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THE BIG PICTURE
Trump is simultaneously losing his war on reality and escalating his actual war: Europe now has six weeks of jet fuel left, Hegseth is threatening to restart bombing Iran, and the House failed by a single vote to rein in the president's war powers — thanks to one Democrat.
Meanwhile, a former Bernie staffer flipped a NJ district by 20 points and Trump is fabricating papal quotes and secretly polling friends about whether to dump JD Vance. Happy Friday!
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
1. Analilia Mejía Just Won a House Seat — and She's Already a Problem for Both Parties
Democrats flipped New Jersey's 11th District last night, and the way they did it matters. Analilia Mejía — Bernie Sanders' 2020 political director, backed by AOC and Elizabeth Warren, and explicitly running on abolishing ICE — beat Republican Joe Hathaway by roughly 20 points in a suburban district that Republicans had spent the whole race calling too liberal for her. They were wrong by 20 points (MS NOW). She describes herself as "unbought, unbossed, and sassy," running on unapologetic progressive politics in a district where the conventional wisdom said that was a liability. The seat opened up because Mikie Sherrill just became governor of New Jersey, and national Republicans thought the timing gave them a shot.
It didn't.
Mejía is the daughter of Colombian and Dominican immigrants and ran on universal health care, higher wages, and a flat rejection of what she called billionaires' "stranglehold" on the economy (AP). The DCCC didn't recruit her. The conventional wisdom didn't want her. The voters did. In a party still relitigating 2024 and arguing about whether progressive politics is an asset or a liability in purple districts, Mejía just ran that experiment — and won by 20.
2. Trump Is Fabricating Quotes From the Pope — and His Own Allies Are Turning
Since our last briefing, the Trump-Pope feud has gotten even uglier and stranger. Trump invented a papal quote out of whole cloth to keep the fight alive (The Daily Beast), even as Republican Sen. Thom Tillis — a lame duck with nothing left to lose — vowed to spend his remaining time in office challenging the president (The Daily Beast). In a genuinely remarkable moment, Marjorie Taylor Greene called Franklin Graham's defense of Trump's AI Jesus post "one of the worst things" she has seen (Huffington Post News). When you've lost MTG on the Jesus thing, the optics are not recoverable.
Former Trump officials are now openly questioning his mental state (The New Republic), and Trump made the curious move of publicly claiming he expects to make "2 or 3" Supreme Court nominations — a statement that reads less like a plan and more like a threat (Huffington Post News).
3. Trump Is Secretly Running a Performance Review on JD Vance
This is new and significant: Trump has been privately calling friends to conduct an informal performance review of his own vice president, and is actively pitting Vance against Marco Rubio (The Daily Beast). Vance was simultaneously snubbed from a major power list in favor of Rubio (The Daily Beast). This is the clearest signal yet that Trump may be done with him as a political asset.
4. The Iran War Is Becoming an Energy Crisis — Fast
The International Energy Agency isn't hedging anymore: Europe has "maybe 6 weeks of jet fuel left," IEA director Fatih Birol told the AP directly (AP Politics). At the same time, a domestic airline is now at risk of imminent collapse because a rescue deal was signed four days before the White House started dropping bombs (The Daily Beast). Trump's response to gas price pain has been compared to Marie Antoinette (The Daily Beast), while his press secretary is being called out for gaslit talking points that don't match pump prices (Huffington Post News). Hegseth made it worse by going on television to announce the U.S. is "locked and loaded" to finish destroying Iran's energy grid (The Guardian US) — while quoting a fake Bible verse lifted, apparently without irony, from Pulp Fiction (The Guardian US).
The war powers resolution that could have put a check on all of this failed in the House by a single vote, because one Democrat — Rep. Jared Golden of Maine — crossed the aisle to sink it (The New Republic). Democrats have now failed to stop this war in both chambers. That's the story.
5. John Eastman Disbarred — Accountability, Slowly
The California Supreme Court upheld the disbarment of John Eastman, the architect of the fake-electors scheme (The Guardian US). It's a genuine accountability moment, even if it comes years late and Eastman says he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court — a court whose composition Trump just promised to reshape. The timing lands alongside Democrats filing impeachment articles against Hegseth (The Guardian US) and Jamie Raskin laying out a possible impeachment roadmap against Trump himself (Huffington Post News). Whether any of it goes anywhere is a separate question, but the legal and political scaffolding is being built.
6. ICE Gets Its First Criminal Charge — in Minnesota
In what prosecutors say is the first criminal case against a federal agent in Trump's immigration crackdown, a Minnesota ICE agent has been charged with felony assault for pointing a gun at people in a car (The Guardian US). Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty was unambiguous: "There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents who violate the law in the state of Minnesota." This is a landmark, and it comes the same week that a journalist was arrested in front of her children for filming an ICE protest at a church (The Guardian US).
THIS WEEK’S QUESTION
Should ICE agents have immunity or should they be charged when they commit a crime?
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THINGS TO WATCH
The anti-AI backlash is taking a violent turn. The Molotov cocktail attack on Sam Altman's home, with the suspect referencing Luigi Mangione (Huffington Post News), is not an isolated incident — it reflects a growing class rage directed at tech power that our audience understands viscerally, even if the expression is indefensible.
Trump is using the war to run from the economy. The Las Vegas trip is a tell: he's pushing tax cuts as an economic message while gas prices are spiking because of his own war (AP Politics). The contradiction is so naked that even the Wall Street Journal editorial board is calling it out (Huffington Post News).
The MAGA coalition is fracturing from multiple directions at once. MTG versus Franklin Graham. Tillis versus Trump. Vance versus Rubio. Ted Cruz calling Tucker Carlson allies "deranged leftist psychos" (Huffington Post News). These aren't isolated incidents — they're symptoms of a coalition that has no ideological core beyond personal loyalty to one man, who is now running secret polls on whether to replace his own vice president.
State-level resistance is hardening. Minnesota charging an ICE agent. California unsealing Amazon documents. Utah passing dollar store overcharge laws (The Guardian US). States are increasingly the arena where accountability is actually happening, and this trend will accelerate as federal institutions continue to be hollowed out.
👀 KEPT OUT OF YOUR FEED
What the algorithm buried:
Six House Republicans just broke with Trump on immigration — and the reason why is more interesting than you'd think.
A half-million dollars gets you a photo with Trump — here's what the rest of us paid
The writers of "The Boys" either have a crystal ball or the timing is genuinely unhinged — the Homelander-Jesus episode dropped right before Trump posted his latest Christ content online.
Ticketmaster lost in court — here's what it actually means for your wallet
Tucker Carlson is furious — and the target is Trump's Jesus AI photo excuse, which changed stories at least twice in 24 hours.
Pete Hegseth just quoted a fake Bible verse at a Pentagon prayer service — and it was literally from Pulp Fiction.
The Daily Show found Trump's Diet Coke cancer theory and it's somehow even dumber than it sounds — Dr. Oz is involved.
Jimmy Kimmel figured out exactly what Jesus thinks of Trump — and it's not what the AI image suggested
Stephen Colbert dry-heaved on live TV when he realized who comes after Trump — and honestly, same.
NOTICE POLLING
Yesterday, we asked, Do you agree with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson that the conservative SCOTUS majority is abusing their powers?
OVER 98% OF YOU SAID YES:
“Abusing their power, aiding and abetting a person who wants to dismantle the US constitution and become its first kingly dictator. Hoping democrats get enough seats in both houses to evict them all.”
- twoasps
“They are supposed to be non-partisan, but they are an arm of the Republican party!!!”
- shannonprozinski“The six Republican members are definitely pro party anti constitution, in direct violation of their oaths. Someone needs to call them out and where’s the media in all this?”
- jcsrcalvin
“They are kissing trumps sorry ass. Shame on them. Trump is getting our servicemen killed in an illegal war that was not authorized”
- gracelinda
“From inappropriate gifts and luxurious travel to abusing and creating confusion with the shadow docket- They are broken and can't be seen as the steady, sound and moral compass of this nation any longer. C'mon, a billionare bought dudes mother's house.”
- a15anaya
“They have blatantly ruled unjustly in favor of the administration on different occasions. They WILL do it again. They should be ousted.”
- michaelhogshooter
“It appears the conservative justices are backing the policies outlined in project 2025. There are not supporting the constitution but actively dismantling it.”
- skytarot
Until next time,
