And then our transition to 1923 Germany will be complete.
He [Hitler] wanted it big. He wanted lots of gold, lots of marble. He wanted visitors awestruck by his architectural expansion of the country’s symbolic seat of power. “They should sense the strength and grandeur of the German Reich as they walk from the entrance to the reception hall,” Adolf Hitler told his chief architect, Albert Speer, outlining his plans for an extension to the old Reich chancellery, at Wilhelmstrasse 77 in Berlin.
hightor wrote:(Or they might be worse. The president is basically promising to wipe a civilization off the map.)
What Trump clearly fails to understand is that Iran is the heir to a millennia-old Iranian civilisation, one of the most influential in human history.
Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilisations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to the 5th millennium BC.
Ancient Iran saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, religion, and administration.
Innovations in literature, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, astronomy and art were renewed during the Islamic Golden Age and Iranian Intermezzo, a period during which Iranian Muslim dynasties ended Arab rule and revived the Persian language.
Iranians, whether in Tehran or in exile, are proud of this history.
It feels like something shifted in the United States this week after President Donald J. Trump threatened on Tuesday that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” As professor of human rights, global affairs, and philosophy Mathias Risse of Harvard University’s Kennedy School noted, the Geneva Conventions prohibit “acts or threats of violence whose primary purpose is to terrorize civilians.” He notes that Trump’s threat terrorized 90 million Iranians by threatening them with genocide.
Trump has continued to struggle to assert his power over Iran since Tuesday, and has continued to fail. Yesterday former secretary of state John Kerry told Jen Psaki of The Briefing that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had urged presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and George W. Bush to strike Iran, and they all refused him. Only Trump was willing to go along.
But negotiations have been rocky all along, and today Trump warned that if Iran didn’t come to a peace deal, the U.S. would launch even deadlier attacks. “We have a reset going,” Trump told the New York Post. At 9:31 this morning, Trump’s social media account posted: “WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL RESET!!! PRESIDENT DJT.” At 12:27, Trump vented some of his apparent frustration that the Iranians have been trolling him, posting: “The Iranians are better at handling the Fake News Media, and ‘Public Relations,’ than they are at fighting!” A minute later, he posted: “The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!”
Trump continues to try to shore up the international right-wing authoritarian project even as people are turning against it. Today he threw the economic might of the United States of America behind Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who gutted Hungary’s democracy and turned the country into an authoritarian state. Orbán is deeply underwater ahead of the April 12 parliamentary elections in Hungary. Vice President J.D. Vance has been in Hungary to support Orbán, and today Trump posted: “My Administration stands ready to use the full Economic Might of the United States to strengthen Hungary’s Economy, as we have done for our Great Allies in the past, if Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian People ever need it. We are excited to invest in the future Prosperity that will be generated by Orbán’s continued Leadership! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
A recently revealed transcript of an October 2025 phone call between Orbán and Russian president Vladimir Putin shows Orbán promising to be a “mouse” aiding the “lion” Putin, telling the Russian leader: “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service.” Tonight Hungarians filled the streets to protest Orbán, chanting “Russians, go home.”
Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal reported today that Trump has repeatedly promised to pardon his top officials before he leaves office and that he brings up the subject frequently. In a recent meeting, he said: “I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval [Office].” In response to a request for comment by Meredith Kile of People magazine, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The Wall Street Journal should learn to take a joke; however, the President’s pardon power is absolute.”
But Tuesday has given momentum to those trying to rein Trump in. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, made a record of Trump’s recent bizarre behavior in a letter today to the president’s personal physician, Captain Sean P. Barbabella.
Raskin noted that “[e]xperts have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline. And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening.” Raskin recounted Trump’s wild social media posts and weird performance at the White House Easter egg roll, what the congressman called “a bizarre display that shocked tens of millions of Americans and astonished observers across the political spectrum.”
Raskin wrote that Trump’s “apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation (and political spectrum) about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s well-being.”
Raskin asked the White House physician to “[c]onduct a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of the President, including a formal cognitive screening instrument, and publicly release the results; [p]rovide a detailed report on the President’s current mental and physical health status, including any medications he is currently taking and their potential cognitive side effects; and [m]ake yourself available for a briefing, under oath, with Members of the Committee on the results of this assessment.”
Former secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg said on Morning Joe today that the gradual destruction of the United States under Trump changed suddenly on Tuesday. “For the leader of the free world, the leader of this country, to just make a nakedly genocidal threat against another civilization, as if the United States of America was a death star that was going around blowing up civilizations, of course that crosses a new line, and, of course, that’s a new low,” he said.
Buttigieg continued: “I think the really important thing to remember is that the effects of that kind of thing will outlive Donald Trump long after he has departed the scene, the collapse in trust, not just affection for the United States, but trust in the United States, and it’s very important that not just allies but, frankly, also adversaries that we’re negotiating with when we’re making a peace deal or some other kind of deal, that they have a level of trust that there is stability in the United States.”
Those trying to write off Trump’s threat as bluster or just Trump being Trump were missing the point, he said. “[T]he reality is that the whole country is being judged. Even though most Americans don’t support him anyway. The whole country is being judged just for tolerating that kind of thing at the White House.”
The pushback against Trump is spreading across the United States. Jess Craven of Chop Wood, Carry Water today called out rock and roll legend Bruce Springsteen’s opening last night at his concert in Los Angeles:
“Good evening, Los Angeles,” he said. “Welcome to the Land of Hope and Dreams tour. We begin tonight with a prayer for our men and women in service overseas. We pray for their safe return.
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll in dangerous times. We are here in celebration and defense of our American ideals, democracy, our Constitution, and our sacred American promise. The America I love, the America that I’ve written about for 50 years, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration,” he said.
“Tonight we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unrivaled corruption, resistance over complacency, truth over lies, unity over division, and peace over war.”
ROME (AP) — In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.
History’s first U.S.-born pope didn’t mention the United States or President Donald Trump in his prayer, which was planned before the talks were announced. But Leo’s tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.
“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” Leo said. “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”
In the basilica pews was the archbishop of Tehran, Belgian Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu. The U.S. was represented in the diplomatic corps by its deputy chief of mission, Laura Hochla, the U.S. Embassy said.
In the first weeks of the war, the Chicago-born Leo was initially reluctant to publicly condemn the violence and limited his comments to muted appeals for peace and dialogue. But Leo stepped up his criticism starting on Palm Sunday. And this week, he said Trump’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization was “truly unacceptable” and called for dialogue to prevail.
On Saturday, Leo called for all people of good will to pray for peace and demand an end to war from their political leaders. The evening vigil in Rome, which featured Scripture readings and meditative recitation of the Rosary prayers, was taking place as simultaneous local prayer services were being held in the U.S. and beyond.
Praying for peace, Leo said, was a way to “break the demonic cycle of evil” to build instead the Kingdom of God where there are no swords, drones or “unjust profit.”
“It is here that we find a bulwark against that delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive,” he said. “Even the holy Name of God, the God of life, is being dragged into discourses of death.”
Leaders have used religion to justify their actions in the war. U.S. officials and especially Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have invoked their Christian faith to cast the U.S. as a Christian nation trying to vanquish its foes.
Leo has said God doesn’t bless any war, and certainly not those who drop bombs.
A recent study published in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology sheds light on how supporters of Donald Trump justify their continued allegiance despite learning about allegations of his sexual misconduct and illegal activities. The research suggests that when people face information that conflicts with their deeply held beliefs, they tend to reduce their mental discomfort by denying the allegations, focusing on policies over personal behavior, or claiming that other politicians commit similar acts.
The scientists initiated this research to understand a specific political dynamic. They noticed that Donald Trump tends to retain widespread support even after facing severe accusations, including accounts of sexual misconduct, abuse of power, and efforts to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in the January 6 Capitol attack. To make sense of how voters mentally navigate this conflicting information, the researchers examined the situation using the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance.
“I was motivated by real-life experiences. I’ve been puzzled and confused by the continuing support and admiration that Donald Trump’s supporters hold for him, despite the many accusations that he has engaged in sexual assault, corruption, and other immoral and illegal activities. I wanted to give those supporters a chance to explain in their own words why they support him,” said study author Cindy Harmon-Jones, a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at Western Sydney University.
“I also wanted to take a cognitive dissonance perspective to understanding their answers. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that when people hold beliefs that are in conflict, meaning that both ideas cannot be true at once, they feel uncomfortable. This discomfort motivates them to do cognitive work to bring their beliefs closer in alignment. I was interested in how people justify their support for Trump when reminded of the accusations against him.”
In other words, believing that a leader is good while also hearing that the leader did something bad creates mental friction. To get rid of this discomfort, people tend to change their thinking to make the two conflicting ideas fit together.
Past laboratory studies on cognitive dissonance usually gave participants only one limited option to resolve their discomfort. The scientists designed this research to see how people naturally respond when given the freedom to explain their reasoning. They wanted to capture a broader range of reactions to belief-disconfirming information.
The first study took place in October 2019, shortly before the US House of Representatives impeached Trump for abuse of power. The scientists recruited 128 American adults from an online survey platform who indicated at least slight favorability toward Trump. Participants read either a neutral news article about space exploration or an article detailing allegations of sexual misconduct against the president.
Afterward, the researchers asked participants open-ended questions about why they supported the president. The most frequent reason given for supporting Trump was the economy. Participants also frequently mentioned his communication style, his perceived competence, and his status as a political outsider.
The scientists then asked how participants justified their support given the publicized allegations of misconduct. Participants offered three primary responses to resolve their psychological discomfort. The most common reaction, provided by over half the group, was explicitly stating that they did not believe the accusations.
Almost a third of the respondents explained that they cared about his political policies rather than his personal life. Another third justified their stance by claiming that other politicians and wealthy individuals commit similar misdeeds. Some participants provided more than one of these justifications.
“I was surprised to see that many of the participants used very similar language. They repeated Trump’s phrases like ‘fake news’ and ‘drain the swamp,'” Harmon-Jones told PsyPost.
Two days after the House voted to impeach Trump in December 2019, the researchers conducted a second study. They recruited a new group of 173 supporters and repeated the exact same procedure. When asked why they supported Trump, economic issues and specific political policies were the most common answers.
The justifications for his alleged misconduct heavily replicated the first study. Participants largely denied the accusations, pointed to his policies, or noted that others behave similarly. A new response category also emerged in this group, with about 15 percent of respondents explicitly stating that they simply did not care about the alleged misdeeds.
A third study took place in October 2022, just after Trump was arraigned for his involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack. The scientists recruited 187 participants who had voted for Trump in the 2020 election. These individuals read an article summarizing the public hearings regarding the events of January 6.
After reading the summary, participants answered questions about how accurate they felt the information was and whether it made them feel bothered or uncomfortable. This step allowed the researchers to measure the actual emotional discomfort associated with cognitive dissonance. Participants then wrote open-ended responses explaining how they reconciled their support with reports of illegal election interference.
The results from the third study echoed the earlier findings, though participants relied even more heavily on disbelief. Over 60 percent of the respondents claimed the accusations regarding election interference and the Capitol attack were false. A small minority of participants, about 13 percent, noted that they had supported Trump in the past but no longer did so after learning about his actions.
The researchers found a positive association between feeling bothered by the news article and expressing disbelief in the allegations. Participants who experienced higher levels of mental discomfort were more likely to claim the accusations were fabricated. This suggests that the denial is not just a calm rejection of information, but rather a direct response to the psychological distress of cognitive dissonance.
From a psychological perspective, these responses represent novel ways to reduce mental friction. For instance, arguing that a politician’s personal life does not matter is a way of conceptually separating, or compartmentalizing, conflicting pieces of information. By making the personal misconduct seem completely irrelevant to political leadership, individuals can successfully eliminate their mental tension.
“Other people who struggle to understand why Trump’s followers support him might be interested in how they explain this,” Harmon-Jones said. “The most common way was that they said they do not believe the accusations. Other common justifications we found were that they care about his policies not his personal life, and that all politician and wealthy men commit illegal and immoral acts. Some participants said they just did not care about the accusations. ”
“The findings might also lead people to think about how they themselves react when confronted by information that contradicts an important belief. Do they approach the new information with curiosity or do they reject it if it makes them uncomfortable? ”
There are some caveats to consider. The researchers note that these studies rely on online samples, which might not perfectly represent the entire U.S. population. A potential misinterpretation of the findings is the assumption that supporters are simply ignoring facts without any internal struggle. The data provides evidence to the contrary, indicating that emotional discomfort actively drives the rejection of negative information.
“Some people might think that these findings aren’t due to dissonance and that the participants simply did not believe the information,” Harmon-Jones said. “However, in Study 3 was asked people whether the information about the accusations of Trump’s misconduct conflicted with their beliefs and if so, how bothered were they by the information. The more bothered they said they were, the more likely they were to say they didn’t believe the accusations. We interpreted this to mean that those participants were experiencing dissonance and not just coolly disbelieving the information.”
Harmon-Jones also noted that, currently, “our findings only apply to supporters of Donald Trump. However, we don’t know whether this is the case. Would supporters of Barack Obama or Bill Clinton react similarly if they learned of similar accusations against them? That remains to be tested.”
Future research should explore whether similar cognitive defenses occur during the heat of an active election cycle. The scientists also hope to investigate ways to soften these mental barriers so that individuals can become more receptive to information that challenges their worldview.
The study, “Responses to Belief-Conflicting Information: Justification of Support for Donald Trump,” was authored by Cindy Harmon-Jones, Robin R. Willardt, Thomas F. Denson, and Eddie Harmon-Jones.
Oh, and a naval blockade is legally recognized as a belligerent act of war, not merely a sanction.
belligerent act of war
President Donald Trump delivered an extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, saying he didn’t think the US-born leader of the Catholic church is “doing a very good job” and that “he’s a very liberal person,” while also suggesting the pontiff should “stop catering to the Radical Left.”
Flying back to Washington from Florida, Trump used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticise Leo, then kept it up in comments on the tarmac to reporters.
“I’m not a fan of Pope Leo,” he said.
Trump’s comments came after Leo suggested over the weekend that a “delusion of omnipotence” was fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran. While it’s not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it’s exceedingly rare for the pope to criticise a US leader – and Trump’s stinging response is equally uncommon.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the president wrote in his post, adding, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
He repeated that sentiment in comments to reporters, saying, “We don’t like a pope who says it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon.”
[...]
In his social media post on Sunday night, however, Trump went far beyond the war in Iran in criticising Leo.
The president wrote, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States.” That was a reference to the Trump administration having ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January.
“I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do,” Trump added, referencing his 2024 election victory.
He also suggested in the post that Leo only got his position “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump wrote, adding, “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”
In his subsequent comments to reporters, Trump remained highly critical, saying “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime I guess” and adding, “He’s a very liberal person.”
By the end of 2024, inflation in the U.S., which had soared in the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdowns, was almost back to the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2%. Even so, during the 2024 presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump promised he would bring prices down on Day One, beginning with energy prices, thanks to new high tariffs, business deregulation, and tax cuts.
It was a year ago today, just ten days after President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, that Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro told the Fox News Channel that “90 [trade] deals in 90 days is possible. The boss is going to be the chief negotiator. Nothing’s done without him looking very carefully at it—he has such a fine attention to detail.”
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tore up the free trade principles on which leaders after World War II based the international order that promoted stability and prosperity. In their place, Trump first declared an emergency to take the power to manage tariffs away from Congress, then used that power to elicit favorable treatment for his own businesses or bribes from those who needed the tariffs on their products lowered.
The Supreme Court declared those tariffs unconstitutional on February 20, and later that day Trump claimed the right to impose tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes tariffs to address “large and serious balance-of-payments deficits.” Trump was the first to use this law, and his use of it has already been challenged.
In the meantime, the administration has not begun the process of refunding the approximately $175 billion owed to the importers who paid the illegal tariffs, but says it will begin that process on April 20. Democrats have introduced bills to refund the costs of the tariffs passed on to consumers. The money from illegal tariffs is accumulating about $23 million a day in interest, to be paid for by taxpayers.
In mid-March, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell noted that inflation was rising. He explained that “some big chunk of that, between a half and three-quarters is actually tariffs, so we’re looking for progress on that” once Trump’s tariffs move through the system.
Statistics released by the Labor Department on Friday showed that Trump’s war with Iran has pushed inflation to 3.3%. That’s the fastest rate of growth in almost two years, tripling the 0.3% rate in February, when inflation was 2.4%. Gasoline prices rose 21.2%, a record.
Economist Heather Long told Alicia Wallace of CNN: “It’s going to get a lot worse before there’s any relief. Even if the war on Iran ends in two weeks, and there’s magically an agreement, inflation will continue to rise for months to come.” She continued: “We haven’t seen it come through with food yet, in airfares—those are clearly going to go higher—and in transit costs. It’s just a matter of time.” She added: “We almost forget the tariffs, because we’re all paying attention to the gas, but it’s a good reminder that part of the issue here is we’re piling on top of what was already rising.”
Those energy costs are going to continue to skyrocket until the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil is transported, reopens for traffic. After strikes from both the U.S. and Israel costing the lives of 13 U.S. service members and countless Iranian and Lebanese civilians, and more than $1 billion a day, Iran has closed the strait for all but a few vessels from favored nations. In negotiating to reopen the strait, the U.S. is demanding terms that are significantly weaker than the ones Iran agreed to in 2015 during negotiation with the Barack Obama administration.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, together with Germany and the European Union—took 20 months to hash out. The agreement constrained Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a relaxation of sanctions that would let Iran recover about $100 billion of assets frozen in overseas banks.
Yesterday Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff were in Islamabad, Pakistan, to negotiate with Iran. According to Vance, their goal was to get Iran to stop its quest for a nuclear weapon, although both Kushner and Witkoff have deep financial ties to the Middle East and have been openly courting investments there during negotiations. And yet these leaders of the U.S. delegation, who have no experience in diplomacy, announced after only 21 hours that they could not reach an agreement and were leaving.
At just about the same moment Vance, Kushner, and Witkoff left the negotiations, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were watching an Ultimate Fighting Championship match in Miami. Earlier, Trump had said to reporters that he didn’t care if the team in Islamabad reached an agreement. “We win, regardless,” he said. “We’ve defeated them militarily.” The fact that the president had the U.S. secretary of state with him at a UFC event while talks were breaking down in Islamabad showed Trump’s disdain for the State Department, as well as his attempt to play Vance and Rubio off against each other as each vies for Trump’s endorsement as the inheritor of MAGA.
Today Trump announced that the U.S. military will blockade the Strait of Hormuz, sending the price of oil surging.
It is unclear what the president hopes to accomplish by blockading the strait. He told Maria Bartiromo of the Fox News Channel his new policy is “called ‘all in and all out.’ There’ll be a time when we’ll have ’em all come in, and all come out, but it won’t be a percentage. It won’t be a friend of yours, like, a country that’s your ally or a country that’s your friend; it’s all or nothing. And that’ll be, uh, that won’t be in too long a distance. No, we’re, uh, just bringing the ships up. We got a lot of ships, so we’re bringing them up. We think that numerous countries are gonna be helping us with this also, but we’re putting on a complete blockade. We’re not gonna let Iran make money on selling oil to people that they like and not people that they don’t like, or whatever it is. It’s gonna be all or none, and that’s the way it is, and it’ll be, you saw what we did with Venezuela. It’ll be something very similar to that, but at a higher level.”
U.S. Central Command, overseeing the U.S. military operation in Iran, announced today that it would “begin implementing a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports on April 13…in accordance with the President’s proclamation.”
Trump’s promise to voters that he would lower prices, along with his crusade against immigrants, attacks on education and the courts, and vow to resurrect a patriarchy in which white Christian men would dominate women and people of color, was closely patterned on the “illiberal democracy” of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. MAGA Republicans embraced Orbán as the leader of a movement to replace democracy with an authoritarianism that empowered the far right.
MAGA Republicans invited Orbán to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and media figure Tucker Carlson interviewed him in Hungary. His destruction of democracy in Hungary provided the blueprint for Project 2025, with Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts building close ties to Orbán’s institutions.
But Orbán’s vows to reinstate traditional values in Hungary produced higher prices and profound corruption. His corruption as well as his evident attempts to make Hungary subordinate to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin infuriated Hungarians, whose hatred for Russia runs deep, especially after that affinity was recently revealed to be actual promises to be “at your service” “in any matter where I can be of assistance.”
Although Orbán’s political party has skewed governance in Hungary to make it hard for him to lose at the polls, as well as censoring the media, Hungarians turned out today in record numbers—77% of registered voters—and gave Orbán’s opposition party more than two thirds of the seats in the parliament, a supermajority that will let the opposition undo some of the changes Orbán’s party made to cement their power. Orbán’s defeat means that the parliament will name opposition leader Péter Magyar, a former Orbán loyalist, as prime minister.
“We have done it,” Magyar told a crowd after Orbán conceded. “We have liberated Hungary and have taken back our country.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on social media: “Hungary has chosen Europe. Europe has always chosen Hungary. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.”
Along with other right-wing leaders, both Trump and Vance had worked for Orbán’s victory in the election, with Vance actually traveling to Hungary to urge voters to turn out for Orbán’s party. Orbán’s defeat is a major blow to the MAGA belief that the right-wing forces opposing liberal democracy are the vanguard of an unstoppable movement blessed by God.
Trump responded to Orbán’s defeat with a long screed attacking Pope Leo XIV, who has spoken out against the religious justification for wars, a statement widely interpreted as commentary on the Trump administration’s claim that the war in Iran is a holy war. “God does not bless any conflict,” the Pope posted on Friday. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Trump tonight posted on social media, in part: “I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.” Trump suggested the Pope was elevated to the papacy only “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” He wrote “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.”
Today is Orthodox Easter, and about 45 minutes after attacking the Pope, Trump posted an image of himself in the place of Jesus, apparently healing a sick man in a bed, surrounded by a soldier, a nurse, a woman praying, and an older man. Behind him are the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial, and a giant American flag, while in the sky are two eagles, three fighter jets, soldiers, and what seems to be a monster.
Amid popular revulsion at what people are calling heresy and blasphemy, former U.S. representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote: “It’s more than blasphemy. It’s an Antichrist spirit.”
A minute after posting the image of himself as Jesus, Trump posted an image of a Trump tower on the moon.
During the short flight to Algeria, Pope Leo addressed the journalists—as is tradition on papal flights—answering questions about the statements U.S. President Donald Trump made against him on the Truth Social network.
The Pope stressed that he does “not see my role as that of a politician. I am not a politician, and I do not want to enter into a debate with him.” Moreover, he continued, “I do not think the message of the Gospel should be abused as some are doing. I continue to speak strongly against war, seeking to promote peace, dialogue, and multilateralism among states to find solutions to problems. Too many people are suffering today, too many innocent lives have been lost, and I believe someone must stand up and say there is a better way.”
The Pope then renewed the same call with which he began his pontificate: peace. “I say this to all world leaders, not only him [Trump]: let us end wars and promote peace and reconciliation.”
Responding to a journalist from the U.S. who asked the same question, the Holy Father explained “I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do.”
“We are not politicians,” he argued. “We don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.”
