For newer readers, block paragraphs are quotes from links, my voice is italicized. This is an open thread, comment about anything you want.
Behind Trump’s Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears
The president’s impulsive style has never before been tested during a sustained military conflict; ruminating on Jimmy Carter
A president who thrives on drama is bringing an even more intense version of his unorthodox, maximalist approach to a new situation—fighting a war. He is veering between belligerent and conciliatory approaches and grappling behind the scenes with just how badly things could go wrong.
At the same time, the president sometimes loses focus, spending time on the details of his plans for the White House ballroom or on midterm fundraisers—and telling advisers he wants to shift to other topics.
Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates [of the airman rescue] because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful, instead updating him at meaningful moments, a senior administration official said.
Wall Street Journal
He also lies. Every day, and every topic. So there’s that.
Trump’s mental acuity in question amid pattern of erratic behavior
The New York Times released a scathing new piece Monday, titled: “Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate.” The piece questions President Trump’s mental acuity and taps into something that’s becoming harder to ignore: just how sharp the president is right now.
In fact, this conversation isn’t just coming from political opponents anymore. In some cases, it’s coming from people who once supported him.
In fact, this conversation isn’t just coming from political opponents anymore. In some cases, it’s coming from people who once supported him.
Lindsey Grainger, The Hill Opinion
Jill Abramson/Boston Globe:
Are mainstream news media finally ready to examine Trump’s mental fitness?
A recent New York Times story and prominent MAGA defections could be signs of the dam breaking.
The news media were accused of helping cover up former president Joe Biden’s slipping mental acuity until a halting, disastrous debate performance put it on national display and forced Biden out of the 2024 election.
It seems strange and troubling that the mental capacities of Trump, almost 80, are yet to command a rigorous and concerted examination from more mainstream news organizations.
The Times story could be a sign of the dam breaking. So, too, are the defections of MAGA celebrities like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and former representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said, “President Trump has gone mad” and called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked.
Ty Cobb, a former White House attorney during the first Trump administration, has also publicly stated that Trump is undergoing a “significant decline” in his mental faculties, citing alleged dementia and saying the president is “a man who is clearly insane.”
Boston Globe
Remember, persuasion matters.
G Elliott Morris/Strength in Numbers:
Only half of Republicans are die-hard “MAGA”
Why MAGA is not a durable majority. Plus, consumer sentiment, and a study on the effects of raising the minimum wage in red states. Your weekly political data roundup for April 19, 2026.
Note that there’s usually a pretty consistent divide between MAGA and non-MAGA Republicans, and the two groups tend to move toward Trump and away from him in similar numbers at the same time.
That’s not what’s happening on Iran. Non-MAGA Republicans are moving against Trump in big numbers, and MAGA voters are standing pat.
But Trump is particularly weak with non-MAGA Republicans on inflation. The gap between MAGA and non-MAGA approval is wider there than on almost anything else, at about 40 points on average over the last 3 months. And non-MAGA Republicans are by definition exactly the voters inside the GOP who matter most electorally. On the issues these voters say matters most to them, Trump is pursuing exactly the strategy that could help him.
This ties into an MS NOW interview I did on Saturday. Trump’s 2024 coalition was built on four pieces. The core is the roughly 30–35% of Americans who are MAGA on any given policy. But the base alone doesn’t win elections. Trump won by adding three other groups: non-MAGA Republicans who are negatively polarized against Democrats and would never vote for them; swing voters who soured on Kamala Harris for ideological or personal reasons; and voters who were simply fed up with the economy and wanted the other party in charge.
The core is the roughly 30–35% of Americans who are MAGA on any given policy. But the base alone doesn’t win elections.
G Elliott Morris
Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak/New York Times:
The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court
To the public, the White House tried to downplay the speed and starkness of its loss, calling it merely “a bump in the road” on a call with reporters. But behind closed doors, officials were astonished that the court had intervened so quickly, they said later. Mr. Garbow, the E.P.A.’s general counsel, was meeting with Ms. McCarthy about the water crisis in Flint, Mich., when the order landed. An aide interrupted, handing him a note that he said he read with “utter shock and surprise.”
These days, justices who disagree with emergency orders often protest in vigorous written dissents. In 2016, the four liberal justices merely noted they had voted against the order. Although their private memos included extended arguments against the majority’s approach, they said nothing more in public.
That statement was one of the early articulations of what would come to be known as the major questions doctrine, saying that on important matters, executive branch agencies could act only with clear direction from Congress.
New York Times
Pregnancy vaccine reduces baby hospital admissions for RSV by 80%
A virus, called RSV, affects many babies in the first few months of life and can leave them gasping for breath and struggling to feed, with more than 20,000 babies ending up seriously ill in hospital in the UK every year.
Since 2024, women have been offered a vaccine from 28 weeks of pregnancy to protect their newborns.
A new study analysing the impact of the vaccine shows it gives “excellent protection” to babies when they are most vulnerable to RSV, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says.
RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is one of the main reasons young babies are admitted to hospital before the age of one.
Who’s Auditing Your Claims—and Who Owns Them: The Medicare Contractor Ecosystem, Exposed
Part 2 of 2. The private equity ownership chains, contingency-fee incentives, and AI-driven prior authorization systems behind the companies reviewing your Medicare claims.
In Part 1 of this series, I mapped how Palantir Technologies—a company born from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seed funding—has embedded itself across virtually every level of the federal health data infrastructure, from hospital AI platforms to a $90 million blanket purchase agreement that gives every Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agency access to Palantir’s Foundry platform through a single procurement vehicle. I documented how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) used that infrastructure to access Medicaid enrollment records, and how a New York City public hospital system paid Palantir to scan physician notes for missed billing opportunities.
This piece examines the other side of that architecture: the Medicare and Medicaid audit contractor ecosystem—the programs that generate the data Palantir’s platforms are built to integrate. Who are the companies reviewing your claims? Who owns them? And what financial incentives shape their behavior?
These are not separate stories. They are the same story.
NBC:
Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial
Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later.
The vaccines work as a type of so-called immunotherapy, harnessing a person’s immune system to fight cancer cells. The goal is not to eliminate existing tumors, but instead to stamp out lingering, undetected cancer cells, and later any new cells that form before they can cause a recurrence.
Patients still have surgery to remove tumors. After that, the mRNA vaccines are personalized for each individual using genetic material taken from their unique tumor cells. In the clinical trial, after getting the vaccine, the patients also received chemotherapy, which is standard post-op treatment for operable pancreatic cancer.
Less than 13% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer live for more than five years, making it one of the deadliest cancers.
NBC News
Battleground Republicans are starting to worry about the Senate
Democrats still face serious challenges to flipping the chamber. But Republicans are no longer dismissing the threat as quickly as they once did.
The Senate wasn’t initially expected to be a concern for Republicans.
Even as typical midterm dynamics often dog the party in power, this year’s map strongly favored Republicans. Democrats need to hold onto all their seats — including defending Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia and an open seat in Michigan, states Trump won in 2024 — while flipping four Republican-held ones.
But Republicans across key Senate battlegrounds said that Democrats have fielded strong candidates, and a tough national environment — fueled by voter anxiety over rising costs and the ongoing Iran war — has made their path much more difficult than it once appeared.
As always with POLITICO, the story is told from a Republican POV. But that’s okay, I already know what Democrats think.
It remains unclear how this will end. But at this stage, one conclusion is difficult to avoid: alongside tactical gains, the war has produced a more challenging strategic environment for Iran’s neighbors, for Israel, and for the United States. And most importantly, Iran’s leadership has no intention of capitulating. Neither pressure nor escalation is likely to force a deeply ideological regime to abandon its foundational principles. There is no decisive blow. No silver bullet. Only two realistic paths remain: a deal that looks remarkably similar to what Iran was willing to consider before the war — or an expanded conflict with no clear endgame. This is the reality.
Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz