Today
is April 3rd, 2026, and the President of the United States has been hiding
from the American people all day inside the White House, moving between the
Oval Office and the Oval Office dining room. In this critically dangerous
moment that calls for visible strength, clear reassurance, and the steady
presence of a president who is capable of rising to the occasion, we are
instead being met with silence and closed doors. All while the situation
overseas has deteriorated rapidly in a matter of hours. A U.S. fighter jet
has been shot down, and multiple aircraft sent into the rescue effort have
also been hit. An American service member is now missing in action, with
bounties reportedly placed on his head. The
F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran. Two crew members ejected and
landed on Iranian soil. U.S. forces launched a rescue operation, sending in
Black Hawk helicopters to retrieve them. They were able to locate and extract
the pilot, but both helicopters came under small arms fire on the way out,
with crew members wounded before they made it back to base. An A-10 Warthog
sent in to provide air cover was also hit by Iranian fire. That pilot barely
made it to Kuwait before ejecting and being rescued. His aircraft was a total
loss. The
second crew member from the original F-15E is still missing. Somewhere on the
ground, alone, in hostile territory, separated during ejection, armed with
little more than a sidearm, trained to hide and wait, while forces close in
and civilians are being told to shoot on sight.
Four
American aircraft hit in a single day. Two destroyed. Multiple service
members wounded. And one missing tonight. And this happened less than 48
hours after the President of the United States stood in front of the cameras
and told the nation that Iran had been “completely decimated.” He said they
had no anti-aircraft equipment left and that their radar was “100%
annihilated.” He said we were “unstoppable as a military force.” CENTCOM’s
own commander said Thursday that Iran’s air defenses had “largely been
destroyed.” And then today happened. And everything they told us was proven
wrong by the people who were supposed to have no ability to fight back. As the
days get darker, we have to admit a hard truth. The United States has fallen
to a madman. I say that from a place of heartbreak. And I say that because I
don’t know what other word describes a president who receives news that an
American is missing on the ground in hostile territory, with a bounty on his
head and state television telling civilians to shoot on sight, and responds
by posting “KEEP THE OIL, ANYONE?” on Truth Social. That was his public
response. Four words about stealing oil while an American weapons system
officer was in such grave danger.
While
in hiding at the White House, Donald Trump did give two brief phone
interviews today. In one, with NBC News correspondent Garrett Haake, he
dismissed the entire day in seven words when asked if the day’s events would
affect any negotiations with Iran: “No, not at all. No, it’s war.” Which was
an odd choice of words to use to describe what is happening in Iran, since he
has continued insisting it is not a “war,” so he doesn’t have to get
congressional approval for this “war”. When The Independent asked what he
would do if the missing American is captured or harmed by Iranian forces,
Trump said, “Well, I can’t comment on it because, we hope that’s not going to
happen,” and ended the call shortly after. He offered no warning to Iran. No
projection of strength. No plan. He just ended the call. And
then the White House called a lid on the press for the entire day, officially
confirming that the president would not appear before cameras, and that he
would not face the American people on the single worst day of this war. By
the evening, and as the day worsened for Trump, according to ABC News, his
national security team had gathered at the White House for what can only be
described as an emergency meeting. Instead of gaggling with the press today,
before Easter weekend, his White House was in full crisis mode because
reality had finally broken through. This war is a disaster. And we
have to remember how it got to this point. The people who are normally in the
room for decisions like this, whether to send Americans into combat, whether
to escalate or pull back, whether the risk is worth the cost, are trained for
it. They’ve spent their lives studying warfare, understanding global
consequences, weighing what happens on the ground and what it means back here
at home. Donald Trump has never had that level of understanding. He has never
shown the ability to step back and ask the most basic question a leader
should be asking in moments like this: what does this look like in the bigger
picture? In his first term, he at least had people around him who could
ground him in reality, people who brought him real intelligence, real
consequences, real limits. This
time, he doesn’t. Now he is surrounded by enablers, people who benefit from
chaos, from escalation, from the dismantling of systems that were designed to
protect us. And to make it worse, he may never hear the truth again. Because
the generals who would have told him, who likely were trying to, were fired
yesterday. The day before the worst escalation of the war. On
Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced out three generals in a
single day. Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, a 38-year career
infantry officer, West Point Class of 1988, who served in the Gulf War, Iraq,
and Afghanistan, and commanded at every level from company to corps, was told
to retire immediately. He was roughly three years into a typical four-year
term. General David Hodne, who led the Transformation and Training Command
(T2COM), was also removed. So was Major General William Green Jr., the Army’s
Chief of Chaplains. No official explanation was given. But the word
circulating among active-duty and retired military, including Army Rangers,
who are expressing shock and outrage, is that General George opposed sending
ground troops into Iran. Although Axios described him as leaving over
“personality clashes.” And
this wasn’t an isolated move. Hegseth has now fired more than a dozen
generals and admirals since taking office. The Atlantic is reporting that
discussions are underway about the possible departures of Director of
National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel, Army Secretary
Daniel Driscoll, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. And the people
replacing them will be chosen by the same criterion that has governed every
appointment in this administration: loyalty at any cost. Even if it involves
the lives of our military members. And
while the generals who opposed a ground invasion were being fired, the
evidence that a ground invasion is coming has been mounting. Beyond the
buildup of troops in the region. On Polymarket, the prediction market
platform, the bet for U.S. forces entering Iran by the end of April is now
trading at 85%. That bet has generated more than $99.9 million in trading
volume as of Thursday. And the pattern of betting on this platform has been
alarming. Blockchain analysts identified six freshly created accounts that
collectively made $1.2 million by correctly betting on the exact date of the
February 28 strikes. Those accounts were funded within 24 hours of the
attack, and bets were placed hours before the first bombs fell. Someone
with access to classified war planning appears to be using that information
to place anonymous bets on the outcomes of American military operations.
People are profiting from this war. If
troops on the ground do happen, it won’t just make people rich. It has the
potential to get a large number of people killed. But Trump isn’t thinking
about that or truly does not understand the risk. He told the Financial Times
he thought the U.S. could take Kharg Island “very easily” and that Iran has
no defenses there. The intelligence says otherwise. Iran has been mining the
beaches, positioning shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles on the shoreline,
and moving additional troops onto the island. It sits roughly 20 miles from
the Iranian mainland, within range of missiles, drones, and artillery.
Retired Admiral James Stavridis, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander,
said he would be “very worried” about such an operation and that Iran would
do “everything they can to inflict maximum casualties on U.S. forces.” And
today we saw what that looks like in practice: armed civilians jumping out of
a car and shooting at rescue helicopters with automatic rifles. That is not a
military force. That is the general population. And it is a preview of what
any American ground force would face. Trump
ran on America First. The only thing that is first right now is Trump and his
enablers. The rest of us are last. The world is last. The service members
risking their lives are last. The families waiting to hear if their loved one
is alive are last. The children who will inherit the consequences of this
madness are last. So what
do we do? We turn to Congress, because that is where every single one of
these threads converges. That is where the constitutional power to stop this
still lives. The War
Powers clock is ticking. The strikes began February 28. Without a formal
authorization for the use of military force, the legal basis for this war has
an expiration date. Congress can force that question. They can refuse to
authorize continued operations. They can refuse to fund the $1.5 trillion
defense budget proposal. Every dollar requires their vote. The power of the
purse is the most fundamental check in the entire constitutional system, and
it belongs to Congress. And I
want to say something about why the mechanisms of impeachment and the 25th
Amendment exist. They were not created as theoretical exercises. They were
built by people who understood that this exact scenario was possible, that a
leader could rise who would not leave voluntarily, who would not feel shame,
who would not resign the way Nixon did when the walls closed in on their
corruption. Nixon, for all his crimes, still had enough awareness of the
institution to know that staying would destroy it and that he, himself, would
face a worse fate. Trump does not have that awareness, and he does not have
that dignity. The mechanisms exist because the founders knew that someday a
president would lack both. That day has arrived. As I
wrote last night, JD Vance has a choice in front of him. He could invoke the
25th Amendment and become president. He would go into the history books as
the one to end Trump’s reign of terror. His presidency could shatter the MAGA
stranglehold, because that cult-like devotion is personal to Trump. It would
not transfer because Vance does not have “it”. He is described as creepy,
unlikable, and a chameleon with no fixed convictions. But he would be
president, and the spell would be broken. He will almost certainly never do
it, because the cabinet has been purged of anyone who would support the move.
But the option exists, and history will record whether he had the courage to
use it. If
Vance will not act, Congress can and must. If every Republican stood together
and said, “No more,” they could end this. They could vote to stop funding
Trump’s madness. Or they could take it one step further, and they could
impeach both Trump and Vance. They could install new leadership. They could
face the world and say, “Our government was taken over by a madman. He was
mentally incapacitated. We have cleared out that problem, and we are making
reparations to the world.” The
only way we get out of this war without mass American casualties is if the
people with the constitutional authority to act use it. And even then, I do
not know if we can undo what has already been done. We have destabilized an
entire region and broken faith with allies who may never trust us again. But
stopping it now is still better than letting it continue, and every day
Congress refuses to act, the cost in lives and in the damage to our standing
in the world grows. I know
how unlikely this sounds. I know the Republican caucus, as it exists today,
is not built for courage. But I also know that Congress is facing a very
messy midterm election cycle. It is in their best interests to come back from
vacation now and take a stand. They must act immediately. And our job, every
single one of us, is to make sure they hear from us so loudly and so
constantly that the political math of inaction becomes more dangerous than
the political math of standing up. Donald
Trump is a once-in-a-generation madman. Every century seems to produce one of
these figures who creep up and somehow convince people that they alone have
the answers to all of their problems. They make promises based on simple
solutions to complex problems. And then they deliver nothing, while taking
everything for themselves and their enablers. That is Trump. But
every madman loses in the end because of those same lies. And a new CNN poll
shows that the roughly one-quarter of Americans who view both parties
negatively, the double haters, favor Democrats in the upcoming midterms by 31
points. These are not party loyalists. These are the most disillusioned
voters in the country, the ones who look at the entire system and feel
disgusted, and even they have made a moral judgment about what the Republican
Party has become under Trump. His approval, according to the FiftyPlusOne
polling average, is at 37.2%, the lowest of this term, and falling. The
ground is shifting. Not because of one poll or one bad day. But because his
corruption and chaos are collapsing under their own weight. And that is why I
still have hope for America. And you should, too. I’ll
see you tomorrow, PS. You
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This
commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public
concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to
individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First
Amendment.
Picture
of the Day: NASA’s
image of Earth from space. No borders, flags, or wars. Just one planet,
fragile and whole, reminding us what we are actually fighting for. Sources: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-fighter-jet-f15e-downed-over-iran/ https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/iran-us-fighter-shot-down https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/04/03/f-15-crash-iran-missing/ https://www.airandspaceforces.com/iran-f-15e-downed-search-rescue/ https://time.com/article/2026/04/02/trump-speech-white-house-iran-war-update-end/ https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/centcom-chief-we-are-making-undeniable-progress-in-iran https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/3/trump-says-with-more-time-us-can-take-the-oil-in-iran https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/03/world/live-news/iran-war-us-trump-oil https://www.newsweek.com/iran-war-live-irgc-says-us-fighter-jets-downed-11779665 https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/02/politics/hegseth-removes-randy-george-army-chief-of-staff https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hegseth-ousts-army-chief-of-staff-gen-randy-george/ https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/hegseth-george-hodne-army-fired-iran https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/25/politics/iran-kharg-island-us-military-ground-troops https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/03/politics/cnn-poll-double-haters-democrats-midterms https://fiftyplusone.news/polls/approval/president https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/us-israel-iran-war-trump-live-updates-04-03-26 https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/03/nation/trump-administration-iran-attacks-updates/ https://www.britannica.com/place/Kharg-Island Invite
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Heather Delaney Reese |
