King Charles HUMILIATES Trump

Yeah. That Arnold Schwarzenegger.

So do Codie Sanchez, Scott Galloway, Colin & Samir, Shaan Puri, and Jay Shetty. And none of them are doing it for fun. They're doing it because a list you own compounds in ways that social media never will.

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Trump weaponized the WHCD shooting to go after Jimmy Kimmel with the full force of the federal government — sending the FCC after Disney's broadcast licenses while his communications team called Kimmel a "shit human being" — as a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows his approval hitting another record low with the Iran war dragging gas prices skyward.

Meanwhile, King Charles delivered what amounted to a pointed rebuke of everything Trump stands for in a joint address to Congress, the DOJ indicted James Comey a second time in what looks like pure vendetta politics, and May Day organizers are planning what could be the largest economic protest action of the Trump era.

This is no longer just a PR spat. Since our last briefing, the White House has escalated its war on Jimmy Kimmel from social media rage posts to a formal government action: the FCC has opened a review of eight ABC broadcasting licenses in response to Kimmel's joke that Melania Trump had "a glow like an expectant widow" (The Guardian US). Trump's communications director Steven Cheung called Kimmel a "shit human being" in an explicit public post (The Daily Beast), and Lara Trump and Megyn Kelly piled on. What matters here is not the joke — it's that the president of the United States is now directing a federal regulatory agency to investigate a broadcaster over a comedy bit. That is the definition of using state power to punish speech. Gayle King defended Kimmel on CBS (The Daily Beast). Hakeem Jeffries told Karoline Leavitt to "clean up your own house" before lecturing Democrats about rhetoric (Huffington Post News). The story is no longer about Kimmel. It's about what a government willing to pull broadcast licenses over a joke will do next.

In a joint address to Congress, King Charles III hit nearly every pressure point the Trump administration has worked to suppress: the rule of law, multilateral partnership, climate, and — pointedly — the importance of a free press (The New Republic). He reportedly also navigated pressure to acknowledge the Epstein scandal, though survivors say he refused to meet with them beforehand and misrepresented his position publicly (The New Republic). He also humiliated Trump with a history lesson at a state dinner (The Daily Beast).

Trump, for his part, posed for a photo with Charles and declared himself a king in the caption (The New Republic). The German chancellor's "humiliation" remarks from earlier in the week are still fresh (The Daily Beast), and the UK's own ambassador to Washington acknowledged publicly that America's "special relationship" is now effectively with Israel, not Britain (The New Republic). The global isolation is becoming impossible to spin.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll out this morning shows Trump's approval hitting a fresh record low, driven primarily by cost-of-living pain tied directly to the Iran war and its effect on gasoline prices (Huffington Post News). That tracks with a New York Times focus group in which nine out of twelve Trump voters said they regret voting for him, with one calling it a "horror movie" presidency (The Daily Beast). GOP strategists are now privately trading "bleak synonyms" for the party's political outlook (The Daily Beast), and Trump aides are leaking fears of a "toxic stalemate" heading into the midterms (The Daily Beast). Meanwhile, Marjorie Taylor Greene — now a private citizen after losing her seat — is publicly calling out Trump and Lindsey Graham over the consequences of the Iran war (Huffington Post News). The internal fractures are no longer subterranean.

The Trump Justice Department has indicted former FBI Director James Comey for a second time (The Daily Beast). The specific charges remain unclear, but the first attempt ended in dismissal — making this look less like law enforcement and more like a harassment campaign. In a parallel development, the DOJ charged the Southern Poverty Law Center with multiple felony crimes, and the SPLC fired back with evidence that federal law enforcement knew about its informant program all along and is now lying about it (Huffington Post News). James Comey's daughter, meanwhile, won a separate lawsuit against the administration over her wrongful termination from the DOJ (The New Republic). The DOJ under this administration is functioning as a personal enforcement arm for settling political scores.

With May 1st now 48 hours away, organizers are reporting more than 3,000 planned actions across the country under the banner "No school, no work, no shopping" (The Guardian US). The spark was the Minneapolis ICE crackdown, but the movement has grown to absorb every grievance of the Trump era — deportations, gas prices, the Iran war, Medicaid cuts.

This is the story that will define the next news cycle whether the media covers it properly or not. Watch for corporate press to undercount participation and for the White House to dismiss it.

The movement's job is to make that impossible.

What the algorithm buried:

Yesterday, we asked, Should Kimmel be fired for what he said?

OVER 98% OF YOU SAID NO:

Until next time,