winning the war. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not be pleased.
Nor is President Trump pleased with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump reportedly “lashed out” on Netanyahu over his aggression on Lebanon, telling the PM “You’re fucking crazy,” according to an exclusive report in Axios.
Question of the day … Is Iran winning this war?
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Gas Relief – In the face of all this ceasefire turmoil and Iran’s persistent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, gas and diesel prices continue to ease back from their wartime peaks. Average national price for a gallon of unleaded regular is down 13.6 cents from last Thursday to $4.29 Tuesday. That’s $1.309 over February 28. Diesel is 12.2 cents cheaper than last Thursday to $5.432, which is $1.635 above the price per gallon just prior to the war.
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‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ on Ice – The Trump administration has “signaled” plans to drop the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund the president’s Justice Department negotiated with the president’s Internal Revenue Service in a deal over the president’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, CNN reports.
With heavy support from congressional Republicans as well as Democrats, Reps. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) have introduced the bipartisan Transparency for American Taxpayers Act to make sure the Anti-Weaponization Fund doesn’t pop up in the middle of semi-sesquincentennial celebrations and pay off the 1,500 or so January 6th rioters who already have been pardoned by President Trump. After all, that $1.776 billion has a nice, semi-sesquincentennail ring to it.
Speaking with Suozzi on CNN’s AC360 with Anderson Cooper, Fitzpatrick warns that Congress must soon address the Federal Judgment Fund Act, a 1956 statue that allows Congress to settle legitimate lawsuits after the fact, which appears to be the basis of the Trump administration’s A-WF.
But first, the bipartisan stopgap to make sure the $1.776 billion fund is not allowed to happen. …
“This is a bipartisan bill to block the president’s $1.7 billion slush fund to pay off the January 6th criminals and other maladjusted minions!” Fitzpatrick says on his website. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa